The film and television world begins with the battle for the throne in Kowloon

Chapter 1021: Court Battle (Part )

Initially, the mined silver had to be transported using the Tang Dynasty’s fleet, so the quantity could not be concealed from the Tang Dynasty.

In the following years, Li Yan did not want to be controlled by others, so he spent a lot of money to build a fleet in Central Plains.

The Tang Dynasty's fleet was generally recruited near the eastern coast, but Li Yan knew that the merchant ships and sailors that could truly sail on the ocean were in the south of the Yangtze River.

The wealthy families in the southeast organized fleets to trade in Southeast Asia and exchange what they had since the Three Kingdoms period. However, people in ancient times did not interact frequently, and the Yangtze River was blocked by the waterway. The scale was not large, and the court had no intention of developing overseas.

Therefore, it is unimaginable that the Tang Dynasty now has the ability to travel to the South China Sea by sea.

Li Yan sent people to secretly go to the south of the Yangtze River to coerce and bribe, recruit sailors, buy merchant ships, form a fleet, and sail directly to the north. Although the East Sea Strait is wide, it is like an inland sea in front of these merchant caravans that dare to go to the South Sea. It is not surprising.

At this time, the fleet was still composed of merchant ships.

There were no special warships. Even the fleet of the Tang Dynasty only had the function of transporting supplies. They were cargo ships. When encountering pirates, the people on the ship would pick up swords, guns, bows and arrows and fight naked.

Under the temptation of a large sum of money from Li Yan, he quickly recruited a group of people who were willing to be loyal.

From then on, there were two sea routes for transporting silver from Japan to the mainland. One was through the Korea Strait and went north along the peninsula.

The other route is from the northern part of Honshu Island in Japan, across the Yingzhou Strait, and directly into the Tumen River Turkic territory.

This route does not pass through the Tang Dynasty and directly connects with the main island of Yingzhou.

Later, the Tang Dynasty also found out about it, but due to the powerful military force of the Turks and the original agreement between the two sides, the Turks did not abandon the old route after opening up the new route, and the fees were paid. The Tang Dynasty did not suffer any losses, so it had to turn a blind eye.

Anyway, the silver that the Turks got would eventually flow back to the Central Plains through trade, and the cooperation between the two sides was good, so the Tang Dynasty did not break it easily.

But even with another waterway, the amount of silver mined by the Turks each month would at most double to two million taels.

At this moment, as soon as Fujiwara Yoshino spoke, Li Yan knew what these people were planning.

If the Tang Dynasty agrees to deal with the Turks, then so be it. If not, then use huge amounts of silver to tempt the Tang Dynasty's ruler and his ministers.

I am not tempted by one million taels, and I am not tempted by two million taels. Then what about five million taels?

That's 60 million taels of silver a year, which is equal to the current annual treasury income of the Tang Dynasty. In the face of such a huge temptation, I'm afraid the Tang Dynasty will not be jealous. As long as the Tang Dynasty sends troops, the war with the Turks will not be limited to the sea route in Japan.

By then, the two countries will go to war on the mainland. No matter who wins or loses, it will be better than the current cooperation between the two countries to squeeze Japan. Using an unfulfilled promise to try to get a glimmer of hope is really a good idea.

Li Yan was well aware of the current situation in the world, and he understood the evil ambitions of the Japanese after a little thought.

So he frowned and reached out to tap gently on the armrest of the dragon throne.

He knew about these things, but he didn't kill them all in order to leave some people to work the mine.

Under his own orders, the Turks used miners on the main island of Yingzhou almost to the point of extermination, without any safety protection, working day and night, almost like slaves. Under such reckless threats, the mortality rate must have been extremely high.

However, if a group is lost, they will catch another group outside, forming a perfect ecological chain with an endless supply.

This was during the Tang Dynasty when most of humanity was still a slave society. Under the law of the jungle, where the winner was the king and the loser the thief, if you won the war, you could enjoy everything that the loser had. This was the most basic rule of survival on this continent.

Li Yan was just following the local customs.
Unexpectedly, these people still wanted to resist and even found Chang'an. It was obvious that they wanted to use the Tang Dynasty to deal with the Turks.

He also exaggerated the annual profits from mining to seduce the Tang Dynasty's emperor and his ministers.

However, the truth could not be told to the outside world, and Li Yan could not explain how he knew that the profits from mining were not that great.

I just wanted to be independent and not be strangled by the Tang Dynasty's fleet. Anyway, without me, the Turks would not be able to continue to explore the sea route. The primitive society on the prairie meant that these things were too far away from them.

Unexpectedly, the fleet he had developed in the first place would actually backfire and become a tool used by the Japanese to deceive the Tang Dynasty.

It seems that I am still too soft-hearted. I should solve the problem fundamentally. I absolutely cannot bear to do things like murder and arson.

But, if it's just an order, then it doesn't matter.

Li Yan waved his hand in disgust and had Fujiwara Yoshino taken away.

At the same time, he was also thinking in his mind that there had been no major wars between the Tang Dynasty and the Turks in the past few years, and both sides had been at peace for a long time. In addition, the silver from the north went south, and the grain from the south went north. The cooperation was seamless and complementary. Both the Turks and the Tang Dynasty had a rapid population growth. What did this mean?
Li Yan knew very well that in ancient times, a large increase in population meant a decrease in resources, and at the same time, a war to reduce the population was brewing quietly in secret.

