Chapter 218: Peace
Shibi Khan wanted to fight, but his troops had been frightened by the previous Tang army and were not very willing to fight the enemy.

After all, there is not much gold, silver or food to plunder here, and what good will it be if we win? The Khan has become more and more stingy in recent years.

So after both sides cursed at each other for a while, they withdrew their troops. Li Mi also breathed a sigh of relief. After all, this was Turkic territory. If they were delayed, who knew how many troops would show up to cut off their retreat.

After returning safely to the Tang Dynasty, Li Mi immediately arranged for defense. Logically speaking, the Turks would not invade in the short term, and the King of Qin had really dealt a heavy blow to the Turks in this battle.

But at this time, the King of Qin fainted, the King of Qi was demoted, and Qin Shubao and Shan Xiongxin's life and death were unknown. Since he was the current commander-in-chief, he had to make sure that everything was foolproof.

After Li Mi arranged everything, he immediately ordered the doctors to treat King Qin and Shan Xiongxin Qin Shubao. King Qin was fine, he was only shot in the left shoulder, and the rest of the arrows were blocked by his armor and helmet.

Shan Xiongxin and Qin Shubao were in danger. They were covered in wounds and judging from the damage to their armor on their chest and back, their lungs were also injured by blunt objects. Fortunately, the warriors were strong and the doctors were skilled.
The two generals barely managed to save their lives, but they had to recuperate for more than a year before they could recover.

This was a blessing in disguise. If any of these three had died, Li Mi would have had a hard time explaining to the emperor.

Li Yuanji was naturally the first to know the news of the army's return. When he learned that Li Shimin was injured, his depression of many days disappeared and he ordered a banquet and drinking.

Two days later, the imperial court received accurate news that the King of Qin had made great contributions by striking a heavy blow to the Turks, allowing the Tang Dynasty to be much more relaxed in dealing with them.

Many tribes that are still hesitating may abandon the Turks and join the Tang Dynasty through this war.

But the King of Qin also made a big mistake. Without the emperor's order, he arbitrarily chased the troops across the border. Although he made some gains, he almost lost two great generals of the court.

The civil and military officials in the court generally preferred to reward the King of Qin. The emperor finally decided that meritorious service should be rewarded and faults should be punished. The King of Qin was rewarded with golden armor and a Ferghana horse, and was promoted to the position of Vice-Chancellor.

He was dismissed from his post as governor of Henan, fined one year's salary, and after his injury is recovered, he was given 100 beatings with the imperial stick.

Sometimes ten blows from the staff can kill a warrior, but sometimes a hundred or a thousand blows only result in minor injuries.

After Li Jiancheng dealt with Li Shimin's affairs, he immediately arranged for the imperial physician to bring precious medicinal materials to take care of the two generals Shan and Qin. He also showed favor to the two generals' offspring, conferring the title of seventh-rank Yunqiwei on their eldest son and rewarding him with an imperial horse.

Then he praised Li Mi highly and directly promoted him to the second rank Guanglu Dafu and concurrently the Minister of Personnel.

Then he instructed the Minister of Honglu Temple: "Send the news that the Western Turkic Khan sent an envoy to the court to ask for marriage to the Eastern Turkic."

"promise."

The Eastern and Western Turks were mortal enemies who always wanted to annex each other and restore the glory of the Turkic Empire. For Shibi Khan, there was nothing more terrifying than this mortal enemy joining forces with the Central Plains.

But he had just used force and suffered heavy casualties, so the only option left for him was to make concessions and seek peace.

Li Jing also brought good news. He defeated Tuyuhun and captured Murong Xiaojun, a close minister of Tuyuhun Fuyun. He seized tens of thousands of livestock and obtained a thousand Qinghai horses, the best horses in the world.

Before the imperial court could issue an edict of commendation, Li Jing received another victory report that the Duke of Fenyang, the General of the Right Guard, Xue Ju, led Pei Xingyan, Cheng Zhijie and other generals to defeat the three tribes of Tuyuhun and Tianzhu in Chihai and captured 200,000 livestock.

