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

Chapter 200 Requesting a Change of Commander
The city of Chang'an in the cold winter was shrouded in a lead-gray sky.

The ridge beasts on the eaves of the Taiji Palace were covered with a thin layer of snow, making it look like a silvery white. Li Shimin walked on the newly paved bluestone corridor, his heart burning with worry.

Thinking of the various bad deeds that he had collected about the Third Brother in Taiyuan, it was like an ice cone piercing his lungs. It was said that it was easy for Li Tang to conquer the world, but the world had not yet been completely conquered.

The bronze beast furnace in the Liangyi Hall was emitting wisps of smoke. Li Yuan was leaning against the rosewood table, his fingertips stroking the glass cup.

The grape wine in the cup is as red as blood.

It was a rare occasion that the emperor was not playing the pipa today. Instead, he was reading a book. The book he had opened was "Han Shu", which was the part about Huo Guang deposing and enthroning King Changyi.

"Father, Liu Wuzhou and the Turkic Shibi Khan swore an oath at White Wolf Mountain. I believe they will launch a large-scale attack soon. Yuanji is young and I'm afraid he can't handle the heavy responsibility of defense. I request to go to Taiyuan to replace Yuanji..."

Li Yuan slammed the glass cup in his hand on the table.
"At the beginning of the month, Yuanji personally led the Bingzhou cavalry and defeated the rebellious Jiehu. He killed several Jiehu generals with a single horse spear. The envoy who reported the victory brought more than 300 Jiehu heads." The emperor's voice was very calm, but Li Shimin was thinking of the report from Yuwen Xin, the right guard general and chief historian of the Bingzhou General's Office, that Yuanji often had hundreds of slaves and concubines stabbing each other for fun, and many of them died.

He even often led his men to break into people's homes at night and rape women.

The candlelight cast distorted shadows on the wall, and the outlines of the father and son looked like two beasts facing each other.

"Father, Sanlang's horse lance skills are indeed good, but with a powerful enemy at hand, Bingzhou needs a commander who can stabilize the situation, not a general who is aggressive and aggressive.

"I recommend the Left Guard General, Xue Guogong Changsun Shunde, as Bingzhou's Chief Clerk, and the Right Guard General, Hejian County Duke Liu Hongji, as Bingzhou's Military Officer.
Send another 20,000 troops to Bingzhou to prepare for border defense."

When the names Changsun Shunde and Liu Hongji came out, Li Shimin clearly saw the cold light in his father's eyes.

Although Changsun Shunde and Liu Hongji were both among the Seventeen Heroes of Taiyuan Yuanmou appointed by the emperor, Changsun Shunde was the uncle of Li Shimin's wife, and Liu Hongji was also close to Li Shimin.

"How's the renovation of Changning Palace going? Should the eaves be gilded or painted?"

The emperor tapped his fingers lightly on the table and changed the subject.

Li Shimin was dejected, as Li Yi had predicted everything.

Prejudice in people's minds is like a mountain. Once the emperor has a prejudice against him, it is difficult to change it easily.

He now regrets that he shouldn't have been so impatient in Longyou.

"New Year is coming soon, and construction on Changning Palace has been temporarily suspended. It will resume after the spring."

When dusk swallows up the last ray of skylight,

Li Shimin reined in his horse and stood on Zhuque Street. The north wind blew the broken snow across his robe, and the dull echo of the street-cleansing drum could be heard in the distance.

Wujibao, Yusu Township,

Xiao Shisan came back exhausted.
Yu Youniang, who was sewing baby clothes, came forward happily. Xiao Shisan put his ear to his wife's abdomen, his stubble tucking into his fur coat. "I heard it. It sounded like little fish blowing bubbles."

"How can it be so fast?" Yu Youniang pushed him lightly shyly.

Xiao Shisan produced a yellow silk official notice, "I am a military officer at the Liangzhou General Administration Office, rank 7th."

The bright red seal of the Ministry of Personnel on the official's body was very eye-catching.

in the living room,
The salty aroma of steaming ham mixed with the aroma of persimmon liquor filled the hall.

