Chapter 207 Datang Strategy 1.0 (asking for monthly ticket)

Xuanzang took the map and introduced it to Li Shimin.

"Your Majesty, please take a look. This is a map of the Western Regions of the Tang Dynasty drawn by this monk. It records the countries that I passed through along the way."

When Old Li heard this, he did not delay and took the map immediately.

Li Xiang also came forward. There was actually Xuanzang's specific walking route on the map, from Guazhou to Yiwulu, all the way west to Gaochang, Agni, Baluka, and Lishmika area (which is what later generations often called Khwarezm), then south to Kapisa and Gandhara, all the way to Kusumapura.

"Master, it has been truly hard these past few years," Li Xiang said with emotion.

Unexpectedly, Xuanzang smiled and said to him, "Your Majesty, this is wrong. My life is not that hard. People in the Western Regions worship Buddhism. Whenever I pass by a temple, I will stay there for a while."

"Discuss Buddhism with the monks there?" Li Xiang asked.

Xuanzang chanted a Buddhist name, and then said: "After all, the Buddhist scriptures are written in Sanskrit. Because different places have different understandings of Buddhism, there are more ambiguities. This time, I am not only going to India to obtain scriptures and practice, but also to dispel the misunderstanding of Mahayana Buddhism."

Hearing Xuanzang's words, Li Xiang couldn't help but feel shocked.

Shit, it turns out he didn’t just walk to Tianzhu?
There were hundreds of temples along the way, and he fought in every temple...

It’s no wonder that people in the Western Regions admire Master Xuanzang so much. So the root of this is this?

He did know that Master Xuanzang, because of his own abilities, was hailed as the “Great Vehicle God” by the Mahayana Buddhist monks of the 18 countries at that time.

Because of his high academic level, he was praised as the "God of Liberation" by the Theravada Buddhist monks of 18 countries at that time.

At the same time, Li Xiang also had doubts.

“Master, what if someone is dissatisfied and has evil intentions in the wild mountains and wilderness? What should we do?”

Who would have known that after hearing this, Xuanzang smiled slightly and chanted the Buddha's name loudly.

"Since they don't understand Buddhism, I can teach you a little bit about martial arts."

Upon hearing this, Li Xiang retreated tactically and stood in awe.

"So this is the way of the saints. I didn't expect that the mage has also learned the true teachings of Confucius."

Hearing this, Li Shimin could no longer sit still.

"What are you talking about? Confucius..."

At this point, Li Shimin's voice became lower and lower.

In fact, Confucius was very good at this trick back then.

According to records, Confucius was nine feet six inches tall. Using the Han ruler, he should have been a strong man over two meters tall. Even if calculated using the Lu ruler from the Spring and Autumn Period, Confucius should have been one meter ninety-seven.

Moreover, the Master once lifted the bolt of a city gate. At that time, the city gates were made of solid wood. A bolt weighed at least 800 kilograms, which was twice the weight of a tripod.

Any strength that can lift a tripod is weak. This old man can only lift two.

Such a strong and powerful man is trying to reason with you with his fist as big as a sandbag. Just tell me whether your eyes are clear or not.

Today's Confucians are not the corrupt Confucians of later generations. They have quite a bit of the legacy of Han Confucianism and it is true that they will start fighting if they disagree with something.

Seeing that Old Li was speechless, Li Xiang looked at Xuanzang again and asked, "Master, have you ever heard of the things west of India? I remember Ban Chao once wrote about Fulin, Parthia and Kushan. I wonder if they still exist in the world now?"

Xuanzang chanted the Buddha's name loudly and replied, "The Kushans that Your Highness is talking about are now part of India, Kashmir, Shule and other places, which no longer exist; and Parthia is what the Tang Dynasty is talking about today, Persia. Someone from Persia has been to Kumu City and said that they had recently started a war with the 'Caliph' and the situation has become extremely precarious."

"To the north of the land ruled by the Caliphate is Fulin. Its country is also at war with the Caliphate. I heard that it has captured Damascus, an important city in the south of Fulin, a few years ago, and is sharpening its sword to march towards its capital."

The "Damascene" mentioned by Xuanzang is Damascus.

Damascus is like Xuzhou, where large-scale wars have taken place for more than 50 times in history. It is difficult to say whether they were right or wrong. However, historians have noticed that it was on this ancient battlefield that the rise and fall of many dynasties was determined.

Pompey, one of the First Triumvirate, led a western expedition and brought Damascus under Western rule. It was not until more than 600 years later that Damascus was conquered by the Arab Empire.

As for Persia, Lao Li was very familiar with it. After all, the Central Plains dynasty often exchanged envoys with Persia.

