Li Wenyuan took Zhang Juntai to lead the team to leave the eastern capital, pass through Tianshui County, and return to Jincheng in Longxi County. Although Li Wenyuan is now the head of the Western Regions, the soldiers are still Xue Ju's after all, and they have to be returned.

There was no imperial order, there was no urgent war, and Li Wenyuan was happy to return to Jincheng leisurely.

After passing Hedong County, it entered the alluvial plain of the Weishui Basin, and the 800-mile Qinchuan River should have been the most stable granary of the Great Sui, but now it is a barren farmhouse and uninhabited. I can't see a hundred miles of green yarn tents, only three or two barren grass and broken houses.

After being silent for a long time, Li Wenyuan asked Zhang Juntai: "Juntai, you said, there were more than 8 million households in my Great Sui during the opening of the emperor, how many can there be now?" ”

Zhang Juntai said: "There are still more than 9 million households in the five years of the Great Cause, and now the population of Shandong is withering, and the population of Guanzhong has also decreased sharply due to the Eastern Expedition, so there should be 7 million households." ”

"More than two million households disappeared? According to the minimum of five people in a household, it is more than 10 million people. Li Wenyuan said in surprise.

"That's not the case, because the forced conscription of people's husbands, cattle, horses, and livestock in the Eastern Crusade made a large number of yeoman farmers unable to make a living, and they all depended on the clan of the gate lords, or became a large number of people who were not included in the household registration statistics, such as official households, artisan households, happy households, and tenant farmers, so there will not be tens of millions of people who have disappeared." Zhang Juntai comforted.

"Then Juntai, do you say that the Great Sui is strong?" Li Wenyuan said.

"Of course, the Great Sui was strong, and during the opening of the emperor, Emperor Wen attacked the Turks in the north, divided the Turks into two, and bowed down to the vassals." Zhang Juntai said proudly.

"Then why was such a powerful Great Sui repelled twice in a row by a small Goguryeo?" Li Wenyuan said.

"The Goguryeo people are cunning, and the emperor has to do everything himself, which causes the warplanes to pass away." Zhang Juntai said.

"No, no, Juntai, you're only half right." Li Wenyuan said with a smile: "Your Majesty has already led a large army to cross the Yangtze River at the age of twenty and pacify Nanchen, how could he make such a low-level mistake to delay the fighter?" ”

Li Wenyuan saw that Zhang Juntai bowed his head and was silent, so he continued: "Emperor Guangwu of the Han Dynasty allowed the border people to move inward, but later the Wei and Jin dynasties did not deal with it properly, resulting in the chaos of China, the Han people moved south, and finally perished, and only the Great Sui sat in this world. ”

"I've heard of this, the five indiscriminate Chinese slaughtered the northern Han people in ten rooms and nine emptiness, but fortunately, the Tuhu order under the resistance of Emperor Ran Min rose up to resist, and only then did he leave a piece of vitality." Zhang Juntai recalled the memory in his mind and said.

"Yes, but then Ran Min was defeated, and Beihu returned to occupy the north of the Yangtze River for many years, and there is now the Great Sui. In my opinion, Your Majesty was worried that the Hu people who moved in from the interior would make trouble and destroy the Great Sui again, so he thought of using the sword of Goguryeo to eliminate the Hu people in the north and the Guanlong nobles behind the Hu people. Li Wenyuan took out the conclusion of the discussion with Xue Ju and told Zhang Juntai again.

Seeing that Zhang Juntai seemed to have an understanding, Li Wenyuan continued: "Your Majesty has made a big gamble by putting the entire Great Sui on the table. Speaking of this, I sighed secretly in my heart:

Yang Guang's starting point is right, but he is too anxious, it may be good if he divides it into five years and ten years to go step by step, but it is too tight, and Da Sui is more fragile than he imagined, and a slight mistake is already an irreparable disaster.

But the rise of a great power is not based on ten years or even a hundred years as the unit of measurement, and only relying on the hope of a Ming monarch, the country of the sage is destined to not go far. The national fortune must rely on careful planning, good personnel training, and efficient and honest administration to go far, and gambling on the national fortune is the most unwise behavior, and in Li Wenyuan's memory, the last country that gambled on the national fortune is still being a dog for others.

Zhang Juntai stopped talking, some of the things Li Wenyuan told him today had a great impact on him, people in every era have their own limitations, and there is no way to do this. Li Wenyuan is also the most disgusted to ridicule the ancients from the perspective of God, which is the most stupid behavior.

The army was slowly moving forward, but Li Wenyuan's heart had already drifted to the Western Regions, which would be mysterious and unpredictable even in the later generations.

The Western Regions is a relatively isolated place, but also a place with unlimited potential, as the most important node on the Silk Road, it can draw endless wealth to raise troops. Rational distribution of planned arable land, this abundant water system can bring countless grains. The Han people and naturalized Hu lived in the border for a long time, and the people were fierce and could be the army.

Now that he has the emperor's approval, he has the right to forge his own weapons and guard the eight states of the Western Regions, and Li Wenyuan only feels that a thousand things are in a mess in his mind for a while. After all, before the crossing, he was just an ordinary graduate student, but now he has become the general of the Great Sui Dynasty, the governor of the eight states of the Western Regions, and he can decide the fate of tens of thousands of people in one sentence, and this sudden change in identity makes Li Wenyuan at a loss.

Li Wenyuan didn't speak again all the way, he was thinking about what to do next. Since some county guards in the Western Regions dare not report their work to the imperial court, it means that it has reached a very serious point. For thousands of years, the most important problem facing the feudal emperors was the struggle for power between the central and local governments, which needed local stability and taxation, and did not want the local governments to touch the taboo of military power.

The Tang Dynasty relied on its strong national strength to suppress the hidden danger of supporting the army and separating the local envoys, but once the national strength was slightly weaker, it caused the local envoys to raise troops to rebel, from prosperity to decline, and even to collapse.

Li Wenyuan can't compare to those old foxes who have been in the officialdom for a long time as scheming, and along the way, he has also thought of various ways to sort out the officialdom of the Western Regions, but it is unrealistic, not to mention that the fall of the Sui Dynasty has begun to count down, if he does not take the opportunity to rely on the Western Regions to win the Central Plains, even if he straightens out the officialdom, it can only be a wedding dress for others.

And this ending is not what Li Wenyuan wants, even if he finally leads the Western Regions to annex, he will be hollowed out of power and far away from the political center of the old age.

Li Wenyuan finally made a decision, no matter what the era, it is just like what the great men of later generations said: power comes out of the barrel of a gun. He must take the lead in seizing the military power of the Western Regions, use the military power to swing a knife to the chaotic officialdom, and then create a new political system according to his own wishes.

Thinking of this, before he could think about it, Zhang Juntai said next to him: "General, Jincheng has arrived." ”

Hearing this, Li Wenyuan also straightened his waist and looked towards the city in the distance. In the distance, I saw a young girl standing outside the city gate, as if waiting for someone. Li Wenyuan could naturally recognize at a glance that it was Qiu Niang, who had been separated for a long time, and his heart was also warm at the moment, so he slammed the horse's belly and ran towards the city gate.