Chapter 1343: The Merit of Destroying a Nation

"I never expected that my elder brother's prediction would come true."

Li Jing's face was full of sighs, yet he also felt a trace of regret; after all, if the fighting had continued into spring for just another five or six months, the Turks would truly have been erased from existence, their resistance forces driven all the way to the Western Regions.

However, it was precisely because of this realization that the Turks, whose hearts were already divided, split apart and turned on each other; Fang Qian killed their chief and requested surrender, demanding only that the fighting stop and their wealth and status be guaranteed, saying everything else was negotiable.

Wang Yan saw Li Jing's regret and smiled, saying, "Yaoshi, there is no need to sigh; the Turks are merely locusts after autumn. Now that Dublan is dead, the pack of wolves has no head; they do not submit to one another, each harboring their own schemes, and they can no longer pose a threat."

"Now that they have voluntarily come to surrender, fighting means death while peace means a slower death; they certainly wish to die slowly, seeking an opportunity to escape their predicament. Yet whether it is war or peace now lies entirely in the hands of our Great Sui; they will agree to any conditions."

"As long as our Great Sui governs the grasslands directly, within a few years these chieftains and Great Khans will crumble and disintegrate. From this day forward, our Central Plains will never again suffer the wolf menace of the northern frontier."

Li Jing nodded, understanding Wang Yan's meaning.

He was also very familiar with the conduct of Great Sui officials; with Central Plains people migrating here to blend with the population, officials governing, and a great army stationed nearby, those officials dealing with the Turks was truly like child's play—not exactly effortless, but requiring very little effort.

Those so-called chieftains, this Khan and that Khan, were truly no match for Great Sui officials to toy with; their cunning was simply not sufficient.

Yet Li Jing could not help but sigh: "In the end, we failed to completely annihilate the Turks; it is a pity that my elder brother could not claim this great merit of destroying a nation."

Wang Yan laughed heartily: "Yaoshi underestimates me; how many times must I say it? I am merely a humble soldier by origin; to have walked to this day is already heaven's favor, and I possess both glory and wealth; how can I still be unsatisfied?"

"War costs lives; even if the Turks were no match for our Great Sui, there would inevitably be many casualties. Even with the merit of destroying a nation, how much benefit would the brothers below who gave their lives actually receive? Would it not just be snatched up as fame and profit by the sons of the powerful aristocratic families shoved in here?"

"Yaoshi has also read history extensively; have you ever seen a few despicable individuals between those lines? History books are thick, yet ultimately too small to hold our sworn brothers who fought and bled with their lives. 'One general's success is built upon ten thousand withered bones'; if we can avoid fighting, then let us not fight. Does Yaoshi think I am a warmongering madman? Wrong; I desire a stable life more than anyone else."

Li Jing felt his good elder brother's grand spirit of caring for the world and benefiting the common people, and he felt the sincerity within his good elder brother's words.

After remaining silent for a while, he spoke softly: "Elder brother, this foolish younger brother must still say one more thing; you must know the principle that 'when the hare is dead, the dog is cooked; when the birds are gone, the bow is stored.' A general is safest only on the battlefield; once confined within Daxing, one is at the mercy of others to pinch and manipulate, elder brother..."

These were honest words; Wang Yan nodded with a smile: "For at least twenty years, this is not a problem to worry about. His Highness is still young, and the days are long. I am not being arrogant, but when it comes to commanding troops and fighting wars, who else is there but me? Regardless of whether I am allowed on the front lines, as long as I am here, I am the stabilizing needle of our Great Sui army. This is my reason for living. As for other matters, we shall see after twenty years; I was originally a nameless nobody, and I have never feared death."

Li Jing understood the meaning behind Wang Yan's words: when ruler and minister are in harmony, a good elder brother is a good subject; when ruler and minister are no longer in harmony, a good elder brother is also capable of rebellion.

He pondered for a moment; it seemed Wang Yan had never spoken to him about loyalty to the monarch or love for the country. Wang Yan's loyalty to Yang Guang and the royal family stemmed from Yang Guang and the royal family promoting him, giving him high position and heavy power, allowing him to live well, letting him marry a Princess, and elevating his family's status.

But these matters were mutual; Wang Yan had also given enough, even excessive, returns. He helped Yang Guang achieve merit and secure the position of Crown Prince; he helped the royal family strike against powerful aristocratic families; he researched various things, developed overseas lands to acquire foreign wealth and grain, and now, at the smallest cost and in the shortest time, he had fought until the Turks crumbled and disintegrated; in all these aspects, it could be said that Wang Yan's returns were even greater.

Li Jing knew that his good elder brother was always a reasonable person; whoever respected him, he respected in return, regardless of status, high or low, noble or humble. He had seen Wang Yan speak kindly to ruffians, seen Wang Yan thoughtfully support old men and old women, and seen Wang Yan treat surrendered Turk soldiers without disdain.

