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

Chapter 217 A Pot of Half-Cooked Rice
"I'm also quite curious about how this Five Thunders Orthodox Method was refined. I used to have some doubts, but now so many people have witnessed it with their own eyes. It can emit a flash of lightning in the dark night and even knock out an eight-foot-tall Tuojie man with a single blow. It's truly remarkable." Li Yuan sighed to the Crown Prince, "Taoism still has many truly hidden masters, and Li Yi's teacher is definitely one of them."

Jiancheng no longer objects to the fact that Li Yi is a talent, but he just doesn't know how to appreciate his talents.

Especially since Wei Ting was his true confidant, but now he was made so embarrassed by Li Yi.

"As the crown prince, you must be tolerant. Wei Ting was your good friend in the past, and now he is even your confidant. I know this, but Wei Ting has been secretly communicating with Luoyang. Shouldn't we give him a warning?

Think about what happened to Xue Ju and his son after their defeat. If we were defeated, we would have had the same fate, but Wei Ting and others would still be officials in the new dynasty."

"Du Yan killed countless officials in Luoyang who were secretly connected to Chang'an. He is certainly despicable, but how did Du Yan know the identities of those people? Wasn't there someone in Chang'an who passed on the secrets to him? That person might not be Wei Ting."

"I have sent Li Yiren to your Eastern Palace again. Whether you can use him for your benefit depends on your own ability."

Li Jiancheng responded.

"I called you here for another important matter." Li Yuan asked the waiter to unfold a map of Hexi and Longyou. "Last year, Shimin defeated Xue Ju and his son, but Li Gui took advantage of the situation and launched a large-scale attack on Longyou.
Zhangye, Dunhuang, Wuwei, Xiping, Fuhan, Jincheng, and all the land west of the Yellow River belonged to Li Gui.
However, last year, there was a severe drought in Hexi, and Li Gui was internally unstable.
Now An Xinggui has returned to Hexi, and together with his brother An Xiugui and others, they have united with the various Hu peoples in Hexi and some of Xue Gui's former subordinates to rebel against Li Gui. The situation is very good.
The imperial court needs to send troops to support them."

Although Li Yuan had appointed Yang Gongren as the governor of Liangzhou, Yang Gongren was only a civil official and had no soldiers under his command.

"I intend to have you lead the troops out of Yuanzhou to provide support."

Jiancheng responded without hesitation: "Your son is willing to go!"

After the defeat at Qianshuiyuan last year, some officials of the Eastern Palace suggested that Jiancheng lead the troops to fight against Xue Ju. However, some people thought that Xue Ju's army was very powerful, and it might not be easy for Jiancheng to lead the troops to clean up Li Shimin's mess, so Jiancheng hesitated.

Unexpectedly, Li Shimin later won a great victory in Changwu, which led to a great victory in Jingzhou, and wiped out Xue Ju and his son in one fell swoop.

After the victory in Jingzhou, Li Shimin showed great ambition and tried hard to win over Xue Rengao and others, making Jiancheng feel threatened.
So the emperor later urgently summoned Li Shimin back to Beijing, and even executed Xue Rengao and his brothers, as well as the fierce general Zong Luohou, despite opposition.
He also sent Dou Gui, Chai Shao and others to take over Longyou.

However, because Li Yuan executed Xue Rengao, Zong Luohou and others, many of Xue Ju's former subordinates in Longyou and local tyrants turned to Li Gui.

What was originally a delicious meal was turned into a pot of half-cooked rice by Li Yuan.

Many of Xue Ju's territories in Longyou eventually fell into the hands of Li Gui.

Li Yuan also felt a little regretful about this.
Fortunately, the two Lis divided Xue, but Li Gui failed to seize this opportunity. Now there is famine in Hexi and the Hu and Han peoples under his command are divided, which gives Li Yuan an opportunity to take advantage of.

"I will draw 20,000 elite soldiers from Guanzhong for you, and the troops from Longyou will also be under your command. Is that enough?" Li Yuan asked.

Twenty thousand men, this is a complete field army, the central army is 4,000, and there are six armies, the left and right guards, the left wing front, the left wing rear, the right wing front, and the right wing rear.

