Chapter 4362 Chapter 4364 [Opening up territories]
The Mekong River plain covers an area of 50,000 square kilometers, and the Chao Phraya River plain covers an area of 150,000 square kilometers.
Coupled with the previously captured Red River Plain, with these three places, the Song clan not only has a foothold, but also has the capital to expand based on it.
Because after occupying Southeast Asia, you can reach Malay and Indonesia to the south, Luzon to the east, Bagan and Tianzhu to the west, and connect with the Central Plains to the north.
As long as the strength is strong enough, there is a lot of space that can be explored. As long as the strength is strong enough, there is a lot of space that can be explored. Just like Spain, Portugal, England, and France in the Age of Discovery, they colonized the world.
This is different from the Central Plains Dynasty.
In fact, when the Central Plains Dynasty reached its peak, reaching Mobei in the north, Annan in the south, Central Asia in the west, and Ryukyu in the east, it was already at its limit.
If it continues to expand, even if it is conquered, it will be difficult to implement effective management.
Because the Central Plains dynasty focused on centralization, all political orders were adjudicated by the higher authorities. Therefore, if the territory is too wide, it will take one or two years to communicate from top to bottom, and it will be too late.
Europe pursues a feudal system, and each colonial governor has considerable autonomy, including administrative, legislative, military, taxation and other powers.
It can be said that the governor of each place is the emperor of each place. In order to expand their power, they are naturally keen on expanding their territory.
This kind of enfeoffment system was actually implemented in China. The vassal states during the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties were under the enfeoffment system. However, enfeoffing too many territories can easily lead to the loss of monarchical power.
In the late Warring States period, when Emperor Zhou died, he did not even have the money to hold a funeral, so he had to ask the princely states for help. King Nan of Zhou owed a huge sum of money to a wealthy family and was unable to repay it, so he had to flee to a high platform to hide from the debt, so the idiom "high debts" was left behind.
Therefore, when Qin Shihuang unified the world, he learned from previous experience and changed the feudal system into a county system to strengthen centralization of power.
This is conducive to national unity, political stability, and economic development. However, the disadvantage is that power is highly concentrated, resulting in limited local independent development, inefficient border management, and inability to respond to emergencies.
Xiang Nan hopes that the county system will be implemented in the Southeast Asian peninsula in the future, and the enfeoffment system will be implemented in other areas. This not only ensures the stability of the basic disk, but also ensures the continuous expansion of the territory.
Of course, this is a story for another day.
…
Just when Xiang Nan led his army to expand territory in Southeast Asia, Song Que also started negotiations with the Li clan. He was willing to submit to the Li clan in name, become a vassal to him, and return the captured Li Jiancheng, but the Li clan would not be allowed to do so from now on. Then attack Lingnan.
After Li Yuan learned the news of Shaoguan's defeat, he was originally at a loss as to what to do. He was worried that Song Que would take advantage of the situation to counterattack and take back all Ganzhou, Jingchu, Fujian and Zhejiang, Jiangnan, Jiangxia, and Jiangdu that he had lost before.
For this reason, he is preparing to mobilize troops and horses to defend to the death, and even wants to conquer it personally. But at this time, he received a surrender from Song Que, expressing his willingness to submit to the Li clan and release his eldest son Li Jiancheng.
This made Li Yuan a little confused. He didn't know if it was Song Que's delaying strategy or for other reasons. He was a little confused for a moment.
Therefore, he immediately summoned his ministers to discuss countermeasures, but everyone couldn't agree on the matter and thought that the matter was indeed very strange.
As soon as the Song clan's army arrives, they will switch sides in a matter of minutes. After all, he had defeated even the main force of the 120,000 Li Clan, and that city leader dared to confront him head-on?
But what is the point of not taking advantage of the good situation but choosing to surrender in name only? However, Li Shimin understood clearly and knew that the reason why the Song clan stopped the Northern Expedition was because the Song clan did not want to start the war lightly, so he was very sincere in proposing to surrender.
