Guiyi Fei Tang

Chapter 346: Gradually Growing Gap
"Did Pang Xun lose again?"

"How did they manage to defeat the government troops before when they were so weak?"

In the Longyou Protectorate, Gao Jinda held the new report sent from Chang'an, his face full of disbelief.

Compared with Wang Xianzhi's escape, the Silver Knife Army led by Pang Xun defeated Li Xun, the governor of Yicheng Army, Li Xun, the governor of Ziqing Army, and also played tricks on Li Fu, the governor of Xuanwu Army.

Judging from his previous performance, he is indeed not that bad, and is even quite outstanding.

But now he was suddenly defeated by Wang Shi in Qingzhou, which made Gao Jinda a little puzzled.

In response, Liu Jilong, who was sitting in the main seat concentrating on writing a book, said without even looking up: "I have said before that the imperial examination is controlled by aristocratic families and cannot select real talents."

"Li Fu, Li Xun, and Li Yan, although these three have served as military governors of many vassal states, they have never led troops to fight in battles. At most, they have encircled and suppressed bandits in their territories."

"If you really encounter a military leader like Wang Xianzhi or Pang Xun, even if you have all the armor and the best troops, you still can't stop the general's stupid rule."

"We must learn these lessons and train specifically."

"The generals are stupid. If the grassroots were strong enough, they could have organized a breakout on their own instead of just sitting there and waiting to die."

Liu Jilian did not find it strange that Pang Xun was defeated miserably by Wang Shi.

Wang Shi was not like Li Fu, Li Xun and Li Yan, who were officials from Beijing and only knew how to talk about war on paper after being parachuted into the position of military governor.

When Wang Shi was in Hedong, he was able to train the provincial soldiers and defeat the Tatars so badly that they would take a detour or retreat after hearing his name.

Because of the butterfly effect caused by Liu Jilian, Wang Shi was transferred to Annan in advance and served for several years before being transferred to Wuning Army to suppress the Silver Knife Army.

Because of this, Annan was run by him like an iron barrel, and his successor Cai Xi also inherited all the systems he left in Annan.

All these events combined resulted in Dali's failure to invade Annan several times, so it had to turn to invade Lingxi and Xichuan.

Wang Shi's ability was clear, and when there were few officials with military strategy in the court, it was only a matter of time before Li Yi appointed him.

However, it is easier to treat the symptoms than the root cause. Wang's style can only treat the symptoms, not the root cause.

The Hehuai and Huaihe Rivers had long been rotten due to the inaction of countless officials, not to mention that the war in the southwest was about to resume. The only way left for the Tang Dynasty was to increase taxes...

Thinking of this, Liu Jilong asked without even raising his head: "Is there any news about Duokang?"

"Yes, but it's not about forming an alliance with the Nanman." Gao Jinda replied:
"Duokang heard that we were selling grain to the imperial court and was worried about the lack of grain, so he sent people to Diezhou to inquire and prepared to sell 2,000 cattle and 30,000 sheep to buy grain."

Liu Jilong paused for a moment before he continued, "How much summer grain did Die, Tao, and Song have last year?"

"It should be no less than 100,000 dan." Gao Jinda said without hesitation, while Liu Jilong said:
"Tell Shang Moyan that I'm lending him these 100,000 dan of grain, and he doesn't need to pay it back with cattle and sheep. But he can attack the six states including Wen, Fu, Long, Yi, Mao, and Wei, but he can't plunder the people and things in these states and counties and take them back to Weixi."

"He can take away the government's money and grain, but not the documents and books."

"As for other states and counties, whatever he can grab will be his. Afterwards, I will be willing to pay for the people, maps, and oxen."

Liu Jilong wanted to enter Xichuan, but he only needed the six states he mentioned.

These six states are easy to defend but difficult to attack, and have small populations and arable land.

Even if he were to obtain it, the imperial court would be unlikely to turn against him.

However, after the war, he could use the old grain to exchange for the people and oxen and maps, and settle the people in these six states.

