Guiyi Fei Tang

Chapter 153 On the Eve of Civil Unrest
"Even if the snow-capped mountains turned into ghee and the river water turned into milk, we still wouldn't be able to eat a bite, because the nobles don't want us to have such an easy life..."

In mid-November of the sixth year of Dazhong, as the winter snow fell, Lanzhou also became cold.

Fortunately, coal mining in Lanzhou has existed since the Southern and Northern Dynasties, and there is an open-pit coal mine to the southeast of Wuquan City. Therefore, in this cold season, the people in Wuquan City always enjoy warmth.

A courtyard near the Wuquan Yamen was opened up and converted into a school. There were three or four charcoal braziers in each school, and the children of the people took classes in the school.

The teachers who educate them are the straightforward people in Wuquan City.

Each of them led ten people, and thus solved the learning problems of the children in the city.

Liu Jilong did not dare to delay the children's studies.

Of course, this was not because he wanted to develop the country through education, but because he knew that the Tibetan children in Wuquan City must be assimilated into Chinese culture as soon as possible.

Only by integrating the foreign people into the Han people can Wuquan be completely settled.

Hundreds of schools are teaching children to read. The children hold printed textbooks in their hands, with brushes and wooden boards beside them.

The textbooks could not be defiled, so they could only use brushes and wooden boards to learn the words in the stories.

Liu Jilong, Chen Jingchong, Zhang Chang and others stood in a corner, watching the children studying in a school.

Liu Jilong couldn't hide the smile on his face, while Chen Jingchong sighed and said, "Governor, although coal can be used to make ink, oil is also needed to make ink."

"Everyone in the city is learning to read and write. We need 3,000 kilograms of coal and 100 kilograms of oil every month."

"We don't even have enough oil for our own consumption. Wouldn't it be a waste to use it to make ink?"

Chen Jingchong told about his current predicament, and Liu Jilong said helplessly: "There is no way, learning to read can't be delayed."

Normally, ink sticks require tung oil, rapeseed oil, soybean oil, lard and pine wood to make better quality ink.

However, for Wuquan, which lacks lard and pine wood, this kind of lavish behavior is obviously not suitable for Wuquan City.

Therefore, Liu Jilong came up with the idea of crushing the coal into ash and adding some soybean oil.

The ink sticks made by this method are crude, but at least they can leave marks on the wooden board, allowing students to know what they are writing.

Of course, if there was enough lacquer oil, Liu Jilong could also paint the wooden board with black lacquer oil and then let the students write with water, but Wuquan could not even find a few liters of black lacquer oil, so he had to give up.

Three thousand kilograms of coal per month is nothing for Wuquan, but one hundred kilograms of oil is a luxury.

The beans that Liu Jilong led the residents to plant in June only yielded more than 300,000 kilograms before winter, two-thirds of which had to be reserved as horse feed.

After the remaining more than 100,000 kilograms were used to press oil, only more than 30,000 kilograms of oil could be produced. Each soldier and civilian in the city could only get a little more than two kilograms.

Because of this, it was impossible to use soybean oil to make ink sticks, so Liu Jilong could only turn his attention to animal oil.

A sheep only has a few pounds of fat, so in order to obtain sheep fat for making ink, most of the fat from the sheep slaughtered every month must be retained.

Without fat, people may not feel full just by eating, so many people have lost weight these days.

However, they did not care about this matter, or even if they knew it, they would not blame Liu Jilong. Instead, they would praise him because he allowed their children to read books and learn to read.

"Hold on, the hard times will eventually end..."

Liu Jilong sighed and walked out, and Chen Jingchong hurriedly followed.

It was already mid-November and the weather was cold due to the snow, but there was not much snow on the roofs and streets in Wuquan City.

This scene made Liu Jilong feel even more heavy-hearted, because he knew that this meant that Longxi would continue to face severe drought in the coming year.

Even though Wuquan has the Yellow River for support, if the water level of the Yellow River continues to drop by three or four feet, even a water turnaround will not be able to save Wuquan.

He walked forward in silence. There were few people walking on the street.

In winter, the soldiers and civilians could not do much work and could only make linen and sew clothes in their houses.

After the hemp stalks were harvested, Liu Jilong asked Chen Jingchong to distribute the stalks to the people and let them look for reed fluff themselves.

Before winter, men go out to look for catkins, while women stay at home and make linen cloth from the hemp stalks.

Before winter, the people in the city collected enough reed fluff, and the women sewed it into linen clothes to make winter clothes for their families.

When Liu Jilong walked on the street, he would occasionally see people wearing brand new winter clothes.

