area51novel Chapter 1990 Li Shen's Strategies
Chapter 1990 Li Shen's Strategies
The academy in Huangzhuang initially enrolled more than 2,000 children to study for free, most of whom were children of Li Shenzhuang.
There are also some people from other villages working in the workshop, but their number is not large.
Many of these children have grown up, and Li Shen is already twenty-one years old.
Some of these children took part in the imperial examination more than once, but almost none of them passed. Over the years, only one or two children from Li Shen's royal farm passed the imperial examination.
The imperial examination was meant to select only one out of ten thousand people. It was too difficult for an old lady to cross that single-plank bridge.
We must find a way out for the many children left who are still studying.
As the head of the family, Li Shen naturally had to consider the children on the farm, as they were all his fiefs.
So Li Shen would choose them first when recruiting guys.
“Don’t worry, Your Majesty. I understand. I will go to the farm to recruit them.” Wang Hongfu also understood Li Shen’s intention and nodded immediately.
"Xuan Ce, is there any latest news from Anxi Protectorate?"
After discussing Wang Hongfu's matter, Li Shen asked Wang Xuance again.
"Your Majesty, there is no news." Wang Xuance shook his head.
"It seems that your Majesty's Hundred Cavalry Division has received more information than us."
Li Shen frowned.
"Did Your Majesty receive any news?" Wang Xuance asked.
Li Shen immediately told Wang Xuance what happened and what he said to Li Shimin today. After listening, Wang Xuance began to ponder.
After a while, Wang Xuance bowed and said:
"I apologize for not getting any useful information. I hope Your Majesty will punish me."
Li Shen waved his hand:
"This has nothing to do with you. Most of our information comes from newspapers. The newspaper of Anxi Protectorate has just been established. This is normal.
But we need to strengthen our intelligence gathering capabilities, or send more people over if that doesn’t work.”
"Yes, I will send someone to deliver a message immediately, asking them to speed up the collection of intelligence and bring it back."
Wang Xuance accepted the order.
“No need, I will be leaving in a few days, just let them collect intelligence and wait for me to arrive.
It seems that this trip to Anxi Protectorate will not be so peaceful. It is really a troubled time. If I had known this, I would not have taken this job.
I hope that everything will be peaceful when I go there, and these people will be intimidated by me and dare not act rashly."
Li Shen expressed his beautiful wishes, hoping that his name could intimidate those evil people, and that his kingly and domineering aura would intimidate everyone.
Unfortunately, he also knew that this was an extravagant wish. Although his reputation was very loud in Chang'an City, it was not so effective in the Anxi Protectorate.
A dandy does not mean a bully. Strictly speaking, Li Shen himself knew that he was a nouveau riche. After finally becoming rich, he started to engage in retaliatory spending.
"Your Majesty, since His Majesty has reminded us, should we report this to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince and ask him to send more palace soldiers?"
Pei Mingli suggested.
"It's already a lot. Ten thousand soldiers plus Anxi's thirty thousand troops, a total of forty thousand, should be enough."
Li Shen shook his head.
"But there are hundreds of thousands of survivors in Anxi, and I'm afraid..." Pei Mingli hesitated to speak.
"Are you afraid that they will suddenly rebel? Don't worry, they won't. Life is so good now, most people are unwilling to revolt with the rebels.
This king estimates that the total number of rebels is only a few tens of thousands at most.
Without food and clothing, we are just a bunch of ants. There is nothing to worry about."
No matter how worried Li Shen was in his heart, at least he couldn't say it out loud.
"Okay, there's nothing else to do. The king will go to war in a few days. Just do your job. Xuan Ce will stay here, and you two can go and get busy."
Li Shen waved his hand.
"I'll take my leave." Wang Hongfu and Pei Mingli bowed and left.
"Xuan Ce, has anything major happened in the court recently?" Li Shen asked while lying there and shaking.
"My Lord, nothing major happened."
"Can you find out why Tubo has been keeping its troops in place? They have been in Chang'an for more than half a year, right?"
Tibet has always been the focus of Li Shen. He originally thought he could extort some money from it, but he didn't expect that there would be no movement after Lu Dongzan came back.
"Your Highness, there is little news from there, but according to speculation, it should be that Li Mixia of Zhangzhung is slowly growing stronger in conjunction with Nepal and Bhutan.
In the past two years, we have given them a lot of aid, including food, tea, wine, and silk, all sold to them at low prices.
Let them use these things to win over the leaders of other tribes.
I think Tubo should try to appease the internal situation and buy time with us."
"To fight foreign aggressors, we must first stabilize the internal situation? Haha, it's good to know their intentions, then we will increase our assistance to them. He wants to buy time, so why not us?
Give the order to give them some appropriate weapons. Write a secret letter and have someone deliver it to His Majesty, requesting a batch of discarded weapons to be sent to Li Mixia and the others.
After we have dealt with the Western Regions, we will come back and deal with them."
Li Shen smiled lightly and let them see what the real game between great powers is like.
"Yes, I will do it immediately after I get back." Wang Xuance accepted the order.
"Well, by the way, write a letter to Zhangzhung and Bhutan, telling them that if they want to grow stronger, we will support them.
If they dare to fight against Tubo, we will provide them with weapons and armor.
Tell them that our Tang Dynasty is a country of etiquette and peace, and we express our strong indignation at Songtsen Gampo's oppression of them.
In particular, they hated the acts of plunder and slavery committed by several tribes.
Our Great Tang hopes that the world can be united, that the people of our Great Tang and all of them can live freely, without oppression or exploitation, and that the people can all have enough food and warm clothing.
We sympathize with their experiences and we are willing to help them restore their good and free lives.”
Li Shen spoke so sincerely that if it had not come from Prince Ji's mouth, Wang Xuance would have believed it.
"Your Highness, do you mean to let them consume Tubo? But their military strength may not be enough to do that." Wang Xuance asked.
"No matter if we can do it or not, it's good to consume some of them. If it doesn't work, just let them cause trouble. Aren't they good at mobile warfare?
Moreover, I have heard that all their people are soldiers. As long as they are willing to fight, we can provide them with weapons and food.
This is for their own freedom, a fight for liberty.
By the way, you told Li Mixia that Songtsen Gampo originally planned to marry his sister to him in order to kill him."
Li Shen added another sentence.
This is the game between great powers. You don't have to get involved yourself. Just watch from the sidelines. No matter who wins or loses, you will benefit.
If both sides suffer losses, then it's just right to take both.
"Your Majesty is resourceful and resourceful. He is able to win battles thousands of miles away. I admire you very much."
Wang Xuance admired Prince Ji's strategy from the bottom of his heart. He only needed to pay some weapons and food to contain Tubo.
"Haha, no, no, Xuan Ce, this is the power of money. Money is the most important thing for a country to be strong."
Li Shen burst into laughter.
(It’s too hard to get comments now. Just poke, poke, poke.)