At this time, the land of Liaodong was indeed a behemoth.

On Li Ze's map, the land of the three provinces of Liaodong is very different from the administrative division of the life where he once lived. Although Li Ze also stubbornly named the three provinces of eastern Liaoning as Heilongjiang, Jilin, and Liaoning. But at this moment, Heilongjiang Province has jurisdiction over an area that extends to Hulunbuir. The jurisdiction of Jilin is as far as Khoringrad. The territory of Liaoning has been reaching Xilinhot. Xu Ziyuan, who was in charge of Ningxia, went deep into the grassland, reached Wolf Mountain in the north, and Dunhuang in the west, and Gansu, which was ruled by Dai Lin, penetrated his tentacles deep into the territory of Tubo and reached Qinghai Lake in actual control.

This is equivalent to the three provinces of eastern Liaodong plus one Ningxia, and the original Inner Mongolia region is divided. And what Li Ze said about making the Western Regions Protectorate and the three provinces of Liaodong become the two powerful arms of the Tang Dynasty actually meant something. In the middle of these two big arms, there is a large and vast area, and that is Mongolia.

Now that this area is in chaos, Zhang Zhongwu has successfully defeated the Khitan Empire and torn a huge grassland kingdom apart after decades of work, and then, Zhang Jia, Xu Ziyuan, including Zhang Zhongwu, who later became a ghost, still persistently exerted strong pressure on the tribes on the grassland.

A large number of tribes could not resist the strength of the Tang army, and became a member of the Tang Empire, but there were other tribes that were unwilling to fall, so they led their tribes to move out of the country and stay away from the control of the Tang army.

Now in this area, hundreds of tribes, large and small, are fighting for pastures and water. Li Ze didn't want that sometime in the future, another hero would appear in this land to dominate the prairie, and then run back to compete with Datang.

Fighting with the grassland tribes has always been the most headache for the Central Plains Dynasty, because he has no city, and he has no sense of territory, he can fight if he can, and run away if he can't, and it is almost impossible to completely eliminate them.

Li Ze wanted to completely incorporate the area surrounded by these two big arms into the territory of the Tang Empire.

Sending troops to conquer one tribe after another is obviously a thankless task, and with a carriage and a tent, the family can move away, where the person goes, where the family is home. The army chases after other people's butts, logistics is a big problem, and if you don't do it well, you will be bitten by others, that is, stealing chickens and not eating rice.

Therefore, using the economy to slowly corrode and seduce is the best way now.

So far, the most effective is what Li Ze called the Wool Revolution.

In Datang, a large number of wool textile mills need a large amount of wool every year, and ninety percent of these wool come from the prairie, and the herdsmen on the grassland can earn a lot of income by raising sheep. As the amount of wool purchased increased, more and more sheep were raised in the tribal shrines on the grassland. Now, this is the most stable source of income for these tribes.

Through a wool movement, Datang has slowly controlled the economic lifeline of the entire prairie. It can be said that if Datang stops buying wool from the prairie, a considerable part of the herdsmen will immediately go bankrupt.

A large number of Datang caravans, carrying all kinds of production and living materials produced by Datang, went deep into the prairie, among these commodities, not only the necessities of life, but also many luxury goods such as enjoyment, living materials are needed by ordinary herdsmen, and luxury goods are naturally prepared for those tribal nobles.

As the Tang army stopped advancing, the leaders of these tribes finally stopped their migration and began to stabilize. When survival is no longer an issue, life becomes the subject.

Enjoyment is always a way of life that the aristocratic lords will never forget. This is also the best way for them to distinguish themselves from ordinary herders.

This year, the members of the internal guard who were mixed with the caravan were pleasantly surprised to find that those tribal nobles actually began to build a city. Although their so-called cities are like small villages for Datang, this is still a gratifying change for Datang.

As long as you settle down, that's going to be easy.

As a result, more extravagant pleasures began to enter the grassland, giving these tribal nobles a better sense of life, and making them more like to settle down in a certain place for a long time is the strategy of the Tang Dynasty.

Once these so-called cities, which are still very simple, slowly grow into real cities, it will be easier for Datang to harvest.

The Tang Dynasty's Department of Commerce and the Internal Guards joined forces to help these tribal nobles build their homes.

For Li Ze, once this large area is completely under his control, then the north, which is his foundation, will have a vast strategic buffer zone, and he can really sit back and relax.

The Production and Construction Corps, this is a completely new thing, although Li Ze put forward the idea, but if it is really to be fully implemented, it is not something that can be done in a short period of time.

