Hou Junji led the Tang army to attack Gaochang as a matter of course, and the countries in the Western Regions, especially the Yanqi Kingdom, decisively attacked.
To a certain extent, the trigger of this war was that the Yanqi State wanted to share Gaochang's profits on the Silk Road, so it complained to the Tang Dynasty.
Now it seems that the Tang Dynasty destroyed Gaochang, and the Yanqi Kingdom approached Hou Junji to demand the return of the people of Yanqi Kingdom who were kidnapped by Gaochang.
Hou Junji thought for a moment, but did not refuse.
How should I put it? Hou Junji, in handling many diplomacy, has the style of a great power.
It's similar to the kind that as long as you become my little brother and don't cause trouble, then I will take care of you as a big brother.
Therefore, even if Hou Junji knew that he was shameless and forcibly said that these Yanqi people were from Gaochang, and then robbed Chang'an, he could get a lot of income.
But in Hou Junji's view, if he did this, he would lose his face as the commander-in-chief of the Tang Dynasty.
We cannot say whether this diplomatic style is good or not, but it is this diplomatic style that at least allows Datang to play a very good role in appeasing the forces in the Western Regions even when it has not yet planned to go deep into the Western Regions.
After all, with Tubo in the southwest and Gaochang in the northwest, the environment around Datang gradually stabilized. Under such circumstances, Datang also began to free up its hands to deal with Goguryeo in the northeast.
However, Li Shimin was reading the report sent by Tang Jian and said with some surprise:
"The population of Tang Dynasty is now 3.53 million households?"
"Reporting to the saint, this population data has been checked three times to ensure it is correct!" Tang Jian said seriously.
Historically, when the investigation was conducted in the 13th year of Emperor Zhenguan of the Tang Dynasty, there were a total of 3.04 million households.
Even so, Li Shimin was quite happy, because the last census in the Tang Dynasty numbered 2.19 million households in Wude 7.
It can be said that the steady growth of the population of the entire Tang Dynasty itself illustrates the most significant achievement of the Zhenguan rule.
However, Li Shimin did not know that because of Li Tai's efforts, the population of the Tang Dynasty increased by 500,000 households compared with the historical census conducted in the 13th year of Zhenguan.
These 500,000 households are able to obtain more food because of the various production tools and production models developed by agricultural universities, allowing more people to start families and start businesses and cultivate acres of land.
For these 500,000 households, the cooperation between the medical buildings and the medical walking system allowed doctors to treat the people of the Tang Dynasty as much as possible, thus invisibly increasing the life span of the people of the Tang Dynasty and extending their working hours.
For these 500,000 households, Li Tai would decisively send people to the disaster-stricken areas to recruit manpower every time there was a famine. If they could be resettled nearby, they would be resettled. If they could not be resettled, they would be pulled over to build roads.
And a large part of it was Li Tai's method of labor reform, which allowed the foreigners to accept the culture of the Tang Dynasty, learn the language of the Tang Dynasty, and help them integrate into the Tang Dynasty, making them become new people of the Tang Dynasty.
In the entire Tang Dynasty, the main population was still in the north, and the real essence was the Central Plains region.
Li Tai established agricultural schools in Youzhou, Luoyang, and Yuhang, and the students who came out of them took root at the grassroots level.
Along the Grand Canal from Yuhang to Youzhou is the most elite area of the entire Tang Dynasty. With Li Tai's layout, it is difficult to conceal the population of these places, so the population inquiry of the Tang Dynasty is more detailed than in history.
However, many of them were invisible to Tang Jian or Li Shimin.
They may feel that what Li Tai created will have a certain effect on the population recovery of Datang.
But he never expected that because of Li Tai's efforts, the population of the Tang Dynasty would be one-sixth larger than in history, with half a million more households living, and an astonishing population of nearly 2.5 million.
For Li Shimin, seeing the population of Tang Dynasty recovering at an astonishing speed under his governance, he was very satisfied with this achievement.
In my heart, I wanted to wait until Hou Junji returned from his crusade against Gaochang, then rest and recuperate for a few years. When Youzhou had enough supplies, he could then crusade against Goguryeo.
To be honest, for Li Shimin, Goguryeo must be solved.
