In August of the 14th year of Xuanping, in Xining, Gansu Province, in the Gansu Governor's Yamen.
Li Yuanzhi, the new and first governor of Gansu, frowned and looked at the letter in his hand. This was an official document handed over by the Fifth Army Headquarters. The content of the official document was very simple. It said that the Tatars in the north seemed to be moving. The army
The government has already stepped up preparations, and at the same time, it is hoped that local government offices can cooperate with the military to evacuate people and reserve supplies.
In the political ecology of the separation of military and political affairs in the empire, the military will naturally not report military affairs to the governor's office in detail. However, the situation in Gansu is very complicated, and the military often needs local support, so both sides
There are more interactions.
Looking at the official document sent by the military in his hand, Li Yuanzhi frowned. Are these Tatars going to take action again? Do they want to enter the customs to plunder supplies this time, or do they want to break through the Great Wall blockade and kill them?
into Qinghai and other places, or do you want to put pressure on the empire in Gansu to reduce the huge pressure they are experiencing in the Hetao area?
Although Li Yuanzhi was not a military general, as a high-ranking imperial official, he was entrusted with the important task of serving as the governor of the newly established Gansu Province. This man was naturally not an ordinary civil servant, and his knowledge and ability were quite outstanding in all aspects.
He knew very well that in order to further compress the space of the Tatars, and even more to recapture the Hetao area, the empire had secretly launched the Hetao strategy since the 10th year of Xuanping.
What strategy? In fact, it is very simple to say. It is not even a military action, but encroachment through immigration. The empire builds forts and establishes immigration points along both sides of the Yellow River.
At first, the Tatars on the opposite side didn't think it was anything. The fortresses built by the empire on both sides of the Yellow River were not large in scale, and there was no large-scale immigration, only a small number of immigrants.
And they did not take the initiative to attack the Tatar tribes on the Hetao Plain. What's more, this section of the Yellow River will freeze in winter. Therefore, in the eyes of the Tatars, this small-scale construction of fortresses and colonization
The impact is not too big and they can still come and go freely.
However, after small fortresses were built one after another, and a stable exit channel of about fifty kilometers was formed based on these castles, the Tatars finally realized that the Tang Empire wanted to gradually encroach on the Hetao area
, they started to get nervous.
The importance of the Hetao area is undoubted. It has been a battleground between the northern nomads and the Central Plains dynasty for thousands of years. When the Central Plains dynasty was strong, it was often able to control the area. But once the Central Plains dynasty weakened, the northern
The nomads will control this area.
Even for the nomadic tribes in the north, this place is also an area of competition with each other!
For thousands of years, the history of the Hetao area is basically the history of wars. Tribes, Central Plains dynasties and northern nomads have been constantly fighting each other. The blood shed by countless soldiers has become the best nourishment for this land.
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The Tang Empire's attempt to regain the Hetao made the Tatars feel the crisis, so they also began to dispatch troops to pull out these small bastions.
But before, both sides were relatively restrained. On the one hand, the two sides had reached an agreement. The Tang Empire also granted Ada Khan a title, and the two sides still maintained a mutual trading relationship.
In addition, and more importantly, in the past few years, the Tang Empire focused on restoring people's livelihood, developing industry and commerce, and maintained restraint in external expansion, while the Tatars were also busy attacking Chahar and Oara.
Both sides are busy, so such a large-scale war is naturally impossible to fight, but small-scale armed conflicts are quite frequent.
However, at the beginning of this year, Li Yuanzhi knew that the empire had begun to gradually change its northern policy. The main reason was not that the empire was ready for the Northern Expedition. In fact, at the end of last year, the tone of the empire's top leaders was still to develop the agricultural, industrial and commercial economy.
, focusing on strengthening itself and large-scale external expansion, are still just plans on paper.
This can be seen from the fiscal budget expenditure allocation at the end of last year. A large amount of fiscal expenditure is still concentrated on domestic affairs. Military expenditure is still the same as in the 13th year of Xuanping. However, the empire's fiscal revenue is increasing year by year.
The relative fiscal expenditures are also increasing year by year, but the total amount of military expenditures has not increased, which means that the proportion of military expenditures has been slightly decreasing year by year.
At the end of last year, the empire had no plans for large-scale external expansion!
But in March this year, a piece of news came from the northern grasslands that made the empire feel the threat from the north, because in February this year, a large-scale battle took place between the Tatars and the Oara people. It was said that the Tatars
More than 100,000 troops were invested in this battle, and the Oara people also invested 70,000 to 80,000 troops. As a result, the Tatars won a great victory, and most of the main force of the Oara people were annihilated, and they finally fled in embarrassment.
This also means that the Tatars already have an absolute advantage in the northern grasslands. Although they have not been able to completely eliminate or annex the Chahar tribe, the Oara tribe, etc., their strength has reached a new level.
