At this time, the land of Liaodong was indeed a giant.

On Li Ze's map, the three provinces of Liaodong are very different from the administrative regions in the lifetime he lived in. Although Li Ze also named the three provinces of Liaodong as Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning. At this moment, the Heilongjiang Province governed the area of ​​Hulunbuir and Jilin, which was far away from Holingrad and Liaoning, and it reached Xilinhot. Xu Ziyuan, who was in charge of Ningxia, went deep into the grassland, to Langshan in the north, to Dunhuang in the west, and to Gansu, where Dai Lin was in charge of Gansu, deeply penetrated its tentacles into the territory of Tubo, and the actual control of the area has always arrived at Qinghai Lake.

This is equivalent to the three provinces of Liaodong and Ningxia, which divided the original Inner Mongolia area. What Li Ze said about the Western Regions Protectorate and Liaodong provinces becoming the two powerful arms of the Tang Dynasty was actually meaningful. In the middle of these two big arms, there is a large area, that is Mongolia.

Now the area is in chaos. Zhang Zhongwu has successfully defeated the Khitan Empire for decades and defeated a huge grassland kingdom. Then, Zhang Jia, Xu Ziyuan, and Zhang Zhongwu, who later became a ghost under the sword, still persisted in putting strong pressure on the tribes on the grassland.

A large number of tribes could not resist the power of the Tang army, and they became members of the Tang Empire. However, there were other tribes who were unwilling to fall, so they led their tribes to move outward and stayed away from the control of the Tang army.

Now in this area, hundreds of tribes of all sizes are fighting for the grassland and water sources. Li Ze is unwilling to appear on this land at some point in the future, and then run back to compete with the Tang Dynasty.

Fighting with the grassland tribe has always been the most troublesome thing for the Central Plains dynasty, because it has no city or territory consciousness. If it can be beaten, it will fight and run away if it can't be beaten. It is almost impossible to completely eliminate them.

Li Ze wanted to completely incorporate the area where these two big arms were wrapped around them into the territory of the Tang Empire.

Sending troops to the expedition and suppression of one tribe is obviously thankless. If someone carriages and a roll of tents, they can move their families away. Wherever they go, they will be chased by their families. The army follows others' butts, and logistics is a big problem. If one is not done well, they will bite them back, which means stealing the chicken without losing the rice.

So using economy to slowly corrode and seduce is the best way now.

So far, the most effective thing is the action Li Ze called the Wool Revolution.

In the territory of the Tang Dynasty, a large number of wool textile mills require a massive amount of wool every year, and 90% of these wool comes from the grassland. The herders on the grassland can earn considerable income by raising sheep. As the purchase of wool increases, more and more sheep are raised in tribal temples on the grassland. Now, this is the most stable source of income for these tribes.

Through a wool movement, the Tang Dynasty has gradually controlled the economic lifeline of the entire prairie. It can be said that if the Tang Dynasty stopped acquiring the wool from the prairie, a considerable number of herders would immediately go bankrupt.

A large number of Tang Dynasty caravans carried all kinds of production and living supplies produced by the Tang Dynasty and went deep into the grassland. Among these goods, not only were necessary products for daily necessities, but also many luxury goods such as enjoyment. Living supplies are needed by ordinary herdsmen, and luxury goods are naturally prepared for those tribal nobles.

As the Tang army stopped moving forward, the leaders of these tribes finally stopped their migration and began to stabilize. When survival was no longer a problem, life became the theme.

Enjoyment is always a lifestyle that nobles will never forget. This is also the best way for them to distinguish them from ordinary herders.

This year, the members of the Inner Guard who were mixed in the caravan were surprised to find that the tribal nobles actually started to build cities. Although the so-called cities were like small villages for the Tang Dynasty, this was still a gratifying change for the Tang Dynasty.

As long as you settle down, it will be easy.

As a result, more luxury enjoyment began to enter the grassland, giving these tribal nobles a better life experience and making them like to settle down in a certain place for a long time was the strategy of the Tang Dynasty.

Once these so-called cities that are still very simple and slowly grow into real cities, it will be easier for the Tang Dynasty to harvest them.

The Business Department and the Inner Guard of the Tang Dynasty worked together to help these tribe nobles build their homes.

For Li Ze, once this large area is completely included in his control, the north, which is his foundation, will have a vast strategic buffer zone, which will truly make you rest assured.

The Production and Construction Corps is a brand new thing. Although Li Ze proposed the idea, it is not something that can be done in a short time if it is fully implemented.

