Although the population of the Tang Dynasty is much smaller than that of the Sui Dynasty, the overall strength has reached eighty percent of the national strength of the Sui Dynasty in three years.

The most important thing is that because Li Shimin supported Wang Xuanjing's immigration, spread the land into the mu, lightly punish the meager endowment, crack down on the powerful and restrict the nobles, and promote books to hold imperial examinations. This allowed the imperial court to control the world more than the Sui Dynasty.

At least in the Tang Dynasty, local officials did not dare to lie about their land as they did in the Sui Dynasty, and local tycoons and large households did not dare to hide their land.

After all these years of recuperation, even if the imperial court lightly paid for the poor, the treasury became full, and the granaries everywhere were also full of grain.

Seeing that the treasury was full and the troops were complete, Li Shimin knew that it was time to solve the Liaodong Kingdom.

But before the Liaodong Kingdom can be settled, there is one more thing that needs to be resolved.

The fall of the Sui Dynasty was not due to natural disasters, but to man-made disasters, and since the Sui Dynasty, the climate has begun to become mild, and the Xiaoice period that began at the end of the Great Qian.

The climate change has also brought about great changes in the plateau, which was still a bitter cold place during the Great Dry Period, but after hundreds of years, climate change has made the plateau relatively warm.

After hundreds of years of development, the country of the plateau also reached its peak at this time.

"Although the country is large and occupies a favorable geographical position, the people are ignorant, the craftsmen are backward, the climate on the plateau is cold, and farming is difficult.

When the Tang Dynasty swept away Tuyuhun, those plateau countries wanted to seize some territory, but they were repelled by the Tang army, and the lord of the plateau was frightened, sent an envoy to sue for peace, and asked the Tang Dynasty to marry a princess.

Because of its extremely high location, the country of the plateau occupies an absolute geographical advantage, and the country of the plateau after the strong has also begun to develop to Bashu and Hehuang.

For thousands of years, Zhuxia was able to suppress the surrounding barbarian Hu people, Baiyue, Qiang people and many other forces, annexing, merging, and exterminating some of them by relying on strong force, and partly by relying on advanced technology and huge population.

Wang Xuanjing's attitude is very clear, he can be appeased and befriended with the country of the plateau, but he will never allow all kinds of advanced technologies such as medical books, craftsmen, and agricultural books to flow into the plateau.

"And since the defeat of Tuyuhun, the stone castle city leading to the river on the plateau is also in our hands, the stone castle city is surrounded by water on three sides, easy to defend and difficult to attack, as long as the elite soldiers are stationed, the country of the plateau will not want to pass."

The large population allowed Zhuxia to have sufficient soldiers, even if he was defeated several times, he could recover quickly, and advanced technology allowed Zhuxia to have sharp swords, guns, bows and arrows, strong armor, and towering city walls.

"If Your Majesty wants to appease the country of the plateau and agree to make peace, you must not allow craftsmen, medical books, agricultural books and other classics, seeds, medicinal herbs, and instruments to enter the plateau as dowry."

Li Shimin hesitated in his heart, and Wang Xuanjing said: "Your Majesty, although the country of the plateau is strong, its prosperity is also vigorous, and its death is also sudden. ”

With these, Zhu Xia defeated one barbarian Hu after another, and finally became strong.

Therefore, for craftsmen, agricultural books, medical books, etc., it is absolutely not allowed to take out Datang casually.

Li Shimin also understood this, and after thinking about it again, he refused the request of the country of the plateau to marry the princess.

The country of the plateau then used this as an excuse to raise troops to attack the Tang Dynasty, but the Tang army had already prepared, and even before the main force of the Tang army arrived, the pioneer Niu Jinda had already led the army to defeat the army of the country of the plateau.

Seeing that the Tang Dynasty soldiers were so sharp, the lord of the plateau was even more frightened, so he once again sent important ministers to the Tang Dynasty with 5,000 taels of gold and a large number of jewels and jade to beg for peace again, and once again asked to marry the princess.

If it weren't for the harsh climate and environment of the plateau, the Tang Army would not be suitable for the plateau climate, and Li Shimin would have wanted to take the plateau. Now that we can't annex the country of the plateau, we can only conquer it after it is subdued.

So Li Shimin selected a daughter from the clan, crowned her as a princess, and then married the country of the plateau.

Because of the requirements of Li Shimin and Wang Xuanjing, there were no craftsmen in the princess's dowry, and there were no medical books and agricultural books, but there were many expensive luxuries such as gold, silver, jewelry, cloth, sugar, wine, tea, and Dongzhu. At the same time, thousands of volumes of books on various Buddhist scriptures, Taoist scriptures, rituals, literature, etc. were prepared.

Li Shimin and Wang Xuanjing used a large number of fine clothes, food, wine, and luxury goods as dowries, with the aim of corrupting the nobles of the plateau country, indulging in enjoyment, and saping their will. And use Buddhism, Taoism, etc. to influence the religion in their country.

Although it is not possible to annex the country of the plateau for the time being, it is still necessary to weaken the country of the plateau by various means.

After the Tang Dynasty pacified the country of the plateau, the other side also began to explore the Western Regions. Zhuxia once again entered the Western Regions after hundreds of years.

Hou Junji led the Tang army, with the cooperation of the heaven-given city, and quickly captured the end. Then use it as a base to continue to the Western Regions.

Among the countries of the Western Regions, Gaochang was the strongest, and was very dissatisfied with the Tang army's hand reaching into the Western Regions, so he cut off the connection between the countries of the Western Regions and the Tang Dynasty.

At the same time, he actively contacted the Western Turks and wanted to fight against the Tang Dynasty together.

Seeing this situation, Wang Xuanji and Hou Junji led the army to attack Gaochang, and the king of Gaochang thought that Gaochang was seven thousand miles away from the Central Plains, and there were two thousand miles of sand moraines in the middle, and the Tang Dynasty would not send a large army to attack.

It's a pity that if Gaochang has history books, or if King Gaochang has read the history books of Zhuxia, he will never have this kind of idea again, you know, hundreds of years ago, the great cadres mobilized tens of thousands of troops, drove thousands of miles, and attacked the Great Wan Kingdom.

Even the expedition of 10,000 miles has been done, so what about 7,000 miles?

Just when the lord of Gaochang was still enjoying it, the Tang army and the allied forces of the heaven-sent city had crossed the sand moraine and approached Gaochang country, and then the elite of the Tang Dynasty swept through Gaochang country like a storm sweeping leaves.

Hou Junji, Wang Xuanji, and Wang Xuanhe divided their troops into three routes, quickly divided Gaochang Kingdom, and then marched to the capital of Gaochang State.

Seeing the Tang army besieging the city and the chaos in Gaochang City, Hou Junji took the opportunity to order the army to attack, and Gaochang City was quickly breached, and the lord of Gaochang died of fear. Even the Western Turkic army, which came to the rescue of Gaochang State, was defeated and retreated under the offensive of the Tang army.

The Western Turkic army wanted to retreat, but was entangled by the 3,000 elite cavalry of the heaven-sent city, and finally had to surrender under the pressure of the coalition forces.

Seeing the surrender of the Western Turkic army, Gaochangguo no longer had any resistance, and the prince of Gaochangguo saw that the general trend had gone, so he had to open the door and surrender out of the city.

When the Gaochang Kingdom was destroyed, Li Shimin ordered the establishment of Tingzhou at the former site of the Gaochang State and the garrison of a large army to connect the countries of the Western Regions.

(End of chapter)