Li An is not worried that other countries will come from behind and trample the Tang Empire under his feet, now all the high-tech and talented people are concentrated in the Tang Empire, for many cutting-edge talents, the Tang Empire is specially protected, and they will not be allowed to leave the Datang, and even, they will not be allowed to leave the capital, such as the talents of the R&D center, they can only choose to live around the capital, and there is basically no opportunity to go out, otherwise if they are caught, they will be regarded as fugitives, to be precise, technical fugitives, After all, it was the Tang Empire that cultivated them, so they must always serve the Tang Dynasty, and the remuneration can be very high, but they must not leave their posts, let alone serve other countries.

The same as the protection of talents, the blockade of technology in the Tang Empire is also the highest level, all the technologies that are vital to the development of the Tang Dynasty must be blocked, and they will definitely not be mastered by other countries, and many of the highest-level technical materials are in the hands of Li An, as long as Li An does not commit treason, these technical materials will not flow out, and Li An has a large number of guards and protection when he goes out, there is no possibility of being kidnapped, at the feet of the Son of Heaven, no one has such great ability.

In this case, Ang Lee naturally does not have to worry that Datang will be surpassed by other countries, and it is not so urgent to promote firearms in the army on a large scale, but Ang Lee will not stop continuing to develop and manufacture a small number of firearms.

After considering these situations clearly, Li Ang decided to pour cold water on Guo Ziyi, asking him not to be so obsessed with firearms, or to casually ask the craftsman to make some arquebuses and give them to him to experience by himself, and he will not do this right away, at least it will be delayed for a while.

In many countries in later generations, there will be some secret killer weapons, these weapons are so powerful that they are generally not displayed in public, so that when suddenly thrown into battle, they can inflict serious blows on the enemy.

The Tang Empire is already strong enough, and no country can be the opponent of the Tang Empire, so it is not meaningful to deliberately prepare secret weapons, but it is better to show these secret weapons, so as to deter the surrounding areas and show the military might of the Tang Empire.

In addition, there are too many foreigners in the Tang Empire, especially near the capital, Hu people of different colors can be seen everywhere, and it is not realistic to secretly prepare secret weapons in this environment.

But if Ang Lee secretly hides a secret weapon, it will not be easy to be discovered, for example, the rifle that Ang Lee has developed, there are only a few of them, this ordinary person is really not clear, even the people in the R&D center don't know, after all, when Ang Lee was developing, the parts of the rifle were scattered to different craftsmen to complete, these craftsmen belong to different departments, and there is basically no much communication between them, so naturally they can't figure out what the parts that Ang Lee asked them to study are, and they don't dare to ask casually.

Since the rifle has been successfully developed, it only needs to set up industrial production, and it will soon be able to carry out large-scale production, and it is still no problem to equip tens of thousands of elite troops, but for the time being, because there is not much need, after weighing the pros and cons, Li An still feels that there is no need to be too anxious, anyway, the technology is pressed in his own hands, and he can take it as he goes, and now the surrounding forces are already crushing, and it is too bullying to continue to upgrade equipment, and the one-sided game is not exciting, as for sacrificing the lives of border soldiers, this is inevitable, As long as the casualties are not large, it can be accepted, if it is casual to be able to destroy hundreds of enemies without losses, it is too easy, in this way, the children of the nobles can easily go to the border to gild a layer of gold back, so how to select talents, mediocre people can command soldiers and horses with absolute strength to win the battle, then what do good generals do.

"Lao Guo! This thing can theoretically be developed, but it also takes time, when I return to the capital next year, I may be able to get it out, you don't have to worry, and, I know that Lao Guo feels sorry for the lives of the soldiers, however, joining the army to protect the country must always sacrifice for the country, now in the past few years, the number of soldiers reported by the Ministry of War every year is less than 1,000, and many are died of illness and accidental fall from a horse, such a small casualty cannot hurt the foundation of the Tang Dynasty, Lao Guo should not be too distressed. ”

Li An said.

