Li Po was generally satisfied, and then he asked another key question, "Since the Qiang people are willing to submit to the Tang Dynasty, why can't they be allowed to become Tang people? Wouldn't that be better?"
Fan Wenjin also entered the state, shook his head and said: "Your Majesty, how sincere do you think Tuyuhun was when he surrendered? But if you make the slightest mistake, you will repeat the same thing. Why?"
Li Po nodded. Fan Wenjin was right. People who are not from our race must have different minds. Since the Qin and Han Dynasties, there have been too many examples of Tuyuhun. Even Li Po could easily list a few.
Moreover, this kind of game has been played by dynasties throughout the ages, and the strategies to deal with it are also similar and different. Similarly, the Central Plains dynasties do not always have the upper hand.
The Wuhu chaos in China is not far away, leaving the Han people in the Central Plains without any confidence to say that the heaven will come to the country.
This is also the wonderful thing about history. If one company were to dominate, Asia would probably be a backwater, and people would quickly lose the motivation and enthusiasm to move forward.
Precisely because there are foreigners who are always watching with eager eyes, the Central Plains can continue to develop a dazzling civilization. Heroes who resist foreign invasions emerge from time to time, and the social structure is constantly improving.
Every great civilization is born and grows in blood and fire. This is determined by the laws of history and is not based on personal will.
The foreign policy of the Tang Dynasty had something in common with the former Sui Dynasty, that is, it was flexible and changeable, which was inseparable from Li Po's character.
If you have a good method, you might as well use it. As for the effect, you will only know after trying it. The main reason is that he does not seek to solve many foreign troubles once and for all.
Fighting a war and settling down for decades is the rational expectation when facing foreign enemies. Uprooting sounds very refreshing, but in fact it is extremely difficult to operate and requires many prerequisites.
Even if it was the Japanese country, Li Po was not sure that he had truly killed his ancestors who lived in those early days, because the Japanese country was isolated overseas, and as long as the Central Plains dynasty fell into war, it was reasonable for such a place to seek independence.
Do you think you are willing to recognize your ancestors and return to the clan because they are all from the Tang Dynasty? It doesn’t take much time. As long as you cut off contact with the Central Plains for a few decades and update the previous generation or two, there may be no difference between you and foreigners.
Li Po never overestimates human nature, so he mostly holds a pessimistic attitude towards some things, and this is actually the case when it comes to dealing with Hu.
He believes that no matter how wise the strategy seems now, it is difficult to ensure that the Tang Dynasty can maintain long-term stability. Most of the dynasties in the Central Plains have a lifespan of several hundred years, and there are not even thousand-year empires, which further proves this point.
Therefore, it is a standard exaggeration to say that those who do not plan for the eternity are not enough to plan for the temporary. Those who can plan for the temporary are very good. Why do you still want to plan for the eternal and deceive ghosts?
This sentence basically tells people that they need to take a longer-term view, otherwise no matter how good the strategy is, it can only be limited to immediate benefits and belongs to the category of short-sightedness. This kind of strategy is not the best strategy that those in power should pursue.
…………
"You don't need to say so much, sir. Just sort it out and write it down and send it to the province for resolution. But one thing is that peace in the northwest is hard-won, so don't make too much noise.
In any case, it has been six years since the founding of the Tang Dynasty, and it has been fighting every year. It is time to recuperate and recuperate. Except for the Turks, everything else is a delicate disease. As long as the Tang Dynasty has strong soldiers and horses, it will not be able to cause big troubles.
Come."
Fan Wenjin understood. These words were both an explanation and a warning. The overall situation in Liangzhou was decided, and maintaining this status quo was very labor-saving.
But if you want to eliminate future disasters based on speculation, you must be more cautious. Once the Qiang rebellion is provoked, there is no need to ask for the blame. Fan Wenjin will definitely bear the blame.
But this is normal. His strategy to control the barbarians was obviously different from the strategies adopted by Li Jing and Feng Deyi, because Li Jing's strategy was to control chaos, which was to knock down the arrogance of the barbarians, and the methods were naturally fierce and violent.
Feng Deyi inherited the various policies of the former Sui Dynasty in dealing with the Turks, and then proposed national policies based on the current situation of the Tang Dynasty. The imperial court used them, and the results remain to be seen.
Even if the effect is not as expected, Feng Deyi cannot be blamed for any omissions in this long-term national policy.
But Fan Wenjin's best strategy is different. The Qiang people in Liangzhou are not a big deal at the moment. It's not wrong for you to want to pursue a long-term plan, but if you ruin the current good situation, you will be responsible for it, and you can't shirk it at all.
It's just that being an official involves this kind of risk, otherwise no one would want to make trouble out of nothing, adhering to the concept of doing too much and making mistakes, and not doing well. There is nothing worthy of praise for such a court and such officials.
…………
"I must do my best and not let His Majesty down."
Li Po smiled, thinking that such an answer was really boring, "You should try your best to take good care of yourself, otherwise how can you serve me?
What I’m disappointed about right now is that the food cooked in your house really doesn’t taste good. Is there anything special about the food in Liangzhou?”
This turn was a bit big, and Fan Wenjin almost ducked out of the way.
