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

Chapter 950: The World Situation (Part )

The Xueyantuo and the Youxian King's army fought a long war of attrition over the vast land of the Western Regions. Often, you would capture a few of my cities today, and I would capture them again tomorrow. In such repeated battles, the original indigenous peoples of the Western Regions suffered heavy losses.

These people originally wanted to endure hardships, accumulate strength, and wait for the situation to change so that they can rise again.

Unexpectedly, in the melee between the Xueyantuo and the Turks, those who surrendered to the Xueyantuo were massacred by the Turks.

Those who surrendered to the Turks were ruthlessly eliminated by the Xueyantuo people.

After two years, the Xueyantuo and Turks suffered little loss, but the indigenous people of the more than 50 countries in the Western Regions suffered heavy losses, with only a few ruling classes temporarily compromising in order to preserve the flame.

In the brutal crushing of the two sides, it was completely extinguished.

Two years later, the Tang Dynasty's Western Expedition Army also adapted to the environment of the plateau and broke into the poorly defended snow-covered area. In just half a year, it conquered the entire plateau with great force and broke into the chaos of the Western Regions from the northwest.

Under attack from both sides, the Xueyantuo were quickly wiped out. After the last few battles, Canglang led the remaining troops and fled westward.

After Yi Nan withdrew from the Western Regions, the Tang Dynasty and the Turks soon came into conflict.

After a brief battle, both sides suffered heavy losses. Li Jing decisively chose to temporarily stop the war and submitted a memorial to Chang'an, advising Li Shimin that it would be best to solve the Turkic issue in a "peaceful way", otherwise even if the Tang Dynasty took over the Western Regions, it would be difficult for the Turkic issue to be resolved.

The entire Western Expedition army would also be killed in battle.

After some testing, Li Shimin reluctantly gave up his plan to conquer the Turks by force and sent people to negotiate with the Right Wise King again.

Finally, the Tang Dynasty promised to spend 10 million taels of gold, or 100 million taels of silver, or even an equal amount of wealth, to buy the Western Regions from the Turks.

After Li Yan discussed with core Turkic personnel including Wu Yuanhua, Hermu, and Gu Rentu, they all believed that the Turks were not good at defending cities and doing business. Although the Western Regions were prosperous, most of them were Gobi and desert, and the small amount of grassland could not support so many cattle and sheep.

If the Western Regions were taken, the Turks would not be willing to defend them.

After eight years of chaos and war, the Western Regions were no longer as prosperous as they once were. Even after fighting with the Yi people in the Western Regions for two or three years, the Turks did not gain any benefits and many people died in the war.

It would be better to give it to the Tang Dynasty in exchange for huge wealth.

Hermu even suggested that the Western Regions should be handed over to the Tang Dynasty. The Tang Dynasty would certainly govern it carefully, and when the Western Regions recovered, the Turks could still go and rob them. There was no need to take over such a war-torn place now and face the Tang Dynasty's army.

At this point, the Turkic high-level officials decided to accept the Tang Dynasty's suggestion and sell the Western Regions to the Tang Dynasty.

Afterwards, the two countries reached an agreement. Since the Tang Dynasty could not come up with such a huge amount of money at once, it was willing to pay 10 million taels of silver in installments each year, and pay off the amount in ten years.

The Turks also accepted it.

Soon afterwards, Li Jing's army in the Western Regions began to launch a fierce attack. The Turkic army was caught off guard, suffered defeat after defeat, and continued to lose territory. Finally, over the course of more than a year, they gradually lost the entire Western Regions.

Completed the handover of history
The Tang Dynasty won the final victory. Under the expectation of everyone, Li Shimin carried out a large-scale division of fiefs. Li Yuanjing, Li Yuanchang, Li Yuanxiang and other sons of Li Yuan, as well as Li Daozon, Li Xiaogong and other outstanding sons of the Li clan, were all granted kingdoms.

Li Ke, King of Wu, Li Tai, King of Wei, Li You, King of Qi, Li Yin, King of Shu, Li Yun, King of Jiang, Li Zhen, King of Yue, Li Zhi, King of Jin, Li Shen, King of Ji, Li Jian, King of Dai, Li Fu, King of Zhao, and Li Ming, King of Cao.

All of Li Shimin's sons, even those who were already dead or still in their infancy, were granted a kingdom. Even the crown prince Li Chengqian, who had long since "died" on the grassland, was granted a territory.

The price of being granted fiefdoms is that there will no longer be fiefdoms in the Tang Dynasty.

Taking this opportunity, Li Shimin moved some princes who were originally enfeoffed in his native land, such as Li You who had always been in Qi, out of the Central Plains and enfeoffed them in the Western Regions. Since this was a real enfeoffment, the princes could legitimately control the army and officials, so these princes were also very happy.

In addition, the twenty-four founding heroes of the Tang Dynasty, the former generals of the Qin Palace, the heroes of the Xuanwu Gate, including a large number of meritorious generals who went on this expedition, were all granted titles of king, marquis, and earl, and were actually granted the vast land of the Western Regions.

Of course, aristocratic families like the Five Surnames and Seven Families, the Eight Great Families of Guanlong, the Shandong wealthy families, the Jiangnan Chinese clans, and other aristocratic families all had a share. In this great enfeoffment, they all occupied a place in the Western Regions and became one of the princes.

There were 800 vassal states in the Zhou Dynasty. Although Li Shimin's enfeoffment was not as good as that of the Zhou Dynasty, he still enfeoffed more than 100 vassal states.

