You don't have to think carefully about this, it is simply a thunderbolt.
……but.
The northwest is easy to talk about. Maintain military presence, maintain the Tang Dynasty's technology, and academic focus in that area. Highly integrate with the Forbidden Army while indirectly promoting economic development. Just keep doing this. There are military and weapons research institutes, such as Lingzhou College.
There is no shortage of talents in the top universities in the northwest. At the same time, there are trade routes opened by the Forbidden Army. In recent years, as trade routes have matured, they have gradually transferred financial support from the port of Hangzhou to the northwest...
It's quite simple to do.
But the direction of the South China Sea is...
Although trade routes are now becoming more mature, and sea-going ships carry goods to and from Hangzhou Port in Datang to many areas, the shipwreck casualty rate is no longer as high as in the past... It can be said that nearly half of the sea-going ships were damaged directly from the original.
It has become about 10% of what it is now - it is also for this reason that Datang gradually transferred financial support back to the northwest...
However, it is one thing that sea vessels can safely travel between Hangzhou and Southeast Asia, the subcontinent, the Persian Gulf, and Africa.
How much power the Tang Dynasty can project in these places is another matter. The current situation in the Tang Dynasty...
Although it is still the early years of Zhenguan - yes, in a truly long-term, strategic time scale, the Tang Dynasty is now in its early years. At this point in time, the population size of the Tang Dynasty has just experienced the hundreds of years of the Southern and Northern Dynasties.
During the great turmoil, we also experienced the great turmoil at the end of the Sui Dynasty, which was a highly insufficient situation.
…But that’s what it is said, in fact, in recent years, Datang has developed cement and water conservancy projects have developed significantly. Many places have become “not afraid of floods and droughts”. At the same time, there are also chemical fertilizers.
The shaft and plow...these things help.
And this means that despite the insufficient population, the farmland area of Datang is... In the past few years, it has been growing crazily at a rate like algae.
The crazy growth of farmland area, in the short term... is simply the best thing in the world. After all, the people are getting richer and can eat well, the imperial court's annual income has increased, and the small town still has thousands of families, which is simply a blessing.
But what about in the long run? Things are not certain.
If the growth of farmland area is synchronized with the population, growing in a nearly straight line on the coordinate system, that would be fine; however, the population of Datang has not increased now, which means that the current growth of farmland in Datang...
It is the growth of the per capita cultivated area of the farming population!
This is good for farmers in the short term, but... the improvement of farming capabilities also means that more people must leave the land. If only one person can farm a ten-acre field
and a good harvest, so why do we need two people to plant it?
When the day comes... the population of the Tang Dynasty will gradually increase, problems will gradually emerge: Originally, one person could eat ten acres of land, be full and happy, be very beautiful, and have no problems. But as the population grows, it may become two in the future.
I have cultivated ten acres of land.
...In other words, the farmland area held by each person in Datang will decrease, and the decrease in this number will inevitably mean a decrease in the quality of life...and the consequent turmoil!
In other words.
On the surface, things seem to be good things. For example, a person who used to cultivate three acres of land can now cultivate ten acres of land with water conservancy and chemical fertilizers. It looks good, but in the long run, there will be dangerous hidden dangers.
And to solve this problem...
The Tang Dynasty naturally had to find areas other than farming to arrange the growing population, which would continue to grow. The key to this... was to develop industry, and the second was to obtain resources from overseas.
.
After surviving, you must grow stronger.
Life may not necessarily become extinct because of lack of power, but civil strife will break out because it stops making progress. Li Er and others were born in the late Sui Dynasty, and they were burdened with hundreds of years of bloody history in the Northern and Southern Dynasties. They knew this very well.
For this reason, the Tang Dynasty invested huge sums of money to develop sea routes, trade economy, and corresponding industries.
Of course, these are not the primary issues for Li Er when he comes to the South China Sea now, but...for this reason, he cannot use too much of the transportation capacity of Hangzhou Port - and he must consider that unemployment, like famine, will cause refugee problems.
.
So... if this idea is to be pursued, of course it will be carried out in other places. Besides Hangzhou, we will see if there are other places where we can set up military towns and open up shipping routes... That's right.
Now Li Erjun and his ministers' overall strategic plan for the Tang Dynasty is on this sea. The forbidden army in the northwest must become stronger and stronger. This is the basis for survival and cannot be abandoned. In addition to survival, if you want to make progress... Because of the restrictions of the plateau,
It was necessary to vigorously develop the navy at the same time. After final discussion, Li Er and the ministers decided to open up another port on the coastline of the Tang Dynasty, preferably a special maritime area composed of multiple ports, dedicated to more sophisticated
Make overseas plans!
And this location...
Li Er repeatedly collected intelligence information and finally selected this land called "Panyu". It is said that Panyu is also an unpopular county because it is located on the seaside, the soil is saline and alkaline, and because it is also close to the coast, this
Although there is no shortage of water resources on this land, they are often faced with crocodiles swimming up from the sea——
Yes, Panyu has been troubled by the problem of rampant crocodiles since ancient times, because it is too easy to get ashore. Especially these crocodiles are the king of crocodiles, the largest and most ferocious crocodiles... It is even more difficult to deal with.
, people’s livelihood problems are quite serious, no less serious than many bitter and cold places in the northwest.
According to later historical records, when Liu Zongyuan, a literary master of China's generation, was an official, he was sent to this area to inspect places. The first thing he encountered when he took office was that crocodiles ate fishermen to extinction.
In later generations, poisonous diseases often breed in the Panyu area. In addition to being too close to the Golden Triangle area, another major factor is... To put it bluntly, the countryside here is too poor. The land cannot be cultivated for food and has to face wild beasts. This is not ordinary.
Resisting pressure is something I’m used to.
But at the same time, although the land here is inconvenient for farming, it is close to the sea and has a good harbor... so Li Er recently also took a fancy to it, and then he decisively decided to go south and take a look for himself...
Of course, Li Er was not a fool, so he also arranged for Li Sheng to go out and let Li Sheng inspect Panyu and the entire area in the name of the imperial court.
...After all, there is such a living, fully automatic machine here, if it is not used, it would be a waste of resources!
Then as a merchant from Chang'an, I passed by this place, so we had this meeting...
And after seeing this all the way, Li Er was really a little worried...because this place called Panyu is really not ordinary poor, it is so poor that it has not changed.