The left and right corps had two thousand eight hundred soldiers in each army, and the left and right wing corps had two thousand six hundred soldiers in each army.

Each army has one general and two sub-generals. Each general is in charge of a battalion and in turn commands each team.

If the corresponding auxiliary soldiers and civilian laborers, as well as the local troops in Longyou, are added, the army Li Jiancheng has is actually quite a lot.

"Twenty thousand soldiers are enough," Jiancheng said confidently.

The father and son discussed some candidates for the generals, and finally Li Yuan decided to appoint Jiancheng as the marching marshal of Liangzhou Road, Yang Gongren as the marching chief, Tang Jian as the marching secretary, and Yang Mao, the general of the right guard, and Chai Shao, the general of the left guard, as deputy generals.

Seven other generals were selected to lead the seven armies, with Wang Changxie, the General of the Left Guard, leading the central army.

"I request that Wei Ting serve in the army to atone for my sins."

"Alright, let him serve in the army in plain clothes. If he makes meritorious contributions, we'll reward him." Li Yuan nodded. "Take Li Yi with you and appoint him as the military recorder."

The generals selected by Li Yuan for the prince were luxurious. For example, Yang Mao and Wang Changxie were both heroes who started the uprising in Taiyuan and were also the commanders of Jiancheng's left army.

"Father, the Hexi cavalry is elite. I would like to borrow the elite Black Armor Cavalry under Erlang's command."

Li Yuan stroked his beard,

In the end, the request was rejected.

If the emperor had not been so anxious to transfer Li Shimin, Longyou and Hexi might have been pacified. Now that Shimin's two thousand cavalry were to be transferred out, it was likely that Shimin would not agree, and Li Yuan did not want to overly irritate his second son.

"For your 20,000 troops, I will assign you 4,000 cavalry, with two horses for each man."

Four thousand cavalrymen was not an easy task. Troops were being deployed everywhere, and Li Tang was already short of horses and cavalrymen. In the battle with Xue Ju, he lost a lot of war horses. Although he gained more afterwards, Li Tang was still short of cavalrymen.

Cavalry is either horses or cavalry. You need both well-trained war horses and well-trained cavalry, neither of which can be achieved overnight.

But every time the troops were deployed, the losses of cavalry, especially war horses, were astonishing.

Often after a high-intensity battle, the cavalry would lose several percent of their war horses.

War horses are actually very expensive, they cost a lot and also cause great losses.

A cavalry unit of a thousand men would lose about two hundred war horses every year during routine training.

It was not uncommon for tens of thousands of horses and mules to be dispatched during a large-scale campaign, with only 10% returning. Normally, around 20% of the horses would die from exhaustion, many more from injuries and illnesses, and many more would be disabled.

During a battle in Mobei during the reign of Emperor Wu of Han, Wei Qing and Huo Qubing each led 50,000 cavalrymen to attack the Xiongnu. According to records, a total of 140,000 horses were dispatched by the public and private sectors, but only 30,000 returned to the border.
Even in modern wars, the loss rate of cavalry horses is still close to half.

The Tang cavalry had to be equipped with two horses per person, which was already backward compared to the Turkic custom of riding three horses per person. However, to build a cavalry of 4,000, 8,000 war horses would have to be dispatched.

Not counting the pack animals and equipment, and the horses ridden by the infantry,
It can be said that Li Yuan invested heavily in Jiancheng. After giving Jiancheng 20,000 soldiers this time, Li Yuan also had to hurry up to recruit more soldiers in Guanzhong, otherwise the court would be short of soldiers.

It would have been more appropriate to let Li Shimin go into battle.

But Li Yuan and Jiancheng tacitly did not mention this capable fighter Erlang.
The purpose of letting the crown prince personally lead the troops to Yuanzhou at this time was to enhance his prestige in the army and to overshadow Li Shimin.

In Li Yuan's view, the battle to pacify Li Gui in Hexi was very important, but it should be much easier than the battle against Xue Ju. After all, the news brought back by An Xinggui when he entered Hexi was quite optimistic.

It won't be difficult for Jiancheng to lead the troops, and he can easily achieve this military achievement.

"Li Yi is a lucky star, use him well,"

Before Jiancheng left, Li Yuan gave him some special instructions.

