Xu Huai went to the government office early the next morning to handle official duties. When he learned that Shi Xun had returned to Biyang from Jingzhou the night before, he summoned Shi Xun to the government office to ask for his specific opinions on the formation of the business group.
The Dali Kingdom was founded by Duan Siping, the former Tonghai Jiedu envoy. It was founded 20 to 30 years earlier than Dai Viet. Since the founding of the country, it has written to Dai Viet many times to seek peace, but Dai Viet ignored them until Emperor Tianxuan succeeded him.
Only then did he officially accept the tribute from Dali.
In the third year of Tianxuan, the Dali Kingdom sent an envoy to Bianliang for the first and only time to pay tribute.
Shi Xun was working as an official in the Ministry of Household Affairs at that time. He happened to have the opportunity to get acquainted with several Dali officials in the mission, and he knew a little bit about the country of Dali.
Dali State regards the Duan family as its leader, but the families with surnames such as Dong, Gao, Yang, and Yan are extremely powerful in the country. In particular, the Gao family has monopolized the position of prime minister in Dali for a hundred years. In Dali State, there is a "Governor Gao"
That is to say.
In addition to the serious division of power at the top level in Dali State, local separatist forces are also extremely strong.
All these determine that even if the merchant group successfully obtains the imperial order to go to Dali as an envoy, if it wants to continue westward after entering the territory of Dali State, it is very likely that it will be separated from the local area of Dali State.
There is a conflict of forces.
In addition, the area along the Lu River west of Dali falls within the sphere of influence of the Tubo Duogansi Tribe.
However, even though they all belong to the Tongduo Gansi tribe, the local sects and warlords are still very chaotic and complex. They are not affiliated with any unified force, and they are not cohesive.
However, in addition to the fact that the Tibetan tribes in Beijing and Xiang have not been very friendly to the Central Plains since the previous dynasty, Shi Xun believes that the system also needs to consider that the Chihu people may have sent envoys or troops after conquering Dangxiang and other countries in the Western Regions.
The horse went deep into the highlands of Western Tibet to appease the Tibetan tribes.
Two thousand elite infantry and cavalry were mobilized from Beijing and Xiang to form a merchant group, and it was planned to take four months to reach the bank of the Lushui River. The generals must be extremely exhausted. After joining the Khitan soldiers and horses heading south from Taoyuan, they may not be able to
Calmly dealing with the complicated local Tibetan forces, Shi Xun suggested that Xu Huai grant greater power to the merchant group and allow them to unite with the local forces in the western part of Dali and march to the banks of the Lushui River in the name of conquering Tibet.
When Shi Xun first arrived in Chushan, he was only thirty years old. Even though he had served as an official in the Ministry of Household Affairs for many years, in Xu Huai's eyes, he was far from mature in all aspects. Unexpectedly, he had already considered the Chihu people at this time.
It is very likely that he has already begun to appease Tibet.
Except for the Gsisiluo tribe, which once occupied the Hehuang area to establish the Qingtang Kingdom and threatened the Xihe Road in Shaanxi, Dayue, and was well known to the people of Dayue, the other Tubo tribes that had been divided for a long time and were located deep in the Xibo Highlands had always been far away.
It is outside the sight of the Central Plains; and the countries in the Western Regions have been affiliated to the Party members for a long time, and have had no direct contact with the Central Plains for hundreds of years.
Therefore, since the founding of the Dai Viet Dynasty, the Central Plains' understanding of Tubo and the Western Regions countries has been extremely limited, and few people will take Tubo and the Western Regions countries into consideration when analyzing the overall situation of the world.
The information that the Military Intelligence Department has about Tubo and the countries in the Western Regions mainly comes from the remnants of the Khitan. However, the remnants of the Khitan moved south to Tianshui for a short time, and their understanding of Tubo and the countries in the Western Regions is also quite fragmented. Therefore, the Military Intelligence Department has until now
We have not yet been able to establish a relatively complete understanding of Tubo and other countries in the Western Regions.
