In the 61st year of Xuanping, the Holy Emperor transferred the command of the royal guards of each feudal prince from the Army Staff to the local provincial highway garrison headquarters. However, the feudal princes often had great influence on the local garrison headquarters.
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In other words, Li Xuan actually indirectly handed over the guards of each prince's palace to each vassal king!
In the earliest days, the princes of the Tang Dynasty also had the command authority of the Royal Guards. However, later Li Xuan deprived the princes of the command authority of the Royal Guards and placed them directly under the jurisdiction of the Army Staff Department. Now, it is just restored.
It was just an idea back then.
If you want to let the vassal kings in various places secure their positions and become local rulers, and let the Li family control the ruling power on a global scale, how can you do it without soldiers.
On the one hand, Li Xuan suppressed the independent tendencies of various overseas territories, and on the other hand, he supported the vassal king. This may seem contradictory, but in fact it is not contradictory at all.
How to put it this way, what Li Xuan did was that even if the overseas territories wanted to become independent, they had to do so under the leadership of the local Li family lords, instead of throwing the Li family aside and letting the local interest groups do it on their own...
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This idea was also the reason why the Holy Emperor Li Xuan's attitude toward overseas territories and vassal kings seemed to be constantly swinging and very contradictory in the past few decades.
When Li Xuan promoted this, it also resulted in the current twenty-five vassal kings in the Tang Empire becoming representatives of local interests to a certain extent.
It may seem like you don't have much power now, but your prestige is generally very high.
Because now the vassal kings in various parts of the Tang Dynasty not only represent their own interests, but also represent the interests of the interest classes in each territory.
This is why almost all the current feudal kings have no idea of rebelling and returning to their homeland to seize the throne, but most of the feudal kings have the idea of seeking independence.
Local interest groups need to obtain greater benefits, and this interest is contrary to the interests of the local business class in East Asia.
The feudal king's own thoughts are not important. What is important is that the interests of overseas regions are inconsistent with local interests, and this conflict of interest is almost impossible to alleviate.
How should I put it? There is only so much money. If the local business community makes money, the business community in overseas territories will earn less...
This conflict of interest is almost impossible to resolve. All the Tang Empire did in the past few decades was to alleviate it. Even after Li Xuan died, a war broke out in the empire. After the victory was determined, the empire compromised, but the conflict remained.
Yes, the compromise in war is still just to alleviate conflicts.
After all, wherever there are people, there are rivers and lakes, and there are disputes. A few decades ago, most of the conflicts in the Tang Empire were with the indigenous barbarian countries. However, after the globalization of the empire was completed, the main contradiction of the empire has become the local conflicts.
and overseas territories, and this contradiction is almost irreconcilable.
Even when Li Xuan is still alive, overseas regions, especially the Americas, have already had numerous conflicts of interest with the mainland. The Americas have always wanted to engage in industrial development.
Their mineral resources are extremely rich, and the conditions are very good for industrial development. But now, the Americas can only rely on agriculture and basic minerals and oil extraction as their economic pillars.
This economic model was pretty good before the second great industrial development. People in the Americas relied on agriculture, livestock and basic mineral products to earn a good income. However, after the second great industrial development, this economic model even seemed
It's good, but the gap with the local area is getting bigger and bigger.
When many developed areas in the mainland began to build expressways and cars began to enter ordinary households, the majority of farmers in the Americas were, to put it mildly, small farmers, but they were still just farmers, and food prices had been declining for more than ten years.
It has never increased, but prices are rising day by day!
In the 40s of Xuanping's reign, a small farmer in the Americas could make a good living for his family by cultivating a hundred acres of land. However, around the 60s of Xuanping's reign, as planting costs increased, food prices increased.
Without rising prices, an American farmer would need to cultivate more than 500 acres of land to make a good living for his family.
As of now, as large-scale farms using large-scale mechanical farming in Eastern Europe, Europe, and India continue to increase grain production, the competitiveness of grain in the Americas has further declined.
At this time, it was already difficult for American farmers to cultivate a thousand acres of land and make a decent living for their families.
You will definitely not starve if you are hungry. America is in short supply of everything, except food.
But it is difficult for them to support consumption in other fields!
Except for food, almost everything Americans buy is expensive!
This is not to say that things are really expensive, even if shipping costs are included, but in fact the prices of industrial products retailed in the Americas and those retailed locally are equivalent.
The problem is that local people in America don’t have much cash!
This grain can't be sold for much money, and they have no other sources of income. Unlike the local people, they can go to the city to work if they can no longer make money from farming.