He had also heard how Wang Yan dealt with members of certain powerful aristocratic families, heard how Wang Yan named and shamed which high official, opposed which great household, sent people overseas to destroy which family's fleet, and killed how many people, and so on. On the grasslands, he had likewise witnessed the ruthlessness Wang Yan showed toward those second-generation, third-generation, or even multi-generational Young Masters who came to leech military merit but ruined matters.

Whatever attitude others took toward Wang Yan, Wang Yan would treat them with an even better or even worse attitude in return...

He fell silent for an even longer time, and in the end said nothing, merely letting out a sigh.

He felt sorrow over such matters; perhaps it was because he had participated in this war and stayed by Wang Yan's side, which made him feel the difficulties of being a Regional Commander, feel the absolute power a commander holds during wartime, and thereby develop some distrust toward the Emperor...

This was certainly a very good reflection, and Wang Yan also felt gratified that Li Jing still possessed some thoughts of loyalty to the monarch and love for the country; when chaos engulfed the world at the end of the Sui, he had still thought to run and warn Yang Guang, only to be captured by Li Yuan, whereupon he surrendered to Li Yuan, and only later followed Li Shimin into the Celestial Strategy Office.

Wang Yan would naturally never hand his life over to others, leaving life and death to their discretion; that was why he had begun preparing for rebellion from the start; this was reform, but it was also a means of self-preservation.

This was not a contradiction between him and Yang Guang, but a contradiction between him and the position of Emperor itself.

It was no one else's fault; it was only because he was too capable.

Yang Guang was a ruthless person; this was beyond doubt. Therefore, no matter how good the relationship between Wang Yan and Yang Guang was, when Yang Guang felt Wang Yan posed a threat, he would begin to scrutinize Wang Yan; friendship with an Emperor naturally counted for nothing.

Emperors are all lone wolves; the more ambitious an Emperor is to accomplish great deeds, the more solitary he becomes. Those with magnanimity and confidence are few and far between. Being an Emperor is a high-risk profession; they all lack a sense of security and see everyone as a rebel.

Let alone someone like Yang Guang, a player who would even act against his own father; Wang Yan was no different...

However, the current situation was certainly very good.

The Turks themselves had chopped off Dublan's head and begun sending envoys to Yang Su's side to negotiate, led by Zhangsun Sheng. However, the document ordering the cessation of hostilities had not yet reached Wang Yan.

Therefore, Wang Yan conscientiously fulfilled his duties as the Yanmen Marching Regional Commander; watching the thaw begin and the weather grow warmer, the fifty thousand strong army under his command also stirred into action; after hiding away all winter, doing nothing but drinking and whoring, it was time to begin some restorative military training.

In between training, they slowly advanced into the grasslands; over a thousand elite scout cavalrymen forged in past battles began to move forward and spread out, conducting preliminary reconnaissance activities.

Very simply and decisively, they killed the scouts the Turks had sent to monitor Wang Yan's movements. Consequently, the Turks received the news, and the speed of negotiations suddenly accelerated; thus, just as the tender shoots of grass once again broke through the earth of the steppe, Wang Yan received the official document: cease hostilities!

The conditions for ceasing hostilities were that the Eastern Turks on this side, including the Western Turks, would all submit internally, obey the unified management of the Great Sui, uphold and implement Great Sui policies, and cooperate with Great Sui officials in governance.

The Turk nobility had no room to resist; they had already split apart, and their hearts were no longer united. If they continued fighting, they would all die. But not everyone submitted to the Great Sui; a considerable portion still took their tribes and fled far away to the Western Regions.

This was a good thing for the Great Sui; those who left were definitely the unruly troublemakers who refused to be governed, saving much effort. Moreover, once they reached the Western Regions, they would certainly not behave, causing trouble there, which was advantageous for the Great Sui.

The internal submission of the Turks marked the destruction of the Turk regime. From this perspective, Wang Yan could be said to have achieved the great merit of destroying a nation in a single battle.

At the same time, the impact of the Turks' destruction did not stop there; as the news spread, the Tuyuhun became obedient, the various tribes on the western plateau also became obedient, and Goguryeo became much more stable. One battle had bought the Great Sui another period of stable development, allowing them to peacefully administer the lands of the Baiyue and Nanyue...

Facing the order to cease hostilities, Wang Yan voiced not a single complaint; he fulfilled the duties of a Marching Regional Commander to the very end, carefully reorganized his fifty thousand strong army into an integrated force of Han and Hu, and arranged their respective garrison locations.

After all, the grasslands were newly acquired territory, and using military force to suppress reactionaries was a necessary matter; absolutely no allowance could be made for the Turks to catch their breath and stir up trouble again later.

At the same time, Wang Yan also took this opportunity to once again confirm post-war compensation and other matters, as well as some personal measures by his own Wang family to win the hearts of the people.