No matter how many times they saw Liu Jilong, they always acted very excited and bowed to him from more than ten steps away.

If Liu Jilian had not abolished the kowtow ceremony, they would probably kowtow excitedly every time they saw Liu Jilian.

"It's cold outside, go home early."

"Hey, okay..."

Perhaps because the people were wearing new clothes, Liu Jilian felt that Wuquan City was more lively.

Soon, he and Chen Jingchong arrived at the craftsman's workshop in the city.

The scale of the craftsmen's workshops in Wuquan City is several times larger than that in Shandan City. The craftsmen that Liu Jilong brought from Shandan are now working here.

Lanzhou is not short of resources. It has common coal, iron ore, and clay, but the difficulty of mining is much greater than that of Shandan.

Because of this, the amount of iron produced in the craftsman's workshop each month is very small, only about 600 to 700 kilograms, and it is currently all used to make farm tools.

However, Liu Jilian was not in urgent need of iron materials, because his soldiers had enough armor. He did not need to expand his army before taking Hezhou. After taking Hezhou, the captured armor would be enough for him to expand his army.

Therefore, in the next two or three years, Liu Jilong would not need to order people to make armor.

What Wuquan is in urgent need of right now are mainly brushes, paper and ink sticks.

As long as there are enough materials, they can produce as many ink sticks as they want every month, so Liu Jilong is not worried.

As for brushes, the wool from the sheep slaughtered every month is enough to make brushes, so there is no need to worry.

The only thing that worried Liu Jilong was the paper needed by Wuquan.

He brought Chen Jingchong to the paper mill, where eight craftsmen and sixteen apprentices were making paper.

Under their operation, the pulp was quickly taken out of the water and laid on the paper bed next to it.

“How many knife papers can be produced every month now?”

Liu Jilong asked Chen Jingchong beside him, and Chen Jingchong answered without hesitation: "Three hundred knives!"

One knife equals one hundred sheets, and three hundred knives equals thirty thousand sheets.

Due to the rough craftsmanship, it is often necessary to paste three sheets on top of one to prevent the ink from penetrating the paper.

After being glued together, the 10,000 pieces of paper will go through processes such as cutting and sewing, and will eventually become more than 2,000 blank booklets.

However, half of these documents were used directly by the government, and the remaining half were printed as teaching materials, waiting to be used after Liu Jilian recovered Hezhou.

Walking along the paper mill, they soon passed through the wall and came to another yard.

In this yard, there are only six people working inside the house.

All they had to do was to sort the copper movable type, proofread it and then print it in batches.

Printing books with copper movable type is not difficult, the difficult part is how to make the copper movable type...but this does not pose a problem for Liu Jilong.

He melted the copper ingot he had obtained in Guangwu last time, then carved the words on wood, turned it into a sand mold, and finally injected molten copper into the wood to form the words.

There are ten sets of copper movable type in this house, four sets for backup and six sets for daily proofreading and printing.

"Arrange a group of soldiers to guard here, and don't let it leak out."

Liu Jilong gave instructions to Chen Jingchong, and seeing that he agreed, he continued to inspect the courtyards in the town.

There is a yard for making catapults here, but only enough wood is stored in the yard and manufacturing has not started.

In addition, there are also yards for making armor, military equipment, and farm tools. As long as Liu Jilian needs it, they can make what he needs.

After a round of inspection, Liu Jilong walked out of the workshop.

But when he was leaving, he narrowed his eyes and said, "According to the time, my letter should have reached Gu Zang by now. Why has no one replied to my letter?"

"Maybe the governor is busy." Chen Jingchong explained, and Liu Jilong nodded in agreement.

Zhang Huaishen’s level of governance over people’s livelihood is not high, but he should be able to follow the rules of Xiao and Cao.

As long as he doesn't get too stubborn and just copies everything he left in Shandan, Liangzhou should be able to prosper.

Of course, the premise of all this is that the Tang court does not interfere in the affairs of Hexi...

"absurd!!"

In Guzang City, the thing Liu Jilong least wanted to see finally happened.

Inside the Guzang government office, Zhang Huaishen was panting, next to him was an overturned table and broken tea bowls and teapots on the ground.

Jiu Juyan and Zhang Huaijian looked unhappy, and they stared at the figure in the hall in unison with Zhang Huaishen. Facing their gazes, Wang Jingzhi felt bitter.

"This is not what we want to see..."

"The eunuch originally wanted to report the victory during the morning court session, but when the palace found out, they immediately convened the court session and decided on the reward."

