The Xuanfu Envoy has now become a local rank of Tang Dynasty officials and is no longer a temporary dispatch in the past. 3. The Xuanfu Envoy is in charge of a place at the earliest, and he is no longer in charge of everything except for being unable to command troops.

The regular establishment of the Xuanfu envoy was because the territory of the Tang Dynasty was getting bigger and bigger now. Although the imperial court had merged many states, the Tang Dynasty still had more than 300 prefectures and more than 1,000 counties. It was too heavy to directly command the more than 300 local prefectures by the center. And temporary dispatch and inspections were difficult to change this situation.

So the road-level administration was finally established and stabilized. In the past two years, it has been continuously split and newly established. At the beginning, the Fifteen Roads of the Tang Dynasty have now been more than twenty roads. Especially in the areas south of the Yangtze River, there were only a total of Jiangnan, Lingnan, Qianzhong, and Jiannan. But now, it has become Jiangdong, Jiangxi, Jiangnan, eastern Zhejiang, western Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guangnan, Vietnam, Fujian, Qianzhong, Jianbei, Jiannan, Yunnan, Hunan and other 16 roads.

Each branch has the General Leader of the Xuanfu Envoy, and there are three ranks and three ranks below. Each rank and the officials of each rank are all in a complete system.

In the past, the Tang Dynasty had only two-level systems of prefectures and counties. The township level was actually empty, and almost all local autonomy was locally governed. But now, the township level was directly selected by the government, and township offices and police stations were established. Even in townships with a large population and a street market were converted into towns.

The imperial court's control over local areas was unprecedentedly strengthened.

However, the official position given to Li Chao by Li Shimin was the ambassador of the Southwest Xuanfu Pacification and Disposal. The envoy of Xuanwei Pacification was originally just a temporary special mission, with a duty to inspect local areas and appease officials and people. Now it has evolved into a local chief.

As for additional disposal, it means that it also has the position of military commander. However, because Li Chao is the ambassador of the Southwest Xuanwei to appease the disposal, this is quite special. The southwest is not any of the various paths set up by the court now.

Therefore, this southwest is more general.

To put it in a bigger way, then the six paths of Guangnan, Vietnam, Yunnan, and even Hunan, Jiannan are considered to be southwest. But to put it in a smaller way, this southwest is just places such as Li Chao's Yue Kingdom and Nanzhao that were designated as Yunnan paths by the court.

But the emperor did not say it clearly, so Li Chao did not ask. In short, this is a title that can be big or small, depending on the specific situation.

After the imperial court had already abolished the local governor and had no military commander, Li Chao brought a disposal title. At critical moments, he could deal with the local soldiers and horses at the right time. However, if the army was famous, otherwise he would be investigated later, and Li Chao would not be able to bear the serious crime of being able to mobilize troops without any reason.

"Your Majesty, Yueguo is high and densely forested, and is now controlled by Lu Zhenla. There are all high and dense forests, and the climate is very different from the Central Plains. There are many poisonous snakes, insects and ants, and malaria is rampant. I plan to take the rainy season to transport troops along the river. Taking advantage of the rainy season that Zhenla's army is difficult to support, defeat the troops in Yue, recover the place, and then consolidate it."

"You always have a plan, and the plan is always excellent." Li Shimin leaned on the back of the chair and said to Li Chao in admiration, "You lead troops to fight, just as high as your cooking level, you can always make new achievements, which is unexpected. You are an expert, and I am far inferior to you, so you can do whatever you can fight, and I will follow you."

Li Chao was very happy with the emperor's support, and Li Shimin sometimes had this good point.

"Your Majesty, I am going to go to Liaodong first and take down Beisha City. Last time, I have figured out the background of Beisha City in southern Liaoning. Although there are 5,000 troops, they are not elite and have insufficient morale. If it weren't for the chaos in Hanjing last time, I would have taken down Beisha City. This time I plan to go to Liaonan first and take down Beisha City directly."

Beisha City is one of the most important fortresses and fortresses in Goguryeo in southern Liaoning, and it is also a key point on the southernmost point of its entire Liaohe River defense line.

Of course, he has always been a threat to the Shilla route in Dengzhou.

Li Shimin pinched his chin and thought about the geographical situation of Liaodong. He knew that if the Tang Dynasty wanted to attack Liao in an all-round way, it would inevitably break through the Liaohe River defense line. However, under Li Chao's plan, the Goguryeo people were building a thousand-mile-long mountain city joint defense line on the Liaohe River line with all their might, called the Goguryeo Liaodong Great Wall.

It is indeed very difficult to build this line of defense and attack head-on. Therefore, the imperial court had already made a strategic offensive plan, which was to bypass this line of defense and land from southern Liaoning.

In addition, two more troops were landing directly at the Yalu River estuary, cutting off the north and south of Goguryeo. Then, they landed in Pyongyang, the northern part of the Sanhan Peninsula, and directly attacked their capital.

Such a plan is actually a bit dangerous, because directly crossing the Liaodong defense line, the Tang army's logistics supply will be very dangerous. If it cannot be taken down quickly, then the supply will be a big problem.

If they can take down Beisha City, fight from south to north, and attack from both sides of the Great Wall defense line of Goguryeo, it will be different. They can even land at the mouth of the Yalu River and force the Goguryeo people to withdraw defense from Liaodong to return to the aid, and then they can come to a besiege to fight the aid.

