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

Chapter 1130 Involution
Li Yan's clone, hidden behind the appearance of Shi Luodie, sighed deeply. He knew that the strength of a country lies in virtue rather than in danger.

People are greedy, and education, persuasion and reasoning alone are useless. Whether they are nobles or commoners, if they have the opportunity, they will desperately devour all the benefits they can get and will not let go. This is human nature.

If you want them to restrain themselves, you can only rely on external forces, only on the enemy.

When a country is invincible, it will fall. This is the truth. When a country is invincible, it is the beginning of its decline. In history, dynasties have risen and fallen many times, all because they had no enemies and were so powerful that they were unrivaled.

In other words, when they think they have no enemies, they will perish faster.

Did Zhu Yuanzhang eliminate all the forces that could pose a threat to Zhu Yunwen and keep the remaining territory?
No, Zhu Yunwen died even faster and didn’t even last four years.

Zhu Yuanzhang left everything to his grandson except enemies. As a result, his own son became his grandson's biggest enemy.

The long-term stability of the Tang Dynasty cannot rely on just one wise monarch. When the country was founded, there was Li Shimin, but it is impossible for Li Shimin to rule the dynasty for the next few hundred years. Li Yan could not guarantee that Li Xiang or his descendants would all be wise rulers.

Instead of pinning your hopes on vague luck, it is better to leave everything to the rules.

The existence of the Turkic Khanate was both a threat to the Tang Empire and a driving force for its continuous progress.

The stability of the feudal dynasty was extremely dependent on land. Whether it was maintaining the normal operation of the entire official system or the daily support of millions of troops, the root of everything was concentrated on the land. Once the land was lost, even the most powerful dynasty would collapse in an instant.

It can be said that the degree of land annexation is the degree of the dynasty's demise, which cannot be changed by human power.

In the early days of the dynasty, a large amount of land was released and the people lived and worked in peace and contentment. The large amount of tax revenue was also able to build taller cities and support more troops to protect the country. In the middle period, the land flowed to the powerful, the burden on the court increased, and tax revenue decreased.

By the end of the period, eighty to ninety percent of the land was no longer taxed.

How could the country sustain itself with only 10% or 20% of the remaining land, which had to feed the numerous people and bear the expenses of the entire country? At this point, the crisis was beyond human control and there was no other way except to change the dynasty.

The current Tang Dynasty is entering a period of rapid land concentration. The original income and expenditure were struggling to maintain a very reluctant level. Li Yan created the Finance Temple, collected a large amount of money, and creatively opened up the Tang Dynasty industry.

All these will make the court breathe a sigh of relief, but will also make them relax the defense line that they had previously struggled to maintain and fight for every inch of land, and the aristocratic gentry will swallow up land even more unscrupulously.

Li Shimin just wanted to put the poll tax on the land, just wanted to collect some taxes from each acre of land to maintain the huge expenditure of the country, but it was impossible to do so. It was even more impossible to carry out in-depth reforms.

Change is inevitable. Since it cannot be pushed forward from within, Li Yan will try to find a solution from the outside.

Use the violence of the Turks to carry out a tough and thorough redistribution of land, and anyone who dares to stand in their way will be flattened.

Li Yan knew that his move would certainly drive the nobles crazy, and they would send troops to kill him at all costs. But so what, the Turks were foreign enemies, and the situation between the two countries was a life-and-death struggle.

There are plenty of people on the grassland. It's not difficult to mobilize 200,000 or 300,000 people to work part-time in the Central Plains.

Even if I lose these 300,000 people and fail, I can learn from my experience and try again in a few years. I have countless opportunities to try and fail, but those powerful people may not be able to withstand the constant impact again and again.

Moreover, the real opposition force is not the Turks, but the countless ordinary people of the Tang Dynasty. As long as they are awakened, this force is enough to destroy the world. No matter how strong and stubborn the aristocratic nobles are.

In the vast ocean of people's war, they are all vulnerable.

Next, I have to capture as many cities as possible in the shortest possible time and distribute land compulsorily. If it is just one or two counties, or one or two states, then it is not a big problem. The powerful can still use the nobles of the entire Tang Dynasty to "correct the injustice."

If the entire Hebei Province, and even tens of millions of people in Henan, Hedong, Qi and other places, were divided up into lands by themselves, could those noble families take them back?
If they really dare to do so, they will face resistance from all the people in the area where they have obtained the land.

They could get rid of Li Shimin and replace him with a new emperor. No matter how powerful they were, they were powerless in the face of millions of ordinary people. The power of the people was infinite.

It is said that the opponent of a giant can only be another giant; Li Yan wanted to use the imperial power to deal with the nobles before, but finally found that the imperial power was not their opponent. In this case, he would find a larger group to fight against the nobles.