Xiao Shisan sniffed the smell greedily, "When I'm away from home, I miss roasted persimmons the most."

"Liangzhou General Administration Office Bingcao? How did he suddenly move from Hebei to Hexi? Isn't that still Li Gui's territory?"

Xiao Shisan took a sip of the persimmon sauce and smacked his lips in satisfaction. "Li Gui built the Tongtian Terrace in Liangzhou to welcome the Jade Maiden, but he allowed his ministers to withhold military rations for disaster relief."

He sighed, "Those Sogdian merchants in Hexi verbally swore allegiance to Li Gui, but secretly they exploited the disaster and profited greatly from it. There was a severe drought and famine in Hexi, but the merchants took advantage of it to hoard grain, causing prices to rise by the day. They even colluded with military officers to resell military rations to the Turks."

Li Yi recalled Wei Zheng's letter saying that there was a severe famine in Hebei and people were eating their own children.

"Mr. Yang Guan was appointed by His Majesty as the Governor of Liang Province, and was ordered to pacify the northwest. Mr. Yang Guan invited me to go with him, and I agreed."

"Is the imperial court going to destroy Li Gui?" Li Yi asked.

"Well, Yang Guangong said that Your Majesty has just reached an agreement with Tuyuhun Khan Fuyun. Fuyun will send troops to attack Li Gui in Hexi, and the Tang Dynasty will return Fuyun's crown prince Murong Shun."

How can you allow others to sleep soundly on the side of the couch?

Li Yuan wanted to eliminate his cousin in Hexi first.

Now is the right time,
For two consecutive years, there was severe drought and famine in Hexi.
Then, although Li Gui proclaimed himself emperor, there was now fierce internal strife among his subordinates.

When Li Gui first raised his army in Hexi, he also secretly allied with Tuyuhun and Turks. For a time, he was strong in both army and horses, and quickly seized the counties in Hexi. He even snatched a lot of territory from Xue Ju.

Li Gui received support from local powerful people and the Sogdian Hu tribe.
But now the local Han people and the Sogdian Hu tribe are fighting each other. Li Gui has always trusted Liang Shuo. Liang Shuo is at odds with the Xi'an family in Hexi. He advised Li Gui to guard against the Hu tribe becoming too powerful.

This caused dissatisfaction among the Sogdians, led by An Xiuren, who had strongly supported Li Gui. Liang Shuo, who considered himself a meritorious official and elder, was not respectful enough to the crown prince. This gave An Xiuren an opportunity to instigate the crown prince, falsely accusing Liang Shuo of treason and using a knife to kill him.

After killing Liang Shuo, the Sogdian Hu in Li Gui's court, led by An Xiuren, strongly supported Crown Prince Li Zhongyan, but in fact gradually marginalized Li Gui.

There was a severe famine in Hexi. Li Gui wanted to distribute grain from his warehouse to help the victims. He even wanted to use his own property to help the victims and asked his ministers to provide grain.

However, An Xiuren and others refused to provide a single grain of grain. Instead, they took the opportunity to continue to eliminate Cao Zhen and Liang Shuo's party.

General Xie Tongshi said in public that the people starved to death because they were weak. Strong people would never starve to death. How could the country's granaries feed those weak people?

As soon as these words were spoken, Li Gui's ruling foundation in Hexi was already shaky.

It was at this time that An Xiuren took the initiative to contact his brother An Xinggui, who was an official in the Tang Dynasty in Chang'an, and expressed his willingness to surrender to the Tang Dynasty.

An Xinggui asked the emperor to go to Hexi, saying that he alone could persuade Li Gui to surrender.

He dared to say this because the Li Gui court in Hexi was now controlled by An Xiuren and others.

It would be fine if Li Gui surrenders obediently, but if he doesn't, then just kill him.

So, the emperor sent An Xinggui to Hexi to persuade them to surrender, and at the same time he joined forces with Tuyuhun's Fuyun Khan to attack.

Then he sent Yang Gongren as the governor of Liangzhou, bringing a large number of officials to the Hexi border, ready to take over Li Gui's territory in Hexi at any time.

