A Millennium Aristocratic Family Starting from the Shang Dynasty

Chapter 696: Shocking the Plateau and Opening Up the Western Regions

The Tang Dynasty had cultivated and prospered for more than 20 years, and its national strength had been continuously improved. Coupled with the promotion of agricultural technology, although the population of the Tang Dynasty was much smaller than that of the Sui Dynasty, its overall strength had reached 80% of the national strength of the Sui Dynasty in three years.

The most important thing is that Li Shimin supported Wang Xuanjing's immigration policies to consolidate borders, spread small households into acres, reduce corvee and reduce taxes, crack down on powerful people and restrict nobles, and promote books and establish imperial examinations. This gave the imperial court greater control over the world than the Sui Dynasty.

At least in the Tang Dynasty, local officials did not dare to lie as much as they did in the Sui Dynasty, and local powerful and powerful households did not dare to conceal their land.

After these years of recuperation and recuperation, even though the imperial court was lax in its duties and taxes, the national treasury became full, and granaries in various places were filled with grain.

Seeing that the treasury was full and the troops were ready, Li Shimin knew that it was time to deal with the Liaodong Kingdom.

But before solving the Liaodong Kingdom, there is one more thing that needs to be resolved.

The demise of the Sui Dynasty was not caused by natural disasters, but by man-made disasters. Since the Sui Dynasty, the climate has become milder and passed through the Little Ice Age that began in the late Da Qian Dynasty.

Climate change has also brought about huge changes in the plateau. During the Daqian period, the plateau was still a bitterly cold place, but as hundreds of years have passed, climate change has made the plateau relatively warm.

After hundreds of years of development, the Plateau Country also reached its peak at this time.

Because of its extremely high location, the Plateau Country occupies absolute geographical advantages, and after becoming stronger, the Plateau Country also began to develop towards Bashu and Hehuang.

When the Tang Dynasty wiped out Tuyuhun, those plateau countries wanted to seize some territory, but were repelled by the Tang army. The leader of the plateau country was frightened, sent envoys to sue for peace, and asked the Tang Dynasty to marry a princess.

Li Shimin hesitated, and Wang Xuanjing said: "Your Majesty, although the country on the plateau is strong, its rise is rapid and its demise is sudden."

"Although its country is large and occupies a favorable geographical location, its people are ignorant, its craftsmen are backward, the climate on the plateau is cold, and farming is difficult. Even if it is getting better now, it is still not enough to support its year-round campaigns."

"And since Tuyuhun was conquered, the Shibao City from the plateau to Hehuang is also in our hands. The Shibao City is surrounded by water on three sides, making it easy to defend and difficult to attack. As long as the elite soldiers are stationed, the country on the plateau will never be able to pass through."

"If Your Majesty wants to appease the country on the plateau and agree to the marriage, you must not allow craftsmen, medical books, agricultural books and other classics, seeds, medicinal materials, and equipment to enter the plateau as dowries."

Wang Xuanjing's attitude is very clear. He can appease and make good friends with the country on the plateau, but he will never allow advanced technologies such as medical books, craftsmen's books, and agricultural books to flow into the plateau.

For thousands of years, Zhuxia has been able to suppress the surrounding barbarian Hu people, Baiyue people, Qiang people and many other forces. Part of the annexation, integration, and elimination relied on powerful force, and part of it relied on advanced technology and a huge army. population.

The large population allowed Zhuxia to have sufficient soldiers, and it was able to recover quickly even if defeated several times. Advanced technology allowed Zhuxia to have sharp swords, guns, bows and arrows, strong armor, and towering city walls.

With these, Zhuxia defeated the barbarians one after another and finally became strong.

Therefore, craftsmen, agricultural books, medical books, etc. are absolutely not allowed to be taken out of the Tang Dynasty casually.

Li Shimin also understood this, and after careful consideration, he rejected the request of the Plateau Country to marry the princess. The Plateau Kingdom then used this as an excuse to raise troops to attack the Tang Dynasty. However, the Tang army had been prepared for it. Even before the main force of the Tang army arrived, the pioneer Niu Jinda led his army to defeat the Plateau Kingdom army.

