Chapter 227 The Truth of History

"Cough cough" Li Ke found that everyone began to become silent, and he coughed twice to break the stiff atmosphere. "Is there no other explanation?" He asked this, but he had already accepted the results of Ma Zhou's analysis. Because, through Ma Zhou's analysis, he thought about the expression after hearing the appointment of Li Shimin in Qianqiu Palace today. He felt that Yang Fei might have guessed Li Shimin's intention to appoint him. But she did not say it out of protection for herself, for fear that she would not be able to stand it and would do something extraordinary. Thinking of this, Li Ke couldn't help but wonder, "Is this really the case?" Then he became depressed.

"Your Highness, I think the analysis of Censor Ma is indeed reasonable, but I guess that the emperor's intention is not that simple." Cen Wenben saw that Li Ke was a little embarrassed, so he spoke.

"Sir, does the father have another profound meaning?" Li Ke asked, fixing his eyes on Cen Wenben's face.

Seeing that Li Ke was eager to know the answer, Cen Wenben smiled at him and said, "The Emperor does have other profound meanings!" Then, he turned his eyes to everyone and said slowly, "If you only analyze the appointment of Your Highness this morning, Binwang's explanation is very reasonable. The Emperor's appointment to Your Highness is indeed to prevent Your Highness from returning to the capital. However, Your Highness mentioned another thing just now, which made the minister think that this matter was the real purpose of the Emperor entrusting his Highness to the important task in the morning."

"That thing?" Before Cen Wenben finished speaking, Deng Tongda asked hurriedly.

"The Goryeo envoy requested the emperor to reopen the border trade between the two countries." Cen Wenben said with a smile.

When Li Ke heard Cen Wenben say this, he suddenly felt something. He couldn't help but think of the conversation between him and Li Shimin in the imperial study room in the morning, and seemed to have found the real answer. Among the people sitting in the study room, Ma Zhou and Chu Suiliang also had some understanding after listening to Cen Wenben's words. He pondered for a moment and couldn't help but nodded, thinking that this was the real reason.

Seeing that Sun Fujia and Deng Tongda were still a little confused, Cen Wenben explained, "The emperor appointed His Highness in the Imperial Study room in the morning to command hundreds of thousands of troops from Hebei Road, Hedong Road, so has the Magistrate Deng thought about another meaning of the emperor's appointment?"

"Another meaning?" Sun Fujia said for a moment, "Does the emperor mean that His Highness is in charge of Hedong Road and Hebei Road?"

"Yes!" Cen Wenben said, "The emperor means to let His Highness take charge of the two places through leadership. If Goryeo wants to reopen border trade, then the Tang Dynasty must open the urban passage between Hedong Road and Goryeo. Therefore, the reason why the emperor appointed His Highness to guard both places was to prevent it from happening and prevent Goryeo from making any attempts in the Tang Dynasty in the future."

After Cen Wenben said that, Deng Tongda and Sun Fujia couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. They finally understood the real reason for the emperor's appointment of the King of Han.

However, Sun Fujia immediately raised another question, "In order to prevent Goryeo from causing trouble in the future, why did the emperor have to appoint His Highness to take on this responsibility?"

Indeed, Sun Fujia's question was very sharp. There were many generals who could conquer and fight in the Tang Dynasty. There was no need for Li Shimin to appoint Li Ke! Therefore, his question shows that Cen Wenben's explanation was a bit far-fetched.

Cen Wenben didn't say anything. He just glanced at Chu Suiliang beside him and nodded slightly. Chu Suiliang understood and said, "The emperor's appointment to Your Highness may be the decision that he made when he was in the imperial study room today. The reason why he appointed Your Highness to command the troops and horses in the two places and prevented Gorye from causing trouble in the future was based on the Wei minister's analysis. First, yesterday, His Highness's tough measures against Prince Tuyuhun in Taiji Hall showed his attitude to the envoys of the four countries, that is, whoever does not respect the Tang Dynasty will not have a good position.

The envoy of the four countries has seen His Highness’s tough measures and knows what kind of person His Highness is. Therefore, the emperor asked His Highness to take charge of the border towns for future trade between the Tang Dynasty and Goryeo, and wanted to tell Goryeo not to have any unreasonable thoughts, otherwise the consequences would be unimaginable. The second reason is that the conversation between His Highness and the emperor today was actually because the emperor wanted to truly understand whether His Highness is capable of being entrusted with important tasks, and His Highness’s answer happened to satisfy the emperor, so the emperor made such a decision.”

"Yeah!" After Chu Suiliang analyzed, everyone couldn't help but nodded to indicate that this explanation was reasonable.

"If the Secretary Lang and Cen Zhongshu meant, then the emperor would have known the purpose of the Goryeo envoy's trip long ago?" Deng Tongda asked involuntarily.

"Goryeo was sent to the Tang Dynasty to envoy, how could such a major matter be hidden from the emperor?" Sun Fujia asked back.

"It's true that I can't hide it from the emperor!" Deng Tongda found that the question he asked was very idiotic, and couldn't help but smile embarrassedly.

Because of Cen Wenben's analysis, everyone found that Li Shimin's appointment of Li Ke was not as active as Ma Zhou said, and the atmosphere was much more active, and it was no longer as depressed as just now. Li Ke was also much more relaxed and no longer as depressed as just now. If it was really as Cen Wenben said, Li Shimin appointed himself to take charge of Hedong Road and Hebei Road in order to prevent Goryeo from having any intentions after reopening the border trade with Goryeo, then he would make a lot of money back to Chang'an this time!

