In May of the sixth year of Yuanzhen of the Tang Dynasty, Baekje prisoners sent from the peninsula arrived in Xingyang one after another.
Their number is small, only thirty or forty thousand.
Baekje was different from the Japanese state. Because of the relationship with Silla, the court showed mercy to Baekje. It did not search the mountains and fields to bring everyone back to the Tang Dynasty like it did in the Japanese state.
However, the advance base for attacking Goguryeo had already been formed. In the spring of the sixth year of Yuanzhen, tens of thousands more troops were gradually sent to the peninsula. The signs of war with Goguryeo were becoming more and more obvious.
The Japanese also started loading ships to send people over in March and April.
However, the Japanese who arrived early were left in the south. Some boat craftsmen were added to various shipyards in the south, and some Japanese fishermen with more experience at sea joined the navy.
Li Po did not see the situation there with his own eyes. After the Japanese realized that their country had perished, they eagerly sold themselves. In order to make themselves feel better, they fought for each other. Murder cases continued to be staged, which fully demonstrated their ferocity and barbarity.
On the contrary, those Tang people who inflicted hardships on them were respected as gods by them. As long as the Tang people gave an order, no matter how big or small your official position was, you would be like driving a flock of sheep, and you would not dare to disobey at all.
The character of the Japanese people on the island has become extremely concrete at this time.
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A large number of Japanese came ashore from the south of the Yangtze River. Li Jing did a very careful job and picked out all the useful people. These were the first people to be shipped over, and the local officials were also ready to receive them.
This small number of people are scattered on the ground in Jiangnan, and they hardly cause too many waves.
The Japanese who came first had the skills to defend themselves and could keep their families safe. They lived in places designated by the government and would contribute to the prosperity of the Tang Dynasty everywhere.
When the subsequent Japanese came again, their wages plummeted, and they became standard migrant workers.
There are no longer slaves in the Tang Dynasty, there are only slaves, refugees, humble servants, etc. Compared with hundreds of thousands of years ago, civilization has progressed a lot.
When the Japanese came, they were quickly called Japanese slaves, a class even lower than refugees, slaves, etc.
The government immediately issued a decree that Japanese slaves were not allowed to intermarry with Tang people, and were not allowed to engage in farming or business, etc., which almost blocked all the ways out for the Japanese and fixed their class.
Men were slaves and women were prostitutes. This was the old rule for treating the Han people in the north when the Wuhu came to dominate the Central Plains. It once aroused countless resistances from the Han people, but now it has been turned over and applied to the Japanese.
The nobles among the Japanese were all killed, and no one mentioned the emperor or the emperor anymore.
The island to the east has been cleaned up, and the Donghai Protectorate of the Tang Dynasty has been opened. Now its main task is to collect the remnants of the Japanese hiding in the dense forests in the mountains, and not give them any chance to resurrect.
In June of the sixth year of Yuanzhen in the Tang Dynasty, Li Jing returned to his army and marched north to Silla. The campaign to destroy the Japanese came to an end.
However, the aftermath of this war was not settled, and some Japanese people fled to the Ryukyu Islands. The Central Plains was called Yizhou in ancient times. In the southwest of the Japanese country, there were also kings and people.
They have always had frequent contacts with the Japanese country. During the reign of Queen Suiko, the Ryukyu Kingdom became a vassal of the Japanese country.
This was due to Yang Guang's manipulation. He sent people to invite the Ryukyu King several times, but they ignored him. So Yang Guang became angry and sent troops to attack the Ryukyu Kingdom and burned down all the people's "palaces".
They also captured many people and came back.
The Ryukyu Kingdom was almost destroyed, but it still refused to bow to Yang Guang and turned around to join the Japanese.
Now twenty or thirty years have passed, and the Tang Dynasty sent troops to destroy the Japanese state. Because the Japanese state was destroyed too quickly, Ryukyu did not react last year.
This year, as the Japanese fled to Ryukyu, the Ryukyu people were frightened and recalled the painful memories of that year. They felt that they could not sit still and wait for someone to come and burn their houses.
So Ryukyu reluctantly sent an envoy to bring the island's specialties to please His Majesty the Tang Emperor, but the response was a bit slow.
But as the Tang Dynasty's maritime undertakings developed, Ryukyu was no longer an overseas barbarian continent. The Japanese kingdom would be destroyed, and Ryukyu would be within reach.
The Ryukyu envoy landed from Jiangnan and was immediately escorted to Luoyang.
At this time, Japanese figures had already appeared in Luoyang. A large number of Japanese men and women in ragged clothes, dark faces, and short stature were being driven along the road.
There are more than 100,000 people, and most of them will be left here and there. Now the court is most concerned about dredging the canal, so the main task of the Japanese laborers in the past two years is to dredge the river.
Those sent to Luoyang will be used in various projects in Henan. According to Pei Ju and others' ideas, the first thing is to repair the inside and outside of Luoyang City.
It's just that the emperor was in Luoyang, so he sent the Japanese to repair roads, ditches and other agricultural facilities in one sentence.
The palaces and residences in Luoyang were not in a hurry. What Li Po cared about was people's livelihood. There were not enough Japanese and Baekje people in this regard. It could only alleviate the labor shortage in the Tang Dynasty.
Li Po's eyes have turned to the peninsula. It's time to take action on the fat piece of Goguryeo. What makes him hesitate is whether to start the war this year or wait until next year?
He preferred to wait a little longer.
One is Ashina Duowen, the Turkic Turkic Khan, who is still wandering around Liaodong. He doesn’t know what he thinks after being taken out of his old nest. The outcome should be known in the second half of this year.
Secondly, Li Jing returned to the peninsula and needed a good rest. Moreover, his soldiers were away at war all year round. Did he feel homesick?
Li Po himself was the leader of the army, and he knew that fighting was not easy. If it were not for the long journey overseas and the inconvenience of travel, Li Jing's troops should actually be recalled at this time. Now that the army is running back and forth, it is difficult to maintain the morale of the army.
By the time Li Jing returned to the peninsula, the number of Tang troops on the peninsula had increased to more than 200,000, and the burden on the court had increased sharply. If the army wanted to spend the winter on the peninsula, both the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of War would have to be prepared to vomit blood this autumn.
Therefore, there are more and more voices in the DPRK advocating attacking Goguryeo this autumn. The main crux is that it is too laborious to attack Goguryeo, and the losses on the road are extremely shocking.
The little wealth that Datang had accumulated in the past few years was decreasing at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Now that more than 100,000 to 200,000 Japanese have landed, the Ministry of Household Affairs has to worry about food and clothing, which makes Su Dan and others feel very distressed. In private, they probably complained a lot about His Majesty's unhurried strategy.
Li Po's ears have been feeling hot lately, maybe this guy is causing trouble.
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In late June, the Ryukyu envoys arrived in Luoyang, and soon afterward, news of the Tubo victory was sent from Chang'an.
In a hurry, Jin Deman, the true king of Silla, took his sister Jin Shengman, the princess of Silla, and others to Luoyang to meet with His Majesty the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty...