A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Starting from the Village Chief

Chapter 153 Recommending Talents for the Country
"Morning, senior brother."

"morning."

Li Yi walked into the East Courtyard with a smile, where Wei Zheng was practicing sword.

An old scholar, but he dances with a sword quite well.

"I didn't expect that Senior Brother also knows swordsmanship."

"How can one travel the Jianghu without carrying a sword? Especially since the world has been in turmoil these past few years."

Li Yi brought breakfast to Wei Zheng. "Baked buns with mutton filling and yellow steamed buns."

Wei Zheng sheathed his sword, washed his hands, and began to eat without hesitation. "This baked bun is just mutton Hu pancake, it tastes good."

“It’s a little different from the mutton pie.”

Wei Zheng ate and said, "I wrote a memorial last night, recommending myself to go and pacify Shandong. Could you please take a look at it for me?"

Wei Zheng stayed up late last night, almost all night, to write a ten-thousand-word letter.

It was not simply a self-recommendation to appease Xu Shiji and others in Shandong. It also contained ten strategies for governing the country proposed to the emperor based on the current situation, which were relevant to current affairs and meaningful.

"Brother, this memorial is truly remarkable. His Majesty will surely be delighted after reading it."

Wei Zheng, however, ate his steamed bun and said calmly, "Not necessarily. When I first arrived in Wagang, I also submitted ten strategies to Li Mi. After reading them, Li Mi said that I was talking about clichés and did not adopt any of them. I submitted many suggestions in Wagang, but none of them were used."

However, it can be seen that Wei Zheng still had high hopes for Li Yuan, otherwise he would not have put in so much effort.

"I'll find my Senior Brother Sun and ask him to help present it."

"Brother Sun?"

"Sun Fujia, the Imperial Censor, is your fellow Hebei native. I have taken the great scholar Dong Xiucai from my hometown as my teacher, and Sun Fujia once took Dong Xiucai's senior brother as his teacher."

"You have a good relationship?"

"Well, Senior Brother Sun is a nice guy and very ambitious."

"I've heard of him. He started out as a minor official, later passed the imperial examination, and rose to the rank of Wannian Fa Cao. Because of a memorial he wrote, he was appreciated by the emperor and promoted from the eighth rank to the fifth."

After breakfast,

Li Yi took Wei Zheng to meet Sun Fujia. Wei Zheng was now just an ordinary Shandong defector. If no one in the court helped to recommend him, his memorial might not be delivered to the emperor.

It happened to be a ten-day holiday.
Sun Fujia was reading at home.
"Brother Sun," Li Yi came over with two bottles of persimmon liquor, "This persimmon liquor I brewed recently is good, brother, please try it."

Sun Fujia welcomed the two into the house.
"Who is this?" The person who was brought to Li Yi's door must be extraordinary.

"This is also my senior brother, who once became a Taoist monk at Ziyun Temple in Gucheng, Hebei Province. He is Wei Zheng, Wei Xuancheng of Julu."

"Could it be Li Mi's secretary who participated in the military operations?"

"It's me." Wei Zheng bowed.

"Please take a seat. I have heard of Wei Jishi's name very well. Although Wei Jishi is not on the first list of officials appointed to the Shandong contingent, he will definitely be used in other important positions." Sun Fujia said with a smile.

Li Yi was not shy and directly handed Wei Zheng's memorial to him, "Brother, please take a look at it."

Sun Fujia flipped through the folded book and said, "Beautiful calligraphy." He first admired the calligraphy and said, "Isn't this your thin and sinewy style, Wuyi? Could it be the writing of Wei Jishi?"

"Brother, take a look first."

Sun Fujia looked through it very carefully.
Li Yi was making tea next to him.
The tea was ready and Sun Fujia had finished reading.

"how?"

"A good article, every word is a gem."

Wei Zheng quickly said, "Mr. Sun, you are too kind, but it is just a cliché."

"Brother, Brother Wei wants to do something practical. He wants to recommend himself to Shandong to help the court recruit Xu Shiji and others to surrender. I would like to ask you to help present this memorial to the Saint."

"Such a great talent, such a good article, of course I must recommend it to Your Majesty," Sun Fujia did not hesitate or be polite, and immediately did it.

Wei Zheng was very grateful.

Sun Fujia still had some face in front of the emperor. After he came forward, Wei Zheng's memorial reached the emperor directly, and Li Yuan was very satisfied after reading it.

"Li Mi didn't know how to use such a talented person. No wonder he was defeated."

He handed the article to Pei Ji and asked, "Pei Jian, do you think Wei Zheng should agree to it?"

Pei Ji looked at it and said with a smile: "Li Mi has surrendered after his defeat, but he still has many old subordinates in Guandong. If the court does not recruit them quickly, they will be divided and annexed by Wang Shichong, Dou Jiande, Du Fuwei and others.

Since Wei Zheng has made this request, the court can allow him to go out of the country quickly to recruit and pacify the enemy.

The imperial court will then send a member of the royal family and an important official as the pacification ambassador to Shandong Province. These troops will be integrated to encircle Wang Shichong from the east and help the imperial court conquer the Central Plains."