At this time, Cen Wenben said, "Your Highness, no matter what kind of speculation, we are still not sure about it. After all, both analysis is reasonable and possible. Therefore, only by waiting for the emperor to agree to open border trade with Goryeo, can the Goryeo envoys be truly determined through the attitude of the Goryeo envoy towards you can truly determine that analysis is more appropriate."

"Yeah!" Li Ke calmed down after hearing Cen Wenben say this, and said in a deep voice, "You really can't draw conclusions too early!"

However, Ma Zhou next to him was not as calm as Li Ke because he encountered two different worlds in his mood. He was quite convinced of Cen Wenben's analysis, and at the same time he couldn't help asking, "Cen Zhongshu's analysis Ma Zhou was quite impressed, but he didn't know where Cen Zhongshu concluded that Goryeo would cause chaos? And the emperor must have appointed this way to prevent Goryeo from causing chaos?"

"You are the teacher who never forgets the past and the next thing!" Cen Wenben smiled, "Did King Bin remember the relationship between the previous dynasty and Goryeo?"

As soon as Cen Wenben reminded him, Ma Zhou fell into deep thought. After a moment, he woke up and hurriedly bowed to Cen Wenben, "I am not as good as Cen Zhongshu!"

Li Ke also admired Cen Wenben's wisdom. Cen Wenben said that he judged from the relationship between Goryeo and the Sui Dynasty that Goryeo was a restless country. They would definitely not be content with themselves as long as they were strong.

Li Ke adapted and understood the Tang Dynasty over the past two years. His understanding of the Sui Dynasty and Goryeo was different from the historical records and analysis of historians. He believed that the reason for the Sui Dynasty's conquest of Goryeo was not what history said, and the real reason he believed was that the Sui Dynasty's conquest of Goryeo was mainly because Goryeo expanded in the Northeast, attempting to control the Northeast ethnic group and constantly invaded the border, which caused the Sui Dynasty's self-defense counterattack.

Although this view is quite difficult to establish in later generations, after Li Ke personally experienced and understood many facts that were not recorded in history, he felt that the background, reasons, purpose and significance of Emperor Yang of Sui in history for the war were mostly documentary records after the Tang Dynasty. Many politicians and historians kept making comments and researching them from many aspects through the records in Tang documents. Therefore, they believed that Emperor Yang of Sui was just a happy ending to the Goryeo in three battles. The fall of the Sui Dynasty was the price brought by Emperor Yang of Sui's three battles to Goryeo, and the result of his demonstration of civil and military achievements.

Little did they know that the failure of the three conquests of Goryeo directly led to the overthrow of the Sui Dynasty. As the rulers of the Tang Dynasty, of course, they had to learn from the Sui Dynasty and view this incident in isolation from the perspective of real politics such as how to maintain long-term stability in the country. Therefore, they condemned Emperor Yang of Sui for being extravagant and overuse of the people's power. It is precisely for this reason that although the comments of the Tang people were reasonable, if we summarize the cause of this war, it would undoubtedly be biased.

Later generations only understood this war and this history based on the research results obtained in Tang literature. This was undoubtedly viewing this incident in isolation from a political perspective. Therefore, it lost the true nature of historical reasons. Only when people evaluated Sui Goryeo and attributed all the responsibility to Yang Guang, the ruler of the Sui Dynasty, instead of Goryeo's ambitions inflated.

As the ruler of the Tang Dynasty, Li Shimin was very insightful about the profound meaning contained in this war. Therefore, while he attributed the responsibility for the war to Emperor Yang of Sui, he actually inherited the Sui Dynasty's policy to Goryeo. Therefore, he prepared for the future and thought about the possible crisis in the border trade before Goryeo and the Tang Dynasty opened.

The real purpose of this decision was that Li Shimin drew on the relationship between the Sui Dynasty and Goryeo. He knew that after his own strength, Goryeo would definitely continue to invade the border and attempt to control the ethnic and regions of the Northeast, so he had such an arrangement.

Through Cen Wenben's words, Li Ke thought of the real reason for this history.

Therefore, when Cen Wenben said that Ma Zhou naturally understood the relationship between the previous dynasty and Goryeo through his understanding of the relationship between the previous dynasty and Goryeo, he naturally understood why Cen Wenben said that the purpose of Li Shimin appointing Li Ke to take charge of hundreds of thousands of troops was to prevent Goryeo from causing chaos after opening the border trade. Shortly after the Sui Dynasty, the three campaigns of Goryeo lasted only a few decades, so everyone still knew the real cause of this war. Therefore, they were convinced of Cen Wenben's explanation.

Seeing that the problem he was worried about was solved, Li Ke looked out the window again and found that it was getting late, so he told everyone to go and rest early.

After everyone left, Li Ke summoned Zhu Tong in the study room, and Zhu Tong reported to her the information obtained by the Eagle Guard today. However, after listening to Zhu Tong's report, Li Ke's face became gloomy. He angrily smashed his tight hands on the desk.

Zhu Tong was jumped by Li Ke's actions, but he didn't dare to ask, so he could only wait quietly. After a while, Li Ke seemed to relieve his emotions from his anger, and then asked Zhu Tong some other information. Zhu Tong did not dare to neglect and told Li Ke in detail the information he obtained one by one. After listening to Zhu Tong's report, Li Ke seemed tired and waved his hand and left the study.

Zhu Tong left, and the study room fell into silence again. He could hear the sound of the candle burning in quietness. Li Ke integrated himself into this tranquility, staring at the swaying candlelight in front of him with a cold look. He didn't know what he was thinking.
Chapter completed!