"Let's not say whether this matter is true or not. Even if it is true, when will the replacement of the emperor of the Tang Dynasty be decided by us vassal countries? Envoy, there is no need to say more. The relationship between Yibi Duolu Khan and I is It's impossible to form an alliance." Zhenzhu Khan directly denied it.
"Zhenzhu Khan, please let me finish my words." The envoy said calmly.
"You speak."
"The Tang Dynasty is destined to expand! Based on the current layout of the Tang Dynasty, you should know very well that they stopped at several passes in the West Kunlun Mountains. Why? It's because these places are strategically important places. As long as they control These places mean that the west side of Datang is almost worry-free."
"The tens of thousands of troops stationed in these places are enough to block the westward path, unless we take a detour from the far north, but the ice and snow in the north, as well as the primitive jungle, and the tens of thousands of miles of road, are roads that no tribe or army can gamble on."
"Under such circumstances, the ambition of the Tang Dynasty is obvious. The Tang Dynasty wants to completely eliminate all threats within its territory. Whether it is you Xue Yantuo, the nomads in the north, or countries such as Goguryeo, they are all in the Tang Dynasty's pocket. "
"I'm not afraid to tell you, Zhenzhu Khan. One of the purposes of my coming here is to contact you, Zhenzhu Khan. The second purpose is to use Zhenzhu Khan's sphere of influence to contact Goguryeo, so that we can collectively attack the Tang Dynasty. "
"I don't know what Khan is thinking, but why do we nomads have always been able to live in this bitter cold land? That's it for now, Khan, please think about it." After the envoy said this, he went directly gone.
After he left, Zhenzhu Khan fell into deep thought. His character was actually timid, otherwise, he would not have stabbed Jie Li directly in the back.
There is no doubt about the power of the Tang Dynasty, and it was not the first time that Yibi Duolu sent envoys here, but what the other party said this time made Zhenzhu Khan have to think about this issue.
That is, if Datang really wants to eliminate all threats around it, then their Xue Yantuo must be the next target.
As for what the other party said about uniting with Goguryeo... it's simply impossible.
Because there are Khitan and Shiwei between them and Goguryeo.
Shiwei's strength is stronger, but overall Shiwei is very backward and cannot compare with Datang. The Khitans were even smaller, and they would not join forces with Xue Yantuo to target the Tang Dynasty.
Because if they side with the Tang Dynasty, nothing will happen to them, but if they side with the Tang Dynasty, the Tang Dynasty will be gone. How do you choose?
Everyone knows which one to choose.
What's more, the distance between here and Goguryeo is so far, and it is even further away from Yibidulu, tens of thousands of miles away. How can these countries cooperate? What if one of the countries moves but the other country doesn’t? Waiting to die.
This is simply unrealistic, especially since these countries are all vassals of the Tang Dynasty. If someone goes back on his word halfway and directly informs, wouldn't that mean giving his head away?
Who wants to be the first person?
"What do you think?" Zhenzhu raised his head and looked at the other people in the felt tent.
When this envoy was here just now, Zhenzhu Khan also had several subordinate ministers here. They were all Zhenzhu Khan's confidants, or generals directly belonging to Zhenzhu Khan's family.
"Khan, what the other party said may make sense, but in fact we have no choice." An old man in his fifties suddenly said.
"How to say?"
"The Tang Dynasty built about 7 new cities in total from the Hetao area to Jiuyuan, Wuchuan, and all the way to the location of Khitan. The distance between these cities did not exceed 400 miles. Within a day's support speed of the cavalry, and A few hundred miles behind Wuchuan City is Yanmen Pass."
"In these newly built cities, Datang has been immigrating to the border cities and transporting food, weapons and equipment and other materials. There is probably a considerable amount of food and grass stored in these cities."
"The important thing is that the walls of these cities are built very quickly. They are not like some of the cities on our grasslands that are made of earth walls, but are stone cities."
"This means that we have nothing to do against these cities. And Datang is also invincible." The old man said all the questions with a serious face.
"If we go to war with the Tang Dynasty, the Tang Dynasty can rely on these cities to advance and attack, retreat and defend. It will not be a big problem to capture us. And according to some information we have collected, the Tang Dynasty seems to have good harvests year after year, and there is no shortage at all. food."
"Khan, do you think we can defeat the Tang Dynasty if it has no shortage of food?"
"After all, the population of our Xue Yantuo tribe is not too large, and our pastures are enough for us to graze. This is not the time for us to attack the Tang Dynasty, at least not when the Tang Dynasty is strong and we choose to be hostile to the Tang Dynasty." The old man said.
Regarding the population problem that the old man said, Zhenzhu Khan knew what it meant, or in other words, all the nomadic Khans in the past generations knew it.
The nomads who have lived on this grassland from ancient times to the present have learned how to use limited pasture to reasonably feed the largest population, and have summed up a rigorous and cruel sustainable development method.
Once the population increased and the livestock needed to feed the population increased, exceeding the limit of the grassland, they would launch an attack on the Central Plains dynasty. If they succeeded, they could seize materials and territory to sustain their lives.
If it fails, then a large number of people will die due to defeat, thus greatly reducing the number of people who need to be fed, and they can still continue to live.
If Zhenzhu Khan also traveled through time, he would know that the Mongolian plateau to the north of the Central Plains, excluding the locations of Shi and Khitan in the east, could maintain a maximum population of no more than three million people.
The total number of livestock remains at most between 30 million and 50 million. If this number is exceeded, the grassland will be destroyed.
Of course, Zhenzhu Khan does not know the specific numbers now. He does not know how many herders he has and how many livestock he has.
But they naturally have their own observation methods. They control the number of cattle, sheep and horses owned by ordinary herdsmen within a certain range, and try to reduce the number of nobles. As long as they know roughly how many tribes there are, they can roughly know whether they can continue.
Once livestock starves to death, you need to be alert.
Now, thanks to Xue Yantuo's surrender to the Tang Dynasty, Zhenzhu Khan also has some literate people in his name. The population of their Xue Yantuo tribe is currently about 1.8 million.
There is no benefit in starting a war with Datang at this time when it is still far from the limit.
