Guiyi Fei Tang

Chapter 332 Two Birds Flying
"Gao Qu, you are so outrageous!"

In the Purple Palace, upon hearing Gao Qu compare the events in Hehuai to those of Chen Sheng and Wu Guang, Lu Yan quickly interrupted his advice and then bowed to Li Yi:

"How dare you compare Qin II to Your Majesty? How outrageous!"

"Your Majesty is not Qin II, but there is Yan Le in the court!"

Gao Qu snorted coldly, which made Lu Yan break out in a cold sweat.

Yan Le helped Zhao Gao deceive Qin II and personally dealt with Qin II's treacherous ministers.

Gao Qu did not refer to him as Zhao Gao because this would easily cause dissatisfaction in the Northern Division, but he referred to him as Lu Yan as Yan Le, which made Lu Yan feel uneasy.

He subconsciously looked at the emperor. Fortunately, Li Yi did not make a big fuss about it. He just scolded:
"I want you to come up with a set of rules and quickly put down the rebellion, instead of arguing here!"

"Your Majesty, calm down..."

Lu Yan and Gao Qu quickly stopped arguing, and Wang Shi in the team also took the opportunity to bow and said:

"Your Majesty, I believe that the tens of thousands of bandits stationed near the Tongji Canal are intended to threaten the imperial court. I hope the imperial court will send officials to recruit them."

"Surrender?" Li Yi gritted his teeth and actually laughed out of anger.

"You are just a bunch of riotous soldiers, just a bunch of bandits, and you want me to issue an order to recruit them?"

If it were two years ago, when the Tang Dynasty was being suppressed by Dali in the southwest, Li Yi might have agreed to surrender and resolve the matter hastily.

However, with Gao Pian in charge of the southwest and great generals in the court, he would naturally not agree to recruit these rebel soldiers.

"Your Majesty, you must not recruit the bandits!"

Seeing that the emperor looked unhappy, Lu Yan immediately jumped out and said:

"Today, there are rebels. If we recruit tens of thousands of bandits to threaten the grain transport, we can force the court to recruit them."

"If the rebels and bandits in the various towns follow suit in the future, won't the canal transportation be threatened by bandits every time?"

"I think we should immediately urge Envoy Linghu to lead the troops from the four garrisons to suppress the bandits!"

Lu Yan finally said something useful, and even Gao Qu was reluctant to interrupt him.

Li Yi nodded when he saw this, and looked at Wang Shi at the same time: "What if the four towns pretend to obey but secretly disobey?"

The question was thrown out, and before Wang Shi could answer, Xu Shang, who was standing next to him, stepped forward and bowed, saying:
"Your Majesty can send a military supervisor to Huainan to supervise the various towns in Hehuai to fight against the rebels."

"If that doesn't work, it would be fine to select another one at that time."

Xu Shang used to be the governor of Shannan East Road. In order to solve the problem of bandits in his area, he specially formed an army to catch bandits.

He also contributed manpower and manpower during several wars during the Dazhong period. The current Jiangxi Army was trained by the generals he sent out to catch bandits, so they naturally have experience in encircling and suppressing bandits.

Therefore, facing Xu Shang's suggestion, Li Yi finally breathed a sigh of relief and then said:

"Draft an imperial decree to appoint the eunuch Yang Fugong as the military supervisor of the expeditionary forces in the east of Henan to help them suppress the bandits."

"Your Majesty is wise..."

Seeing that the emperor had finally made a decision, everyone praised him for his wisdom and did not take the matter between Wang Xianzhi and Pang Xun seriously.

Li Yi breathed a sigh of relief when he saw this. He was about to end the regular court session when he saw the Right Picker Liu Ye come out and bow, saying:

"Your Majesty, I believe that Li Deyu and his son have made great contributions to the country as prime ministers."

"Since Li Deyu and his son were banished, their relatives have almost disappeared and their lives are empty. They should be given an official position."

Liu Ye suddenly mentioned Li Deyu, which made many officials who had experienced the Niu-Li factional struggle look at each other in confusion.