However, Xu Huai personally speculated that after the Chihu people conquered the Dangxiang people and the vassal states in the Western Regions, even taking into account the harsh environment of the Western Tibetan highlands and the intricate relationships among the Tubo tribes, they might not be eager to dispatch large-scale troops to sweep across the Western Regions.
However, they should also dispatch a small-scale elite division or send envoys into the Luosuo area, the former capital of Tibet, to contact the Tibetan tribes.
The Tubo tribes have been divided for so many years, but no force has ever unified the Western Tibetan highlands again.
They saw that the Chihu people had risen like the sun in the past few decades, sweeping across the grasslands and deserts. All the countries in the Western Regions and the party members had surrendered to their horses one after another. They were frightened by the force of the Chihu people and chose to surrender on their own initiative.
It's not something unimaginable.
Xu Huai thought of this, but he was worried that pessimism and depression would breed internally, so he did not take the initiative to mention it; in his exchanges with the remnants of the Khitan, and even in Xiao Linshi's private letters, Xu Huai even avoided mentioning it.
and this.
Now that Shi Xun mentioned this, Xu Huai didn't feel too worried, but felt very relieved:
In addition to Shi Zhen, Su Laochang, Xu Wuqi and others in the production department, more and more people have grown up and are able to stand alone.
"The situation on the banks of the Lu River may be very complicated. When you go deep into the Lu River, of course you must put your own preservation first - even when negotiating with local forces in Dali, there is no need to be too rigid..." Xu Huai agreed with Shi Xun.
proposition, said.
In addition to preparing for the business group to set off from Biyang as soon as possible, the production department must also try to obtain the consent of the court as much as possible - without the imperial edict, the armed business group entered without authorization
Entering Dali is the last and most forced choice.
Han Gui also drafted several memorial manuscripts overnight, and Xu Huai brought Wang Ju, Shi Zhen, Dong Cheng and others over to study them together.
Since Shi Xun had already mentioned the possibility of the Chihu people recruiting the Tubo tribes, Xu Huai finally decided to add relevant content to the memorial, hoping that the court would pay more attention to the significance of the remnant Khitan tribes moving southward and cannot be ignored.
If the Tubo tribes finally choose to join the Red Husbands, and the Red Husbands send a partial army to the banks of the Lushui River, and the Tubo tribes surrender their troops, the total population will be less than three million, and the country will be divided by local separatist forces.
Dali Kingdom is basically powerless to resist.
And once the Dali Kingdom is conquered by the Chihu people, how much force will Dai Viet invest in defense on the southwest border?
Or will Dai Viet still have the ability to form a new defense force of more than 100,000 people on the southwestern border by then?
After the memorial was finalized and sealed, Yiqi was sent to Jianye. The preparation of the armed merchant group was also officially handed over to Wang Ju, Shi Xun, Shi Hu and others to take the lead. In addition, the required manpower was
They also immediately sent post horses to various places to transfer them back.
Regardless of whether Jianye authorized it or not, Xu Huai demanded that the armed merchant group set off from Biyang within ten days, first go south by water, and go straight to Jingjiang Mansion on Guangnan West Road - to negotiate with the supervisors of Jingnan, Jingbei and Guangxi Three Roads
The envoy will also carry the official letter issued by the production company in the next two days and set off south from Biyang in advance.
In addition to 2,000 elite infantry and cavalry, the armed merchant corps also had to include 1,000 carriage troops, and horsemen to provide logistics. Time was extremely tight, and more than 4,000 mules and horses would be shipped directly from Biyang to the south, regardless of Jingjiang Prefecture.
After preparations were made, the scale of the entire armed merchant group going south was definitely not small. It could even be said to be a small-scale expeditionary army.
This army and horses are traveling along the road from Jingbei, Jingnan, and Guangxi, so naturally they need to say hello in advance.
In the official letter sent to the three places, Xu Huai also made it clear that the situation was urgent and the significance of assisting the remnants of the Khitan troops to move south. He also stated in the official letter that if the three places were to block it, the armed merchant groups would follow his orders and forcefully break through.
If a bloody conflict unfortunately occurs, Xu Huaidu will bear all the responsibilities.