Li Jiancheng clapped his hands and said, "How great it is to have Li Jing as our commander!"

The Emperor ordered the Secretariat to discuss with the Ministry of War about rewarding the generals, but he specially promoted Li Dejian, the eldest son of the Duke of Wei, to the rank of Junior Minister of Rites, and promoted him to the rank of Silver and Green Guanglu Doctor. Soon, the Turks sent envoys to ask for peace, and the Tuyuhun sent envoys to ask for peace. Then the King of Linyi sent envoys to pay tribute, and the Baijian Qiang and Baigou Qiang sent envoys to pay tribute. Goguryeo, Baekje, and Silla all accepted the Emperor's decree to confer titles.

Civil and military officials were celebrating, but the emperor did not express anything. Not only did he not take advantage of the situation to expand his power, but he began to shrink it.

After the army returned, the emperor began to demobilize the army and sent the conscripted soldiers back to their hometowns to farm. However, the court did not stop recruiting soldiers. With the example of the Shenwu Army, although more soldiers were dismissed, there were still many good family sons who were willing to join the army, and they were even more fond of war.

The emperor once again issued a general amnesty on the pretext of the Empress Dowager's birthday, exempting the land tax and donations in Guannei and the six prefectures of Pu, Rui, Yu, Tai, Shaanxi and Ding for two years, and exempting the rest of the prefectures from corvée for one year.

After half a year of fighting in the second year of Taiping, the second half of the year was spent in peace. Rebels and thieves became increasingly rare in the world, and gradually, those who could gather thousands of people became great thieves.

Shibi Khan's successive failures, coupled with the hidden danger of the massacre of Tiele in the past, finally erupted at once. The Xueyantuo, Uighur and other tribes rebelled, and Shibi Khan personally led the army to suppress the rebellion. However, he began to become suspicious after returning to Dali City.

He actually began to believe in the alchemist. After Princess Yicheng gave him five stones (cinnabar, realgar, alum, azurite, and cinnabar), Shibi Khan, who was ambitious to rule the world together with Li Jiancheng, died of a poisonous sore soon after.

…………

Li Jiancheng stood in front of the door of Zheng Zhaoyi's palace. Before he had taken a few steps, he heard the cry of a baby from inside. In addition to the eldest son born to the queen, he had two more daughters in the past two months.

The midwife pushed open the door and came out with a smile on her face, congratulating him: "Congratulations, Your Majesty, God has blessed you with a prince."

"Your Majesty, I congratulate you and wish the prince a long and happy life!"

Li Jiancheng smiled and said, "Okay, everyone will be rewarded!"

Soon the rewards from the Emperor Retired, the Empress Retired and the Queen Mother arrived. After Li Jiancheng knew that the mother and child were safe, he left.

In the bedroom, a graceful and elegant woman was lying weakly on the bed, with strands of hair sticking to her delicate face, making her look extremely frail and pitiful.

Even the palace maids and doctors standing by couldn't help but feel pity for him, and they all took care of him carefully.

"Has His Majesty left?"

"Replying to Zhaoyi, His Majesty asked you and the little prince about it carefully before leaving with peace of mind. I heard that the Xuanzheng Hall is still discussing politics. His Majesty left the officials of the previous dynasty and came here specially, which shows that he really values ​​our Zhaoyi the most."

"That's right. When the other two gave birth, Your Majesty didn't look after the pot."

Zheng Guanyin smiled with relief, and then she couldn't help feeling sleepy. She only had time to whisper to the maid she brought with her from her mother's home to take a good look at the little prince before she fell into a deep sleep.
At this time in the Queen's Palace, Xiao was teasing her one-year-old son: "Chengzong, call me father, father~"

This child of this age can't speak clearly, but he is chubby and babbling, very cute. Mrs. Xiao would cling to her son affectionately from time to time.

...............

(End of this chapter)