Chapter 58: The Tang Dynasty's regrets

This matter starts with the rise of the Arab Empire.

After the rise of the Arab Empire, it was expanding rapidly, and its primary goal was to focus on the old empire in the Middle East, the Persian Empire.

In history, there were two Persian Empires, one was the famous Darius I who pushed to the glorious First Persian Empire. This powerful Persian Empire existed for nearly two hundred years and broke out with Greece. It was not until Alexander the Great that he was destroyed by Alexander the Great.

After the death of Alexander the Great, his empire fell apart, his former subordinates fought with each other, and the Persian Empire was rebuilt. This was the Second Persian Empire.

The Arab Empire destroyed the Second Persian Empire.

The Sassanid dynasty ruled the Persian Empire at that time. After being attacked by the Polish and Arab Empire, the Persian Empire was defeated again and again, and could not stop the Arab Empire's army. Persian king Yazdgerd III asked for help from the Tang Dynasty in 638, 639 AD and 647, 648 AD.

The second time he asked for help, he sent the prince Balus to Chang'an in person to express his feelings to Emperor Taizong of Tang, and asked the Tang Dynasty to send troops.

At that time, Emperor Taizong of Tang was in power. After the "Zhenguan Reign", the Tang Dynasty's strength increased greatly and it had the ability to send troops to the Middle East. But there was one thing, that was the road was blocked.

The road from the Tang Dynasty to the Middle East was controlled by the Western Turks. If you want to send troops to the Middle East, you must first destroy the Western Turks. The Western Turks regard the Tang Dynasty as an enemy, and it is impossible to cross the Western Turks to support the Persian Empire.

Emperor Taizong of Tang summoned a group of ministers, and after repeated discussions, he refused to send troops on the grounds that he was "a long journey".

Many people in later generations believed that Emperor Taizong of Tang refused to send troops because the journey was too far. In fact, it was not right. The fundamental reason was that the Western Turks had not yet been destroyed.

Without sending troops in the Tang Dynasty, the Persian Empire lost its last hope and the Persian Empire was destroyed by the Arab Empire. Its king Yazdegeld III was killed in a mill in Mulu City near the Amu River in 651 AD.

After Yazdegeld's death, the Persian royal family and the remnants, led by Prince Balus, retreated east along the "Silk Road". After arriving in Tochar, they received the protection of the local chief and received a temporary respite.

Balus asked the Tang Dynasty for help again in 654 AD.

Emperor Taizong of Tang was dead, Emperor Gaozong of Tang became emperor. This was a soft emperor, without any ambitions, and of course it was impossible to agree to Balus' request.

Moreover, at that time, the Tang Dynasty was fighting against Tubo, and the other was destroying the Western Turks, so it was impossible to send troops.

Finally, in 657 AD, Su Dingfang destroyed the Western Turks, the road was officially opened, and the Tang Dynasty could enter the Middle East.

Unfortunately, the best time has been missed and the Arab Empire has stabilized.

Balus finally arrived in Chang'an and settled in Chang'an until he died in Chang'an in 677 AD. The Tang Dynasty named him "General of the Right Guard" and also built a Zoropa Temple for him in Chang'an.

With the retreat of the Persian royal family in the east, the Persian state religion Manichaeism was also introduced to China. Because "Mo" and "Demon" are homophonic, they were mistakenly called "Demon Cult". This is the origin of the Demon Cult in Jin Daxia's "The Legend of the Condor Heroes".

After the Tang Dynasty vacated its actions, in 679 AD, the famous general Pei Xingjian led his army to escort Balus's son Ni Nishishi back to his hometown of Persia, hoping to rebuild the Persian Empire.

Pei Xingjian arrived at Suye City and faced strong military pressure from the Arab Empire, and had to stop moving forward.

Because the existence of the Persian royal family still had a great impact on the former land of Persia. Although the Arab Empire conquered the former land of Persia, it was uncontrollable.

In addition, the Arab Empire at that time implemented cruel religious policies and promoted Islam by force, which made the Persian people very much hate.