Just like when the Li clan's army was infected with the plague, lacked food and grass, and suffered repeated defeats, they had to return to Ganzhou to rest and recuperate. It was originally a good opportunity for the Song clan to attack, but they did not beat the drowned dog, but only repaired the city of Shaoguan. .
Therefore, he suggested that his father accept the Song clan's proposal and continue to grant him the title of King of Zhennan, thus unifying Lingnan in name only. Only in this way can we have enough power to suppress other forces that are ready to move.
Otherwise, if we continue to fight against Lingnan, we are likely to be defeated again. By that time, Li Clan had suffered two major defeats in a row and his reputation was in ruins. If there are not enough troops to suppress the ground, powerful powers from all over the country will rise up one after another.
By then, the empire that Li Clan has worked so hard to build will be in vain, so why bother.
To put it bluntly, now is not the time for another decisive battle with the Song clan. The Song clan needs to rest and recuperate, so the Li clan doesn’t need to rest and recuperate.
At least until Jizhou is pacified, other forces that are ready to move are suppressed, and then soldiers, horses, food, wages, and armor can be gathered, it will be possible to continue the southern expedition. Therefore, it would be better to reach a peace agreement with the Song clan first and accept the Song clan's apparent submission.
Under Li Shimin's persuasion, Li Yuan finally agreed to Song Que's request.
Song Que continued to be granted the title of King of Zhennan, Song Shidao was granted the title of Prince of Nanping County, Xiang Nan was granted the title of Duke of the State of Yue, and Song Yuzhi was granted the title of Lady of the State of Yue... The whole family was granted rewards.
Later, Song Que also returned Li Jiancheng and thousands of captured Li Clan soldiers. Most of these surrendered soldiers are physically disabled and cannot go on the battlefield if they are released.
If they stay in Lingnan, the Song clan will still have to support them, so they can simply put them back and let Li clan have the headache of how to comfort these wounded soldiers.
…
Seeing that his son was really released, Li Yuan was both surprised and happy. He didn't expect that Song Que really kept his promise and returned his son. It is finally a good thing that my son can come back safely.
However, Li Jiancheng suffered such a huge defeat and lost more than 100,000 troops. It was also a huge disappointment for him to be so humiliating. Therefore, although he was released, he was depressed and resentful.
At the same time, Li Shimin came to Jizhou and after taking over from his fourth brother Li Yuanji, he started a war with Liu Heitai.
As a result, Li Shimin chose to start the battle on the Hutuo River. He ordered people to cut off the upper reaches of the Hutuo River in advance. When Liu Heitai's cavalry crossed the river to attack, his people immediately opened the upper reaches.
As a result, the turbulent river flowed down the river, and Liu Heitai's cavalry was unable to dodge and was suddenly overwhelmed by the river water. Li Shimin took the opportunity to launch an attack and defeated Liu Heitai's cavalry in one fell swoop, causing heavy losses.
Liu Heitai had no choice but to lead his army to retreat in order to rest and recuperate. However, Li Shimin chased the dog into a back alley and pursued it so hard that Liu Heitai had no chance to rest.
As a result, when he ran back to Dingzhou, Wang Ci'en, the governor of Dingzhou, opened the city to accept him. Liu Heitai was worried that it was a trick and refused to enter the city. He only asked the king for grace to send grain and grass out of the city so that they could rest outside the city.
The reason why he was so cautious was because after Liu Heitai's defeat, the people from Yan and Zhao who had originally submitted to him turned against him one after another, so he was worried that Wang Ci'en would do the same and had to be on guard.
Wang Ci'en could only transport grain, rice, flour, fodder, etc. out of the city for Liu Heita's troops to rest and recuperate. As a result, food and fodder were drugged.
Liu Heitai was captured as a result. Li Shimin also regained Jizhou and sent a message to Qilu.
(End of chapter)