"I wonder what your Majesty thinks of the nomads?" Lin Xuan asked.
Li Shimin was stunned for a moment and said in deep thought: "The lack of education among the nomadic people is a disease of our Tang Dynasty. For the future stability of the Tang Dynasty, the strength of the nomadic people must be weakened."
"Your Majesty only wants to weaken? Has he never thought of solving the problem of nomads once and for all?" Lin Xuan asked.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with describing the nomads as gangrenous bones.
In the thousands of years of history of the Chinese nation, the conflict between the nomads and the Central Plains dynasties has never stopped.
"I am sure to destroy the Western Turks and Xue Yantuo, but it is simply impossible to solve the problem of nomads once and for all." Li Shimin said.
The strength of the Han Dynasty caused the Xiongnu to continue to divide and eventually to perish.
But the problem of nomadic peoples on the grasslands has not yet been solved.
After the Xiongnu were destroyed, the Xianbei was destroyed, and the Xianbei was destroyed by the Turks.
Khitan, Mongolia, Manchu and Qing Dynasties appeared later.
Although these ethnic groups are constantly changing, the conflict with the Central Plains dynasty has always been there.
The origin of this conflict is the cultural conflict between two living conditions.
The culture of the Central Plains dynasties in ancient China was an agricultural culture. The relatively geographically closed small-scale peasant economic model lasted for thousands of years. The unified dynasties emphasized agriculture and suppressed business, suppressing Han farmers from engaging in business, and they were exploited for cultivating the land.
In order to maintain this kind of rule, successive dynasties have instilled in the people the ideas of loyalty to the emperor, patriotism, etiquette, justice and integrity.
The nomads are different. Due to the harsh living environment and frequent wars, the nomads pursue respect for the strong.
If nomadic people encounter natural disasters and have insufficient food, they will choose to let the elderly starve to death and give the limited food to the young and strong.
Father, son, and brother are dead, but the living ones take their wives to be their own wives.
These practices were unacceptable to the Central Plains dynasty, which valued etiquette, justice and integrity.
Therefore, the Central Plains Dynasty regarded the nomads as alien people. In the eyes of the Han people, the nomads were barbaric and vulgar.
But in essence, the political model, social ethics and culture of the nomads are for the survival of the race.
Nomads make a living by grazing. Once disaster occurs, they can only plunder.
In addition, the population is sparse, so there is a situation where when the father dies, the son can inherit even the father's women.
Culture and living environment created different ideas and concepts between the Central Plains dynasties and the nomadic peoples.
This ideological concept made it impossible for the Central Plains dynasties and the nomadic peoples to live in peace.
When the Central Plains dynasty was strong, it would try to weaken the nomadic people.
When the Central Plains dynasties declined, they would be invaded by nomads.
"Your Majesty, the only way to solve the problem of nomads once and for all is to occupy the grassland." Lin Xuan said.
The root cause of the Central Plains dynasty's inability to solve the problem of nomadic peoples is that they did not occupy the grasslands.
Whenever there is a void in the grassland power, many small tribes will come to the grassland and slowly develop.
The general trend of the world must be united if it is divided for a long time, and it must be divided if it is united for a long time. This saying is equally valid for the nomads on the grassland.
Some people will fight, and over time, a new nation will be born on the grassland.
This is also the reason why the nomadic people are the appendix of the Central Plains dynasty.
The only way to solve this situation is to occupy the grassland.
"Do you know why the past dynasties did not occupy the grasslands? Don't they know that occupying the grasslands can eliminate the nomads once and for all?" Li Shimin asked.
Lin Xuan nodded and said: "Because of grazing on the grassland and having no fixed place to live, the people of the Central Plains Dynasty simply cannot adapt. Even if they occupy it, without the people, it is meaningless for the court to station a large number of troops there. Another reason is that it is not cost-effective to occupy it.
The grassland does not bring much tax revenue to the court, but it still needs support from the court."
