Recreating the prosperous Tang begins with summoning players

Liu Yan plucked up his courage and asked: "Your Highness, is this wooden railroad more important than Modong's military?"

Liu Yan became famous at a young age, and was bestowed "Zhengzi" by the emperor at the age of ten, that is, the post of administrator in charge of guarding the Royal Library.

But Liu Yan is still studying hard and has always been strict with himself.

Because Liu Yan's dream is to be a famous minister like Zhuge Wuhou.

After coming to Longyou, Liu Yan didn't know what he could do to be favored by King Jianning.

Being able to serve as a secretary next to King Jianning, although this is a low-level official position, Liu Yan also feels that he has benefited a lot.

The secretary office is responsible for drafting the official documents of King Jianning, and often communicates with Li Yan face to face, and is regarded as Li Yan's private minister.

The relationship between the two is relatively close, so Liu Yan asked this question.

Li Yan smiled and asked back: "Shi'an, you are familiar with history books, can you clear up my doubts."

"Your Highness, please speak."

Li Yan asked: "I heard that after King Wu defeated Zhou, the royal family of Zhou only controlled the land in the capital."

"Wu Wang built the Zhou Dynasty on behalf of the Shang from a frontier tribe, why did he divide the princes into feudal lords? Doesn't Wu Wang know the danger of dividing the feudal lords?"

Liu Yan was stunned for a moment.

Li Yan continued to ask: "Don't King Wu know that the Zhou royal family will occupy more territories?"

Liu Yan thought for a while and said: "In ancient times, China was still undecided, and the purpose of King Wu to divide the feudal lords was to open up the land of Zhou."

"Why don't the feudal princes appoint counties?"

"This?"

Liu Yan only felt that Li Yan's question was sophistry, since the system of prefectures and counties only appeared in the Qin Dynasty, how could the emperor of Zhou use the system of prefectures and counties?

But thinking about it carefully, there seems to be some doubts. There are also officials appointed by the royal family in the territory directly under the Zhou royal family. The emperor of Zhou must know that the officials of the flowing water are more loyal than the hereditary princes.

Seeing the thoughtful expression on Liu Yan's face, Li Yan asked again:

"Qin pacified the six kingdoms, established prefectures and counties throughout the country, but died in the second generation. When all the heroes rose together, where was the army that unified the six kingdoms?"

Now Liu Yan was also stunned.

The history of the end of Qin, Chu and Han is very detailed in the historical records.

The Qin Dynasty perished too quickly, and was directly attacked by Liu Bang all the way into Xianyang.

But when Qin perished, the battle to unify the six countries was only a few decades away.

Why did Daqin's mighty army sweeping the world suddenly disappear?

Li Yan saw that Liu Yan still couldn't answer.

He continued to ask: "If you don't talk about the distance, let's talk about the three towns in Hedong. Why did the emperor appoint An Lushan as the governor of the three towns? Mountain Rebellion."

"Don't Grandpa Huang know how to check and balance An Lushan's power?"

Liu Yan was stunned again.

He had seen Emperor Li Longji before, and he also knew about the prosperity of Liu Yan during the Kaiyuan period.

The emperor also came to power in a coup d'etat, and his political methods are quite clever, and he is also one of the best emperors in the Tang Dynasty.

The emperor manipulated the two prime ministers Li Linfu and Yang Guozhong to suppress the East Palace. Although they ignored government affairs, they were able to scare the officials. It is impossible not to understand the way of balance.

However, the emperor still granted Anlushan so much power to make decisions on the fly. In the end, the three towns in Hedong were too big to lose, which led to the Anlushan Rebellion.

If it was before becoming an official, Liu Yan would probably say that the emperor was deceived by Anlu Mountain and deceived by treacherous ministers on the left and right.

But now Liu Yan looked at Li Yan in confusion, what is the connection between these three questions?
Seeing that Liu Yan was so confused, Li Yan felt a kind of vicious joy in being able to confuse this child prodigy.

He deliberately took a sip of tea, and then said:
"Actually, the reason is very simple. The borders of the empire have limits."

"limit?"

Li Yan said: "During the time of Emperor Zhou, there were barbarians everywhere. Not only were there no cities, but even the roads were muddy."

"Tianzi Zhou can only control the Gyeonggi area. The feudal kingdoms beyond the Gyeonggi area are invaded by barbarians. If you ask the Emperor Zhou for instructions again and again, the barbarians may have already wiped out the feudal kingdoms."

"At that time, the emperor of Zhou could only entrust the princes, because the Zhou Dynasty could not rule such a large territory."

"When the Qin Dynasty destroyed the six kingdoms, there were many cities in the Central Plains at this time, and the first emperor ordered the construction of Chidao. After the cars were on the same track, the Qin Zhidao could make everything that happened on the frontier of the Qin Dynasty be sent to the royal case of the Xianyang Palace. At this time, there is no need Now that the enfeoffment system has been implemented, counties are a better choice."

"But Qin also died on the issue of too large a territory. When Liu Bang attacked Xianyang, the Great Wall Corps was defending the Great Wall in the north, and the legions that had conquered Wu and Chu were heading south to Lingnan."

"The Qin Dynasty didn't have so many troops, so in the end they could only be defeated and the country destroyed."

Li Yan paused and said:
"The emperor's grandfather appointed An Lushan and gave him three townships, and it is the same reason."

"The three towns in the north have to face many alien races in Mobei and Liaodong. First there are the Turks, and then there are the Khitan and Xi feudal rebellions, as well as the harassment of the Weiss, Xianbei, and Fuyu people. If you don't give An Lu Without Shan’s arbitrary power, I’m afraid these barbarians have already gone south to graze their horses.”

Liu Yan was silent.