That is the millions of people at the bottom of society.
These enemies who turned against the nobles were all created by their greed. Especially now that they had made it clear that they were going to attack by "dividing the land", this was an open conspiracy. In addition to the military attack, coupled with political tactics, they could be said to be invincible.

From then on, all Turks knew that the degree of land annexation in the Central Plains was the key factor in whether they could conquer the Central Plains dynasty.

In this way, as long as this level exceeds 50%, nomadic tribes will invade the south to break the situation. In order to stabilize the country, the powerful people have no choice but to control the level of land annexation to less than 50% to ensure that enough people stand on their side and help them resist foreign enemies.

Thinking of this, Li Yan felt helpless and self-deprecating. The Turks could actually do something that even the emperor couldn't do.

Sometimes enemies are not entirely bad. If used well, they can play an unimaginable role.

Li Yan designed a dilemma for them. If they showed mercy to the people and didn't take the opportunity to take the meat at their fingertips, they would be in excruciating pain. However, if they exploited the people without any bottom line, it would attract external enemies.

From then on, the people were no longer orphans, nor were they prey to be slaughtered. The powerful and the Turks had to compete with each other for the hearts and minds of the people. Whoever won the support of the people could maintain the stability of order and the appropriate interests.

Their opponents will no longer be the concrete emperor, but the real northern Turks, a nomadic people who can never be extinguished by wildfires and will be reborn with the spring breeze.

Thinking of this, Li Yan's eyebrows jumped slightly, and he understood more deeply. Why did God give the Central Plains with beautiful mountains and rivers, and the north with endless desert grasslands? Why did he have an agricultural nation and create a nomadic nation?

It’s all about checks and balances!
Power without restraint cannot exist at all and is a disaster.

Of course, for the wise nobles, just adding some restrictions will not completely eliminate their advantages. As long as they are willing to treat the people as human beings, under the same conditions, the people will naturally support their own people.

There is not much Li Yan can do. He can only reduce the standard from 80% to 90% to 40% to 50% to ensure that the foundation of the Tang Dynasty is still there and make life less difficult for the people.

"You will soon find out whether this method works or not."

Seeing that everyone was discussing endlessly, Shi Luodie directly ordered: "For these ten days, this Khan will guard Ji County to ensure the implementation of the policy. You each bring 10,000 troops and attack cities and plunder land separately. Then, you can raise the slogan of "divide the land" and conquer all the counties in Youzhou."

"Follow the Khan's operation today and do the same thing, understand?"

"In addition, I will send a law enforcement team to supervise the army. During the attack, you are absolutely not allowed to massacre the city or kill the civilians indiscriminately. Once I know that you cannot control your own troops, I will help you personally."

At the end, Shi Luodie's murderous tone made the more than 20 tribal leaders in the tent feel nervous. They all stood up and said, "We will obey the Khan's orders. Don't worry, Khan. We have seen the Khan's miraculous operation today."

"Even if we can't reach the level of the Khan, it's no problem to learn 70% or 80% of it. Besides, those treasures are in the hands of the nobles, and we are not interested in their land. We are also happy to use it to bribe the people of the Tang Dynasty and stop them from rebelling."

Shi Luodie nodded in satisfaction and said, "I will leave 80,000 to 90,000 people here to guard the place. You can take the remaining 200,000 with you! Remember, this is about our survival, and whether we can escape Hebei successfully. I am waiting for your good news."

That afternoon, Zhuolibuhua led his men back to Zhuo County, which they had captured before. According to the method given by Shi Luodie, he sent out tens of thousands of troops to disperse in all directions, gathered the people in the suburbs of Zhuo County, and burned all the land deeds, house deeds and indentures in front of tens of thousands of people.

Then people were sent to each village to divide the land.

After wasting a few days, he left 30,000 troops to defend Zhuo County, and dispatched 40,000 troops to attack the surrounding cities. He personally led 30,000 cavalry to Yi County, the capital of Yizhou County, a hundred miles away in the southwest.

Yi County is a famous town in the land of Yan and Zhao. It has a tall city wall and a moat around it. The population is over 100,000, and the regular defense force is over 8,000. In addition, the Turkic army's capture of Zhuo County and Ji County has long aroused Yi County's vigilance.

The troops from the surrounding small towns were recalled to guard them, with a total of more than 20,000 troops defending the city.

To be on the safe side, Zhuolibuhua did not follow Shiluodie's suggestion and only brought 10,000 cavalrymen, but instead brought a full 30,000.

In this way, even if we fail to capture the city, we will still have no problem protecting ourselves.

(End of this chapter)