big song poppi

Chapter 600 0597 [Fellow countryman, open the door, free trade! ]

Today's Tubo is no longer as powerful as it was during the Tang Dynasty.

This highland country, which had competed with the prosperous Tang Dynasty for more than two hundred years, eventually inevitably fell apart and there was no possibility of unification.

There are many reasons for the demise of Tubo, but the ultimate reason is the cooling climate and the advent of the Little Ice Age.

When the temperature warmed up during the Sui and Tang dynasties, not only the Central Plains benefited, but also the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, which was covered with ice and snow all year round.

As the ice and snow melted, large tracts of frozen soil turned into lush grasslands, the number of cattle and sheep increased dramatically, and barley could also be grown on a large scale.

It was because of this that Tubo had the capital to establish a powerful dynasty.

In the early Tang Dynasty, Tubo often went down to the plateau to plunder. This shows that the road became much easier to travel after the ice and snow melted.

Today, most areas of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau are once again covered with ice and snow, with the long and cold winter occupying more than half of the year. Tubo has once again split into tribes, which are fighting and plundering each other for the remaining pastures and are caught in endless chaos.

At the same time, a new force, the Zuosiluo regime, emerged in Longyou and Hehuang.

The Zuosiluo regime lasted less than a hundred years before it fell apart due to a struggle for the throne.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Wang Anshi discussed with Emperor Shenzong and sent troops to capture the six states of Xi, He, Tao, Min, Die and Dang, and then recovered Lanzhou.

Ironically, when Zhao Ji was in power, the territory of Zhao Song was at its largest.

First, relying on the influence of his elder brother and father, he used Hehuang as a springboard to wipe out the remaining forces in Longyou in one fell swoop, established the Longyou Protectorate, and formed a pincer attack on Western Xia.

Liu Zhongwu made great efforts in this regard. With his extraordinary courage and personal charm, he persuaded a number of Tubo tribes to surrender.

Then he redeemed the seven prefectures in front of the mountain, namely Nanjing Road.

But whether it is Nanjing Road or Longyou Protectorate, they are like flowers in the water and the moon in the mirror.

As the Jin army moved south, the Zhao Song Dynasty was unable to take care of itself, and the Yellow-headed Uighurs and a number of Qingtang tribes of all sizes rebelled and declared independence.

The Longyou Protectorate, which had been established after the efforts of two generations, Emperor Shenzong and Emperor Zhezong, as well as a number of civil and military officials, was gone just like that.

Now, it was not difficult for Han Zhen to take back the Longyou Protectorate, but he did not do so.

The Zhao Song Dynasty expanded its border to the northwest in order to gradually erode the Western Xia.

Han Zhen's strategic approach was completely different from that of Zhao Song. He first destroyed Western Xia and then took Longyou.

Relying on the power of destroying Western Xia, it will be effortless to recover Longyou. Once the heavenly troops arrive, all tribes, big and small, will surrender.

The two strategies each have their own advantages and disadvantages. It is hard to say which one is better than the other. They are just different methods adopted under different national conditions.

After the Zhao Song Dynasty captured the Hengshan Mountains, they pushed the battle line to the doorstep of the Western Xia Dynasty, and Xingqing Prefecture was completely exposed to the Zhao Song army.

At that time, Zhao Song also planned to achieve its goal in one battle, and ordered Liu Fa to lead an army of 300,000 to decide the outcome of the battle.

In the end, the battle was not won, and the commander Liu Fa slipped and fell off a cliff and died during the retreat.

This is very embarrassing.

In desperation, he changed his strategy, first taking Longyou, then encircling Xixia from three sides and gradually eroding Xixia.

Han Zhen did not need to go through so much trouble. He only needed to wait for a year or two for gunpowder and firearms to be manufactured and for food and supplies to be gathered, and then he could launch a war to annihilate the country.

In addition, the Jin people were trapped in the north and unable to move due to his strategic arrangements.

To the south are the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun garrisoned by elite troops, and to the west are Yelu Dashi and Yelu Yudu who occupy Linhuang Prefecture. Now that the Jin people are blocked in the northeast, they are unable to take care of themselves and are completely unable to interfere with Qi's attack on Western Xia.

