Tiantang Splendid

Chapter 4796 Surplus Deficit
In summer, Qinghai Lake is full of singing birds, lush grass and rippling blue waves. The sky is blue with white clouds floating in the air. In the distance, there are snow-capped mountains. Fuxi City rises from the ground with majestic grandeur.

Teams of soldiers from inside and outside the city gathered on the open space by the lake, with war horses neighing, flags waving, and murderous intent in the air.

Lu Dongzan sat in the carriage with his eyes slightly squinted, looking at the warriors of the Gar family in front of him, with a layer of haze in his heart.

In the distance, the convoy of the Tang army was winding its way over. The long queue seemed to stretch along the road to the end of the sky. Countless horse-drawn carriages and camel caravans were transporting all kinds of weapons and food. These were the things he had always dreamed of. They were the cornerstone that could support a family or even a country. Now he got them for free without spending a penny, but he felt a chill in his heart.

These things do not require money to buy, but require the lives of the Gar family members to exchange.

As the Tang army convoy arrived at the lakeside, the warriors of the Gar family cheered. Lu Dongzan raised his head and opened his eyes, gazing far away at the endless mountains in the north. Even in summer, the peaks were still covered with eternal snow. Behind those towering mountains was a vast plateau, where the most wise Zamp of the Tibetans since ancient times lived.

Will this battle be won?

Lu Dongzan didn't know that war is all about deception, and the word "deception" fully explains the unpredictable nature of victory or defeat in war.

But this battle must be fought.

The Tang people could not sit idly by and watch the Gar family grow and develop between the Tang and Tubo. Once the regional balance was broken, the Tang would inevitably be dragged into a war, which was something the Tang did not want to face. So they paid with weapons and food to drive the Gar family to attack the plateau, thereby consuming the Gar family's foundation, forcing the Gar family to fully turn to the Tang and restore the regional balance.

Being sandwiched between two great powers is the sorrow of the Gar family, but it is also the way for the Gar family to survive.

At the very least, the Gar family will also be eligible to move their entire clan to the Tang Dynasty...

Pei Xingjian, the general commander of the Qinghai Road, rode a fine horse and came at full speed surrounded by his personal soldiers. He stopped in front of Lu Dongzan's carriage, dismounted, smiled brightly and excitedly, and bowed as he walked: "I am honored to meet you, Your Excellency. The Gar family is indeed the number one family in Tubo. Even though they were driven from the plateau to this remote mountainous area, the children of the family are still heroic and brave. Equipped with the weapons of the Tang Dynasty, they will surely be even more powerful. Perhaps after your contribution to the capture of Songtsen Gampo alive in Lhasa, you can also sit on the throne of the Zamp."

Lu Dongzan forced a smile and looked at the gentle, intelligent and wise young official in front of him, and sighed helplessly in his heart.

"The manager has come from afar, please get in the car and have a cup of barley wine and some yak meat."

His several sons are all outstanding people among the Tibetans, and can be called dragons and phoenixes, but they are slightly inferior to the young man in front of him. People like Pei Xingjian are countless in the Tang Dynasty, but they are not unique either. But how many people in the entire Tibetans can compare with his son?
The Tang Dynasty was too large and had too many people, so there would always be outstanding people emerging one after another. It also had wisdom accumulated over thousands of years that was incomparable to that of Tubo.

When he thought of this, Lu Dongzan recalled his previous failed proposal for marriage to Emperor Taizong, and could not help but sigh.

If that plan had been successful, and the Tang Dynasty had agreed to allow the princess to marry and given her knowledge in agriculture, iron smelting, medicine, calligraphy and painting, etc., Tubo would have certainly been able to transform from a barbaric tribe into a civilized tribe, and then occupy a high position to overlook the Central Plains.

Perhaps that was the best strategy that Tubo had ever had, enough to change fate, but it ultimately failed...

Since then, Tubo's thriving national power came to an abrupt halt and even deteriorated. The various tribes, which were suppressed by the prestige of the king, began to become disunited. Fang Jun's recipe for brewing highland barley wine catalyzed the internal confrontation in Tubo to the brink of an explosion.

In contrast, the Tang Dynasty had an invincible fleet that roamed the oceans, quickly harvested overseas wealth through a series of shipping routes and continuously imported it into the country. Various infrastructure constructions were in full swing, agriculture was stable and commerce was prosperous. On land, the Tang Dynasty's cavalry wiped out the barbarians and destroyed countless countries without ever being defeated. Its glorious military exploits intimidated the world.

The stars move, yin and yang alternate, and there is "momentum" between heaven and earth. Today, the "momentum" of the Tang Dynasty has been established, and it will dominate the world for at least three hundred years. However, countless heroes of the Tang Dynasty are not satisfied. They have gone forward one after another and tried their best to implement the new policies, reforming the bad policies handed down from ancient times one by one, vowing to consolidate the foundation of the "momentum" and continue this "momentum" for a long time. They are not satisfied with three hundred years, five hundred years or even a thousand years, and want to make the glory of the Tang people last endlessly.

Pei Xingjian climbed onto the carriage and knelt in front of Lu Dongzan. The wind blowing from the lake lifted his wide robe and sleeves, and his handsome face was gentle and elegant. He casually picked up the wine pot and poured himself a glass of wine and drank it all in one gulp.

"You seem to be in a bad mood this time, Prime Minister. This is not good. Now is the most critical time for the Gar family. Whether Luoshui City can be decided in one battle is related to the rise and fall of the Gar family. Only a hero like you can stabilize the morale of the army in Fushi City. You are as powerful as a hundred thousand soldiers. Only by maintaining a good body can you make the Zamp on the plateau feel fearful and make tens of thousands of Gar family soldiers energetic... This wine is good. It is completely different from the fine wine of the Tang Dynasty and has a unique exotic flavor."

