"First, let's talk about what is called the theory of land power."

Jiang Xinghuo didn't care whether this new inmate who looked like Guan Gong could understand it, and continued to talk to himself.

"In the second volume of "The Fortune of Nations", we said that we can regard all civilizations in the world as isolated islands, and terrain barriers such as deserts, Gobi, mountains, jungles, oceans, etc., are the sea full of fog that isolates these isolated islands."

"In the World Island War, the civilization that can take the lead in getting out of the involution of the island and expanding outward will gain a huge first-mover snowball advantage, occupy more and more islands, conquer or assimilate more and more civilizations, and become the hegemon of the entire world island."

"And the theory of land power refers to the fact that in the world we know, or to define it accurately, that is, the edge of the world that the Mongols reached in their westward expeditions, and in the land conquered, occupied and established by the Mongols, there is a heartland, and this heartland, just like our heart, transfuses blood for the five internal organs, and it is also the necessary place for the five internal organs."

"This heartland, I call it the 'land bridge.'"

Combined with Jiang Xinghuo's words, Zheng He silently pondered the deep meaning.

And Zhu Gaoxu asked directly: "What Mr. Jiang said is the Mobei Plateau mentioned before?" ”

"It's not all."

Jiang Xinghuo said: "To be precise, the center of the land bridge is the hometown of Xiliao, Hezhong Mansion. ”

Hezhong Mansion is the "Fat City" in Zheng He's "Journey to the West" written by Yelu Chucai, and it has a more famous name - Samarkand, the capital of the current Timurid Khanate.

Samarkand, the first ancient capital of Central Asia, the Book of Wei is called Xi Wanjin, the Book of the New Tang Dynasty is called Kangguo, and when it arrives in Western Liao, it is called Hezhongfu, the reason is because Samarkand is between the two major rivers of Central Asia, the Amu Darya River and the Syr Darya River, the two major rivers in Central Asia, Yelu Dashi, who fled here in a hurry, misses his homeland, and naturally recalls the Hezhongfu in the south of the Liao State that is sandwiched between Fenshui and the Yellow River, so it is named after it.

"There is some truth to that."

Zheng He considered the geographical location of Samarkand and nodded in agreement.

When it comes to military geography, especially the military geography of the known world, Zhu Gaoxu can also interject.

Zhu Gaoxu said: "If you don't talk about the territory of China, Samarkand is indeed the center that connects the East and the West. ”

Jiang Xinghuo nodded and said: "In fact, the expansion of the Tang Dynasty along the Silk Road to the west is also the same reason, the reason why the Battle of Talas happened is not because of the eastward expansion of the Black Clothes Food (Abbasid Dynasty of the Arab Empire), and the two collided at this central point." ”

The Battle of Talas was a frustrated action of the Tang Army that took the initiative to attack instead of defending. The reason is that the Anxi Festival of the Tang Dynasty made Gao Xianzhi wash the stone country in blood, and the prince of Shi, who escaped by luck, asked for help from the black-clothed food. Gao Xianzhi, who learned the news, took the initiative to attack Dashi, led the Tang coalition army to a long-distance attack, penetrated more than 700 miles, and finally encountered the black-clothed Dashi army in Talas, but finally failed due to the betrayal of the Gelulu soldiers in the coalition army, and the 30,000 Anxi Tang army only fled back to a few thousand. After this war, Tang craftsmen captured by the Arab Empire established the first paper mill outside of China, and the art of papermaking spread westward.

Jiang Xinghuo continued: "Then I'll put forward a theory first, and you can judge whether it's right or not. ”

Zheng He and Zhu Gaoxu bowed their heads together.

"If I consider this land bridge, where the Mongols once made their expeditions in all directions from Samarkand as the central point, is the heart of the main world island where all the isolated islands of civilization come together. The land power theory is that whoever controls the heart of the land bridge controls the world island, and whoever controls the world island controls the world. Do you think it's right that the expansion of the land empire should expand from the heart of this land bridge, from the center to the periphery? If not, please state the reason. ”

Hearing this, the two fell into deep thought.

——————

The secret room next door.

Li Zhigang, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, sat uneasily in his chair.

In front of him are the high-level decision-makers of the Ming Empire, the emperor, the great prince, and the black-clothed prime minister.

Of course, Li Zhigang's pressure does not come entirely from these people, to be precise, the pressure brought to him by these people is far less than the pressure brought to him by the word "edict" or the familiar environment of edict prison.

