Chapter 1371 The Holy Emperor's Western Tour
In the fifth year of the Kaihuang reign of the Tang Dynasty, as the world was unified, the country began to stop fighting and rest. After only a few years, the national strength was booming, people's livelihood and all industries were prosperous, and the entire empire was brand new.
After a few years of recuperation, His Majesty the Emperor was also very quiet and wanted to move. He announced in the court meeting that he would tour Longyou and Hexi in the west this autumn and return to visit his homeland in Xiliang.
The reason why Li Tai made such a decision was not a whim, but after a relatively long period of weighing and thinking.
After the Tang Empire completed its internal unification and integration, in addition to recuperating and strengthening itself, the next focus was naturally to influence and change the surrounding borders, so that both the internal and external environments could ensure the continued development and growth of the new empire.
At present, there are still many riots and hidden dangers around the Tang Dynasty, and the negative impacts on the development and border security of the Tang Dynasty are also large and small. Although the Tang Dynasty has completed its unification, it is also necessary to try to avoid attacking from all sides and using troops everywhere.
In line with the principle of following the rules and making gradual progress, Li Tai chose to solve the problems in the west first.
On the one hand, Longyou is most closely connected with Guanzhong. Once there is any mistake in Longyou, it will directly shake the stability of Guanzhong. Before Li Tai officially launched a decisive battle with Northern Qi, he also chose to clean up the situation in Longyou first, especially focusing on attacking Tuyuhun in the west. After ensuring the stability of the western border, he sent troops to the east.
On the other hand, the situation in the western border is the most complex and changeable, and the future game environment is also quite treacherous, and various challenges will emerge in an endless stream. For example, the current Tuyuhun and Turks, the future Tubo and Dashi, etc., will successively join the competition for the Western Regions and even the Longyou Hexi and other places in the Tang Dynasty.
Another point is that in the past few years, the personnel interaction between the Tang Dynasty and the Western Regions has been strengthened, whether it is private trade or envoy exchanges between regimes. Many Western Region states sent envoys to the Tang Dynasty in the hope of establishing friendly relations. Even the Western Turks, who had always had little contact with the Tang Dynasty, sent envoys to the court, but their purpose was not so friendly.
In short, as the Tang Dynasty became stronger and stronger, the surrounding forces also needed to pay more attention to the interaction with the Tang Dynasty and the establishment and maintenance of diplomatic relations. If there is no such vigilance, it is destined to be eliminated by the times.
There are many forces from Longyou to the west, and the situation is quite complicated. It is difficult to implement all plans smoothly with the remote control of the Chang'an court alone, and there is no guarantee of the final results.
So Li Tai planned to go on a tour in person, so that he could not only browse and feel the situation on the border, but also make some personnel arrangements directly. Of course, there is another important intention, which is to show off his power and deploy troops on the border to deter the villains.
For His Majesty's tour this time, the court also attached great importance to it. The decision was announced at the court meeting in midsummer, and various personnel preparations were carried out in the next few months.
First, the troops accompanying His Majesty the Emperor on the tour are tentatively scheduled to gather 100,000 soldiers in Guanzhong, and go west through Longguan to Longyou. Then the Longyou divisions and brigades will also gather about 80,000 to 100,000 people. The planned troops to reach Hexi will reach 200,000.
Although the Tang Dynasty has also mobilized tens of thousands of troops, they have been within the mainland in the past, including the previous Northern Qi and Southern Chen, which were foreign countries at the time, but the troops had relatively mature logistics supply roads to rely on.
However, this time from Guanzhong to Hexi through Longyou, and even farther to the Western Regions, it is thousands of miles away, and most of them are relatively unfamiliar areas with no mature military roads and logistics supplies to rely on, so this is also a very big test for the Tang Dynasty.
Such a test is also unavoidable, because if the Tang Dynasty wants to firmly control Longyou and Hexi, and further expand to the Western Regions, then pure diplomacy or trade means will only play some auxiliary roles.
The Tang Dynasty must demonstrate its ability to send powerful troops into the Western Regions and to continue to fight in order to deter the villains and the Western Regions along the way. Otherwise, no matter how powerful the Tang Dynasty is, it will not be enough to deter those unruly forces.
After the announcement of this decision, envoys set out to various places in Longyou to investigate the road conditions, personnel distribution and notify various forces along the way. At the same time, the country was busy preparing personnel and materials.
After the unification was completed, internal consumption was gradually reduced, especially after the huge consumption caused by the war disappeared, agricultural production in various places was also recovering rapidly. Although the Tang Dynasty has repeatedly reduced rents and taxes in various places in the past few years, a large amount of wealth and materials have been accumulated in the treasury. Even the materials needed for this tour do not need to be transported from various places in Guandong in large quantities. The local material reserves in Guanzhong alone are enough to maintain.
Because the journey is long, after the personnel and materials are in place, when the heat of late summer and early autumn has not subsided, the troops from all directions began to set out one after another. In addition to the troops that will follow Li Tai directly to Longyou, Zhuguo He Ruodun will also lead 10,000 elite cavalry out of Yinshan in the north and join the Turkic Khan Shetu to advance westward along the south of the desert to cooperate with this western tour.