Jiancheng was a little excited when he left Taiji Palace. His father was willing to let him lead the troops to pacify Hexi, which was an unexpected surprise.

"Li Yi," thinking of this name, Li Jiancheng decided to give this guy another chance. "Go to the residence of Li Yi, the Marquis of Qianshui,"

······
"Husband, the assassin was definitely not sent by my father. This must be a misunderstanding."

When she returned home, Du Shiniang's eyes were swollen from crying. At this time, she still could not accept the fact that her husband was assassinated by assassins sent by her family.

Li Yi comforted her: "The court is still investigating this matter. Don't worry, the truth will eventually come out. I don't believe my father-in-law wants to kill me."

"Husband, how are your injuries? Are they still painful?"

"I asked the imperial pharmacist for some painkillers, and now I feel much better."

After comforting her, Li Yi called the soldiers who had protected him this morning.

He directly rewarded Song Yi, who was loyal to his master, with 20,000 coins.
He also gave him a cow and ten stone of millet, and promised to build three new caves for his family. He was promoted to the head of the guard team, and would be paid two stone of millet per month. He was also exempted from rent for the fifty acres of land that his family rented for five years.

Today, the rest of the troops were also given one stone of grain and one piece of silk.

As for Zhao Yongan's four imperial guards, each of them was given two stone of millet and two pieces of silk, and Zhao Yongan took double the amount.

"I've asked the kitchen to stew mutton and cook some wine. Everyone, please enjoy the meat and drink the wine. Thank you all for your brave efforts to protect me today."

Each of the twenty newly arrived imperial guards was rewarded with a piece of silk and was given mutton in the evening.

The security during this period depends on them, so Li Yi dare not be careless.

Turn around,

Li Yi took two jars of persimmons and burned them at Li Jing's house next door.
Today, we are all grateful to Li Jing and his wife for their help.

"What are you doing out here like this?"

Li Jing welcomed Li Yi into the living room. "Is your injury serious?"

"Fortunately, no bones were injured."

"I didn't expect that the person behind the assassination would target the Du family directly," Li Jing sighed. He had never expected this result.

"Yeah, I didn't expect that either."

"What are you going to do?" Li Jing asked. This was Li Yi's family matter, but the two had a good relationship, so he didn't care.

"Let it sit," Li Yi said with a smile, "When the enemy comes, we'll just fight them with our generals and when the water comes, we'll just drown them with earth."

"Too."

Li Jing looked at the purple robe that Li Yi hadn't changed out of yet. "But this time, you've turned a disaster into a blessing. You've been promoted to Shallow Water Marquis and even been awarded purple gold. Meanwhile, the Du family lost more than they gained. The assets of the Guo family and the Du Yan brothers are probably worth tens of millions, right?"

Li Yi smiled,
"My mind is full of assassins right now. Although I killed two and captured one today, six still escaped. Not to mention, if it was really my father-in-law who ordered it, then he is far away in Luoyang. I am afraid I will never have peace in the future."

Li Jing didn't think it was a big deal.
"Now that we know who it is, there's nothing to be afraid of. Du Yan is far away in Luoyang after all, and his reach is limited. This time it was sudden, and with more precautions, there won't be another chance. Just arrange for more servants and guards, and be more careful when traveling."

"Would you like me to lend you some guards?"

Li Jing's family soldiers were very elite. Li Yi had seen them in the last battle of Jingzhou. They were all veterans.

"Thank you very much, but Your Majesty has mobilized twenty imperial guards for protection. Yongzhou and Wannian County have also sent envoys to serve on duty and patrol."

Li Jing was about to make tea for Li Yi. "It's really rare for a father-in-law to send an assassin to kill his son-in-law."

"It's rare for an uncle to kill or imprison his nephew." Li Yi said.

"It's true. This Du Yan is so cruel."

Li Yi stood up and said, "I'm going to the Chu residence to thank Mr. Chu and his son. I won't stay any longer."

"Indeed, remember to bring more people with you. Even though Pingkangfang is now full of imperial guards and officials, we still have to be on guard against hidden dangers and be careful of assassins who might come back to attack us."

(End of this chapter)