Otherwise, for the Tang Dynasty, the existence of such a regime in the north would be too dangerous for the hinterland of China.
In the past, there was nothing to worry about when there were no ships, but now it only takes half a month for a ship to reach Youzhou from Guangzhou with a favorable wind, which had to make Li Shimin feel a sense of urgency towards Goguryeo.
As long as Goguryeo's ships landed along the Hebei Road of the Tang Dynasty, the entire Hebei Road might become a battlefield.
This is something Li Shimin absolutely does not want to see, so the best way is to make the Bohai Sea an inland sea of China.
Li Shimin was thinking in his mind, "Should we let Qingque return to Youzhou in a few years and let him sit in Youzhou to coordinate Youzhou's logistics? Or leave this war to him and see if he is a pharmacist."
The commander-in-chief of the great battle?"
Although Hou Junji was attacking Gaochang at this moment, Li Shimin was already thinking about the commander of the expedition against Goguryeo.
It's not that Hou Junji can't do it, but Li Shimin feels that it will be difficult for Hou Junji to suppress Li Tai's people.
It doesn't matter, because Wang Xuance stepped on Hou Junji and came to power, so the people under Li Tai will naturally look down on Hou Junji.
As for Wang Xuance... there are so many generals ahead of Wang Xuance, and they cannot even rank him in terms of seniority.
But no matter what, with a population of 3.5 million households, Li Shimin had a lot of administrative confidence.
Li Shimin looked at Tang Jian and said, "I heard that you stayed in Luoyang for a while?"
"Report to the saint." Tang Jian did not expect that Li Shimin would suddenly ask this question, and said quickly,
"I asked King Wei for some help. This time, thanks to King Wei, my survey on Henan Road went smoothly!"
"It seems that Qingque's Agricultural Society is really useful on some key issues."
When Li Shimin heard Tang Jian's words, he nodded and said: "Tang Qing, you have contributed to this census to Dr. Yinqing Guanglu.
Qingque can be considered a small help, that is, pardoning Luoyang prisoners below the Dapi, and exempting Luoyang from taxes for one year this year!"
"Absolutely not!" Tang Jian heard Li Shimin's words and jumped out quickly and said,
"Sage, Luoyang's taxes now account for one-tenth of the total taxes. If you pardon me, I'm afraid Shangshu Sheng will not go crazy!"
"..." Li Shimin couldn't help but smile bitterly when he heard Tang Jian's words, "I'm used to it.
It's not a good thing that Qingque is so profitable. Even if I want to exempt Luoyang from taxes for a year, I can't do it!"
Tang Jian bowed his head and said that he didn't know anything. He was just kidding. Nothing can be exempted from King Wei's taxes.
It's not that the whole court is counting on King Wei's expenses, but that King Wei is also very profitable, so they will definitely help King Wei spend money as much as possible.
"Then give wine and food to the elderly people over seventy years old in Luoyang, and reward the green birds!" Li Shimin couldn't help but waved his hand.
Tang Jian didn't jump out when he heard Li Shimin's words.
Originally, Tang Jian was worried about whether the things could really be delivered to these people who were over seventy years old, but thinking about it, King Wei had bad people in the city and agricultural societies in the countryside. At least in Luoyang, these material rewards could really be achieved.
delivered to the hands of the people.
"King Wei, you are really honored by the saint." Tang Jian couldn't help thinking when he thought of this.
"A population of 3.5 million households...isn't enough!"
Li Tai looked at the census data he had received from Tang Jian and couldn't help but press his temples.
While Li Shimin was very happy to see the population recovery, Li Tai felt that the population size of 3.5 million households was still too small.
The chaos of the late Sui Dynasty caused serious damage to the Tang Dynasty.
The efforts of two generations of Li Yuan and Li Shimin only increased the population from 2 million households to 3.5 million households.
Li Tai knew very well that many of the people in this population were not born from the common people.
It was the population that was not counted due to the war during the Taketoku period. With the political stability during the Zhenguan period, people gradually walked out of the mountains and reintegrated into the city, which made the population growth appear so fast.
Comparing this incredible population growth rate, Li Tai understood that the population recovery rate of Datang in the next ten years would not be as fast. If it could reach four million households, Li Tai would be thankful to God.