Before leaving, Li Tai recalled his two brothers, Li Chao and Leo Ao, who were in Luoyang and Taiyuan, back to the court. Li Chao stayed in Ji Nei and handled civil and military affairs with the order of Shangshu, while Li Ao followed him on the western tour. The rest of the retinue is mostly young and middle-aged men. In early autumn, a large number of people and horses started to move westward along the Weishui River, heading straight for Longshan Mountain.
The last time Li Tai went west to Longguan, he went to Qinzhou to serve as an official for his father-in-law Dugu Xin. Now that he is embarking on this old journey again, his status and status are completely different. For a while, he can't help but feel like he is in another world.
When the holy driver arrived at Longguan, there were already a group of Longyou officials and Di and Qiang chiefs waiting here. Lu Yan, the governor of Qinzhou, led a group of civil and military officials to greet him at the state border: "After hearing the news, I will wait for you day and night." I look forward to the arrival of the Supreme Being, and I am so happy to finally meet you today!”
While speaking, Lu Yan ignored the dust in the road and went directly to greet him. Because he was in a front position and the road was paved with sand, the dust was not too serious, but the bodies of the subordinates and Hu chiefs following him were all submerged in a cloud of dust.
"Your Majesty, please forgive me for the hard work of the herdsmen guarding the land. Longbian is peaceful and the people live in harmony. Thanks to your efforts, I am here now to praise my merits and warn my past!"
When Li Tai saw this scene, he couldn't help but feel happy. He immediately waved his hand to signal these people to get up quickly and stop lying on the floor doing vacuum cleaners.
In recent years, he has occasionally traveled short distances, especially between the eastern capital Luoyang and the western capital Chang'an. He also discovered a phenomenon, that is, the more local officials show excitement and enthusiasm when they see the Holy Driver, probably Having been away from the center of power for too long, when I saw the Holy Master coming in person, I couldn't help but feel excited.
For example, when Lu Yan was an official in the court before, he behaved very appropriately, but this time he came to Qinzhou and led the state to greet him. When he stood up without courtesy, there were still some tears mixed with dust on his face. , looks a little funny.
As the first stop in Longyou on the Sage's westward tour, Qinzhou is also very well prepared. There are supply points for men and horses at every distance along the way from Longguan to the west. Each supply point is enough to satisfy tens of thousands of people at the same time. Take breaks to eat. After this preparation, these will naturally be valuable experiences when the divisions and brigade are required to coordinate with the war next year.
After being treated carefully here in Qinzhou, a large group of people and horses arrived at Qinzhou Prefecture to govern Tianshui smoothly, followed by the Holy Spirit. There were even more soldiers and people outside Tianshui City who came to welcome them. In the wilderness on the north bank of the Wei River to the east of the city, tens of thousands of people gathered here eagerly. When they saw the flags in the ceremonial guard of the Holy Master from a distance, some people couldn't bear it. Zhu shouted loudly: "Welcome to you, Your Majesty! Long live our emperor!"
Li Tai once went to Tianshui to govern, and he also had a special feeling for this place. When he was about to arrive at Tianshui City, he got off the imperial chariot and changed horses. When he saw such a warm welcome from the people of Tianshui County, he couldn't help but feel With his heart surging, he waved to the crowd and shouted: "Do the elders of this county still remember the restrictive laws of the former Prime Minister Li?"
The people outside the city were already very enthusiastic. When they heard His Majesty the Emperor's call, they suddenly became more and more excited and shouted repeatedly: "The people of the county are very honored to have His Majesty inspect his hometown!"
Amid the cheers of the crowd, the holy driver slowly entered the city. Until the honor guard disappeared from sight, the people gathered outside the city still refused to disperse.
Their enthusiasm soon paid off. Shortly after the Holy Emperor entered the state capital, an envoy held the Supreme Edict and ascended to the top of the Tianshui City Tower, announcing a special exemption from the Tianshui County's tenant transfer that year. The reason why we still need to retain our status is that this year's Holy Driving Tour to the West also requires sufficient civilian support when entering and exiting the country. It avoids the collection of physical goods and tries to keep people's livelihood from being affected by this tour.
The people wandering outside the city immediately cheered when they learned about this, singing and dancing in the suburbs to express their excitement and joy.
The people in the county received the benefits of being exempted from rent transfer, and naturally the state officials were also unavoidable in their favor. Because the Qinzhou Prefectural Government was able to support the Holy Emperor, it was given a one-year performance appraisal, and all current officials who were above average in their previous performance appraisals were directly awarded first-level casual officials.
Officials are usually promoted and demoted after they have reached full rank. This time, the Holy Emperor's personal visit saved them a year or even several years of hard work. Naturally, the crowd was in high spirits and thanked you for your kindness.
After the rewards and rewards are over, it is natural to investigate and understand the military and political affairs in the government.
As the first town out of the west and the gateway between Guan and Long, Qinzhou is of great significance to the management of the entire Longyou and Hexi. Therefore, the politics of this area will directly affect the implementation of the future westward strategy, and even It is one of the focuses of this western tour.
In addition to basic military and political matters, there is also an important commercial town called Sifang City, which Li Tai personally founded and established last year. It is also the focus of his western tour. Therefore, after the banquet to welcome the holy driver was over, Li Tai couldn't wait to take a break to relieve the fatigue of the journey, so he called the relevant officials to the bank to inquire.