But before that, he still has to take some measures.

Thinking of this, Liu Jilong said to Chen Ying, who was silently governing the country, "Send the news that Shang Moyan wanted to capture Tuyuhun, but was stopped by our army, and the two armies fought in Fuqi City."

"Also write a memorial to bring some heads from Fuxi City to Chang'an, saying that Shang Moyan and our army fought in Fuxi City, and our army killed thousands of prisoners and captured hundreds of armored soldiers."

Chen Ying and Gao Jinda looked at Liu Jilong when they heard this. They all knew that Liu Jilong was trying to cut ties with Duokang Liugang, but could the court believe it?
"General Jie, we are breaking with Duokang Liugang now. Next year, Duokang Liugang will invade Xichuan. Can the court believe this?"

Gao Jinda couldn't even convince himself, but Liu Jilong said without even looking up: "It doesn't matter whether the court believes it or not, it's enough for the people to believe it."

"In addition, don't forget to write in the memorial that the grain trade with the imperial court needs to be suspended for two months, and our army needs to wipe out the Duokang forces near Mochanchuan and Qinghai."

"After the autumn harvest, we will continue to trade with the imperial court and send some more heads. It would be great if we can trick the imperial court into paying us a subsidy."

Seeing that Liu Jilong had issued the military order, Gao Jinda and Chen Ying looked at each other, and then, according to his request, they sent the news to the prefectures and counties covered by the Longyou intelligence.

At the same time, Liu Jilong also wrote a letter to tell Shang Moyan about this matter to avoid his misunderstanding.

Although there were homing pigeons in this era, there were also many birds of prey living in the mountains and forests, and the cost of releasing a homing pigeon was not low.

Unless the message was extremely important, carrier pigeons were rarely used. Therefore, even in Longyou where there were many horses, messages were mostly delivered by fast horses or by merchants.

Because of this, Liu Jilian's memorial was delivered to Chang'an first.

After receiving the news, Jiang Shen immediately took Liu Jilong's memorial to find Li Yi in Xianning Palace.

As expected, before Jiang Shen entered the Xianning Palace, he heard the singing of musicians.

"Your Majesty, Prime Minister Jiang requests to see you..."

Tian Yun saw Jiang Shen at the entrance of the palace and bowed to remind Li Yi beside him.

Li Yi cast his gaze towards the palace gate, then nodded and said, "Call Prime Minister Jiang in."

"Yes……"

Tian Yun agreed, then dismissed the group of actors and musicians and drove them into a side hall.

Even so, the main hall was still very messy, and those who didn't know would think that the rebels had looted the Xianning Palace.

"His Majesty……"

Jiang Shen looked at the surroundings and sighed in his heart.

"What's the important matter, Prime Minister Jiang?"

Li Yi asked, and Jiang Shen said:

"The Southern Court received a memorial from Longyou, in which Liu Jilong said that Shang Moyan tried to go north to capture Tuyuhun, but was blocked by his troops."

"Shang Moyan was unwilling to give up, and fought with Longyou in Fuqi City. The Longyou army killed thousands of bandits and captured more than 600 heads. The heads are on the way to Chang'an."

"Hmm?" Li Yi was interested when he heard about the disturbance in Longyou. He sat up straight and leaned forward:

"Wasn't Shang Moyan supported by Liu Jilong? Why is he fighting with Liu Jilong now?"

"It is not uncommon for a person to be bullied and then suffer a backlash." Jiang Shen bowed to answer the question, but Li Yi frowned and said:

"However, with Liu Jilong's methods, if Shang Moyan really retaliates, he will probably send troops to retaliate against Shang Moyan..."

"That's right!" Jiang stretched out his hands and presented Liu Jilong's memorial, then said:

"This is a memorial written by Liu Jilong himself, saying that Longyou needs to encircle and suppress the Qinghai and Mochanchuan bandits, and that food is difficult to provide. Please wait until the autumn harvest to trade with the court..."

