Su Dingfang had no definition of the other two powerful countries mentioned by Li Xiang. He just heard Li Xiang talk about them, and they were very far away from our Tang Dynasty.
“Sometimes I wonder, do we really have to occupy their land?”
Su Dingfang felt that his current territory was big enough, and there was nothing good about the newly occupied land. Take the Western Regions and Fusang for example, the land in these places was no match for the Central Plains.
In this agricultural age, if you can't farm the land, what's the point of occupying it? Take the land of Fusang for example. Even if you planted all the land with seeds, you wouldn't necessarily be able to produce much food. What's the point of going through so much trouble to occupy it?
Of course, Fusang and Goguryeo can complement each other.
There is enough land in Goguryeo, but not enough people. We can just pull the people from Fuso over there and let them grow food for us, so that the land of Fuso can feed a small number of people.
But are there such good complementarity in other places? Su Dingfang thought it was impossible.
"This involves a question of strategic depth. There are many things we don't use now, such as some useful minerals underground. However, as society develops in the future, these minerals will become increasingly important. We must build a great empire for our descendants so that they won't need to buy these minerals from others."
Li Xiang didn't know how to explain this matter, so he could only explain to them what would happen in the future based on the current developments.
Su Dingfang nodded somewhat bewilderedly. This guy's thinking was quite advanced, but it could not catch up with Li Xiang's thinking. After all, from the Qin Dynasty to the present, the scope of our activities has been the periphery of the Central Plains, and other places are regarded as barbarians.
Now it has been basically proven that the ideas left by the elders are correct. Their land is far inferior to ours. Even though the land of Nanzhao is slightly better, its grain production is far inferior to ours. It seems that there is no benefit in conquering them with great effort except for gaining so many slaves.
While Li Xiang and Su Dingfang were discussing the future of the Tang Dynasty, Ito Taro and Fukuda Yasukawa were very depressed. They had not expected that the situation would turn out like this, and so quickly.
Originally, the two of them could still live in the city, but now they can only live in the wilderness, so they are very depressed at the moment.
Just when Li Xiang's siege policy was finalized, about a week later, the situation on the battlefield changed again.
The food under Ito Taro's command was the first to run out, so he knew that waiting on the mountain would only mean eating their own children. So Ito Taro gathered the last 5,000 men who were able to fight and led them towards Fukuda Yasukawa.
Yasukawa Fukuda also knew that if they united with one more person, the chances of survival would be greater, so Yasukawa Fukuda put aside their past grudges and led his men to attack the encirclement, hoping to meet up with Taro Ito's men.
Suzuki and Kato Jiro were carrying out the siege mission, while Okawa Genzaburo was carrying out the slave-capturing mission. It was thought that both sides had lost the ability to attack, but who knew that in this situation where the desperate army would win, Suzuki's encirclement was broken first. Although Kato Jiro's side barely held on, it also allowed Ito Taro to rush over.
Now the two encirclements have merged into one. Although they were finally surrounded, Suzuki Nakatasu's ability to lead troops was indeed not good enough. Li Xiang made some adjustments at this time. Suzuki Nakatasu returned to the capital of Fuso to deal with civil affairs. As for military affairs, they were all handed over to Kato Jiro.
When seeing this change, both Ohkawa Genzaburo and Suzuki Nakata regretted it greatly. If the two of them had been able to unite, Suzuki Chuta would have handed over all his troops to Ohkawa Genzaburo, and then the combination of Ohkawa Genzaburo and Suzuki would have been invincible.
But now Li Xiang's arrangement directly broke up their alliance. Now the one with the greatest power in the military is Kato Jiro, while Okawa Gensaburo and Watanabe Taro have been relegated to second and third place.
The most depressed person was Lord Suzuki. He had the largest number of troops under his command, but because of the mistake in the encirclement, Li Xiang did not hold him responsible. He simply stripped him of his military power. This was already quite a face-saving thing. How could he dare to have any other ideas?
So after bidding farewell to Li Xiang, this guy immediately boarded the ship with his followers, and returned to the capital of Fuso as quickly as possible, and then took the time to resume production. The more food he took out, the greater his talent would be.
As for Ohkawa Gensaburo, you will have to rely on yourself in the future. There was originally a good opportunity for cooperation in front of the two of them, but neither of them cherished this opportunity, and now this opportunity can't be returned.
Watanabe Taro, far away in Fukuoka, was also anxious, but what could he do? Li Xiang had ordered him to station in Fukuoka and Nagasaki, and to use them as the headquarters of the Tang army. So he could only honestly build barracks and roads. As for fighting on the front lines, that was the responsibility of Okawa Gensaburo and Kato Jiro.
Now the entire Fuso has basically formed a surrender force led by these four people. As for some resistance groups in various places, with the negative attitude of Yasukawa Fukuda and Taro Ito, I believe they will enter a trough state.
But Li Xiang also absolutely understood that these people in Fusang were different from people in other places. Even though they did not resist now, there must be a seed of hatred in their hearts. However, Li Xiang was not in a hurry. As long as he discovered and dealt with the problem, he would be able to kill them sooner or later.
When Yasukawa Fukuda and Taro Ito met again, they almost hugged each other and cried bitterly. Although they had been enemies in history and the two families had killed countless people of each other, but looking at the tragic situation now, the two really could not hate each other anymore.
The Tang army did not lose a single soldier. Almost all the soldiers in the service cabins were fighting. Except for the Tang navy's slight participation in the battle, the other armies stood by and watched. This split the entire Fuso into two parts. The two men really didn't know where the future of Fuso lay.
"What else can we do now?"
Taro Ito no longer has the pride he once had, let alone the pride of the Ito family. Now he looks like a stray dog.
The resourceful Fukuda Yasukawa didn't know what to say, as Kato Jiro's army was not far away...