According to the Book of Wei, Persian envoys came to China for diplomatic relations dozens of times, bringing various gifts to the Northern Wei emperor, including precious items, trained elephants, and acrobatic magic troupes.

In the 12th year of the Zhenguan reign, Persia sent another envoy to pay tribute, and presented a live rat-like snake, green in color, nine inches long, which could catch burrowing rats.

"Is this true?" Li Shimin asked with a frown.

In fact, when Mei Siban paid tribute in the 12th year of Zhenguan, he proposed that the Tang Dynasty send troops to support him. However, the court felt that the Tang Dynasty was too far away from Persia and that the Arabs were described as extremely powerful by Mei Siban, which sounded unreliable, so they did not agree.

But now that Xuanzang has also brought up this matter, Li Shimin has to be on guard.

The fact that the master was able to fight on two fronts against two powerful countries at the same time and win victory after victory shows in itself that he had a strong martial virtue.

After all, he is different from emperors like Li Zhi who have short-sighted strategic vision. If Persia is destroyed, the Western Regions bordering Persia will have to face the powerful Arabs.

"Monks do not tell lies, how dare I deceive Your Majesty." Xuanzang chanted the Buddha's name loudly and said again: "Please allow Your Majesty to allow me to compile my experiences from the Western Regions to India into a book."

"Good!" Li Shimin nodded and advised: "With your talent, you are more than qualified to be a prime minister. Why do you have to practice in seclusion? It would be better for you to return to secular life, and I will reward you with the position of Prime Minister."

"I traveled west to seek the true scriptures for the sake of all living beings, not for my own personal gain." Xuanzang chanted the Buddha's name loudly: "When I compile my experiences along the way into a book, there are still more than 600 volumes of Buddhist scriptures waiting to be translated. I hope Your Majesty will forgive me for not being able to respond to your call."

"Alas, it is a pity that your talent cannot be used by the country." Li Shimin shook his head and sighed, and then said: "Since you are willing, I will support you. You can stay in Hongfu Temple temporarily. The court will give you all the help!"

"In that case, I would like to thank Your Majesty for your support." Xuanzang clasped his hands together and bowed.

Having said that, Master Xuanzang, as one of the backbones of China, naturally has his own strengths - his memory is amazing.

The book he compiled, "A Record of the Western Regions of the Great Tang Dynasty", is not only read by Chinese people, but also by Indians who want to understand their own history. Basically, whatever Master Xuanzang says is true, and even if they think Master Xuanzang is talking nonsense, they have to accept it with their noses pinched. It is so authoritative. Later, when the British, the troublemakers of the world, conducted archaeological excavations at the Deer Park site where the Buddha attained enlightenment according to "A Record of the Western Regions of the Great Tang Dynasty", they found that its size and location were almost exactly the same as Master Xuanzang's description, which further verified the accuracy of Master Xuanzang's account.

After Xuanzang left Liangyi Hall, Li Shimin looked up at Li Xiang.

"Xiang'er, what do you think about Persia's request for help?"

"My grandson thinks that we should give Persia some help." Li Xiang said solemnly, "After all, Persia has been on good terms with the Central Plains for hundreds of years. Since they are asking for help, how can we just sit there and watch? Moreover, once the Arabs annex Persia, their strength will be further strengthened, and they will then become a major threat to the Tang Dynasty."

"The Arabs are really powerful. They can actually go to war with two big countries at the same time." Li Shimin shook his head and sighed: "Fulin and Persia are both big countries in the West. It seems that the Arabs are also very powerful."

Li Xiang also nodded: "If we want to help Persia, there is a problem before the Tang Dynasty, that is, whether the countries in the Western Regions will return to their loyalty."

As he spoke, he picked up the map drawn by Xuanzang and said, "I think that we should first completely eliminate the hidden danger of the Western Turks. As the saying goes, how can I allow others to sleep beside my bed? Although the Western Turks once asked to submit to the Tang Dynasty, they are still indecisive and are trying to spy on our Tang Dynasty. As long as the Western Turks are there, the Western Regions will be in turmoil."

Of course there was nothing wrong with what he said. After all, the Western Turks were just to the north. If the Tang Dynasty waited until it came forward to help Persia, and the Western Turks suddenly caused trouble and directly cut off the connection between the Tang Dynasty and Persia, wouldn't the expeditionary force be cut off from contact?

Li Xiang would not take the risk even if there was the slightest possibility. What's more, the Western Turks were beasts and betrayal was their basic skill.

If we fail to defeat them thoroughly like we did with the Eastern Turks, they will keep reviving like ashes from the dead, disgusting the people around the Tang Dynasty. Even if they don't bite people, they will be annoying.

