"Thank you for your concern, Your Highness. I have never marched like this before, but I can still handle it. However, if you want to speed up any further, I will have to ask for leave from Your Highness."
What Xiao Yu said was very practical, and he did not resist. Take his old bones for example, today's progress has reached its limit. If he continues to increase the speed, he can only follow the team of slaves behind.
"What do you mean by asking for leave, sir? You are here for our army's logistics, and it is your duty to follow these people in the rear. If you hadn't been accompanying them, I'm afraid they would have all run away along the way."
Li Xiang's words were very comforting. It was obvious that Xiao Yu's body could not keep up, but from Li Xiang's mouth, it meant that Xiao Yu had to follow the team of slaves for work. No matter where it was said, not only was there no fault, but there was even merit.
"Thank you for your understanding, Your Highness. I have also prepared a proposal for your visit to Sichuan and Shu. Please review it."
Xiao Yu is a man of action. The reason why Li Xiang agreed was because Xiao Yu was serious about his work. No matter what the old man was thinking, he would definitely be able to complete the work. For this reason alone, it was worth it for Li Xiang to bring him along. If it were someone else along the way, their bodies probably wouldn't be able to adapt, but he still wrote a plan, which was quite difficult.
The first thing listed is road construction, which coincides with Li Xiang's point. Because of road construction, the connection between various places in the north has been greatly strengthened, which not only strengthens the court's rule over various places, but also plays a role in relieving some refugees from various places. These people originally had no place to eat. Now the court wants to build roads. In addition to using prisoners of war in dangerous places, these refugees from other places also have food to eat.
Secondly, it is about the economy. After the road was built, it not only facilitated the court's army, but most importantly, it facilitated the circulation of goods between various places, allowing money to circulate everywhere, and the people's lives became better. Commercial trade is nothing more than making money flow. If everyone has money in their hands, then life will be better.
The second is to develop local agriculture. Food is the most important thing for people. The court now has experience. Large tracts of land in Goguryeo have been developed, so the court's grain is more than doubled than before. Xiao Yu also checked the terrain of Sichuan and Shu. In addition to the many high mountains around it, the inland is actually a basin, and it was once called the Kingdom of Tianshu. The Kingdom of Shu developed here in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, but later declined due to wars.
If we can develop locally, just as Li Xiang said to Li Shimin, not only will the front line not need to supply a grain from Chang'an City, but even after the war, the Land of Abundance will be able to provide a lot of food to help the court stabilize other areas.
Finally, there are the local chieftains. According to Xiao Yu's proposal, if the imperial court has the strength, it should try to deal with these chieftains first and then deal with Nanzhao. After all, there are some disobedient people on our own land. If you bypass these chieftains and attack Nanzhao first, our logistics may be interrupted.
"Is it possible that your last statement is not enough to appease these chieftains?"
This point was somewhat contrary to Li Xiang's opinion. According to Li Xiang's previous idea, bringing Xiao Yu to Chengdu was to let him take charge of Chengdu and then intimidate the various chieftains in the south so that they would not dare to act recklessly when Li Xiang was waging war.
But unexpectedly, Xiao Yu actually wanted to attack them first, which was somewhat different from Li Xiang's plan.
"Your Highness, I've studied the Tusi in the south. Although they appear to be submitting to the Tang Dynasty, they are actually no different from the other countries in the Western Regions. They usually just submit a few memorials to the emperor, but never receive any real benefits. Instead, they frequently plunder the officials and civilians of Sichuan. The local officials are afraid of taking responsibility, so they never write about this. And the emperor likes it..."
Xiao Yu couldn't continue when he got to this point. Although what he said was the truth, Xiao Yu was still unwilling to say anything bad about Li Shimin.
Li Xiang understood what Xiao Yu wanted to say, that is, Li Shimin was ambitious and wanted all the nations to come to pay tribute. On the surface, it was indeed so, but in reality, how many people were truly submitting to him?
Take the chieftains, for example. Apart from submitting a few memorials, they didn't even offer a penny in gifts. Was this true submission? On the contrary, when disaster struck and Chang'an City needed support, Li Shimin, out of respect, squeezed out some money from the national treasury and sent it over, just to maintain the situation where all nations came to pay tribute.
In fact, many people in the court were dissatisfied, including some people in the civil service group. Xiao Yu was the most dissatisfied. He believed that it was useless to use real money to buy a false reputation. Instead of wasting money every year, it would be better to send troops to wipe them out and turn this place into a prefecture system of the court. Local officials would be set up according to the laws of the Tang Dynasty to collect taxes. This is what should be done, instead of subsidizing them all the time, which instead produced a bunch of ungrateful people.
After listening to Xiao Yu's words, Li Xiang really had to think about it carefully. He originally thought of taking over Nanzhao first, and then slowly dealing with these chieftains. Now it seems that this is far from the case. However, Li Xiang was not in a hurry to make a decision. He planned to go to the chieftain's territory to take a look and make a decision later.
"Your Highness, it would be better if you take a look first. Lord Changsun has information about these chieftains. It's time to let some people in the court know what these chieftains have done."
Seeing that Li Xiang was not in a hurry to express his opinion, Xiao Yu was not in a hurry either. He was a calm person and of course could not expect Li Xiang to do anything radical. Even if Li Xiang did something radical, Xiao Yu would most likely ask Li Xiang to think carefully about it. Everything should be based on one's own eyes, not on one's ears.
After dinner, Li Xiang returned to his tent. Changsun Pingting had already changed into his daughter's clothes. When Li Xiang saw Changsun Pingting in a white gauze dress, he couldn't help but have some thoughts in his mind. However, Changsun Pingting rolled her eyes and pulled Li Xiang to the wooden barrel next to them, letting Li Xiang take a bath first.
Think about it, you are covered in sweat, it is indeed annoying to others, not to mention that everything is ready, taking a hot bath will make you more comfortable.