During the long period of foreign wars, the Tang Dynasty accumulated a huge amount of land, but it was not an easy task to manage all these lands. After a long period of exploration, the managers of the Tang Dynasty also found a practical solution, which was immigration.
Many people have been killed in various places. If someone resists, you have to kill them. Even if you kill all the local people, there will still be people who resist in the end. Where there is oppression, there will be resistance. Li Xiang is very clear about this.
Immigration can be said to be the lowest-cost activity. Bringing our people from the mainland and letting them settle down locally may cause big problems in the short term, but as long as these people can persevere, what they give back to us in the future will definitely be more than what we have paid.
In the occupied areas, Tang Dynasty immigrants played a relatively important role. Take the current Goguryeo as an example. The local resistance forces have almost been suppressed. There is no need for official troops at all. The militia organizations organized by immigrants can bring these rebels to justice.
Of course, they are the best developed regions, but there are also some regions that are not well developed, such as the Indochina Peninsula today. This is mainly because there are many mountains and forests there, and bullying of immigrants happens from time to time. Even if the army captures local people, some of them can still run away to the mountains.
As long as these people escape into the mountains, their lives are essentially saved. Of course, life in the mountains is not easy. Some have suggested closing the mountains, but then again, if you close the mountains, wouldn't the local delicacies be locked away? This would also be a huge blow to the local economy.
Therefore, the only option is to continue to increase the number of immigrants. When the number of immigrants forms a proper proportion with the local people, the local area will be able to settle down easily. The same is true for the Western Regions, but if the Western Regions want to attract immigrants, it will be more troublesome and difficult than the Indochina Peninsula.
After hearing what Li Xiang said, Xiao Shougui just smiled bitterly. Li Xiang knew how difficult it was. The Western Regions were too far away from Chang'an, and they were also on the front line of the war with the Arab Empire. So unless they couldn't survive, no one would be willing to come here.
Everyone knows the benefits of immigration. Look at Goguryeo and Fuso. As long as you have a strong fighting spirit, you can now transform from proletarians to property owners. But is the Western Regions the same as those places?
No matter which region this place is divided into, whether it is the Anxi Protectorate or other jurisdictional areas, the people in Chang'an still like to call it the Western Regions as long as they are out of Yumen Pass.
Some people say that this place is very rich and that all kinds of oases are prosperous, but why don’t you talk about those deserts?
Compared with the 21st century, the climate in the Western Regions is still good in this era. However, even if it is good, it cannot be compared with Chang'an. As long as there is a way to make a living in the inland, no one wants to come to this place. Therefore, the immigration policy has been implemented for several years, and only a handful of people have come here.
Among those who came here, many had only one idea, which was to make some money here and then take the money back to their hometown. They never thought about settling down here, because many people did not want to stay here for a long time. The main reason was that it was too dangerous here and the natural environment was not something that ordinary people could overcome.
People coming from the mainland will basically get seriously ill here. The air here is extremely dry, and the food and drink are very different from those in the mainland. If your body can't hold on, you may even lose your life here. In this day and age, acclimatization is a serious illness.
Take the Tang Dynasty army for example. They conducted adaptive training in various places, but when a group of troops came from Chang'an City, many people still lost their lives. Although the proportion is not very high, people died after all. Even the army paid such a heavy price, let alone ordinary people, whose price must have been even greater.
"We've had three waves of immigrants come in total, each with a small number of people. Now, the total number is only about 9,000 people. There's really no way to encourage them. We've started offering cash subsidies, but still no one wants to come."
Among immigrants from all over the country, they are generally given houses and land, but never cash. They are afraid that these people will run away after taking the cash. After all, people who are willing to immigrate to the frontier have certain moral defects. If you expect them to take the money and settle down here, then you are probably overestimating them.
But people in the Western Regions don't even come if you pay them. They just run away after taking the money. They don't do that. The main reason is that it is too difficult to run back from here. Take Anxi Duhu Mansion as an example. It is located to the west of the original 36 countries in the Western Regions. If you want to run back to Chang'an from here, the army will take about three months, and ordinary people will take more than half a year.
If six months of stable living can earn you enough money to buy a house, many people are willing to take the risk. But the question is, are these six months truly ordinary? Almost every day is a life-or-death struggle. Even if you're strong and lucky, and have weathered one difficult hurdle after another, are you afraid of these local men with machetes?
Li Xiang originally thought that the benefits of immigration were enough, but now it seems that it is far from the case. No matter how much benefits you give, when these people think that the local area is unsafe, they will not bother to come here to earn the money. No one would plan to take the money but have no life to spend it.
"It seems we need to come up with a new solution. Without our immigrants, life will be difficult. Relying solely on our army, we've killed batch after batch. Now these forty or so people have proved it. Did we kill fewer people in the past? That's much more than other places, but the problem is that we just can't get over this hurdle."
Li Xiang drank a glass of wine feeling a little depressed. Xiao Shougui also felt panic. His Highness had handed this matter over to him, and it was obvious that he was dissatisfied with his work. But the problem was that he had no idea how to attract immigrants no matter how hard he tried.
"Your Highness, since we Han Chinese immigrants can't come here, can we send a group of other people over? For example, the Gaoju people, for example, the Fuso people, they have to act according to orders..."
