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

Chapter 580: Conversation between Father and Son in Chengqing Palace (Part )
Li Shimin was flustered at this time, with his mind in a mess. Li Yan's naked economic accounts made this emperor, who was fearless no matter what situation he faced, feel a little confused and he was frantically calculating in his mind.

If what Li Yan said is true, every time Jie Li attacks the Tang Dynasty, his losses will increase exponentially, and the gap in strength between him and Jie Li will be even greater. If this is the case, when will he be able to defeat this enemy?

On the contrary, if we live in peace, it won't be long before we naturally win without fighting.

How did that happen?

Li Shimin's mind was in a mess, his heart was in a turmoil, and beads of sweat were pouring down his forehead. At this time, he heard Wang De's report and immediately shouted angrily: "Get out, get out of here!"

"Can't you see I'm teaching the prince? I won't see anyone. No matter who it is, I'll turn them away!"

Wang De was frightened. He had followed Li Shimin for three or four years. Except for the ninth year of Wude, when the Turkic army approached the Wei River, he rarely saw Li Shimin get angry, so he quickly retreated in fear.

After coming out, he complained to Xiao Yu who was waiting outside: "Master Xiao, I have already said that the emperor is teaching the prince and has no time to meet with ministers. Why did you insist on letting me in to report it?"

"That's great. The emperor is furious and has scolded me. I dare not go in again. I also advise you not to go in and disturb the emperor no matter how urgent the matter is, unless it is Jie Li who breaks in."

Xiao Yu had just heard the roar coming from the hall, and a look of surprise appeared on his face.

Although he was old, he was not stupid. He thought that it was not a glorious thing for the minister he had reported to have accepted bribes.

The emperor was already in a bad mood, and he added fuel to the fire. In the end, the anger was directed at himself. It was not worth it, so he had to leave in dissatisfaction.

Li Shimin drove Wang De away and vented his anger for no reason. His depressed mood was relieved a lot, so he said to Li Yan: "No one will disturb you now. Please continue with the topic you were talking about."

Li Yan nodded and said thoughtfully: "Father, the war between us and the Turks cannot be decided in a short time. Even if Father defeats Jie Li with his years of accumulation, the fundamental problems on the grassland have not been solved. Killing Jie Li will not solve all the problems once and for all."

"Not to mention the distant past, there was Shaboluo Khan during the Sui Dynasty, the later Dulan Khan, Datou Khan of the Western Turkic Khanate, and Shibi Khan, the eldest son of Qimin Khan."

"The dynasties in the Central Plains changed from Wei to Northern Zhou, then to Sui, and now it is the Tang Dynasty. The Khans on the grasslands have been replaced one after another in a cycle. When you kill one, another one comes. They always make friends with the Central Plains at the beginning, and then rebel and attack the Central Plains when they become strong. Now Jie Li Khan has begun to repeat the old path of his ancestors."

"I believe that with your father's great talent and wisdom, it will not be difficult to get rid of Jie Li. But after Jie Li, the grassland will still elect a new Khan and continue the war with the Central Plains, repeating the old events of the Sui Dynasty and the present, endlessly, until our Tang Dynasty encounters a weak emperor."

“Perhaps there will be another change of dynasty, and the problem will never be solved.”

"And it's not just an external problem. We have many enemies around the Tang Dynasty, including the Turks, Goguryeo, Tuyuhun, Tubo, Gaochang and other Western countries."

"To deal with so many enemies, you can't have fewer troops, but maintaining so many troops is also very expensive. Moreover, the territory is large, the distance is far, and there are too many troops. Not only is the cost relatively huge, but it is also easy to form military towns on the border, which is difficult to get rid of."

"The Six Garrisons Rebellion and the Heyin Incident have both changed the general trend of the world. The lessons learned from the past are not far away. Father, you must be careful!"

"So, Father, you can use military and economic means to complement each other, one hard and one soft, one hard and one soft. Usually, you can use economic means to deal with the restraint and weaken the control and influence. If the economic means cannot achieve the desired effect, you can use military thunder means to settle the matter in one fell swoop."

'call'

Li Shimin's face was filled with astonishment and shock, and it was obvious that he was greatly impacted.

What Li Yan said, if it could be implemented, would completely overturn Li Shimin's understanding of war and expansion. From an unprecedented perspective, with the country as the main body and economic and commercial tentacles, it would reach into the enemy's interior and silently dissolve the enemy into the invisible.

Moreover, compared with traditional military warfare, economic warfare has obvious advantages. It can significantly reduce the number of domestic troops and save massive military expenditures, retaining only a few elite soldiers and reducing the risk of generals becoming too powerful.