Since Bai Minzhong's death, there have been few powerful officials among the Niu Party.

What's more, Li Deyu died of illness a long time ago, so it would be fine to give him the official position and let his descendants benefit from it.

Of course, what the officials care more about is the emperor's attitude.

Without the emperor's permission, Liu Ye would not have taken the initiative to propose posthumously conferring an official title on Li Deyu.

All the officials were still guessing, but the sound of singing ceremony came from the golden platform.

"Li Deyu has made great contributions. I hereby restore Li Deyu to the title of Grand Tutor of the Crown Prince and Duke of Weiguo, and bestow the title of Zuo Pushe."

Li Yi on the Golden Terrace seemed to have been prepared and slowly restored Li Deyu's official position.

When the ministers saw this, many officials with keen political sense guessed why the emperor did this.

The emperor was naturally aware of the accumulated problems in the court.

However, although the emperor wanted to reform, he had no ministers who were willing to do so. Therefore, he had no choice but to bring forward Li Deyu, who had been dead for many years, as a signboard to attract scholars from all over the world.

After thinking through the connection, many officials shook their heads secretly.

The evils that are accumulating in the world today are not the result of a single day or a single night, but are the result of problems accumulated over generations.

Reforms carried out by a small group of people alone will not have any effect at all.

All the ministers understood this principle, and Li Yi naturally understood it as well.

But compared to just sitting there and waiting to die, he still wanted to give it a try.

Even if it's in vain, it's better than sitting and waiting to die...

Li Yi walked away while thinking, and the Minister of Honglu Temple saw this and sang: "Dismiss the court!"

"Tens of millions of years old..."

The ministers sang and then withdrew one by one.

Lu Yan and Gao Qu looked at each other. If they had not considered etiquette, they might have fought in the court.

Compared to them, the other officials were lazy. There were few young and strong officials in the temple. Most of them were middle-aged or elderly, and they were in a decadent state.

"Does Linghu Tao think that because he is an important minister of the late emperor, he can ignore my will?!"

Li Yi hurried back to Xianning Palace, cursing as he walked. Tian Yun, who followed behind him, remained silent, and only spoke a few words to comfort Li Yi when he was furious.

The master and servant walked into the Xianning Palace, only to see Princess Tongchang Li Meiling waiting inside the palace.

"Is Nannan here?"

When Li Yi saw Li Meiling, his temper immediately disappeared and he turned into a kind face while quickening his pace forward.

"Why is Aye so angry?"

Li Meiling naturally saw that her father was angry, so she couldn't help but ask.

Upon hearing this, although Li Yi looked embarrassed, he still explained to her why he was angry.

"This Linghu Tao, I have already allowed him to do what he wants. He has four towns under his command, but he can't even suppress a few hundred bandits, and he has allowed them to grow into tens of thousands of bandits!"

"Once this matter is resolved, I will definitely punish him severely!"

After the words fell, Li Yi reacted and asked, "Why did Nannan come to see Aye?"

"A new storybook is out, and Nannan is here to give it to Aye."

Li Meiling took over three storybooks from the palace maid behind her, all of which were chapters of the latest novel written by Liu Jilong.

Seeing this, Li Yi immediately took over the three storybooks and couldn't help complaining, "Liu Jilong has nothing to do in Longyou all day, but he even writes the storybooks so slowly. He is such a vicious person!"

"Hehe..." Li Meiling laughed secretly and asked with a smile:
"Then in your opinion, who is more hateful, Liu Jilong or the group of rebellious soldiers?"

"Hmm?" Li Yi didn't expect his daughter to ask such a question. After hesitating for a moment, he said:

"Although Liu Jilong is hateful, he is a law-abiding person in Longyou. Compared with these chaotic soldiers, he is naturally better."

"Although he is currently law-abiding, he is also a restless person."

Li Yi nodded in self-affirmation, while Li Meiling asked in return: "Why do you think so, Aye?"