"So, this is true?" Li Yi asked without thinking, a smile slowly appearing on his face.

"This..." Jiang Shen didn't know what to say. He felt something was wrong, but there was nothing wrong with Liu Jilong's reply. It was also in line with his style of revenge.

"Haha, before this, Liu Jilong occupied Longyou and also conquered Hexi and Duokang. He had a million people and tens of thousands of soldiers."

"Now that he has lost Duokang, if the court can incite Zhang Huaishen to break up with Liu Jilong, then Liu Jilong will have to fight alone."

Li Yi stood up and paced back and forth, his tone of voice rising involuntarily, and he seemed very happy.

He was not planning to take action against Liu Jilong, but that didn't mean he didn't want to weaken Liu Jilong's strength.

A force with millions of people and tens of thousands of soldiers is right next to Guanzhong. No matter who becomes the emperor, he will have trouble sleeping.

Now that Duokang has left Longyou, if he can persuade Hexi, Liu Jilian’s power will not be so terrifying.

"Your Majesty is right, but the road south of the desert is controlled by Longyou. If our dynasty wants to send envoys to Hexi, they can only go through the territory of Khitan..."

Jiang Shen pointed out this realistic problem. Li Yi frowned and said, "That's true..."

He paced back and forth, then looked at Jiang Shen: "I can't miss this opportunity. You secretly send people to Hexi via Mobei Road. As long as you can convince Hexi to cut off its connection with Longyou, I can allow the people to be relocated from Guannei Road to Hexi in the future."

"This..." Jiang Shen was stunned: "Your Majesty, it will cost a lot of money and food to relocate the people."

"This must have come from Hexi. It can't have come from the imperial court, right?" Li Yi said confidently.

His attitude surprised Jiang Shen, and he also felt hopeless about the matter.

It is true that the supreme ruler is willing to give up power now, but he is reluctant to spend money on the towns.

At the beginning of his reign, during the Qiufu Rebellion and the invasion of the Southern Barbarians, His Majesty was still willing to spend money, but now it is becoming more and more...

"Alas..." Jiang Shen sighed secretly in his heart, then bowed and said:
"I accept the decree..."

He no longer had any hope for this matter, thinking that he was getting old, and would resign and return home in a few days, no longer getting involved in the affairs of the court.

"Go away." Li Yi returned to his seat, and Jiang Shen also bowed respectfully and left Xianning Palace.

After he left, the Southern Court arranged for people to go to Hexi soon.

However, Jiang Shen did not choose to take the Mobei Road, but instead sent someone to deliver a letter to Hexi via Longyou in the name of Zhang Yitan.

A few days later, news came from Henan Province that Wang Shi defeated Pang Xun in Zibo, captured 50,000 bandits and 7,000 armored soldiers, and Pang Xun fled into Lushan with a thousand cavalry.

Wang Shi led his army to surround Mount Tai, Mount Lu and Mount Yi, and reported the victory to Chang'an.

When Chang'an learned the news, it was already early August, but this did not prevent all officials from being happy.

The rebellion of Wang and Pang, which had been going on for nearly a year, was finally suppressed by Wang Shi. Now all that needed to be done was to resolve the issue of rewards for the troops in each town, and the matter would be settled.

Jiang Shen's resignation was delayed because of this, and the rewards from various towns were listed in a book and brought to the Xianning Palace by Jiang Shen, Lu Yan and Gao Qu.

Li Yi, who was sitting in a high seat, flipped through the documents and couldn't help but frowned:

"It took nearly a year to suppress two bandits, causing cholera in more than a dozen states, and in the end the imperial court still needs to pay a reward of 1.5 million strings of cash?"

Upon hearing this, Jiang Shen bowed and said, "Your Majesty, this time we are dispatching troops from seven towns, nearly 80,000 soldiers, and civilians have been transporting thousands of miles."

"One million and a half thousand strings of cash is a lot, but it's not much to share among these soldiers."

