Song Gexing

Chapter 278 Rebuilding Anxi Military Town
"Order: Bastard, I asked you to travel overseas, not to do ridiculous things... I will spare you this time, but next time, go back to your hometown..."

When the capital of Goryeo was opened, Li Xian read out the imperial edict and said with a smile: "Governor Zhang, please get up quickly! The officials have no intention of blaming them. They just want to silence the ministers and have to make a statement. Isn't this still appointing you?" Governor, please don’t take it seriously!”

Zhang Dun laughed loudly and said: "Li Jianjun doesn't need to explain. Zhang is an official and can be infamy for thousands of years. How can he be resentful if he just reprimands a few words? Besides, Zhang is well aware of the difficulties of the official. This is not his original intention."

The two looked at each other and laughed. Li Xian refused to leave this time and stayed to be Zhang Dun's supervisor. This was the right intention. After all, it was not just Jeju Province now.

Zhang Dun also admires Li Xian now. In the northwest battle, Li Xian led his troops alone three times in a row and defeated his opponents completely, showing his extremely high military talent.

Now some people have compared Li Xian with Lu Shouqin. The other Li Shunju is also very powerful, but just a little bit behind.

As for Wang Zhongzheng, his military ability is somewhat inferior to these two, but this guy has more merit because the tribes in the snow area were persuaded to join him.

In other words, Wang Zhongzheng did not actually fight any major victories, but he recovered northern Tubo. As a result, the entire territory of Tubo was almost completely wiped out.

He is still staying in Tubo, trying to persuade the remaining tribes to surrender to the Song Dynasty, and it seems that this goal will be successful soon.

Because of the retreat of the Liao Kingdom, all the Western Regions were included in the state map. The Seljuqs could no longer hold on and were seeking to negotiate and surrender.

As for the western khans of the Black Khanate, they did not participate in this operation at all. Naturally, the Song Dynasty could not take action against them. After all, they were also vassals of the Song Dynasty.

Moreover, the area under the jurisdiction of the Western Khan is in the river area, and the border between the east and the west is bounded by the Xihong River.

"I have the original play!"

Seljuk's request for peace talks was sent to Bianjing. After Zhao Fang held a super meeting to discuss it, he agreed to the other party's request. Just when he was about to announce the end of the super meeting, Sima Guang walked out of the queue to announce.

When Zhao Fang saw it was him, he scratched his head secretly, thinking that this old man was here to cause trouble again.

But they were doing things in a proper manner, and it was impossible not to accept it, so I had no choice but to nod and say: "Sima Qing, please speak, I am listening."

"I request you to rebuild the four towns of Anxi and restore the previous dynasty's strategy of managing the Western Regions."

"Rebuild the four towns of Anxi?"

Zhao Fang was stunned and asked in confusion: "Is the provincial system bad? Why do we need to rebuild the military town model? Aren't you worried about the separation of feudal towns?"

He asked three times in a row, not to blame, but because he really didn't understand Sima Guang's brain circuit.

The establishment of the Four Towns in Anxi during the Tang Dynasty was a helpless choice, because at that time the nomadic people in the Western Regions were very powerful, and there were fixed countries such as the Nine Surnames of Zhaowu.

The Tang Dynasty actually controlled the nine surnames of Zhaowu, and the four towns of Anxi were established to frighten them and prevent them from defecting to the Arab Empire.

In addition, the four towns were originally the habitats of nomadic peoples such as Geluolu and Tuqishi. To put it bluntly, they were established to appease the Western Turks.Moreover, during the Tang Dynasty, Tubo was equally powerful and had always coveted the Western Regions. The Tang army was actually flanked by two sides in the four towns of Anxi.

But this situation no longer exists. Tubo has been integrated into the territory of the Song Dynasty. The Arab Empire in the West has collapsed long ago. There is no unified dynasty that can resist the Song Dynasty.

Is it unnecessary to set up military towns again? The provincial system should be the strategy to prevent future divisions.

Hearing his puzzled question, Sima Guang solemnly said: "I propose to rebuild the military town, not to change the provincial system of Xinjiang Province, but because the Western Region is vast and sparsely populated, and the Song Dynasty initially determined the territory, whether it was Khotan or Gaochang. , or the people of the Black Khanate are accustomed to a nomadic life and have no fixed residence, so it is difficult to effectively manage their household registration. Therefore, I suggest the establishment of military towns, which are garrison troops placed under the provinces, giving them enough space for independent military operations. , in order to better control possible separatists..."

Sima Guang's long speech made the ministers nod frequently, and it sounded very reasonable.

Zhao Fang lowered his eyebrows and pondered: "Wait a minute, let me think about it. The boundary line between the Tang Dynasty and Baiyi Dashi is the Amu Darya River. The area between the Amu Darya River and the Syr Darya River belongs to Jisu, which is Zhaowu. The territory of five of the nine surnames..."

The Amu Darya River was called the Jihun River in the Song Dynasty, and the Syr Darya River was called the Xihong River. They are both rivers leading to the Aral Sea, pouring into the north and south ends of the Aral Sea respectively.

The vast area between the two rivers was rich in water and grass, which was not only conducive to nomadic herding, but also was reclaimed as farmland. This was the famous Hezhong area in later generations.

That is to say, the entire territory of Uzbekistan and the southwestern region of Kazakhstan later came under the jurisdiction of the western Great Khan of the Black Khanate.

"No, it is not four towns. It is divided into five towns for garrison. One town in Gaochang is the logistics headquarters of the four towns. The admiral-general military officer is in charge. The remaining four towns are the garrison envoys. The post of deputy garrison commander is established. The deputy garrison envoy is a civil servant. To handle government affairs, the garrison envoys serve as military ministers and are in charge of military affairs."

Zhao Fang raised his eyes and said loudly. The ministers were startled and wondered: "Four towns are enough to guard the task, why do we need to add one town to control them all?"

Sima Guang frowned and said: "To control everything is the drawback of the feudal system. What do you mean by this, Your Majesty?"

Zhao Fang shook his head and said: "Otherwise, now that Xinjiang Province has envoys to manage government affairs and governors to supervise, it will be difficult to form a vassal town. The purpose of establishing this headquarters is to have enough power to handle emergency military affairs. Please don't forget it. After Dunhuang and Yumen Pass, there is a thousand miles of Gobi. Once there is a dispute, it will be difficult for the court to respond quickly and deal with emergencies."

The ministers were stunned for a moment and whispered among themselves. After a while, someone came forward to support. Han Qi and other cabinet members also discussed in low voices with the three chief officials of the Privy Council, and they quickly reached an agreement.

"I support what your Majesty said. Gaochang City is indeed the best location. It connects Guazhou to the east and controls Yanqi and Qiuci to the west. It is also a place with dense population and prosperous commerce. It should be under control."

Gaochang City is located in the center of the Turpan Basin, which is the administrative center of Turpan City in later generations. Its strategic location is extremely important.

Seeing that the cabinet and the Privy Council agreed, the ministers stopped talking and started planning to rebuild the location of the military town.

Of the four towns in Anxi during the Tang Dynasty, only three of the ancient cities remained in this era, namely Qiuci, Shule and Yutian. Suiye City had long since disappeared in ruins into the yellow sand.

Moreover, the layout of the four towns in Anxi is actually not very reasonable. The focus is on southern Xinjiang, while there is only one Broken Leaf City in northern Xinjiang.

Moreover, Suiye City was far away from Xinjiang and was built in Kyrgyzstan in later generations. As for the later Beiting Protectorate, it was northeast of Urumqi and closer to Mongolia.

(End of this chapter)