The vast Western Regions were divided up by more than a hundred princes. In total, each princely state was equivalent to a state in the Tang Dynasty. Since the Western Regions were vast and sparsely populated, and the land was barren, their true strength was no more than that of a few counties in the Central Plains. This division brought great benefits to the Tang Dynasty.

The high-ranking nobles who had brought a great burden to the people were cleared, and the pressure on the people was instantly reduced. The Tang Dynasty took this opportunity to gather financial resources, quickly increase the treasury revenue, and take the opportunity to promote the previously difficult land survey and implement the policy of equalizing the land tax.

The large-scale departure of a large number of upper-class people was equivalent to cleansing the marrow and tendons of the Tang Dynasty, allowing this heavy country to regain its vitality.

Externally, so many elites were sent out and scattered in the west, which would firmly bring this area, which had been difficult to control since ancient times, into the hands of the Tang Dynasty. Although it was only in name, in reality, the Chinese nation had stepped out of the Central Plains and extended its power into the distant western regions.

It even opened up the situation, allowing these princes to use the power in their hands to continue expanding into Central Asia. The Tang Dynasty did not have any restrictions on the princes in the Western Regions. They could expand at will as long as they recognized that the expanded territory belonged to the Tang Dynasty.

Even the Tang Dynasty could provide certain support to the vassal states.
These countries can expand the influence of the Tang Dynasty to the west, and no matter how powerful they are, they cannot threaten the Central Plains. There is no shortage of enemies in Central Asia. When facing the same opponents, these princes will definitely prefer to attack the red-haired, green-eyed, black-skinned foreigners.

From then on, the Tang Dynasty formed a new multi-level system of governing the country with the Central Plains as the core and the princes as the periphery. The closer the power is to the core of the Tang Dynasty, the weaker it is, and the farther away from the Tang Dynasty, the stronger it is, which is equivalent to putting a layer of armor on the huge country.

Winter comes and goes, autumn turns to winter, the grassland turns green and then yellow, and the Central Plains has also gone through several cycles. In a blink of an eye, eight years have passed since the first Fengzhou peace negotiation.

Spring of the nineteenth year of Zhenguan!

Taiji Palace, Chengqing Hall, and Imperial Study.

Li Shimin and Fang Xuanling both had gray hair and looked old, no longer as majestic and upright as they were in their prime. The emperor and his minister stood in front of an even more extensive map, silently gazing at the vast map of the world of the Tang Dynasty in front of them.

The territory of the Tang Dynasty was like a huge bone lying on the map, with the westernmost part extending into Central Asia. On the map, from north to south, Central Asia was Western Turkic in the north, the powerful Byzantine Empire in the middle, and the southernmost part was India where Xuanzang sought Buddhist scriptures.

Among them, Tianzhu borders on a large area of ​​the Indochina Peninsula, Pyu-Myanmar Governorate and the Snowy Plateau of the Tang Dynasty. In the middle, the Byzantine Empire and the Western Regions are adjacent to each other. To the north, the Western Turks and the New Turkic Khaganate are high above. The territory of the Tang Dynasty has almost expanded to its limit.

On the map, a 'hammer' was still drawn with a thin red line.

The huge hammer head is from the Central Plains, while the slender hammer handle extends through the Hexi area, far into the Western Regions, and then to the hinterland of Central Asia. This is the "Silk Road" that the Tang Dynasty did not block in the Western Regions.

In the past, the Silk Road was inhabited by foreign tribes from the Western Regions at both ends, but now both ends are Tang Dynasty territory, making the road impregnable.

A complex expression flashed across Li Shimin's old eyes, as if he was proud of expanding the territory, but also had an unspeakable heaviness. He sighed deeply and murmured, "I have left only one passage for future generations."

"There are more than a hundred small countries in the Western Regions. I don't know what they will become in the future. I hope future kings will not blame me for leaving them with such a huge problem."

Fang Xuanling knew what Li Shimin was thinking and advised him, "Your Majesty, don't worry. Your children and grandchildren will have their own blessings. Your Majesty summarized the feudal system before the Qin Dynasty and the county system after the Han Dynasty. With extraordinary talent and great ambition, you have opened up a model that combines the two."

"It broke the shackles that had kept the Central Plains dynasties from going abroad since ancient times, and extended the influence of the Chinese people to the Western Regions, making the world one family."

"This is an unprecedented great achievement, and I and all the officials admire it very much."

Li Shimin did not show any joy on his face, and slowly waved his hand: "Xuanling, you are not an outsider. You already know my ideas. These ideas are not my own, but come from the prince."

"If he were still alive, I wouldn't have to worry about it."

"But now, I am old, and I have not yet made up my mind who will hand over the Tang Dynasty to. The kings have just been enthroned, and the world has not yet been truly stabilized. If the successor cannot understand the profound meaning of enthroning vassals to guard the border."

"The bigger the Tang Dynasty gets, the more dangerous it becomes."

Fang Xuanling also sighed deeply. When Li Shimin first laid out the whole plan, he was also astonished. Although he knew that the prince was intelligent, he did not expect that his talent would be so amazing.

He was able to design such a grand and brilliant plan, which perfectly solved the problems of aristocratic families and common people, development and expansion, and most importantly, spread the seeds of the descendants of Yan and Huang. It was simply a stroke of genius.

From then on, even though dynasties changed and overlapped, the living space of the Han nationality was infinitely expanded. They no longer had to engage in internal conflicts in a small area of ​​the Central Plains. This was truly a great achievement.

With this strategy alone, the prince is a genius even better than Li Shimin. If there is another wise ruler like him to take over, who knows how powerful the Tang Dynasty will be.
(End of this chapter)