Therefore, insurrections broke out from time to time in the former land of Persia, opposing the Arab Empire.

This period was the most frequent period when the Persian people's uprisings broke out, which had a heavy blow to the rule of the Arab Empire. In order to preserve the Persian land, Malik had to send Yousuf, who was famous for his cruelty, as the governor of the East, to carry out bloody suppression of the former land of Persia.

Yousuf was fierce and cruel, and could massacre 120,000 people at one time. After he took office, he would suppress the former Persian land on the one hand, and try every means to get rid of the Persian royal family.

After all, the royal family is a royal family. As long as the Persian royal family still exists, it can gather the hearts of the Persian people. It is inevitable to get rid of the Persian royal family. This is why Muragu was sent to the Tang Dynasty.

It was impossible for Muragu to hand over the Ni Nishima in the Tang Dynasty.

The royal family is the royal family, which was a trump card used by the Tang Dynasty to check and balance the Arab Empire. How can it be handed over?

After the Arab Empire conquered the former Persian land, it used this as its basis to carry out "guerrilla warfare" against Central Asian vassal states controlled by the Tang Dynasty. It retreated when it was fought and ran away when it was robbed, which gave the Tang Dynasty a headache.

This also shows that the Arab Empire was very interested in Central Asia. If it handed over the Ni Nirvana Master, it would lose a trump card.

"What is the mere millions of people?" Just as the ministers yelled angrily, Wu Zetian sneered and responded strongly, saying: "I have a vast territory in China, with a huge number of billions of people. Not to mention a mere millions of people, even a millions of millions of people is no problem. Go back and tell Malik that if he dares to provoke our heavenly dynasty, I will send hundreds of millions of troops to flatten the big food!"

"Okay!" A cheering sounded, and the ministers all raised their throats and shouted.

"Okay! Have momentum!" Li Longji also cheered loudly when he heard it.

Although Wu Zetian's words were Zhang Daqi's words, they were quite imposing.

Muragu was a smart man, otherwise he would not be an envoy. Of course, he understood that Wu Zetian was exaggerating and said, "Even if His Majesty has a million soldiers, what's the use if he has no money? The Silk Road has to pass through my hometown. You only need to cut off the Silk Road, and your country will have a huge tax cut."

The Silk Road was one of the most important overseas business roads in ancient China and was the most important overseas business road for the Tang Dynasty, because the "Maritime Silk Road" had just emerged and did not account for a large proportion.

The Silk Road is a golden trade route, which brought a lot of taxes to the Tang Dynasty every year, accounting for a large proportion.

The rise of the Turks also benefited from the Silk Road. The Turks used their convenient geographical location to control the Silk Road, resell silk to the West, making huge profits from it, accumulating a lot of money to recruit soldiers and horses, and soon became a huge empire that dominated the desert.

It can be seen from this that the oil and water on the Silk Road is so abundant. If the Arab Empire did not allow the Tang Dynasty silk to be sold to the West, it would indeed reduce a lot of taxes.

"Hmph!" Wu Zetian snorted coldly, looked at him disdainfully, and said, "The country of the Heavenly Kingdom has a vast land and abundant resources, what is the Silk Road worth?"

He glanced at Muragu and sneered: "As far as I know, your country originated from a barren land in the desert, and its products are not abundant. It is extremely necessary for the Celestial Kingdom to buy your jewelry. I will issue an order to prohibit the import of jewelry. Let's see where you get the money? Just keep the jewelry and dream about it!"

"Okay!" A cheering sounded, and the ministers were very excited.

"Wu Zetian is Wu Zetian, and we immediately responded." Li Longjida praised Wu Zetian's queen style from the bottom of his heart.

If the Silk Road is really blocked, it will cause great losses to the Tang Dynasty, but the impact will not be too great. Because China's products are more and more abundant than those of the Arab Empire, and without the Silk Road, the Tang Dynasty can live a life.

If the Arab Empire had no Silk Road and could not sell jewelry to the Tang Dynasty, the losses would be great.

"You..." Muragu was speechless, unable to speak, and his face looked ugly.

———————
Chapter completed!