4 The Simple View of Right & Wrong of the Tang (2/2)
It sounded unreasonable to get involved in such turmoil just for rescuing a married princess. However, in fact, such things happened many times before in the Tang's history.
One of the most famous examples happened during the old age of Taizu, the founder of the Tang Dynasty.
At that time, a tribe massacred a village positioned along Bai Yang Road. One hundred and forty residents there were all killed without mercy. The emperor sent a messenger to ask what happened, however, one of his ears was cut off and he was expelled by the Chanyu. Taizu felt so angry and immediately decided to invade the grassland, leading a military group of 80,000 cavalries. After hearing this, the tribe escaped to the northern wilderness against strong wind and snow, while the Tang's group kept chasing them, until several months later when the tribe was finally slaughtered.
Fighting for several months, destroying all the enemies... The Tang earned that at a terrible cost.
To make sure there were sufficient supplies for such an exhausting war, the imperial court sent millions of farmers to the battlefield and collected all of the livestock. Fields around Min Mountain was all left uncultivated, the tax in the South quadrupled, and officials had no spare time to take care of those things. The whole country was on the edge of turmoil, even collapse.
The Tang's most fabulous quality was observed during such a dangerous period, as well as in subsequent years while appraising this matter.
When the imperial marching onto the wilderness, the rebels in the south didn't attack the military. Instead, they returned to bases and seemed like they were standing at the side of the imperial. Perhaps not every rebel did that for the so-called national righteousness. Some of them might have also wanted to utilize this opportunity to win the fight, but they had to face the reality that the poor peasants who supported them, and heads and soldiers in the troop, were all strongly against them to do so.
Taizu didn't earn a high historical status due to this battle, even inside the empire. No matter if in history books, or in stories from storytellers, you could see or hear no good comments about him, but instead, totalitarian and harsh.
However, even though the most pedantic scholars, the professors who didn't care about the sovereignty, or the farmers and businessmen who badly hate tax might all criticize Taizu for various reasons, none of them would deny the necessity of the war.
All the Tang's people always firmly believed in a simple principle from the establishment of their country: I won't invade anyone, and nobody can invade me either. Even if I invade you, you're still not allowed to invade me back!
An eye for an eye.
That's what we established as the baseline.
That's what made Tang stronger and more powerful.
And that's why Tang was recognized as the strongest country in the world.
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