Chapter 962 Qin
On the Eurasian continent, due to different latitudes, the temperature generally gets lower the further north you go. Also, because of the obstruction of the mountains, the Atlantic warm current falls on different continents, resulting in different precipitation amounts.
Human beings are so insignificant in the face of global climate.
The Eurasian continent is actually a continent called the World Island, on which different types of land are distributed from north to south.
The Central Plains has always been strong, but it has difficulty controlling Mobei and the lands further north. It is naturally not because the people of the Central Plains are weak. The reasons lie in the climate and distance.
The earth is a sphere. Since it is a sphere, it becomes smaller the further north you go, and finally becomes a point at the North Pole. This is well known.
When mapping, the north is magnified by flattening the Earth, so Siberia looks so vast, but this is a typical visual problem.
In fact, the distance from Jicheng in the Central Plains to Karakorum is not necessarily as far as the distance from Qin to Yan. In other words, for Li Ke, the Tang Dynasty is actually farther away.
There is also a place that is extremely unfavorable to the Central Plains. There is a desert area around the Central Plains, extending from the Hanhai Desert to the Western Regions and the land further west.
The southern end of the desert is the Central Plains, and the northern end is a grassland area running from east to west. This grassland starts from Hulunbuir in the east, passes through the Yan State grassland in the northern desert, then extends all the way to the Western Regions, and then reaches Central Asia. The westernmost end touches Iran.
This is the area east of the Ural Mountains on the World Island, which is Asia. From north to south, there are permafrost, steppe, desert, grassland, and cultivated land. The desert divides the north and the south, forming an agricultural nation dominated by the Xia culture and a nomadic empire dominated by the steppe empire.
Nomadic people can move freely in this grassland belt without worrying about supplies, but for the Central Plains, if they want to enter this grassland belt, they have to pay a huge price to cross the desert.
When Li Shimin sent Yan State to defend the north, he knew that Yan State would definitely get out of his control. At that time, he just wanted to let the meat rot in the pot. However, Luo Su thought of a backup plan against Yan State, not only the Western Regions and Liaodong, but also Qin State.
Why didn't King Yan Li Ke dare to go south? Because the current Yan State was different from the nomadic tribes of the past. He was blocked both to the east and to the west, and the Qin State also blocked his way to the west. Unlike the nomads who had failed in the disputes in the Central Plains, the Qin State cut off Yan's retreat. Once he failed, it would be difficult for him to escape unless he begged for mercy from the King of Qin.
Under such circumstances, it is difficult to express the complicated thoughts in Li Ke's mind when he wrote to Li Chengqian.
…
The capital of Qin State.
In this royal capital, people of all races can be seen. In the late Zhenguan period and the reign of Li Zhi, the Central Plains sent a large number of Han armed groups to the Qin State.
During this process, of course, there were suggestions from the imperial court that they were ready to stop these population migrations.
After all, this is a typical move to benefit local governments at the expense of the central government and strengthen local power.
But in the thirteenth year of Li Zhi's reign, when Prince of Qi Li Tai had not yet died, at a major court meeting, envoys of the kings challenged the court, saying that there were treacherous ministers in the court, and that relocating the various states to expand the foundation was the national policy of the Tang Dynasty, but now there were people in the court who opposed it, and they asked Li Zhi to kill those who made these suggestions.
It was a scene that Li Zhi had never seen before.
For the feudal princes, population migration of the court was one of the most important things to stabilize their rule.
Moreover, in this era, population means wealth and power. Incorporating a large number of Han people into the rule can increase taxes, which is equivalent to increasing wages in disguise.
In the end, the matter ended with the court's concession. In the years that followed, the court relocated those unstable elements, and most of them were divided up by Yan and Qin.
After abandoning the forests of Siberia, Li Chengqian and others headed westward and occupied this black land which was much warmer than Liaodong. Today, there are 120,000 Han households in the Qin State, and 180,000 registered households gathered along the way, with a total population of 300,000 households. It is a first-class powerful country on the East European plains west of the Ural Mountains.
On the East European plains, the Qin State built cities and reclaimed land. Although it was a little colder than the Central Plains, it was much better than Liaodong and people could survive there. The key was that the soil here was more fertile than that in the Central Plains.
After Li Chengqian, Luo Juncheng and others came here, it took only a few years for them to realize that this would be the foundation of their future kingship and that they could create a great empire here.
Li Jing died in the tenth year of his Western Expedition with Li Chengqian. His family was one of the six major duke families of the Qin State, and was an upper-class aristocratic family second only to the royal family and the Zhoujunwang family.