"Aye, I know!" Li Yi said quickly:

"If he really wants to be law-abiding, why doesn't he come to Chang'an to serve as an official like Zhang Yichao did?"

"But I heard that his son is still young. How can he come to Beijing to serve as an official?" Li Meiling continued to ask.

Li Yi wanted to answer, but stopped, frowned slightly, and looked at Li Meiling:
"Why is Nannan so concerned about Liu Jilong?"

"It's just that the story is well written, so I sent someone to check it out."

Li Meiling's answer was very good and Li Yi couldn't find any fault with it.

However, based on his status as an Aye, he couldn't help but remind him: "I heard that Liu Jilong is about the same age as Aye, has many wives and concubines, and gave birth to his third son a few days ago."

"According to what Aye has seen, this man must be a greedy and lustful person!"

Li Yi said this indignantly, but Li Meiling looked at him and said, "But Aye has more children."

"But Aye only loves you." Li Yi didn't mind the corny words.

To him, no one can warm his heart more than Li Meiling, his little cotton-padded jacket.

"Aye..."

Li Meiling was so amused by Li Yi's cheesy words that she didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Li Yi also laughed heartily and said:

"Well, after talking to you for a while, Aye is in a much better mood. Do you want to read the storybook with Aye?"

"Nannan has already read it, so you can read it yourself." Li Meiling shook her head. Li Yi nodded and said, "Then you can go back for now. The towns have offered a lot of tribute in the past few days. I will have someone send you the documents later. You can choose the ones you like."

"Thank you, Aye. Then Nannan will leave..."

Li Meiling bowed respectfully and then left Xianning Palace under Li Yi's reluctant gaze.

Seeing her back disappear, Li Yi returned his gaze to the three volumes of storybooks, humming a little tune as he walked towards the side hall.

While he was looking through the vernacular novels, countless courts in Chang'an sent out light cavalry and fast horses.

When Longyou received the intelligence, it was already the third day of the first lunar month of the fifth year of Xiantong.

After all, it was time to celebrate the New Year, so Liu Jilong changed into a red brocade robe.

At this moment, he was sitting in the main hall of the yamen, with Gao Jinda, Cui Shu, Li Ji and others sitting on his left and right.

"Pang Xun of the Silver Blade Army and Wang Xianzhi of the Tianping Army have joined forces. I didn't expect this."

"It has been twelve days since this news came out, so I think it is already out of date."

"If we look at the content of the report submitted by Meng Qiu, the commander of the Xu and Si militias, Wang Xianzhi and Pang Xun may have already joined forces, and the tens of thousands of bandits in the Xu and Si areas may all be under his command."

"Now that Linghu Tao has received the imperial edict, he should have the power to mobilize the troops from the four garrisons of Xuanwu, Zhongwu, Yicheng, and Huainan."

"These four towns have nearly 100,000 soldiers, but it's hard to say whether they can mobilize 50,000 armored soldiers."

"However, the number of soldiers under the command of Pang Xun and Wang Xianzhi should not exceed 5,000. If Linghu Tao plays it safe and uses both persuasion and encirclement and suppression, these two people may not cause much trouble."

Faced with the intelligence in his hands, Liu Jilong tried his best to explain the situation he had analyzed, but he felt surprised in his heart.

History has been distorted beyond recognition. It was clearly Pang Xun who led his troops from Guilin to "break through" the Tang Dynasty and caused chaos in Xu and Si.

Now the person who led the troops to defeat the Tang Dynasty became Wang Xianzhi, while Pang Xun cooperated with Wang Xianzhi as a rebel soldier.

The Pang Xun Uprising and the Wang Xianzhi Uprising represented two of the three death knells of the Tang Dynasty respectively, but there was a seven-year gap between them.

Seven years may not seem long, but even in the entire historical period, it is not a short time.

Historically, Pang Xun's uprising became such a big deal because it triggered the rebellion of refugees and bandits in Huainan.

