Li Xiang was very satisfied with Zhang Jiuli's performance. Many officials nowadays only know some literary and historical collections, and do not understand many things in society. If they were not born into wealthy families, they would probably have problems with food in their lives and would not be able to tell the difference between grains. How much can you expect from them?
Zhang Jiuli was a person who rose from the bottom, so he had some understanding of the situation around him. Although he often exploited the people, in his free time, he still made some efforts to understand the situation around him, so that he would not be unaware of the foreigners coming in to attack him.
Nanzhao King Luo Sheng was definitely no ordinary man. Even as a young child, he was able to travel thousands of miles to Chang'an City, and now he was the king of Nanzhao. Naturally, he was quite capable. According to the history that Li Xiang was familiar with, he did not initiate any war against the Tang Dynasty during his reign, but his descendants were different...
Of course, this cannot be blamed on their descendants. At that time, the Tang Dynasty was in decline and any small country wanted to step on it. This was also related to the fact that Emperor Xuanzong Li Longji favored Yang Yuhuan. After the Anshi Rebellion, did the Tang Dynasty still have that ability?
But Li Xiang is not here to explain this. He wants to nip all the dangers in the bud. You can still be defeated easily now. If you are given a few more years to develop, maybe your population will double by then. Doubling the population means the army must double. If we want to defeat you again, it will take a lot more effort.
"Make a guess in your mind. Now that the four great chieftains have surrendered to us, how many soldiers can we draw from their strongholds? I mean, how many can we draw from them to fight here?"
Zhang Jiuli still found it a little difficult to accept Li Xiang's straightforward statement, but as he spent more time with Li Xiang, Zhang Jiuli also knew Li Xiang's character. He never liked to beat around the bush, so it was normal for him to say such things.
"After this chaos, the four great chieftains, Adu and Longchuan, probably can't spare many men. They're all licking their wounds. But Shatu and Longquan are different. They can both mobilize at least 30,000 troops. Especially Longquan, he has a bad relationship with Nanzhao. If our boss takes advantage of him, he can mobilize 30,000 troops himself."
At this point, Li Xiang seemed to understand something. Could it be that the Longquan chieftain and Nanzhao had a grudge against each other?
"Please explain it clearly."
The chieftain of Longquan has no more than 30,000 people under his command, and now all of them belong to the imperial court. If they are forcibly brought here, these people may not work hard, so there is no point in bringing them here. But if the chieftain of Longquan goes to the front line in person, some things will be difficult to say. If there is a feud between the two sides, then the combat effectiveness will be immeasurable.
"It should have been eight years ago when a caravan of the Longquan Tusi headed for Nanzhao. Later, for some unknown reason, they offended Luo Sheng's nephew, and the caravan was directly detained. Your Highness, you know that the Tusi in the mountains value money. This caravan was worth at least 100,000 strings of cash, so the Longquan Tusi would definitely not suffer any loss and immediately took people to retrieve the people..."
The rest of the story is rather clichéd. It was a war started by a caravan. At the beginning, there were only a few hundred people fighting on both sides, but later it gradually developed into a battle of tens of thousands of people. In the end, thousands of people were killed or injured, and the caravan was not returned. This can be said to be the most painful memory of the Longquan chieftain.
Of course, this is also a normal conflict between the two countries. It would be a bit far-fetched to say that there is hatred, but in this war, Longquan Tusi's only sister also died in battle.
The Longquan Tusi had only two children, a brother and a sister, so they had a very good relationship. After his sister died in the war, the Longquan Tusi even wanted to gather all the soldiers in the village to avenge his sister. If it weren't for the advice of the elders in the village, the scale of the war between the two sides might have been even larger.
Although no large-scale war broke out later, the Longquan chieftain sent batches of assassins over, and he himself stayed in the mountain stronghold and was able to eliminate all the Nanzhao assassins by relying on the roads going up and down the mountain. However, the Nanzhao side was not so lucky.
In Nanzhao, almost all the wealthy families who had anything to do with the war were assassinated. In recent years, more than two hundred people died. These were not two hundred ordinary people, but prominent figures in Nanzhao.
So speaking of hatred, these two hundred heads are no joke. Nanzhao was also very dissatisfied with the Longquan chieftain and subsequently launched a series of attacks, but the Longquan chieftain also tasted the sweetness. Anyway, he just kept his people on the mountain and refused to come down. You can attack me if you want to at the foot of the mountain. It's fine as long as you can afford the logistics.
Even the Central Plains dynasty could not afford such logistics, let alone a small border country like Nanzhao, so it eventually came to nothing, but the hatred between the two sides did remain.
"I never thought such a thing could happen. It's a good thing you remembered it. If it weren't for you, I might not have known about it. Go collect evidence immediately, and be careful not to leak the news. This time we are really going there for a marriage alliance. Even if we want to attack, we can't choose this time."
With an opportunity that can be utilized, Li Xiang will definitely not sit idle. Since Zhang Jiuli is very cautious in everything he does, Li Xiang is still prepared to hand this matter over to him. As for the Longquan chieftain, he will not be able to do much for the time being. He will wait until he returns from the capital to see what happens.
"There is another matter, please report it to me..."
When Zhang Jiuli was about to leave, he suddenly thought of a rumor he had heard before. Of course, it might not be true, but since Li Xiang was so interested now, Zhang Jiuli had to tell him everything he had heard. When Zhang Jiuli said that it was just a rumor, Li Xiang also signaled this guy to speak out.
It turns out that the succession of the throne of Nanzhao was not stable. Luo Sheng's mother, the current Queen Mother of Nanzhao, was still alive. She loved her youngest son the most and wanted the throne of Nanzhao to be passed down from brother to brother. However, the inheritance of Nanzhao was similar to that of the Central Plains dynasties. Basically, the son inherited the father's business. If the throne was passed down from brother to brother, the King of Nanzhao himself would not be willing to do so. Although the younger brother was his biological son, could he be closer than his son?
