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

Chapter 1080: The Contest between the King and His Ministers (Part )

It was not until Cen Wenben moved his sight to the east that he saw the familiar Western Region, and then he could not wait to move eastward.

Finally, the familiar Hexi Corridor, Guanzhong Chang'an, Luoyang and other Tang Dynasty areas appeared before my eyes. Moving up, the Eastern Turkic Khanate in the desert grassland occupied most of the north, and its size was not less than that of the Tang Dynasty in the south.

Even more than
Compared with the unknown West, Cen Wenben is obviously more concerned about his neighbors.

Seeing the vast tracts of territory occupied by the Turks in the north, he said dejectedly, "The Central Plains knows too little about the grasslands. They always think that the nomadic peoples only occupy a small corner of the north. The vastness of the land and the rich resources are far inferior to those of the Central Plains."

"Now it seems that the Turkic territory is not smaller than that of the Tang Dynasty?"

"Hahaha"

Li Yan smiled cheerfully and explained, "Sir, you may not know that the north of this continent is cold while the south is warm, which is more suitable for human habitation. Although the land in the north is large, most of the land in the far north is cold and water freezes into ice."

“It is not suitable for the growth of plants and animals, and naturally it is not suitable for human habitation.”

"My previous understanding was not wrong. The original Turkic Khanate Urge was already the northernmost region suitable for human survival. Further north was an icy plain and wasteland with few human traces. Only a small number of aboriginals who ate raw meat and drank blood lived the most primitive tribal life."

"Just like the smoke-covered areas of Lingnan in the south of our Tang Dynasty, they are not the mainstream population of this society."

Cen Wenben nodded in understanding, and then sighed: "No wonder the nomadic peoples can't be killed or eliminated. Once our Central Plains becomes strong, they will be forced to move northward and use the long-term depth to recuperate."

"When the Central Plains weakens, we will gather again and march south. This has happened over and over again for a thousand years. Now that I see this kind of terrain, I finally understand the reason."

Li Yan also nodded silently. When it comes to understanding the Turks and being familiar with their way of life, no one in the world is better than him.

"When Guanjun Hou was 800 years old, he led cavalrymen to penetrate hundreds of miles into enemy territory in his first campaign, killing the Xiongnu soldiers and forcing them to flee in all directions. In the two battles in Hexi, Huo Qubing defeated the Xiongnu, captured the Xiongnu's golden man for offering sacrifices to the sky, and went straight to Qilian Mountain."

"In the Battle of Mobei, Huo Qiqi drank from the vast sea and conquered the Wolf's Lair. He crossed the Great River in the west and won a great victory in Mobei. This was the longest battle in the history of the Han people. The Xiongnu cried in despair: "The loss of Qilian Mountain has made our livestock unable to reproduce. The loss of Yanzhi Mountain has made our women lose their color."

Li Yan moved his finger from the Qilian Mountains to the Yanzhi Mountains, and finally stopped at Lake Baikal in later generations, and pointed there.

"This is Lake Baili in the depths of the desert. The lake is more than 1,200 miles long, with an average width of nearly 100 miles. The deepest part is three miles, and its area is equivalent to the entire Guanzhong Plain."

Cen Wenben was shocked. The entire Guanzhong Basin is about 30,000 square kilometers. He didn't expect that there would be such a lake comparable to the sea in the depths of the desert. Then look at the rivers extending from Lake Berry in all directions.

With such a deep tunnel and such rivers scattered across the grasslands along the lakes, it is impossible for the nomadic people to become extinct.

Cen Wenben followed Lake Berry to the south for 800 miles and found the Turkic Khanate Urge. He then sighed in despair, "Urge is far enough. It is 1,600 miles away from the Yellow River, and Lake Berry is another 800 miles north."

"I don't know how the Champion Marquis accomplished such a feat, but for more than 700 years since then, no Han general has fought so far. Not only that, but the northern barbarians moved south and brought chaos to the Central Plains."

Li Yan said helplessly: "Even if we can fight this far, its symbolic significance far outweighs its practical significance. The Han people cannot rule this place at all. This is the world of nomadic peoples, unless the Han people can give up the city and land and go to graze horses and sheep."

After sighing at the demeanor of their ancestors hundreds of years ago, the two came back to their senses.

Cen Wenben then looked at the entire map and saw the place names and countries in the Western Regions that he had only heard of occasionally. He looked at Li Yan in shock and said, "Your Majesty, as far as I know, the places west of the Pamir Mountains are just rumors to the Tang Dynasty."

"I only heard a little bit from the Hu merchants from the Western Regions who came from afar. How come you have a detailed map of that place? Could it be..."

Cen Wenben looked towards the distant west in disbelief. He had heard of the Byzantine Empire, but he had never heard of the Arab Empire further west, the Frankish Kingdom and Charlemagne Empire, the Kingdom of Granada, the Kingdom of Kievan Rus, etc. at the westernmost end.

"Yes, I have been to these places during my sixteen years of traveling in the West."

Li Yan said shamelessly: "The customs and culture of the distant West are completely different from ours, and even the races are quite different from ours. There are people with black skin, black eyes, and curly hair, white skin, blue eyes, and yellow hair, and there are also some people with brown eyes and weird looks."