Li Yuan smiled and nodded, then asked his attendants, "Are Sun Fujia and Wei Zheng from the same hometown in Hebei?"

"Wei Zheng is from Julu, Hebei, now part of Gucheng, Dingzhou. Sun Fujia is from Qinghe, Hebei, now part of Wucheng, Beizhou. They are over 300 miles apart," said Lu Kuan, the palace supervisor. He seemed to guess what the emperor really wanted to know, and added, "I heard that Sun Zhongcheng and Wei Zheng didn't know each other at first.
But Wei Zheng and Sun Fujia were both Li Yi’s senior brothers.”

"What do you mean? Since they are all senior brothers of Li Yi, why don't they know each other? Also, how come Wei Zheng became Li Yi's senior brother?" Pei Ji asked.

Lu Kuan then explained the reason.

Li Yuan stroked his beard and said, "I didn't expect there was such a connection."

"It seems that Li Yi recommended Wei Zheng to Sun Fujia." Pei Ji said with a smile.

The emperor and his ministers discussed the matter, and soon the emperor decided to appoint Wei Zheng as Secretary, a fifth-rank official, and to send him to Liyang to pacify Shandong. "Pei Jian, who do you think we should send to Shandong to take charge of the situation?"

"The Prince of Huai'an can be the ambassador of appeasement for Shandong Province,"

Li Shentong, the Prince of Huai'an, whose given name was Shou and courtesy name was Shentong, was a cousin of Li Yuan. After Li Yuan launched an uprising in Hedong, Li Shentong fled from Chang'an to the mountains of Huxian County, where he joined forces with the renowned warrior Shi Wanbao of Chang'an, and Hedong natives Pei Ji and Liu Chongli to raise an army in support of Li Yuan.

Later, Li Yuan's third daughter sent her servants to persuade the Western Region Hu merchant He Panren to join Li Shentong. They then joined forces and conquered Hu County. Li Shentong led an army of more than 10,000 people and proclaimed himself the commander-in-chief of the Guanzhong Road. When Li Yuan crossed the Yellow River, Li Shentong and others sent envoys to greet him.

He also made considerable contributions to the founding of the Tang Dynasty. Even now, he still has a group of direct subordinates under his command, which makes him a powerful figure.

Now Li Shentong is the General of the Right Guard, serving as the Minister of Clan Affairs, in charge of the imperial guards.

Li Shentong's ability is proven. He has experience in leading troops to fight. He is also the emperor's cousin and can be trusted.

"Where is the deputy envoy?" Li Yuan asked.

"The deputy envoy can choose a Shandong native."

Li Yuan said, "Then let the Imperial Court Assistant Minister Cui Min do it. He is from the Bo Ling Cui family, and the Bo Ling Cuis are quite famous in Shandong."

Cui Mingan was born in the second branch of the Boling Cui family. His great-grandfather was Cui Xiaofen, a famous official of the Northern Wei Dynasty. Although Cui Xiaofen escaped Erzhu Rong's Heyin Rebellion and did not become a drowned person in the Yellow River, he could not escape the butcher knife of Gao Huan. Cui Xiaofen and other important officials of Emperor Xiaowu were all killed by Gao Huan.

Cui Xiaofen's eight sons, five of whom were killed. Cui Minggan's grandfather was Cui Xiaofen's second son. He left his homeland of Boling and fled west to Emperor Xiaowu of Guanzhong. From then on, this branch of his family served in Guanzhong, Western Wei, Northern Zhou, Sui, and Tang dynasties, and their family was highly respected.

When Li Yuan led his troops into Guanzhong, Cui Mingan was the first to take the initiative to welcome him with his children and others. After Li Yuan became emperor, he appointed him as the Minister of the Imperial Household.

Although Cui Mingan left Boling for three generations, his reputation is still there.

"He then appointed Cui Mingan, the Imperial Court Assistant Minister, as the Deputy Envoy for the Pacification of Shandong Province."

"All the troops in Shandong are under the command of Li Shentong."

During the conversation,
Prime Minister Chen Shuda brought bad news.

"The Chu thief Zhu Can besieged Nanyang. The city was destroyed by heavy rain. The governor of Dengzhou, Lü Zizang, refused the thief's request to surrender and died fighting with his men.

The city was broken, and Ma Yuangui, the pacification envoy of Shannan Road, also died."

Upon hearing this sad news, Li Yuan's smile froze, and after a long while he let out a long sigh, "Ma Yuangui was my classmate when I was with my father in Anlu. When I entered Chang'an, I immediately submitted my allegiance..."

Speaking of this, Li Yuan sighed.

Ma Yuangui was ordered by Li Yuan to pacify Shannan. At that time, Nanyang and Xiangyang were under the control of Wang Honglie, a subordinate of Wang Shichong.

