Li Hong smiled and patted Pei Xingjian's armor, and asked, "How is it? Is this armor now much better than before?"
Pei Xingjian looked at the smile on Li Hong's face. It seemed that the Crown Prince had grown a lot during this period of time. He looked more mature and wise.
"Thank you, Grand Protector. I originally thought that this piece of armor would be like other armors. After a few attacks, the rubber band would break and the armor would fall off. But after taking a look at your armor, I found that it was nailed with iron nails. So there is no need to worry about charging back and forth." Pei Xingjian said, patting the armor leaf on his chest.
"Yes, the mail is too heavy and affects the cavalry's reaction ability. Moreover, the mail is easily pierced by arrows and thrown weapons. It is naturally inferior to the Ming Guang armor that we have improved now."
"Grand Protector, please forgive my rudeness. I think that this armor should not be called Ming Guang Armor, but Dark Guang Armor." Pei Xingjian, accompanied by Li Hong, looked around the entire Qiuci City.
With his eyes as an expert in warfare, he could naturally see that the city of Kucha was not very peaceful, especially the north gate facing Ashina Duzhi, where there were obvious signs of cavalry entering and exiting.
Li Hong smiled but said nothing. Dark colors absorb more heat in winter and can provide a little warmth for the soldiers in the cold winter.
Moreover, under the urging of several princesses and aunts, cotton clothes were delivered first less than half a month after Pei Xingjian set out on the expedition. Naturally, this solved the cost of the army's combat operations in severe cold weather when suppressing Shule City.
Just like when Li Zhi knew that Wu Mei and the others needed to pay half of the Daming Palace's money to Li Hong in the Western Regions, he couldn't help but sighed: "The little idiot is not going to the Western Regions to fight a war, he is going to make money. It's so much money, he doesn't feel bad, I feel bad for him."
...
...
However, considering the great achievements in the war, Li Zhi calmly accepted this huge expenditure. Moreover, even if he did not accept it, he had no suitable way to prevent a large amount of money from flowing into the Western Regions.
Pei Xingjian was eating pig ears and gnawing on steaming pig's trotters while listening to Quan Yi and Wufawutian telling him about what Crown Prince Li Hong had done in Qiuci City in recent days. Then, the pig's trotter in his mouth dropped to the ground in surprise.
Pei Xingjian turned his head with a dull expression and looked at Li Hong. He suddenly stood up and bowed deeply to Li Hong and said, "Your Highness, please accept my respect."
After saying this, he lifted the front of his robe, knelt down solemnly and kowtowed to Li Hong.
He really didn't expect that Li Hong's military achievements in Qiuci City would be much more brilliant than his achievements in suppressing Shule City!
His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, who had never been to the Western Regions, relied on his 20,000 troops and the not-so-tightly defended city of Kucha to drive Ashina Duzhi deep into the grasslands, where he dared not show his head!
Li Hong calmly accepted Pei Xingjian's kneeling, motioned with his hand in the air to Pei Xingjian to stand up, and said: "There is no distinction between big and small military merits. As long as it can dampen the enemy's arrogance, even if it is just recovering an inch of land, it is a real military merit. You took back Shule City for the Tang Dynasty. Although it may not seem like a great military merit, it has a greater and more far-reaching influence on us in Anxi than I drove Ashina Duzhi to the depths of the grassland."
"Thank you very much for your praise, Your Highness. I am willing to hand over the full military power to Your Highness. I ask Your Highness to allow me to rest in Qiuci City for a few days, and then immediately rush to the grassland to capture Ashina Duzhi." Pei Xingjian looked at Li Hong's smiling face and solemnly requested a battle.
"No hurry." Li Hong shook his head, motioned him to sit down and said, "This year, both the Yunzhong Protectorate and the grasslands under the jurisdiction of our Anxi Protectorate have experienced a rare natural disaster of white-hair wind. Now Ashina Duzhi is hiding deep in the grasslands, and it may take a while for him to recover. Even if we can capture him, there will be others who will rebel in the future."
"So what do you mean?" Pei Xingjian was a man of both literary and military skills. Since he was not going to send troops, he had to govern the territory of the Anxi Protectorate.
Li Hong picked up the wine glass and took a sip of wine. After arriving in the Western Regions, even Xia Zhi and others began to drink wine occasionally. It was not because they liked drinking, but because the weather was too cold and they needed to drink some wine to warm their bodies.
"Now, whether it is Ashina Duzhi or Li Zhapu, they are both at the end of their strength and are not to be feared. They can no longer pose a big threat to us. The people on the grassland are still the people of our Great Tang after all, so after the New Year's Day, give them some time to rest and relax. This year, the White Haired Wind Killer is too terrible, so I have ordered the Ministry of Revenue to transport Wandan grain here after the New Year's Day."
