Northern Dynasties

Chapter 1371: The Holy Emperor's Western Tour
In the fifth year of the Kaihuang reign of the Tang Dynasty, as the world was unified again, the country began to stop fighting and recuperate. After only a few years, the national strength was flourishing, people's livelihood and all industries were prosperous, and the entire empire was completely renewed.

After several years of recuperation, His Majesty the Emperor was eager to take action, and announced at a court meeting that he would tour Longyou and Hexi in the west this autumn, and return to visit his homeland of Xiliang.

Li Tai made this decision not on a whim, but after a relatively long period of consideration.

After the Tang Empire completed its internal unification and integration, in addition to recuperating and strengthening itself, the next focus was naturally to influence and change the surrounding borders so that both the internal and external environments could ensure that the new empire continued to grow and develop.

There are still many disturbances and hidden dangers around the Tang Dynasty, which have brought about negative impacts on the development of the Tang Dynasty and border security. Although the Tang Dynasty has been unified, it still needs to avoid attacking from all sides and using troops everywhere.

Based on the principle of proceeding step by step and gradually, Li Tai chose to prioritize solving the problems in the west.

On the one hand, Longyou is most closely connected with Guanzhong. Once there is any mistake in Longyou, it will directly shake the stability of Guanzhong. Before Li Tai officially launched a decisive battle with Northern Qi, he also chose to clean up the situation in Longyou first, especially focusing on attacking Tuyuhun in the west. After ensuring the stability of the western border, he sent troops eastward.

On the other hand, the situation in the western region is the most complex and changeable, and the future game environment is also quite treacherous, with various challenges emerging one after another. For example, the current Tuyuhun and Turks, and the future Tubo and Dashi, will successively join the competition for the Western Regions and even Longyou and Hexi in the Tang Dynasty.

Another point is that in the past few years, the personnel interaction between the Tang Dynasty and the Western Regions has been strengthened, whether it is private trade or envoy exchanges between the regimes. Many Western Region states sent envoys to the Tang Dynasty in the hope of establishing friendly relations. Even the Western Turks, who had little contact with the Tang Dynasty, sent envoys to the court, but their purpose was not so friendly.

In short, as the Tang Dynasty becomes stronger and stronger, the surrounding forces need to pay more attention to the interaction with the Tang Dynasty and the establishment and maintenance of diplomatic relations. If there is no such vigilance, it is destined to be eliminated by the times.

There are many forces from Longyou to the west and the situation is quite complicated. It is difficult to implement all plans smoothly simply by relying on remote control by the Chang'an court, and there is no guarantee of the final results.

Therefore, Li Tai planned to go on a tour in person, so that he could take a first-hand look at the border situation and make some personnel arrangements directly. Of course, there was also an important intention, which was to show off his military power and deploy troops on the border to deter villains.

The court attached great importance to the Emperor's tour. The decision was announced at a court meeting in midsummer, and various personnel preparations were carried out in the following months.

First of all, the troops accompanying His Majesty the Emperor on the tour are tentatively planned to gather 100,000 soldiers in Guanzhong, who will go west through Longguan and enter Longyou. Then the Longyou divisions and brigades will also have to gather about 80,000 to 100,000 people. It is planned that the number of troops that will arrive in Hexi will reach 200,000.

Although the Tang Dynasty had also mobilized tens of thousands of troops, all of them were done within its homeland. Even the Northern Qi and Southern Chen dynasties, although they were foreign countries at the time, had relatively mature logistical supply routes to rely on for their expeditions and transfers.

However, this time the journey from Guanzhong all the way through Longyou to Hexi, and even to the farther Western Regions, is thousands of miles long, and most of them are relatively unfamiliar areas with no mature military routes and logistical supplies to rely on. Therefore, this is also a very big test for the Tang Dynasty.

Such a test is inevitable, because if the Tang Dynasty wants to firmly control Longyou and Hexi and further expand into the Western Regions, then simple diplomatic or trade means can only play an auxiliary role.

The Tang Dynasty must demonstrate its ability to send powerful troops into the Western Regions and to continue to fight in order to deter the villains along the way and the Western Regions. Otherwise, no matter how powerful the Tang Dynasty is, it will not be enough to deter those unruly forces.

After this decision was announced, envoys set out to various places in Longyou to investigate the road conditions and personnel distribution along the way and to notify various forces. At the same time, the country was also busy preparing personnel and supplies.

After the unification was completed, internal friction was gradually reduced, especially after the various huge consumption caused by the war disappeared, agricultural production in various places was also recovering rapidly. Although the Tang Dynasty had repeatedly reduced rents and taxes in various places in the past few years, a large amount of wealth and materials had accumulated in the treasury. Even the materials needed for this tour did not need to be transported in large quantities from various places in Guandong. The local material reserves in Guanzhong alone were enough to maintain them.

As the journey was long, after the personnel and supplies had arrived, the troops began to set out one after another when the heat of late summer and early autumn had not yet subsided. In addition to the troops that would follow Li Tai directly to Longyou, Zhuguo He Ruo Dun would also lead 10,000 elite cavalrymen north out of Yinshan Mountain and join the Turkic Khan Shetu to advance westward along the southern desert to cooperate with this western tour.