In this process of development, in order to quickly conquer land, it was inevitable to use land to motivate heroes. Also, because there were no large number of mature bureaucrats, it was normal to move towards aristocratic politics.
In the palace, Li Chengqian, who was already quite old, could barely hold a letter in his hand. His face was full of wrinkles, but he was in very good spirits.
The vastness of the world can cure the narrowness of one's heart. Li Chengqian was not a very open-minded person. He was so angry about Li Tai's affairs that he vomited blood twice. But after leaving Chang'an City and coming to the grassland he had always dreamed of, he changed completely and galloped freely on the grassland.
"Ah Cheng, take a look at this letter. It's from Prince Yan. The Tang Dynasty will have a female emperor."
Li Chengqian, whose eyesight was a little blurry due to old age, read the letter and handed it to Luo Juncheng. Luo Juncheng, who used to be able to ride a horse and wield a spear, could now only play chess with Li Chengqian in the palace.
He felt that he was still able to fight, but Li Chengqian had already stopped him and only allowed his children to conquer those who disobeyed Qin.
After reading the letter, Luo Juncheng's face was full of emotion. "The court has changed so much. I really don't recognize it anymore. The King of Qin and the King of Yan are trying to test your attitude and see what your attitude is towards the court appointing a crown princess."
Li Chengqian grinned, his face full of indifference, "How boring! I don't want to play these games of power struggle with them. My Qin State will always be loyal to the Emperor of the Central Plains."
Luo Juncheng smiled heartily upon hearing this, "I will always be loyal to the Holy Emperor. I will be loyal to whoever is the Emperor."
The two looked at each other and laughed out loud at the same time. Li Chengqian patted the throne vigorously. "My Qin Kingdom is high and far away. Even if the horses of the Central Plains die, they can't come here. We can develop here with peace of mind. The land under our feet is not as barren as the land in Mobei. It can support millions of people. When there are millions of households in the future, the world will be really interesting.
If there is a war in the Central Plains, it will affect the population growth of my Qin State. The number of people sent in recent years has been a bit small. In this way, when my niece ascends the throne, I will send her congratulatory gifts. Can the gifts returned as tribute in the future be exchanged for population?
There have been many people and little land in the Central Plains in recent years. I heard that many people have no land to farm. My Qin country has few people and much land. The wasteland under our feet that has not been reclaimed is all top-quality black soil. It cannot be wasted. Let my Qin country help the court solve some difficulties. When my father asked us to come out to open up the country, he must have had this idea in mind.
Write back to King Yan and tell him that my niece was officially chosen as the heir and that the Qin State recognizes it.
In addition, send people out to find some principalities and have them accompany our Qin delegation to Luoyang to tell Luoyang that the Tang Dynasty has added a few more vassal states. This gift is certainly valuable."
The Qin State was truly a country where the emperor was far away. No matter what one did here, the imperial court basically knew nothing about it, and all the wealth obtained belonged to the royal court. When Li Chengqian first came here a few years ago, he might not have been very rich, but decades later, Li Chengqian had already become wealthy.
As for the nobles and officials of Qin, everyone from top to bottom had long forgotten about the Tang Dynasty, especially the first generation which was gradually dying out and the second generation which had grown up in Qin since childhood.
You have to know that other princely states, because they were close to the Central Plains, would at least return to the Central Plains to serve as officials, but the Qin State was truly isolated from the world and had no intention of having any in-depth contact with the Tang Dynasty. It was quite independent.
The only thought that might come to mind is: "Rush into Luoyang City and seize the throne."
"It is not impossible for me, the King of Qin, to become the emperor."
After replying to the letter from Prince Yan, Li Chengqian used his already vague memory to recall what else happened.
When people get older, their thoughts tend to become divergent.
As he thought about it, he thought about his childhood and youth. Those were the happiest times of his life, even happier than he is now.
"Ah Cheng, where do you think we should be buried in the future?"
As soon as Luo Juncheng heard it, he knew that Li Chengqian was thinking about the past again, and said in a gentle voice: "Of course, he should be buried on this land full of our sweat, blood and tears, right here, not in Chang'an."
Li Chengqian suddenly thought: "What do you think about me returning to Luoyang to congratulate my niece when she succeeds to the throne?"
Luo Juncheng's scalp exploded when he heard this. That was not a congratulation, but a cause of trouble. However, he also knew that Li Chengqian was just talking. So many big things happened back then, and he didn't go back. How could he go back now?
