After a few years, they will probably become lambs to be slaughtered.
"I won't go into detail about how the Western Xia and Liao dynasties were destroyed. If you have time, you can explain it to the three gentlemen. Today, I will talk about what happened after the destruction of the Western Xia and Liao dynasties."
Zhao Jun walked to the bookshelf behind Zhao Zhen's desk, pulled out a map, and spread it out, saying, "This is a rough map of our East Asia region. Take a look."
Everyone stood up from their chairs, walked to Zhao Jun and formed a circle, their eyes all looking at the beautifully made map of East Asia.
Especially for Xia Song and the other three, these maps are top secret. Only fleets going out to the open sea can possess them. Each copy is marked and must be handed in after returning from the sea. If lost or damaged, the person will be held accountable. No other department can possess them.
If the Liao and Western Xia got hold of these maps, it would cause considerable trouble. Therefore, even Xia Song and other former Second Rank officials had never seen such detailed maps, and their eyes widened.
"Western Xia covers an area of approximately 800,000 square kilometers, while Liao covers an area of 5 million square kilometers. Which area should we focus on?"
Zhao Jun pointed to the northeast and said, "Liaodong!"
"Our future world is vast, encompassing present-day Dali, Tubo, Xixia, the Western Regions, and most of the Liao Kingdom, covering nearly 10 million square kilometers."
"My current idea is to take back these places, including Outer Mongolia and Formosa Bougainvillea, and unify them completely before I die."
"However, judging by the current situation, I should be able to live for a long time. And considering the current productivity and national strength, rashly annexing such a large area of land is not a good idea."
"Our territory is too vast, and our technological capabilities cannot keep up. Once unrest occurs in remote areas, the cost of suppressing it will be extremely high, seriously straining the court's finances."
“So, you must eat your meal one bite at a time and walk your journey one step at a time.”
"Tubha is nearby, and it's in constant internal turmoil. It has no unified government at all. It would be very easy to capture it, but I don't have any thoughts about them."
"Because from a realistic perspective, taking over the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau has little value and would actually be disadvantageous to us. Therefore, taking over Tubo is something I would only do in my later years."
"Now that we are going to take action against Xixia and Liao, we have to consider what we should do after taking down these two countries to maximize our benefits."
"My answer to everyone is to develop Northeast China. Taking advantage of the end of the Little Ice Age and the global warming, we should vigorously develop agriculture and technology, and then fill Northeast China with people."
"The Northeast is not only vast, but also extremely rich in resources. It possesses considerable mineral, fishing, hunting, nomadic, and forest resources. Later, our country's first heavy industrial production base was located here, and it is known as the eldest son of the Republic."
"As long as we develop Northeast China, we can reach further north in the future, to the now uninhabited Siberia region, which is full of polar bears and has rich oil and natural gas resources."
"It just so happens that our Great Song Dynasty's population resources are booming right now, and we have a cotton industry that provides cotton products to protect the Northeast from the cold. After we destroy the Liao Kingdom, we can find a way to attract a large number of people to the Northeast to seek their fortune."
"As for the Mongolian grasslands, I certainly want to take them all back. But for now, I'll focus on governing them and letting those nomadic peoples live their own lives."
"It's not that I'm partial to one region over the other, or that I only want to revitalize Northeast China while ignoring the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and the Mongolian grasslands. Rather, we need to proceed from a realistic perspective. Only those who are prosperous first can drive the prosperity of others. Different regions have different situations and production conditions, so it's impossible for them to all become prosperous at the same time."
"Also, the land of Western Xia is a very poor province in Gansu, even in our later generations. Development is very difficult, and we can only rely on the Silk Road to develop trade. We can only fill the gap when the country becomes prosperous in the future."
Zhao Jun said a lot of words in one breath, and finally he fixed his eyes on the Northeast.
Many people think that our country is rich and powerful in later generations, and it was also rich and powerful in ancient times. So to conquer a vast territory, wouldn’t it be enough to have hands?
In fact, it is easy to conquer an empire but difficult to maintain it.
The Mongols were great at conquering, but how could they maintain their dominance? The shortest-lived of the four great khanates lasted only 50 years, the Yuan Dynasty lasted just over a hundred years, and the longest-lived, the Chagatai Khanate, was plagued by constant internal and external troubles.
Moreover, in ancient times, productivity was insufficient, and after conquering the country, the people lived in poverty. What was the point of not being able to develop?
Therefore, what Zhao Jun has to do is not just to conquer the country, but to govern the country well at the same time. Only in this way can the national strength soar and there will be a foundation for controlling the entire East and dominating the world.
Otherwise, even if the country is conquered but its national strength fails to develop, and there are internal turmoil everywhere, and troops have to be sent everywhere to suppress it, the final result will be the same as the fate of the Yuan Dynasty.
So the empires to be fought for now are the Western Xia and Liao Kingdoms. One of these two places is Gansu in later generations, and the other is the three northeastern provinces plus the Mongolian grasslands and the large areas of Khabarovsk and Sakhalin Island in later generations in Russia.
These places were all cold, barren and barren in ancient times. Even in later times, the natural conditions were not favorable. How could it be easy to develop them?
Therefore, Zhao Jun must consider making use of places with rich resources first, and then build and transform poor and backward areas after the national strength and scientific and technological productivity reach the standards.
This is also the development strategy of our country in later generations.
First, develop the eastern coastal cities. Once the eastern cities become prosperous, support the western regions and promote their development. Develop industries suitable for western development, such as photovoltaics, wind power, and solar power.
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