Chapter 387 Theory of the Limits of the Empire's Territory
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Liu Yan plucked up the courage and asked, "Your Highness, is this wooden railway more important than the troops in Modong?"
Liu Yan became famous at a young age, and at the age of ten, he was given the title "zhengzi" (zhengzi) by the emperor, which was the position of administrator responsible for looking after the royal library.
But Liu Yan still studied hard and was always strict with himself.
Because Liu Yan’s dream is to become a famous minister like Zhuge Wuhou.
After coming to Longyou, Liu Yan didn't know how good he was, but he was favored by King Jianning.
Being able to work as a reporter next to King Jianning, although this is a low-level official position, Liu Yan also feels that he has benefited a lot.
The reporter's office was responsible for drafting official documents of King Jianning. He often communicated with Li Yan in person and was regarded as Li Yan's personal minister.
The relationship between the two was also relatively close, so Liu Yan asked this question.
Li Yan smiled and asked: "Shi'an, if you are familiar with history books, can you help me clear up my doubts?"
"Your Highness, please speak."
Li Yan asked: "I heard that after King Wu conquered Zhou, the Zhou royal family only controlled the land in the capital."
"King Wu started from the border tribes to establish the Zhou Dynasty on behalf of the Shang Dynasty. Why did he still enfeoff the princes? Doesn't King Wu know the dangers of enfeoffment?"
Liu Yan was stunned for a moment.
Li Yan continued to ask: "Don't King Wu know that the Zhou royal family wants to occupy more territory?"
Liu Yan thought for a while and said: "In ancient times, China was not settled, and King Wu divided the princes into feudal states in order to open up the Zhou territory."
"Why don't the enfeoffed princes appoint counties?"
"this?"
Liu Yan only thought that Li Yan's question was sophistry. It was clear that the system of prefectures and counties only appeared in the Qin Dynasty, so how could the Emperor of Zhou use the system of prefectures and counties.
But after thinking about it carefully, there seems to be some doubts. There are also officials appointed by the royal family in the territory directly under the Zhou royal family. The emperor of Zhou must know that the officials in Liushui are more loyal than the hereditary princes.
Seeing the thoughtful expression on Liu Yan's face, Li Yan asked again:
"Qin defeated the six kingdoms and established prefectures and counties throughout the country, but the second generation perished. When all the heroes came together, where was the army that Qin used to unify the six kingdoms?"
Liu Yan was also stunned at this moment.
The history of the late Qin, Chu and Han periods is very detailed in historical records.
The Qin Dynasty fell too quickly, and Liu Bang invaded Xianyang with great singing.
But when Qin fell, it was only a few decades away from the battle to unify the six kingdoms.
Why did Da Qin's great army that swept the world suddenly disappear?
Li Yan still couldn't answer when he saw Liu Yan.
He continued to ask: "Let's not talk about the distant ones, let's talk about the three towns in Hedong. Why did the emperor appoint An Lushan as the governor of the three towns, allowing him to make arbitrary decisions and withhold the power of taxation? Only in the future did An Lu arrive.
Mountain Chaos.”
"Don't you know how to check and balance An Lushan's power?"
Liu Yan was stunned again.
He had seen Emperor Li Longji, and Liu Yan also knew about the prosperity during the Kaiyuan period.
The emperor also came to power in a coup, and his political methods were quite clever, and he was one of the best among the emperors of the Tang Dynasty.
The emperor manipulated the two prime ministers Li Linfu and Yang Guozhong to suppress the East Palace. Although they ignored government affairs, they were able to make the officials fearful. It is impossible that they did not understand the way of balance.
However, the emperor still granted Anlushan so much power to make emergency decisions. In the end, the three towns in Hedong could not be defeated, which led to the Anlushan Rebellion.
If it was before he became an official, Liu Yan would probably say that the emperor was deceived by An Lushan and deceived by the treacherous officials on the left and right.