Before Luo Juncheng could say anything, Li Chengqian had already turned the page, because he had thought of something new, "Ah Cheng, when are we going to attack the Western Regions? There are many Xia people in the Western Regions. If we can accommodate all the people in the Western Regions, the population of our Qin State will soon exceed several million."
Importing people from the Western Regions was something I mentioned as a joke before, but in fact it is basically impossible. Attacking the Western Regions not only requires facing the Western Regions, but also the Central Plains and the State of Yan. None of these three forces will allow the Western Regions to be invaded.
Moreover, the Qin State had not yet reached the point of an eastward expedition. Even the Ural region had not been completely conquered. There were many tribes living here, most of whom were Ural people. According to calculations, if this vast plain could be completely conquered, the population of the Qin State would swell to more than 600,000 households, and might even reach 800,000 households.
If the Qin State could obtain an equal number of Han people from the Central Plains or other regions, then it could really establish a great empire on its own, and the Tang Dynasty might not even be able to grasp the suzerainty of the Qin State. This was the goal of the Qin nobles. After all, no one wanted to be a second-class noble forever. My Qin sword is not inferior to the Tang sword.
Luo Juncheng hurriedly calmed Li Chengqian's thoughts, but when he wanted to speak again, he found that Li Chengqian had fallen asleep. He stepped forward and covered Li Chengqian with a blanket, then quietly left the hall and asked the maid to go in and serve him.
He was no longer surprised by Li Chengqian's performance. Li Chengqian was actually quite healthy. He was just getting old, so he became more and more sleepy. Not only Li Chengqian, Luo Juncheng also felt that his health was not as good as before. In order to expand the Qin State, he had been at the forefront of almost every battle. The internal injuries in his body were very serious, which seriously affected his lifespan.
Luo Juncheng actually began to prepare for death. Everyone has to die. Of Li Shimin's three legitimate sons, only Li Chengqian is still alive. This is already quite lucky. In recent years, more and more first-generation Qin nobles have died, and the second-generations have come on the scene. He, the Prince of Zhou, will also die sooner or later.
After Luo Juncheng returned to the mansion, his wife Princess Changle had also just returned to the mansion. Coming here with Luo Juncheng, he was probably the one who changed the most. While the men went out to explore the new world and fought on the battlefield, someone was always needed to take charge of the internal affairs.
In this situation, no literate person can be spared, not to mention someone like Princess Changle, who has been smart since childhood and understands the operation of politics. She must be entrusted with an important task.
Princess Changle was the legitimate daughter of Emperor Taizong, the wife of Prince Zhou, and the eldest princess of the first rank, the highest title among women in the empire. She was the eldest sister of the Prince of Qin. In this kingdom, there was no other woman with a higher status than her, including the Princess of Qin.
After the maid brought the food, Luo Juncheng and Princess Changle ate and chatted, talking about the letter from Prince Yan and the current problems within the Tang Dynasty.
Li Lizhi suddenly said: "My husband, you said that there are so many scholars in the Tang Dynasty, but most of the official positions are occupied by the rich and powerful. Will there be a large number of talents piled up at the bottom without any channels for upward mobility?
wrong.
This problem is bound to arise, and this is our opportunity.”
Li Lizhi's eyes lit up, and Luo Juncheng also slowed down his chopsticks to listen to Li Lizhi, "Now these scholars may be very angry, but they still have hope for the court, but in fact, this problem cannot be solved even if my father is alive.
There are only so many official positions. It is impossible to give them all to prevent the scholars from causing trouble. Otherwise, the court will collapse soon.
In this case, can we attract those people to our Qin State? Our Qin State is a blank sheet of paper, and there is enough space for them to thrive.
Talent is power.”
After listening to this, Luo Juncheng frowned slightly, and then slowly said: "The powerful and wealthy in the Tang Dynasty control the official positions. The same is true in my Qin State, and it is even more serious than the Tang Dynasty. What should we do?"
Li Lizhi immediately shook her head and said solemnly: "This is completely different. Although the territory of the Tang Dynasty is larger than that of our Qin State, there are too many intertwined interest groups, and the Tang Dynasty is a plate that cannot be expanded. Many official positions have been calculated.
But it is different in my Qin State. Although the powerful now hold power very seriously, in fact this is precisely because there are few capable scholars. There are few people in my Qin State, and there are few talents. It should be noted that since ancient times, poor scholars have defeated wealthy families by relying on the advantage of numbers, and then forming a crushing trend in quality.
What is restraining the development speed of Qin State now is that there are too few officials. This has hindered Qin State from registering the people in the newly conquered lands. Without registering the people, it is difficult to collect taxes and we can only farm the taxes. We cannot have precise control and it is difficult to say that the land is Qin State's territory.