Once everything was properly arranged, the troops scattered across various regions were left to the command of various Dukes and Grand Dukes, or even further led by miscellaneous generals; there was no longer any business for a Regional Commander like Wang Yan.

Long ago, Wang Yan's identity had already shifted from a general to a Regional Commander; that was back at the beginning when he organized the naval forces; as the troops grew larger and he managed more, although at that time he was still only the Yangzhou Piaoqi General, in reality he was already the naval Regional Commander.

It was only in this battle to destroy the Turks that he formally held the title of Marching Regional Commander for the first time, thereby thoroughly becoming an actual military Regional Commander and truly becoming a major figure in the military faction.

His military foundation naturally consisted of the troops he had commanded: the Yangzhou navy, these Sui armies on the grasslands, and the Turk armies. During the war, he had already promoted countless people on the spot; after the war, following unified rewards, these people were destined to be separated, at which point his influence would have expanded throughout the entire army.

Even though this was also beneficial to Wang Yan, compared to these people gathering together, the threat was much smaller; this was the Old Yang family's necessary restriction on a Regional Commander like Wang Yan.

After all, if they truly maintained the status quo and changed nothing, given Wang Yan's prestige, his documents might even be more effective than the court's documents; Wang Yan could directly mobilize troops.

Moreover, Wang Yan did not need to deliberately mobilize all troops; as long as he could mobilize a portion, the rest would naturally follow suit; that would be the true great threat.

Rather than that, it was much better to let Wang Yan spread his influence throughout the entire army but be unable to effectively mobilize the troops, forcing him to rely only on personal connections within the military to get things done.

They could not really go so far as to kill Wang Yan...

When they came, it was a group of troops traveling lightly and simply; the return journey was largely the same, except that a large group of sons from powerful aristocratic families who had risked their lives to leech merit had not withdrawn; they were now officers at various levels, some not wanting to leave, others wanting to be transferred, which would require their families behind them to employ various methods.

Wang Yan did not feel that these people were eroding his foundation; these people did not have that capability. Mainly, by winning this battle, he had also gained quite a few favors from powerful aristocratic families; although Yang Guang was the one who decided to shove them in, the matter was obviously not that simple.

Because Wang Yan was the Regional Commander, he had countless ways to destroy these people, but he did not do so; he only killed the few who truly ruined matters, while for the rest, the merit they deserved was given without the slightest shortfall, and the promotions they earned were not deliberately obstructed.

Even regarding the few who died, their families still had to thank Wang Yan; after all, war between two nations is no child's play, and before Wang Yan set out on his expedition, if he found someone displeasing and beheaded a few to sacrifice to the flag to establish military authority, they were all prepared for that; it was good enough that they did not make a fuss and use this for political attacks to pursue their families.

Of course, their gratitude was merely superficial; after all, since their own kin had died, having an attitude and making a gesture was sufficient, but in their hearts they still could not accept it.

Those great households were the same; favors were favors, but looking down on him was still looking down on him, after all, Wang Yan was an outlier.

Wang Yan paid no heed to all that; leading his personal retinue and with the addition of Li Jing, he returned to Daxing; Li Jing's affairs were all arranged by him, and he was transferred back directly along with him.

Staying there was useless anyway; since the Turks were effectively a destroyed nation, aside from suppressing rebellions, there were no major battles left, making it quite meaningless.

News of his return journey had been relayed ahead to Daxing all along the way.

Thus, when he reached Daxing, ten li outside the city, he encountered Yang Guang, who had come out to welcome him, accompanied by a large contingent of court officials. This already constituted a very high honor for Wang Yan. After all, he had not returned with a massive army, yet Yang Guang, the heir to the throne, along with numerous dukes and ministers, had turned out; the protocol was already exceptionally grand.

"Xu Ziyan, hahaha..."

Yang Guang warmly embraced Wang Yan, vigorously pounding his solid chest with his fists, laughing uproariously with joy, thereby demonstrating his affection and trust in Wang Yan, while also showing the other court officials how he treated his top commander.

"This humble subject was fortunate enough not to disgrace his mission, nor did he fail the expectations Your Majesty and Your Highness placed upon me."

"Far more than not failing, your merit is immense! Your name shall be recorded in history as a renowned marshal of our generation. With you, Prince Xu Ziyan, in our great Sui, what is there to fear regarding our prosperity? Hahaha..."

"This victory is not the achievement of this humble subject alone; it stems from Your Majesty's brilliant calculations, Your Highness's support, the collective strategies of all the dignitaries, the united efforts of the generals, the soldiers fighting with their lives, and furthermore, the entire nation of great Sui dedicating its resources to ensure our armies possessed superior equipment and were well-fed and clothed; only thus was this great victory achieved..."

After Wang Yan and Yang Guang exchanged a round of commercial flattery, sharing the fruits of victory, they returned to the city...

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