Wu Min held the tribute list in his hand and suggested, "Your Majesty, how about arranging for the Jin Kingdom envoys to be the first to be received?"

There were hundreds of envoys, so it was naturally impossible for Han Zhen to meet each of them individually.

Therefore, they need to be sorted, and which ones need to be met individually, what the meeting time is, etc., all need to be determined in advance.

Tribes of all sizes, such as Longyou and Tubo, were not qualified to be received by Han Zhen alone, so they were arranged together.

Han Zhen thought for a moment and ordered: "The Jin envoys should move aside and meet with the Goryeo envoys first."

Wu Min thought for a moment and nodded, "Korea has always admired Chinese culture and has been humble and respectful to the Central Plains. It has paid tribute every year and has rarely stopped. It is not an exaggeration to say that it is the most loyal vassal state. It should be placed first."

Han Zhen continued, "The same is true for the Eastern and Western Karakhanid Khanates. I have two concubines from the Western Regions, so they can be the second to be received."

Although the Karakhanid Khanate was a foreign country in the Western Regions, thousands of miles away from here, it had always paid tribute, sending envoys to pay tribute almost every three to five years.

In fact, the geographical location of Zhao Song was very awkward. The vast grassland in the north was occupied by the Liao Kingdom, and the Western Xia was in the middle of the northwest, blocking the way to the Western Regions. There were Dali and Annan in the southwest, which meant that Zhao Song could only play around in the Central Plains, and its influence was naturally limited.

Logically speaking, even if the Karakhanid Khanate wanted to pay tribute, it should have paid tribute to the Liao Kingdom, which was closest to it, had the largest territory and the strongest power. There was no need for it to go through so much hardship and travel thousands of miles to the Central Plains to pay tribute to the Zhao Song Dynasty.

This all stems from a misunderstanding.

During the Zhenguan period, Li Erfeng, with his supreme military force, conquered the 18 tribes of the grassland and the countries in the Western Regions, and was specially given the title of Heavenly Khan.

The predecessor of the Karakhanid Khanate was the Kingdom of Khotan.

Yuchi Sheng, the King of Khotan, once went to the Central Plains to pay homage. The then Emperor Xuanzong of Tang married him with a woman from the royal family and appointed him as the General of the Right Guard. From then on, the King of Khotan often addressed the Emperor of the Central Plains as "Uncle, the Great Official".

Later, the Karakhanid Khanate annexed Khotan, and its understanding of the Central Plains was completely inherited from Khotan.

They believed that the Central Plains was still the extremely powerful Tang Dynasty that destroyed countless countries, and the emperor was still the wise and powerful ruler of the world, the Heavenly Khan.

Therefore, the King of Karakhan was terrified and hurriedly sent envoys to the Central Plains to pay tribute, fearing that his annexation of Khotan would be exposed, thus angering the Khan of Heaven, who sent heavenly soldiers to attack. However, the envoys had no idea about the complex situation in the Central Plains. After arriving, they were immediately dazzled by the prosperity of the Central Plains and felt that they were in a fairyland.

After returning, he immediately told the king and the nobles what he had seen and heard, adding exaggeration to the story.

Sure enough, the Central Plains is still the prosperous Tang Dynasty.

As a result, the Karakhanid Khanate replaced Khotan and became a vassal of Zhao Song, paying tribute every year.

There are still many letters from the Karakhanid Khanate preserved in the palace. Han Zhen also read them. The first sentence at the beginning was "My uncle, the great official."

During the reign of Zhao Ji, after recovering Longyou and opening up connections with the Western Regions, exchanges between the two countries became more frequent.

One day, Zhao Ji had an idea and sent envoys to the Eastern Karakhanid Khanate to ask them to present beautiful jade.

King Ahmad wrote back: [My dear uncle: When you wanted the jade, I tried my best. But it was hard to find one of your size. I have asked someone to look for it. If I find one of your size, I will send it to you.]

To put it bluntly, in one sentence, it is the lingering influence of the prosperous Tang Dynasty.