"The only thing to be thankful for is that the position of Liangzhou Governor has been saved. As long as Liangzhou is not in chaos, Huilan and other two provinces will not be in chaos."

Wang Jingzhi tried to comfort Zhang Huaishen, but Zhang Huaishen angrily said, "Isn't this chaotic enough?!"

"We sacrifice our lives on the battlefield so that the people can enjoy peace with us!"

"But now... now... now they just talk and mess up the situation and muddy the waters. What on earth is the Supreme doing?!"

"Jiedushi!" Hearing Zhang Huaishen's rude remarks, the three of them hurriedly stopped him and used their eyes to remind him to be careful as there might be ears on the other side of the wall.

Even so, Zhang Huaishen still couldn't calm down.

He has always been a calm person, but when faced with Hexi, which had finally regained peace but was about to fall into unrest due to provocation, he was unable to calm down.

"Jiedushi, calm down and think about how to deal with this, okay?"

Wang Jingzhi tried to comfort him, and Zhang Huaishen clenched his fists, suppressing his anger and saying, "Liu Jilong and Li Yizhong are both easy to appease, the difficulty lies in Suo Xun."

"The court promoted Suo Xun to be the governor of Huining Army, but gave the position of governor of Huizhou to Jiu Juyan."

"If Suo Xun knew about this, he would probably mistakenly think that my father did it deliberately in order to expand the power under my command."

Jiu Juyan was Zhang Huaishen's die-hard supporter, and this had long been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people in Hexi, even after he did not follow Liu Jilian to Lanzhou.

Since Jiu Juyan got the post of Huizhou governor, others would naturally think that this was the work of Zhang Huaishen or Zhang Yitan, in order to ensure that Zhang Huaishen could firmly secure the position of Hexi Jiedushi in the future.

If Zhang Huaishen were to use such provocative tactics, he would at most just laugh it off.

But as for Suo Xun, with his temper, he would not let Jiu Juyan, who was born as a servant, ride on his head.

"I'll write a letter to appease Suo Xun first!"

Zhang Huaishen did what he thought and immediately walked to the study, preparing to write a handwritten letter to Suo Xun.

Wang Jingzhi was puzzled by this and comforted him, "Don't worry, Jiedushi. Although I came to Huizhou, I didn't tell Governor Suo about it."

"No!" Zhang Huaishen saw through it: "You didn't tell him, but someone will tell him."

"Instead of letting those people tell him, let me tell him!"

In less than half a cup of tea, Zhang Huaishen finished writing the letter, sealed it with sealing wax, and handed it to Jiu Juyan.

"Send your confidant to deliver this letter. This will show your sincerity."

"Yes!"

Jiu Juyan bowed in response, but Wang Jingzhi frowned and said, "Suo Xun has been appeased, but what about Liu Jilong..."

"Liu Jilong is fine!" Zhang Huaishen was full of confidence:

"Not to mention that Li Yizhong doesn't dare to be his enemy, Liu Jilong has something to ask of me right now. As long as I write a letter, he will definitely not cause any trouble."

"A request?" Wang Jingzhi was stunned, with a puzzled expression.

Seeing this, Zhang Huaishen also explained: "He asked me to borrow 10,000 dan of grain."

Wang Jingzhi suddenly realized what was going on, but then he reacted: "But now the heavy snow has closed Wushaoling and Hongchiling. If we want to transport grain, we can only go through Huizhou and then detour to Lanzhou."

Facing his words, Zhang Huaishen also sighed and said, "If it weren't for this incident, I wanted Jiu Juyan to lead the troops to Huilan Road to escort the grain and grass to Wuquan."

"But it seems that those who have been rewarded by the court should not go to Lanzhou and Huizhou easily for the time being."

"As for the food and fodder, we can only wait for a while until Suo Xun reads the letter and sees his reaction."

Thinking of the promotion content in the imperial edict, Zhang Huaishen felt regretful for the first time about recovering Liangzhou.

Thinking of this, he took a few deep breaths and looked at Wang Jingzhi: "Uncle and his men will also be sending out troops to take up their posts after the spring."

"If you take the Ganzhou grassland back to Dunhuang now, your uncle will definitely make the contents of the imperial edict public, and those insects in Shazhou will also swarm over it when they smell the smell."

"This matter can be delayed as long as possible. You should not return to Dunhuang for the time being. Rest in Guzang first. When your uncle regains his position, you can return with the imperial edict."

"I will defend you by saying that the Uighurs in Ganzhou grassland are restless and can only wait until spring to take the Ganliang Road in Yanzhi Mountain."

