After lunch, the waiter brought tea to everyone, and everyone drank tea and chatted.
Zhang Lixiao asked: "I heard that His Highness is planning to take the daughter of the Shen family of Wu Xing as a concubine. Is it true?"
Li Ye smiled and nodded, "Jiangnan is now our largest source of wealth, and it is also the place where the population of the Tang Dynasty is most concentrated. I visited Jiangnan this time, and I deeply feel that the relationship between the court and Jiangnan is not enough. In order to win over the Jiangnan nobles, marriage is the best solution.
A good idea, but unfortunately my son is too young to help me, so I have to go into battle myself."
Everyone laughed, and Pei Zunqing said with a smile: "Your Highness can't favor one over the other. He only cares about marrying with the Jiangnan nobles while leaving us Hedong nobles aside."
Duan Xiushi also smiled and said: "We still need to stabilize the countries in Anxi, and Her Royal Highness Princess Qiuci should also consider it!"
"Your Highness, there are also Bashu nobles!"
"Your Highness, don't forget the Central Plains nobles!"
"Your Highness, appeasing the Hebei nobles is also a top priority!"
Li Ye had a big headache and quickly raised his hands and said: "We will talk about it later, please don't put pressure on me now!"
Everyone joked, and Li Xian asked with a smile: "Your Highness, how is the war in Taiyuan?"
Li Ye pondered for a moment and said to everyone: "Currently, 80,000 troops have surrounded Taiyuan City. It is not a big problem to capture the city, but I don't want street fighting to break out and the people in the city will be annihilated, so we specially left the east city for him to retreat.
But Tian Shenyu resolutely refuses to retreat. If street fighting cannot be avoided, then we can only annihilate the opponent with overwhelming advantage. Now I have added 30,000 troops and transferred Guo Ziyi to Taiyuan to take charge. We must win Taiyuan City with minimal casualties."
After drinking tea, everyone got up and returned to Daming Palace.
After resting for half an hour, as the bell rang, the afternoon court affairs began again.
In the political hall, Li Ye hung a huge map. He pointed at Liuqiu Island with a wooden pole and said: "I told you about Liuqiu Island before. Its importance will not be detailed here. At present, Liuqiu County
It has been established, right in the center, and then I will consider building a new county on the southern coast.
However, I am considering building a military city in this new county. There will be 3,000 naval troops stationed there, and their families will live in the county. Since it is a naval city, this is also a big port, where tens of thousands of ships can be berthed, so the location must be found.
It is located in a natural harbor. There is indeed such a natural harbor at present, so everyone’s question arises: why not build a civilian city but a military city?”
Speaking of this, Li Ye smiled slightly and said: "Actually, this is not the same thing as the military city in Anxi. People still live in it, but most of them are family members of the army. There will also be ordinary people living here. The key is
It is the function of this city. Its existence has two meanings. One is to facilitate our control of Liuqiu Island, and the other is to facilitate our expansion of territory to the south. It is actually a springboard."
Li Ye's wooden pole pointed to the large island group in the south, "This is a large archipelago with thousands of islands, most of which are uninhabited. The entire island area is at least equivalent to three rivers. The northernmost part of this archipelago is
A large island equivalent to Hedong Road, with a vast and fertile plain inside, it is about 600 miles away from the southern military city of Liuqiu to be built. It can be reached in a few days by sea ship. As early as the Soochow period, it was discovered by the Soochow navy.
Yes, but Soochow did not have the ability to occupy and develop it at that time."
"Excuse me, Your Highness, is there anyone on the island?" Zhang Li asked.
Li Ye shook his head, "Most of them are deserted. There are only a few natives living on some islands in the south. They are no different from the natives in Southeast Asia."
At this time, Li Dai frowned and said: "I don't quite understand, what's the point of developing these islands? We still have a large area of land in Lingnan Road that has not been developed, and even land in Liaodong. His Highness said last time, over there
It is a tropical area, covered by forests, and must be full of poisonous insects and widespread miasma. Can our Han people live in such a place?"
