A Millennium Aristocratic Family Starting from the Shang Dynasty

Chapter 460 Dividing the Grassland
After the large silver mine was discovered in Nanyang County of Daqian, the imperial court ordered the establishment of a Nanyang Silver Mine Supervisor to mine and smelt the Nanyang Silver Mine.

In order to ensure the safety of the silver mines and prevent the silver from flowing out, Wang Xin ordered troops to be stationed outside the Nanyang Silver Mines.As the largest silver mine in Daqian, this silver mine will be a very important source of wealth for the Daqian court.

Daqian's finances are still spending more than revenue, especially after including the manufacture and improvement of navy ships as necessary support, which requires at least 200 million silver dollars every year.

The navy's salary only accounts for a small part of this, and most of it is expenditure on ports, shipbuilding, and ship maintenance.

The money and supplies required to raise a navy army are more expensive than cavalry.

In addition to the naval expenditure, the remaining problem is the Mobei grassland.Even though the imperial court has provided money to maintain it over the years, the Northern Protectorate still needs to spend a lot of money and food.There has always been a voice in the imperial court that they want to abandon the Mobei Protectorate and implement restrained rule over the grassland.

Rather than like now, they immigrate to the grassland every year and transport a large amount of grain, grass and various materials to the grassland every year to maintain their rule on the grassland.Daqian spends about 500 million guan every year to maintain the rule of the grassland, but the income from the grassland is less than 100 million guan.

Now, even within the royal family, there are many complaints about continuing to maintain the situation in the Mobei grassland.After all, maintaining the Mobei grassland has affected the Daqian court's external expansion.

Since Wang Xin's registration, except for one war on the Korean Peninsula, Daqian has not made any external development moves.

Wang Xin could not continue to implement the previous policies now, so he decided to change the court's situation on the grassland to reduce the court's expenses.

The inner hall of the Qianyuan Hall is where the emperor, the left and right prime ministers, and a few officials discussed state affairs. At this time, Wang Xin was discussing the issue of the Mobei grassland.

"Your Majesty, the Northern Territory Protectorate's annual consumption far exceeds that of the Western Region Protectorate, and its income is far less than that of the Western Region Protectorate. After decades of implementation, the imperial court has been overwhelmed. I request that the Northern Territory Protectorate be abolished. !" Tai Fu Ling Sang Hongyang said.

It has been almost 30 years since the Northern Protectorate was established, but the Daqian court still cannot fully control the grassland.

"No, the grassland is important and costly, but it is a barrier to the north. If it is abandoned, I am afraid that the next Xiongnu will rise on the grassland in a few decades." Right Minister He Ming said.

"Yes, you can't give up the grassland!" All the important officials in the imperial court opposed giving up the grassland directly.They did not want the Zhenbei Protectorate to continue to control the grassland because it would be too expensive, but they did not want to leave the grassland alone.

"Your Majesty, I think we can divide the grassland into twelve parts, and then set up a general or county guard for each grassland to be responsible for the jurisdiction of the twelve grasslands." Da Sinong suggested.

This approach is actually to split the complete grassland. After the split, the grassland will be ruled according to the rules of the previous grassland, and the Zhenbei Protectorate will be a higher-level existence, controlling the twelve grassland tribes.

Dividing the grassland into twelve parts, even after the Zhenbei Protectorate's strength is weakened, it is still enough to suppress any part of the grassland.

The Zhenbei Protectorate does not need to end, it is just acting as an arbitration. If one grassland is strong, other grassland ministries can also be summoned to suppress it.Through political means, supplemented by the military, the grasslands can be controlled.

After Da Sinong's method was proposed, everyone thought it was a good idea, but there were still many details that needed to be revised and added. After the twelve grasslands were decided, everyone began to divide the grasslands.

At the same time, the functions of the Zhenbei Protectorate were also modified to weaken the garrison of the Zhenbei Protectorate.In order to maintain the Zhenbei Protectorate, the imperial court now has a total of [-] troops in various areas of the grassland.These armies were distributed throughout the grasslands to maintain the rule of the grasslands and tax revenue.

Everyone then had a heated discussion about the number of troops stationed on the grassland, and finally decided that only [-] troops would be left to garrison the Zhenbei Protectorate on the grassland.

This was retained only at Wang Xin's insistence. You must know that when the Western Region Protectorate was established, there were only 3000 people. Later, after additional reinforcements, the strength was only 5000.

The Zhenbei Protectorate has [-] troops, which is already six times the number of the Western Region Protectorate.With such a large-scale garrison on the grassland, the amount of food and grass required is still not a small amount.

Of course, compared to the initial expenditure, it is not unacceptable.

Except for the twelve grassland tribes, some of the people who were moved from the grassland were moved back, and the other part could go to Dragon City to live.Dragon City will serve as the headquarters of the Zhenbei Protectorate.

In order to facilitate the connection between the Zhenbei Protectorate and the Central Plains, Wang Xin decided to build five more cities on the grassland to connect to Dragon City.Of course, these cities were originally places with abundant water and grass and large populations, so establishing a city was a matter of course.

These cities will not be built too big. In addition to being used to connect to Dragon City, they can also trade with the tribes here and collect taxes.

In this way, the imperial court weakened its control over the grassland, reduced the number of troops stationed on the grassland, and reduced its expenditures. In addition to these, the tax revenue of the grassland also increased.

In the past, the imperial court had been consciously controlling and suppressing the grassland for the benefit of Daqian, so the strength of the grassland was not strong.

After deliberation with the court, Wang Xin officially issued an edict to divide the grassland into twelve tribes and select twelve tribes from the grassland tribes to serve as generals of the twelve grassland tribes.

Wang Xin and his courtiers did not choose the twelve most powerful Xiongnu tribes, but instead chose twelve more submissive tribes.This setting is intentional. Although the grassland has experienced decades of influence from the Central Plains culture, it still believes that the strong is king.

The more powerful tribes could not serve as generals. This was also a trap dug by the court in order to allow the twelve Xiongnu tribes to fight among themselves.Just like enfeoffing the twelve grassland tribes, weakening the power of the grassland.

It can be said that Daqian Chaotang was worried about the grassland.

After dividing the grassland into twelve, the strength of any grassland cannot compete with the Zhenbei Protectorate. Although the Zhenbei Protectorate's control over the grassland has declined, its authority has become higher.

After the twelve generals of the grassland were appointed, at first, due to the power of Daqian, other tribes did not dare to object, but this was only temporary. After gaining the position of general and governing a part of the grassland, these generals would naturally put their best efforts into practice. The pastures given to their own tribes will also be biased in various matters.

At that time, these grassland tribes will start fighting among themselves, which is a good thing for Daqian.

(End of this chapter)