When a country has exactly the same output as another country, then they are the enemies of the enemies, Xue Yantuo is already a super large nomadic khanate with a population of nearly two million under the Tang Dynasty.

In the past, their population was just over one million, and the cattle and sheep they fed, that is, millions of heads, at most 10 million heads, but now, due to the solution of the problem of cattle and sheep wintering, and green storage feed, and even edible salt, in less than seven or eight years, their breeding scale has reached more than 50 million heads.

You know, the Xue Yantuo people who take cattle and sheep as their staple food, on average, eat at least one cow and more than ten sheep per person per year, and if the family has a large population, a sheep may not be enough to eat a meal, this is still because they exchange cattle and sheep for a lot of grain and vegetables to eat from the merchants, and if there is no such scale of breeding, even if it is 50 million heads, it will not be able to meet the needs of so many of them to eat openly, in the past, they would consume the population through war, through trade, and robbery, to get food from the Han people, and now, Without war, their population is constantly expanding, and their consumption will also increase.

Like in later generations, Mongolian herdsmen raised an average of more than a few hundred heads per household, slaughtered hundreds of millions of heads a year, and did not dare to rely solely on beef and mutton as their staple food.

Because, if you eat like this, Xue Yantuo's two million people alone will consume tens of millions of cattle and sheep a year, and there will be more than 20 million people in Inner Mongolia in later generations, and if they don't change to eat various food crops as their staple food, they may have to eat hundreds of millions of cattle and sheep a year.

Because, a sheep, counting the domestic goods, is more than 30 catties of meat, a person, just eating meat, a sheep can eat about five days at most, six a month, can eat more than 70 a year, yak is slightly better, bulls can produce about 500 catties, cows about 300 catties, on average, that is, the top ten sheep.

Such a consumption formula is basically suitable for all nomadic peoples, because the size of cattle and sheep is almost the same, and the amount of food for people is also about the same.

Under the premise of such a large output and such a large consumption in Xue Yantuo, it has led to a huge output of their cattle and sheepskin goods, and even the wool industry that is emerging now.

In the past, Datang wanted to create equipment such as bows and arrows and crossbows, but it was difficult to find cow tendons, and the number of equipment was very limited. Now, that's how much or how much is going to be.

In the past, the people of the Tang Dynasty wore linen clothes, cloth shoes, and straw sandals. Now, almost most people can have one or two pairs of leather shoes, one or two leather jackets, and woolen sweaters, and have achieved the goal set by Sun Xiangfu a few years ago.

Not only that, these extended products of animal husbandry can also be dumped in large quantities, and the workmanship is exquisite, and the price is not high.

This makes all the nomads who do not belong to the Tang Dynasty in the world sad, why did the big cannibals frantically launch a war of aggression outside?

Because, no one wants the things they produce, and compared with the cattle and sheepskin goods produced by Datang, the ones they produce over there are simply scum.

Therefore, this country established on horseback can only choose to rely on more armed aggression and robbery to survive, which is why even if they have just established a state, they have to constantly attack and provoke the Persian and Byzantine Empires.

And the nomadic states of this period in Eurasia are not only big cannibals.

There are also the Kingdom of Oguz and the Kingdom of Orissa on this side of the Caspian Sea, which already borders with Xueyanta, and the Khazar Khanate, which has a large territory and a population of more than one million between the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea.

Previously, they were actually in a state of confrontation with the Byzantine Empire, just like the relationship between the Turks and the Tang Dynasty before Li Shimin ascended the throne.

But now it is different, the Byzantine Empire, in the fur trade, chose to purchase from the Tang Dynasty with good quality and low price, which broke the previous balance, if there is Wang Xu, and the five families of Shangqi City, these giant merchants who have mainly traded with them in recent years have joined forces to fight, then, their economy will collapse.

The economy collapsed, if you want to survive, you have to go to war, find the Byzantine Empire to start a war, can't solve their problems, take advantage of Xue Yantuo's helmsman Yi Nan is seriously ill and dying, grab this most productive grassland in the world into his own hands, you can completely solve the problem.

Although this will provoke the powerful Tang Empire, they are nomads, they are not afraid of war at all, as long as they are incorporated into Xue Yantuo's territory, they have a depth of more than 10,000 miles from east to west, north and south, are they afraid that the Tang Dynasty will settle accounts with them?

