Sammo built the city, and the king of Kang's palace was filled with singing and dancing, and the wine and meat were fragrant.
For three days in a row, the kings and elders of the Nine Kingdoms, all descendants of the Dayue clan, gathered here together to discuss the important matter of unification and merger!
Over the years, although the nine kingdoms of Zhaowu were rich and had many soldiers, they fell apart due to their own wars, and they did not like fighting and were not good at diplomacy and military affairs. Therefore, they were defeated one by one, and they were always suppressed by the Western Turks Beiting. With slavery, one dares to be angry but dare not speak out and has to endure silently.
In recent years, there have been many wars in the Western Region, and the northern and southern factions of the Western Turks have been fighting continuously. As a result, these small countries have been caught in the middle and are struggling to survive, and everyone is in danger. Coupled with the strong rise of the western food countries, they have already put down the Sasanian Dynasty of Persia, and they will soon get involved in the Western Regions. The first thing to do is to devour the wealthy Zhaowu Nine Kingdoms, and use this as a springboard and base to enter the Western Regions. . The previous civil strife in Kangxi broke out under such external and internal troubles. If it hadn't been for Wu Meiniang's magical performance that caused Kang's rebellious parties to kill each other, and the Tang general Su Dingfang arrived immediately to help Kang resist foreign enemies, the cannibal's scimitar would have been placed on the necks of the people of the nine kingdoms of Zhaowu. On.
At the same time, the Tang Dynasty powerfully entered the Western Regions, destroyed Gaochang, and pacified Beiting. More than 20 small tribes in the Western Regions surrendered. In just over a year, the Tang Dynasty's troops from Guanxi traveled thousands of miles and swept through the Western Regions in a torrent that was unstoppable. The Western Turks Beiting, which once dominated the country for a while, was repeatedly defeated by the power of the Tang Dynasty king, and finally surrendered.
Beiting is still unable to compete with the Guanxi Army of the Tang Dynasty, let alone the Nine Kingdoms of Zhaowu who once knelt at the feet of Beiting
Everyone in the Nine Kingdoms was in panic from the moment Qin Mubai personally led his troops to the Western Regions. Because they had also vassed Beiting, and more or less, either proactively or out of necessity, they had done something hostile to the Tang Dynasty.
Now they are thinking to themselves. If they are still enemies of the Tang Dynasty, they may not even have to do it themselves. Kansai coach Qin Mubai will send one of his men to attack, and the Nine Kingdoms will be trampled to the ground in an instant!
Fortunately, Marshal Qin of Kansai did not think of their old evil, had no intention of destroying the Nine Kingdoms of Zhaowu, and was determined to build an alliance with the Nine Kingdoms. The rulers of the Nine Kingdoms were not stupid. They knew that the Tang Dynasty intended to build up a force in the remote areas of the Western Region as a military buffer zone to prevent the Great Eclipse and the confrontation between the East and the West. They also knew that even though Beiting was destroyed but the Nine Kingdoms of Zhaowu still survived, it was partly because of the tolerant national policy of the Tang Dynasty, and partly because of the personal relationship between Wu Meiniang and Qin Mubai.
If not, as long as Qin Mubai uses his words to conquer the Nine Kingdoms in the name of conquest, who can stop the hundreds of thousands of tigers and wolves under his command? By then, he can collect all the wealth of the Nine Kingdoms, and then conveniently support a puppet king of an empty dynasty to command the Nine Kingdoms! —Cannibalism, isn’t this the plan
The survival of the Nine Kingdoms actually only depends on Qin Mubai's thoughts. He has sufficient reasons and absolute strength to do whatever he wants in the Nine Kingdoms of Zhaowu! Even if the people of the Nine Kingdoms were wronged and wronged, they could only do nothing.
Therefore, under such a subtle premise, Wu Meiniang's identity becomes crucial. In addition, the new Queen of the Crescent Moon who succeeded Kang Guo has long been Qin Mubai's favorite, and all these monarchs also tacitly understood it. At this time, not only did they not have any dissatisfaction, they also kept shouting in their hearts to be thankful - fortunately Wu Meiniang was here, fortunately the Crescent Queen 'sacrificed herself' to save the Nine Kingdoms of Zhaowu, allowing the race to continue and the country to survive!
