A Millennium Aristocratic Family Starting from the Shang Dynasty

Chapter 687 Yanran Protectorate

The Tang Dynasty established the Yanran Protectorate to guard the grassland, and issued an edict to rebuild the original Honglu Temple into the vassal affairs office.

Originally, the responsibility of Honglu Temple was to receive envoys from foreign countries and be responsible for their food, clothing, housing, transportation, and etiquette during court meetings. It had no real power.

However, after the imperial court prepared the Yanran Protectorate, the importance of Honglu Temple immediately increased to an extremely high level. So the vassal council was simply established to deal with foreign affairs.

After many considerations, Li Shimin and Wang Xuanjing summarized the advantages and disadvantages of ruling the grassland foreign countries in the past dynasties, and finally formulated a framework based on the situation of the Tang Dynasty.

Li Shimin incorporated all the foreign states that came to pay tribute and respected him as the Khan of Heaven into the vassal affairs council.

The canonization of all Fanbang titles and the succession of Khanships must go through the Khan of Heaven. At the same time, tributes from various countries and rewards of money and silk from the court were also processed through the vassal affairs council.

Of course, for Fanbang, trade with the Tang Dynasty was a very important matter, so the vassal council would also have jurisdiction over Fanbang trade.

The Tang Dynasty and various foreign states must ensure the safety and property of the caravans and ensure the smooth flow of trade routes.

In addition, each foreign state also has its own seat in the vassal council and has corresponding rights and obligations.

In this system, wars between the tribes of the Fan Kingdom are not allowed, and they are not allowed to attack at will. However, there are no restrictions on other tribes of the Fan Kingdom, but they also need to report to the Khan.

This system also restricted those ambitious large tribes and vassal states. Once they wanted to expand and occupy the surrounding small tribes and vassal states, these small tribes and vassal states would ask for help from the Khan.

Although the population of these Fanbang tribes is not as large as that of the Tang Dynasty, they still have a combined population of tens of millions. When the time comes, Datang only needs to send out thousands or tens of thousands of elites and choose outstanding generals, and it will be able to easily defeat those tribes that dare to resist.

At that time, Tian Khan could order the small tribes to form an alliance to attack them.

Of course, as the sovereign state, His Majesty the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty, Tian Khan has the right to veto. Of course, as the great emperor, Tian Khan will not violate or veto at will.

These small tribes and states are not good as elites, but they are just fine as light cavalry and auxiliary troops to cooperate with the elites of the Tang Dynasty.

Although the population and military strength of one or two small tribes are very small, the sum of ten or twenty will definitely exceed those of the large tribes.

Many tribes welcomed the establishment of the vassal council. You must know that during the Turkic period, what they were most worried about was that they would be destroyed by the Turks one day.

In addition to these, each fan state needs to respond to the Tang Dynasty court's recruitment of troops. The vassal council will calculate the approximate military strength of each fan state. When the court needs it, it can recruit soldiers from the fan states to send troops together with the Tang Dynasty.

And in this way, it also prevents small countries from being destroyed by big countries for no reason, and at the same time limits the rights of big countries. Of course, in order to highlight the status of foreign states such as Xueyantuo, Uighur, and Turks, the imperial court decided to canonize them as khans. Seals, flags, ceremonial guards, and gold books were also awarded.

The vassal council would hold vassal affairs meetings regularly to mediate conflicts and affairs among the vassal states. Imperial officials were responsible for mediating. If mediation could not be achieved, voting would be held. Implemented with more than two-thirds approval.

At the same time, the court did not need to spend too much materials, troops, and food.

Through the checks and balances between the three large tribes, and the remaining small tribes, the imperial court could firmly control these tribes.

In addition, the Wang family of the Western Regions also sent people to come to the table and wanted to join them. Coupled with the power of the Wang family of the Western Regions, the rules and regulations of the Tang Dynasty became even more stable. "Tian Khan is the person blessed by King Haotian Wen. He wants to bring prosperity, stability, and wealth to the world, not war and death. Anyone who dares to violate or destroy this system is a descendant of the Tang Dynasty and other tribes. The enemy, all countries should unite to attack him!"

Li Shimin's declaration made the many small countries who came to pay tribute feel very happy. They prostrated themselves on the ground and shouted: "Your Majesty, the Great Emperor, Khan of Heaven, we are willing to fight for you, please accept our allegiance!"

Seeing this scene, Li Shimin and Wang Xuanjing understood that this time the plan had been successful.

This system also has many shortcomings. The biggest problem is that if the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty messes around, this system will soon be over.

But this is already the best system they can think of now. As for the future, they can only let the Li Tang royal family cultivate outstanding successors.

As for how long this system can run, they don't know. All they can do now is try to improve it and plug those loopholes.

With the help of this system, Datang could control the grassland and obtain a large number of cattle, sheep and other resources from the grassland. At the same time, it also had great control over the countries in the Western Regions.

After solving the grassland problem, the court could then turn its attention to the Western Regions. As for Liaodong, the people of the world were reluctant to conquer Liaodong because of the great turmoil caused by Yang Guang's three expeditions to Liaodong.

They were worried that the Li and Tang royal family would mobilize one million troops and two million people to conquer Liaodong like Yang Guang did.

Therefore, although Li Shimin was wary of Liaodong, he did not decide to conquer Liaodong.

Among the countries in the Western Region, there are some who are close to the Central Plains, and naturally there are also those who hate the Central Plains. There are some who are superficially surrendered, some who are just outsiders, and some who are arrogant.

Especially in many small countries, difficulties and vision, cognition, and arrogance are problems.

The Wang family of the Western Regions has sent envoys to surrender. Datang already has a fulcrum in the Western Regions, and it will be much easier to enter the Western Regions next.

At the same time, Wang Xuanji passed through the Hexi and Hehuang areas. From here to the Western Regions, the imperial army could obtain supplies along the way, which was very convenient.

The Western Turks were not stable during this period. Not long ago, the Western Turks Khan was killed by his uncle. Many nobles of the Western Turks began to fight for power and civil strife broke out.

The strength of the Western Turks is not inferior to that of the DTZ. The previous Western Turk Khan continued to attack and destroy surrounding tribes, and his strength became stronger and stronger.

The powerful Western Turkic Khan began to impose violent conquests. As a result, the tribes under his account began to rebel. Coupled with the failure of the confrontation with the Wang Kingdoms in the Western Regions and the God-given City, the conflict completely exploded.

The Western Turkic Khan was killed, and then the nobles were in civil strife.

After getting the news, the Tang Dynasty wanted to take advantage of the civil strife in the Western Turks and send troops to the Western Regions to bring them back under their rule.

In the next few years, Wang Xuanji will carry out vigorous governance in Hehuang and Hexi. Without the harassment of DTZ, Hexi has become much more stable, which also allows Wang Xuanji to have more energy to govern the place.

(End of this chapter)