The distance of thirty miles is not too long for a light driver. After having a meal and talking, the Liu Yang brothers embarked on their journey back to Beijing.
Brothers Liu Yang and Liu Xu rode in the same car and took a nap in the car. When the car drove into Luoyang City, it was almost dusk, but the two brothers were still talking freely.
"The great Han Dynasty is now peaceful at home, the country is peaceful and the people are safe, but what worries the king and father is the Liao Kingdom in the north to the outside world, and the northwest to the inside!" Liu Yang told Liu Xu what he had learned from his recent conversation with Emperor Liu, and sighed: "Although I have never been to the northwest in person, I am very concerned about the situation there. What did my elder brother think during his inspection of the northwest?"
"Before I left, my father also called me to give me the instructions, and I took it seriously. I will patrol carefully!" Liu Xu said, "Here, Shiro and I, King Dongping, walked through Lan, Liang, Ling, Xia, and Sui. , Yan and other states, it can be said that the entire main jurisdiction of the northwest has been transferred. On the whole, the situation in the northwest is quite stable, and there should be no trouble in the short term!"
"What about the long term?" Liu Yang asked immediately. When he asked this question, he had inadvertently shown his authority as the prince.
Regarding this, Liu Xu's face remained calm and he did not take it seriously at all, but said calmly: "The biggest problem in the northwest is that the ethnic groups are too complex, with many miscellaneous barbarians and few Han people.
Although the imperial court has moved nearly 300,000 people to the northwest prefectures in the past fifteen years, compared with the vast northwest region, it is still not enough, especially in those remote prefectures and counties, where the whole territory is full of Hu dialects. If you want to maintain your rule, you have to make certain compromises and buy it off with official salary instead of autonomy. "
Liu Yang nodded. Of course he knew about these situations: "The imperial court is still insisting on immigration. This is a long-term national policy. However, now, it is no longer appropriate to force large-scale migration like in the past." .”
Liu Xu said: "That's right! The people of the Han Dynasty are in a difficult position to move to, so they should not destroy the stability of the central land by consolidating the northwest. The good situation of the Han Dynasty today is hard-won!"
After sighing with emotion, Liu Xu added: "The long-term recovery of Daozhou by the imperial court in the northwest was far less than twenty years, and half of them were gradually recovered only after the Kaibao Year. Compared with the hundreds of years of loss, the imperial court wanted to completely recover Conquering it is obviously impossible!
The barbarians in the northwest, even the Tubo and Qiang people who were always deferential to the imperial court, were more forced by the imperial power. Now that the Han Dynasty was strong, the total number of troops stationed in the four northwest provinces exceeded 100,000. They were guarded by strong troops and they did not dare to make any changes! "
Today, there are four roads in the northwest of the Han Dynasty. In addition to the original Guannai, Longyou, and Hexi roads, there is also a new Yulin Road to govern Xiazhou. Its jurisdiction covers the northern part of Guannai, Lingzhou in the west, Yanzhou in the south, and Fengzhou in the north. , adjacent to the Yellow River in the east.
After hearing this, Liu Yang said: "The four northwest provinces have a total of more than three million people and support one hundred thousand soldiers and horses. They are always unable to support themselves. Every year, they need a special allocation of one million yuan from the court for support! However, the northwest army must be stationed there." !”
"This is still a situation where the situation in the northwest remains stable. Even so, if things go on like this, the northwest will only absorb more and more of the imperial court's finances. If there is a slight chaos, the price for the imperial court to maintain stability in the northwest will be even greater!" Liu Xu said: "Within the territory Public security must not be unstable, bandits must be suppressed, and Khitan must be on guard!"
As he spoke, Liu Xu let out a long sigh and continued: "Hidden dangers can be prevented if we stay vigilant and pay attention to them. However, the top priority is still those thieves who are all over Hexi and active in the desert and Gobi! Especially after the war in the Western Region has been eliminated, the trade routes After the reopening, those horse bandits have become more and more rampant! When Shiro and I passed through Lingzhou, we personally experienced the plunder of horse bandits!"
"There is such a thing!" Liu Yang's face suddenly showed a bit of anger, but he suppressed it when he saw that Liu Xu didn't appear to be hurt.
Liu Xu chuckled and said, "It was just a chance encounter. Shiro was brave and personally led his men to kill the horse bandits and rescued the robbed business traveler!"
