Yelu Xiaocai and the rift didn't even see Li Jun's face, so he returned to China, Wang Zhen's meaning was already very clear, the Tang Dynasty needed the grassland and the Western Regions, and there were only two ways to stay in front of these two countries, either fight or escape.

That is, the day after the two left Chang'an, a new round of personnel changes in Datang began, Zhang An stepped down as the first assistant of the cabinet, Lu Hang naturally became the first assistant of the cabinet, and concurrently served as the secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture, Duan Ping was transferred from Liangzhou Mu to the second assistant of the cabinet, the post of Liangzhou Mu was held by Li Jiang, Li Lin became the president of the Tang Court, Gongsun Kun told the old, Xiao Ting went to Guizhou as Guizhou Mu, Pang Jixian became the secretary of the ministry, Shi Heng was transferred to Liaozhou to be Liaozhou Mu, Xiao Renjie was transferred back to Jingzhao Yin Mansion as Jingzhao Yin, Yusu told the old, The post of secretary of the Ministry of Industry was replaced by Kong Ru.

Su Ji, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, Zhao Kang, the secretary of the Ministry of Households, Fu Nian, the secretary of the Ministry of Learning, and Zhang Zhi, the secretary of the Ministry of Commerce, remained in place, and on the side of the Military Aircraft Department, Gao Zhe resigned from the post of the first assistant minister of the Military Aircraft Department, and was specifically responsible for the affairs of the war two years later, Wei Wuji became the first auxiliary minister of the Military Aircraft Department, Dou Guan successfully became the second assistant of the Military Aircraft Department, and Lin Dahong was transferred back to become the new secretary of the Military Department.

Ji Meng became the governor of Guizhou, as for the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, Li Jun was ready to send He Jun to take over Ji Meng's position and continue to squeeze the small southwestern countries of Nanzhao.

The post of commander of the Imperial Forest Army is temporarily vacant, and all matters of the Imperial Forest Army are in charge of the military department Shangshu Lin Dahong, in fact, this position Li Jun is reserved for Wei Yan, Wei Yan has killed three daimyo in Fusang, and now there is only one Dekang daimyo hiding on Kyushu Island to survive.

To say that there should not be such a large-scale personnel transfer before the war, but Li Jun still did it, first of all, because this is the rule set by Li Jun himself, if he doesn't abide by it, then how can he expect future generations to abide by it, besides, now Li Jun has a lot of talents in his hands, and the new military academy graduates and Gan Tang Jinshi have slowly grown up in recent years, once something goes wrong, Li Jun is fully capable of reshuffling the cards, and it will not affect the overall situation.

Zhang An, the outgoing cabinet chief, is about to leave for Lingnan, which is also the rule, when Yuan Zhan left office, the same was true, he returned to the fiefdom for nearly a year, and later Li Jun invited Yuan Zhan to go out of the mountain to teach the prince, and Yuan Zhan returned to Chang'an.

The day before leaving, Li Jun held a banquet for Zhang An, and all the officials above the four grades in Beijing came to attend, this time was the most glorious moment for Zhang An, the protagonist, but today Zhang An has been smiling, Li Jun began to think that Zhang An had retirement syndrome.

To be honest, the moment he lost power, it really didn't feel particularly good, which Li Jun deeply understood.

After the banquet was over, Li Jun left Zhang An alone, Li Jun wiped his face and said: "Zhang Qing, don't worry, this time you will stay in Lingnan for a year and a half, Master Yang died, and there is still one missing among the prince's teachers, and I will find you back when the time comes." ”

"Thank you, Your Majesty, but the minister is not worried about this." Zhang An saluted.

"Oh, why is that?" Li Jun asked curiously.

"The minister watched the results of the minister's governance in the past eight years, and it is good to say otherwise, although he did some wrong things, but on the whole, the historian's evaluation is still positive, on this point, the minister has no regrets, but there is one of them that the minister really can't sleep at night." Zhang An sighed.

"Tell me, which one?" Li Jun asked lightly.

"Your Majesty, in the eight years that the minister has been in power, the number of soldiers who have sacrificed has reached 50,000, and this is the result of His Majesty's constant control of the scale of the war, so the minister dares to ask, does this war have to be fought?"

"I have to fight." Li Jun nodded heavily.

"But the grassland is too big." Zhang An sighed.