The Wang Xianzhi Uprising was caused by the fact that in the seven years after the Pang Xun Uprising, the Tang court created many refugees in Henan Province due to policy issues, and finally Wang Xianzhi triggered the explosion of hundreds of thousands of refugees in Henan Province.

Today, due to the several tax increases by Li Chen and Li Yi, there are more refugees in Henan and Huainan than in history, but Liu Jilian is not sure whether it can be compared with the number of refugees in the two stages in history.

Therefore, Liu Jilong had no idea whether the changes in the situation caused by Pang Xun and Wang Xianzhi would become bigger or smaller after they joined forces.

However, their joint uprising would certainly put tremendous pressure on the imperial court militarily, and would also trigger a chain reaction at the political, economic and social levels, and might even accelerate the collapse of the Tang Dynasty.

Judging from the court's attitude, a war is inevitable.

If Linghu Tao could not quickly capture Pang Xun and Wang Xianzhi, the two would control the main water transport routes from south of the Huai River to Guanzhong with Suzhou as the center, cutting off the economic lifeline of the court.

The food and supplies originally supplied to Chang'an and Luoyang will be paralyzed, which will trigger many chain reactions.

Thinking of this, Liu Jilong thought for a while and found a profitable business.

He looked at Gao Jinda and asked, "How much grain do we have in stock now, and how much grain can we buy on the market?"

The reason why officials account for such a high proportion in Longyou is not because of redundancy due to inefficiency, but for the purpose of counting and planning all materials.

Because of this, the material situation in Longyou was recorded in the Protectorate.

Liu Jilong just asked casually, and Gao Jinda subconsciously gave a rough estimate: "The grain storage in the reserve warehouse, official warehouse, and Changping warehouse is about 3.4 million shi."

"Besides that, there are nearly two million dan of grain available for purchase on the market."

"But this is only the grain circulating in the market. Many people have their own small granaries at home, so this part cannot be included in the records."

After Gao Jinda responded, Liu Jilong pondered for a moment before speaking to everyone:

"If Linghu Tao can quickly quell the two rebel armies, the rebel armies will react and cut off the canal transportation."

"Although the price of grain in Xichuan has fallen back to 700 coins per stone, after being transported to Chang'an, the price remains at 123 yuan."

"If the grain transport is cut off, millions of people in Guanzhong will lack food and clothing, and the price of grain will inevitably rise."

"I am going to take this opportunity to dispose of all the old grain in Longyou, including the old grain in the hands of the people."

In troubled times, grain is indeed hard currency, but for Liu Jilian, old grain can be sold as a commodity.

There are more than 8 million shi of new grain in Longyou every year, which the people cannot eat up by themselves. So in order to maintain the price of grain, Liu Jilian can only buy it at the price of 450 coins per shi to stabilize the price of grain.

However, there are also many people who choose not to sell the food they have, but to store it themselves.

Because the official granary was built using ancient methods to remove moisture, it could store corn for nine years and wheat for five years.

In comparison, due to the poor quality of granaries, the people could only store corn for five years and wheat for three years.

This is still a relatively good granary. If it is just placed in the house, it may be inedible in two or three years.

Taking this opportunity to collect and sell the old grain from the people in Longyou would be a good idea.

While Liu Jilong was thinking this, Gao Jinda stroked his beard and estimated:
"There are still more than 300,000 strings of cash in the treasury. After deducting the expenses of the Protectorate and the rewards reserved for the Tuhun attacking army, at most we can buy 300,000 shi of old grain."

"May I ask, Marshal Jie, should we start harvesting the old grain now, or wait until the rebels cut off the grain transport?"

Gao Jinda was worried that the rebels would be easily suppressed, resulting in this batch of old grain being left in his hands.

Although Longyou also has ways to sell old grain, after deducting the human and animal power, the profit is not much.

Facing Gao Jinda's concerns, Liu Jilong comforted him, "Buy all 300,000 shi. It won't be that easy to quell these rebels."

"Yes!" Gao Jinda agreed, and then said:

"General, Xichuan has stopped trading with us since the winter month. It seems they are trying to gather the draft horses they need for the army."