Liu Yan also said: "Your Highness, even if we forcibly move tens of thousands of people there, it will not bring any benefits to the court. Instead, it will become a huge burden for the court. The court will continue to spend money and food for support. This is actually nothing.
significance.
This is why we oppose the construction of a military city in the southern part of Liuqiu. If it were just to build an ordinary county town to control Liuqiu Island, we would pass it, but the big island His Highness mentioned is too far away."
Li Ye waved his hands and said with a smile: "Listen to me, everyone, I don't want to develop there now. Just like Li Xiangguo said, it is a primitive no-man's land. It would cost a lot of money for us to develop there now, and it is meaningless.
But what I mean is that if we first occupy a point along the coast and establish a government office, then the entire archipelago will become the land of the Tang Dynasty. We can first build a trading seaport, where our merchant ships can replenish and recuperate, and our navy can be dispatched at any time.
Combating piracy will greatly promote trade between us and Southeast Asia, and the benefits are clearly visible!"
Everyone murmured, and they were a little tempted by Jianguo's suggestion. Build a trade city, and by doing so, the Tang Dynasty would triple the land on Hedong Road. The trade city could develop trade with Nanyang, and the benefits would indeed be huge.
At this time, Li Dai said slowly: "Let's do this! The southern city of Liuqiu is still the same as Liuqiu County in the north. A county town will be built. Of course, it will be a county town with a seaport and can station naval forces, but it will be positioned as a civilian city rather than a city.
Military city.
Second, I think it is feasible to build a Nanyang Trade City on the big island in the south, but we do not agree with immigration to develop the hinterland. If His Highness can agree to these two points, then we can discuss the proposal to allocate funds!"
Li Ye knew that he had to compromise appropriately in the end. In fact, he also knew that the population of the Tang Dynasty was currently insufficient. The Anshi Rebellion had greatly damaged the vitality of the Tang Dynasty. The population had dropped sharply, and it would take time to slowly recover.
It is unrealistic to immigrate overseas for development now, but he just wants to occupy a point. With this point, the entire Luzon Islands can belong to the Tang Dynasty. When the population of the Tang Dynasty increases to 100 million people in the future,
Immigration was a matter of course. At that time, with more advanced technology, it was much easier to develop islands.
After thinking about this, Li Ye nodded and agreed, "According to Li Xiangguo's suggestion, I will revise the proposal!"
The revised proposal was unanimously approved by the political hall in the afternoon of the same day, agreeing to allocate 1 million yuan to Quanzhou for the renovation of Wanshi Shipbuilding and the construction of a second county town, with half of it each for the inner treasury and the left treasury.
In the afternoon of the same day, Li Ye appointed Guo Ziyi, the defense envoy of Henan Province, as the deputy marshal of the Eastern Campaign, and went to Taiyuan to take charge of the coordination and command of the attack on Taiyuan City. At the same time, Li Ye quickly increased his troops to Taiyuan by 30,000, and sent a hundred three-ships to Taiyuan.
Qianshi's siege ship passed through the Yellow River and sailed along the Fen River to Taiyuan City.
At the same time, Taichang Qingtian Shengong was appointed as the pacifier of Taiyuan to participate in the siege of Taiyuan.
In the official room, Li Ye met with Tian Shengong.
Li Ye walked a few steps with his hands behind his back and said to Tian Shengong: "If Tian Shenyu is willing to surrender, I can promise not to kill him and make him the Duke of Dai. He can retire in Chang'an and enjoy all the glory. In addition, I will also give him
With his family status, one of his sons can be an official in the court.
This is the biggest concession I can make, and it is also the end of my benevolence. If he still refuses to surrender, then he will be ruined and die."
Tian Shengong bowed and said: "Your Highness, please rest assured. I will do my best to persuade Tian Shenyu. If he still refuses to surrender, that will be his fate. However, I will still persuade the generals below to lead their troops to surrender in order to slow down the attack on Taiyuan City as much as possible."
of destruction.”
Li Ye nodded, "I asked Tian Shijun to go to Taiyuan City for this purpose, and try our best to reduce the damage to Taiyuan City."
However, the fleet failed to make the trip in the end, and the Yellow River was frozen.