Nanyang County Magistrate Lü Zizang was loyal to Yang Guang. Ma Yuangui went to persuade him to surrender. Every time Lü Zizang received a letter of surrender, he would not only tear it up but also kill the messenger sent by Ma Yuangui.
It was not until later that Yang Guang was assassinated in Jiangdu that Ma Yuangui wrote to the emperor asking him to send his son-in-law Lu Zizang to surrender with the emperor's handwritten edict. Lu Zizang held a funeral for Yang Guang, and then he returned to Chang'an and was appointed as the governor of Dengzhou and was granted the title of Duke of Nanyang County.

After Zhu Can fled to Nanyang, Lü Zizang and Ma Yuangui defeated him. Lü Zizang requested to pursue the enemy, but Ma Yuangui refused. Later, Lü Zizang requested to lead his troops to pursue the enemy, but Ma Yuangui still refused.
Ma Yuangui had his reasons. Zhu Can was a bandit who was roaming around everywhere. It was too difficult to chase and annihilate him. It would be enough to drive him away. He could first focus on clearing out the remaining bandits, resuming production, and then find a way to take Xiangyang.

As a result, Zhu Can revived and soon made a comeback. Ma Yuangui abandoned Dengzhou City and retreated to Nanyang City. However, heavy rain destroyed the city wall and the city was eventually broken. Both Ma and Lu were killed in the battle.

With their deaths in battle, the situation in Shannan that Ma Yuangui had worked so hard to maintain collapsed.

"After conquering Dengzhou and Nanyang, the Zhu rebels have marched westward and are besieging Xizhou. If Xizhou is conquered, the Zhu rebels will certainly invade Shangzhou.

Your Majesty, the thief Zhu is extremely cruel. He plundered all the cities he conquered. Wherever he went, he was like a swarm of locusts. He forced young men to serve as soldiers. If he couldn't conquer a city or rob food, he would eat people.

If we allow the Zhu bandits to grow stronger in Shannan, there will be endless troubles. We must immediately dispatch troops to encircle and suppress them."

Li Yuan did not care about his old classmates' grief.
"Who does Prime Minister Chen think is suitable to lead Shannan?"

"Zheng Yuanzhen, the Minister of Rites, has been in the military since his youth and is particularly knowledgeable about military law. He can pacify Shannan."

"Okay, then I will appoint Zheng Yuanjin as the pacification envoy to Shannan Road, and assign him 10,000 infantry and cavalry to defeat Zhu Can."

Zhu Can must die, not only because he attacked cities, seized land, and killed officials, but more importantly, Zhu Can also proclaimed himself the Emperor of Chu. Since he dared to proclaim himself emperor, there was no room for surrender.

Moreover, Zhu Can was too cruel. After he captured Dengzhou City, he not only allowed his soldiers to plunder, but also set the city on fire.
The people outside the city had no time to harvest the ripe wheat, but he didn't want it and set it on fire.

Since he needs food, he can attack the city. If he can't take the city and has no food, he can capture people to eat.

Now that he has captured Nanyang City, he will certainly recruit all the young and strong men in the city as soldiers, burn Nanyang City, and then attack Xizhou. After eating and burning everything, he will attack Shangzhou.

The terrifying thing about this kind of person is not only that he eats and burns everything, but also that wherever he goes, he destroys everything and inevitably causes famine.
By then, countless hungry people in Shannan will inevitably flock to the neighboring Guanzhong.

Who the hell can bear this? There is no surplus food in Guanzhong, and we are still relying on Shannan to hand over some food and grass.

Li Yi accompanied Wei Zheng in strolling around Chang'an City.
Li Yi offered to give Wei Zheng a house, but Wei Zheng refused, saying, "I'm single now, it doesn't matter where I live."

"Chang'an is much better than Luoyang. Luoyang was in serious shortage of food before, and the people were hungry. A stone of rice cost 80,000 to 90,000 coins. The funny thing is that Wang Shichong proposed to exchange Luoyang's silk cloth for Li Mi's rice, and he actually agreed. He insisted on keeping Wang Shichong alive, otherwise Luoyang would have fallen without a fight," Wei Zheng sighed.

The current grain price in Chang'an City is basically maintained at one dou of rice and one piece of silk. Although it is ten times more expensive than during the Kaihuang period of prosperity, it is rare to have a relatively stable grain price today.

Liu Heizi rode up to find the two men and said, "Alang, Sun Zhongcheng sent someone to our house to say that His Majesty has issued an edict appointing Duke Wei as a fifth-rank secretary and to ask him to go to the Ministry of Personnel to pay the money and receive his official certificate."

"Brother, it's done. Let's go and take the notice."

Wei Zheng was also very excited and rushed all the way to the Ministry of Personnel. However, when he heard that he had to pay twenty pieces of silk as a certificate of appointment, Wei Zheng was short of money.

Li Yi quickly handed him a small gold ingot weighing one or two taels, and smiled and told the old official that he would treat everyone to tea with the remaining eight hundred coins.

"Thank you, Uncle Qianshui," the old official accepted it with a smile and handled the procedures for Wei Zheng in a much more pleasant manner.

When Wei Zheng finally received the official notice and imperial edict from the Secretary, he was still a little bit unbelievable.

"Let's go and accompany Brother to collect the official robes!"

(End of this chapter)