The northwest was desolate, and Li Xueyan's arrival finally brought some joy to the face of the unhappy Princess Changle. Today's northwest belongs to the Tang Dynasty, and of course, it now belongs to Su Li. Now it can be said that Juyongguan is all Su Li's territory. The territory was vaster than the current Tang Dynasty itself. The territory was really big, but it was also really desolate. The Zhuxia people had basically occupied all the most fertile land in East Asia a long time ago, and the remaining places were either severely cold or extremely hot, or had barren mountains and rivers that were difficult to develop. Su Li decided to conquer the northwest in the first battle, but development is not a temporary problem. The most serious problem facing Su Li is that "the land here is difficult to support the population of the big star." Most of Su Li's fiefdoms are uninhabited areas, either deserts or snowy mountains. The climate is so severe that it cannot even support a population of tens of millions. "Six Six Three" In fact, this is the cruelty of the land beyond the Great Wall. Since ancient times, there have been many enemies on the grassland who are eager to settle in the Central Plains. Xiongnu, Turks, Xianbei......

And these alien races have one thing in common, that is, whenever they develop, they all want to try to become civilians. The reason is that the northwest land is too barren and too desolate. Any unified regime in the Central Plains has a population of 30 to 40 million at least. In the desolate land of the northwest, neither Genghis Khan nor the Xiongnu Chanyu Maodun could feed a population of tens of millions. The entire northwest has basically been in a state of competition for resources among people for a long time. This is also the fundamental reason why the alien tribes in the northwest have been in war for a long time. As for how desolate the northwest is? The paperwork before Su Li explained it all. Since the battle of Su Li determined the northwest, Datang began to develop the northwest with nationwide efforts. First, the army was mobilized to continue to exterminate the small tribes and miscellaneous tribes in the northwest who were unwilling to surrender. However, the vastness of the northwest left only the Central Plains, and the Tang Dynasty fought in other places. So far, the reactionary forces in the northwest have not been completely eliminated. The second is to invest a lot of manpower and material resources to build cities and open up wasteland for farming. It’s a pity that the northwest is barren and there is a lot of construction work? You have to have so many trees………… It is not difficult to build one or two palace cities, but it is even more difficult to build a large number of cluster-sized cities like those in the Central Plains. Finally, there is the issue of farming………… The desolation of the northwest lies here. Even if the Tang Dynasty sent a large number of agricultural officials, there would be no way to open up a lot of wasteland in the northwest where the weather is bad. Although this place is vast, there is no foundation to support tens of millions of people. Now that the northwest has become Su Li's fiefdom, Su Li cannot sit idly by. To put it bluntly, occupying such a vast territory, Su Li is justified even if he is the emperor of Xicheng. This is not only his fiefdom, but also his country. Northwest China and the Tang Dynasty only had a nominal vassal relationship.

Su Li controlled the military and political power of land preparation in the northwest. At the same time, he did not need to pay tribute or pay taxes. The Tang Dynasty could not interfere in the internal affairs of the northwest. This was Su Li's independent kingdom. Su Li sat in front of the desk, Shi Rantan's paperwork pushed away. "The first question is that there are still a large number of miscellaneous people in the northwest who are unwilling to surrender, who do not accept the king's rule and who do not understand the enlightenment." Although Su Li defeated the active forces in the northwest in the first battle, the northwest is so vast and there are so many fish that slipped through the net. There are at least a few million people in the northwest, and it is impossible for Su Li to kill them all. After this battle, the northwest surrendered on a large scale, but many of them were unwilling to surrender or had hidden evil intentions. After three years of back and forth, Datang was exhausted. There is no way, the northwest is too big, and trying to catch people is purely a matter of luck. The opponent can still run away if he can't win. When Su Li took over the northwest, this group of forces that were unwilling to surrender and those with hidden evil intentions became the first problem that Su Li needed to solve. As long as this group of people existed, the northwest would not be able to develop and no one could withstand it. When it was developing, a group of terrorists were watching there. Su Li didn't expect to kill all the people... Those who came to China were from China, and those who entered barbarism were written as barbarians. China is a cultural distinction, not a racial distinction. To take a step back, no matter how bad they are, they are all yellow people and Asians. If we look at the entire planet, the tens of millions of people in the Central Plains alone are really not enough. The second problem is economic. He who has no permanent property has no perseverance. Even if Su Li can become the co-leader of the barbarians, war will still happen if the core economy is not resolved. The third problem is eating... Food is the most important thing for the people! What Su Li faces now is that the total arable land in the entire northwest can barely support a population of 10 million. Even if all potatoes and sweet potatoes are grown, it can barely support 2,000 people. Less! Too little! Without enough population, the northwest will never be able to develop! The fourth issue is cultural issue... Su Li does not want to be the co-owner of the barbarians, so he must advocate the cultural assimilation of the population, abolish the messy systems, thoughts, languages ​​and writings of the aliens, and change customs on a large scale, which is also a relatively laborious task. "If you think about it seriously, it took Qin Shihuang decades to reach this point..." Su Li patted his head and felt a headache just thinking about it. This is no less difficult than Qin Shihuang's unification of culture by changing customs and customs. Well... it may be more difficult than Qin Shihuang. After all, the northwest is so vast and the population is not as dense as the Central Plains. Just gathering people together is already very difficult. Compared with these thorny problems, Su Li, who was a little worried about Changle's inner displeasure because of Li Xueyan's arrival, didn't think much about it anymore. In comparison, the love between children is a trivial matter. Now, the news that Su Li arrived in the fiefdom has just spread, but for the barbarians in the northwest, it is no less than a bombshell. In fact, it was difficult for Datang to truly rule the entire northwest.

Because the territory is so large that it exceeds the limit of communication, the population is too sparse, and the distribution is too scattered, it is difficult to establish effective rule. Therefore, after Su Li returned to Datang after the battle, Datang started a tug of war with the northwest barbarians. The Tang Dynasty took advantage of the barbarians' vitality to be seriously injured and mobilized troops to seize the most fertile territory. The barbarians could either choose to enter the desert or snow-capped mountains or escape from Dongbo to gain a chance of survival. Either you have to stay here, avoid the sharp edge of the Tang Dynasty, settle for the next best thing, and continue to live in a less fertile land. However, the barren land could not support a large population, and there was definitely not enough food to eat. Therefore, facing a survival crisis, they could only continue to attack the Tang Dynasty. If you win, you will eat a feast, if you lose, you will eat a feast. This kind of history almost runs through the two thousand years of barbarian history. Either win, and everyone will live to eat meat this year. Either we lose the battle, there will be fewer people eating meat, and there will not be enough food to eat. Whenever the population reaches its limit, conflict with the Central Plains regime is an inevitable choice. This barren land cannot give birth to anything called peace. .