Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, the emperor in the plausible story

 

During early years of Tianbao, General An Sishun presented a belt made of a kind of rare jade called jade of five colors to the emperor. The emperor loved it. He then commended to look for more five-color-jade items, but all they could find was a cup in the left part of the royal inventory.

The emperor, a little upset, wondered why there was not much tribute of five-color-jade items in recent years.  He then sent out his men to ask vassal states in the west. When the messengers came back the emperor then learned that they did try to make tribute of five-color-jade to the Tang Empire, but there was this tiny country called Small Bolu that frequently sent out armies to rob their caravan, and that was why the emperor did not get them.

The emperor was outrageous at the news and wanted to send troops to teach Small Bolu a lesson. Most chancellors tried to convince him that it was not a good idea, except the prime minister Li Linfu who said he could not agree with him more suggested that general Wang Tianyun was the best man for this mission.

Wang Tianyun later set off with an army of over 40,000 for the west, where together with armies from other vassal states, they marched towards Small Bolu. The king of Small Bolu, intimidated, begged for forgiveness and was willing to give Tang and its allies all the treasure in the kingdom, including all the five-color jade. General Wang Tianyun refused and led his men into the country, who slaughtered a lot of civilians, and took all their treasure along with about 3000 survivors as captives.

A shaman in Small Bolu said, “The general has no sense of justice but full of cruelty. This soon shall bring disaster in the form of snow storm.”

The troops marched for about 20 miles when severe snow storm came out of nowhere. The snowflakes swept like numerous wings, with the wind bashing the lake, which instantly turned it into giant ice cones before breaking into pieces in the storm. The storm went on for half a day, and the lake was overflown with ice and water. All the 40,000 officers and soldiers were frozen to death except two: one from the Tang Empire which happened to be General Wang Tianyun, and the other from one of the vassal states.

The emperor found the news so strange and unbelievable that he sent out two envoys to check it out. When the two finally arrived at the spot, they saw that the bodies of the soldiers, sealed in ice, still looked like when the storm occurred.  Stunned by the scene, the envoys managed to collect themselves and head back. As they turned around on their way for the last time, the ice suddenly melted away and all the bodies disappeared.

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Translated from a story in Youyang Zazu (Miscellaneous Morsels from Youyang) by Duan Chengshi (Tang Dynasty)

More stories are available in my book Head Flyer and 100 More Ancient Chinese Strange Stories at: https://a.co/d/6gZruWM