Carefree Prince In Tang Dynasty

Li Dao said: "In the future, His Majesty will definitely set up a Protectorate in Turks and send people there to control Turks. However, relying on these alone is not enough to completely control Turks. The real key is to grasp the lifeline of Turks. If The food the Turks eat comes from my Tang Dynasty, the clothes they wear also come from my Tang Dynasty, and all the pots and pans they cook and eat come from my Tang Dynasty. So, as long as we don’t give them armor and weapons, what will they use to rebel? ?”

Li Shimin fell into deep thought.

"There are no suitable pastures in the Tang Dynasty. Beef and mutton are very expensive, but in Turkic, there are grasslands everywhere. It can be said that cattle and sheep are underestimated by wind and grass. What we have to do is to turn the Turkic people into my Tang Dynasty. Herdsmen, providing Datang with cattle, sheep and a steady stream of excellent war horses."

In fact, Li Xin's thinking is not too complicated. It is to change the industrial structure of the Turkic people and liberate them from aggressive nomadic farming to an agriculture closer to animal husbandry. In a sense, it is quite appropriate to use "domestication" to describe this process.

Datang could provide the Turks with excess food, handmade products including tea and silk, and exchange them for a large number of war horses, cattle and sheep. Turks were under the control of their Khan at the beginning, and war horses were an important strategic resource. Export is prohibited. Now that the Turks have been conquered by the Tang Dynasty, it is no longer a matter for them to decide whether to export war horses.

If this transaction is successful, the Turkic economy will become extremely dependent on Datang, and they will naturally be unable to rebel.

Today's Turks mainly focus on herding horses, which is too threatening. What Li Xin wants to do is to guide this tendency to the direction of cattle and sheep. As an important strategic resource in the era of cold weapons, war horses are managed and raised by the imperial court. In this way, even if the Turkic people wanted to rebel, they would have no use for war horses. Could it be that they rode cattle and sheep to fight?

As for how to achieve such a transformation, Li Xinxin already has a rough plan, and the key to this plan is wool.

At present, the main value of cattle and sheep is to kill and eat meat. However, Li Xin clearly knew that their value did not stop there, especially the sheep. If their wool can be spun into threads and made into light and thin sweaters that can keep out the cold, there will be another layer of great economic benefits.

The Turkic people raised sheep, and the Tang people bought sheep. Everyone is happy and happy, and they will always be friends. Is there anything wrong with it?

Li Xin roughly stated these thoughts. Li Shimin nodded frequently. He can fully understand Li Xin's meaning, which is to let the Turkic people depend on the Tang Dynasty for their existence, instead of relying entirely on repression like the previous dynasties.

Authority can only be maintained for a while, but the benefits are different. As long as the benefits are not interrupted, this dependence will not be interrupted.

It has to be said that such a new set of theories gave Li Shimin hope. Although he didn't say it clearly, he knew that his visit to Chu Palace today was not in vain.

"However, can wool really be spun into thread?" Li Shimin asked with some doubts. From Li Xin's mouth, this seems to be a very easy thing, but Li Shimin has lived for so many years, and he has never heard of such a thing. After all, wool is short and miscellaneous, and the method of silk spinning cannot be applied.