No matter how bad it is, you can earn a monthly salary of more than ten yuan by working in a factory for a month. After this year, people in America and other overseas areas can earn even more from farming.
This has also made many people realize that they cannot live a good life simply by farming. They want change and they also want to develop industry.
However, the high-ranking officials of the empire did not allow such a thing to happen. The high-ranking officials of the empire had considered this problem decades ago and had always strictly guarded against the industrial development in overseas areas.
Although some restrictions were later relaxed in order to alleviate conflicts, such as allowing the development of mineral and oil resources in the Americas, there were no corresponding steel plants or refineries.
People in the Americas have a lot of opinions about this. They are obviously rich in oil, but the price of daily gasoline and other refined oil products is still so high. Some people have long talked about building local refineries in the Americas to reduce the price of gasoline and other products in the Americas.
The price of refined oil has increased.
But it never happened!
When the interests of ordinary people in overseas territories have begun to conflict with local interests, you can also know how serious the contradictions between overseas areas and local areas are!
In the third year of Taiping, there was an iron mine in Wuhu Province in America that belonged to the Central Mining Company. Because of the high mining costs of the iron ore, the price of iron ore continued to fall, and its competitiveness declined, and it was finally forced to reduce production.
Although the iron ore mine has adopted a policy of no layoffs as much as possible, the adoption of shortened working hours has resulted in a significant reduction in the miners' wages and income, which has caused great dissatisfaction among the miners.
And this is not an isolated case!
In the early years, with the Empire's Second Great Industrial Development Plan, the Empire's demand for various mineral resources increased significantly, which in turn led to the Empire's iron ore, coal and other production capacity around the world continuing to increase.
However, after the initial explosive growth, although the demand for steel products in the empire continued to rise, more iron ore was added in a short period of time, and with the large-scale iron ore production in Australia and South America,
After mining, a large amount of cheap and high-quality iron ore entered the market, and the development of iron ore in other areas was affected to a certain extent.
Even many domestic iron ore mines have seen their profits plummet, let alone iron ore in the Americas and other regions.
Affected by the decline in iron ore prices instead of rising, many overseas iron ore mines that have rashly expanded production in recent years have encountered operational crises. Many iron ore mines have gone bankrupt and stopped operations, and those that have not stopped operations will also reduce production.
If this happens locally, many workers will have other options and can be re-employed through the development of other industries, and it is basically unlikely to have much impact.
But for many overseas territories with a single economic model, this impact will be huge.
The economic pillars of the Americas are agriculture and livestock, mining and oil extraction. The life of the agriculture and livestock industry is not easy to begin with. In the face of large-scale mechanized farms, the lives of small farmers are becoming increasingly difficult, forcing many in the Americas to
The wealthy labor force from peasant families entered the mining and other industries for employment.
Now that the mining industry has been hit, resulting in a certain wave of layoffs, there are not enough local jobs to accommodate these laid-off workers, and the conflict has exploded.
In the third year of Taiping's reign, strikes broke out in several large mining areas in Wuhu Province at the same time. They demanded no work stoppage and no salary reduction!
Although this strike did not last long, the empire's top officials quickly adopted special policies to expand iron ore purchases in the Americas in a targeted manner, allowing the local mining industry to resume production.
But this still brought a huge impact to the empire's senior officials!
It also gave hope to the vassal kings and local interest groups in the Americas, forcing the local parties to make concessions, and then the hope of developing industry locally!
In the British province of Taiping 4, a strike also broke out in the local coal industry. This time it lasted a bit long, lasting three months, but it still reflected a very important point. This was not just because of the sluggish local coal industry.
The reason behind this is the dissatisfaction of local ordinary people and even farmers.
In addition, the acquiescence and even promotion of the local upper and middle class are naturally indispensable!
But with these turmoils, Li Xuan, the Holy Emperor of the Tang Empire, could no longer pay attention!
Starting from the third year of Taiping, the elderly Holy Emperor Li Xuan began to be bedridden for a long time. Li Xuan defeated everyone, but in the end he was defeated by time!
In the fourth year of Taiping, Emperor Sheng fell into coma many times!
Although this news was kept strictly confidential by the Palace Affairs Department, Emperor Li Hongzhuo even revealed many times that the Holy Emperor was still in good health during many public inspections. However, when the Holy Emperor was not seen in public for more than half a year, at the same time, among the top officials of the empire,
It was also the time when rumors spread that the Holy Emperor's dragon body was uneasy.