The reason is also simple, Li Zhigang's past life experience proves that he is indeed a convict who can be sentenced to prison.

Li Zhigang is a very, very interesting person, and it can even be said that he is the most interesting person in the entire Yongle era.

It would be a pity if he didn't briefly introduce one or two of his "many prisons" life.

Li Zhigang is a native of Songjiang Huating, in all fairness, his character is really inferior, and he is proficient in everything that he is greedy and corrupt, which is diametrically opposed to the word "Zhigang".

During the era of Zhu Yuanzhang, the Hongwu Emperor, Li Zhigang served as a staff member of the crown prince Zhu Biao, so he was recommended by Zhu Biao and was awarded the position of Langzhong in the Ministry of Rites.

Then Li Zhigang was imprisoned for committing a crime, and then demoted to the border, and soon after the first launch of the money ability, after many activities was recalled to the Ministry of Labor Langzhong, and promoted to the right senator of Henan, this is Li Zhigang's first trip to prison.

During the era of Emperor Jianwen Zhu Yunwen, Li Zhigang served as the senator of Huguangzuo, and then. was imprisoned again for committing a crime, which was Li Zhigang's second trip to prison.

Later, the Yan army went south and crossed the river with iron horses.

Jiang Xinghuo was arrested, and Li Zhigang was released.

The reason is also very simple, Li Zhigang launched the money ability for the second time, and stuffed money into the close ministers around Zhu Di, everyone praised Li Zhigang for his talent, Zhu Di then appointed him as the right general government, and soon because of the purge of the court, he became the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, and this time he also let him participate in the revision of the "Taizu Record" under his name.

In Jiang Xinghuo's previous life, in fact, Li Zhigang had the third and fourth trip to prison.

If there is no disturbance in the historical line, in the year after tomorrow, that is, in the second year of Yongle, Zhu Di canonized Zhu Gaochi as the crown prince, and Li Zhigang will concurrently serve as a scholar of Zuochunfang University as a scholar of the Ministry of Rites, and he will be on duty to give a banquet in the East Palace, and he will talk about it successively with Xie Jin.

Then, because of the struggle with Xie Jin, Li Zhigang will complete his third trip to prison.

Shortly thereafter, Li Zhigang, who activated the banknote ability for the third time, will return to the starting point of his career, Libu Langzhong.

Well, after tossing for decades, back to the original point, Li Zhigang was very angry, and he also had a very good reason to hate Xie Jin, so he slandered Xie Jin, and Xie Jin was also thrown into the edict as he wished.

As a result, Xie Jin's confession implicated Li Zhigang, who was sentenced to more than ten years, which was his fourth trip to prison.

This time, Li Zhigang's money ability failed, and it was not until the first year of Hongxi, who was succeeded by Zhu Gaochi, that he was released as the prefect, at this time Li Zhigang was seventy years old, and his prefect only served for one year, and the second year Zhu Zhanji succeeded to the throne in the first year of Xuande, he died in office, ending his life of "more prisons and more gains".

So just like Jiang Xinghuo is a little claustrophobic, Li Zhigang and Li Shangshu, who only entered the palace for the second time at this time, are already a little "phobia of edicts".

Sweat slowly seeped from Li Zhigang's forehead and dripped to the ground, and he gently wiped his face covered with cold sweat with his hands, trying to keep his composure.

Although the sweat even blinded his eyes, he felt as if he was in an abyss, and countless hideous demon faces roared at him, making him creepy.

"Li Shangshu?"

The Emperor's voice seemed to come from far away.

"Your Majesty, the minister, the minister is a little unwell." Li Zhigang said in a trembling voice.

At the emperor's suggestion, the two small officials Guo Jin and the firewood cart took out their handkerchiefs and wiped Li Zhigang's sweat left and right, and his whole person was as if he had been fished out of the water.

Twisting the handkerchief, Guo Jin looked at the pale old man in front of him, and felt a little funny, you said that you are so old, why are you still afraid of prison? We young people are not afraid to be here every day.

"Ahem." The chariot coughed lightly twice, reminding his companion not to laugh out loud.

"Is Li Shangshu better?"

Zhu Di is still very concerned about Li Zhigang, a useful echo worm.

