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

Chapter 1098 East-West Strategy
A few days later, Li Yan announced in the court that in order to strengthen ties with the Western Regions, the court intended to build a highway from the Western Regions to the interior, called the Anxi Post Road.

In the original history, the construction of Anxi Post Road was also mentioned in these years.

In fact, in Li Yan's opinion, in the original history, the control of the Chang'an center over the four directions was not strong. More importantly, the internal situation was not peaceful. The Tang Dynasty was like a united federation and could not gather sufficient national strength.

Under such circumstances, building a road would definitely do more harm than good.

It turned out that the Tang Dynasty only occupied a line of the Silk Road in the Western Regions, and Tubo was on an equal footing with the Tang Dynasty. Most of the thirty-six countries in the Western Regions were also vassals of the Tang Dynasty and became vassal states, establishing a set of tributary system of control.

After witnessing the prosperity and wealth of the Tang Dynasty, the countries in the Western Regions submitted on the surface, but in fact they secretly coveted the wealth of the Central Plains.

He is always preparing his troops and horses, waiting for the opportunity.

Later history also proved this point. Foreign threats came from the west, echoing the separatist forces in the Central Plains and breaking through Chang'an.

But now, under Li Yan's operation, the Western Regions were completely incorporated into the sphere of influence of the Tang Dynasty, and were granted to the ministers in the court as vassal states. The most important thing is that it has gone a step further than in history. Tubo was taken over, and with this as a support, the Western Regions can be controlled.

The Snow Region and the Western Region have formed a pattern of mutual restraint. If the Western Region creates chaos and attacks Chang'an in the east, the large number of royal clans and princes in the Snow Region Plateau will not sit idly by and will attack their rear, and the Western Region coalition forces will be unable to take care of both ends.

On the other hand, as the royal family of the snowy plateau grew stronger and plotted to take over the Central Plains, they would also be wary of the vassal states in the Western Regions.

In short, if the two regions were not unified, they would not be able to deal with the Tang Dynasty with confidence, and when the two regions were fighting, it gave the Tang Dynasty enough time to respond. When the Zhou Dynasty was founded, it divided nearly a hundred vassal states, and it took a full eight hundred years for them to be unified by Qin.

It would take at least eighty years for the Tang Dynasty to conquer more than a hundred vassal states in the Western Regions, right?

Under such circumstances, if the Tang Dynasty still sat back and watched the two vassal states continue to annex and finally unify, it would be doomed.

The entire pattern has been established. The Tang Dynasty has maintained relative security with its absolute advantage. It must further strengthen control and keep the enemy outside the Central Plains.

In fact, not only Chang'an, but also the local princes need to strengthen their ties with each other.

After all, the wild and desolate Western Regions were still much more backward than the prosperous Central Plains. The aristocratic families and meritorious officials all hoped to build up the Western Regions with the help of the prosperous Central Plains and make it a true eternal foundation for all the clans.

In addition, the court was planning to build the Finance Temple and had available financial resources. Therefore, as soon as the idea of ​​Anxi Post Road was proposed, it received widespread support from civil and military officials.

Li Yan immediately ordered the construction supervisor to start preliminary exploration and route planning. According to Li Yan's plan, this highway should be built to Issyk-Kul Lake in Suiye Town, Anxi Protectorate, which is the Yili River Valley in the south of the Yangtze River in later generations.

The straight-line distance is about 6,000 miles, and the actual distance is nearly 10,000 miles, which is longer than any highway in history.

In the Tang Dynasty, the fastest trip between the two places took two months, and according to normal travel, it was normal to travel once every six months. For such a road, it would probably take two or three years just for preliminary exploration and planning, and then to discuss the route, set up dangerous mountain passes, and overcome construction obstacles.

The actual construction will not start until four or five years later.

After discussing for a while, the ministers selected candidates from several departments. Then, Li Yan calmly issued an order, appointing Wu Wang Li Ke to lead a team of people to escort the exploration team throughout the journey, and accompany the team to patrol the Western Regions.

Except for Cen Wenben and the Li Ke brothers, other court officials did not know Li Ke's true intention of traveling west.

I also thought that Li Ke was involved in the assassination of Hou Junji some time ago, or that the emperor was afraid that Li Ke would be a constraint in Chang'an and wanted to send Li Ke out so that he could take action against his forces.

A new emperor appoints new ministers. This is not just talk.

After the overall situation of the struggle between the imperial power and the aristocratic families was settled, it was natural to take the next step to attack other forces in order to consolidate power. The emperor's uncles and brothers, as well as Li Shimin's old ministers, were all among those to be dealt with.

This will also usher in rounds of power games.
Seeing that the emperor had set his sights on the princes who were competing for the throne, all the civil and military officials knew what was going on, but most of them stayed out of it. As long as they were not involved, they were naturally happy to sit back and watch the fight.

It was originally thought that Li Ke would find an excuse to refuse, but as soon as the emperor finished speaking, Li Ke accepted the order generously, which made many court officials look up to the emperor. It was obvious that the emperor and the King of Wu had already discussed this matter and reached an agreement in private.

Li Ke was the leader of all the princes, and all of them were looking at him.

The emperor took Li Ke down without making a fuss, and the rest had nothing to say. Facing the emperor, they had no power to resist.