Beginning in August of the fourth year of Taiping, vassal kings from all over the country frequently submitted petitions for peace. For example, Li Tong, King of Qin in the Spanish Peninsula in Western Europe, submitted petitions twice within three months, requesting to return to Beijing to visit the Holy Emperor, but both times were rejected by the Emperor Li Hongcuo.
In October of the fourth year of Taiping, King Wei, the thirteenth son of the emperor in the Red Sea region, fell ill. After requesting an order, he returned to his hometown in Shanghai and was hospitalized for treatment. After the operation, King Wei said that he had not seen his father for many years and missed him very much, so he requested an order to return to Jinling for a visit.
Holy Emperor!
Emperor Li Hongchuan approved: King Wei is seriously ill and should return to his fief to recuperate as soon as possible. Grandpa Huang is in good health. Don’t miss him!
The Holy Emperor did not appear in public for a long time, and it was difficult for both the vassal king and the important ministers to see the Holy Emperor.
Many people have more or less guessed what it is!
Amid the suspicion of many people, on November 6, the fourth year of Taiping, Emperor Li Hongchuo suddenly issued a secret order to the garrison troops from all over the country to enter and not to move without special orders!
On November 7, the Tang Dynasty newspaper suddenly published that the emperor Li Hongchuan was the new marshal of the army and navy. A total of 26 generals were awarded titles and noble titles.
On November 8, the Naval Headquarters issued a press conference, announcing that the navy was about to hold a global joint exercise and form and dispatch a huge fleet to sail around the world!
The Global Fleet will have eight battleships, dozens of cruisers, destroyers and auxiliary ships!
What is not known to outsiders is that when the Global Fleet arrived at Xinjinshan Port, the Third Guards Division also arrived with the fleet and was stationed at Xinjinshan.
When the Third Guards Division, fully armed and carrying hundreds of armored vehicles, appeared in America.
Everyone knows that this day has begun to change!
Because the military’s actions are so weird!
The Navy had just announced its global voyage, and the Third Guards Division appeared in America. The Army quickly announced the overall defense change of multiple units stationed in Europe, West Asia, and the Americas!
And large-scale personnel adjustments have been made to garrison headquarters in multiple locations overseas!
When people saw this, everyone turned their attention to Jinling City!
But for many days, Jinling City remained calm.
Even on November 12, the Tang Dynasty newspaper published a report that Emperor Sheng met with several scientists from the Royal Institute of Technology, and even included photos!
However, the world is still in a very strange state!
The vassal kings were no longer clamoring to see the Holy Emperor as before. Instead, they frequently attended various public occasions in the fiefdom and inspected the local area.
The emperor Li Hongzhuo also appeared frequently in public, and his speeches were mostly about the second industrial development, saying that the empire's efforts over the years had achieved initial success.
At the same time, he constantly emphasized the consistency of the homeland and overseas territories, saying that the empire was a global empire, and the empire had canceled the names of homeland and overseas territories many years ago, whether it was the provincial roads in the Central Plains, the provinces in the Americas, or
All the provinces in Europe and India were provincial roads belonging to the empire, and they were identical in all aspects.
Subsequently, it was announced that the second great industrial development has entered a new stage. In order to develop better and faster, the empire will consider establishing and developing new industrial bases in several places, such as the Five Lakes region of America and parts of Europe.
Coastal areas, etc.
A few days later, Li Hongzhuo chaired a meeting to formulate a national medical insurance plan, making it clear that within the next five years, universal medical insurance will be gradually established and popularized to ensure that people can afford treatment when they get sick.
On November 18, Emperor Li Hongzhuo issued an order to further increase support for poor students to ensure that every poor student who is admitted to middle school, preparatory school or even university will not be unable to continue studying because of his poor family background.
On November 20, Emperor Li Hongzhuo visited the veterans of the Imperial Army and Navy, and later emphasized in his speech that national defense is the cornerstone of the Empire's peace and stability and must be taken seriously.
But after this series of major news were announced one after another, at this time, everyone has actually guessed what happened!
Sure enough, on November 23rd of the fourth year of Taiping, the emperor Li Hongchuo announced to the world: The beloved, great, and eternal sage who is greater than the sun, the son of heaven, the divine emperor, the holy son of heaven, and the holy emperor Li Xuan has died in Taiping.
Died on the night of November 5th, 4th year!
At the same time, the edict entered a state of national mourning for three months, prohibiting all entertainment activities worldwide, prohibiting the wearing of brightly colored clothing except black and white, dragon flags at half-mast, etc.