Prince of Tang Dynasty

Chapter 350 Decision
Gao Ming knew that Li Shimin would accept his request, so he was not too surprised. After complimenting Li Shimin casually, he left.

But when he came to the door, he stopped suddenly, and then turned to look at Li Shimin.

"By the way, I plan to build a memorial archway outside Chang'an City to commemorate the fallen soldiers of the Tang Dynasty, so I need to use people from the Ministry of Industry, and I need to find some brochures from the Ministry of War. I will pay for it myself. You don't need to go through the Ministry of Housing. Is it okay to have an edict?"

"Is it a memorial arch for the fallen soldiers of the Tang Dynasty?"

Hearing Gao Ming's words, Li Shimin frowned immediately, but he nodded immediately without thinking too much.

"Okay, I'll write you a letter right now!"

In Li Shimin's view, as long as the Ministry of Users does not pay, everything is easy to talk about, and he himself was born in the military, so Gao Ming is willing to pay for the soldiers to build the memorial archway.

After writing the manuscript, Li Shimin handed it to Gao Ming directly, and then raised his eyebrows at him.

"This is the handbook you want. By the way, are you planning to build an archway in your own name?"

Although Li Shimin deliberately pretended to be casual when he spoke, Gao Ming understood what he meant and couldn't help laughing immediately.

"Of course not. In the name of Admiral Tiance, I plan to invite you to read the sacrificial oration after the archway is completed?"

Hearing Gao Ming's words, Li Shimin raised his eyebrows again.

"Well, let's talk about it later!"

Although he didn't agree straight away, looking at the corners of his mouth raised, Gao Ming immediately knew that Li Shimin was in a very happy mood at the moment.

Seeing this scene, Gao Ming smiled again.

"It's okay, I'll leave first, and I'll tell you when the archway is built."

After finishing speaking, Gao Ming bowed to Li Shimin, then turned and left the imperial study.

When Gao Ming stepped out of the gate of the imperial study with one foot, a bright smile appeared on his face again.

"It's done!"

I'm afraid even Li Shimin didn't think that Gao Ming's idea of ​​people's ranks was just an introduction. His real purpose was to build this memorial archway to commemorate the fallen soldiers of the Great Tang Dynasty.

Of course, Gao Ming prefers to call it the Martyrs Cemetery!
In the early days of the Tang Dynasty, because the military system was implemented, they were farmers in leisure time and soldiers in wartime. They even brought their own weapons and food, so their social status was not high.

In the middle of the Tang Dynasty, they became the private soldiers of generals and officials, not much different from slaves.

Later, Wu Zetian abolished the Fubing system and adopted the recruitment system. Although the status and treatment of soldiers have been greatly improved, the disadvantages are also very obvious, that is, the object of loyalty of soldiers is not the country, but the generals.

It was also for this reason that led to the subsequent Anshi Rebellion and warlord separatism.

Wang Fuzhi said that "the country is always destroyed by the weak, but the Han Dynasty is destroyed only by the strong", which means that other dynasties perished because of their weakness, but the Han Dynasty perished because of their strength.

But in Gao Ming's view, the Tang Dynasty, like the Han Dynasty, was "destroyed by force".

There are five main reasons for the demise of the Han Dynasty, namely, the dictatorship of foreign relatives, the chaos of eunuchs, the disaster of the party, the chaos of the Yellow Turbans, and the separatism of warlords.

There are also five reasons for the demise of the Tang Dynasty, eunuchs interfering in politics, clan struggles, Anshi Rebellion, warlord separatism, and peasant uprisings.

From the perspective of the reasons for their demise, the reasons for the demise of the Tang and Han dynasties can be said to be very similar. The Han and Tang dynasties, which were extremely powerful in military strength, were not defeated by foreign enemies, but they went to extinction due to their own reasons. People sigh.

Use history as a guide to know the rise and fall!
As a time traveler, it is naturally impossible for Gao Ming to let these things happen, so after he solved his own crisis, he decided to nip these factors that led to the demise of Datang in the bud.

A few months ago, Gao Ming had already reached a consensus with Li Shimin, and started to suppress the aristocratic family, so far it can be said that he has achieved outstanding results.

Gao Ming believed that, in his hands, these aristocratic families would not be able to get any advantage, and any factional struggle between the aristocratic families was simply a joke.

As for eunuchs intervening in politics, it is even more impossible.

Thanks to Liu Bing's active actions, nearly half of the eunuchs in the palace have been replaced by female men, and the remaining half will be replaced in a few years. By then, there will be no eunuchs in the palace. How to do politics?

Aristocrats and eunuchs are no longer a problem, so Gao Ming set his sights on the last item—soldiers.

In the final analysis, whether it was the Anshi Rebellion or the warlord separatism, the main problem was the soldiers. If the soldiers were loyal to the Tang Dynasty, those warlords who wanted to be the emperor had to ask the soldiers whether they would agree or not.

And what Gao Ming wants to do is very simple. To put it bluntly, it is just a word, that is, to engage in a personality cult.

The people in Datang were very simple, and they remembered whoever treated them well. The governance experience of Jinzhou gave Gao Ming a great inspiration.

Therefore, in Gao Ming's view, instead of telling the people to love the country, it is better to work hard to improve their reputation and appeal.

Building a martyr's cemetery is a way to quickly increase prestige and appeal.

When Gao Ming became Tiance Admiral, he had already launched a wave of "money offensive" to give subsidies to those veterans who had sacrificed their lives for Datang.

The first batch of military subsidies given by Gao Ming was mainly for soldiers during the Wude period, and now almost all of this batch of money has reached the hands of soldiers.

Now, the second batch of military subsidies has also begun to be distributed. These subsidies are mainly distributed to soldiers who participated in the First World War against Turks, Tuyuhun, and Gaochang. Although the amount is not as high as the first batch, many soldiers are ecstatic.

There is hope for following the prince!

The thinking of the Tang soldiers is as simple as that, they will listen to whoever treats them well.

Undoubtedly, the distribution of military subsidies gave Gao Ming a huge reputation. Many soldiers in Datang don't know what Gao Ming looks like, but there is no soldier who doesn't know who General Tiance is!

Even before the conscription this time, many people scrambled to gather in Zhechong Mansion, such a situation had never happened before!

Gao Ming, the Tiance General's appeal, can be seen from this.

The subsidy to the veterans is for the welfare of the living, and the construction of the martyr's cemetery is to give an explanation to the soldiers who died for the Great Tang.

Gao Ming also wants to tell everyone in this way that those soldiers who died fighting for the Tang Dynasty are heroes, and their names will be immortalized in the martyrs cemetery!
After coming out of the Imperial Study Room, Gao Ming took the handbook that Li Shimin gave him, and arrived at the Ministry of War non-stop. From it, he pulled out several large boxes of brochures, all of which were lists of soldiers who died in battle in the past.

Of course, many of them have been lost, but there is no way around that.

Gao Ming didn't have the time to regret it. After getting these brochures, he rushed to the Ministry of Industry again, directly transferred a dozen officials from the Ministry of Industry, and then gave them a death order.

"Within half a year, the Datang Royal Martyrs Cemetery must be completed!"

(End of this chapter)