"What are you two looking at so stealthily? This is a memorial from the Dengzhou Navy, forwarded directly by the imperial court."
Li Xiang took the memorial directly. The Dengzhou Navy now has 46 large and small warships, which is considered the most powerful navy in the surrounding area. They hope that Li Xiang can go there to inspect it thoroughly in the early spring of next year.
"Your Highness, these navy warships are usually useless. You put so much effort into them. The training costs alone are 80,000 strings of cash per month, and part of it is paid out of your own pocket. What are you going to do with them?"
Niu Jinda was a little confused. You know, they were stationed on the Turkic steppe, and all their supplies were shipped from the rear. The monthly expenditure was only 110,000 strings of cash. Compared with the Dengzhou Navy, ours was a little less. As soon as those guys fired their cannons, all the silver would be gone, which cost much more than ours.
Li Xiang knew that in the eyes of these generals, he seemed to be a little unemployed. He should focus on training cavalry and crossbows, and should not spend money on those naval warships. Because in recent days, the naval warships have not made any achievements, but instead they spend more money than anyone else.
According to their thinking, if we used the money for building ships, we could buy countless fine horses from Dayuan. As long as our cavalry is strong enough, we can just kill them on land. What's the point of sailing there? Besides, can the places we sail to be the Central Plains? They are all barbarians. Even if we occupied their land, what would be the point? It is said that nothing grows there.
Li Xiang now didn't know how to explain to these two people. Not only them, but also General Li Jing, did not like the navy warships very much. This type of military force was too expensive, and they could not see their use for the time being. Apart from threatening the two countries in the south of Goguryeo, they had not achieved any results so far.
"I've told you all along, this world is vast, and our Tang Dynasty isn't the center of it. There's still a lot of useful land around us. If you only focus on land, you've already lost half the battle. Only by winning on the ocean can we gain a firm foothold in this world."
Li Xiang had said similar things countless times. Every time he said this, the two of them curled their lips and ended the conversation with Li Xiang. They had no idea about the world that Li Xiang was talking about.
"Your Highness, due to the snowstorm, people have already frozen to death on the grasslands. In recent days, more and more people have come to beg for food. Should we open the granaries and release the grain?"
After more than ten days, the temperature had dropped to more than ten degrees below zero, and strong winds and snowstorms were blowing on the grassland. During such a festival, many people would freeze to death on the grassland, because people on the grassland lived in tents. If they had reserves, they could still survive this winter, but if they had few reserves, they would probably lose their lives.
"This is a critical moment. We can't just beat them without giving them candy. You pass on my order to help some people on the grassland, but don't give them too much. Just enough for them to eat, not enough to make them full. At the same time, you must convey to them that this food comes from our mouths."
Li Xiang thought for a while and said, the young generals below also understood what he meant and immediately arranged people to do it. The people on the grassland lived in hardship.
In the past, when winter came, at least 5% of the people would freeze to death. These people didn’t even have a tent, let alone enough food to eat.
Now that Li Xiang's army was stationed on the grasslands, he had to change this situation. If the Tang army came and froze people to death, and the number of people who froze to death was even higher, then what was the point of the Tang army staying here? Li Xiang wanted to use this incident to let the people of the grasslands know that only if they followed the Tang army would they be managed.
"Come back. The relief supplies from various places must be delivered to the herdsmen personally by our people. We don't need to give them too much. Just enough to feed them for a few days. When they run out, they can come back to us for more. If we give them too much at once, they will know that we have stored it. We must also tell them that if the tribal leaders dare to steal their food, they can go to the Donghu Mansion to file a complaint, and the Tang Dynasty will give them a verdict."
Li Xiang thought for a while and said, these tribal leaders on the grassland are not good people. They are a little short of supplies in winter. If the supplies are given to them to distribute, some people will directly put them into their own warehouses. They don’t care how those people below live. As long as they live a comfortable life, even if the grassland is full of frozen bones, it doesn’t matter to them. The wild wolves on the grassland will eat all these things.
In the next ten days or so, the Tang army overcame various difficulties and delivered some of the food in their hands to the herdsmen. Many herdsmen were moved to tears on the spot. In previous years, when winter came, they could only choose to let the elderly in their families starve and let the young people eat the food. Only in this way could they survive. As for the elderly, they could only rely on God.
If the food were divided equally, the whole family might starve to death. This is also the custom on the grassland. They do not have enough food and cannot slaughter cattle and sheep because these cattle and sheep belong to the headman. Only cattle and sheep that have frozen to death can be eaten.
At the beginning, the tribal leaders were also very happy. At least his men guaranteed that they would not die in the blizzard this winter. If they died in the blizzard, then there would be no one to graze for him next year.
But soon these nobles discovered something was wrong. The Tang army was trying to win people's hearts. In the past, when encountering blizzards, everyone had no choice but to wait for death. But now that the Tang Dynasty had transported so much food, it made them feel like another government. This was a disguised way of saying that we were not capable enough before!
But even if they understand this, there is no way to change it now. Asking them to take things out of their own warehouses would really overestimate them. They would never do such a thing even if they were beaten to death. In their impression, those untouchables are not worthy.