If Qin had 5,000 or 10,000 more scholars, the population controlled by Qin would be doubled. If Qin had 100,000 scholars, Qin would not have to worry about lacking administrative officials before annexing the entire plain, and it would be able to quickly assimilate the local indigenous people, change their language, and correct their culture. "
Li Lizhi's voice was sonorous and powerful. This was how people behaved when they were doing what they loved. In this respect, Li Lizhi was an expert. Luo Juncheng knew that Li Lizhi's words were definitely not a spur-of-the-moment idea. She had probably thought about these things before, but she just happened to come across him talking about the Central Plains today, so she just expressed her more complete ideas.
"Madam, what you said makes sense, but this matter still needs to be considered in the long run. You should write a specific set of rules first, and then tell the King of Qin about this matter during the imperial meeting. This matter must have the King of Qin's order before it can be implemented in the kingdom."
Li Lizhi nodded. "But once this matter spreads, the nobles in the kingdom might be dissatisfied. We need to think about how to prevent this."
Although it is often said that people never learn lessons from history, in fact, people do draw experience from history.
The experience of our predecessors has been accumulated from generation to generation, and this is the precious wisdom left to future generations. The answers to many problems can be found from history.
For example, the Tang Dynasty is now controlled by the powerful, and the Qin State is somewhat similar to the Zhou Dynasty.
Many years ago, these problems had not been solved, so they stumped countless people. They could only be pushed forward little by little by social changes. In this process, countless blood was shed and repeated trial and error was experienced.
But for people living in the Tang Dynasty, the answer is there. The nobles in the Qin State all know what the final outcome will be. This is different from the past. For people of this era, it is not natural for nobles to own land. It is natural that everything belongs to the king.
Perhaps the only good point for the Qin nobles was that the King of Qin was also a member of the princes and a subject of the emperor. So from this point of view, the political foundation of the Qin State was to divide the land and enfeoff kings.
Luo Juncheng thought for a moment and said, "The dissatisfaction of the nobles is inevitable, but there has never been a lack of people who oppose in history. However, the nobles are not always the winners in the end. We stand on the side of the winners, that's it."
…
The Tang Dynasty had many vassal states, and the number registered in the Lifanyuan far exceeded that of the Han Dynasty. Of course, it was far less than that of feudal countries such as the Shang and Zhou dynasties.
These countries have chaotic systems and hierarchies, and can be roughly divided into several categories, but with the development over the years, it has become increasingly difficult to distinguish them.
This is a very complicated issue.
The first batch of vassal states of the Tang Dynasty were in the early years of Zhenguan. After defeating the Eastern Turks, many countries gave Li Shimin the title of Heavenly Khan.
The nature of this group of vassal states is difficult to define. Since they used the title of Heavenly Khan, they should be regarded as foreign vassal states, and were also privately called Hu vassal states. But in fact, the identities of these vassal states were very different. The Western Yan Kingdom and Gaochang Kingdom were both legitimate Han countries.
That's right, there is no need to even relax it to include the various Xia countries. The rulers of these two countries are genuine descendants of the Han people, and the entire country is full of Han culture. From bloodline to culture, they are quite pure. But this is also a country under the Tian Khan system, so it is difficult to evaluate.
From that time on, things had become a little blurry. With the rapid expansion of the Tang Dynasty, the proposal of the six-kingdom system, the enfeoffment of the princes in the southwest, and the enfeoffment of the princes in Lingnan, everything became completely chaotic. The Lifanyuan could not even distinguish between the outer and inner vassal states.
During the Zhou Dynasty, the princes who were enfeoffed within the royal capital were called inner vassal states, while the princes who were enfeoffed outside the royal capital were called outer vassal states.
But if we calculate it this way, then many tribal vassal states, such as the vassal states under the Andong Protectorate, would become internal vassal states, while Qin, Yan, and Qi, the legitimate states of Emperor Taizong's princes, would become external vassal states.
Isn’t this going against Tiangang?
The emperor was unwilling to do so either, as it would mean that a vassal state would have its own independent legal system, which the imperial court could not tolerate.
As for the affiliations of those duchies, in theory they were granted the Golden Book by the Emperor, but they had to communicate with the local indigenous people and the kings of the six kingdoms, so the situation in the country changed.
After decades of development, the current kingdom of princes can be said to be in a mess. Every time the Lifanyuan issues an edict, it has to send out several letters, which are redundant and complicated.
