"And this Poet Immortal of the glorious Tang... I wonder how he compares to that Du Gongbu?"
Kongming was watching with great interest, even offering a little commentary on the side. He remembered the light screen mentioning that this Du Gongbu was a big fan of his.
Especially those lines. Three times he sought him, a master plan for the world and Before the campaign was won, the hero perished.
Reading those had made even Kongming feel a bit embarrassed.
It was just a shame centuries stood between them. Otherwise he would have insisted on hosting the man for a proper feast.
If I wrote a piece right now, something like 'A Response to the Generous Sentiments of Ministry Official Du,' would it somehow find its way to him across the ages?
Still, judging from his poems, Du Gongbu had real talent. He held a post in the Ministry of Works. He lived in the glorious Tang. His life must have been fairly comfortable.
What does a golden age even look like...
Remembering the light screen's remark that he himself had "never witnessed the Han's golden age," Kongming felt a litle, unexpected sting of envy.
Zhang Fei, of course, showed no such restraint. "Hahaha! An Eternal Emperor, the greatest of his kind, yet he feels the need to grovel for a lineage from some minor king in a chaotic era!"
"If this Li Hao fellow is watching from the underworld, he's probably been throwing a celebratory feast for days just because his descendant turned out to be so impressive."
Guan Yu nodded along. "What does a prestigious ancestor matter in the end?
Especially when this Li Hao was retroactively claimed to be a descendant of Li Guang."
Guan Yu knew his histories cold. He remembered the shame that had fallen upon the Li clan of Longxi after Li Ling's surrender to the Xiongnu. That entire bloodline had been regarded as a mark of disgrace.
Jian Yong's voice drifted in, dry as dust.
"Setting aside Yide for a moment...
the future generations hold Yunchang's name with great reverence."
"Sooner or later, I suspect every person with the surname Guan will eventually claim you as their ancestor just to borrow a bit of your glory."
Guan Yu paused, considering the image of millions of future descendants bowing to his shrine. "When you put it that way... it doesn't sound like a bad arrangement at all."
"Hey! I just remembered something!" Zhang Fei barked. "During that whole Sixteen Kingdoms mess, didn't someone retroactively claim Adou as—"
Guan Yu's hand shot out like a striking snake. A dried persimmon jammed straight into Zhang Fei's mouth.
"Third Brother. Eat."
[Lightscreen]
[Actually, speaking of the Longxi region, or Longyou, if any of you were to travel there in our modern age, you would find that it doesn't quite match the historical descriptions.
The modern Hexi Corridor stretches from Tianshui to Lanzhou, then through Xining, Zhangye, and Jiayuguan.
If you were to take a road trip through there today, the overwhelming feeling would be summed up in one word: Desolation.
Nowadays, it's commonly referred to as the Gobi Desert.
This creates a bit of a historical cognitive dissonance. Did the Tang Dynasty, really build an empire starting from a place where you essentially eat sand for breakfast?
Did the Prime Minister really launch six expeditions through the Mount Qi just to fight over a wasteland?]
The Light Screen flickered with rapid images of the modern landscape. All anyone could see were vast, unending stretches of barren earth, gray stones, and dust.
"This is Longyou?" Kongming stared. He had never been there himself, but Longyou was not supposed to look like this.
This is not Longyou," Li Shimin stated with absolute certainty in the Ganlu Hall.
He had personally led armies to pacify the rebels Xue Ju and Xue Rengao in that very region. He knew those hills and valleys intimately, and the scorched earth on the screen was a nightmare he didn't recognize.
[Lightscreen]
[The Han Dynasty opened the Hexi Corridor, giving birth to the Silk Road.
The Tang, building on the foundations of the Sui, established the Longyou Pastures, one of the largest official livestock operations in Chinese history.
Regardless of whether it was the Han, the Sui, or the Tang, the descriptions of the Hexi Corridor were identical: lush water, abundant grass, and emerald-green plains.
Because the natural conditions were so favorable, the Han began intensive development of the region.
From the late Han and Three Kingdoms era all the way through the Sui, constant warfare in the Central Plains sent waves of refugees fleeing into Longyou.
The Longyou Roads and Tong Pass offered natural defenses. Even when war broke out, the region stayed relatively stable. This was how the great Longyou clans were born.
The Tang then kicked development into overdrive.