But now Liu Yan looked at Li Yan in confusion. What is the connection between these three questions?
Seeing Liu Yan so confused and being able to deceive this child prodigy, Li Yan felt a wicked sense of joy.
He deliberately took a sip of tea and then said:
"Actually, the truth is very simple. There are limits to the empire's borders."
"limit?"
Li Yan said: "During the reign of Emperor Zhou, barbarians were everywhere. Not only were there no cities, but even the roads were muddy."
"The Emperor of Zhou can only control the Gyeonggi area. The feudal states beyond the Gyeonggi area are invaded by barbarians. If the Emperor of Zhou is consulted again and again, the barbarians may have destroyed the feudal states."
"At that time, the emperor of Zhou could only enfeoff the princes, because the Zhou Dynasty could not rule such a large territory."
"When the Qin Dynasty destroyed the Six Kingdoms, there were many cities in the Central Plains. The First Emperor ordered the construction of the Chi Road. After the cars were on the same track, the Qin Road could make everything that happened on the border of Qin be sent to the Imperial Palace of Xianyang Palace for processing. At this time, there was no need
Now that the enfeoffment system has been implemented, counties are a better choice."
"But Qin also died due to the issue of too large a territory. When Liu Bang attacked Xianyang, the Great Wall Corps was guarding the Great Wall in the north, and the regiments that had conquered Wu and Chu were marching south to Lingnan."
"The Qin Dynasty did not have so many troops, so in the end it could only be defeated and the country was destroyed."
Li Yan paused and said:
"The emperor appointed An Lushan and gave him the military governor of three towns for the same reason."
"The three towns in the north have to face numerous foreign tribes from Mobei and Liaodong, first the Turks, then the Khitan and Xi vassal rebellions, as well as the Weishi people, Xianbei people, Fuyu people and other mixed harassment. If Anlu is not given
Without Shan's arbitrary power, I'm afraid these barbarians would have gone south to herd horses long ago."
Liu Yan fell silent.
Li Yan's statement sounds so logical, and reusing An Lushan seems to be an inevitable choice.
Li Yan continued: "Let's talk about soldiers. If we recruit soldiers from Gyeonggi or Guanzhong to guard the border in Hedong, these soldiers will have low morale after leaving their homeland and guarding the border in the bitter cold north."
"The Romance of Fairy Wood"
"If soldiers are rotated to guard the border, the soldiers who have just been trained to fight will be rotated back, and the border generals will have to start training soldiers all over again. The combat effectiveness of the town over there will definitely decline."
"So the emperor gave An Lushan the power to recruit soldiers on his own and asked him to recruit soldiers from the three towns in Hedong."
Liu Yan followed Li Yan's thinking and said that giving An Lushan military power was really helpless.
Li Yan added: "The same is true for financial power. The imperial court collects taxes from the three towns in Hedong, transports them to the two capitals, and then allocates them to Anlu Mountain. Then the losses along the way are huge and a large number of farmers are needed."
"So Grandpa Huang simply gave all the financial rights of the three towns in Hedong to An Lushan."
Li Yan looked at Liu Yan and said, "Shi'an, do you think Grandpa Huang should reuse An Lushan?"
Liu Yan nodded and said, "This subordinate is stupid and cannot answer."
Liu Yan really couldn't answer Li Yan's question, and even Li Mi probably couldn't answer Li Yan's question.
Seeing Liu Yan's dejected look, Li Yan smiled and said:
"This law is summed up as the theory of the limits of empire territory. The territory of any empire has its limits. The collapse of Kaiyuan Tianbao's prosperous era is not so much because of the emperor's extravagance and lust, but rather because of his militarism."
Liu Yan quickly lowered his head, and Li Yan talked about his grandfather, but this was also the previous emperor.
Li Yan had no intention of hiding anything from His Majesty, but said directly: "During the Kaiyuan period, military merit was the most valuable, and border towns all over the country wanted to provoke provocations and make contributions."