Seeing the sharpness of the Tang army, the leader of the Plateau Kingdom was even more frightened, so he once again sent his ministers with five thousand taels of gold and a large amount of jewelry and jade to the Tang Dynasty to beg for peace, and once again proposed to marry the princess.

If it weren't for the harsh climate and environment of the plateau and the fact that the Tang army was not suitable for the plateau climate, Li Shimin would have wanted to capture the plateau. Since it is impossible to annex the Plateau Country now, we can only win over it before wooing it.

So Li Shimin selected a maiden from the clan, named her a princess, and then granted her a marriage to the country on the plateau.

Because of the requirements of Li Shimin and Wang Xuanjing, the princess's dowry did not include various craftsmen, medical books, or agricultural books, but there were many precious luxuries such as gold, silver, jewelry, cloth, sugar, wine, tea, and pearls. At the same time, thousands of volumes of various Buddhist scriptures, Taoist scriptures, etiquette, literature and other aspects are also prepared.

Li Shimin and Wang Xuanjing gave a large amount of fine clothes, food, wine and luxury goods as dowries in order to corrupt the nobles of the plateau country, indulge in enjoyment and wear down their will. And use Buddhism, Taoism, etc. to influence its domestic religions.

Although it is temporarily impossible to annex the Plateau Country, it is still necessary to use various means to weaken the Plateau Country.

After the Tang Dynasty pacified the Plateau Country, the other side also began to explore the Western Regions. Hundreds of years later, Zhu Xia once again entered the Western Regions.

Hou Junji led the Tang army to quickly capture Qiemo with the cooperation of Tiansend City. Then use it as a base to continue to the Western Region.

Among the countries in the Western Regions, Gaochang State was the strongest and was very dissatisfied with the Tang army's intrusion into the Western Regions, so it blocked the connections between the countries in the Western Regions and the Tang Dynasty.

At the same time, he actively contacted the Western Turks and wanted to fight against the Tang Dynasty together.

Seeing this situation, Wang Xuanji and Hou Junji led their troops to attack Gaochang. King Gaochang thought that Gaochang was seven thousand miles away from the Central Plains, with two thousand miles of barren sand moraine in between, so the Tang Dynasty would not send a large army to attack.

It is a pity that if Gaochang State had history books, or if King Gaochang had read the history books of Zhuxia, he would no longer have such an idea. You must know that Daqian hundreds of years ago mobilized tens of thousands of troops and drove thousands of miles to conquer Dayuan State.

You have even gone on an expedition of thousands of miles, so why not seven thousand miles?
While the leader of Gaochang Kingdom was still enjoying himself, the Tang Army and the allied forces of Tianci City had already crossed the sand moraine and arrived at Gaochang Kingdom. Then the elites of the Tang Dynasty swept across Gaochang Kingdom like a strong wind sweeping away fallen leaves.

Hou Junji, Wang Xuanji, and Wang Xuanhe divided their troops into three groups, quickly divided Gaochang Kingdom, and then attacked the capital of Gaochang Kingdom.

Seeing the Tang army besieging the city and the chaos in Gaochang City, Hou Junji took the opportunity to order the army to attack. Gaochang City was quickly breached, and the king of Gaochang died of fear. Even the Western Turkic army that came to rescue Gaochang State was retreating steadily under the Tang army's offensive.

The Western Turkic army wanted to retreat, but was entangled by three thousand fine cavalry from the God-given City. Finally, under the pressure of the coalition forces, they had to surrender.

Seeing the surrender of the Western Turkic army, Gaochang Kingdom no longer had any resistance. Seeing that the situation was over, the prince of Gaochang Kingdom had no choice but to open the door and leave the city to surrender.

After the Gaochang Kingdom was destroyed, Li Shimin ordered the establishment of Tingzhou at the former site of Gaochang Kingdom and stationed a large army to connect the countries in the Western Regions.

(End of this chapter)