For the past few years, Li Shimin has been troubled by how to govern his vast territory.

Since the Tang Dynasty conquered Gaochang, its territory has expanded beyond the Hexi Corridor to the Western Regions, which are seven thousand miles away.

However, it was extremely difficult to effectively govern Gaochang from a distance of thousands of miles.

First, the taxes from Gaochang could not be transported back to Chang'an. Second, the weapons, provisions, and reinforcements from Chang'an could not be quickly delivered to Gaochang.

Therefore, despite the Tang Dynasty's implementation of the rent, labor, and tax system in Gaochang, and the registration of all its people into households, the situation remained unchanged.

However, for the Tang Dynasty, Gaochang remained an exclave thousands of miles away.

Neither the common people of the Tang Dynasty nor the officials in the court truly regarded Gaochang as territory belonging to the Tang Dynasty.

Similarly, the people of Gaochang had a very low sense of belonging to the Tang Dynasty, and rebellions would break out from time to time.

Li Shimin was very hesitant at the moment. After all, building a road that connected the whole country would cost too much. What if it incited a popular uprising and shook the rule of the Tang Dynasty?

"Young master, does building highways guarantee effective governance?"

"certainly!"

"The reason why the Tang Dynasty was so poor, with the court collecting only a few million strings of cash in taxes each year, apart from grain and cloth, was because the Tang Dynasty's transportation infrastructure was too bad."

"If the Tang Dynasty could build a network of highways connecting the entire country, and order all prefectures and counties to build roads connecting county towns and surrounding townships, the Tang Dynasty's economic growth would reach an unprecedented level!"

"Uncle Li, I have a message for you. If you ever have the chance to meet His Majesty the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty, please tell him this."

"What did you say?"

"If you want to get rich, build roads first!"

"this……"

Upon hearing this, Li Shimin was completely taken aback.

Although this sentence is only five words long, it contains profound truths and can be considered a truth about governing a country!

Having reigned as emperor for over a decade, Li Shimin was well aware of the current state of the Tang Dynasty.

Despite the vast territory of the Tang Dynasty, the actual area where taxes could be collected was still limited to a small corner of Guanzhong.

Not to mention the distant Western Regions, even the taxes from Lingnan and the southwest within the Tang Dynasty's borders were not collected by him, the emperor!

It wasn't that they dared to defy the imperial court; it was simply that the journey was too long, and the taxes collected locally, such as grain, cloth, and money, could only be used locally and were difficult to transport to Chang'an in Guanzhong.

Therefore, his military campaigns in the Western Regions over the past few years have actually been consuming the manpower and resources of Guanzhong, while the grain from Hebei has hardly been used...

However, if the Tang Dynasty had built a highway that ran through the entire country, this problem could have been greatly alleviated.

Even if the taxes from Lingnan can't be transported back, at least the taxes from Hebei and Henan can be transported to Chang'an!

Li Shimin pondered for a long time, then stood up and bowed to Li Jue.

"I have learned a great deal from these six words!"

"However, constructing a nationwide highway would require an enormous amount of manpower and financial resources, which the Tang Dynasty is currently unable to accomplish..."

Although Li Jue was unable to inherit the throne of the Tang Dynasty due to historical reasons.

But as a time traveler, Li Jue wanted the Tang Dynasty to be powerful and become the greatest dynasty in the world more than anyone else!

When Li Shimin saw Li Jue's confident demeanor, he knew that the boy must have a solution.

"Young sir, do you have a good plan?"

"certainly!"

"I would like to hear the details!"

"It's very simple, just implement the project in stages."

"The people of Shandong are responsible for the Shandong section of the road, and the people of Henan are responsible for the Henan section of the road."

"Similarly, Gaochang, Yanqi, Kucha and other places are also responsible for their respective sections of the road. Wouldn't this save both construction time and food losses along the way?"

Li Shimin was very surprised to hear this, after all, how old was this child, that he could come up with the idea of ​​segmented construction.

"good!"

"This will indeed save a lot of construction time!"

"However, the costs are still very high, and the quality cannot be guaranteed..."

Li Jue sighed helplessly upon hearing this.

"The problem of high costs is indeed difficult to solve, but building a highway that connects the whole country is a great undertaking that benefits the present and future generations."

"Once the highway is successfully built, the people of the Tang Dynasty will enjoy its convenience for a hundred years."

"Therefore, this is a worthwhile deal no matter how you look at it."

"As for quality issues... in fact, these problems can be avoided as long as strict assessment standards are established and people are regularly sent to supervise the construction in various locations."

Li Shimin was increasingly surprised as he listened. He never expected that a child of only eight or nine years old could come up with such a way of governing the country!

"Kid, who taught you all this?"

"No one taught me; it's all just my idle thoughts..."

"Just random thoughts?"

Li Shimin found it hard to believe. How could an eight or nine-year-old child have spoken such profound truths without the guidance of a wise person?

"Uncle Li, is there anything else?"

"If Uncle Li has nothing else to do, I'll go get back to work!"

Li Shimin was completely bewildered by the title "Uncle Li," thinking to himself that according to seniority, this little brat should call me "Grandpa"!

"Young man, it would be more appropriate for you to call me Old Man Li!"

Upon hearing this, Li Jue blinked curiously.

Don't most people like to be called younger? Why is this uncle so afraid of aging slowly?

However, since the other party had made the request, he decided not to be polite.

"Then I shall call you Old Man Li from now on?"

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