"Your Highness, no. Such a large amount of food will attract them to rob it by any means necessary. We will then be in a passive position. Moreover, it will not only be the cavalry of Ashina Duzhi who will rob it. Their people will certainly not let go of this opportunity in order to fill their stomachs." Pei Xingjian was shocked. According to His Highness the Crown Prince's idea, this would not just attract thieves.
"That's exactly what we need to do. Not only should we let them know that there is enough food here, but we should also let them know that they can get the food for free!" Li Hong looked at Pei Xingjian's frightened face and said confidently.
Pei Xingjian frowned, wondering what Li Hong meant by this. After thinking for a while, he still couldn't figure it out, so he said, "Please enlighten me, Your Highness."
Compared with the Central Plains, especially the prosperous Tang Dynasty today, the Western Regions are much poorer.
In the Western Regions, even if you were rich, you couldn't buy even a bushel of grain during times of food shortage.
Moreover, although copper coins have been circulating in the Western Regions for many years, the Western Regions still have not gotten rid of the large-scale barter trading method. Therefore, even if more food is supplied to the Western Regions now, using money to buy and sell, or relying on the court to provide disaster relief and poverty alleviation, is not a very reasonable solution.
However, if one wants to control the nomadic peoples to the north of Kucha City and make them break away from Ashina Duzhi's control, one has to provide them with food. In this way, when they are full, they will not continue to rebel with Ashina Duzhi.
So when Li Hong was chasing Ashina Duzhi on the snowy grasslands, after more than half a month of fruitless pursuit, he was riding on his mount Food Coupons when he suddenly thought of Food Coupons, a form of transaction that existed when the country was just founded in the previous life, where each person received a fixed amount of food with coupons every month.
In this way, not only can the people under Ashina Duzhi have something to fill their stomachs, but they can also be controlled so that they will not rebel. The monthly payment with tickets will also allow Li Hong to clearly understand how many nomadic people there are on the northern grasslands.
Seeing Pei Xingjian's surprised and somewhat confused expression, Li Hong continued, "This policy will be implemented not only for them, but also for the entire Anxi Protectorate. On the one hand, it can control their rebellion, and on the other hand, it can also find out how many people there are in the entire Anxi."
"But the people on the grassland have many cattle and sheep, and they are temporarily short of them..."
"I'm afraid that nine out of ten cattle and sheep have frozen to death on the grasslands in this year's white hair typhoon. The herders can fill their stomachs. What else do they lack?" Li Hong looked at Pei Xingjian, who seemed to understand, and reminded him.
"They are short of clothes, vegetables, tea, etc., which are all necessities they need, so you use food stamps to maintain balance. Will food stamps be used as a currency?"
Li Hong shook his head. It was impossible to use food coupons as currency. At this time, they might not be able to fully meet the necessary conditions for monetary transactions.
The purpose of exercising food coupons in this way was simply to use the wealth of the Tang Dynasty to control the nomadic peoples as much as possible. To put it bluntly, it was to use the Tang Dynasty's items to exchange for a large number of war horses and other supplies from the nomadic peoples through food coupons, secretly weakening the possibility of continued rebellion by the nomadic peoples, and making room for Anxi to deal with powerful threats such as Tubo.
Pei Xingjian nodded, not quite understanding. Although His Royal Highness the Crown Prince's strategy was not a long-term solution, it was still a temporary stabilizing strategy in the complicated and chaotic situation of Anxi Protectorate.
"So what should we do now?" Pei Xingjian asked.
"Xue Rengui is the most suitable person to guard Suiye. His legendary story of conquering Tianshan with three arrows has made him very prestigious there. Wang Mingyuan is now accompanying Bilus to guard the Persian Governor's Office. Order them to focus on defense and not to easily conflict with the White Arabs."
Li Hong looked at the sand table in the room, pointed at Suiye Town and said, "Shule is guarded by Heichi Changzhi, who can rush to Suiye or the Persian Governor's Mansion in front when necessary. As for you, after New Year's Day..."
"Your Highness, how about you stay here and I go to Khotan? Now it is increasingly obvious that after the New Year's Day and the beginning of spring, Tubo will definitely harass our border." Pei Xingjian hurriedly asked for the order.
Li Hong shook his head, feeling somewhat embarrassed. Whether he was in Qiuci or Yutian, Pei Xingjian would be distracted by him. However, Tibet was in a real plateau area, and his troops might not be able to adapt to the environment there.
As for his own Iron Pagoda, the Left Guard led by Quan Yi, and the lawless Right Guard, they have been pulled to high altitudes for training for a period of time every year in recent years. These are not advantages that Pei Xingjian's troops can have.
"You are guarding Qiuci, and there are still many things that need you to do. What's more, the Ministry of Works and the Ministry of Revenue will send a large number of officials here. If I deal with them, they will feel that their life is worse than death every day. It's better for you to deal with them." Li Hong drew around Qiuci City on the sand table with the wooden stick in his hand.
"Your Highness, what do you mean?" Pei Xingjian was shocked. It seemed that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince wanted to do something big in Qiuci, and it was not as simple as he thought.
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