"You make sense." Li Shimin nodded in agreement. "The attack on the Western Turks should indeed be put on the agenda. Two years ago, Bo Bu Shiqin relied on the power of conquering Tokharistan to ignore the Tang Dynasty and even detained the imperial envoys and attacked Yizhou. As a result, he was defeated by Guo Xiaoke several times. I have also seen that when I am still here, the Western Turks dare to spy on the Tang Dynasty. If I am gone, won't the Western Turks make a big fuss?"

"Of course, there is no rush for these things for now." Li Shimin turned his head and looked Li Xiang up and down, and said with a smile: "The most urgent thing is to get you married as soon as possible."

"My case... doesn't it still take another month?" Li Xiang said, scratching his head.

Marriage is still a long way off, why is it that I, the little elephant, am not anxious, but you, the old man, are anxious first?

"A month is not too late. You ate sheep intestines early in the morning and ended up being bent like a shrimp. Don't think I don't know." Li Shimin began to make up embarrassing stories to provoke Li Xiang.

Li Xiang took a deep breath and decided not to argue with the old man.

That was just a normal reaction, it's perfectly normal!

However, Xiao Xiang did not take Lao Li's teasing seriously. When leaving Lizheng Hall, Li Xiang was still thinking about the issue of the Western Regions.

In his heart, Persia and the Western Regions are much more important than marriage.

Persia must be protected, but the prerequisite is just as in history, that Persia becomes the Persian Protectorate of the Tang Dynasty and the bridgehead for the Tang Dynasty to resist the three religions in the desert.

In Li Xiang's plan, the three desert religions must be completely eradicated.

Come and believe in Taoism or Buddhism, choose one.

Although the Tang Dynasty is tolerant and inclusive, it cannot absorb the dregs, right?

Having two native religions is bad enough, let alone three monotheistic religions?

What? You said Buddhism is not an indigenous religion?

With Master Xuanzang’s map, India can be traced back to ancient times!

Thinking of this, Li Xiang decided to go and talk with Li Su and Li Jingren about the caravan's experiences on the grassland and in the countries of the Western Regions.

At the same time, he also thought to himself, as the saying goes, productivity determines production relations. With the current level of technology in the Tang Dynasty, it would be unnecessary to follow the example of Qin Shihuang and implement the county system. It might take a year for the news from Persia to reach the court, and another year to get back. By then, the opportunity would be gone.

Be realistic and based on existing technology, choose the method that best suits the physique of the Tang Dynasty baby, which is... enfeoffment.

Places like the Persian Protectorate were given a high degree of autonomy after being granted, and the Tang Dynasty gave it deeper support to resist the invasion of the Arabs while also promoting sinicization of the Persian region.

It is obviously inappropriate to give this task to Li Tai, after all, his second uncle is a literary youth.

If you ask him to drink and write poetry, it might be ok, but if you ask him to do something like fighting with a knife... that's really CH2N8 - alkyl octanitrogen.

Li Zhi is obviously not cut out for this. It would be fine to ask him to go to the northeast to defend the country, but there is no need to ask him to expand the territory...

After much thought, Li Xiang could only think of one suitable candidate, and that was Li Ke.

This man in history was evaluated by Lao Li as "a man of great talent similar to himself"... Little Elephant, I'm going to test your quality!
Of course, he is still only the crown prince, so the specific matters will have to wait until he has discussed with Lao Li before making a decision.

Of course there is no need to discuss this with Li Ke. Li's consent is enough.

As for other policies, Xiaoxiang has always been a lazy person, and following the rules of others is his favorite thing to do.

Li Shimin's policy was to conquer the surrounding areas by force, and then carry out cultural assimilation to incorporate the conquered areas into the Chinese civilization circle.

This is also one of the reasons why Lao Li was jointly elected as the Heavenly Khan. After all, having a big fist is useless. One must also have absolute say in the soft power of culture. Without any of them, one cannot become the Heavenly Khan.

The title of Qietian Khan is not for the purpose of showing off.

This is not only a honorific title given to Li Shimin by the surrounding ethnic minorities, but also a substantial system.

After the Tang Emperor was crowned the Heavenly Khan, he was required to maintain international peace, arbitrate disputes between countries, and protect the countries that had surrendered to him from each other's aggression, just like the Xueyantuo.

To put it another way, the Tian Khan system is the "Chang'an Pact Organization" or the "Chang'an Treaty."

As Li Shimin's eldest grandson, Li Xiang felt that this policy must be adhered to for at least a hundred years.

From now on, this will be the ancestral rule. Whoever dares to change the ancestral rule will lose his head!

(There will be another chapter soon, this picture should be from this morning)

(End of this chapter)