Chapter 410: Geopolitics
When Li An heard that the emperor was going to use the ironclad artillery brigade and the artillery brigade, he understood that the emperor was really angry, but how to better use this powerful force was a great test of a commander's tactical level. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info
Although the officers and men of the Ironclad Artillery Brigade and the Artillery Brigade have all learned how to use these equipment, learning to use equipment does not mean that they understand the tactics of this equipment, and of course, they cannot give full play to the performance of this equipment.
You know, equipment is never the only condition for victory, a good saddle with a good horse, a beautiful woman with a hero, a good weapon, only when you meet someone who is good at using it, can it play its greatest role.
Li An is very worried about the situation now, that is, the emperor will randomly find a general who does not know how to use these weapons, and let him command the most elite equipment of the Tang Dynasty to attack Tubo, so that these equipment will be greatly wasted, and it may even be possible that the most elite equipment of the Tang Dynasty will suffer heavy losses due to the wrong use.
Seeing that Li An was about to go to the palace to see the emperor, Li Yu also followed, and rode his horse to follow closely, followed by dozens of guards.
"Li Shilang, I'll discuss something with you!"
Li Yu flattered Li An.
"King Guangping has something, but it doesn't hurt to say it."
Li An felt that there must be something in Li Yu's heart, and after more than a year, Li An found that Li Yu had matured a lot and was much more stable, like an imperial grandson.
"Li Shilang, this expedition to Tubo is to maintain the face of my Tang Dynasty and teach the bold and reckless Tubo barbarians, Xiao Wang, as the grandson of the Tang Dynasty, of course, has to make a contribution, but His Majesty rejected Xiao Wang and did not give Xiao Wang the opportunity to contribute to the Tang Dynasty, so ......"
Li Yu was bent on fighting, but he hit a nail in front of the emperor, and his heart was very unhappy, and the purpose of his coming to Li An was to want Li An to come forward, speak for him in front of the emperor, and let the emperor change his mind and let him go to Tibet.
Li An just glanced at it lightly, and saw Li Yu's mind clearly, paused, and said: "The sword on the battlefield has no eyes, it is very dangerous, and the king of Guangping stayed in the capital and waited for the good news ahead, isn't it good?" ”
"Li Shilang, the ironclad command car is invulnerable, how can it be dangerous?"
Li Yu blurted out, feeling that Li An didn't want to help, so he deliberately found an excuse.
Li An smiled and said, "King Guangping has never been to the battlefield, so he may not know the situation on the battlefield, thinking that with an ironclad command vehicle, he will definitely be able to ensure safety?" On the battlefield, there is no safe position, only to defeat the enemy is the best way to preserve, if the commander of the army is wrong, the ironclad command vehicle can not guarantee the safety of the king of Quang Binh. ”
Li Yu looked disapproving, and retorted: "Li Shilang, the Tibetan barbarians only have swords and these weapons, we have ironclad artillery vehicles, no matter who commands them, even if they let Xiao Wang command, they will not be defeated and captured!" The Tibetan barbarians are not capable of dealing with my Datang's ironclad vehicles at all. ”
This is not only Li Yu's point of view, all the people of the Tang Dynasty who have seen the ironclad artillery car may have this illusion, thinking that as long as there is an ironclad vehicle, they can beat Tubo, so that the Tubo barbarians have no power to resist, so that they can easily achieve a brilliant victory, and even the soldiers of the ironclad artillery brigade may think so.
However, this is obviously a wrong point of view, the power of the ironclad artillery car is very huge, and it will form a huge overwhelming advantage over the cold weapons of the Tubo Empire, but if it is not used well, it will also become a pile of scrap metal, such as insufficient logistics preparation, lonely army going deep, falling into camouflaged traps and mud, encountering ambushes on the top of the mountain, encountering fire attacks, and so on.
There is no doubt about the advanced nature of the weapons of the ironclad artillery trucks, but we must never be arrogant and risk-taking, we must not despise the enemy just because we have powerful weapons, we must despise the enemy strategically, and we must be firm that we can defeat the enemy army, but in terms of specific tactical command, we must pay enough attention to the enemy army at one point, and we must not underestimate the enemy and be careless.
Li An did not have time to continue to argue with Li Yu, after all, Li Yu was a person of the Tang Dynasty, and his way of thinking had the limitations of the times, and there were many things that he couldn't see clearly or understand, but he couldn't withstand Li Yu's repeated requests, Li An promised Li Yu that he would speak for him in front of the emperor and try his best to let him participate in the conquest of Tibet.