When the time comes, they will be like fish in the sea, and Datang will not have the main production base of cattle and sheep skin, and the cattle and sheep skin and wool in their hands will become valuable and tide over the difficulties.

After listening to some of Li Chengqian's descriptions, Sun Xiangfu said, "Wang Xu's plan is quite reliable, but if you plan to use this as a starting point, you still need to look at Yi Nan's attitude, get his support, and your plan can be successful, and don't forget, provoke war, Wang Xu and these people will benefit from both sides, if this forms a normal state, it will be no different from the previous years, but they have changed from internal chaos to external chaos." ”

Li Chengqian smiled and said, "How could I not think of this!" Therefore, my plan is not to follow their plan and provoke those countries to wage war against Xue Yantuo, but to drive them with interests and let them disrupt the Byzantine Empire. ”

Sun Xiangfu nodded and said, "Well, your ideas are becoming more and more mature, but I'm not good at these, you'd better take your ideas and discuss them with your father and the emperor, as well as the prime minister, this may be a good way." ”

If they want to unify the Eurasian continent, the biggest problem is the Byzantine Empire, because they have a population base of more than 40 million, have a long cultural heritage, and have a huge potential for war.

And intrigue and strategic and tactical arrangement are not Sun Xiangfu's specialties, his talent is only to engage in development and enhance national strength, so he did not express much opinion.

When Li Chengqian heard this, he also nodded, and the first step in the plan of the Western Regions was definitely not to go to war directly, but to eat as much as he could by means of non-war, so Li Chengqian asked again, "My father has given you the ability to pass through the world and plan all local farming affairs, according to your estimates, how much can the grain output of my Datang be increased next year on the basis of this year?" ”

After thinking for a while, Sun Xiangfu replied, "At most, two percent." ”

Li Chengqian was a little surprised when he heard this, "We have introduced so many high-yield grain crops, have we only increased by two percent?" ”

Sun Xiangfu smiled and said, "It is already good to increase by two percent, these high-yield crops will not be able to be promoted to the whole country next year, in addition, the people are planting food crops, the economic value is not high enough, so they will be more and more willing to plant other cash crops, if the imperial court as in the past, forcibly use policy intervention, it is against the rules of the market, which will lead to a decrease in the income of the peasant people, in the purchase of some of the daily necessities they need, the cost will become larger, and dissatisfaction."

Moreover, the growth of two percent is actually a lot, after all, we now have a large base of output, two percent, almost more than 100 million stones, enough to feed more than 10 million people, if we maintain this growth rate every year in the future, within ten years, it is enough to feed the population of the entire Eurasian continent. ”

Li Chengqian nodded and said, "Hearing what the teacher said, I am relieved, in fact, during this time, there are no less than thirty kingdoms that have expressed their willingness to submit to the imperial court, although their strength is not strong, but the total population adds up to at least seven or eight million, but now, the conditions for submission are still being discussed in detail." ”

"Anyone who wants to get benefits from us and chooses to surrender may not be sincere in surrender, in fact, you can ignore them for the time being, follow our own strategic steps, and accept the expected kingdom submission in a rhythmic manner.

You must know that once we start to merge the territory of these small kingdoms into the territory of the Tang Dynasty, it will inevitably cause the dissatisfaction of the major Western empires, and the reason why they are so friendly to the Tang Dynasty now and purchase a large number of our goods is because although our Tang Dynasty is strong, it has not expanded to the Western Regions, relying on force to encroach on their interests, and they are also happy to sell us well, and strengthen their own strength through trade with us.

And for the time being, these countries are allowed to exist between their major empires, such as the Byzantine Empire, in order to avoid damage to their own national strength, they will let these small kingdoms belong to them and help them resist the big cannibals.

The most perfect expansion is not to give the kings of these small kingdoms in exchange, but to gain the hearts and minds of the people under the rule of these small kingdoms, so that they will no longer be so easy to break away from us, as for those lands, the hearts of the people are ours, is it still far from becoming ours? Sun Xiangfu expressed his opinion.

Li Chengqian nodded and said, "The teacher's words are reasonable, when I turn around, when I reply to them, I will make some adjustments, and in addition, the student has something to ask you." ”

Sun Xian said very simply, "Say it!" ”

Li Chengqian said, "Before, when I was in charge of the country in Chang'an, some courtiers played, please open a martial arts move, select military attachés, but after my father-in-law saw the performance, he directly suggested that I refuse. ”

Li Chengqian's father-in-law is naturally the current military department Shangshu Hou Junji, and he is now the absolute representative of Jiangmen, and he suggested that Li Chengqian refuse, that is to say, to open a military move, and the threat will violate the interests of Jiangmen.