Li Zhigang reluctantly got up and replied: "Thank you for Your Majesty's concern, the minister is ashamed, and the minister is better." ”

"If you're not feeling well, just sit and listen." Zhu Di pressed his palm weakly, "What does Li Shangshu think of the question on the other side?" ”

As a person with no moral bottom line, Li Shangshu did not open his mouth to give the emperor a picture of how to go to the Heavenly Empire like those rotten Confucians who read and read stupidly, but carefully figured out Zhu Di's mentality of liking martial arts before he spoke.

"The minister thinks that what this person said is quite reasonable, thinking that since Genghis Khan can conquer the world, and made the decision to attack Khorezm first and then attack Jin, there should be this kind of consideration. Maybe Genghis Khan didn't know what the 'heartland' and 'land bridge' were, but the truth should be the same. ”

Hearing this, Zhu Di nodded with satisfaction.

Li Zhigang is a person who is easy to use and can use his brain, and can follow his will to speak and do things.

As an emperor, of course, I don't want the courtiers to be all able/unable to do things, but they are all openly/secretly contradicting themselves.

For some positions, it is not important whether you can do things, the important thing is to understand the emperor's mind, which is different from the more professional household department, the Ministry of Industry, and the Ministry of War.

And what Li Zhigang said is not completely unreasonable, the Mongols conquered the world, and they did take the road of "heartland" and "land bridge" as Jiang Xinghuo said, and the precedent of the Mongols has proved that this road is indeed feasible.

But Zhu Gaochi said loudly at this time: "Father, the son feels that it is wrong. ”

"Oh? Let's talk about it. ”

Zhu Di encouraged the good eldest child.

"The heartland is true, and the land bridge is not wrong, but the problem is that the cost of supply for this road is too high, and the Mongols can drive cattle, sheep and horses across thousands of miles to fight, and require extremely tenacious and hard-working military qualities, which are extremely rare for thousands of years, and even the Mongols, who have only maintained two generations, can no longer carry out this kind of marching and mobilizing at the level of 10,000 miles."

As the person in charge of logistics of the Battle of Jingyan, Zhu Gaochi almost subconsciously, out of some kind of occupational disease-like consideration, slowly said to Zhu Di.

And after Zhu Di heard this, he also compared it from his heart.

Not long ago, the Yan army, which had experienced an arduous and bloody four-year Jingjing battle, was even slightly better than the Ming army when Hongwu founded the country in terms of combat effectiveness, equipment, and soldiers.

Judging from the large-scale ultra-long-distance roundabout outflanking completed by Zhu Di in several wars, Zhu Di is confident that the quality of this army will be called the first in the world.

So can this army, which is the largest in the world at the time, be able to maneuver across thousands of miles like the Mongols?

Zhu Di believes that it is very difficult.

Of course, there are different military attributes, the Yan army, which is composed of a mixture of Han Erjian and Mongolian Tatar officials in the north, is not at all the full cavalry of the Mongolian army in the era of Genghis Khan, but a mixture of infantry and cavalry, in which the proportion of cavalry is also mostly semi-armored cavalry and heavy armored cavalry, and it is not like the light cavalry of the Mongols.

Therefore, whether it was the mules and horses needed to carry armor, the horses needed to load infantry into mounted infantry, and the donkey carts needed to transport grain, the Yan army was destined to be unable to carry out expeditions across thousands of miles like the Mongols.

Dao Yan also sighed softly: "Mongolia's expedition to the west is unprecedented in ancient times, and it will be difficult for future generations to do it. ”

"Journey to the West" once recorded the scene of Mongolia's westward expedition, which is the so-called: mountains and rivers are sympathetic, and the sky is gloomy. The car tent is like a cloud, and the soldiers are like rain. Horses and cattle are wild, and soldiers are in the sky. The fireworks are facing each other, and the company is camping for thousands of miles. The prosperity of the ages has never tasted it. ”

Zhu Di not only nodded, since he couldn't do it, talking about the "heartland" and "land bridge" was probably just on paper.

That's right, but with the exception of the Mongols in Genghis Khan's time, no army could do it again.

After all, the terrain on the land bridge was too harsh and the environment too harsh for thousands of soldiers who could endure hardships and stand hard work and live as nomads.

——————

"I don't think so."