"Hey, I hope the population of the Tang Dynasty can reach five million households soon!" Li Tai couldn't help but sigh.
For Li Tai, four million households represents a population of 20 million. This size of population can be regarded as a foundation for external expansion, but in fact this foundation is very reluctant.
After all, the domestic economy needs to maintain a certain scale, otherwise external expansion will easily damage the domestic economy.
It is worth mentioning that if there was no overpopulation in the country, people would actually not be very motivated to go out.
After all, in the final analysis, what Li Tai wanted was to occupy the land, even if it was through enfeoffment.
Then the country must enfeoff a part of the population, otherwise there will not be enough population. Was it to help the local people develop?
As for the population of the Tang Dynasty, in Li Tai's opinion, it would be best to have 50 million.
There was no way he could survive until the Tang Dynasty had a population of 50 million, so Li Tai asked for a discount of 25 million.
But now it seems that even if Li Shimin abdicates in the future, China's population will not reach 25 million.
At most, it is only about 20 million. This population data gives Li Tai a headache.
"We need policies to encourage people to have children!" Li Tai sighed,
"However, this kind of thing still requires the court to come forward. As for me, the only thing I can do is to find ways to strengthen the supporting facilities at the grassroots level."
Li Tai couldn't help but shake his head when he thought of this. Some policies were only possible when he was in the court.
Now, I still have to complete the work in front of me in a down-to-earth manner and complete the expressway from Luoyang to Xingyang.
I walked around Henan Road and found a large amount of craftsmen from these aristocratic families, including both master craftsmen and elite craftsmen. Their addition speeded up the entire project.
This section of the project, which was originally thought to take two years to complete, is now more than half a year ahead of schedule, and it is only a matter of time before it is opened to traffic.
For Li Tai, this was a big sigh of relief. As long as the project from Luoyang to Xingyang proceeds smoothly, there will be a model for the highways of this era. The rest of the project will basically just keep copying this section.
Model project.
Compared with having nothing and just exploring things bit by bit, with a sample, the court can formulate a detailed plan. For a project of the same mileage, Wang Zhenru's engineering team can work on it, which may save at least half the time.
What is really important to Li Tai is that as this expressway is put into use, the profits it will bring will surely shut up these aristocratic families.
To a certain extent, those aristocratic families that have not yet built the designated highways will either have to stare at Wang Zhenru for twelve hours, or the entire engineering team will use all their strength to build the roads.
Li Tai put this matter aside for a while. Engineering matters were not urgent after all.
After all, no one was so kind and sent him some top craftsmen and elite craftsmen. As long as he could carry out the project step by step, Li Tai would be satisfied.
In addition, Youzhou sent a group of people from the Liugui Kingdom to the imperial court.
They were said to be north of Beihai. When they arrived in Datang, they had to find three waves of translators before they finally arrived in Datang.
A small country like this traveled thousands of miles to visit the Tang Dynasty. I can already imagine what would happen in the history books.
However, Li Tai arranged for people to follow these people from the Liugui Kingdom to Chang'an. The most important thing was to chart their trajectory southward.
After all, no matter how they came here, they more or less passed through the land of Goguryeo.
Although he had more or less obtained land information about Goguryeo through trade with Goguryeo, he did not know much about the area north of Goguryeo.
Since there are people from other countries coming, let’s stop by and ask if we can make a map.
After all, in these years, the Tang Dynasty had only paid attention to Goguryeo, and did not know much about the Shiwei and Mohe tribes in the northern part of Goguryeo. It would not necessarily be a bad thing if they could make more friends.
After all, as a modern person, we clearly know that Heilongjiang is the most important granary in China, and the black soil there is the most fertile area in China.
But the current problem is that a large area north of Goguryeo is a swampland that preys on people, so it is difficult to develop.
But Li Tai knew better that if the black land was not developed during the period of rising atmospheric temperatures, Heilongjiang would have to wait until the next thousand years or even industrialization to develop that land.
.
Therefore, Li Tai has some intentions for that piece of land, but whether or not to do it, or when to do it, he definitely needs to collect more local information.
And the people from this ghost country might be a good springboard!