After setting up the Four Garrisons of Anxi, they conscripted laborers from Shandong every year, granting them land and money to settle the west.
But by the Kaiyuan era, the desertification of the Hexi Corridor had become severe.
'Records state: 'The households gradually dwindle; beyond Liangzhou, the sands stretch out indefinitely.'
The Maowusu Desert, which we only recently managed to reclaim through massive reforestation, was largely formed during this period.
Excessive land reclamation caused the corridor to turn into a desert at an alarming rate.
By the Ming dynasty, there was no more 'Hexi Corridor.' There was only the Hexi Desert.
The Ming's decision to focus on the southwest and the north was a move of pure desperation, the desert had choked the roads. Even if they conquered the west, the cost of maintaining it was far greater than any possible gain.
And the Ming's efforts to develop the northeast eventually resulted in the rise of Nurhaci, the 'Dragon-Tiger General,' which led to the tragic end of the Ming altogether]
The Light screen no longer showed the enchanting city of lights. Instead, it was a montage of a dead world. Stone and parched soil were exposed to the elements, inhabited only by low, scrubby bushes that looked as though they survived on spite alone.
There were no rolling grasslands, the rivers were mere trickles of mud, and the few people visible were caked in dust.
This was a Longyou that Li Shimin had never imagined.
He stared at the wasteland with a sinking feeling in his gut. "Did the Tang Dynasty really leave such a catastrophe for the future generations?"
He could barely process it.
The logic was simple. But it was exactly the kind of thing nobody ever bothered to sit down and think through.
Du Ruhui sighed. "A man can chop down a tree in half a day, but a seedling requires ten years to reach maturity. We have been short-sighted."
"On the contrary," Li Shimin said, his mind shifting gears back into a strategic offensive.
"If we can suppress this so-called 'desertification,' then the Hexi Corridor will remain the eternal foundation of the Great Tang!" As a military man, Li Shimin understood logistics down to his bones.
"If the Hexi Corridor slowly turns into what the light screen shows, then supplying a campaign from Chang'an to the Western Regions will burn multiple times the grain."
"But if Hexi stays the way it is now, full of cities and towns with people living and working in peace, we can draw our troops straight from the local population."
The difference between those two futures was night and day.
"We need to discuss this. Properly." Li Shimin gave the order. "Once the New Year holidays are over, I want a comprehensive policy for 'Sand Elimination' on my desk. We shall not be the architects of a wasteland."
The Emperor of the Great Tang was barely past thirty. The one thing he never lacked was the will to move.
Du Ruhui and Fang Xuanling acknowledged the command.
Zhangsun Wuji kept his head down and his mouth shut. He was currently sidelined from active duty and understood the value of keeping quiet.
Li Jing just chuckled. He was a general. Not his problem.
...
In the hall at Gongan,
Zhuge Liang was reminded of the ancient lament of Ban Gu: "The felling of forests knows no seasonal restraint; the disasters of flood and drought surely stem from this."
The Light Screen had just provided the cold, hard proof: the death of the land begins with the death of the trees.
He drew a slow breath and spoke softly.
"These are matters for a thousand-year plan. There is no need to rush."
"We can wait until we have dealt with that traitor Cao. Then we can formulate policy at a measured pace."
Liu Bei nodded his agreement, then added with some pride.
"Earlier this year, the people of Gongan were praising those 'ink-cakes' as a godsend for the winter.
They are cheaper than charcoal and burn much longer."
Mi Zhu was well informed on this front.
"Many frugal families now use the charcoal cakes even for cooking. For every bushel of cakes burned, one less tree is cut. That earns some fortune for our children and grandchildren."
"But demand is growing fast. The price of stone coal from Jiangdong has been creeping up."
"My lord, we must move quickly on Chengdu and prospect for stone coal in Shu. Otherwise, come winter, the people may have no cakes to burn."
Liu Bei nodded rapidly. "I know. I know."
[Lightscreen]
[Got a bit off track there. In the Prime Minister's time, the Hexi Corridor was still a treasure trove of untapped potential.
Even though Ma Su is dead, why has the world spent a thousand years lamenting the Prime Minister's loss?
Because if Ma Su hadn't lost Jieting, it meant the Shu Han could have completed the full annexation of Longyou.
A Longyou that hadn't yet been turned into a desert would have become Shu Han's own personal breeding ground for warhorses.
