OBS Chapter 408 adds 5 new questions.
Chapter 408 adds 5 new questions.
In the prosperous and bustling city of Xianyang in the Tang Dynasty, the Qianyu Chamber of Commerce is located in the heart of the city, where the coming and going merchants and busy shop assistants create a prosperous scene.
Lin Dafu, the core figure of Qianyu Chamber of Commerce, has hardly had a moment of peace since returning from Goguryeo.
In the present Tang Dynasty, the heavy responsibility of economic development falls heavily on the shoulders of Lin Dafu alone.
In the Qianyu Chamber of Commerce, the salaries of employees were raised to an astonishing level, far exceeding the levels of other jobs.
Behind this generous reward is the loss of their precious leisure time.
They are busy with the affairs of the Chamber of Commerce from morning to night every day. The sound of abacus beads, the sound of flipping through account books and hurried footsteps are intertwined.
This is because the Tang Dynasty recently opened up Liaodong and Lingdong. These two vast and highly undeveloped new areas are waiting for the Tang Dynasty to build on them.
This made everyone in the Qianyu Chamber of Commerce instantly busy, even several times busier than the officials in the imperial court.
The top priority is to make every effort to resolve these two economic development problems.
Your Majesty has spoken clearly that the wealth and profits created by the newly acquired territory will be given priority to the Qianyu Chamber of Commerce.
This undoubtedly shows His Majesty's great trust in Qianyu Chamber of Commerce, but it also makes Lin Dafu feel a heavy responsibility.
In his eyes, the two precious lands of Liaodong and Lingdong were two godsend treasures, full of unlimited potential.
The vast black soil in Liaodong is so fertile that it seems to be oozing oil. Just imagining the amount of grain that can be produced on that land is enough to make one's heart boil.
On that black soil, seeds are sown in the spring and mountains of grain can be harvested in the autumn, feeding countless people.
Not to mention the precious furs, rare ginseng, and abundant game, each of which is worth a fortune, worth a lot of silver, and is a huge amount of wealth.
Lin Dafu was obsessed with developing these two places as soon as possible and making them profitable. If there was any delay, he would feel like he had lost a lot of gold. He was anxious and uneasy, tossing and turning at night and unable to fall asleep.
At this time, Lin Dafu, who was busy in the Qianyu Chamber of Commerce, never expected that because of his unreliable uncle, the Chamber of Commerce would have to bear a huge amount of expenses for no reason. This undoubtedly made his already busy days even worse.
Late spring of the fifth year of Qianwu.
In Liaodong and Lingdong, factories of all sizes have sprung up like mushrooms after a rain, and are lined up in rows.
Every chimney of the factory continuously emits thick white smoke, and the rising smoke indicates that a prosperous development chapter is about to begin here.
In the distant Western Regions, the Tang Dynasty's cavalry galloped across the land, invincible.
The once powerful Western Turks eventually perished under the mighty military power of the Tang Dynasty.
From then on, this vast land became part of the territory of the Tang Dynasty.
On the New Year's Day celebration in the fifth year of Qianwu, a day worth celebrating, the Tang Emperor Li Chengqian was very pleased and personally named this newly incorporated western region "Xinjiang Road", implying that the new year would open up new territories, and the territory of the Tang Dynasty would be more vast and the national strength would be more prosperous.
The Western Turks practiced a tribal system. Although they had built several cities, in Li Shimin's eyes, the defenses of those cities were so weak that there was no need to even launch a large-scale attack. The Tang army's brave cavalry could easily flatten them.
But times have changed. Now that the Tang Dynasty has powerful cannons, we still have to give it a try.
Under the roar of artillery fire, the cities of Western Turkestan were reduced to ashes one after another and turned into the dust of history.
As the Tang army approached step by step, the remnants of the Western Turkic Khaganate were terrified and could only flee westward in panic. The once powerful Western Turkic Khaganate was declared completely destroyed.
Li Shimin acted decisively and named this area Anxi Dao, implying that the stability of the Tang Dynasty would continue here. (This included most of present-day Kazakhstan, including eastern and southern Kazakhstan, all of Uzbekistan, including the Amu Darya and Syr Darya River basins, which are important agricultural and commercial areas, all of Kyrgyzstan, parts of Turkmenistan, and parts of northern Afghanistan and northern Iran.)
(There are two suspected places where Li Bai was born. One is the city of Suiye in Kyrgyzstan, which was historically part of the Tang Dynasty.)
May 3rd, the fifth year of Qianwu, was a day of great historical significance, as the Tang Empire and the Arab Empire officially connected on land.
The caravans between the two countries became increasingly frequent. Camels loaded with silk, porcelain and other Tang Dynasty specialties traveled westward in a mighty procession, while spices, jewelry and other rare treasures from Arabia also flowed into the Tang Dynasty in a steady stream.
Cultural exchanges also gradually increased. Arab scholars and Tang Dynasty literati exchanged knowledge with each other. Different ideas sparked brilliant sparks in the collision, adding new vitality to the prosperity of the Tang Dynasty.
On the 22nd day of July in the Qianwu year, a touching event occurred at the foot of Songzhou City.
Yan Quan, the new governor of Songzhou, received an urgent message that a large number of Tibetans had gathered outside the city.
The Tubo people had previously experienced the tragic fate of national destruction and genocide. Their former national system had collapsed, and they had completely become a barbaric and backward tribe.
The land was originally barren and desolate, and in the past years, the Tang Dynasty did not pay much attention to it.
However, in the past two years, the climate has undergone miraculous changes. The temperature has gradually warmed up, and this Tubo, which was once considered a barren land, can now grow crops.
The fate of those Tibetan slaves who had been oppressed and treated worse than livestock also changed dramatically.
They broke free from the abyss of darkness and began to live like normal people. They worked hard on the land and grew a lot of food with their sweat and hard work.
In the past, they had never dared to imagine that the noble lords who were once high and mighty and oppressed them would have the same fate as today, wailing and screaming under the swords of the Tang army, and their heads rolling on the Loess Plateau, just like them.
The spark of hope was ignited in the hearts of these once oppressed souls, and all these changes came from the blade of the Tang Dynasty.
They were full of gratitude but didn't know how to express it. So, with the most simple emotions, they used the most precious food to pay tribute to the city of Songzhou to express their deep gratitude to the Tang Dynasty.
These Tibetans had very limited knowledge of the Tang Dynasty. They only knew that the majestic Songzhou City in front of them was the symbol of the Tang Dynasty, and they even naively believed that the emperor of the Tang Dynasty lived in this city.
In their pure hearts, the sun in the sky is everything to them, and it is the most noble and praiseworthy existence they can think of.
Therefore, they praised the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty as the sun of the tribe. In their cognition, the sun rises from the east, and the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty is also in the east. The Emperor of the Tang Dynasty is the brightest and most dazzling sun in the east, and is the object of their admiration.
Yan Quan did not dare to slack off at all and immediately reported the matter to Chang'an.
His Majesty also attached great importance to it and responded quickly, ordering the retrieval of all Tubo lands, the abolition of slavery, and the establishment of the Tibet Road.
From then on, these slaves from the Tubo tribe officially became part of the Tang Dynasty, and they would start a new life under the protection of the Tang Dynasty.
At the end of the fifth year of Qianwu, the Tang Dynasty had added five new regions compared to the Zhenguan period, its territory had further expanded, its national strength had become stronger, and its reputation had spread far and wide. People all over the world were impressed by the prosperity of the Tang Dynasty. It was truly a glorious chapter in the prosperous era.