Xiao Shisan was one of the officials who received the
He was promoted from the ninth rank military officer of Weizhou to the seventh rank military officer of the Liangzhou General's Office, a promotion of eight levels in a row.

"I want to give it a try while I'm still young, and try to get a title for my wife and children." Xiao Shisan said.

Li Yi didn't know how to persuade him.
"Is my senior brother doing well in Hebei?"

"Well, Secretary Wei is in high spirits and full of energy now. When I came back, he asked me to bring back some more persimmon cakes. It's a pity that I can't bring any for him this time."

Li Yi smiled and said, "My senior brother Wei is already 39 years old, but he still doesn't have a family." He wrote many letters to Wei Zheng, saying that he had successfully recruited Li Ji, completed the task, and even recruited Yuan Baozang and others. He had fulfilled his promise to leave the capital and could return to the capital with success.

Come back to Chang'an, get married and start a family, and settle down.

But Wei Zheng was working very hard and did not want to come back immediately. He felt that he had great potential in Guandong, and it would be difficult for him to display his talents and waste his time if he came back to work as a secretary in the Secretariat.

Li Yi remembered that Wei Zheng later in Hebei, seemed to have become a prisoner of Dou Jiande like Li Ji, and seemed to have been forced to serve as an official there for several years.

Unfortunately, Wei Zheng did not listen to the advice.

Xiao Shisan will not return to Hebei this time, and he did not take some words with him.

"This pig's trotter is salty and fragrant, and tastes great," Xiao Shisan exclaimed as he gnawed on the pig's trotter that had been stewed in a casserole for a long time.
Pickled pork trotters, smoked with cypress branches,

Before eating, burn the skin over straw fire, scrape and clean it, and then slow-cook it in a casserole. It is very soft and glutinous, with no peculiar smell and is very salty and fragrant.

"You don't know the current situation in Kanto. It's almost like hell. There's often no one living within a hundred miles. There are ruined and deserted villages everywhere.
The roadside is littered with bones, and no one is burying them.
The most common thing you see in Guandong is hungry people, and there are always bandits in the mountains and forests.

If the fighting continues like this, there won’t be many people left.”

"Dou Jiande is now the most powerful force in Hebei, and in Beiping there is also Gao Kaidao. In Shanggu Huairong, there is a monk named Gao Tansheng who led fifty monks to rise up in rebellion, proclaimed himself the Mahayana Emperor, established a Buddhist kingdom, and also appointed the nun Jingxuan as the Yelun Empress.

He also recruited Gao Kaidao of Beiping and named him the King of Qi. However, only three months later, Gao Kaidao attacked Tan Sheng and annexed all his troops.

Gao Kaidao attacked Youzhou and Luo Yi retreated after a long time without success. Dou Jiande led another 100,000 troops to attack Youzhou.

Luo Yi was indeed quite capable. He stubbornly defended Youzhou and fought against Gao Kaidao, Wang Xuba, Dou Jiande and others, but in the end, no one could do anything to him.

"The regicide Yu Wenhuaji had previously attacked the Yuan treasures in Weizhou, but was defeated and had to flee to the Liaocheng area. He persuaded Wang Bo, who had led the uprising in Changbai Mountain, to surrender, but he was unlikely to hold out for much longer. Dou Jiande had already sent troops to besiege Liaocheng.
The regicide will either die at the hands of Dou Jiande or at the hands of Wang Bo, whom he persuaded to surrender.

This world is in chaos,
It seemed that life in Guanzhong was peaceful and tranquil. Although food was expensive, at least the supply could be guaranteed.

Li Yi raised his glass,
"Come, let's have a drink, and may the world be at peace soon!"

“May peace prevail!”

Xiao Shisan raised his glass.

late at night,

Xiao Shisan, drunkenly slumped over his wife's lap, murmured that he would name the child Siye, nicknamed Wuji. He would be born and raised in Wuji Fort, and he hoped this boy would one day revive the Lanling Xiao family's legacy.

Yu Youyu gently stroked her husband's tightly furrowed brows.

"Xiao Lang, I don't really care about fame, wealth, or anything like that. I just want to be with you, even if our life is just plain and simple."

(End of this chapter)