Li Yan's statement sounds so logical, and reusing An Lushan seems to be a "helpless" inevitable choice.

Li Yan continued: "Let's talk about soldiers, if soldiers are recruited from Gyeonggi or Guanzhong to guard the river east, these soldiers will leave their homeland and guard the border in the bitter cold north, and their morale will definitely be low."

"If the soldiers are rotated to defend the border, the soldiers who have just been trained to be good at fighting will be rotated back, and the border will have to start training soldiers again, and the combat effectiveness of the town over there will definitely decline."

"That's why the emperor gave An Lushan the right to recruit soldiers on his own, and asked him to recruit soldiers in the three towns of Hedong."

Liu Yan followed Li Yan's train of thought, so it was really helpless to give An Lushan military power.

Li Yan also said: "The same is true for financial power. The imperial court collects taxes from the three towns of Hedong, and then transports them to the two capitals, and then allocates them to Anlu Mountain. The loss along the way is huge, and a large number of farmers are needed."

"That's why Grandpa Huang simply gave An Lushan all the financial rights of the three towns in Hedong."

Li Yan looked at Liu Yan and said, "Shi'an, do you think Grandpa Huang wants to reuse Anlu Mountain?"

Liu Yan nodded and said, "This subordinate is dull and can't answer."

Liu Yan really couldn't answer Li Yan's question, and even Li Mi might not be able to answer Li Yan's question.

Seeing Liu Yan's dejected look, Li Yan said with a smile:

"The law of the lonely general can be summed up as the theory of the limit of the empire's territory. The territory of any empire has its limit. It is not so much the collapse of Kaiyuan Tianbao's prosperity because of the grandpa's extravagance, but rather because of his militarism."

Liu Yan quickly lowered his head, Li Yan was talking about his grandfather, but this was also the previous emperor.

Li Yan didn't have any intention of being jealous of the venerable, but said directly: "During the Kaiyuan period, military merit was the most expensive, and all the border towns wanted to provoke and make meritorious deeds."

"Tianbao's three major campaigns, Xianyu Zhongtong apologized to Nanzhao and Nanzhao Wang Ge Luofeng, and was about to cede the land and beg for mercy. Xianyu Zhongtong underestimated the enemy and rushed forward, and was eventually wiped out by the entire Nanzhao army, and the heads of the soldiers were turned into Jingguan."

"An Lushan went to conquer Khitan, and all [-] troops were wiped out in the black water of Baishan Mountain. An Lushan was able to get away with bribing the court ministers."

"The last is the battle of Hengluosi. After the war with Dashi, the Western Regions were in turmoil, and the elite Tang army in the Western Regions was lost. The Tang Dynasty could no longer command the countries in the Western Regions. Bandits and bandits arose everywhere on the Silk Road, and many small countries fell Great food."

"This is all because the empire has reached the limit of its rule. After reaching this limit, the price to be paid for occupying new territories is higher than the value of these newly occupied territories."

"At this time, to expand the territory is to continuously bleed the empire, until the empire is weak, and there will be rebellion by ambitious people."

Liu Yan was so shocked that it was hard to add, he didn't expect King Jianning's views to be so profound, he almost pointedly explained the mistakes made by the emperor during Tianbao years.

A scholar-official like Liu Yan has never been able to understand why Li Longji, who was very wise during the Kaiyuan period, made frequent tricks during the Tianbao period, and finally gave up even the two capitals to the rebels.

But Liu Yan listened to Li Yan's analysis, and these turmoil seemed to be destined to happen.

Only then did Liu Yan recall the original topic, and he asked, "Your Highness, but what does this have to do with the wooden rail train?"

Only then did Li Yan say: "Did you forget that I just mentioned a successful case? The First Emperor unified the six kingdoms and established the first unified dynasty in history."

"What did the first emperor rely on? Not only the system of prefectures and counties, but also the passage through the Great Qin territory."

"These roads run through all the prefectures and counties of the Great Qin Dynasty, so that what happens in the prefectures and counties can be sent to Xianyang for the first emperor to have a look."

"The Chidao and the Great Wall also make it unnecessary to have so many garrisons in the Northland. They only need to garrison troops at key nodes. The convenient transportation provides quick support, which saves the country's military costs."

"Chi Dao is the reason why the territory of the Qin Empire can be bigger!"

Li Yan stood up, looked at the map of Longyou and said, "Wooden track horse-drawn train, no, the train is our Longyou road!"

"In six hours, two carriages of goods and one carriage of passengers can reach Wuwei from Zhangye."

"If the whole of Longyou is connected by train, then Beiting's army can be sent to Wuwei City in only ten days."

"Gaochang grain can be delivered to the border in a week."

"Then the empire's territory can continue to expand."

Liu Yan was completely dumbfounded. Li Yan's words were extremely profound, like a flash of lightning flashed across Liu Yan's heart.

A small railway has such terrifying power.

But thinking about it carefully, the few examples Li Yan gave can be explained clearly by using the "theory of the limit of the empire's territory".

Liu Yan resounded an old saying, "If you hear the Tao in the morning, you will die in the evening." He bowed to Li Yan and said:
"Your Highness is gifted by heaven, but your subordinates are dull, so I have to trouble you to explain to my ministers."

Li Yan helped Liu Yan up and said, "Shi'an, how long have you been by my side."

"It's been three months since I returned to Your Highness."

Li Yan said: "Han Feizi said, 'The prime minister must start from the state'. Although I hate you, I still hope that you can go down to experience it."

"Gu is planning to build a city in Tongliao in Songmo Dudufu's Mansion. Pang Yawei has been appointed as Songmo Dudufu, and you will be promoted to the governor's mansion."

"Pang Yawei is good at military affairs, you should praise him a lot in terms of government affairs."