Under such a general premise, the unification of the nine countries into one is an inevitable fact. Although the meeting lasted for three days, 99% of the time was actually spent eating, drinking and having fun, and there was nothing left to discuss.
The debut of the 'Dazhao Wu Kingdom' is inevitable, and it is also inevitable that the Crescent Queen of Kang State will become the first king of the Dazhao Wu Kingdom. What needs to be discussed is how to divide the territory of the Nine Kingdoms and how to arrange the rulers and nobles of the other eight Kingdoms.
At Qin Mubai's suggestion, the Dazhao Wu Kingdom followed the Tang Dynasty's state and county system and divided the original territory of the Nine Kingdoms into various states and counties, which were unified and managed by officials sent by King Dazhao Wu. The original eight capitals were all used as companion capitals and were called 'cities', and the original eight kings were granted the title of 'eight city lords'. In addition, some small cities were established and granted to other important nobles as city lords at all levels.
The city lord enjoys food, fiefs and titles at all levels, and his status is extremely honorable and wealthy. Moreover, the position of city lord can be hereditary and replaceable. However, the city lord must surrender to the king and obey the king's orders. He must pay taxes to the country according to the law. He has no right to appoint officials at all levels in the city, let alone raise private soldiers.
In fact, the city lord is like the kind of empty-duty prince who was granted the title of Tubo by the Tang Dynasty. He can enjoy the wealth and prosperity, but he does not have a high political status, and it is impossible to have any military strength. .
At the same time, Zhaowu State will also abolish the 'chief and assistant cabinet' system originally implemented in Kang Guoju, and completely follow the organizational system of the Tang Dynasty, establish "three provinces and six ministries", establish a complete political organization and administrative system, and further centralize royal power.
Wu Meiniang, who was favored by everyone, became the first minister of the Kingdom of Zhaowu. (Equivalent to "National Prime Minister".)
The kings and nobles of the nine kingdoms unanimously elected Wu Meiniang, the chief military officer of Kang State, as Shangshu Ling, which can be said to have good intentions. Because, at the beginning of the founding of the Tang Dynasty, King Qin Li Shimin held this position in the Tang Dynasty. (In later generations, in order to avoid Taizong's taboo, no one in the Tang Dynasty held this position. Instead, official positions such as "Shang Shu Zuo (Right) Pushe" and "Tong Zhongshu Menxia Ping Zhang Shi" were used to replace or divide the responsibilities of Shangshu Ling. The right pushe of the Tang Dynasty in Zhenguan was Xiao Yu, and the chief minister Sun Wuji served as the left pushe.)
They were nothing more than showing their goodwill to Qin Mubai, and also laying the groundwork for the future Queen of the Crescent Moon's Zen position. At that time, we can also call it euphemistically, "We are just imitating our Tang Dynasty sovereign state." Therefore, it is justifiable to support Wu Meiniang.
While the Nine Kingdoms were discussing unification, Qin Mubai was not idle for a moment except being invited to discuss matters. The Tang Dynasty had generally pacified the Western Regions, and it was time for the Anxi Protectorate to be established. In addition, the Western Region has a vast territory, and the Anxi Protectorate alone will certainly not be able to govern the entire territory. Therefore, below the Dufufu, additional Dudufu at various levels must be established. In addition to the territory of the Nine Kingdoms that is not included in the territory, other areas must be divided into prefectures and counties.
Qin Mubai, Su Dingfang and others first discussed a draft. The site of the Anxi Protectorate was chosen to be the prosperous and beautiful Gongyue City, the original capital of Beiting and the throat of the Western Region. In addition, nine additional governor's offices were set up, including Gaochang, Beiting, Kunling, Dawan, Tiaozhi, and An'an, and garrisoned troops and set up government offices to control one side.
Among them, there is a Dudu's Mansion, named 'Yueshi Great Dudu's Mansion', which is the only "big" Dudu's Mansion among the nine. Its location is in Samadjian City. Qin Mubai appointed Su Dingfang as the first Yuezhi Grand Governor, stationed 20,000 troops in his own vassal country on behalf of the Tang Dynasty, supervised and assisted the king of the Jokhang Wu Kingdom in governing the country, and exercised various powers of the suzerain state.