He heard Chu Suiliang say that the emperor likes delicious food, and then he tentatively asked, is the emperor so beautiful?
Chu Suiliang looked like he couldn't explain anything, and said that the general manager had been working in Beijing for a long time, so he would naturally know.
So Fan Wenjin thought that the emperor must have had a lot of fun... Even his ministers didn't dare to talk about it in private, otherwise he would say that the emperor was not beautiful and grand?
However, food and sex are also important. For an emperor, as long as he doesn't go too far, it's really not a big problem.
Fan Wenjin twitched the corner of his mouth and forced a smile. The emperor didn't want to talk about business anymore, so he naturally had to go along with it, "The food in the northwest is rough, how can it be compared with Chang'an?
It’s just that some of the food is a bit different..."
As he spoke, Fan Wenjin's face turned slightly red, and he felt ashamed in his heart. He felt a bit sycophantic when he said this. After all, he was a serious scholar.
Li Po picked two more mushrooms to eat. He knew that there probably wasn't anything good in Liangzhou. People there mostly ate beef and mutton, and they might not even be able to taste fresh fish.
Moreover, it is greatly influenced by the Kansai diet. Most of the food is grilled or boiled, and mixed with pasta. In fact, even if the cooking method is simple, wealthy people can still satisfy their appetites.
Ordinary people don't pay that much attention. The food they make is good enough to eat. The most important thing is to find ways to get some food that is easy to store to survive the long winter.
There are not good conditions in remote places in the northwest. Even for officials like Fan Wenjin, the food they eat is probably the same. Li Po stayed in Mayi County, which is not much different from Liangzhou.
…………
"Oh? You might as well come and listen."
Not to mention that Liangzhou does have a few local characteristics, but the cooking method is very special and the taste is just the same.
One is the Sanyang Bell. This is not a work of art, but a serious Xiliang delicacy.
Put the three sheep into the cast bell and cook them together. One pot can be eaten by several families for several days. The main reason is that the cooked sheep soup is quite delicious.
According to this method, the northwest people will put two cows in and treat them according to the law. This is the exclusive delicacy of the rich, because ordinary herdsmen are reluctant to kill cows.
The other is mutton cavity noodles. Liangzhou people mix the noodles into pancakes, stuff them into the prepared mutton cavity, and cook them together, which is almost the same as the later mutton steamed buns.
Li Po imagined it for a moment and felt that it was difficult for him to eat such crap now. Damn it, it was really easy to go from frugality to luxury, but hard to go from luxury to frugality.
At that time in Mayi, everyone's eyes were so hungry that they ate meat? If soil could be eaten, a layer of the land in Mayi would be scraped off.
If he hadn't invented treasure soup, many people would have died in Mayi.
Yang Guang is really nothing, Li Po muttered in his heart.
Fan Wenjin is the same. He doesn’t understand life at all. He has become the manager of Liangzhou and doesn’t enjoy much? This is really...
Li Po felt that he should enlighten Lao Fan in the future. Government affairs are always busy, and people need to have some hobbies to be more interesting.
Of course, this is just to talk while standing without pain in the back. If you don’t pay attention to that damn place in Liangzhou, your life will be gone. How can you talk about enjoying it?
…………
At the end of the moon, Li Po was surrounded by people and left Fan Mansion.
After talking to Fan Wenjin for a while, we were able to roughly understand this man's temperament. He was a man of great integrity and well-mannered. He was not eager to show off his talents in front of the emperor, and he seemed to be hiding his clumsiness.
In terms of conversation, he is average. He is neither smart nor interesting, nor can he be said to be stubborn. As for his talent...it is hard to say. There must be something evil about the characters who have been trained in Liangzhou.
But if compared with Feng Deyi, Wen Yanbo, Xiao Yu and others, his demeanor and demeanor fell behind first, not calm enough, let alone the demeanor of everyone.
This is understandable. After all, Fan Wenjin has no family background and has probably never received aristocratic education since he was a child. Compared with several prime ministers, his external conditions are definitely worse.
His health is also not very good, which is what Li Po is more concerned about. Fan Wenjin is only in his forties, and at this age, he cannot be said to be in the prime of life. However, Fan Wenjin's health is too poor. There is a question mark as to whether Fan Wenjin can bear the heavy responsibility.
The body is the capital of the revolution. This is the same no matter before or in the future. It seems that the imperial doctors must give a good diagnosis and treatment. Don't be like Feng Deyi. If he died of illness in office, it would be very sorry for the founder of the country.
A hero.
But what Li Po admired the most was that it could be seen from his words that Fan Wenjin was not a person eager for quick success and quick gains, and acted very calmly.
This is where he is stronger than Feng Deyi. The old feudal official was very obsessed with him, and his conduct in life was inevitably... Well, he was just too soft-backed, and he didn't have the backbone of a prime minister to say what the emperor said.
You see, the other two prime ministers have very hard bones, so their prestige in the court is much greater than that of Feng Lun...
Conclusion: Fan Wenjin barely passed the test and had many shortcomings, but he was able to offset them with his status as the founder of the country. If his body is well maintained, he is a person who can be entrusted with heavy responsibilities.