Chapter 390: Workload and Tea

However, despite this, Zhang Jie still leans toward the belief that Temujin died of illness.

According to official historical records such as the *History of Yuan*,

Temujin fell ill due to his advanced age and the accumulated fatigue of long-term campaigning, eventually dying of his illness.

Furthermore, according to the *Secret History of the Yuan Dynasty*, Temujin, in 1226,

fell from his horse and was injured while campaigning against Western Xia, which may have exacerbated his health issues.

Taken together, Temujin was 66 years old, had endured years of warfare, and his body was already damaged by accumulated fatigue;

combined with accidental injuries like the fall from his horse, this ultimately led to his condition worsening and his death.

Looking at the combination of multiple historical sources from later generations, the Mongol destruction of Western Xia was the result of multiple factors working in concert,

mainly including Western Xia's fickleness, Genghis Khan's dying wish,

Western Xia's stubborn resistance, and the Mongols' own strategic needs.

First is Western Xia's fickleness and breach of contract:

Western Xia wavered in its relationship with the Mongols, at times submitting as a vassal to the Mongols,

and at other times seeking to unite with the Jin Chao to oppose the Mongols, displaying the flair of a "team-switching genius" akin to a small Italy in East Asia.

Unfortunately, this dishonest behavior greatly infuriated the Mongols.

For example, Western Xia once refused to provide troops and provisions to the Mongols, and after making peace with the Mongols,

it restored contact with the Jin Chao, which directly led to the Mongols' anger and the final war of annihilation.

Second is the dying wish of Temujin, this Genghis Khan:

Genghis Khan died during the process of campaigning against Western Xia, which became the direct fuse for his order to completely destroy Western Xia.

According to records, before Genghis Khan died, he left a final edict demanding that even if Western Xia surrendered, they were to be slaughtered to the last person.

This order caused the Mongol army to carry out a horrific massacre of the city even after Western Xia surrendered,

accelerating the demise of Western Xia and causing the once-dignified Western Xia to become the "most mysterious dynasty."

Third is Western Xia's stubborn resistance:

During the Mongols' multiple attacks, especially in the final stage, Western Xia displayed a stubborn will to resist.

From the perspective of Western Xia itself, this unyielding spirit of resistance was a stubborn defense against invaders,

and is worthy of praise; but from the perspective of the Mongols, who were the conquerors,

it undoubtedly increased the difficulty and cost of conquest, and deepened the hatred of the Mongol rulers,

which in all likelihood prompted them to adopt more extreme means of destruction.

Finally, there is the Mongols' own strategic need:

From a more macro perspective, the Mongols adopted a strategy of "weak first, strong later,"

destroying Western Xia first in order to isolate their main enemy, the Jin Chao.

The demise of Western Xia caused the Jin Chao to lose an important ally and a western buffer zone,

paving the way for the Mongols to subsequently concentrate their forces to conquer the Jin Chao.

"Forget it, I am a soft-hearted person after all."

Thinking of the cruel methods the Mongols might have used in Western Xia,

Zhang Jie couldn't help but sigh that he really was a kind-hearted and soft-hearted good person.

After sighing, Zhang Jie continued to process government affairs.

For this vast empire, stretching thousands of miles from north to south, even if Zhang Jie intended to let the Secretariat filter things,

handling less important matters on their own, there were still hundreds of matters of great significance

that had to be personally decided by him, the Emperor of the Empire.

Now he suddenly understood why most of those emperors in history were so short-lived:

Holding the power of life and death, supreme authority, being able to indulge in sensual pleasures,

and debauchery, having one's body gradually hollowed out is one aspect.

Another aspect is that the work pressure is too great; once you reach the position of emperor, as long as you want to,

there is work that is almost impossible to finish even if you work 24 hours a day.

A day or two might be fine, but over time, even an iron body would be worn down to nothing.

Take the first emperor in history, who called himself the Qin Qin Shi Huang Huang and wanted to pass his empire down for ten thousand generations, Ying Zheng, as an example.

"Weighing documents with a steelyard" is the core manifestation of his workload.

He used the "shi" as a unit to measure the weight of documents,

and he set a rule for himself that he must review more than one shi of bamboo slip documents every day, and he would never rest until he finished them.

One shi in the Qin system was 120 jin, which is equivalent to a weight of about 30.8 kilograms in modern times.

Considering that there was no paper in the Qin Dynasty, all documents were carved on bamboo slips,

modern scholars estimate based on the writing density of Han slips,

the number of characters in the documents that the Qin Qin Shi Huang Huang had to review daily could reach an astonishing 317,900 characters.

This number is relatively difficult for modern people to reach even when reading novels for entertainment,

let alone government affairs that involve every aspect, must consider truth and falsehood, the degree of severity, and require careful deliberation.

And this high-intensity work was not occasional, but ran through his entire reign.

Whether it was the fighting before unifying the world, or the institutional construction after unification (such as unifying tracks, unifying scripts,

and unifying weights and measures), he did everything himself and personally decided all government affairs.

It can be said that the reason the Qin Qin Shi Huang Huang died so early, passing away at only forty-nine,

ran counter to his desire for immortality and was closely related to such high work intensity.

To summarize in simple words, Ying Zheng was worked to death!

"Fortunately, I am a cheater."

Zhang Jie didn't know how many times he had expressed his gratitude to his golden finger.

If it weren't for the abundant energy brought by the shared space and the other Zhang Jies,

the photographic memory, and the computing power comparable to a computer,

even if he were lucky enough to be reincarnated directly and lie his way into becoming emperor, he would likely be a lazy and incompetent ruler.

"Your Majesty, drink some tea."

Seeing Zhang Jie put down the memorial in his hand, the sharp-eared and quick-eyed Li Dequan immediately served hot tea with quick hands and eyes.

Zhang Jie took the teacup and took a casual sip, feeling a burst of tea fragrance rush straight to his crown, and couldn't help but feel refreshed.

Then he swallowed the tea in his mouth, leaving a lingering fragrance, with a faint aftertaste of sweetness.

"This tea is not bad."

He nodded approvingly.

Although until now, he had no research on tea,

but to have such a deep and rich taste, it was obviously good tea leaves,

even more memorable than the tribute tea from the Jiangnan region that he had seized from the collection of a certain Prince Duan.

Li Dequan's face was full of joy: "Your Majesty, this is the Dragon-Phoenix Cake Tea offered as tribute from Jiangnan this year.

Being able to gain your favor is truly the supreme honor for the tea farmers there."

Zhang Jie was a bit numb from Li Dequan's constant flattery; it was no wonder that emperors always liked to favor petty people,

who always said what they liked to hear and flattered them at every moment,

allowing them to have no psychological pressure at all—who wouldn't like that?

He waved his hand casually: "Enough, enough, I was just saying it casually."

"Yes."

Li Dequan bowed his head and retreated, but in his heart, he silently praised the Jiangnan region that offered tribute this year.

The Son of Heaven's words are law; with this sentence from Your Majesty, this region could at least be prosperous for ten years!

After all, since the Son of Heaven has praised it so much, could anyone else say a single word against it? ===== CHAPTER 391 =====