If you want to occupy the grassland, you have to move a large number of people there. For the people, it is difficult to leave their homeland. If they really can't survive, they are not willing to go.
If the situation is turbulent and people cannot survive, some people may be willing to go in order to survive.
When the Central Plains Dynasty can occupy the grassland, it must be when the Central Plains Dynasty is strong and powerful, so naturally no one will want to go.
Without common people, if you want to occupy the grassland, you can only station a large number of troops on the grassland.
Stationing troops at a long distance and not receiving taxes is likely to drag the court down.
The most important reason is that by occupying the grassland, you will not receive much tax.
In order to survive, the nomadic peoples came to the Central Plains Dynasty to plunder. Is it possible that the Han people could be self-sufficient if they went there?
The imperial court spent a lot of effort to move the people there, and it was not cost-effective to not only receive no taxes, but also to have the imperial court support them.
A combination of reasons led to the fact that even if the Central Plains Dynasty eliminated the grassland forces, it could not occupy them.
After the nomads recover, they will continue to invade the Central Plains Dynasty, which is equivalent to falling into a deadly cycle.
"Since you know, why do you still say that?" Li Shimin asked a little strangely.
He originally thought that Lin Xuan didn't know the reason. Since Lin Xuan knew it, why would he propose to occupy the grassland?
Lin Xuan smiled and said: "If you want to solve the grassland problem once and for all, you must occupy the grassland. If you want to occupy the grassland, you must let the people have land to plant on the grassland. As long as this problem can be solved, there will be no need to worry about the lack of people."
It’s hard to leave your homeland? It’s just not attractive enough.
If the people are willing to go, two hundred acres of land will be allocated to you. See if anyone is willing to go.
In ancient times, people's desire for land far exceeded their hometown.
"Impossible, the grassland land is not suitable for planting. No matter how much land is allocated, what's the use?" Li Shimin said.
If the grassland could be planted, the Central Plains Dynasty would have occupied it long ago.
"Your Majesty, it's not that the grassland cannot be planted, it's just that no suitable crops have been found. I have something that can be grown on the grassland." Lin Xuan said in a surprising way.
Although not all areas of the grassland are cultivated, as long as they can occupy the part of Inner Mongolia that will be later generations, it will be enough.
"What?" Li Shimin stood up in shock, his breathing a little rapid.
If there are crops that can be grown on the grassland, then the grassland can really be occupied.
Why did he always want to attack Goguryeo?
The purpose is to expand territory.
Although part of the reason is because he wanted to do what Yang Guang failed to do.
But the most important thing is to expand the territory.
Although he had great contributions to the establishment of the Tang Dynasty, Li Yuan was the founding emperor.
Seriously, he just inherited it.
No emperor can resist the temptation to expand his territory.
If he can occupy the grasslands and Goguryeo, he will far surpass Emperor Qin and Han Wu and become the emperor of the ages.
"I have a kind of crop that requires very little land and has a very high yield." Lin Xuan said.
Li Shimin took a few deep breaths and said: "What kind of crops and how much is the yield?"
"I named this crop potato, and the yield per mu is about one thousand catties." Lin Xuan said.
"What!" Li Shimin stared at the boss and asked, "Is it true that the yield per mu is a thousand catties?"
You must know that the current grain output of the Tang Dynasty is about one stone per mu.
A stone in the Tang Dynasty weighed more than a hundred kilograms in later generations, less than a hundred and twenty kilograms. (There are several opinions on how much a stone in the Tang Dynasty weighed, some said it was more than eighty kilograms, some said it was a hundred kilograms.
It was also said to be nearly 120 pounds. The author didn’t know the specifics, so he chose one of the versions.)
What is the concept of one thousand kilograms? It means the yield is about nine shi per mu.
Even if it is folded in half, there are still four or five stones.
Even if it was four or five stones, Li Shimin was extremely pleasantly surprised.