"Okay, it's good to be able to do it, you have to try, last year, our soldiers in Shuofang lost the most, there were more than 300 people, these horse thieves who came and went without a trace, they are really annoying, in addition to scattering the cavalry, I really can't find a good way, these horse thieves' horses are better than our soldiers' horses, and they are very difficult to deal with."

Guo Ziyi complained.

It can be seen that in the Shuofang area, the problem of horse thieves is still quite serious, and it can actually make the elite border army lose so much.

"Why are there so many horse thieves in the Shuofang area, isn't there already a mutual market, who are these horse thieves, why do you want to be a horse thief on a good day."

Li An felt a little strange and asked.

Guo Ziyi sighed and replied: "The mutual market is naturally beneficial, the people of the Tang Dynasty and the Turks in the north can buy and sell fairly, but not everyone can do business, some businesses are inevitably monopolized, in this way, those who do not have the opportunity to do business will take risks to become horse thieves, and the more merchants there are, the more oil and water they rob, and those who have the ability to do business will use the mutual market to make money, and those who have no ability to do business will rob these merchants. And our Datang soldiers have the responsibility of defending the territory and maintaining law and order, as long as there are horse thieves, we must garrison them to deter. ”

Obviously, in the northern border area, through the mutual market, many businessmen have become rich, but the businessmen have become rich, but it cannot drive the ordinary people to follow the wealth, because the businessmen control the resources, and leave all the opportunities to make money to themselves, in this way, they can make a lot of money, but the people in the neighborhood who cannot make money through the mutual market are easy to be red-eyed, the gap between the rich and the poor is very fatal in any era, this kind of unfairness will cause the psychological imbalance of ordinary people, and some bold people will not hesitate to take risks. Go and rob merchants.

Moreover, in the border areas where the people are strong, many people are strong men with strong bodies, as long as they have this heart, they will have this strength, they are not weak scholars, as long as they are given a horse and a knife, they can become the most difficult horse thieves to deal with.

Especially among the poor nomads, they are born with the gene of riding horses, and they have to learn to ride horses at a very young age, so that the riding skills of adulthood must be extremely exquisite.

The soldiers under Guo Ziyi's command are to fight wits and courage against these difficult opponents, and occasionally encounter defeats, and it is inevitable that they will lose some soldiers.

"Lao Guo! Are these horse thieves Turkic? Riding skills are superb? ”

Ang Lee asked.

Guo Ziyi shook his head and said: "Of course not all, the Turks account for half at most, as well as our border people of the Tang Dynasty, Tiele and the rest of the small clans also have a lot, if their riding skills are not superb enough, where do they dare to be horse thieves, not only that, they also have fine work mixed with us, as long as our officers and soldiers are mobilized, they can all know in advance, they will deliberately avoid the places where our army is tightly deployed, and choose to rob merchants in places where our army's deployment is weak, once they succeed, they will plunder the finances, if they encounter officers and soldiers, Some soldiers are greedy for money, so they stop and pick up money, so that the horse thieves can escape, and even, some generals and horse thieves have reached a consensus, as long as the horse thieves leave most of their property, they will not pursue, and some will be bought by the horse thieves, so as to facilitate the horse thieves everywhere, these scum have also killed a few, but under the lure of the horse thieves, there will still be a small number of soldiers who can not withstand the temptation and become scum. ”

Listening to Guo Ziyi say so much, Li An fell into deep thought, what Lao Guo said should be the truth, not to mention in the era of Datang, even in any other era, no one can stand the temptation of money and wealth, if someone is not tempted, it means that the benefits are not enough to give and not good enough.

In this way, there may be a suspicion of knocking down a group of people, but the alternative is destined to always be a minority, and most people can't withstand the temptation, after all, what are people working so hard for, is the picture dedication? Such a noble quality can only be possessed by those who make it with machines.

