In recent days, there have been many errands that could lead him back to Chang'an City, but Su Dingfang is in a high position and has a lot of power. He has a lot of things to do in the Western Regions. If he leaves, many things will not be able to proceed, and there is no one who can replace him, so he can only endure it.
Now that he finally had the opportunity, he became a little too proud of himself. Now that he was given a warning by Li Xiang, he knew what to do next. The speed of the team gradually slowed down, and they could only advance fifty miles a day, which was already beyond the marching speed of a regular army.
After entering the territory of the Tang Dynasty, their speed can be doubled, mainly because the roads in the Tang Dynasty are well built. When Li Xiang left, cement had already been burned throughout the country, and cement roads have been built on the main roads. Although it costs a huge amount, it is of great significance to the entire Tang Dynasty.
"This road was built very quickly, and it's very smooth."
Walking on the cement road of the Tang Dynasty, although it can only accommodate one carriage alone, is already quite difficult. If you remove the people around, Li Xiang even feels that he has come to the 21st century, and of course, the most useless country road in the 21st century.
"Your Highness, the road construction is indeed not slow, but it also cost a lot of manpower. I heard that our prisoners of war died for every kilometer they spent building this road."
After a long period of development, Su Dingfang already knew how far 1 kilometer was. When building this road, they used all prisoners. Only when there was a shortage of manpower would they recruit workers from the public. However, in some dangerous areas, all the prisoners were used to build the roads.
"Everything has a price. We fight foreign wars on the battlefield to find a relatively safe environment for our people. If we didn't have so many prisoners, we would have to let our people do the construction. Then it would be our own people who would die. Now foreigners can serve as our foundation stones. This is also their destiny."
Li Xiang was not too sad about this. Either your own people would fill in the gaps, or you would let these prisoners fill in. In this day and age, there were no mechanical equipment. If you wanted to repair the road in a short time, you would lose lives in some places.
"Your Highness is right. No one else outside of us knows about this. We haven't let the news leak out except for our own people. We're afraid some people within the court will spread rumors. I don't know what's going on in their minds. They actually confuse the lives of foreigners with the lives of our own people. If I hear about this in Chang'an, I'll beat them up."
Although Su Dingfang had been in the Western Regions, he had heard some of the rhetoric in Chang'an. Some officials at the imperial court were completely oblivious to the suffering of the people, even urging us to treat these prisoners of war kindly. I wonder what was going on in their minds. They were all steppe wolves. When they were killing our border residents, why didn't you speak out? Why didn't you go to their imperial court and speak out?
You don't have this opportunity at all. As long as you step out of the border and out of the protection of the Tang Dynasty army, these people will immediately turn you into a two-legged sheep. Do you still think your theories have any effect?
"These are people who only care about people's work and not their own. They keep talking about benevolence and righteousness. War is cruel, and so is the rise of a great power. Now that we have finally won some victories, we must not be fooled by these people. If we were to emphasize benevolence and righteousness, the rewards we receive would be much less. This is completely unfair to our brothers who have sacrificed their lives."
Li Xiang did not agree with some civil servants in the court, especially the remarks that have emerged recently. In every era, there are always some experts and professors who do not understand the suffering of the people at all. They only know how to do things according to their own ideas. It would be fine if what you think is right, but you people have never thought right.
Take the current Goguryeo for example. Many people think that we have gone too far. We have treated all the local people as slaves. There is not even a single normal person left. This is destroying a nation. If it is written in history books, it may leave a lifelong infamy.
But Li Xiang didn't care about it. Why should we give face to those people from Goguryeo? Since the Sui Dynasty, we have lost many people in Goguryeo. Wouldn't it be better to let them work for us day and night and use the food they get as rewards to the soldiers who died or were injured on the battlefield?
When talking about this matter, Su Dingfang felt unhappy. Goguryeo had the highest return among all the occupied territories. The first quarter's grain had been harvested. In addition to leaving some food for the local people, the court also transported back cartloads of grain.
Several large warehouses are already full. According to Li Xiang's request, all the families of those who died in battle can go there to receive food. Each person will receive 100 kilograms of food per year. This amount is enough for them to live a good life. Although it is not enough for the whole year, it will be enough for three months.
The soldiers' families already received a lot of pensions, and now it solves a quarter of their food problem every year. As long as they do some work in other places, they will have enough to eat. The people nowadays don't have such high demands. As long as they can have food to eat, they can do anything.
Li Xiang also visited the people. When Emperor Yang of Sui was digging the Grand Canal, it was because these people worked every day and could not even get a little food, so they stood up in resistance. If Emperor Yang of Sui could give them three meals a day, let alone digging the Grand Canal, it would be possible to dig directly from here to Europe.
In addition to the families of those who died in the war, a large amount of grain was transported from Goguryeo to the Tang Dynasty, causing the price of grain to drop significantly. The common people did benefit from it, but it was probably not good for some nobles. Their families could not digest the large amount of grain because the grain in Goguryeo was too cheap, and some of their previous harvests were wiped out.
Li Xiang can only say sorry to this group of people. It is our responsibility to sacrifice the interests of some of you so that all the people can benefit...