"Prince, please see, the Silla and Goguryeo people in Liaodong, the Tubo people in the southwest, the Turks in the northwest, and even the Anxi Protectorate in the Western Regions, all of these four directions contain a large amount of troops. Although it seems that our Tang Dynasty has temporarily gained the upper hand, if one direction fails, it may cause a chain reaction. By then, how many troops will our Tang Dynasty need to pacify these places?"

"Actually, our Tang Dynasty had already experienced a great defeat in the past two years, which was the defeat of Dafeichuan. Xue Rengui was His Majesty's beloved general and saved His Majesty's life back then. But even so, this defeat almost made Xue Rengui wisely. Your Majesty also angrily dismissed him, because the impact of Dafeichuan's defeat was too bad. The southwest of the Tang Dynasty lost a large area of ​​territory. The Tubo people were like a knife, pressing against the weakness of the Tang Dynasty, and they could go north to cut off the connection between the Tang Dynasty and the Western Regions at any time!"

Zhang Zong pointed to the map and analyzed to Li Hong that during this period, he was also thinking about the current situation of the Tang Dynasty. As the saying goes, the prosperity and decline, the Tang Dynasty's expansion to the outside world has reached its limit. If the strategy is not changed and blindly expands outward, it may trigger a greater crisis. Wu Meiniang lost a large area of ​​territory after ascending the throne. In addition to her own reasons, it is also related to this general trend.

Li Hong also showed a meditative look at this time. In fact, he knew very well about the situation around the Tang Dynasty. He had discussed it with the ministers around him. Some ministers also put forward similar views, but those ministers were not as direct as Zhang Zong said.

"In your opinion, does the court want to change its external strategies?" After a while, Li Hong looked up at Zhang Zongdao.

"Yes, if you can't eat too much, the court can no longer expand outward, at least it cannot expand like it is now. For the current Tang Dynasty, the most important thing is to digest the occupied land, otherwise there will be chaos in the future!" Zhang Zong said with a solemn look on his face.

The Anshi Rebellion in the prosperous Tang Dynasty was arguing that Li Longji was old and stupid, which led to chaos in the world. However, the fundamental reason was that the territory of the Tang Dynasty was too broad and the court could not effectively govern it. He could only hand over all the military and political power to the Jiedushi who guarded the frontiers. This also made these Jiedushi unable to lose their tails, just like a big tree, with branches and leaves stronger than the trunk, so there would naturally be problems.

"But even if you want to digest the occupied land, how easy is it?" Li Hong suddenly sighed. This kind of thing is easy to say, but it is too difficult to do. Unless it depends on time to waste it little by little, and after a long time, the rule of the Tang Dynasty will be deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and then these occupied lands will naturally be completely included in the Tang Dynasty.

"In fact, no matter how huge an empire is, in the final analysis, the foundation for forming a country is still people. As the saying goes, the land of the country is lost, people and land are lost, people and land are lost, and people and land are lost. Therefore, if you want to rule a piece of land, the most important thing is to rule the hearts of the people on the land, and there are actually many ways to make people submit to you!"

"Zhang Zong, tell me quickly!" Li Hong said anxiously when he heard this.

"If you want to destroy a country, you must first destroy his history. If you want to destroy his clan, you must first destroy his culture!" Zhang Zong smiled and said this famous saying by later generations Gong Zizhen, and then explained his detailed plan.

The Tang Dynasty was still very tolerant of the alien races under its rule. When Li Shimin destroyed the Turkic language, although Turkic writing was banned, this practice was actually more like a revenge on the Turkic people, and in addition, it did not exert a greater influence on the Turkic people.

For example, the Turks still maintain their own customs and their clothes are different from those of the Tang people. There are even many Tang people who like Turkish customs. They usually wear Turkic clothes and combed Turkic hair styles, and even eat the same food as those of the Turkic people.

Even powerful enemies like the Turks were so tolerant of the Tang Dynasty, let alone other small countries and nations that were destroyed. Apart from changing to a ruler, these people lived almost exactly the same as before.

It can be said that the Tang Dynasty today and the United States later have the same problem, that is, the country is like a palette, with clear boundaries between nations and nations, and no signs of fusion can be seen at all.

If the empire is strong, all ethnic groups in the country can live in peace, and even if there are small conflicts, there will be no major problems. However, if the empire declines, conflicts between these ethnic groups will suddenly break out, and may even destroy the entire country.

Therefore, Zhang Zong’s advice to Li Hong was very simple. In fact, it was to do what Qin Shihuang had done back then, with the same track, and the same text. Whether it was coercion or temptation, those aliens had to give up their cultural traditions and instead learn to be a real Tang Dynasty. Only when they recognized their identity as Tang Dynasty from the bottom of their hearts, the land under their feet would truly belong to the Tang Dynasty.

"But even if you have to do this, it will probably take a generation to make them truly be a Tangren, right?" Li Hong frowned and asked after hearing this. If he really decided to do what Qin Shihuang did back then, he would probably not have thought of doing anything else in his life.

"Yes, if you want people to submit, this is the safest and most time-consuming method. However, there is another way to speed up the process, that is, immigration!" Zhang Zong said helplessly at the end. In fact, it is still a bit too early to talk about immigration, but in order to convince Li Hong, he could only propose it in advance.

"This is impossible. Who would give up a comfortable life and go to the unstable frontier to settle down?" Li Hong shook his head without thinking after hearing this. He thought Zhang Zong's analysis was very reasonable before, but the suggestion of immigration was obviously impossible.

"Prince, don't rush to refuse. Take the entire Guanzhong as an example, but there is still excess land to reward the soldiers who have made contributions?" Zhang Zong suddenly asked a question.

As soon as Zhang Zong said something, Li Hong immediately showed a thoughtful look.

The main force of the Tang army was the government soldiers. The so-called government soldiers system was the main feature of the unity of soldiers and farmers. The government soldiers were farming in daily life, used the gaps of farming to train, and prepared their own war horses and weapons during wartime. On the surface, this approach seemed to concentrate all the pressure on the soldiers, and the soldiers should not have much combat effectiveness. However, the Tang Dynasty's military strength was the best in the world, and the government soldiers were even more famous for their daring to fight and being able to fight.
Chapter completed!