"Generals, I just want to ask you whether you want to completely conquer the steppe, or just make the Turks temporarily subjugated." Jingwen asked.

Everyone was curious about Jingwen's words, because they came to fight this time, didn't they want to completely conquer the Turks? But Jingwen actually asked about this temporary surrender, which made everyone a little puzzled.

Jingwen then explained: "Generals, do you think that after defeating Jieli this time and letting Jieli surrender, the grassland will be truly stable? Didn't the powerful Han Dynasty divide the Xiongnu into two Xiongnu in the north and south, but didn't it fail in the end? And on the grassland, there are no Xianbei people, Wuhuan people, Rouran people, now Turkic people, and even more ethnic groups again. And although we have defeated the nomads of the steppe again and again, we have not been able to completely conquer them, and it will not be long before they will resurge. The five indiscriminate chaos in China has also caused the confrontation between the north and the south of China for so many years. Although we can now defeat the Turks, have we really conquered the steppe? ”

"After defeating the Turks, we can set up a capital protectorate, and then merge it into my Tang territory!" Someone said.

Jingwen said disdainfully: "Do you want the Turkic nobles of the steppe to divide the so-called state capitals one by one, and then let them serve as the officials inside, and not a single Han official in the imperial court will be sent?" At most, the imperial court set up a capital protectorate here, as a coordinating body, and then coordinated the contradictions of various ethnic groups, and could not directly manage too deeply. Even, maybe the imperial court doesn't even collect much in taxes, but has to give money to appease them? Is this considered the territory of the imperial court? Do not fool yourselves. ”

Jingwen was very disdainful to criticize this kind of system of protecting the government, which is simply nonsense. The earliest Metropolitan Protectorate originated from the Western Regions Metropolitan Protectorate of the Han Dynasty, which was responsible for the management of the Western Regions. However, there are many small countries in the Western Regions, and they do not belong to each other. And although nominally the Han Dynasty had a capital to manage, in fact, the effect should not be too much hope. Although historically, the Han Dynasty and the Tang Dynasty were able to annex the Western Regions into their own territory, which many emperors and Han were proud of.

But Jingwen traveled to the Tang Dynasty. I carefully understood the Tang Dynasty management system of the Tang Dynasty, and scoffed at such things as the Imperial Palace. The Prefecture is just a coordinating body, and in a sense, it is just something for the central government to express its attitude. At most, at most, there are 10,000 or 20,000 garrisons. However, these 20,000 garrisons were sprinkled in such a vast place as Central Asia in the Western Regions, and there was not even a single human hair. Therefore, these garrisons are almost non-existent, and they are often withdrawn because of the Central Plains.

This kind of capital protectorate. It is an institution established without disrupting the original system of the region, but it is only a body that can be used as a coordination body, and its authority is limited. He mainly relied on the authority of the Central Plains to coordinate, if the authority of the Central Plains was gone, then those border minorities would definitely rebel. Rationally speaking, the Tang Dynasty and the Han Dynasty only nominally had sovereignty over the Western Regions, and the actual control was about equal to none. Even, these local courts also gave them a lot of discounts. In terms of not having to pay taxes, at most it is a tribute in the sense of meaning. However, those tributes could not compensate for the cost of the Central Plains Dynasty to send them a friendly exchange. Therefore, this kind of metropolitan protectorate is not only not to enhance the strength of the country. On the contrary, it will swallow up a lot of the country's material and financial resources, in exchange for a vanity. What's more, if these nominal territories were encroached upon, the kings of those small countries would certainly ask the central dynasty to send troops. Then help them reclaim the throne. In the middle of the Tang Dynasty, the Tang Dynasty fought a war with the Arab Empire in the West, and as a result, it abandoned the Western Regions.

Many later generations regretted it. Why did you abandon the Western Regions back then? If you don't give up, the oil in the Middle East will be all Chinese. However, from the perspective of the imperial court at that time, not only could the Western Regions not bring much benefit to the country, but instead devoured a large amount of wealth in the Central Plains like a gold-swallowing beast. Therefore, it is imperative to abandon the Western Regions. It can be seen that even Datang did not regard these protectorates as their own territory, and said that they would be discarded. But if it is the traditional territory of the Central Plains, then I am afraid that I will not be able to give up desperately, this is the difference. One is to be able to gain benefits, and the other is a gold-swallowing beast, and a fool will choose a gold-swallowing beast!

And when Jingwen heard that these guys actually wanted to establish a capital protection mansion here, Jingwen immediately knew that this method of ruling would definitely not last long. The Central Plains is still strong, and the grasslands are still able to maintain stability. But once there is a troubled era in the Central Plains, isn't it the grassland anti-guest? At the end of the Tang Dynasty, the Central Plains was in turmoil, and the grassland also gave birth to the Khitan nation. Even in the end, Shi Jingjiao was forced to send Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures, so that the northern part of the Central Plains completely lost its barrier, and the Song Dynasty also undertook huge military defense pressure. Many people say that the Song Dynasty had a lot of redundant soldiers and a high tax burden on the people, but it was not caused by too much pressure on national defense!

And to solve this qiē problem, it is necessary to completely conquer the steppe, not to conquer a certain people in the steppe. The defeat of the Turks this time is the establishment of the Metropolitan Protectorate, and it is not also a decades of stability. Once the grassland regained its strength, Jingwen knew that they were brewing a rebellion at any time. At that time, in order to prevent the rebellion of this capital protectorate, the pressure on the Central Plains will be very great.

"But, before our Tang Dynasty, didn't the Han people do this?" Someone asked right away.

"In doing so, aren't all those dynasties in history bad luck? Do we Han people still have to be in the same pit and continue to fall countless times? Jingwen said disdainfully.

Li Jing immediately said seriously: "Jingwen, do you have a way?" Seriously, if your method is effective, I will immediately ask the emperor for credit for you. This is a great achievement, if we can eradicate the northern border troubles forever, the merit is in the present generation, and the benefit is in the future! If all of us here can accomplish this great deed, then we will be worthy of this life. ”

Li Jing also really took it seriously, because if he could solve this problem that the ancient dynasty had not solved, it would be a great feat. Li Jing, as the commander of the Northern Expedition to the Turks, can naturally leave a strong mark in the history books. This attraction is irresistible to most people. Therefore, Li Jing took the initiative to ask Jingwen to continue. If you don't make it clear, I'm afraid you really won't be able to solve this side problem. (To be continued......)