Jiang Shen's words did not satisfy Li Yi. He put the document on the table and said, "Although many troops were mobilized, the towns failed to suppress the bandits according to my order. Instead, the bandits spread to dozens of states. The towns also need to bear the responsibility for this."

"How about this, the court will pay one million strings of cash, and the remaining five hundred thousand strings of cash will be used as rewards to the various towns."

"This..." Jiang Shen looked at Gao Qu. Both of them were helpless. Instead, Lu Yan jumped out and bowed:

"Your Majesty is wise. The fact that the bandits have been causing cholera for so long is closely related to the indulgence of the townsmen."

"In addition, Yang Gonghan, Li Xun, Li Yan, and Li Fu were defeated by the bandits and should be held accountable."

"But the three of you have gained something from suppressing the bandits, so why not make up for your mistakes..."

Seeing that the emperor wanted to save money, Lu Yan immediately proposed a more cost-saving method.

Li Yi was very satisfied after hearing this, and then said: "I will leave this matter to you three to handle. The treasury is empty now, and we really can't afford so much money and grain."

"When the autumn tax is paid to the national treasury, it will be fine to reward the soldiers in the towns..."

As Li Yi finished speaking, Jiang Shen was about to say that the money and grain in the treasury were enough to pay the military salaries, but Li Yi continued:

"Before this, bandits had caused chaos in the Central Plains. I knew this was inappropriate, so I did not propose it."

"Now the bandits have been forced into the mountains. According to the king's report, we only need to surround the mountains to force the bandits to surrender."

"If that's the case, then it's no big deal, so I think I need to go to the mausoleums of the previous emperors and tell them about this matter."

Li Yi's words made Jiang Shen and Gao Qu feel depressed.

But before they could speak, Lu Yan continued to bow and said, "Suppressing the bandits is a great achievement. Your Majesty should go and offer sacrifices to the late emperor!"

"I think we should follow the rules of the last tour..."

"Good!" Li Yi couldn't hide the smile on his face, thinking that Lu Yan was closer to him, unlike Jiang Shen and Gao Qu.

"Your Majesty, the cost of the tour is not small. The last time it cost more than 200,000 strings of cash, this..."

Gao Yu tried to refute this, but Li Yi frowned and said, "Now that the country is at peace, I just want to go on a tour of more than a hundred miles from Chang'an, is that not possible?"

"That's not what I meant, it's just..." Gao Qu tried to explain, but was interrupted by Li Yi:

"Okay, let Lu Xiang handle this matter, you guys leave now!"

Li Yi stood up and walked towards the side hall, not giving Gao Qu and Jiang Shen a chance to explain.

It was Lu Yan, however, who was singing respectfully to see Li Yi off.

When he stood up, he saw Gao Qu and Jiang Shen looking at him with ugly expressions.

Lu Yan walked out as if nothing had happened, while Gao Qu and Jiang Shen returned to the Southern Yamen with gloomy faces.

They wanted to ask the people from the Northern Division to persuade them, but Qi Yuanjian, Wang Maoxuan, Qi Yuanshi and others ignored them.

Compared with Wang Zongshi, they are more willing to enjoy themselves and are less willing to get involved in the affairs of the Southern Yamen.

Gao Qu and Jiang Shen had no choice but to reply to Wang Shi according to Li Yi's instructions.

A few days later, the news that the emperor was about to go on a tour spread throughout Guanzhong, and Liu Jilian in Longyou also got the news at the first time.

However, facing this news, Liu Jilong was very happy. He raised the intelligence in his hand:

"When our emperor first ascended the throne, he tried to work hard to govern the country, but in recent years he has been enjoying himself."

"The reward of 1.5 million strings of cash was stingy, but the tour of more than 200,000 strings of cash was generous."

The image that Li Yi displayed when he first ascended the throne really made Liu Jilian a little fearful.

But he also didn't know why Li Yi suddenly began to neglect his duties.

Anyway, for him, Li Yi's inaction was a good thing, at least it gave him more room to maneuver.

