Datang Nongsheng

Chapter 553 International Borrowing
After meeting with Li Shimin and the others, Sun Xiangfu first expressed his opinion on the matter of Byzantium and the Arab tribal alliance, "Your Majesty, the emergence of any big country in the West is not in the interests of our Tang Dynasty, especially the religious theocracy." s country."

Li Shimin was taken aback when he heard the words, and asked, "Why did Zhengming say that?"

Sun Xiangfu replied, "First of all, this religious culture will hinder the spread of our Central Plains culture."

Sun Xiangfu had already made this point clear to Li Shimin and the ministers when he talked about the Pyu country, so he didn't need to explain it any further.

In fact, when Li Shimin heard that there was a Byzantine empire in the West, his instinctive reaction was to help that tribal alliance and overthrow it, because he did not allow other powerful empires to exist in this world.

Now, after being reminded by Sun Xiangfu, he started to think rationally from a political point of view.

Seeing Li Shimin nodded, Sun Xiangfu glanced at Ma Zhou with a relaxed expression, and knew that he must have had his own thinking in this regard. In terms of political wisdom, he didn't think he was better than someone who had actually been to the West. Ma Zhou was more insightful, and said, "As for other aspects, I believe Ma Shilang will have corresponding suggestions for His Majesty."

Seeing that Sun Xiangfu threw the question to himself again, Ma Zhou was unambiguous and continued, "Master Sun is right. The emergence of any powerful country in the West is not in line with the interests of our Tang Dynasty. a conclusion of.

In various parts of the West, the smaller the country, the smaller the population, and the weaker the country, the more obedient it is to my Tang Dynasty. However, a country as powerful as the Byzantine Empire would ignore my Tang Dynasty. If it weren't for them Impacted by the Muhammad tribal alliance, they lost the battle, and they even wanted us to establish diplomatic relations with them as a subject. "

At the beginning of the sixth century, the strength of the Byzantine Empire was definitely the biggest brother in the world. In the early days of Li Tang's founding, in terms of territory, population, and military strength, it could only rank third at most, not as good as having 2000 million people. The population of the Persian Empire, the Sassanian Dynasty, and the Byzantine Empire, which has a population of more than 3000 million, are two or three times lower.

However, things are different now. After the expansion of the territory of the Tang Dynasty, the population reached 3000 million, almost catching up with the Byzantine Empire, and far surpassing the Sasanian Dynasty in Persia, which was already in decline.

After the establishment of the Anxi Metropolitan Protectorate, the territory of the Tang Dynasty and the radiating scope of the power of this western power are already close at hand. Disputes in Central Asia have loomed, because many small countries that originally surrendered to the Byzantine Empire , have begun to have a tendency to fall to Datang.

There is no way, the Tang Dynasty is rich, and the policy basically does not exploit the areas under its rule. However, the Byzantine Empire, which has been fighting with Persia every year, has extorted violently from its vassal states because of its own emptiness.

"So, the minister came back early to remind His Majesty not to easily express his position among these Western forces. Even, to give some support to Persia, which is weaker among them. By the way, this time, the Crown Prince of Persia, Yi Siqi, will also Go to Dingxiang to meet His Majesty."

Li Shimin is no stranger to Persia, because since the founding of the Tang Dynasty, Persia and Datang have had frequent business contacts. However, the history of Datang has changed, but the history of Persia has not changed much. In order to rob all the property of the Byzantine Empire and repay the military expenses for several years, it only retained the original land, and the treasury was so empty that the rats could be starved to death. At this weakest time, they were attacked by the Arabs, and most of the land was lost. , the population has shrunk by more than half.

In history, the two tigers of Persia and Byzantium competed, and finally the Arabs took advantage of it, first destroyed Persia, and then defeated Byzantium, which was in decline, and became the second empire after the prosperous Tang Dynasty.

Now, due to the early rise of Datang, Persia is even more in a dilemma.

Because Cheng Zhijie took over the Western Turks and incorporated the territories of more than a dozen countries in the west in one fell swoop. After the establishment of the Anxi Dadu Protectorate, the territory of the original Tocharian Kingdom has been owned by the Tang Dynasty. This is equivalent to the border of thousands of miles behind Persia. It directly borders Datang, and what's more terrible is that Datang also sent a Zhechong Mansion's troops to station there.

Those were [-] well-equipped Tang troops. Not to mention a surprise attack, even if they went to the mainland of Persia openly, with the current national strength of Persia, they could not resist the attack of this army at all.

Therefore, they sent the good credentials to Datang a long time ago. When the mission of Datang passed through Persia, they received the mission with the highest standard in the country, and made up their minds to embrace Datang's thigh. , No hold!If Tang Jun fought with the Arabs left and right, Persia would die in an instant.

"Do you love me?"

