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

Chapter 816 Li Shimin's Worry
"Xuanling, some things just happened that are not suitable to be discussed in front of everyone. Now there are only you and me left. To tell you the truth, the news that Tang Jian brought back makes me feel uneasy. I have a vague feeling that this Right Wise King will sooner or later become a disaster for our Tang Dynasty."

As soon as the ministers left, Li Shimin expressed his true thoughts with a worried look on his face.

"Your Majesty, to be honest, I feel the same way."

Fang Xuanling nodded solemnly, "According to what Tang Jian said, the Right Wise King is not a reckless brave man. In my opinion, he has a long-term vision and extraordinary wisdom. He is a more difficult character to deal with than Jie Li, right?"

"He has fought hundreds of battles and never lost a single one. This is definitely not something a man with only ordinary courage can do. Even if the people on the grasslands are slightly inferior to those in the Central Plains in terms of intelligence, the Right Wise King is definitely not a simple character."

"He conquered the entire eastern grasslands himself, but handed over the military power to Jie Li and Shi Luo Die. This shows that he is fearless and is not afraid of Jie Li's attack. It seems that he gave up the Khanship, but in fact, this move can gain more support."

"Your Majesty, the grasslands are different from the Central Plains. The Turks believe in force and admire heroes. If the Right Wise King's decisive, cruel and tyrannical behavior were in the Central Plains, he would lose the support of countless people. But in the grasslands, a place that admires primitive and barbaric power, more people will look up to him."

"For such a person, as long as he is alive, it doesn't matter whether he has military power or not."

"Everyone in the grassland tribe is a soldier. They worship the strong. As long as they have a great reputation, even if they have no soldiers, they can gather countless followers with just a wave of their hands. Wen Ben and Xiao Yu use the Central Plains' ideas to measure the situation on the grassland, which is biased."

"Now I understand Tang Jian's dilemma. No matter who Jie Li passes the throne to, the real king of the Turkic Khanate must be this Right Wise King."

"As for Shiluodi, people from the Tuli tribe, Xueyantuo tribe, and the Bibi tribe all said that he was spoiled, overbearing, and incompetent. He had long been spoiled by Jie Li. Apart from showing off when he rescued Jie Li, he basically did nothing noteworthy."

"Whether Jie Li will pass the throne to him in the future, such a person will not threaten our Tang Dynasty. But I didn't expect that when the Turks were about to perish, a person like Youxian Wang would appear. It is really worrying."

"Your Majesty, it seems that we need to pay more attention to this Right Wise King. Does Tang Jian have more information about this Right Wise King?"

Li Shimin shook his head. "The eastern grasslands and the southern desert are separated by thousands of miles of Gobi Desert, which is sparsely populated. Since the Battle of Dingxiang, the entire grassland has been in chaos. We are busy digesting the western and southern deserts, and we are really out of reach for the northern and eastern deserts."

"Plus, after we know where Jie Li has fled to, we will definitely not be able to eliminate him in a short time."

"If we send a large army to attack the border at this time, it will encourage them to unite and fight against the Tang Dynasty together, which will help Jie Li. Therefore, I adopt the strategy of supporting the machine and limit the number of troops crossing the Gobi Desert, so as to achieve the effect of making the Turkic tribes fight each other."

"You also saw what happened later. They really started killing each other. In order to fight for the Khanship, the killing was dark and blood flowed like a river. We were relieved and began to reform the internal affairs with confidence."

"Who would have thought that in just five years, the winner would be decided. It turned out that it was Jie Li who unified the grassland again. It's really incredible."

"Originally, I didn't take it too seriously. I have been dealing with Jie Li all my life, and I know him very well. In addition, he is old, and even at his peak, he couldn't do anything to me. Now I am even less afraid of him."

"But I didn't expect that there would be a man like the Right Wise King now. He is a rising star on the grassland!"

Li Shimin shook his head worriedly: "I have already asked the Jinyiwei to focus on the eastern grasslands. This Right Wise King is very mysterious. Not many people have seen him, and we don't know much about his situation."

In the fifth year of Zhenguan, the second year after the Battle of Dingxiang, the Jinyiwei appeared in the court's management sequence in a dignified manner. When the court officials learned that it was mainly used to scout external enemy situations, they did not pay much attention to it.

However, the people of the King of Shu and the King of Wei had objected to the fact that this department was under the jurisdiction of the Eastern Palace. Later, because the crown prince had made great contributions in his diplomatic mission to the Turks, and because there was no one in the Eastern Palace and the crown prince had not returned, no adjustments were made in the end.

Now the Jinyiwei was under the direct jurisdiction of Li Shimin, so Li Ke and Li Tai could not say anything.

At this point, Li Shimin seemed a little unsure: "This person is very mysterious. We don't know his age, name, or which tribe he came from. We just heard that this Right Wise King doesn't seem to be from the grassland, but a Han Chinese?"

"What, Han Chinese?"