Economic warfare can be launched at any time, relying on the country's comprehensive strength, not affected by the country's military generals, causing great trouble to the enemy country. Li Yan paused, picked up the goat milk pot and poured himself a cup, holding it in his hand and sipping it slowly, waiting for Li Shimin to slowly digest it.

After thinking for a long time, Li Shimin looked at Li Yan with a complicated expression. He certainly knew that as the crown prince, Li Yan would also consolidate his strength and ensure his position as the crown prince, so Li Shimin would cater to his wishes and let Li Yan participate in government affairs.

Seeing that he was not very happy about it, and thinking that he valued military power more, he released 5,000 guards from the Zuotunwei to help him stabilize the East Palace. On the other hand, it was also a test.

But this eldest son was better than he had imagined. He did not follow his old path, but expressed his views on state affairs in a more novel and gentle way. Moreover, he did not just think casually. What he said was very mature, which made him see the light and look at the war between countries from another perspective.

However, it must be said that although the prince is young, his perspective and pattern are very broad. He has gone beyond the old routine of ordinary ministers to seize power and expand strength. He uses a new idea to explain national affairs, which influencing himself while expanding the prince's influence.

Li Shimin thought of Li Ke, who he had praised for his bravery some time ago. He knew that Li Ke was actually imitating him and following his old path to win favor. But in fact, although Li Shimin relied on iron-blooded means to gain power, he hated his children to follow his example, which was exactly what he hated.

Obviously, Li Yan realized this and never took the initiative to fight for power. Instead, he devoted himself to the Prince's Palace and learned how to govern the country with the old ministers. He was even more afraid of military power, such as the vacancy of the General of the Zuotunwei Yifu this time.

Li Shimin intentionally gave it to his two sons and let them fight for it.

Originally, both sides had put forward their own people, and Li Shimin was quite proud of himself because the actions of his two sons were within his expectations.

Today, Li Shimin took the initiative to raise this question, and wanted to test the eldest son's attitude. Unexpectedly, he had no intention of competing for it, but took the initiative to give this position to Li Ke's people. As for fulfilling the duties of the prince and developing and strengthening his own power, he had his own views.

Originally, Li Yan's proposal to establish a special department and develop a group of undercover agents to infiltrate the Turks and gather information to help the court make decisions when dealing with the Turks had already made Li Shimin look up to him.

Although Li Yan is young, he already knows that power and responsibility are one and the same. If you want to expand your power, you must take responsibility. While contributing to the court, you will develop your own strength step by step.

This is how Li Shimin himself came to be. The reason he was able to secure his position as the emperor of the Tang Dynasty was not simply because of the Xuanwu Gate Incident, which he won by taking a risky move. Instead, he had been laying the foundation since he started his army, conquered the princes on all sides, and conquered one piece of territory after another for the Tang Dynasty.

Gaining enormous power without being able to solve problems for the court is nothing but wishful thinking.

In Li Shimin's mind, military power comes first.

As long as Li Yan does not show greed and ambition for the violent institution of military power, as for other auxiliary departments, even if there is no matter of the General of the Left Guard and the Yifu, as long as Li Yan wants to do things and has ideas, Li Shimin will unconditionally support him and let him try.

But he still underestimated Li Yan. Li Yan talked about economic exchanges between two regions from a spy agency, and later used commercial economic methods to assist direct military warfare. Li Shimin even felt vaguely that Li Yan's method seemed to be the softer way of expansion governance that he had been seeking for a long time.

But Li Yan didn't speak very clearly, and he talked about this and that, which made Li Shimin always feel that something was unsatisfied. He wanted to get into Li Yan's mind and see what was going on in this kid's head.
"Father, these are all ideas that I came up with when I was free, reading books on state governance and discussing with teachers. Well, they are not very mature. I am not as experienced as you in life or state governance. I hope you can come up with a more appropriate solution after discussing it with you."

Li Yan was also a little helpless. He had been a human for three lifetimes and was just a high school student in his original world. He had not systematically studied political economy, and he only knew a little about the impact of the economy on national policy through the game between major powers.

In the two modern worlds in which Li Yan has lived, his own country has basically escaped from direct military and violent conflicts, while the major powers have been constantly competing in the political, economic, cultural and commercial fields.

In later generations, the United States used its powerful military strength and comprehensive national strength to continuously launch foreign wars and expand its international influence. When encountering small countries, it would instigate internal strife and launch proxy wars.

When encountering a big country, they will impose economic sanctions, initiate financial and trade barriers, and weaken, divide and disintegrate it through various non-direct conflict methods such as military competition, cultural invasion, and influence of values.

Only when absolutely necessary will they intervene militarily.

(End of this chapter)