"In the three major campaigns of Tianbao, Xianyu Zhongtong gave Nanzhao a large victory. Nanzhao Wangge Luofeng apologized and wanted to cede territory and beg for mercy. Xianyu Zhongtong underestimated the enemy and advanced rashly. In the end, he was annihilated by Nanzhao's entire army, and the soldiers' heads were smashed into the capital."
"An Lushan went out to conquer the Khitans, and all 60,000 troops were destroyed in the black waters of the White Mountains. An Lushan was able to escape guilt by bribing the court ministers."
"The last one is the Battle of Henglus. After the battle with Dashi, the Western Region was in turmoil. The elite Tang army in the Western Region was lost. The Tang Dynasty could no longer command the countries in the Western Region. Bandits were everywhere on the Silk Road, and many small countries turned to their side.
Big food."
"This is all because the empire has reached the limit of its rule. After reaching this limit, the cost of occupying new territories will be higher than the value of these newly occupied territories."
"The expansion of territory at this time is to bleed the empire continuously. Until the empire is weak, careerists will rebel."
Liu Yan was so shocked that he couldn't add anything. He didn't expect that King Jianning's views were so profound, and he almost pointedly explained the emperor's mistakes during the Tianbao period.
Scholar-officials like Liu Yan could not understand why Li Longji, who had been very wise during the Kaiyuan period, frequently made mistakes during the Tianbao period, and finally gave up both capitals to the rebels.
But after Liu Yan listened to Li Yan's analysis, it seemed that these turmoils were destined to happen.
Only then did Liu Yan remember the original topic and asked, "Your Highness, what does this have to do with the wooden track train?"
Li Yan then said: "Did you forget that I just mentioned a successful case? The First Emperor unified the six countries and established the first unified dynasty in history by using counties instead of enfeoffing."
"What did the First Emperor rely on? Not only did he rely on the system of counties and counties, but also the Chidao that ran through the territory of Qin Dynasty."
"These roads run through all the prefectures and counties in the Qin Dynasty, so that what happened in the prefectures and counties can be quickly sent to Xianyang for the First Emperor to see."
"Chidao and the Great Wall also mean that the North does not need so many troops. They only need to station troops at key nodes. They can provide rapid support through convenient transportation, saving the country's military costs."
"Chi Dao is the reason why the Qin Empire's territory can be larger!"
Li Yan stood up, looked at the map of Longyou and said: "Wooden-track horse-drawn train, no, the train is our horse-drawn road in Longyou!"
"It takes two carriages of goods and one carriage of passengers to reach Wuwei from Zhangye in six hours."
"If the whole of Longyou is connected to the train, then the army from Beiting will be sent to Wuwei City in only ten days."
"Gaochang grain can be delivered to the border in one week."
"Then the empire's territory can continue to expand."
Liu Yan was completely stunned. Li Yan's words could be said to be extremely profound, like a bolt of lightning flashing through Liu Yan's heart.
A small railway has such terrifying power.
But if you think about it carefully, the few examples Li Yan gave can be explained clearly using the "imperial territory limit theory".
Liu Yan heard an old saying, "He who hears the truth in the morning will die in the evening." He bowed and bowed to Li Yan and said:
"Your Highness is gifted with divine talents, but this subordinate is stupid, so I have to trouble Your Highness to explain my doubts."
Li Yan helped Liu Yan up and said, "Shi'an, how long have you been by my side?"
"Your Highness, it has been three months since I returned."
Li Yan said: "Han Feizi said, 'The prime minister must start from the state department.' Although I can't bear to leave you, I still hope you can go down there and experience it."
"I am planning to build a city in Tongliao in the Songmo Governor's Mansion. I have appointed Pang Yawei as the Governor of Songmo and promoted you to the position of Chief Historian of the Governor's Mansion."
"Pang Yawei is good at military affairs. Please give him a lot of praise when it comes to government affairs."