It is now difficult for the Gaofeng, Chahar and Oara tribes to protect themselves, let alone fight against the Tatars.
This also made the empire's plan to maintain a balance among the three major forces in the north and give the empire more time to prepare failed.
Now that Anda Khan is flourishing on the grasslands, this naturally makes the empire feel threatened!
For this reason, at the end of March, the Holy Emperor Li Xuan personally convened an imperial military and political meeting. This was a meeting attended by high-level military and cabinet officials, and the main subject of the meeting was how to deal with the situation in the north.
The details of the meeting will naturally not be announced, but it can still be inferred from some things that there have been major changes in the empire's northern policy.
The first and most obvious signal is that the military has temporarily received five million taels of military expenditure!
Temporary military expenditures. This situation usually occurs during wars. In normal times, it is impossible for such a thing to happen. The Army suddenly received temporary military expenditures of five million taels. This also means that the military must make big moves.
Otherwise, it would be impossible to obtain such a large amount of temporary military expenditure.
The military is going to make big moves. This is something that many high-ranking officials in the empire know. Some ordinary officials and even civilians can even guess that the military is preparing for war!
Because the military's preparations for war involve so many aspects that it cannot be kept secret.
For example, this year’s Army Martial Arts Academy students graduated early and were assigned to various units!
For another example, the Logistics Department of the Privy Council suddenly temporarily added emergency orders to major companies. Lingao Erjiu Fishery Company suddenly received a large number of canned fish orders, and the delivery time requirements were very strict, forcing Lingao to
Erjiu Fishery Company does not hesitate to postpone other orders and prioritize production of orders for the military.
Another example is that grain companies in several northern provinces, such as Hebei Grain Company, Shanxi Grain Company, and Shaanxi Grain Company, which are government-owned grain companies directly affiliated with the Imperial Grain Corporation, have all received administrative orders requiring them to transport and reserve large amounts of grain.
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On the Yellow River, boatloads of grain and other military supplies are being transported north.
On those official roads, four-wheeled transport carriages were transporting large amounts of grain and other various materials to the north, heading for the border.
Although the military troops have not moved yet, and even medium-sized battles have been suspended in the Hetao area, there are only some small-scale conflicts and battles, giving people a sense of calm, but some people who know or guess the inside story know that,
The military must be planning a large-scale military operation in the north.
Otherwise, it wouldn’t be such a big deal!
As a senior official in the empire and also the governor of Gansu Province, Li Yuanzhi naturally knew that the imperial military's target was not somewhere else, but the most important Hetao area.
After years of preparation, and even suppression, Emperor Sheng finally approved the plan proposed by the Army: to recapture the Hetao!
Even if he didn't know the inside story, he could still guess that if he wanted to regain the Hetao, the Army would have to invest hundreds of thousands of troops in the battle.
The Tatars in the north are not stupid either. They can also feel the huge pressure from the Tang Empire. Their spies also found out something unusual and reported it to Anda Khan.
This is also the reason why there have been frequent Tatar activities in Gansu, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Hebei, and even western Liaoning in recent months.
They are not willing to sit still and are trying to find ways to undermine the empire's Hetao strategy.
As Gansu has relatively deep contact with the Tatars and is also the bridgehead of the empire in the northwest, it is naturally also a key area for the Tatars to attack.
"I don't know what the situation is like at the Fifth Army. How will we face the Tatar invasion?" Li Yuanzhi was a little worried about the situation at the Fifth Army.
He didn't want to become the first feudal minister in the empire to lose territory because of the military's defeat!
At this time, he even had some doubts about whether he had made the wrong choice in competing so hard to be the first governor of Gansu. At the end of last year, the empire made adjustments to several major military-controlled areas and some border provinces in the country.
The Gansu Military Area was upgraded to Gansu Province, and the Gansu Governor's Office was established. Li Yuanzhi served as the first Gansu Governor.
In addition, the originally huge Liaodong Province was also divided into two, and the newly established Liaoxi Province was established.
In addition, the jurisdictions of some other provinces have also been adjusted, with varying impacts. However, the only newly established provinces are Gansu Province and Liaoxi Province.
The other big reason for the establishment of Gansu Province is to solve the problem of separation of military and political affairs. Under the previous military-controlled area model, the power of the military was still too great, which seriously affected the basic political principle of the separation of military and political affairs in the empire, so it was
There are situations where military-controlled areas are abolished and provinces are directly established.
But even if Gansu was established as a province, even Li Yuanzhi himself had to admit that here, military affairs are the top priority, and civil affairs affairs are not much to be honest.
Since Li Yuanzhi took office, he has discovered that most of the things he does are actually in service to the military. Even the reclamation that he vigorously oversees, the main purpose is actually to provide military rations.
This is true even for the development of the industrial and commercial economy. Gansu Province actually also has industry. What industry?