Li Longji didn't know why, but especially favored An Lushan. Even though the other party was defeated repeatedly in the battle with the Khitans, Li Longji not only did not punish him, but instead rewarded him with great rewards and comforted him. He kept giving him more rights. The greater the rights a person had, the harder it was to satisfy his desires.

However, now, Li Heng no longer used An Lushan. A few days after ascending the throne, Li Heng directly issued an imperial edict and ordered An Lushan's tribute horse to be handed over immediately without delay.

These important towns in the frontier also need to provide some feedback to the court. War horses are an important one. Because it is not very suitable for raising horses within the Central Plains, most of the good horses come from the frontiers and the hands of those nomadic peoples.

An Lushan was also the governor of the three places, and was located at the grassland trade port on the border. The war horses in his hands far exceeded the reserves of the mainland in terms of quality and quantity.

But in recent years, this guy has always used various excuses to pay off. Li Longji didn't care and just beat him up. However, Li Heng directly issued an imperial edict. This was a very serious warning. An Lushan suddenly felt something bad.

In the past six months, he has gradually noticed something wrong. For example, small-scale attacks and robberies on the grassland have obviously decreased. He has been stationed in the border for many years and clearly knows that these tribes on the grassland cannot eat enough.

They go out to rob, just like we go to work. It is a process that we have to do. If the robbery is successful, there will be food slaves. If the robbery fails, it can also consume some people and reduce the pressure on the tribe. But now, this frequency has been significantly reduced.

An Lushan carefully investigated this matter. Because without the small tribes' fighting Qiufeng, he could not keep reporting to the court that he had won the "winning battle", which was of great significance to his career.

As a result, this investigation doesn't matter. The grassland trade today has changed from the original fur, beef and mutton to wool...

Wool? Wool blanket? That thing is pretty good. There are quite a few at home. But it is not very popular in the Tang Dynasty. In addition to the ultimate handmade work in Persia, it also has luxury goods after incense with various spices. For ordinary wool blankets, the nobles of the Tang Dynasty looked down on them, and the poor could not afford them...

But now, countless caravans are transporting truckloads of grain and exchanging wool with the grassland people... Those tribes have food, although they are still wild and difficult to train. But they finally can't get interested and have a life of life. Who would be willing to fight with the Tang army if they can have enough food? An Lushan's troops are all elite field soldiers. There is no shortage of cavalry. If you are not careful, the entire army will be wiped out.

In fact, An Lushan was stuck in the trade mouth, and the oil and water were actually not reduced at all. But he just felt that something was wrong. If the barbarians on the grassland started raising sheep and shearing wool, what would the trunk look like there?

The plan to eat people takes a long time. But now, the effect has begun to be initially demonstrated. However, to implement this plan, you need enough food.

To this end, Lu Xuan found that he still needed to improve the farming method of the Tang Dynasty, increase the yield of crops, and find new crops.

So the problem returns to the starting point. We still need to develop people's livelihood... Only when the Tang Dynasty itself is strong and various plans can promote it in an orderly manner.

It is worth mentioning that during the whole year last year, Wang Zhongsi launched a total of the Turks. It took more than half a year to complete the Turks. Now the Turks, which plagued generations of people in the Central Plains, have basically become history. Now the main enemies of the Western Regions of the Tang Dynasty have become Tubo and Uighurs. Even the former Khitans have been mixed with doubles by Uighurs and An Lushan, and they have begun to decline.

In the original history, in order to quell the Anshi Rebellion, the Tang Dynasty and the Uighurs made an agreement. The Uighurs sent troops to help the Tang Dynasty collect and pay Chang'an, but the price was that the entire Chang'an was not guarded.

Imagine what will happen. An Lushan wanted to be the emperor at least. But the Uighurs planned to make a fortune and leave. Chang'an's century-old savings were plundered by foreigners for three days and three nights...

Whenever he thought of these things, Lu Xuan felt chill all over. He swore to himself that as long as he was in one day, it would never happen. Even if he was away, it would not happen.

For this reason, sheep eating people is just an auxiliary plan. It is as if Lu Xuan also proposed long-term plans for water conservancy, scientific breeding, scientific planting, etc. These things take a long time to ferment. Even from South Asia, we got rice that was ripe a year.

When we arrived in the Tang Dynasty, we also needed an adaptation period. It may take several generations, or even more than ten generations, to form a rice that is completely healed and the Tang Dynasty.

All plans take time. With strong enemies around, Lu Xuan needs some emergency measures.

He finally turned his attention to gunpowder.

The research and development progress of this thing is beyond imagination. It seems that there is a certain talent for killing and destruction in the human genes. In the research and development of murderous weapons, human talents are basically full.

After being disabled for more than a dozen Taoist priests, they are now able to deploy gunpowder that is close to the conventional strong explosives in later generations. (We call it yellow medicine, which corresponds to the early black gunpowder. It is mainly used for quarrying on the mountain. It is very powerful and later banned. I still remember that when I was a child, a man in the same village was squid and was blown up by that thing. Later, he was the entire hillside.)

The progress of the musket is still a little short of it. Lu Xuan is not familiar with this thing, so he can only propose concepts and let them explore the details themselves.

However, at present, the strong gunpowder is barely enough. When defending the city, this thing is invincible. As long as you reserve enough explosive packs and manpower to attack the city, you will deliver vegetables to the door. Defending on thunder, you can add explosives to the death. At the same time, you can add various small gifts to it, such as iron nails, gravel, and so on. At that time, the effect will be better. The enemy will praise you when you see it.

Field battles are more complicated. Lu Xuan added some craftsmen to help them develop a portable gunpowder throwing weapon, which is the Tang Dynasty version of the grenade.

It is not a problem to have a little less power. The violent explosion and fire alone can scare the army of this era. Especially those cavalry, untrained war horses. When they suddenly encounter this thing, they will be frightened by 90%.

Gunpowder has low basic technical requirements. If you want to stay ahead, you need absolute confidentiality measures in the early stage.

Lu Xuan knew this well. There were three groups of people on guard against Du Ming's workshop for the development of gunpowder. One team of imperial guards under Lu Xuan, one team of emperor's big guards, and another team of people who were selected by Zhang Xiaojing from the past. They specialized in undercover and intelligence. The three groups of people supervised each other. As long as the outsiders were not their own, they would take it down first and then ask. If there was no pass certificate, they would disappear the next day, and even the corpse would not be left.
Chapter completed!