Li Yu believed that as long as Li An came forward, he would definitely be able to go out with the army, so as to satisfy his strong desire, and Li Yu strongly asked to participate in the crusade against Tubo, one is to see the world, to see with his own eyes how the elite soldiers and horses of the Tang Dynasty eliminated the Tubo barbarians, and the other is to gain a certain reputation, after all, the emperor and grandson go out with the army, it is impossible to just look at it so simple, once the army wins, as the emperor and grandson, Li Yu will inevitably gain a lot of fame, thus greatly enhancing his political status.
As a grandchild of the royal family, if you want to get the support of the ministers and nobles, you must show your ability and have a high enough reputation, otherwise, the ministers will not notice, and Li Yu is now going to Tubo to take a trip, in order to increase his fame, so that the ministers can see that this child is promising, and is willing to contribute to the Tang Empire, so as to win the favor of everyone and pave the way for his future status.
"Everyone, Li Shilang asks to see you."
Li Longji was standing in front of the map and thinking hard, and when he heard this, he grinned: "Li An is here, let him in." ”
"Wechen see Your Majesty."
Li An habitually saluted Li Longji.
"Li Shilang, you came just in time, I have something to discuss with you."
Li Longji said, motioning for Li An to walk to the map.
"Your Majesty is studying the map, do you have any plans?"
Ang Lee asked.
Li Longji pointed at Longyou, Hexi, and said softly: "Li Shilang, this is the Longyou Road of my Tang Dynasty, and it is also the only passage to Anxi, but the top is Huifu, and the bottom is Tubo, which is sandwiched into a thin line by two powerful countries, which is very unfavorable, and this time the railway line was attacked, which is enough to explain this problem." ”
"Your Majesty's intention is to change the territory of the Tang Dynasty and make Longyou Road wider and safer?"
Li An opened his mouth to speculate, and believed that Li Longji must have the idea of expanding the territory, and now that Tubo is taking the initiative to provoke, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and it would be a pity not to make good use of it.
"Hahaha! Or Li Shilang understands my intentions, that's right, this time Tubo provoked first, and I plan to take down all this area in one go, this was originally Tuyuhun's territory, and it should not belong to Tubo. ”
Li Longji said very domineeringly.
Li An smiled and said: "What Your Majesty said is that this area should not belong to Tubo, but why doesn't Your Majesty look further and directly take the capital of Tubo, so that a large area of Tubo will be owned by Your Majesty." ”
"Take down the whole of Tibet? Li Shilang is even more greedy than me! However, such a large piece of Tubo can really be won by just one battle? ”
Li Longji felt very skeptical.
"Your Majesty, according to the news from the front, in order to resist the attack of the Tang Dynasty, Tubo has mobilized a large number of soldiers and horses, most of these soldiers and horses are gathered near Longyou, ready to confront the main force of our Tang army, if you send a detour of soldiers and horses to insert into the back of the Tubo army, you will be able to let the Tubo army disperse, as long as the main force of the Tubo army is annihilated, Tubo will inevitably be greatly injured, so, it is easy to destroy Tubo, and your Majesty can also see that my Tang Dynasty's Longyou Road is too narrow and long, and at the same time facing the pressure of both Tubo and Uighurs, only to completely defeat Tubo, Let Tubo be incorporated into my Datang, in order to completely solve the huge threat faced by Longyou Dao, with Tubo, the territory of my Datang will look more rounded, otherwise, only relying on the narrow Longyou Dao, Anxi and Beiting will be lost sooner or later. ”
Li An opened his mouth to analyze.
And what Ang Lee said is very reasonable, in later generations, this is called geopolitics, which is a reality that no empire can avoid.
And the so-called geopolitics determines how long an empire's existing territory can last.
If the territory of an empire is scattered, or narrow, or blocked by mountains and valleys, and divided into very scattered individuals, then the geography of the empire is very bad, and it can easily collapse and divide into many small states.
There is a famous saying in Huaxia very early on, called Yue Guo Yi Yuan, Jun knows its difficulties, which means that Yue Guo is a country, there is a territory far away, this territory is destined to be very difficult to rule, the administrative cost will be very high, and it is easy to lose.
This is what Candle Zhiwu said during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, and with this sentence, the Qin State voluntarily withdrew its troops.