Li Yan sighed, no wonder later generations said that thousands of years of history was a continuous history of wars.

In ancient times, war was indeed an indispensable existence, and it could solve many problems. For example, Li Yan's plan to solve the problem of the aristocratic family took nearly twenty years to go around in circles, and finally found that he had to resort to war as a weapon of mass destruction.

Now the time has come, and it is time to completely solve the problem of the Japanese.

At worst, a group of people could be relocated from the Turks and Tang to Japan, for the current mining, to temporarily ease the pressure of population growth, and for the future complete occupation. Although the land there is not good, if it falls into the hands of foreigners, it will bring a huge threat to the Central Plains.

It would be better for our own people to take over, Li Yan made up his mind.

Sure enough, once Fujiwara no Yoshino arrived, the ministers in the court began to get excited and started discussing with each other. After all, 60 million taels of silver a year was more than the annual treasury income of the Tang Dynasty. If it was included in the Tang Dynasty, everyone's belts would be loosened.

In the face of such huge profits, friendship with the Turks and the impending war can be ignored.

Zhang Sun Wuji was immediately filled with righteous indignation and said, "Your Majesty, the Turks are cruel and ruthless, greedy by nature, and have the heart of wolves and the nature of snakes. The people of Yingzhou have done nothing wrong. Just because of the silver mine of Shijian Mountain, they have brought such a disaster upon themselves."

"During the pre-Sui dynasty, the Wa land sent envoys to the Central Plains to request submission, but the plan was abandoned due to the chaos in the world. When the Tang Dynasty was first established, during the Wude period, the Wa land sent envoys again to request submission, and Emperor Gaozu also intended to grant the request, but unfortunately, the emperor came to power later and the plan was temporarily shelved due to the invasion of the Turks."

"Afterwards, the Turks, led by the Right Wise King, sent people to invade Yingzhou and incorporated this place into the territory of the Turks. Later, due to various considerations, the Emperor retired and in order to make friends with the Turks and strive for peace, the Tang Dynasty put the matter aside."

"But times have changed. Today, the Tang Dynasty is unprecedentedly powerful and cannot be compared to the Turks."

"So I think that as the suzerain state, the Tang Dynasty should take back the administrative rights of Japan and cannot sit idly by and watch a vassal state suffer such humiliation."

The Minister of the Court Liu Bo also stood up and agreed, "What Lord Changsun said makes sense. Yingzhou belongs to the Tang Dynasty, and the people there are also Tang people. We cannot sit idly by and watch them wail under the iron hooves of the Turks."

"If this is the case, how can we, the great Celestial Empire, lead other vassal states and win the support of the people?"

Afterwards, many ministers came forward to second the proposal, as if they wanted to save the people of Yingzhou from their dire straits.

Everyone was righteous and passionate, looking for moral reasons for the subsequent betrayal. No one mentioned interests, but everyone was going for the money. Li Yan did not say much, because politics was a game of interests.

He was thinking about something else. In fact, from the beginning of the court session today, the imperial power and the power of the ministers began to compete subtly.

The Japanese envoys could have made their suggestions in private, but they were brought to the court meeting by the ministers.

Logically speaking, he had not been in Chang'an for many years and did not know much about the affairs of the Tang Dynasty. These officials had no good intentions in bringing this up. In Li Yan's opinion, they just wanted to show off.

If you act rashly and respond inappropriately, you will end up giving people the impression that you are ignorant, impulsive and careless.

Thereby weakening the prestige of the new emperor and undermining his own momentum.

Originally, when the court went to court, it should have been the Zuo Pushe Fang Xuanling who should have spoken first, but Tang Jian from the Honglu Temple interfered, and as a result, Zhangsun Wuji rushed to the front, joined forces with Liu Bo, and used the incident in Japan to announce his strong return.

Li Yan knew that Zhangsun Wuji was the Empress Dowager's biological brother and himself, the Emperor's biological uncle. With these two unbreakable relationships, it was inevitable for him to return to the court as a relative of the emperor and take charge of the Secretariat.

With Changsun Wuji's wisdom and the Changsun family's status among the Guanlong nobles, Changsun Wuji can easily gain the support of the nobles and become their spokesperson in the court, and the nobles will usher in a new era.

With all these strong supports, if nothing unexpected happens, within the next ten years, Changsun Wuji will rule the court.

However, Changsun Wuji still relied to some extent on his status as a relative of the emperor, and was somewhat unworthy of the title.

Therefore, what he wanted most was to do something big, or to make a great contribution to the Tang Dynasty. When Zhangsun Wuji was promoted to the position of Right Prime Minister for the first time, he was sent by Li Shimin to suppress the rebellion, which gave him the qualifications to secure his position as Right Prime Minister.

And now, it is time to be promoted to the position of Left Prime Minister.

Compared with the Right Pushe, the Left Pushe is one in heaven and the other on earth. The Right Pushe mainly assists and restricts the Left Pushe, while the Left Pushe is the real chief minister of the Prime Minister, the head of the six ministries, and holds the power of governance.

If the ownership of the Tang Dynasty belongs to the emperor, then the management right belongs to Zuo Pushe, and other ministers cooperate with Zuo Pushe.

Although he was also an official, he had the aura of a half-king.

(End of this chapter)