"How many draft horses did we sell and how many people did we get in return?" Liu Jilong asked Gao Jinda.

Gao Jinda did not answer in a hurry, but picked up the document on his desk and flipped through it, and finally said:

"Including the 6,000 draft horses from Hexi, we sold a total of more than 20,330 draft horses, in exchange for 121,980 men and women."

"However, on the way north, 7,635 people died on the road due to acclimatization."

"In addition, according to the agreement, 18,000 males were relocated to Hexi."

"The more than 96,000 men and women who survived were organized into more than 27,000 households, and were basically settled in Minzhou, Hezhou, Weizhou, Chengzhou, Wuzhou, etc."

"Not many people were arranged in Diezhou, Kuozhou, Shanzhou, and Liangzhou, because people are very likely to get sick and die after going to these four states."

After Gao Jinda's explanation, Liu Jilong also nodded to show that he understood.

The climate of Bashu in this era was more humid and hotter than that of later generations, while the climate of Longyou was similar to that of Longnan in later generations.

It was fine for the people of Xichuan to migrate to the three states of He, Lin and Wei, as well as Minzhou, Chengzhou and Wuzhou. But if they went to the drier Liangzhou, or the higher altitude Shanzhou and Kuzhou, they would suffer from vomiting and diarrhea at best, and colds and fevers at worst.

The climate environment and eating habits of Xichuan and Helong are very different. Migrating them to the three states of He, Lin and Wei is already their limit.

Of course, if they can adapt to the climate and diet of the three states of He, Lin and Wei, they will be able to migrate to Hexi in the future, but that is not possible at present.

"Now we have more than 870,000 people in Longyou, including nearly 60,000 soldiers and officials."

After Gao Jinda finished speaking, everyone nodded.

The fact that Longyou has been able to grow from a population of 200,000 in the past to 870,000 today is inseparable from the planning of Liu Jilian and the management of Gao Jinda and others.

Perhaps it was because Shannan West Road and Jiannan Road had migrated too many people to Longyou, so that there had been no civil unrest or turmoil since the fifth year of Dazhong.

If it weren't for the invasion of Dali, the peace in Shannan West Road and Jiannan Road would have lasted for a long time.

But whether their peace can continue depends on Liu Jilong.

"General Jie, we have provided so many draft horses to Xichuan. If Cui Xuan retakes the lost territory, wouldn't that be shooting ourselves in the foot?"

Li Ji suddenly frowned and spoke, and Shang Duoluo continued: "Shang Moyan's troops are only 30,000. Now I'm afraid he can't even defeat Xichuan alone."

Both of them felt that Xichuan’s strength should not be strengthened for the sake of population, but for Liu Jilian, Xichuan was also a whetstone for him to consume Dali’s strength.

"Don't worry about Shang Moyan. It's not his turn to take action yet."

Liu Jilong comforted the two and then explained: "The southern barbarians have been silent for so long, maybe they will invade soon."

"Let Dongchuan and Xichuan consume the Nanman. When they are almost exhausted, it won't be too late for us to enter the battlefield."

"But by that time, what I want is not just Sanchuan, but the entire southwest..."

Liu Jilong was very covetous of the gold, silver and copper mines under the vast land of Dali.

Although it is impossible to get it now, it is not a bad idea to use up the national strength of the gift and prepare for future military operations.

Unification of the country was just the beginning. Nanzhao in the southwest, Khitan and Bohai in the northeast, Silla in the peninsula, and Karluk in the west...

He still needs to clean up the mess left behind by the prosperous Tang Dynasty.

History has told Liu Jilian that the so-called wisdom of future generations is that Yanyun was lost for 400 years, the Han army had not set foot in Liaodong for 600 years, and the Western Regions were lost for 1,000 years.

The wisdom of later generations does not exist here, and he would not play the so-called game of passing the parcel.

In his eyes, things are best only when they are already in his hands!

(End of this chapter)