In Nanyang County, Daqian, after the discovery of the big silver mine, the imperial court ordered the establishment of the Nanyang Silver Mine Supervisor to mine and smelt the Nanyang silver mine.

In order to ensure the safety of the silver mine and the fact that silver would not flow out, Wang Xin ordered troops to be stationed outside the Nanyang silver mine. As the largest silver mine in Daqian, this silver mine will be a very important source of wealth for the imperial court of Daqian.

At present, the financial expenditure of the great cadres is still greater than the income, especially after the construction and improvement of the navy and large ships are included in the necessary support, and at least two million silver dollars are needed to support it.

Only a small part of this is spent on the navy, and the vast majority is spent on ports, shipbuilding, and ship maintenance.

The money, food, and materials needed to raise a naval army cost more money than cavalry.

In addition to the expenditure of the water army, the rest is the problem of the Mobei grassland. Over the years, even if the imperial court paid for maintenance, the Northland Protectorate still needed to spend a lot of money and food. There has always been a voice in the imperial court that wants to give up the Mobei Protectorate and implement the rule of the grassland.

Instead of immigrating to the steppe every year, as is the case now, a large amount of grain and grass and various materials are transported to the steppe every year to maintain the rule on the steppe. It costs about 5 million guan to maintain the rule of the steppe every year, and the income from the grassland is less than 1 million kan.

Even within the royal family, there are many complaints about continuing to maintain the situation in the Mobei grassland. After all, maintaining the Mobei grassland has affected the development of the Daqian Imperial Court.

Since Wang Xin's registration, apart from waging a war on the Korean Peninsula, Daqian has not made any moves to open up foreign affairs.

Wang Xin could not continue to pursue his previous policies, so he decided to change the situation of the imperial court on the grassland in order to reduce the expenses of the imperial court.

The inner hall of the Qianyuan Palace, here is the place where the emperor and the left and right prime ministers, as well as a few officials discuss state affairs, at this time Wang Xin is discussing the issue of the Mobei grassland.

"Your Majesty, the Northern Protectorate consumes far more money every year than the Western Regions Protectorate, and the income is far lower than that of the Western Regions Protectorate, the imperial court has been implementing it for decades, and it has been overwhelmed, please abolish the Northland Protectorate!" Taifu Ling Sang Hongyang said.

It has been almost thirty years since the establishment of the Northland Protectorate, but the Great Qian Imperial Court still cannot fully control the grassland.

"No, although the importance of the grassland is huge, but it is the northern barrier of the Great Qian, if you abandon it, I am afraid that in a few decades, the next Xiongnu will rise on the grassland." Right Prime Minister He Ming said.

"Yes, you can't give up the grassland!" The important officials of the imperial court were opposed to the direct abandonment of the grassland. They don't want the Zhenbei Protectorate to continue to control the grassland, because the cost is too high, but they don't want to leave the grassland alone.

"Your Majesty, the minister thinks that the grassland can be divided into twelve parts, and then each grassland will set up a general or county guard, who will be responsible for governing the twelve grasslands." Da Si Nong suggested.

This practice is actually to split the complete grassland, after which the grassland will be ruled according to the rules of the previous grassland, and the Zhenbei Metropolitan Protectorate is a higher-level existence, ruling the twelve parts of the grassland.

Dividing the grassland into twelve, even if the strength of the Zhenbei Metropolitan Protectorate is weakened, it is enough to suppress any grassland.

The Zhenbei Metropolitan Protectorate does not need to end, but as an arbitration, if there is a strong grassland, it can also call on other grassland ministries to suppress it. Through political means, supplemented by military means, it is possible to control the grasslands.

After Dasi Nong's method was proposed, everyone thought that this method was good, but there were still many details that needed to be revised and supplemented.

At the same time, the functions of the Zhenbei Metropolitan Protectorate were also revised to weaken the garrison of the Zhenbei Metropolitan Protectorate. Now in order to maintain the capital of Zhenbei, the imperial court has 80,000 troops in various parts of the grassland.

These armies were distributed throughout the steppes to maintain rule over the steppes as well as to collect taxes.

Next, everyone had a heated discussion on the number of grassland garrisons, and finally decided that only 30,000 troops would be left in the northern capital of the grassland town to garrison.

This is also what Wang Xin insisted on retaining, you must know that when the Western Regions Protectorate was established, there were only 3,000 people, and later after supplementation and strengthening, the strength was only 5,000 people.

There are 30,000 troops in the northern part of the town, which is already six times the size of the Western Regions Protectorate. With such a large garrison on the steppe, the amount of grain and grass needed is still not a small amount.

Of course, compared to the initial expenses, it is not unacceptable.

In addition to the 12 parts of the grassland, some of the people who were migrated from the grassland were relocated back, and the other part could go to Dragon City to live. And Dragon City will be used as the station of the Zhenbei Metropolitan Protectorate.

In order to facilitate the connection between the Zhenbei Protectorate and the Central Plains, Wang Xin decided to build five more cities on the grassland to connect the Dragon City. Of course, these cities were originally rich in water and grass and had a large population, and it was natural to establish a city.

These cities will not be built too big, and in addition to being used to connect to Dragon City, they can also trade with the tribes here and collect taxes.

In this way, the imperial court weakened its control over the grasslands, and at the same time reduced the garrisons in the grasslands, and the expenditure was greatly reduced, in addition to these, the taxes on the grasslands were also increased.

In the past, for the sake of the interests of the great cadres, the imperial court has always consciously controlled and suppressed the grassland, so the strength of the grassland is not strong.

After deliberation by the imperial court, Wang Xin officially issued an edict to divide the grassland into twelve tribes, and at the same time select twelve from the grassland tribes to serve as the generals of the twelve grasslands.

Wang Xin and his courtiers did not choose the twelve most powerful Xiongnu tribes, but twelve more obedient tribes. This setting is deliberate, although the grassland has experienced the influence of the Central Plains culture for decades, it still believes that the strong is king.

The more powerful tribes could not serve as generals, and this was also a pit dug by the imperial court in order to allow the twelve Xiongnu tribes to engage in internal fighting. Just like dividing the twelve parts of the grassland, weaken the power of the grassland.

It can be said that the Daqian court broke his heart for the grassland.

After dividing the grassland into twelve, the strength of any grassland could not compete with the Zhenbei Metropolitan Protectorate, and although the strength of the Zhenbei Metropolitan Protectorate's control over the grassland had decreased, its authority was higher.

After the appointment of the twelve generals of the grassland, at the beginning, due to the prestige of the Great Qian, the other tribes did not dare to object, but this was only temporary, after obtaining the position of generals and governing a part of the grassland, these generals would naturally distribute the best grassland to their tribes, and they would also be biased in various affairs.

When the time comes, these steppe tribes will start fighting among themselves, which is a good thing for Daqian.

(End of chapter)