Before leaving, Li Tai called back his two brothers, Li Chao and Li Ao, who were stationed in Luoyang and Taiyuan respectively. Li Chao stayed in the capital as the Minister of State Affairs to handle civil and military affairs, while Li Ao accompanied him on the tour to the west. The rest of the entourage were mostly young and strong men in the country. In early autumn, the group of people marched west along the Wei River and headed straight for Longshan. The last time Li Tai went west through Longguan, he went to Qinzhou to serve as an official of his father-in-law Dugu Xin. Now he set foot on this old journey again, his status and position were completely different, and for a moment he felt as if he was in another world.

When the emperor arrived at Longguan, a group of Longyou officials and Diqiang chieftains were already waiting there. Qinzhou Governor Lu Yan led a group of civil and military officials to welcome him at the border: "After hearing the news, we have been looking forward to your arrival day and night. Today, we finally see your carriage. We are overjoyed!"

As he spoke, Lu Yan ignored the dust on the road and went straight forward to greet him. Because he was in the front and the road was covered with sand, the dust was not serious, but the bodies of his subordinates and the Hu chiefs following behind him were all submerged in a cloud of dust.

"No need to be polite, my friends. You have worked hard to protect the land and herd the people. The peace in Longbian and the harmony among the people are all due to your efforts. I am here to commend you for your achievements and admonish you for your mistakes!"

Li Tai couldn't help but feel happy when he saw this scene. He immediately waved his hand to signal these people to get up quickly without any formalities and stop lying on the ground like a vacuum cleaner.

In recent years, he has occasionally made short trips, especially between the eastern capital Luoyang and the western capital Chang'an, and he has discovered a phenomenon: the more local officials appear, the more excited and enthusiastic they are when they see the emperor. Perhaps they have been away from the center of power for too long, and when they see the emperor in person, they can't help but become extremely excited.

It seemed like when Lu Yan was an official in the court before, his behavior and responses were very decent. However, this time when he was appointed as the governor of Qinzhou and led the state's subjects to welcome the emperor, when he stood up without any formalities, there were still some tears mixed with dust on his face, which looked a little funny.

As the first stop of the emperor's western tour in Longyou, Qinzhou was well prepared. There were supply points for horses and men at every distance along the way from Longguan to the west. Each supply point was enough to accommodate tens of thousands of people to rest and eat at the same time. After this preparation to welcome the emperor, when the divisions and brigades were needed to coordinate the war next year, these were naturally valuable experiences.

After a good reception in Qinzhou, the large group of people followed the emperor and arrived at Qinzhou's capital Tianshui. There were even more people outside Tianshui City to welcome him. In the wilderness on the north bank of the Wei River in the east of the city, tens of thousands of people gathered here and waited eagerly. When they saw the flags of the emperor's guard from afar, some people couldn't help but shout loudly: "Welcome to the Supreme, long live our emperor!"

Li Tai had been a governor of Tianshui before, and had a special feeling for this place. When he was about to arrive at Tianshui City, he got off the imperial chariot and rode a horse. When he saw the warm welcome from the people of Tianshui County, he was overwhelmed with emotion. He waved to the crowd and shouted, "Old men of this county, do you still remember the rules that Li Tai had imposed in the past?"

The people outside the city were already very enthusiastic. When they heard the emperor's call, they became even more excited and shouted again and again: "The emperor is visiting the old city. The people of the county are honored!"

Amid the cheers of the masses, the imperial carriage slowly entered the city. Even after the guard of honor disappeared from sight, the people gathered outside the city were still reluctant to disperse.

Their enthusiasm was soon rewarded. Soon after the emperor entered the prefecture, an envoy holding the Supreme Imperial Edict climbed to the top of the Tianshui City Tower and announced that the land rent and tax collection of Tianshui County was exempted. The reason why the personal income tax was retained was that the emperor's western tour this year also required sufficient civilian manpower to assist the army when entering and leaving the country. The exemption of the collection of in-kind goods was to try to keep people's livelihood from being affected by this tour.

When the people wandering outside the city learned about this, they immediately cheered and sang and danced in the suburbs to express their excitement and joy.

The people of the county were exempted from rent and taxes, and naturally the state officials were also rewarded. Because the Qinzhou government had done a good job in responding to the emperor's visit, it granted a one-year performance review, and all the officials who had performed above average were directly awarded a rank of official.

Officials' promotion, demotion and demotion usually take place after their term of office has expired. This time, the emperor's personal visit saved them a year or even several years of hard work, so naturally the people were excited and thanked the emperor repeatedly.

After the rewards and honors were given, the next step was naturally to investigate and understand the internal military and political affairs.

Qinzhou, as the first town heading west and the gateway between Guanzhong and Long, is of great significance to the management of the entire Longyou and Hexi regions. Therefore, the politics of this area will directly affect the implementation of the future western strategy, and is one of the focuses of this western tour.

In addition to basic military and political affairs, there is also a major commercial town in this area, Sifang City, which was founded by Li Tai himself last year and was also the focus of his attention during this western tour. So after the banquet to welcome the emperor, Li Tai couldn't wait to take a break to relieve the fatigue of the journey, so he summoned the relevant officials to the imperial court for questioning.