After all, at that time, the Qin State and the Jin State jointly attacked the Zheng State, once the Zheng State was captured, the Jin State could be ruled very easily, and even if the Qin State was allocated a piece of land, it would need to cross the Jin State in order to rule effectively, so it must be very difficult, and this piece of territory would be easily annexed by the Jin State.
At this time, the situation faced by the Tang Dynasty was similar to that of the Qin State, the Tang Dynasty had a large area of land in Anxi and Beiting, and the land in the Central Plains was even larger, and the passage connecting the two regions was only a very narrow Longyou Road, that is, the road through which the ancient Silk Road passed.
On both sides of Longyou Road, there are two relatively strong neighbors, the power of Tubo and Hui is not weak, in order to maintain the smooth flow of the core of the Tang Dynasty and Anxi and Beiting, the Tang Empire must deploy a large number of troops in Hexi and Longyou, and this will inevitably bring huge pressure on the finances, and if the two powerful countries in the north and south unite to launch an attack, it is very likely that Longyou Road will be captured, so that the connection between Anxi and Beiting will be interrupted, and it may even be lost forever.
Anxi, Tubo, and Hui are the inherent territories of the later Chinese Empire, which are indispensable, and the loss of any part will shake the remaining two parts, thus making the entire empire unstable, and if these areas are all abandoned, how can China be called a big country, if it is just a small country, it may be annexed by foreign enemies at any time.
At this time, the Tang Dynasty only owns a piece of the core of the three fasts, and Tubo and Hui are both independent regimes, which are completely uncontrolled by the Tang Dynasty, so the stability of Anxi will definitely be greatly reduced.
Later, the Braided Dynasty of Huaxia also recognized this, so after the Anxi area was occupied by foreign enemies, Zuo Zongtang was immediately dispatched to recover it.
Because once Anxi is lost, the two areas of Tubo and Hui will be relatively isolated, so it will definitely be lost, so that the Braided Dynasty will lose one-third of its land and will become an eternal sinner in China, so no matter how difficult the country is, it must go all out to recover the Anxi area.
At this time, the Tang Dynasty, only has a piece of land in Anxi, which is absolutely incomplete, as can be seen from the map, the current Tang Dynasty is divided into three major blocks, the core land is the largest piece, there are about half, and the remaining half are Longyou Road and Hebei Road, and if you want to make the territory of the Tang Dynasty look more rounded, you must take all the Tubo and Huifu, once the two countries are incorporated into the territory of the Tang Dynasty, the Tang Dynasty is almost a circle.
The circular territory, in geopolitics, is the most stable existence, and it is a kind of geography that can last the longest.
Now that Hui and Datang are on good terms, Datang naturally has no reason to send troops, but Tubo can no longer hold back, at this time, of course, we must take advantage of this opportunity to completely destroy Tubo, so that the territory of the Tang Dynasty looks like an ingot, a piece of concave above, not long after, it can also be made up, not necessarily to use force, you can talk to the Hui nobles, talk about the great issue of peaceful reunification, as long as there are enough interests, it is not impossible to return to the Hui and surrender.
Of course, Li Longji dreamed of occupying the entire territory of the Tubo Empire, but he was a little bottomless in his heart when he swallowed such a large territory in one bite, after all, the Tang Empire now has a lot of money to spend, and in his opinion, the destruction of Tubo will definitely cost huge manpower and financial resources, which will seriously affect the sustainable development of the Tang Empire, and must be treated carefully.
"Li Shilang is really sure that he will destroy Tubo in one go?"
Li Longji asked tentatively.
"Your Majesty, with the current strength of my Tang Dynasty, as long as I command properly, I can completely destroy Tubo in one battle, and in order to better control Tubo, we must build a railway from Longyou Road to the capital of Tubo."
Li An Zhengse said.
"Okay, since Li Shilang is so confident, then I will appoint you as the general of the expedition to the west, and lead the army to destroy Tubo as soon as possible."
Li Longji said excitedly.
"Your Majesty, Weichen doesn't need the title of General Zhengxi, Weichen only needs to lead an elite army and insert it directly behind the Tubo army, the general should let Wang Jieshuai serve as it!"
Li An opened his mouth to ask.
"Don't be a general, as long as an elite army, okay, then I will fulfill you, the elite troops in the capital, you can choose."
Li Longji made a generous statement.