Previously, when the military academy was opened, these generals raised their hands in favor, these people did not have many other families, that is, there were many sons, the imperial court opened a military academy, and did not let them enroll their children in school, which must be unreasonable, and everyone knows that the future military attache of the Tang Dynasty will be out of the military academy, that is to say, this military academy will be opened, so that the power and status of the Jiangmen group can be well inherited.

However, the opening of martial arts is different, it is to select talents for the whole world, which will become a promotion channel for the children of the poor family, breaking their dream of monopolizing the power of the military attache and passing it on from generation to generation, which they will naturally not agree with, Hou Junji, as a representative of the Jiangmen, is naturally going to be pushed out to safeguard the interests of the Jiangmen.

Moreover, Hou Junji is Li Chengqian's father-in-law and Li Chengqian's natural supporter, and Li Chengqian must not be able to refuse him in a word, so this matter has been delayed, including Li Shimin's return to the court, Li Chengqian did not dare to mention this matter again, because it is not done, it is what the Jiangmen group wants to see the most, as long as he brings up this matter again, it means that he does not agree with Hou Junji's suggestion and damages the interests of the Jiangmen group.

And Li Chengqian took out this matter and asked Sun Xiangfu, the meaning was obvious, that is, he thought in his heart that opening a military move was a good thing for Yu Guo's dynasty, and if the military power was in the hands of these existing generals for generations, it would definitely not be a good thing for Yu Guo, and without worries about the future, they would corrupt very quickly.

Therefore, when Li Chengqian already had the answer in his mind, Sun Xiangfu didn't need to teach him how to do it, but asked, "People's hearts have never been satisfied, they have won benefits from you, and they will definitely continue to fight for interests from you, do you want to satisfy them all the time?" ”

Li Chengqian shook his head and said, "No, making the door bigger is not a small harm." ”

Sun Xiangfu nodded and said, "Any interest group that grows big is harmful. Do you know why your uncle Li Jiancheng lost to your father in the battle for the throne? ”

Suddenly hearing Sun Xiangfu ask, Li Chengqian hesitated, "This, I was still young and didn't know much about the process, maybe it was because the uncle was too aggressive, and my father had no choice but to fight back!" ”

This question, until now, is still a taboo in the Tang Dynasty, and no one dares to mention it, so even if Li Chengqian is sensible now, he doesn't know the original situation in detail.

Sun Xiangfu said bluntly, "Your uncle is not without talent, but he is too concerned about the feelings of various interest groups, which leads to the inability to gather talents who really think about the country under his hands."

He puts all his hopes on some people who only think about their own interests, and he will be tied down in his work.

And your father is different.

He is dedicated to the public, and the people gathered by his subordinates are all people with lofty ideals, who have never moved forward in doing things, and have never been restrained.

Therefore, when he quelled the Former Sui riots, he was able to make great achievements in battle, gradually occupy military and political advantages, and at the critical moment when the probability of success was not high, someone dared to risk his life for him, took the risk to launch, and finally succeeded.

Is your position today something that a single interest group can shake?

Definitely not.

You are the elder orthodox, with outstanding political achievements, and the people of the world know that there is nothing wrong with it, even Your Majesty cannot shake you, let alone other interest groups.

Therefore, you must not follow the example of your uncle, under the influence of those who support you on the surface, when you do things, you protect their interests, and you damage the interests of the country.

If you, the prince, are accustomed to speaking for a certain interest group, then you will not get the support of talents other than this interest group, and even push them to the opposite side of yourself, and give up the world's talents for the sake of an interest group, which is a very foolish behavior.

Therefore, as a prince, a future emperor, what you should consider is always the interests of the country and all the people, not the interests of a certain interest group. ”

When Li Chengqian heard this, he suddenly realized, and bowed his hand to the disciple and said, "Thank you teacher for solving the doubts of the students, I will report this matter to my father when I turn around. ”

Sun Xiangfu helped him up and said, "Let's talk with master and apprentice, we don't have to be so polite, in the eyes of the teacher, opening martial arts, in the future, is an inevitable trend, because the country is in need, the royal family, the center of the court, even more necessary, when you report this matter to Your Majesty, he will tell you the reason." As for how to open it, there are many doorways in it, and you have to communicate more with your father. ”