The land area is fixed, and the population size fluctuates. When the population size fluctuates greatly, the amount of grassland owned by each person will be different.
"Your monitoring of the Western Regions is very good, but you must always keep an eye on their personal property. If there are too many powerful individuals in each region, it will be extremely detrimental to our rule over the region. We must control them to the level of small landlords. They cannot be too poor, nor too rich. If they are too poor, they will easily rise up and rebel against us. If they are too rich, they will easily form separatist factions, which is not good for us either."
When Li Xiang said these words, Zhang Jiuli was secretly writing them down. To be honest, Zhang Jiuli was quite confident in his own intelligence. It was because he was with Li Xiang that he was so willing to learn. If it were someone else, he would be able to think of the next words immediately before the other person finished speaking. This is the ability of a smart person.
"Your Highness is right. The Western Regions are vastly different from the inland areas. If a local tyrant were to emerge, they could instantly command hundreds of cavalry. Although our military depots are spread across the Western Regions, one or two such depots can certainly solve the problem. However, if the entire region were to be plagued by this problem, I'm afraid we wouldn't be able to handle it, and it would also incur additional military expenses."
Zhang Jiuli pointed to a grassland in the distance and said, Li Xiang knew the difficulty here earlier, that is, there is no good management method. The land area is too large and the population is too small. If these small landlords are allowed to develop, they are likely to develop into separatist forces. At that time, even if you mobilize the army, it will be difficult to deal with them. After all, all their belongings can be loaded into cars, and then they will drag you across the entire grassland. Can you outrun them?
After crossing the Gobi Desert, we finally arrived at the grassland part of Xinjiang, which is extremely beautiful.
The last time Li Xiang came here, he was busy fighting and had no time to appreciate the beautiful scenery here. Zhang Jiuli also disappeared from Li Xiang's side at the right time. They had been talking about work for a whole day. If they continued to talk about work, even if Li Xiang's brain was a computer, it would probably crash by now.
Xiao Xun'er got off the carriage and followed Li Xiang to ride horses on the grassland. The girls in Chang'an City had never seen such a scenery. The grassland was endless and all kinds of wild flowers were everywhere. The girls were all wearing exotic costumes, just like butterflies on the grassland. It was really beautiful.
"This trip out of Chang'an City was not in vain, right?"
Li Xiang said with a smile.
"I really hope to follow His Highness to see different scenery around the world in the future. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, it would be hard to believe that there are such beautiful scenery."
Xiao Xun'er looked at the sunset in the distance with some greed. This was the camp of the Tang Dynasty army. They could gallop on horseback in the afternoon, but when it got dark, they had to return to the camp quickly. There was no such thing as safety in such a place. Only the strong armed forces in your hands could make a difference.
Although the bandits in the surrounding areas have been cleared out, the bandits here still come out in batches, like leeks after rain, and you can't cut them all.
There is no way around it. No matter who governs this place, there is no way to kill all these bandits. When they cover their faces, they are bandits on the grassland. When they return to their tribes, they are ordinary people. How do you determine their identities?
Even if you could confirm their identities, could you find evidence? When they were investigating outside, they hid themselves well. Some would even travel hundreds of miles to rob people. You simply wouldn't be able to find evidence against them. If you were to arrest people indiscriminately, it would cause unrest across the grasslands, and no local official would allow such a thing to happen.
During dinner in the evening, Zhang Jiuli told Li Xiang something. The bandits here all knew the rules very well. As long as they saw the champion's flag, even if it was covered with gold and silver, these people would stay away. They all knew the combat effectiveness of the Tang Dynasty army. Of course, this was also related to Xiao Shougui's handling method.
A year ago, someone robbed a batch of goods from the Tang Dynasty court. Xiao Shougui immediately sent Li Chengyi out. It took about two months to find this group of people. In the end, more than 5,000 people from three tribes were all beheaded.
It was also because of this incident that people on the entire grassland understood that robbing each other was your own business. As long as you didn't make too big a fuss, the Tang Dynasty court would not interfere. But if you robbed the Tang Dynasty court's things, no matter where you ran, the court's army would pull you out. If you wanted to escape at that time, it would be almost impossible. You would not be given this opportunity at all.
"Your Lord Xiao is quite courageous. If I were in that position, I would have to think about how much work these 5,000 men could do for me. Cutting off their heads would certainly cause us some losses, but it would also serve as a warning to the various tribes on the grassland."
After Li Xiang finished speaking, several people around him laughed. Xiao Shougui did such a thing without considering the economic benefits. People who have followed Li Xiang for a long time always talk about costs, but sometimes if you care too much about costs, you may lose something else.
So in such a situation, occasionally killing thousands of people at once would have a very strong deterrent effect on these bandits on the grassland. Their main purpose was to make their families live a good life. Xiao Shougui seized on this idea of theirs and said, "I will kill your families as well, so that you can experience the benefits of robbing Tang Dynasty items."
As the few of them were chatting, the sky gradually darkened and the surrounding troops had begun patrolling.
According to the report from his men, there were several bandits stationed around, and they had circled around several times, but unfortunately they did not dare to come over. The big flag in the center was very obvious, and it was the army of the Tang Dynasty.
Although they knew that these bandits were cowardly, the entire army was still on high alert. Thousands of soldiers patrolled continuously at night to ensure the safety of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, which was also their honor.
