of course spies can help in acheiving this and and allow you to select the best territories One problem with this strategy is you don't want your empire a bunch of disconnected provs or it can be a real pain when war comes and the garrison requirements are high (to discourage ambitious neighbors), draining a lot of the money you make from the new prov. So I usually have my spies move to the best adjacent prov, then my new acquisitions are together and can be reinforced from each other by land if needed.