"What brought you here?"
Although he didn't know these people, they were from his hometown after all, so Yongning acted quite cordially and even asked the person behind him to bring him some water.
"Your Highness, you may not know that our hometown is no longer what it used to be. Now, government offices at all levels have been established. We are almost starving to death in our hometown. The court gave us some emergency food, but this is not a solution. We still need to make a living. That's why they sent us to Fuso, saying that there is a chance for us to survive here."
Hearing their fellow villagers say this, the two sisters felt very close to it, but Yongning heard only the literal meaning, while Yongping heard a different meaning.
It was obvious that these people in front of him were all poor. Judging from the tattered clothes they wore, even in a relatively peaceful country like Nanzhao, they probably didn't live a good life. The reason they came all the way to Fusang was probably because they wanted to live a better life.
What happened next was very simple. Just like what Yongping saw that day, all kinds of recruiters flocked in. They didn't care whether these people were Han people from the Tang Dynasty or Nanzhao people in the south. As long as they got off the ship, they were more reliable than the local Fuso people.
Moreover, these Nanzhao people are basically the same as us in terms of language and customs, and they will not call themselves Nanzhao people. These people are very smart and will say that they are from the Tang Dynasty.
Since you all claim to be people of the Tang Dynasty, some things will be easier to handle. We will give you the same treatment as the people of the Tang Dynasty, but you must also work for us honestly. Take a relatively dangerous place like Fusang for example. Han people rarely come here unless they can't make a living there. But life in Nanzhao is slightly worse than in the Tang Dynasty. In addition, it has just experienced a war, so there are many people trying to make a living.
Therefore, the imperial court pushed forward this plan ahead of time, sending existing personnel to Nanzhao to recruit refugees, first giving them a certain amount of food to survive, and then transporting them to the Lingnan region, and from there they took a direct boat to Fusang, which led to everything we have today.
"Can we take a boat back to Nanzhao from here?"
Listening to these people's stories, Yongning's face showed a longing for his hometown.
"Of course you can. As long as there's an ocean, the Tang Dynasty's navy can reach it. Although we can't reach Nanzhao directly, we can first go to Lingnan in the Tang Dynasty, disembark there, and then travel by land to Nanzhao."
Although these two are princesses, they don't know much about the geography and topography of that era. Although Li Xiang explained it very clearly, the two princesses still looked confused. Li Xiang could only take the two princesses back to his camp and then slowly explain.
On the way back, Princess Yongping knew what happened today. Li Xiang wanted to use this method to tell her that Nanzhao no longer existed, including the common people in your country, who also regarded themselves as people of the Tang Dynasty.
To be honest, the two princesses were indeed very happy when they saw these fellow villagers just now, but Yongping still came to some other conclusions from the conversation with these people, that is, no one would think about restoring the country.
During the reign of the King of Nanzhao, although life in the local area was not bad, after experiencing a war, the prestige of the Nanzhao royal family was completely lost throughout the country. The war between the two brothers almost destroyed the entire royal city and caused a huge turmoil.
If it weren't for the help of the Tang Dynasty court, how could stability be achieved so quickly? Now, with the Tang Dynasty court's wanton propaganda, the people of Nanzhao regard the people of the Tang Dynasty as their saviors.
Of course, the most important thing is that the Tang Dynasty implemented different policies in Nanzhao, and the policies implemented in other regions were more or less colonial in nature. It also took a lot of advantages there, causing a lot of damage to the local economy.
But the situation in Nanzhao was different. The Tang Dynasty implemented a different policy because the local people were relatively wealthy and lived well in other places except the royal city. Therefore, the Tang Dynasty began to quickly restore the local economy. This was also another way to make progress together.
Although we cannot rob other cities in Nanzhao and have no way to replenish the blood of the entire war in the first time, but after two or three years, all places will be integrated with the economy of the Tang Dynasty. That is the time for us to develop together, and we will gain much more than now.
As long as you can take a long-term view, a win-win situation for both parties is definitely better than robbery, so Li Xiang made a new plan and gave it to Changsun Chong to implement.
In addition to not robbing Nanzhao, he also helped develop the economy in various parts of Nanzhao, which had never happened before. However, Changsun Chong had always blindly implemented Li Xiang's policies because he believed that this cousin was extremely smart.
Thanks to the efforts of the Changsun brothers, in just over half a year, not only did Nanzhao regain its former vitality, but a lot of goods were also shipped to the territory of the Tang Dynasty, making the local economy prosperous.
Under such circumstances, how could the people of Nanzhao still remember the past? Although the king of Nanzhao was still a puppet, when the Tang Dynasty established prefecture and county offices in various places, few people stood up to oppose it. This meant that the original ruling system of the Nanzhao court had collapsed and a new ruling system was needed to improve it.
The last group is the lowest class of people in Nanzhao. They have no assets in their own country, and many of them are even left alone in their families. Therefore, no matter how the whole society changes, they cannot find the source of happiness.
So Chang Sun Chong and Li Xiang discussed it and decided to send these people to the surface. Didn't Li Xiang say that the Fusang people could never be integrated into the Tang Dynasty? So, just like the Goguryeo people, they could be turned into free labor for the Tang Dynasty. This would be a good opportunity for the Nanzhao people to manage them, solving the Nanzhao refugee problem while providing us with a large labor force.
Of course, doing so will harm the interests of the lower-class people in the Tang Dynasty. After all, this job was originally given to them. But when these people heard that they were going to come overseas, many of them were unwilling to come. Then can you still stop the people from Nanzhao from coming?
