Privy Council.

White Tiger Hall Military Conference Hall.

Although Li Tang had not been replaced, the word "tiger" was no longer shy. The military conference hall of the Privy Council was already called the White Tiger Hall. It turned out that the military talisman for the generals to fight had been changed from the fish talisman to the tiger talisman, and even the fish bags of gold and silver fish worn by officials were changed to gold and silver tigers.

In the military conference hall, there are huge maps on all four walls, and in the center is a huge sand table.

Zhang Chao glanced a few times and saw that the maps on the wall were unusual. They were now in the situation of the Tang Dynasty on the battlefields in various places. Some had already started the war, some had finished fighting, and some were preparing.

There are three situation charts outside the frontier, Raole, Songmo and Lingdong.

There is a situation chart for the northern desert.

There are Liaobei, North Korea, Marine, and Shiwei situation charts.

There is also a situation chart with the Three Kingdoms of the East China Sea, Silla Baekje, Japan.

There is also a situation chart of the Indochina Peninsula and the real water and land.

There are also charts of the Golden Peninsula with Wolf Teeth Cultivation, Kata, and Saliva's Death Situation.

As well as the situation chart of the trustworthiness and precepts, the Lion Kingdom, Alagan, Zhaloqi and other countries.

There are also trend charts with the Arabs in the Red Sea area.

There are also trend charts of the Western Regions River Central and Arabs, and trend charts of the Caspian Khanate of the Hazards.

These figures mark the boundaries of each party in detail, as well as the important castles occupied, and even the troops stationed are marked.

These are the top military secrets of the Tang Dynasty and cannot be disclosed in the slightest.

It is precisely because of the continuous gathering of information here that the generals and staff in the Privy Council were able to know the situation around the empire well and make corresponding countermeasures.

At present, the areas such as Mobei, Lingbei, and Northeast are ignored for the time being. Xueyantuo Khan, Xi Khan, Khitan Khan, and Wu Khan are all studying and transforming in prisons of the Tang Dynasty. The Uighurs and Qibi in Mobei are now surrendering to the empire and dare not be rude and unfaithful to the empire. They are loyally carrying out the order to chase Xueyantuo's fallen water dog.

Shi Wei and the tribes have lost their courage now, and honestly paid tribute, sent protons, and even sent the daughters of the chiefs of various tribes to marry.

Zhang Chao accepted the tributes, protons and the women who came to marry him, and temporarily agreed not to attack them. Those extremely distant northern countries should be left first, and wait until the Liaodong and Liaobei and other places are stable, and it will not be too late to go in and deal with them.

The empire's actual control line in the northeast is now bounded by the Nenjiang River and Songhua River. The Shiwei people are north of the Nenjiang River, and the northeast of the Songhua River are the Mushi tribes.

Zhang Chao now classified the Shiwei tribe areas as Lingbei Road, while the Mohe tribe areas as Haidong road, and implemented the autonomous territory, which was actually equivalent to a ruling system. These places are too far away.

Distance became the biggest enemy that restricted the empire from entering this area.

Now it is set as a dominant lord, which will create some opportunities for infiltration for the empire. When communicating and trading, we take the opportunity to reconnaise detailed information in these two regions, and even buy some small tribal leaders to prepare for future entry.

In the West Sea Road, the Empire and the Khasa people have reached an agreement. With the Volga River as the boundary, the Empire occupies the east bank of the Volga River, and they occupy the west bank. With the Romans as intermediaries, the Empire no longer pursues these Turks.

Of course, the Khasa people also had to give up the statement that they claimed to be the orthodox Turks. Khasa is Khasa and the Turks are Turks, and the two are not connected.

And the empire did not cross the Volga River to conquer them.

This agreement was matched by the Romans in the middle, and it has been maintained well until now. The Tang Dynasty did not need to station too many troops here. Basically, the nobles of the feudal areas defended their own territory.

The Hezhong Road was threatened by the Arabs, and the Tang army stationed three armies there.

There are sporadic conflicts between the two sides now, but the two giant beasts have no plans for a full-scale war. The Arabs are still trying their best to conquer the former land of Persia. The current main strategic direction is to seize Armenise and Asia Minor Peninsula to the east, and to compete for the Caucasus region controlled by the Khasa people. Another strategic focus is to defeat the Gassani Kingdom, another branch of the Arab country next to Syria in the south, seize Syria, and then regain the Sinai Peninsula and cross the Red Sea to attack Egypt, Nopasha, Aksum and other countries.

Gassani, a branch of the Arabs, was established for hundreds of years. Even the Sassanians had never conquered them. They were granted the title of the Romans and became a vassal state of the Romans, and they had been conquering the Romans.

Now the Arabs want to get rid of it and quickly break through the obstacles between them and Syria to reach the east coast of the Mediterranean.

After only a few tests in the Hezhong area, the Arabs were very clever and were not prepared to go to war with the powerful empires in the East immediately. His main enemies are the remnants of Persia and the Roman Empire.

The competition for the eastern coast of the Mediterranean is obviously more in line with their interests than starting a war on multiple lines now.

Now the empire is allied with Rome, but there is no plan to go to war with the Arabs in the Hezhong area. It is too inconvenient to place troops here.

The strategy Zhang Chao insisted on was to fight the Arabs in the Red Sea region with the Persian Gulf. Especially in the Red Sea, we must defend the Sinai Peninsula, protect the canals, and prevent the Arabs from crossing the Red Sea.