"It's big, a lot of land is very fertile, as long as it is reclaimed, it will be a land of fish and rice." Li Jun replied with a smile.

"What do we want to do with such a small amount of territory? There are still countless wastelands waiting to be reclaimed in the pass, and the steppe people have long legs, even if we take him away today, he will come back tomorrow, will we send troops again? And so on, and endlessly? Zhang An continued to ask.

Liu Hong said lightly on the side: "It's a hundred times to kill it." ”

Zhang An said angrily: "Killed all the Northern Liao, Northern Jinren, and Wusun, killed all of Wusun, and Wuheng, killed all Wuhuan and Fuyu, Xianbei, when will we kill the head?" ”

Li Jun asked rhetorically, "You mean not to kill?" ”

Zhang An shook his head and said: "If you don't kill, you can't do it, the grassland people have repeatedly invaded the Tang Dynasty, if we don't tame them, we won't have a stable life, we still have to kill, and the minister thinks that it is better to tame it." As long as the Northern Liao and Northern Jin are tamed, we can control the grassland people to pacify the northwest for us, and let them kill each other. ”

What Zhang An said seems to make a lot of sense...... In fact, there are too many smart people in Datang, it's not that no one has thought of such a strategy, but it is more troublesome to implement, mainly because those grassland people don't want to listen to Datang, they prefer robbery rather than self-reliance.

Countless facts have proved that if you want a person to listen to you obediently, there is no way except to beat him painfully, scared, and beaten without the heart to resist. If you treat your enemies with kindness...... They generally think that you are a bully, when you reason with him, he will generally use a knife against you, and the sentence of filial piety under the stick is biased, but it has been believed by the Datang people for thousands of years, and even the son needs to be suppressed in order to have a good result, and those barbarians who have no family affection and only hatred with the Tang Dynasty are even more unlikely to listen to your reasoning.

For a politician, it is a very normal emotion to feel guilty after retirement, and Li Jun feels that he does not need to suppress it, because slowly Zhang An himself will forget this ridiculous emotion.

Li Jun smiled and comforted: "Zhang Qing's words are very reasonable, I am also trying to slowly tame those grassland people, the first step is food, people are iron rice is steel, if you don't eat a meal, you will be hungry and panic, although this is a common saying of the people, but I feel that it is very reasonable, so I am ready to exchange grain for wool with the grassland people in the future, as long as they can eat enough and wear enough, it is estimated that the desire for war will be much smaller, the second is that I am now vigorously improving the weapons of the Tang army, if one day the grassland people find that they are fighting with the Tang people, There is nothing to gain except to die, and as the cost of war grows larger and larger, it will naturally coexist peacefully; Last but not least, I want to use my life to completely incorporate the grasslands and the Western Regions into the territory of the empire, so that after the crown prince succeeds to the throne, he can implement benevolent governance, so I still hope that Zhang Qing can return to the capital in a year and teach the prince well. ”

"Your Majesty said this, the minister agrees, and the minister has a little suggestion, Your Majesty may wish to let go of the boundaries of foreign races, and send more teaching gentlemen to the grassland, as long as the grassland people agree with the beliefs of our Tang people, they will naturally truly identify themselves as Tang people from the heart." Zhang An added with a smile.

Li Jun nodded and said: "Zhang Qing's plan is very good, but it can't be done yet, the premise of everything I said is to hurt and fear them, and after the battle, our monarchs and ministers will begin to prepare to domesticate these grassland people." ”

"Your Majesty, the minister will do his best to study this matter when he returns to Lingnan." Zhang An arched his hand and said.

At this time, Li Jun suddenly remembered a famous quote from Mr. Liang in later generations, so he said: "Zhang Qing, I have a message for you, you might as well think about how to domesticate the grassland people in this direction in the future?" ”

"Your Majesty, please speak, and the ministers will listen to me."

"Civilize the spirit, barbarize the body."

"What consciousness? Your Majesty, please clear your mind. Zhang An was a little puzzled for a while.

"Naturally, I will change my Datang heart into Siyi's barbaric chest, and then change Siyi's barbaric body to our weak body." Li Jun explained with a smile.

This sentence made Zhang An stunned for a long time, and then said convincingly: "Your Majesty is talented, but you can't do it." ”

"Haha, I also felt something for a while, as for how to implement it, I still need Zhang Qing to go back and think about it."

"No, the minister obeys.