For such a situation, Ang Lee is also very helpless, this situation is so common in any era, there are more corrupt officials than dogs is the common feature of all times, as long as the bones are given enough, no dog can withstand such temptation.

Although in recent years, the Tang Dynasty has carried out many rounds of salary increases for border soldiers, but even if the salary rises high, how high can it be, compared with the benefits given by the horse thief, it is simply a drop in the bucket, and it can be ignored at all.

For example, in some dynasties, the salary of the county order rose from 5,000 a month to 10,000 a month, and the salary doubled, which is a big increase, but the county order with power in his hand can be greedy for hundreds of millions of dollars casually, and the money that is greedy for ink can be up to hundreds of years, or even thousands of years, how long can a county order live, and in the face of such a big temptation, there are a few county orders that can withstand it, and it is estimated that many will become moths who are greedy for money.

The same is true at the border of the Tang Dynasty, the military salary that the soldiers can receive is very limited, even after several rounds of salary increases, it is not much, and the horse thief who robs the merchant can bribe the Tang Dynasty soldiers for ten years, or even a hundred years at a time, so, which Tang soldiers will not be moved when they see it, and when chasing the horse thief, the horse thief abandons part of the gold and silver, and the Tang Dynasty soldier who is responsible for the pursuit is naturally more willing to stop and pick up money, rather than risk his life to continue to pursue the horse thief. This is a disaster for both themselves and horse thieves.

And even if the horse thief runs away in the end, these Tang soldiers who are in charge of the pursuit will confidently say that the horse thief ran too fast and couldn't catch up at all, so what else could be done.

Of course, it is not excluded that some soldiers have the intention of raising thieves and self-respect, if all the horse thieves are eliminated, what is the meaning of their existence for these officers and soldiers, even if they are not dismissed, the treatment cannot be as good as now, and the absence of horse thieves means that no one robs the merchants, so that almost all the wealth runs to the pockets of the merchants, and what can they get from these big soldiers, will the merchants take the initiative to give money to the big soldiers, this is of course impossible.

In any era, only when turmoil and danger occur can the importance of the military be highlighted and the social status of military personnel can be well improved, and in the era of peace when there is no threat from foreign enemies, the status of military personnel will inevitably be greatly reduced, and even reduced to the lowest level of society, which has to be said to be a kind of sadness.

When all the teenagers of an empire are unwilling to join the army, you can see how sad the military status of this empire is, once it suddenly encounters a foreign enemy, the combat effectiveness of this empire will inevitably be difficult to handle, and even be beaten by others, even if it is a huge empire, if it does not pay attention to armament, it is very likely to be beaten by a small country and cannot find the north.

Since the founding of the Tang Dynasty, the status of soldiers and generals is not low, and it can even be said to be very high, especially when the country was founded, many nobles are military generals, which is enough to reflect the importance of the imperial court to soldiers and generals, but with the need to use fewer and fewer places, this situation has undergone some changes, the social status of soldiers has decreased to a certain extent, and among the honorable personnel, the proportion of civilian officials has gradually increased, and there is a tendency to surpass the generals.

Of course, in the era of the Tang Dynasty, the boundary between civilian officials and military generals is not too clear, and some civilian officials who have led soldiers to fight will also be counted into the ranks of military generals.

Li An should be regarded as a civilian official now, and he is also doing civilian affairs, but Li An has also led soldiers and fought in battles, so he can also be regarded as a military general, and the boundaries are really difficult to distinguish.

Looking at Guo Ziyi, who was full of righteous indignation, Li An opened his mouth and comforted: "General Guo, don't be angry, there are individual scum everywhere, just catch one and kill one, as for the problem of the proliferation of horse thieves, there will always be a solution, let's just think about it slowly, don't worry." ”

"Don't worry, I'm not in a hurry? One day, all these horse thieves will be eliminated. ”

Guo Ziyi said confidently.

Li An nodded with a smile, and then commanded: "Come on, hurry up and prepare wine and food, General Guo is coming from afar, and he must eat a meal before leaving." ”