In the Persian Gulf, it is also necessary to protect Daxia and Afghanistan's four-way channel. If Daxia is lost, the trust and the river will be cut off.

Looking at this map, the situation of the empire is very obvious now, and the north and land are still relatively stable for the time being. At present, the wars are all in the coastal areas, the Three Kingdoms of the East China Sea, the Central and Southern coasts, as well as the Indian Ocean, the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea and other coasts.

Su Lie, deputy envoy of the Privy Council, introduced the current situation to Zhang Chao and others.

"The Privy Council plans to divide the troops into three battlefields in the next few years, the first battlefield, the East China Sea. It plans to invest 80,000 to 100,000 troops, and plans to wipe out Baekje, Silla and Japan in three to five years. The second battlefield is the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf battlefield, and join forces with Rome, Aksum and others to unify the Arabs. We also plan to destroy Arabs in three to five years."

"The third battlefield is from the Indochina Peninsula to India. We will continue to invest our troops and fight a long-term war."

After hearing this, Zhang Chao shook his head.

"Regent, these are the conclusions drawn after the intelligence deduction we obtained." Su Lie explained.

Zhang Chao smiled.

"In three or five years, it is not impossible to destroy the Three Kingdoms of the East China Sea with 100,000 troops. But it is difficult for the Arabs to destroy him in three or five years. Moreover, although the Red Sea has a great interest relationship with us, we also have to face up to a situation where we have to invest prudently, we cannot let ourselves get too deep, and we must have the ability to withdraw at any time."

Zhang Chao knows the Arabs better than the generals and staff here.

Look at their wipeout Persia in just a few years. This momentum is extraordinary. History has proved that they have simply swept the Middle East and Rome is no match at all.

Confrontation is necessary, but not so necessary.

The Arabs had the greatest threat to Rome, and there were some countries on the southern coast of the Red Sea. Of course, there was a threat to the Tang Dynasty, but it had not reached that level.

"It is impossible to destroy the Arabs within ten years. We must make a long-term preparation now. The Privy Council will prepare for it. The court will set up another fleet in the Red Sea area. If necessary, we can give up the Sinai Peninsula, but we must seize control of the Red Sea."

"In addition, in the Daxia area, one or two troops should be sent, so there should be no loss in this area."

"Further, from now on, we must start sending people to contact the Arabs. Since they cannot be destroyed in the short term, we must face them. They have replaced Persia, and if some agreements can be reached, it will be beneficial to us, such as we can carry out some trade with them."

Su Lie was stunned.

Fighting war and trade?

"What's wrong with this? In the past, the Central Plains dynasty and the northern nomadic peoples also fought each other? But both sides also often traded each other."

War is for the benefit of the empire.

Trade is of course for the benefit of the empire.

The Arabs occupy such a vast place, which is also a huge market.

"We can open the Daxia Port in the south of our Great Xia, the Xindu Port in the Xindu Port in the east of the Red Sea as a trading port for trading with the Arabs, allowing Arab merchants to come and trade."

Su Lie and the others are all soldiers, and they only think about fighting.

But Zhang Chao thought further.

Even if they united with Rome and other countries, it was too far away after all. The Tang Dynasty could not have invested too much power there but fought against the Arabs. The Tang Dynasty was not the one who won the most interests.

For the Tang Dynasty, the biggest interest demand was not to destroy Arabia, but to curb it, or to maintain the trade line of the Red Sea, it was enough.

Therefore, trade with the Arabs would not have any impact on the Tang Dynasty's strategy.

Su Lie originally planned to send a fleet to capture Ras Khaimah, which guards the Persian Gulf and the Port of Abbas opposite, but Zhang Chao proposed to modify the plan.

"Our war with the Arabs does not prevent us from trading with them, and we trade with them does not prevent us from attacking them. I support seizing control of the Strait of Hormuz. The Port of Abbas on the north shore can be attacked, and the terrain of Ras Khaimah on the south is not easy to defend. I think it can be changed to attack the Hesab in the north and south. It is a natural port, and it is mountainous in the south. It is easy to defend but difficult to attack. At the same time, it forms a north-south guarding force with Abbas on the opposite side of the strait. It is very important for us to conquer the Persian Gulf exports. If we capture these two ports, it can block the Persian Gulf and prevent the Arabs from threatening our Daxia, Xindu and other places from the sea, and can also protect our maritime routes."

This Strait of Hormuz is between Persia and the Cape of Oman on the Arabian Peninsula. It connects to the Gulf of Oman in the east and the Persian Gulf in the west, forming a herringbone shape. It is the only exit from the Persian Gulf to the Indian Ocean. It is only 300 miles from east to west and only 1 or 200 miles from north to south. There are also many islands, reefs and shallows in the strait.

Such an important strategic location should be a place that military strategists must fight for.

With the strength of the Tang Dynasty, if the ports on both sides of the strait were captured and the strait was guarded, the Arabs would not have thought of coming out of the sea.

Even if you cannot directly capture the ports on both sides of the strait at the beginning, you can still capture the islands in the strait first and you can still garrison troops.

"While we fight them, we want to trade with them, are they willing?"

"If we don't block their trade, they will be grateful. How could they not want to do so? You should know that the Persians were rich and powerful in the past because they controlled the huge profits of East-West trade. If the Romans wanted to trade with the East, they had to peel them off. Although Arabia was an emerging power, they also needed the profits of trade."
Chapter completed!