They could have finally built a cavalry force capable of harassing the heart of the Guanzhong plains!
With Longyou to the west and Hanzhong to the south, the Shu Han could have launched a pincer attack that would have forced the Cao Wei into a permanent defensive crouch.
This was the moment the strategic initiative could have shifted forever
Therefore, the world's grief isn't just about a single mountain pass.
It is about the loss of a forward base for the conquest of Wei.
It is about the loss of a strategic pillar for the unification of the land.
It was the single greatest opportunity Shu Han ever had, the ultimate guarantee for the Restoration of the Han.
All of it was snuffed out by the hand of Ma Su. How can one not beat their breast in frustration!
Furthermore, if they had successfully shifted to a strategic offensive, the burden on the Prime Minister's shoulders would have been vastly lightened.
Perhaps he wouldn't have had to exhaust his heart and soul, working from dawn until dusk. Perhaps he could have lived just a few years longer. If that had happened, history would look completely different
But history has no room for 'what ifs.'
In the year 228, Ma Su, leading troops for the first time at Jieting, held the flickering flame of the Third Restoration of the Han in the palm of his hand.
And then... he crushed it]
Zhang Fei's face brightened with renewed, almost cherubic interest. He turned to Ma Su, his voice dripping with exaggerated gentleness.
"Ma Youchang. You've read every military text ever written. So tell me."
"If Jieting had not fallen... could everything the light screen just described have happened?"
Ma Su felt the blood drain from his face. He took an involuntary step back, his eyes darting toward his big brother in a desperate plea for help.
But Ma Liang appeared to be deaf and blind to the world, his head bowed as he meticulously organized his notes.
"Ma Youchang. Tell me." Zhang Fei stepped closer.
Liu Bei finally had enough." Yide, there is no need to corner the boy further. The lesson is written in the heavens."
"Yes, Big Brother." Zhang Fei turned away instantly, as if nothing had happened.
Huang Zhong, however, looked off into the distance with a hint of regret. "If Zilong were here, this Longyou business would have him absolutely fascinated.
A perfect place to breed horses!
I've lost count of how many times Zilong has complained about the horses we buy from the Jiangdong, short, expensive, and stubborn."
Kongming kept his face perfectly neutral. Inside, he allowed himself a small breath of relief.
At least I won't have to go through what that Chancellor Zhuge on the screen suffered.
Years of planning. All gone in a single day. Just thinking about it makes a man want to cough blood.
[Lightscreen]
[Well, that's where we'll wrap up for today's session.
This episode has already gone on for quite a while.
Our next preview: 'The Stars Fall over Wuzhang Plains.' We'll also be introducing a mystery guest, so stay tuned.]
[Server Chat Log]
[Time-Bending Scroll: Too long and too short at the same time. I need more.
Ant Under Grass: 'Prime Minister was so cautious when it came to the Ziwu Valley plan, but gambled Jieting on a noob? Why.
Strategy_Midlane: 'In a Northern Expedition, you literally cannot afford a single mistake.
If Cao Cao lost Longxi, he still had Guanzhong.
If he lost Guanzhong, he had the Central Plains.
If he lost the central plains, he could retreat north of the Yellow River.
The Prime Minister's hand was just too small. He didn't have the luxury of retreat.
You think the Great King of Wu, Sun Shinwan-ge, was just going to sit there and watch?'
WhiteCat_: 'Sun Shinwan-ge needs to figure out how to get past Hefei first.'
Ascetic of the Deadlock: 'When you look at it this way, it was a total deadlock. The weak attacking the strong. A risky move leads to a quick death; a steady approach leads to a slow one.'
Scholar of the Canon: 'The Ma Su in the Romance was actually a bit more competent than the real one. The historical Ma Su was truly a disaster.'
Daoist of Changping: 'Please, illiterate content creators, Stop comparing Ma Su to Zhao Kuo. Zhao Kuo held Bai Qi for a month. Ma Su lost a hill and ran.
VoidWalker: 'Truth. If Ma Su had been under Zhao Kuo's command, he would have been the first one executed for incompetence.'
I'M Wifi Warrior: 'The ghost of Imperial Uncle Liu is fuming in the afterlife: "I TOLD YOU SO!"'
Gun66_Real: 'Emperor's dying words were 200 IQ, but if Prime Minister ignores team chat, how do you carry?]