The emperor was growing fast, and many people were thinking whether they could get close to him and find a way out for themselves. Later, Li Yan dispatched some troops to strengthen the power of the Western Region, including some civil officials and military generals. However, they were all middle and low-level officials, and they were all Li Ke's men. As long as Li Ke himself had no objection, no one among the officials would object.

After the court was dismissed, Li Yan returned to Chengqing Palace and prepared to start digesting his day's memorials.

However, just as I sat down today, Wang Xuance came to see me.

After the ceremony, Wang Xuance reported: "Your Majesty, the Japanese envoy Fujiwara Yoshino has been asking to see Your Majesty recently, asking the Tang Dynasty to make decisions for the millions of Japanese people and send troops to attack the Turks, helping them drive the Turks out of Japan and restore their homeland."

Li Yan then put down the red brush in his hand, thought carefully, and then asked: "Xuan Ce, how is the Jinyiwei's infiltration into the Japanese territory?"

"Your Majesty, under the Liaodong Thousand Households of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, there are two Hundred Households responsible for the affairs of the Japanese land. One of the Hundred Households is responsible for infiltrating the silver mining area of ​​the Turks for exploration, and the other Hundred Households is responsible for collecting information from other areas of the Japanese land."

Wang Xuance thought for a moment and responded, "After these years of exploration, we have obtained maps of all the areas of the Yingzhou Islands from north to south. We know the environment, population, hydrology, mountains, rivers, roads, local products, customs, etc. like the back of our hands."

"The Emperor has ordered that we in the Tang Dynasty will take this place down sooner or later, so we are conducting the most detailed data exploration."

"Ah, very good."

Li Yan nodded with satisfaction. Even if Li Shimin did not know the importance of Yingzhou, from the perspective of local production and silver alone, it was worth spending energy here. Sending two centurions here showed that he attached great importance to it.

"Well, next, you should send someone to contact Fujiwara no Yoshino and tell him that the Tang Dynasty needs a large amount of silver to maintain the value of the notes in order to issue them, so the court has decided to use military force against the Turks and take over Yingzhou."

"However, we in the Tang Dynasty want the eastern part of Honshu Island where Iwami Silver Mine is located to be ceded to our Tang Dynasty, and the rest of the area can be used by him to rebuild his country."

Wang Xuance's face turned anxious, and he argued, "Your Majesty, the Turks are now mining silver there. These people have no status. Why not take this opportunity to annex the whole place, just like we did in the Western Regions?"

"Why should we leave a part for them? It will cause trouble later."

Li Yan waved his hand without waiting for Wang Xuance to finish, and said in a serious voice: "I know everything you said. I said this just to paralyze Fujiwara Yoshino and make him believe that the Tang Dynasty is sincerely cooperating with him."

"Afterwards, you can mobilize the Jinyiwei in Yingzhou to help them plan an internal riot to resist the Turks here."

At this point, Li Yan's face was solemn: "After all, the Turks are crude and crude. They are good at fighting, but they may not be as good as the Japanese in plotting and scheming. So many years have passed, who knows how much power these people have organized in private? Fujiwara Yoshino intends to provoke a war between the Tang Dynasty and the Turks."

"It means he has the confidence to take back the Japanese territory from the clutches of the Tang Dynasty and the Turks."

"If we don't fight on our own land, we in the Tang Dynasty don't have the right time, place and people. If we really fight, we may not have the upper hand. Even if we can win in the end, who knows how long this war will last, and how much manpower and material resources will be consumed?"

"If these people are scattered in all directions and keep harassing us, we might not even be able to mine the silver mines normally."

Well.
Wang Xuance slowly calmed down and had to admit that what the emperor said made sense and was more thoughtful.

Seeing Wang Xuance lost in thought, Li Yan gave him a brief analysis of the situation: "The Turks are a nomadic people, not good at farming, and will never be able to integrate into the Japanese island. They are destined to just make a fortune and leave sooner or later."

"But it's different for us Tang. Once we enter here, we will probably do what Goguryeo did, operating for a long time and incorporating the Japanese land into Tang's territory. That's unacceptable to the Japanese, so they are more wary of us than the Turks."

"I made this arrangement so that you can gain their trust and unite with them to rebel against the Turks, letting them fight each other. Only in this way can you know how much strength they have prepared over the years, and only in this way can you catch them all in one fell swoop after they are exposed."

When Wang Xuance heard this, his eyes lit up with admiration. The emperor indeed saw things more far-sightedly than he did. Before he even started planning, he had already thought of how to take over this place with less effort.

"Your Majesty, you just said that the Japanese are very wary of our army. If a large number of our people cross the sea, it will certainly arouse their vigilance. How can we destroy them?"

Li Yan smiled slightly and looked at Wang Xuance as if he was a fool: "It is not the Tang Dynasty that rules here now, but the Turks. What I want is not to manage the Japanese land, but to completely destroy them and then migrate the population from the Tang Dynasty."

"When the time comes, appoint princes to take charge, and completely bring them under the jurisdiction of the Tang Dynasty, just like the Western Regions."

'hiss'

Wang Xuance was shocked. This was a harsh policy that had never been seen before in the Western Regions!
(End of this chapter)