So after the first proposed this idea, after the three governors of the three provinces of Liaodong and Xue Chong, the general of the military commander stationed in Liaodong, arrived in Chang'an, Li Ze once again held a meeting to discuss the possibility of implementation of this idea.

In addition to Zhang Hui, Gongsun Changming also attended this meeting, including Li Anmin from the Ministry of War, Xia He from the Ministry of Revenue, Han Qi, the Governor of Heilongjiang Province, Bao Hui, the Governor of Jilin Province, Wang Wenshu, the Governor of Liaolin Province, and Xue Chong, the General of Zuo Jinwu.

"Today we are just discussing a certain possibility, not a decision." Li Ze looked at the officials and said, "Everyone talks about their own opinions and the positive and negative sides of this matter. Xue Chong, you are the absolute protagonist of this meeting, you can talk about it first!"

To convert the entire Zuo Jinwu Guard tens of thousands of troops into a construction corps is equivalent to converting it from a military group to a quasi-military organization. In the foreseeable future, its military attributes will inevitably fade gradually over time. This is equivalent to depriving Xue Chong of his military command, so Li Ze asked Xue Chong to say first.

Xue Chong looked at the people in the room and said, "Li Xiang, first of all, I will express my opinion. No matter what conclusion I came to at the end of this meeting, I, Xue Chong, absolutely support and support me. Whether as the General of the Zuo Jinwu Guard, the Chief of the Production and Construction Corps, or when I returned to Chang'an, Xue Chong had no complaints and would do his best to do his own thing."

Li Ze applauded gently: "Everyone, General Xue is noble and honest, and can be regarded as a model for soldiers."

Everyone applauded with Li Ze.

In fact, among the 12 guards of the Tang Dynasty, Xue Chong's foundation was the weakest, and he had another enemy, that is Xue Ping, the leader of the Western Regions Protectorate. Although both of them were from the Xue family, they were truly irreconcilable enemies. Compared with Xue Ping's strong foundation, Xue Chong had no other capital to fight against Xue Ping except to closely rely on Li Ze, so no matter what decision Li Ze made, Xue Chong had no second choice except to obey.

The military system of the Tang Dynasty has already determined that although he was the general of the Zuo Jinwu Guard and led tens of thousands of people, the imperial court really wanted to replace him, but it was just a piece of light paper.

"However, Li Xiang, the 50,000 troops of the Left Jinwu Guard are now the only regular army in the entire Liaodong provinces. If they are all transformed into production and construction corps, there will be no deterrent force in the three northeastern provinces. I wonder if this is inappropriate? After all, those grass tribes still have certain strength." Xue Chong continued.

Li Anmin took over the conversation and said, "Yesterday, after I received a notice from the Secretary-General on this matter, I discussed this matter thoroughly with my colleagues in the Staff Office of the Ministry of War. We believe that today's three provinces of Liaodong have no longer existed, Goryeo has completely surrendered to us, and there is no threat in this direction. The only threat is from some tribes on the prairie. And maintaining a deterrence against these tribes does not require a huge legion. What's more, the Zuo Jinwu Guard is still a corps with infantry as the main force. We only need to be in one cavalry."

"What are the number of this cavalry? Where do you need to be stationed?" Li Ze asked.

Li Anmin said: "Li Xiang, we have preliminary estimates that only a cavalry with about 3,000 people is needed to station each in Huolingol and Xilinhot, which is enough to shock the grassland troops."

"Is this cavalry drawn from the Zuo Jinwu cavalry?" Li Ze continued.

"The Ministry of War's opinion is to transfer Li De's rangers over." Li Anmin said: "Li De's 5,000 rangers are still in Zhejiang, and Zhejiang does not need this cavalry. When our troops were too short, we had to let them station in Zhejiang to prevent Ronghong, Fujian. Now we have freed up our hands. It is a waste to throw such a powerful ranger in the south. The most suitable place for them is the Great Prairie. Li De and his officers are also more adaptable to the battles in places like the Great Prairie."

"Is five thousand people enough?"

"Of course it is not enough." Li Anmin said: "So we suggest that from the Zuo Jinwu cavalry, select 3,000 to 5,000 cavalry, join Li De's rangers, and be commanded by Li De. In the future, if you need to march into the grassland to clear the remnants of those tribes who do not accept the king's transformation, you only need the cavalry to attack. If you really have any abnormal movement, Zhang Jia's troops and the Western Regions garrison can also attack from another direction."

"What do you think Xue Chong?"

Xue Chong nodded: "General Li De is experienced, I have no objection."
Chapter completed!