However, Liu Yang still had an angry look on his face and frowned slightly: "The imperial court has issued orders several times to suppress bandits and clean up public security. Reports have been reported from various places, and there have been many results. How can there be such rampant bandits? Is it possible? Is the report false?"
Liu Xu shook his head: "Naturally, the northwest Daozhou did not dare to deceive the court about this matter. In the early years of Kaibao, there were signs of a resurgence of banditry in the northwest. In recent years, state governments and garrisons have indeed carried out many campaigns to suppress bandits. , focused on the attack, and indeed exterminated more than ten groups of large-scale horse bandits. However, the suppression is endless!"
"What's the root cause?" Liu Yang asked the key point.
The imperial court has always cracked down on the problem of banditry, but within the vast territory of the Han Dynasty, not to mention the disappearance of banditry, there were only a few remote areas where this problem still existed. One is in the southwest, the other is in the northwest, and if it is serious, it must be in the northwest, and the damage caused is also in the northwest region.
Liu Xu said: "The horse bandits in the northwest are small groups of nimble men who come and go like the wind. They haunt the desert and Gobi. It is really difficult for the army to suppress them. But the most important thing is that they have something to rely on!"
After hearing this, Liu Yang said: "What is the reliance that eldest brother refers to?"
Noticing Liu Yang's calm and serious expression, Liu Xu said leisurely: "I have communicated with many officials in the northwest, and I learned from them that horse bandits and their ilk mostly come from the barbarians in the northwest, and they are also from various Taoist groups. Tribes between states are often inextricably linked!"
"These barbarians, as subjects of the Han Dynasty, dare to collude with bandits to cause trouble and disrupt local public order?" Liu Yang frowned lightly.
"Of course they dare not collude openly, and not all tribes are like this, but even if it is just a small group of people, the harm is already serious!" Liu Xu said: "Therefore, if the connection between the two cannot be blocked, if they want to eradicate it, Banditry in the northwest is difficult to do. There are many tribes in the northwest, but the land is vast and the people are sparse. It is very difficult to identify them and eliminate their causes!"
"So, banditry in the northwest has really become a chronic disease!" Liu Yang obviously paid more attention to this situation.
Liu Xu continued: "The two most important types of horse bandits are the Uighur bandits and the Dangxiang bandits. Needless to say, the Uighurs are the remnants of the Uighurs in Ganzhou. The imperial court used strong troops to quell them, and there were many disobedient people. , so there are a large number of blatant bandits!”
"When we took Gansu from the west, General Wang Guo killed too much. This is one of the troubles in the future!" Liu Yang immediately remembered the situation back then and sighed sincerely.
"That's right!" Liu Xu said: "Today, the most peaceful place in the northwest is Gansu. The Uighur people have so much resentment and bloody hatred that they cannot be eliminated and forgotten in just a few years!"
"As for the Dangxiang people, including the miscellaneous barbarians walking on the roads, they are the most numerous tribe in the northwest at the moment. The army entered Xia Suiyin. Although most of the Dangxiang tribesmen surrendered, and the Li family and their large clan were also moved inward, the remaining There are still many people who are unwilling to surrender to the Han." Liu Xu continued: "Therefore, there are also many party members who join the bandits, and their connection with the many party members in Xia Sui is closer, and there are even some There have been many recruitments among various tribes..."
"No wonder dad always said that party members need to be especially careful!" Liu Yang couldn't help clenching his fists.
"I talked with General Yang. There are many oases in the desert north of Xiazhou, and many party bandits are entrenched in them. Previously, there was a group of fierce bandits who occupied an oasis called Dijinze. They caused great disasters and the number of people At one time it swelled to 500 people.
Later, two generals, Li Jilong and Yang Yanzhao, made a surprise attack for hundreds of miles and finally defeated it. However, as soon as the government troops withdrew, the remaining bandits gathered again. General Yang once again sent troops to defeat it, and sent troops to stay and garrison. The bandit trouble was finally stopped.
However, how could the imperial court send troops to guard every oasis? If so, the burden on the imperial court's northwest garrison will also intensify! "
"The key lies in those tribes who collude with the bandits and cause trouble, and have two different intentions!" Liu Yang said coldly: "If we don't deal with them, then the bandit trouble will never be quelled!"
"yes......"