Xu Huai returned to the back house at noon and dined with Wang Xuan and Liu Qiong'er.
Knowing that the memorial had been sent to Jianye, Wang Xuan couldn't help but asked worriedly: "If your Majesty firmly refuses to agree, the situation may be more complicated than imagined!"
"Without the approval of the imperial court, the situation faced by the merchant group going south is much more complicated and dangerous, but it is still an arrow on the string and has to be fired," Xu Huai said, "As for the production company, there is no need to worry too much -
It’s really going to be a deadlock. From now on, I don’t have to worry about and weigh too many things..."
Without the authorization of the imperial court, if an armed merchant group forcibly enters the Dali Kingdom, it will be a lone army traveling thousands of miles away, but it will not be more dangerous than the Khitan advance troops heading south from Taoyuan.
Moreover, after the two lone armies reunited, the core goal was to open up a space for the remaining Khitan troops to move south by the banks of the Lushui River, not to welcome the Khitan advance troops to withdraw into Dai Viet territory.
Therefore, after the armed merchant group leaves the country, even if it becomes a lone army and has no way to return to Guangnan West Road, it is not an unacceptable result.
As for the relationship between the production department and the imperial court, which would become worse and more severe, Xu Huai didn't care too much.
If Jingxiang is destined to have its own way, he can let go of his hands and further transform Jingxiang into a Tibetan town???????????????
At the moment, instead of worrying about the court's reaction, Xu Huai should save more time and consider how to further tap the development potential of Nanyang, Xiangyang and other places.
Nanyang Prefecture occupies the entire Nanyang Basin surrounded by Funiu Mountain and Tongbai Mountain, and the Tangbai River flows through it. The arable land resources that can be developed are much more than the mountainous and narrow Luoyang Basin, but Nanyang Prefecture has fifteen counties under its jurisdiction
There are 6 million acres of registered private land and 1.5 million acres of farmland, which is not much more than Heluo.
In this inventory, in addition to statistics on the existing cultivated land in Nanyang Prefecture, the Production Department also conducted a survey of the reclaimable land resources. In fact, the reclaimable land resources in Nanyang Prefecture still have great potential that needs to be tapped.
The reasons for this fact have been analyzed by Xu Huai, Shi Zhen and others. This can still be attributed to the preferential treatment of ministers and gentry class since the establishment of the Dai Viet Dynasty and the conservativeness of local governance.
On the one hand, Dai Viet did not establish a land system and did not suppress mergers, which allowed local gentry to annex poor people's fields on a large scale, resulting in a significant reduction in local tax sources and insufficient financial resources, resulting in prefectures and counties lacking the ability to build large-scale water conservancy projects.
On the one hand, the gentry encroached on the lakes and reclaimed the river beaches. The states and counties did not dare, or were unwilling to carry out a thorough cleanup due to entangled interests. This led to large-scale water conservancy projects, because large areas of river beaches and lake areas had long been destroyed.
Local gentry encroached and prevented unified planning.
Another key reason is that the court's factionalism is rampant. Local officials are afraid of being accused of wasting people and money, so they prefer to stick to the old ways and dare not make big achievements.
The Tangbai River originates from Funiu Mountain and Tongbai Mountain. During the rainy season, the water flow is extremely strong and it frequently floods and causes disasters. However, in the more than 150 years since the founding of the Dai Viet Dynasty, the local government has not conducted a thorough management of the Tangbai River, which is also rare in previous dynasties.
.
Next, whether it is to further reclaim the land resources of Nanyang Prefecture, to improve the irrigation conditions of the existing cultivated land, or to improve the navigation conditions of the Tangbai River and form a river and land transportation system centered on Biyang, it is necessary to carry out the Tang Dynasty
The Baihe River will undergo a thorough management.
Although the project cannot be organized and implemented until after this year's flood season, the topographic survey of the Tangbai River Basin has already been implemented at the beginning of the year.
Next, we need to carry out unified planning for the weirs, canals and road network systems surrounding the Tangbai River. This cannot be completed in three to five days.