"General Jie, do you think the officers and soldiers in Henan will not riot because of this?"

Chen Ying asked a question, but Liu Jilong shook his head:
"With Wang Shi in charge of the army, there won't be any problems for the time being."

"Besides, judging from the current momentum, there shouldn't be any major events in the next few months, so the one million strings of cash reward can still be paid out."

"But the emperor treats the towns in this way. Even if the towns take out 500,000 strings of cash to reward the troops, it will still make the officials of the towns feel disheartened."

"If our Supreme wants to mobilize the troops of various towns in the future and provide manpower like this time, I'm afraid it won't be possible."

Liu Jilian's words made Chen Ying, Gao Jinda and others nod in agreement. After all, the various towns had sent troops and made great efforts to finally encircle and suppress the bandits, but the court still asked them to pay.

If the court exempted the towns and then asked them to pay money, that would be nothing.

But now, instead of being exempted, they have to pay rewards, and it is very likely that they will have to pay out of their own pockets to support the widows of the soldiers afterwards.

With such a result in mind, the military governors of various towns who are transferred in the future may have to think carefully about whether they have the financial resources to pay out of their own pockets.

Thinking of this, Liu Jilong threw the information into the incense burner and burned it, then turned around and walked back to his seat.

However, at this moment, footsteps were heard outside the hall, and Shang Duoluo hurriedly walked into the main hall.

"General, a letter came from Jincheng that Shang Moyan and You Shilong have formed an alliance in Yangjumie City. Both parties have agreed to send troops to Xichuan in April next year."

"it is good!"

Shang Duoluo had just finished speaking when Liu Jilong shouted "good". Gao Jinda, Chen Ying and others in the hall also stood up and looked at Liu Jilong.

Liu Jilong's eyes flickered when he heard this, and he thought about whether there were any other loopholes. Finally, he said:

"Send a message to Cao Mao, asking him to speed up the incitement of the Hu people in Huizhou. In addition, we must also increase trade with the Khitans. We must let the Khitans know that they can enjoy more affordable goods by trading with us than by trading with the imperial court."

"Yes!" Gao Jinda bowed in response, and Liu Jilong asked, "How much food and grass are there in the granaries in Longnan now?"

"No less than 700,000 dan." Gao Jinda answered without hesitation, while Liu Jilong looked at Shang Duoluo:

"Write another letter to Jincheng to remind Shang Moyan that he must take over those six states first!"

"Yes!" Shang Duoluo nodded in response, and Chen Ying also took the opportunity to speak:

"General, although Duokang and Dali have formed an alliance to invade Xichuan, we still have Gao Pian in Dongchuan who can come to our aid at any time."

"What if the imperial court does not dispatch our army to the south, and our army rashly goes south, and the imperial court comes to demand the city afterwards? What should we do then?"

Upon hearing this, Liu Jilong immediately replied, "I have already thought about this."

"The Six Prefectures are easy to defend but difficult to attack. We just need to let Shang Moyan hold out for a while. If the imperial court is unable to send troops, we can send troops without any orders."

"But before that, Shang Duoluo, you should send a message to Chen Jingchong, Zhang Chang and others to drive out the larger Tuhun tribes around Fushi City, leave 5,000 soldiers to garrison, and give the rest a holiday to gather in Minzhou on New Year's Day."

"I obey your command!" Shang Duoluo breathed a sigh of relief.

As long as their own commander-in-chief is willing to send troops, they don't have to think of so many ways to force their commander-in-chief.

A look of relief flashed across his face, but Liu Jilong keenly noticed that something was wrong with him.

Thinking of the letter from Cao Mao, Liu Jilong showed no emotion on the surface, but he gradually became heavy in his heart.

Li Ji, Ma Cheng, Shang Duo, Cui Shu...

These four people are huddled together. How many people are involved behind them?
At present, both parties have the same demands, but as time goes by, it is hard to say what will happen in the future...

(End of this chapter)