The thousands of miles of territory that the Tang Dynasty developed in the Western Regions was divided into more than a dozen states and dozens of counties. Although, Qin Mubai would report to the imperial court for the selection of officials at all levels of prefectures and counties, asking the imperial court to appoint officials to take office. However, when the Governor's Office was first established, when everything was ready for improvement and it was time to hire people, he could only send his generals to serve as temporary governors first, at least to establish the Governor's Office first.
However, precisely because of this, a preconception trend has been formed. At that time, the imperial court will definitely not be able to slap Qin Mubai in the face and install another governor. Instead, it can only accept this established fact and let these "temporary governors" selected by Qin Mubai become official feudal officials, or at least serve as officials. Let’s wait until a certain term is completed. Moreover, the candidates for state officials, governors and county magistrates at all levels will definitely be selected from nearby officials. Most of them will come from the Kansai Army or officials who were once under the governor's office of Lanzhou.
In this way, the Four Court Pillars and Eight Military Platforms in the Kansai Army completely monopolized all the governorships in the Western Regions. Each of them led troops ranging from 5,000 to 20,000, and were in charge of one side. Only Xue Rengui and Yuwen Hongtai were not allowed to serve as governors by Qin Mubai. The reason is very simple. Yuwen Hongtai only knows how to charge into battle, and is not a political figure. Returning to the court or serving as a general under Qin Mubai is more like it. Xue Rengui, his future is far more than that of a governor in a remote place in the Western Regions. Simple!
In this way, the administrative divisions of the Western Regions have generally been drawn up. Prefectures and counties at all levels are subordinate to the Dudufu, and the Dudufu is subordinate to the Anxi Protectorate. In this way, Qin Mubai, the protector of Anxi, will become the uncrowned king of the Tang Dynasty over half of the entire Western Region!
The overall situation was initially decided, Qin Mubai was eager to return to Lanzhou. Things here in the Western Region will be temporarily left to Su Dingfang to take charge.
Outside the city, Datang was already reorganizing its troops, and the governors at all levels led their troops to the headquarters. Qin Mubai was also ready to lead his army.
Before leaving, Qin Mubai still had two personal things to do, and several important people to say goodbye to.
First, he entered Samajian City alone in simple clothes and came to Yuan Tiangang's residence.
The one who opened the door was Xiaodao Tong'er beside Yuan Tiangang. Before entering the house, the little boy told Qin Mubai that Senior Sister Jingwei (Li Xueyan) accompanied the master and traveled to various places, leaving only a letter to Qin Mubai.
Qin Mubai opened the letter and read it. The letter was written by Yuan Tiangang. In the letter, he said that Jingwei was determined to travel to the legendary ancient kingdom of Persia, so he had to go with her, and he probably wouldn't be able to come back in three or two months. He also said that he was grateful to Qin Mubai for everything he had done for Mingzhu. Whether Mingzhu would have a good destination and its fate in the future all depended on Qin Mubai.
After reading the letter, Qin Mubai shook his head and smiled bitterly, and said to himself: Xueyan still can't pass his level after all, and he is still avoiding me now. I left her with tips for him to think carefully and give an answer, but she chose to escape. But no matter what, there are times in life that must be fulfilled, and there are always times in life that are not forced. If she and I are destined to be together, we will definitely meet again in the future. Now that everything is turbulent and state affairs are at the forefront, I have to put Li Xueyan's affairs aside for the time being. When I go to the Central Plains and come back, I will have a lot of time, even if I have a love-hate relationship with my children...
Qin Mubai felt a little regretful not seeing Yuan Tiangang and Li Xueyan. Others would like to let Yuan Tiangang, a great master, make further calculations about the fate of the Tang Dynasty and the future of the Chinese nation, and re-enact "*".
But Qin Mubai later thought, why should I bother myself? History has its own trajectory, and future generations will have their own ups and downs. When you are alive, you can just carry the things of your lifetime on one shoulder. Why think about a thousand years from now? Even if we know the future, what can we do
Qin Mubai felt relieved!