Lu Dongzan ignored the first half of his words, but was deeply touched by the last sentence: "It is indeed good wine. It is this wine that almost exhausted the barley on the plateau, causing countless herdsmen to starve. The recipe of Duke Yue cut off the foundation of Tubo. I regret it too late."

"That's wrong, Daxiang."

Pei Xingjian took another sip of wine, smacked his lips, and smiled as he said, "Tubo makes wine with highland barley, then sells it to the Tang Dynasty at a high price, and then buys grain from the Tang Dynasty at a low price and ships it back to the plateau... The price difference is even several times or even dozens of times the value of the highland barley itself. This is the first time that the trade between the Tang Dynasty and Tubo has a trade deficit. It must be that Tubo has benefited more. How can the Prime Minister confuse right and wrong and call a deer a horse?"

"Deficit?"

Lu Dongzan didn't pay attention to the sarcasm in Pei Xingjian's words, but he paid close attention to this word, not quite understanding what it meant.

Pei Xingjian explained: "There are countless commodities involved in the trade between the two countries, which can be generally classified as 'exports' and 'imports'. If the export is greater than the import, it can be called a 'surplus', which means that the country's economy is more favorable and the wealth is greater. On the contrary, it is called a 'deficit', which means that wealth is flowing out. For a long time, the trade between the Sui and Tang dynasties and Tubo was a surplus, because Tubo sold only horses to the Tang Dynasty, and the rest was worthless, while the grain, ironware, porcelain, silk, etc. purchased by Tubo almost emptied the storehouse of the Zamp and the pockets of various tribes. If this situation is not changed, Tubo will sooner or later become impoverished. It was the Duke of Yue who gave Tubo the recipe of highland barley wine with a selfless heart, which made Tubo have a surplus in trade with the Tang Dynasty for the first time, filling the storehouse and gathering wealth. Such noble behavior should make Tubo grateful. It is really unreasonable to be resentful of the opposite."

"Is that right?"

Even though he was known as "the wisest man in Tubo", Lu Dongzan was a little dazed for a moment by such unprecedented knowledge.

The Tang Dynasty had so many talented people that there were even people who specialized in studying the impact of such commodity trade on the national treasury. However, Tubo seemed to be permanently stuck in the primitive stage of barter. If this continued, as one side gained while the other lost, what would Tubo have to compete with the Tang Dynasty?
After all, he is a very wise person. After careful consideration, he found some fallacies in it...

"wrong!"

Lu Dongzan cheered up: "Although Tubo was in a trade deficit in the past, what it exported were horses and money. Tubo had plenty of horses, so it didn't matter if they had more or less. Money was useless, and it couldn't fill their stomachs, let alone fight wars. Now it is indeed a trade surplus. What they paid for seems to be highland barley wine, but it is actually grain used for brewing wine. There are more useless money, silk, and porcelain in the treasury, but the lifeline of food is firmly controlled by the Tang Dynasty! When a real war breaks out, only food and war horses can be used. Those money can neither be eaten nor used. This is your conspiracy of the Tang Dynasty!"

Although I have always felt that the trade between Tubo and the Tang Dynasty was a bit strange and Tubo gradually lost its strategic initiative, the truth behind it has never been clear, because Tubo was indeed getting richer and richer because of the trade in barley wine. It is impossible that being rich is worse than being poor, right?
Now I completely understand the reason. The Tang Dynasty used barley wine to exhaust Tubo's food, sent money, silk and porcelain to Tubo, and completely emptied Tubo's strategic resources. As long as the Tang Dynasty wanted, it could cut off Tubo's food supply at any time...

He had already anticipated the outcome. He originally thought that this was just a conspiracy of Fang Jun or someone else, but now it seems that it has long been a conventional method used by the Tang Dynasty to deal with the enemy. There is no need for sophisticated strategies. As long as this set of strategies is applied step by step to any country, the final outcome will not be different.

Pei Xingjian shook his head and said sincerely, "You are setting up hostility between the two countries, but Tubo is in the plateau and Tang is responsible for maintaining the status quo. Why do we have to fight? As long as we don't fight, Tang will get delicious barley wine and yak meat, and Tubo will get countless money and silk. The two countries will each get what they want and live in peace. Isn't it wonderful?"

Lu Dongzan's wrinkled face twitched like a chrysanthemum: "But the war has already begun."

Pei Xingjian shook his head. "It was the Gar family that went to war with Tubo, not the Tang Dynasty. Although the Tang Dynasty is extremely powerful, the Tang people are peaceful by nature and are willing to coexist peacefully with any tribe in the world. As long as there is no provocation or attack, the Tang Dynasty will never take the lead in using force. This is the principle of the Tang Dynasty."

Although the country is big, belligerent must perish.

This is the experience summed up by our ancestors with blood and wisdom. The use of force may maintain interests for a period of time but it is not a long-term solution. The strength and inheritance of culture are the source of lasting strength.

A barbaric country like Tubo, which suddenly rose to power and only knew how to rob and plunder, would never understand such a truth.

So the Tang Dynasty might perish, but on its ruins the next dynasty would surely be established and continue to dominate the world.

Once Tubo is destroyed, it will completely vanish into thin air, and there will be no possibility of it rising again...

As long as the Gar family can contain Tubo and curb its development, the Tang Dynasty does not need to expend huge national strength to launch a war that is a hundred times more difficult. It only needs to develop quietly and wait for Tubo to be destroyed.