Looking at the crude map in front of him and recalling the road to the Western Regions, Li Shimin's expression became more solemn.
In fact, there is Tuyuhun between Tubo and the Hexi Corridor, but facts have proven that Tuyuhun cannot resist Tubo and is in danger of being annexed at any time.
Once Tuyuhun is lost, the Hexi Corridor will always be threatened by Tibet, and Datang will also lose a good horse producing area.
When he thought about such consequences, he couldn't be happy at all.
He had not paid much attention to the threat of Tibet before, but now he finally took this plateau country seriously.
"You know Tubo so well, do you have any way to deal with it?"
Chen Jingke shook his head and said: "I just heard about it and don't know the specific situation of Tubo. Your Majesty might as well send someone to find out in detail."
"Well, I heard that many nobles in Supi are not willing to accept Tubo's rule, and King Shang Hung is also determined to take revenge. Maybe your Majesty can think of a way here."
"There is also Tuyuhun. Murong Nuobo succeeded to the throne at a young age and lost all his power. Now that he is getting older, he will definitely want to regain power. Your Majesty might as well give him a helping hand and bring him under my control to fight against Tubo."
"They also live on the plateau and can directly send troops to fight on the plateau. To me, Datang, this is the most important thing."
"It is best to station troops in Tuyuhun and slowly adapt to the plateau environment. You can even move some Han people to live there, and then you can recruit troops directly there."
Li Shimin said pointedly: "Are these methods your own ideas?"
Chen Jingke shook his head and said, "No, it was discussed by others and I happened to be listening."
Indeed, I heard this from someone in my previous life when I was chatting with a group of history buffs online.
It is nothing more than supporting Tuyuhun and Xiangxiong, driving a wedge between Tubo and Supi nobles, and using this as a check.
Then send people to the plateau to adapt to the local environment. Once a group of soldiers are trained who are not afraid of the plateau environment, you can take the initiative.
With the cooperation of various containment measures, Tubo could be brought to its knees within ten years, even if it could not be destroyed.
This strategy is not very clever, but the advantage is that it is steady and maneuverable, so it is the most suitable.
Li Shimin naturally knew this truth, and the more so, the more he feared the forces behind Chen Jingke.
He understands the world situation so well that he even knows the dangers that have not yet arisen and has come up with feasible solutions.
He didn't know how strong this force was, but the ability to collect information must be very terrifying, and in many cases intelligence could influence the development of the situation.
Just like the situation on the plateau, if the Tang Dynasty didn't know about it in advance, it would be too late when Tibet completed its unification.
It can be said that at this moment, in his mind, the forces behind Chen Jingke were more dangerous than Tubo.
But he did not express this idea, but said: "Didn't you say that there are two strong enemies about to rise, one is Tubo, and the other is Tibet?"
Chen Jingke pointed to the West Asian area and said: "Here are the Arabs."
At this time, there was no name for Dashi, nor the name Arabs. He didn't know how to call them, so he simply used Arabs.
Anyway, he is the first person to introduce this ethnic group to the Central Plains. He can call it whatever name he wants. Gu Qian
Li Shimin questioned: "Is this where the Sasanian Dynasty was?"
Chen Jingke said: "Yes, on the territory of the Sasanian Dynasty, a group of ethnic groups enslaved by them completed their unification and began to rise..."
He talked about the Prophet and the Islamic religion. In his previous life, due to his interest, he knew something about the origins of several major religions, and even read the Tao Te Ching, the Diamond Sutra, the Holy Scriptures, and the ancient scriptures.
This is one of the reasons why he dared to take action against Taoism and try to create a new school. My creative ability is not as good as those saints, but I can copy it. Being a suture monster is relatively easy.
"The decadent Sasanian dynasty is not a rival to the emerging Arabs at all. After losing consecutive battles, they have no chance of making a comeback on their own. Now they are just relying on the family wealth left by their ancestors to survive."
"The Sasanians admired the Central Plains dynasty very much and were even willing to pay tribute in the name of vassal. This is the legacy left by the Han Dynasty to us descendants."
"The Arabs are different. They don't have any respect for us, some only covet us."
"Moreover, the Islamic religion they believe in is more aggressive, and expansion is instinctive. Sooner or later, their troops will reach the Western Regions and block our way out, and there will inevitably be a battle between the two of us.
"But what if we win? The road to the west is still blocked by them."
"Can we still go on an expedition and send hundreds of thousands of troops to fight against the Arabs in their home base in the far west?"
Li Shimin's face was also very solemn. Before he saw this map, he might have said that it didn't matter. Anyway, this Arabia is so far away from us, so we shouldn't be afraid.
Besides, the Tang Dynasty itself was surrounded by many enemies. Jieli was defeated, Xue Yantuo rose again, there were also forces such as Goguryeo and Baekje, and the semi-separatist Feng family in the south.
The Western Region is still occupied by the Western Turks, and coupled with the imminent rise of Tibet, it is impossible to take care of such a distant place in the short term.
In fact, this is what Li Shimin did in his previous life, sitting back and watching the destruction of the Sasanian Dynasty.
But we can't blame him for being short-sighted. At that time, the Tang Dynasty had just defeated the Western Turks and had not completely surrendered them. It was indeed incapable of helping the Sassanid Dynasty.
By the time Li Zhi stepped forward to help, it was already too late for the Arab Empire to take over.
It can only be said that the timing of the rise of the Arab Empire was too coincidental. It happened to overlap with the rise of the Tang Dynasty. It has to be said that it was a historical coincidence.
Unfortunately, the two empires subsequently developed in different directions.
The Arab Empire continued to expand, but the Tang Dynasty adopted a conservative strategy due to the Queen's rise to power and almost gave up on external expansion.
Afterwards, it experienced a long period of chaos, and it was not until Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty that it began to expand again. However, this period of glory only lasted for more than ten years before the Anshi Rebellion occurred.
The failure of the Battle of Talas caused the Central Plains Dynasty to permanently lose the opportunity to advance westward. In the next more than a thousand years, the Han army never reached Suiye City again.
Now that Chen Jingke is here, he will not allow this to happen again.
After staring at the map for a long time, Li Shimin finally asked: "How long can the Sassanid Kingdom last?"
Chen Jingke calculated the time it would take for Sasanian Persia to be destroyed and said: "Fifteen years, if there is no external help, they can last for fifteen years at most."
"But we must not wait until the eve of their demise before taking action. By then it will be too late. If we carefully calculate, we still have ten years to prepare."
"Ten years from now, if we don't want to see a powerful Arab empire, we must support Sassanid."