The situation in Hexi was complicated. Once the imperial edict was brought to Dunhuang, no matter how reluctant Zhang Yichao was to announce it, he would not be able to delay it because Suo Xun was in Huizhou, the place closest to the Tang Dynasty.

As long as someone tells Suo Xun about this, he will pass the news back to Shazhou. By then, the fact that Zhang Yichao hid the imperial edict will be exposed, and his prestige will decline.

Therefore, the only place that can drag this matter on is Liangzhou and Zhang Huaishen and his people.

However, even if they wanted to delay, they couldn't delay for too long, so Zhang Huaishen wrote a letter to tell Suo Xun about the matter, in order to prevent someone with ulterior motives from contacting Suo Xun first.

"Sorry..."

Five days later, Zhang Huaishen's letter was delivered to Huining City in Huizhou under the escort of elite cavalry.

As the "Governor of Huizhou", Suo Xun did not immediately meet the messenger sent by Guzang, but instead paraded around Huining City with his soldiers.

There are more than 4,800 households and 24,000 people in Huizhou, with more than 186,000 acres of arable land. If it is distributed fairly, the people will be able to have food to eat and the soldiers will have a place to put their land.

But for Suo Xun, he obviously has his own ideas on how to govern Huizhou.

He mainly used Suo's 200 troops and recruited 1,800 Han soldiers.

The old subordinates of the Suo family were allocated 200 mu of land per person, while the ordinary civilians who joined the army were allocated 50 mu per person.

As a result, the government fields of the government soldiers alone occupied more than 130,000 acres of arable land.

Not only that, when 70% of the city's population were foreigners, Suo Xun only recruited Han soldiers, which indeed enriched 1,800 Han soldiers and their families.

But the remaining 3,000 aboriginal households could only share less than 60,000 acres of arable land.

It would be fine if the harvest was good, but Huizhou was also affected by the drought. Coupled with the harsh tax of one-fifth of the salary, the living conditions of the local people were only slightly better than under the rule of Tubo, and there was not much change.

"Why haven't these walls been repaired yet?"

Arriving at the north gate of Huining, Suo Xun frowned as he looked at the patched and bumpy city wall and questioned the county magistrate Suo who was standing next to him.

"The people have just finished the autumn harvest, and there are still things to do such as making hemp that have not been completed, so I want to repair it after the spring."

The county magistrate explained, and Suo Xun didn't know what to say, so he just said, "It must be repaired after the spring."

"Yes..." the county magistrate agreed, and then tried to test him: "But Governor...will we still impose corvée labor for this repair?"

"Of course. Are you going to follow Liu Jilong's example and distribute food to workers?"

Suo Xun frowned and looked at him. The county magistrate could only say with a bitter face:

"But the harvest this year is not good, and the people have limited food reserves. If we continue to impose corvée labor after the spring plowing, I'm worried that the people will be dissatisfied..."

"We don't have much food." Suo Xun frowned and said, "Let the soldiers eat first. As for these foreign people..."

Suo Xun glanced at the foreign people on the street in the distance and said with disgust, "It's okay for them to starve for a few days. I will then ask Zhang Huaishen for some food."

The county magistrate had no choice but to bow and respond, then reminded: "The messenger sent by the Jiedushi has been waiting in the yamen for half an hour, otherwise..."

"Humph!" Suo Xun snorted coldly: "Leave him alone for another half an hour."

"This is not a good idea..." The county magistrate was ashamed. Why didn't he realize that his young master was so spoiled before?

It seems that ever since Zhang Huaishen and Liu Jilian recovered Liangzhou, Huizhou and Lanzhou, the character of our young master has become less and less like before.

"Forget it, go back!"

Suo Xun thought about it and decided that it would be inappropriate to continue to leave the people sent by Zhang Huaishen alone, so he returned to the yamen.

On the way back, he asked the county magistrate, "Any news about the people we sent to Chang'an and Lingzhou?"

"Not yet, but based on the time of departure and the distance traveled, he should be back in the next few days."

The county magistrate explained, and Suo Xun nodded with satisfaction.

"Once I get to the imperial court, I'll see what Zhang Huaishen and Liu Jilong can do to compete with me!"

Suo Xun thought to himself, and soon after, their figures appeared in front of Huining Yamen.

Looking at the plaque of Huining Yamen, although Suo Xun didn't know why Zhang Huaishen sent people to Huizhou in winter, his intuition told him that this should not be a good thing.

After he calmed down, he also walked into the Huizhou government office...

(End of this chapter)