Wu Zhao and Luo Junwei focused on internal affairs, that is, the development of prefectures and counties, and the reform of the government soldiers. As for these external institutions, the main thing is to keep them running, and then don't touch them.
After Li Zhi's death, Wu Zhao had no intention of competing for supremacy in the Western Regions and Mobei. She devoted more energy to the establishment of the imperial examination system, the crackdown on the gentry, and the clarification of finances.
Therefore, these princely states were allowed to develop on their own as long as they paid tribute on time. Under the guiding ideology of strengthening the trunk and not weakening the branches, the central court was very powerful, but the entire vassal state system became a machine that could not be touched casually.
The Queen Mother appointed a Crown Princess, and in the future the Tang Dynasty would welcome a female emperor. When this matter reached the ears of different princes, their reactions were naturally different.
The reactions of the King of Yan and the King of Qin were different. One acted as if it had nothing to do with him, while the other was worried that his son might do something wrong. But fundamentally, neither of them objected to the Crown Princess, and neither of them had any intention of taking advantage of her to gain additional benefits.
Most of the other princes were like the King of Qin. They were only surprised for a moment when the emperor abdicated and the crown princess was enthroned. Then they each did their own thing. No matter who was on the throne, it had nothing to do with them.
The people who really had complicated feelings were Li Xian and Li Xian.
Taiping's two elder brothers were the two people who should have benefited from Li Dan's abdication.
Li Xian was better off. He had lost the qualification to inherit the throne many years ago. Over the years, he had worked hard to build his Wei State on Penglai Island. In Wei State, he built a palace based on the model of Chang'an City. The entire Penglai Island was almost built according to his ideas.
Staying on Penglai Island is like staying in the Central Plains. In addition, Penglai is close to the Central Plains, and large numbers of Han people have entered Penglai. Now, even if he is asked to go to other places in the Central Plains to be a vassal, he is unwilling to do so.
Since he couldn't become the emperor, he would slowly develop on Penglai Island.
The one who was really angry was Li Xian. Among Wu Zetian's four sons, Li Hong and Li Xian were both capable, but one had poor health and the other was too impatient and easily believed in rumors, which resulted in mother and son becoming enemies.
The remaining two, Li Xian and Li Dan, had no ability, but Li Dan was a good man, very self-aware, and not greedy for power, so he was able to decisively give up the throne.
But Li Xian was not like that. He had no ability but was unaware of it. Instead, he thought he was very smart and often did things that made Wu Zhao laugh and cry. His political tactics were so clumsy that they were even worse than those of the teenage Wu Zhao.
Li Xian is a mean and ungrateful person, which is not a particularly bad shortcoming, but a person who has no ability to control the situation and is also mean and ungrateful can neither control people nor win their hearts.
So Wu Zetian directly excluded Li Xian at the beginning.
Li Xian's defense broke down at that time and he said some unpleasant words. If he was not Wu Zhao's biological son, he would have been dead by now.
So after Li Dan abdicated, Wu Zetian did not comment on Li Xian, but said that Li Xian was "frivolous and unfit to rule the world." It can be imagined that Wu Zetian hated Li Xian.
When Li Xian learned that Princess Taiping was named the Crown Princess, he was so angry that he vomited blood. Before he passed out, he asked his attendants unwillingly, "Am I not as good as a woman like Princess Taiping?
Could it be that Taiping is a genius comparable to her mother?
The king refuses to accept!
The Queen Mother is too biased and too peaceful."
After saying this, he fell into a coma, and his words leaked out and became a laughing stock among the people.
————
Regarding the development of the Tang Empire's feudal policy during the reign of Emperor Gaozong and Empress Tianhou, I think there is only one word to describe it - "barbaric growth."
The complex and turbulent power struggles within the empire and the ruling philosophy of Empress Wu Zetian, "focusing on internal affairs rather than external affairs, strengthening the country and building a solid foundation," led the Tang court to focus on solving problems within the empire and did not make an overall plan for the entire development and enfeoffment. This can be seen from the fact that there was only one alliance meeting.
During the reign of Emperor Gaozong and Empress Tian, the court issued as many as 73 imperial edicts to encourage agriculture and sericulture, and 54 imperial edicts to rectify the administration of officials, but there were only five imperial edicts regarding external guidance. This absolute disparity in numbers proves the bias of the central court.
Later historical facts proved that the policies implemented by Empress Wu Zetian during this period greatly reduced the contradictions that would have grown within the empire, significantly restored the efficiency of the empire's operation, and laid a solid foundation for the subsequent empire. - "The Rise and Fall of the Tang Empire"
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