Zheng He was the first to speak: "The reason why it's not right is also very simple, dare to ask this Mr. Jiang, since the Battle of Talas, how many years has the Tang Anxi Army lost control of the Anxi Metropolitan Protectorate and the Beiting Metropolitan Protectorate?" ”

Jiang Xinghuo replied lightly: "More than ten years after the Battle of Talas, the Anshi Rebellion, the Tang Dynasty began to gradually lose control of the Western Regions, and forty years after this battle, the Tang Dynasty completely lost the Anxi Metropolitan Protectorate and the Beiting Metropolitan Protectorate Tang poet Bai Juyi's poem "Western Liang Ling" once said: Anxi is thousands of miles away in peacetime, and today's frontier defense is in Fengxiang (Baoji, Shaanxi). What this poem reflects is this situation in which the Tang court completely lost control of the western territory. ”

"That's it!"

Zheng He learned from Guan Gong's appearance, stroked his fake beard, and said: "The reason why in just forty years, the western border of the Tang Dynasty has retreated from the green mountains tens of thousands of miles away to the Fengxiang Mansion in Guanzhong on the east side of Longshan is that the western neighbor and the desert are really difficult to supply. ”

"Let's hear it." Zhu Gaoxu asked curiously.

Zheng He said with certainty: "That is the rich trade route of the Silk Road in the Western Regions, in the final analysis, it is only a trade route, it itself cannot produce enough supplies, including armor, blades, arrows, and grain, all of which have to be transported from the distant Guanzhong, and it may not be a loss if you just count the money, after all, you can get the right to collect taxes on the trade route by occupying the Western Regions, but once there is a war, these things cannot be bought with money alone." ”

After speaking, Zheng He looked at Jiang Xinghuo confidently.

To Zhu Gaoxu's surprise, Mr. Jiang did not refute it, but admitted it.

"You're right, especially when you say 'trade routes are just trade routes.'"

"So going back to the question we mentioned earlier, it may not be difficult for you to understand why I say that the core of the theory of land power is actually the concentration and high pressure of population and resources."

"It must be known that anyone who talks about land power or sea power without the right of way for trade fails to understand the essence of the matter."

"Land power, or sea power, as we will mention later, as a national power, is a means rather than a result of maintaining the international power of the state, that is, the power of communication between countries."

Jiang Xinghuo asked, "So what is international power?" ”

Zhu Gaoxu was the first to reply: "It is like those great generals of the Tang Dynasty, who crisscross the Western Regions and destroy the country at every turn, and if there is a country that does not obey China, let it be completely destroyed." ”

Zheng He thought more far-reaching: "I think it should be the ability to influence other countries, so that other countries can bow their heads to Huaxia." ”

Jiang Xinghuo shook his head.

"There is a saying that politics is the continuation of the economy, war is the continuation of politics, and international power is the ability of a certain country to influence other countries in an all-round way from the perspectives of war, politics, economy, etc., and the most fundamental and lasting of them is economic interests."

Jiang Xinghuo looked at Zhu Gaoxu and asked softly, "Do you remember the lesson in the first volume of our "Theory of National Fortunes"? In that lesson, we also mentioned the Tang Dynasty. ”

Zhu Gaoxu was stunned for a moment, and immediately recalled.

"At that time, Mr. Jiang, you chanted a poem, and your expression was quite sad."

"You don't hear it, the Han family has 200 states in Shandong, and thousands of villages are born!"

"No one collects the white bones in ancient times, the new ghosts are annoyed and the old ghosts are crying, and the sky is cloudy and rainy, and the wet sound is chirping"

"In that lesson, you said that the reason why the Tang Dynasty did not hesitate to use force to control the Western Regions was to make a big watermelon. If the Tang Dynasty mastered the Silk Road, it would have countless wealth and would not need to rely on the land to live. ”

Zhu Gaoxu suddenly said "Huh".

In a trance, he seemed to remember the foreshadowing of a sentence that Jiang Xinghuo had buried a few months ago.

"Whether it was a strong man or a prosperous Tang Dynasty, they all failed in the end. This also involves the core of the 'theory of national fortune', which will be discussed later. ”

The grass gray snake line, the veins are thousands of miles.

Jiang Xinghuo looked at Zhu Gaoxu's appearance and rubbed his hands with satisfaction, this student remembered very seriously.

"It seems that you remembered, so today, in the third volume of "The Treatise on National Fortune", I will reveal for you the introduction buried in the first volume."

"Why did the powerful Han and Tang Dynasty's attempts to control the expansion of the Western Regions trade routes fail in the end?"

"This is also the fundamental difference between the theory of land power and the theory of sea power."

(End of chapter)