Sun Xiangfu agreed with Ma Zhou's idea of ​​supporting Persia so that there would be a buffer between the Tang Dynasty and the Arabs and the Byzantine Empire. , has been basically stable, but the west side is the only hidden danger. However, the west side has a vast territory and folk customs, which are very different from those in the Central Plains. It will not happen overnight if you want to run it. Years, or even 20 years of local development, is more in line with the actual situation.

Of course, how to support, we can have many means of operation. The reason why Persia cannot resist the Arab attacks is not because of how powerful the Arabs are, but because the Persian treasury is empty and the food and grass are insufficient. If we are here to give Persia has borrowed some money. If it is just to defend the soil, I think the Persians should still be able to do it. "

After all, the Arabs are a newly unified regime. They waged two-front wars with the Byzantine Empire and the Persian Empire, relying on the support of fanatical beliefs. In fact, it was relatively difficult to fight. Historically, they destroyed Persia after more than ten years. It was decades later that it posed a threat to Datang.

Now, the Tang Dynasty has reached the territory of the heyday of the Tang Dynasty decades ahead of schedule, and the economy has surpassed the heyday of the Tang Dynasty. When the interior is further consolidated and the pace of external expansion begins again, these dissatisfaction will be easily dismissed. sweeping.

"Borrowing? Borrowing between countries?"

"Yes! As our Great Tang's products become more and more abundant, it is only reasonable to use them in useful places."

Sun Xiangfu simply said something, which immediately made the ministers working in Shanyang suddenly realize that there are tens of millions of acres of fertile land around Dingxiang and Shanyang, Guangbei is close to Tai'an in the west, and tens of millions of acres in the two counties of Shangqi Mu of land will also be preliminarily developed this year. At that time, the output of agriculture and animal husbandry will have a huge increase. When the reform of farming technology in Datang is gradually advancing and the output is increasing, how can these When the output exerts its due value, it is a technical work.

Low grain prices will hurt farmers. The ministers all understand this truth. If the surplus grains of the Tang Dynasty are exported to Persia, it can effectively alleviate the possible overcapacity in the future, and at the same time make this part The food that Datang itself could not consume played a strong economic role.

If you want to borrow money, you must charge some interest. You don't need Sun Xiangfu to explain the truth clearly. Ma Zhou thought of a mortgage loan strategy, and said, "Your Majesty, I think that Master Sun is right. We You can promise to lend money to Persia to tide over the difficulties, but you must negotiate an interest rate with them and sign a mortgage agreement.

That is, they borrow money from us, and we charge them interest. They need to return us the corresponding money and interest according to the agreed time. Of course, because they borrow money from us, we will release certain grain export controls to them, so that They can use the loan money to purchase food in our Datang, so that they can basically tide over the difficulties.And if you can't repay it on time, you need to assign the territory of the mortgage loan to us to pay off the debt. "

"What if they don't pay back the debt?"

Cheng Yaojin, as the governor of Anxi, is naturally most concerned about the affairs in the west, and even he has long been eyeing the neighboring countries because he has a lot of sons, and the military power of the Tang Dynasty is now strong, military exploits are easy to earn, and greed is not enough He naturally wanted to give all his sons a title.

"Don't worry about that. They don't have the confidence to offend my Tang Dynasty by not repaying their debts. Besides, with our current strength, are you still worried that they will not repay their debts?" Ma Zhou turned to Cheng Yaojin and replied.

"Hahaha, it's better if you don't pay it back! It's just that the old man can raise his troops to fight there."

For such things as lending money and collecting money, Cheng Yaojin, a ruffian, is very happy to do it. Moreover, as long as troops are sent to the west, he must be the guardian of Anxi Dadu. I feel like playing alone, but it’s not too good for him.

"I also think that Ma Shilang's plan is feasible. In addition, I suggest that the next step is to move the military core of the imperial court to the west. Every year, more than [-]% of the soldiers will be transferred to the Anxi Metropolitan Protectorate for rotation. Training, at least, is not allowed This time, the troops from Tubo and Piao Kingdom were not discovered until they walked from the west to the territory of Beifang." Li Jing, who seldom expresses opinions on political affairs, said.

He was the one who led the expedition through the Western Regions a few years ago, and he knew more about the chaos in the Western Regions than most of the people present, and he had a more specific understanding of the power of the Byzantine Empire.

If Datang continues to follow the current pace of development, it will inevitably compete with Western forces.

"My minister seconded that most of our soldiers in the Tang Dynasty have turned to professionalization. We only need to keep a certain amount of defensive troops in the mainland. Most of the sergeants should be transferred to the border to take turns to be on duty and do adaptive training to avoid long-term absences. There is a decline in combat power."

When it comes to military matters, Du Ruhui, Minister of the Ministry of War who has returned to his post, naturally wants to say a few words. A comfortable life can easily turn soldiers into veteran soldiers. This is a very dangerous thing. We need to be more adaptable to expeditionary operations. A wise man like him can naturally see the future development direction clearly.

(End of this chapter)