Fang Xuanling's heart skipped a beat and his face tensed. "How could it be possible? Why would Jie Li allow a Han Chinese to be the Right Wise King? The Ashina Yun tribe and the Jie Li tribe have the same surname. Does she have any information about this Right Wise King?"

"Since Tuli died three years ago, Ashina Yun has been fully committed to our Tang Dynasty. In addition, they have had little contact with the Jieli tribe due to the vast Gobi Desert. They don't know much about the Jieli tribe."

Li Shimin's expression was very solemn: "If this Right Wise King is really a Han Chinese, then he can hold the position of Right Wise King firmly, and his abilities in various aspects will be even stronger." "Xuanling, what do you think? If this is the case, can we send some people to contact this Right Wise King and see if we can bring him over to our side? If the Right Wise King turns over, then all the external threats to the grassland will be eliminated?"

"Your Majesty, let's not be too optimistic."

Seeing that Li Shimin seemed to be interested, Fang Xuanling poured cold water on him: "This man has gained the trust and importance of Jie Li, and has firmly sat on the position of Right Wise King. I am afraid that his attitude towards the Tang Dynasty will not be too friendly, and it is very likely that he will be hostile."

Well.
Li Shimin was stunned when he heard this, then nodded silently, with a bitter smile flashing across his face. It was indeed true. Who would go to the frontier to serve the Turks and suffer such a punishment if they could make a name for themselves in the Central Plains?

Especially for those who are both talented in civil and military affairs, and who come from a far-away background, most of them have a blood feud, and they might even be your enemy.

Seeing Li Shimin's worried look, Fang Xuanling comforted him, "However, the Right Wise King's territory is in the bitter cold land of the northeast. It is difficult for him to pose a threat to us for a while, so we don't need to consider it for the time being."

"I think the people we should be worried about now are the barbarians in the northwest."

Upon hearing this, Li Shimin angrily slammed the teacup in his hand onto the table, stood up and paced around the hall in a rage: "Yinan is really ambitious. I have already treated him well because of his efforts in the past."

"The Jinshan area, the former home of Jie Li, was granted to him, but he was greedy and even used the excuse that his tribe needed grazing as an excuse to secretly expand his territory westwards without the permission of the court."

"In just five years, he has secretly conquered the Qarluk Left and Right Wings, Misiba, Dubo, Dianwen, Jiegu Khitans and other tribes in the northwest. The territory he actually controls has expanded to more than three times the size of the Jinshan Military Governor's Office."

"He simply doesn't take the orders of the Tang Dynasty seriously. Does he still consider himself a minister of the Tang Dynasty?"

Fang Xuanling was helpless: "Your Majesty, calm down. After the battle of Dingxiang, the Tang Dynasty gained too much territory in the grasslands. Some of it is too much to digest. The southern desert, northern desert, Jinshan and the huge Longyou Road are equivalent to more than doubling the territory of the Tang Dynasty."

"For the areas north of Jinshan, it's really out of reach!"

"That's why Yi Nan has been expanding his power northwards. He knows that we can't do anything to him."

"In fact, the territories he expanded did not belong to the Tang Dynasty. On the surface, he expanded the territory for the Tang Dynasty. But in fact, we all know that Yi Nan's strength is constantly increasing, and sooner or later he will have the intention of rebellion."

"Unfortunately, we have to digest the southern part of the desert and expand the western region. We are unable to control more territory."

Li Shimin seemed very irritable and stood up to pace back and forth in the imperial study: "The prince once told me that under the condition of stable agricultural economic development, the actual area that the Central Plains regime can control is limited."

"Once this limit is exceeded, it will not only fail to benefit the Tang Dynasty, but will also be a burden to the homeland."

"Especially in grassland areas, the migration of people is huge and cannot be controlled at all. Forcibly incorporating them will only lead to resource outflow."

"It's a pity that I didn't take it seriously. I was still a little skeptical. What could be wrong with expanding territory?"

"But now we have only incorporated half of the grassland into our Tang Dynasty, and the court can no longer bear it. Disasters frequently occur in the grassland, and after the end of the war, the population has multiplied. The three major governorates have to ask the court for aid every year."

"The situation in the south of the desert is better. Although they have given us gifts, our generals and officials have also infiltrated them, which is equivalent to raising troops in the north."

"But Mobei and Jinshan take 20% of the taxes from the Tang Dynasty treasury every year, and we have no control over their internal affairs. The resources we subsidize have indirectly strengthened their strength, and we have only gained the empty name of a governor's office."

"Some people in the court have been raising doubts. Is there something wrong with the treatment of the Xueyantuo and Xibi tribes?"

Fang Xuanling smiled bitterly. He knew this too. This was one of the reasons why the Tang Dynasty did not launch another military campaign against Jie Li.

Including today when Li Shimin mentioned the Turks again, no matter how big the threat posed by Jie Li and Youxian King as Tang Jian said was, although everyone discussed it, no one suggested using force to curb Jie Li. It is true that the western and northern grasslands are now unable to support the people, and if the eastern grasslands are added.

Wouldn’t the Tang Dynasty be dragged down?
(End of this chapter)