"The West does not have the excellent human genes and long history and culture that we have in the East. They are divided into dozens or even hundreds of countries, and even the language and writing in each region are different. It is another special civilization."

"But the climate there is also suitable for human habitation. It probably follows the rule of hot south and cold north. Some places also have four distinct seasons, similar to our Tang Dynasty."

At this point, Li Yan drew a circle in the future Europe, and finally pointed to the Mediterranean Sea between several continents and said: "This is the best place in the West. Surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea, there are rich lands all around."

"Especially the north is the best, comparable to the Lianghuai and Jiangnan regions of the Tang Dynasty. The land and environment here are enough to build a strong country." At this point, Cen Wenben's heart moved, and an absurd idea flooded into his mind. He looked at Li Yan in surprise and said tremblingly: "Your Majesty, what do you mean?"

"It's tiring to stand here. Let's go out and sit down and talk." After taking Cen Wenben out of the inner study and sitting outside, Li Yan stated his final intention.

"Sir, you and I both know that with Li Ke's talent and ambition, if he stays in Chang'an, he will die sooner or later without a burial place."

Li Yan said calmly, "Father once said that my third brother is the one who is most like him, but in my opinion, Li Ke's military strategy and courage may not be inferior to father's. But when it comes to scheming and cunning, ten of him are not as good as one father."

"Even in this respect, he is not as good as Zhinu."

"I dare to assert that Zhinu has not necessarily given up his ambitions, but he can do it so simply, completely losing the ambition to make progress and pretending to be at peace with the world."

“Struggle without fighting!”

"If I can keep the throne safely, he will naturally pretend to be a good person for the rest of his life and enjoy the happiness of family life honestly; if I am like Yang Guang, causing the wrath of heaven and people and the outbreak of war, he will naturally come out and fight for the foundation of his ancestors."

Li Yan's eyes showed an irrepressible admiration: "This is the upright way. Even if I guessed his thoughts, I can only admire him, but I can't do anything to him. Such a plan can be presented in front of my father, mother, and ancestors."

"But what about Li Ke?"

"When the country is weak, he will secretly accumulate strength. Once I show a flaw, he will give me a fatal blow. He may even deliberately create opportunities for this flaw, such as secretly poisoning me, so that I lose the foundation for governing the world."

"Sir, you don't know the difference between the two, do you?"

Cen Wenben's heart trembled when he heard this, and he said tremblingly: "Your Majesty, although the King of Wu has lofty ambitions, he is unlucky. He should not have such a rebellious idea."

Cen Wenben was just about to say that Li Yan was judging others by his own mean character and was maliciously speculating about his own brothers. He could easily find a pretext to accuse them of something.

"At the moment, he really can't do it, but will anyone else help him?"

While Cen Wenben was frowning, Li Yan showed a cold and mocking look on his face: "For example, Concubine Yang, recently, Concubine Yang has been in good health, but she has frequently invited some old doctors from the folk to the palace for consultation."

"We also asked about the witch doctors in Bashu."

When Li Yan said this, his eyes were filled with cold murderous intent, and he said in a cold tone: "As far as I know, the treatment methods of the witch doctors in the Miao villages in the mountains of Bashu are completely different from those of the doctors in the Central Plains. Medicine and poison are inseparable there."

"Any old man who is good at medicine must be proficient in the art of poison."

"Even every family raises Gu, there are many kinds, all kinds of strange things, and their effects are also different. People are caught without knowing it, and outsiders cannot detect it. Some are like my father, which makes people fall into a coma and never wake up."

"Empress Yang came from the palace of the previous dynasty. She is well-informed and must know a lot of secrets that ordinary people cannot know."

Well.
Hearing this, Cen Wenben was so frightened that his soul was about to die. He had never thought that such a weak woman like Concubine Yang could have such a sinister mind; and he had never expected that the Emperor's words hinted that the Emperor had been assassinated.

What frightened Cen Wenben the most was that these secret matters had actually fallen into the eyes of the current emperor.

Looking at the handsome and harmless young man in front of him, Cen Wenben felt as if he had seen a ferocious beast, and the hairs on his back stood up. He couldn't imagine that this young man could have such a deep mind.

Those evil tricks of demons and monsters could not escape his grasp.

Is this the real emperor?
How many pairs of eyes and ears did he have? He could see the Chang'an City right under his nose, the distant west, and the deep desert in the far north, everything was clear and nothing could be hidden from him.

The most important thing is that the emperor knew everything, but he remained calm, neither angry nor panicked. Instead, he pretended that nothing had happened, thinking step by step about "turning waste into treasure" and planning for the long term. If he hadn't taken the initiative to reveal his feelings to me today, I'm afraid I wouldn't have noticed it in my lifetime.

Cen Wenben smiled bitterly. Li Ke, Li Tai, Li You and Li Zhi, the princes who thought highly of themselves, were as immature as babies in front of the current emperor. They were inferior in knowledge, thinking and scheming. What could they use to compete with him?

No wonder, only an emperor like this, who never took his younger brothers seriously from beginning to end, could tolerate them and dare to let them go and let them fly vigorously.

After figuring out all this, Cen Wenben asked sternly, "Your Majesty, what arrangements are you going to make? I will obey your orders."

(End of this chapter)