Therefore, after this idea was first proposed, after the three governors of the three provinces of Liaodong and the military governor stationed in Liaodong, General Xue Chong, Zuojin Wuwei, all arrived in Chang'an, Li Ze once again convened a meeting to discuss the possibility of implementing this idea.

Attending this meeting, in addition to Zhang Hui and Gongsun Changming, there were also Li Anmin of the Military Department, Xia He of the Household Department, Han Qi, the governor of Heilongjiang Province, Bao Hui, the governor of Jilin Province, Wang Wenshu, the governor of Liaolin Province, and Xue Chong, the general of Zuo Jinwu.

"Today we are just discussing a possibility, not a decision." Li Ze looked at the adults and said, "Everyone talks about their own opinions and the pros and cons of this matter. Xue Chong, you are the absolute protagonist of this meeting, you can say it first! ”

Converting the entire tens of thousands of Zuojin Wuwei's army into a construction corps is tantamount to transforming it from a military group into a paramilitary organization, and in the foreseeable future, his military attributes will inevitably gradually fade over time. This is equivalent to depriving Xue Chong of his military command, so Li Ze asked Xue Chong to speak first.

Xue Chong looked at the people in the room and said, "Li Xiang, first of all, I would like to express a position, no matter what kind of conclusion this meeting draws in the end, I, Xue Chong, will absolutely support and support it." Whether it is as the general of Zuo Jin Wuwei, or the commander of the Production and Construction Corps, or returning to Chang'an, Xue Chong has no complaints, and he will do his best to do his best. ”

Li Ze applauded lightly: "Ladies and gentlemen, General Xue is a model soldier. ”

Everyone applauded with Li Ze.

In fact, among the twelve guards of the Tang Dynasty, Xue Chong's foundation is the weakest, and he also has an enemy, that is, Xue Ping, the head of the Western Regions Protectorate. Although both of them are from the Xue family, they are real enemies. Compared with Xue Ping's strong foundation, Xue Chong has no other capital to confront Xue Ping except for being closely attached to Li Ze, so no matter what decision Li Ze makes, Xue Chong has no second way to choose except obedience.

The military system of the Tang Dynasty has already determined that although he is the general of Zuo Jin Wuwei and leads tens of thousands of people, if the imperial court really wants to remove him, it is just a fluttering piece of paper.

"However, Li Xiang, Zuo Jin Wuwei's 50,000 army is now the only regular army in the entire three provinces of Liaodong, if all of them are transformed into production and construction corps, then in the three eastern provinces, there will be no deterrent force, I think this is a little inappropriate? After all, those Caoluo tribes still have a certain strength. Xue Chong continued.

Li Anmin took over the conversation and said, "Yesterday, after I received a briefing from the secretary and supervisor on this matter, I thoroughly discussed this matter with my colleagues in the staff office of the military department. We believe that in the three provinces of Liaodong today, the large-scale enemies no longer exist, Goryeo has completely surrendered to us, and there is no longer a threat in this direction, the only threat is from certain tribes in the steppe. And to maintain deterrence against these tribes, you don't need a large legion. What's more, Zuojin Wuwei is still a corps with foot soldiers as the main force. We just need to be in a cavalry. ”

"What is the number of this cavalry? Where do you need to be stationed? Li Ze asked.

Li Anmin said: "Li Xiang, our preliminary estimate is that we only need to station a cavalry of about 3,000 people in each of the two places of Huolin Gol and Xilinhot, which is enough to deter all the departments of the grassland. ”

"Is this cavalry drawn from the Zuojingo cavalry?" Li Ze then asked.

"The opinion of the Ministry of War is to transfer Li De's rangers over." Li Anmin said: "Li De's 5,000 rangers are still in Zhejiang, and Zhejiang, there is no need for this cavalry, when our troops were stretched, we had to let them be stationed in Zhejiang to prevent Fujian Ronghong, now we have freed up our hands, such a strong combat ranger is completely wasted in the south." The best place for them is the savannah. Li De and his officers were also more adapted to fighting in places like the prairie. ”

"Is 5,000 enough?"

"Nature is not enough." Li Anmin said: "So we suggest that from the Zuo Jinwu cavalry, select 3,000 to 5,000 cavalry, and integrate them into Li De's rangers, which will be under Li De's unified command." In the future, if it is necessary to march into the steppe to sweep away the remnants of the tribes who do not obey the king, it will only need cavalry to attack. If there is really any abnormal movement, Zhang Jia's department and the garrison of the Western Regions can also attack from the other direction. ”

"Xue Chong, what do you think?"

Xue Chong nodded: "General Li De is experienced, I have no opinion." ”

"What does Tobe say?" Li Ze looked at Xia He.