"Can three thousand people break the Beisha City?" Li Shimin asked.

"Plusty boats from the noble families are enough."

"Since that's the case, then you go." Li Shimin smiled, "As the preface, I have already granted the Li family in southern Liaoning. If you conquer Beisha City, then the entire Liaoning land will belong to your Li family. By then, all the mines, land, and taxes in southern Liaoning can enjoy one-third."

"Thank you, Your Majesty."

One third, Li Chao was already very satisfied.

"Wenyuan, how many people are there on your Liuqiu Island now?" the emperor suddenly asked Liuqiu.

Li Chao did not hide it and said truthfully, "It has a population of about 20,000. It is currently being reclaimed on the west side of the central and western part of the island. The first manor has been built. There is a good natural port there, which can prevent wind and have a deep water level, which is more convenient."

"Didn't Shanyi come to attack on the island?"

"The place where we are now settled is flat land, there are some flat land barbarians there. These people are a little more open-minded and they have had transactions with outsiders. Therefore, we have no conflict yet!"

This surprised Li Shimin a little.

Li Chao immediately explained in detail that the landing point that Li Chao chose was where the Dutch people landed on the treasure island in later generations, which was the area of ​​Taichung's Dazhong. Li Chao's people had conducted many inspections on the coast of the treasure island, and there were good ports here, followed by plains here, which were very close to Fujian, and Penghu was a good supply point.

Instead of directly landing on Baodao with great fanfare, Li Chao first built a port in Penghu, built a warehouse, stored a lot of supplies, and even built a castle there.

After making enough preparations, I crossed to Baogang and landed in Taichung.

As soon as the fleet passed, there were indigenous people on the flat ground. These indigenous people were relatively civilized and had traded with passing merchant ships.

Li Chao's crew first gave the natives a lot of cloth, silk and other goods, and then asked them to buy a piece of land to rest. The natives accepted a lot of commercial goods, so the Li family's fleet was able to dock here and had time to build a fortress calmly. After a while, the natives found that the ship had not left and built a house fortress here. They were very dissatisfied and came to question it.

The Li family directly took out more commercial goods and proposed to buy all the nearby large areas. They also proposed that they could trade with the indigenous people for a long time in the future and took out the price of the materials for the transaction. The conditions were very good. The indigenous people happily agreed and signed an agreement.

So, more people came to Li Jiayun and began to build Tunzhuang in the places they bought, plant grain and sugarcane, and build sugar-pressing workshops.

From last year to now, the Li family has been in Taichung for almost a year. The castle has been built more solidly and the port has been built better. At the same time, more than a dozen immigrant trench castles have been built.

We get along well with the indigenous people. The two sides trade frequently and are still on a honeymoon and have no conflicts.

Li Shimin was very surprised when he heard this.

"Didn't I hear you say you want to conquer Liu Qiu and capture the entire island?"

Li Chao nodded. Of course, the Li family plans to occupy the entire island, but you can take it slowly if you occupy the entire island. After all, Liuqiu Island is very large, not a small island that Li Shimin imagined.

His plan was to first establish a foothold on the island, build fortresses, and build ports, and at the same time immigrate to build tung villages, farms, etc. As for the natives, they would first trade, and then they would stir up these plain barbarians to oppose and attack each other. Originally, there were tribes on the island, and headhunting customs were spread among the tribes and were hostile to each other.

When the natives were accustomed to trading with the Li family and discovered various benefits and conveniences, they were sure to be willing to obtain more goods.

If the Li family proposes to trade goods with the barbarians in the mountains, they will be willing to do so. With this time, the Li family can understand the mountains, rivers, tribal relations and other aspects of the entire treasure island more clearly.

Maybe in the future, a native mercenary or some natives who are pro-Li family can be found.

Li Shimin thought that Li Chao did this because the Shanyi was powerful and the Li family's slave hunting team was not strong enough, so he did so. He just shook his head and smiled, "Be careful of these Shanyi, be careful of them, be careful that they are ungrateful wolves who are not familiar with them."

"Thank you for your reminder."

The king and his ministers were full, and Li Chao called the waiter to remove the leftovers. The waiter brought a fruit plate and a pot of new tea.

"Fumanlou is indeed one of the best restaurants in Hanjing. There are so many fresh fruits in this first month of the year," said Li Shimin.

Li Chaoze smiled and said, "But the price is not cheap either."

"Hahaha, you get what you pay for, I understand." After raising a piece of watermelon, Li Shimin ate it with relish. "Wenyuan, what do you think about Goguryeo? Is it suitable to send troops this year?"

Last year, the emperor personally conquered the Western Regions and completely destroyed the Turks. Now the court has controlled the south of the Tianshan Mountains and the north of the Tianshan Mountains Mohedu, and other forces are still active in that area with the remaining forces. But the overall situation has been settled, and with Niu Jinda in the Tianshan Mountains, Li Shimin is relieved. Once the four Anxi towns are built, the Western Regions will be safer.

Now Li Shimin has set his sights on Liaodong.

"Your Majesty, I think that the conquest of Goguryeo is not in a hurry, and the comprehensive conquest of Liao should be at least five years later. Before that, the court had to send small groups of troops to plunder and harass the coastal areas, and add more attacks and publicity, so naturally Goguryeo was forced to desperately build the Liaodong Great Wall. In five years, Goguryeo would be defeated without attacking."

Five years, Li Shimin felt it was a bit long.
Chapter completed!