"can."

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Wu Min responded and said, "Next is the Kingdom of Jin, Xixia, Dali, and Daqin. The audience time for these four countries is 15 minutes each. The three countries of Annan, Zhenla, and Champa will come together. Then there are the tribes of Tubo, Longyou, and finally the small countries on the sea. Your Majesty, is this okay?"

"can."

Han Zhen seemed to be thinking of something, and suddenly asked, "Has Japan sent an envoy?"

As early as the Sui and Tang Dynasties, Wakoku was renamed Japan, but the Central Plains is still accustomed to calling it Wakoku.

The New Book of Tang, Japan, records that in the first year of Xianheng (670), Wa sent envoys to the Tang Dynasty. At that time, Wa had "slightly learned Chinese, disliked the name Wa, and changed its name to Japan. The envoy said that it was named Japan because it had recently left the country."

"Never."

Wu Min shook his head and explained, "The previous dynasty did not establish diplomatic relations with Japan. For more than 160 years, there were only a few letters exchanged. However, there were frequent exchanges between the people. Sometimes Japanese monks crossed the sea to pay homage. From the words of the Japanese people, we learned that Japan is now under the regent of the Fujiwara clan. The country has closed its doors and is isolated overseas. It has never had any contact with Goryeo, which is close at hand."

Although Japan was closed to the outside world, it still did not dare to offend the Central Plains.

In the fifth year of Xianping, Zhou Shichang, a merchant from Jianzhou, was caught in a storm and drifted to Japan. He was taken care of by the Japanese court and stayed there for seven years before returning home.

During these seven years, the Japanese court treated Zhou Shichang with great courtesy, providing him with food, clothing and other daily necessities, arranging for women to serve him, and poets often invited him to banquets, which made his life even more luxurious than when his mother was in China.

"Isolated from the outside world?"

Han Zhen smiled slightly and said no more.

Next year, let Kuang Zixin lead two Shenzhou warship groups to visit Japan.

Fellow countrymen, open the door and trade freely!

Although Japan is a barren land with constant natural disasters, it has abundant silver reserves.

There is a money shortage in the Central Plains right now. Although Han Zhen has temporarily alleviated the problem by issuing blue coins, there are still many problems.

Han Zhen coveted Japan's silver mines, not to exchange them for anchors.

The anchors of Qingqian are grain, salt, cloth and other items. There is no problem with this in itself, and he has no intention of changing it. The purpose of developing silver mines is to fill the gap left by Qingqian.

At present, the smallest denomination of Qingqian is five strings of coins, which means that transactions below five strings of coins are still conducted using copper coins.

It’s not that it’s impossible to print denominations below five strings of cash, but the cost-effectiveness is too low and the imperial court suffers too much.

Whether it is the paper, color-changing ink, or manufacturing process, the blue money is of the highest standard. Even though the technology is mature now and large quantities are printed, which spreads the printing cost, the cost of a blue money is still more than 20 wen, including labor.

Banks have been silently borne this cost.

Notes above five strings of cash are slightly better, as the denomination is larger and the number of copies printed is smaller, so the cost is still within an affordable range.

But if you print blue coins worth less than five strings of cash, it will be a different story. The cost will increase exponentially.

Therefore, after discussing with Gu Song and others, Han Zhen decided that it would be more cost-effective to issue metal currency for amounts below five strings of cash.

The hydraulic coin minting machine has been almost developed, and we are just waiting for the silver mine.

……

After the emperor and his minister discussed the details of the grand court meeting, Wu Min left in a hurry.

Liu Chang then stepped forward and whispered, "Your Majesty, the eunuch just reported that Chief Eunuch Yang will arrive in the capital soon."

Hearing this, Han Zhen's face lit up with joy, and he ordered, "Go and answer it for me."

"Slave, go now."

Liu Chang responded and was about to leave, but he stopped and asked, "Your Majesty, will Zhao Ke meet you?"

Han Zhen thought for a moment and replied, "Bring him into the palace with you."

"The slaves obey."

Liu Chang left quickly.

(End of this chapter)