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

Chapter 94 My Woman, Not for Sale

Gaocheng City.

Li Yi followed Li Shimin into the military fortress on horseback.
The battlefield situation became increasingly favorable for Li Tang. After Xue Ju's death, Xue Rengao succeeded him. Although he also wanted to do something, he was trapped in the Jing River line and could not advance or retreat.

Although he used Hao Yuan's plan to kill Liu Gan and annihilate 3,000 Tang troops, there was no further progress after that.

The crumbling Jingzhou City received strong reinforcements from Liu Hongji, and with the supply of 10,000 dan of grain, the morale of the army was greatly boosted.

in contrast,

On the Tang army side, Li Shimin sent Qinzhou Governor Dou Gui to recapture Longzhou and defeat Wu Shizheng.

He also sent Liu Shirang and his brothers to lead troops to successively recapture several counties and fortresses in Jingzhou that were occupied by the Longyou Army. However, Xue Ju's army was very powerless in the face of this counterattack by the Tang army. They were afraid before the battle and voluntarily abandoned the city and retreated.

The decisive battle is about to begin.

In Gaocheng City,

All the generals asked Li Shimin for help, believing that the time for a major counterattack had come.

"Anyone who dares to talk about war will be killed!"

Li Shimin sat at the top, but only used five words to reply to the generals.

Li Yi sat at the bottom and felt that Li Shimin was more cautious this time. Last time, Li Shuliang was deceived by the false news that Xue Ju had run out of food and had to retreat, and he lost a cavalry general, Liu Gan.

After the meeting,
Li Yi and Li Jing went back to their residence together. As soldiers in the field camp, they were assigned a room in Gaoqiong City and their treatment was very good.

Many soldiers were deployed outside the city.

When Li Erlang heard that he was not allowed to send troops, he complained to his father, saying that it was a time like this and there was nothing to be afraid of. If the entire army were to charge forward, victory would be achieved immediately.

"Then Xue Rengao couldn't even defeat Liu Hongji's 5,000 men. We now have more than 40,000 men in Gaocheng, Changwu, and Jingzhou combined. We have over 10,000 more in Lingwu, and Zhang Changxun in Jiuyuan. Isn't this just a fight?"

Li Jing just shook his head at his son.
"I want you to read more military books. All you know is swordplay. With your limited skills, you can only be a captain who provokes a fight in the army."

"Wuyi, what do you think?" Li Erlang asked Li Yi unconvinced.

"I think your highness's plan is very sound. Now the initiative is in our hands. We can attack or defend. The longer we delay, the more difficult it will be for Xue Ju to get food and grass, and the morale of the Longyou army will be lower, especially since it is already August and the weather is getting cold.

If we delay any longer, winter will soon arrive. The Longyou Army arrived in early summer, still wearing thin summer clothes. They won't be able to withstand the onset of winter."

The Tang army is now invincible.

The safest strategy is to not move unless the enemy does. Although this will put a heavy burden on the Tang army, it is still stronger than the enemy.

Xue Rengao could either take the initiative to attack or take the risk of a battle.

However, the Tang army had strong cities and fortresses, which gave them the upper hand and allowed them to wait for the enemy to tire themselves out.

If Xue Rengao retreated,

Then the Tang army can pursue them closely.
Retreat is not so easy. To retreat from Jingzhou to Longyou, one has to cross the Longshan Mountains. There is no supply along the way, and the morale is low, which can easily lead to a rout.

At that time, the whole Longyou area might have been completely defeated, and the Tang army would have swept away all of it in one fell swoop and recaptured the entire Longyou area.

Emerging separatist forces like Xue Qin have no foundation of their own. Once the main force is destroyed, the entire force will collapse and it will be impossible to continue to resist.

Li Jing was quite satisfied with Li Yi's analysis.
"General Li is very talented in this area. So what do you think Xue Rengao will choose?"

Li Yi smiled,
"He actually has no choice. There's no point in retreating now. He can only take the risk and give it a try. They're bound to attack. This is his only chance of survival. It's too late to retreat now."

"You should learn more from Wuyi," Li Jing said to his second son, with a look of disappointment on his face. "There is another situation that Wuyi didn't mention just now. Li Gui of Hexi has accepted the title bestowed by His Majesty and sent his brother Li Mao to the court."

Li Gui occupied Hexi and was behind Longyou. Now Li Yuan came to make friends with distant countries and attack nearby ones. He recognized Li Gui as his cousin and appointed him as the King of Liang and the Governor of Liangzhou. He also appointed his brother as the General.
This move was quite powerful. Li Tang had dragged Xue Rengao's main force to the east, so Li Gui would definitely take advantage of the opportunity to add insult to injury and send troops to attack Longyou.

Not to mention that Xue Rengao was short of food and grass, even if he had enough food and grass, he could not hold on here forever. If he continued to hold on, a fire would break out in his backyard, and Longyou would be lost, and he would be dead then.

Li Yi knew that Li Shimin had won this battle in history.
Now after listening to what Li Jing said, he had a clearer understanding that perhaps victory would come soon.

After settling down in Gaocheng City, Li Yi began to inquire about the news of Luo San and other villagers from Luojiabao who came to serve as laborers. However, he had only heard about two groups of villagers from Luojiabao who came to serve as laborers in Wannian County, and they served in Jingzhou, Changwu and other places respectively.

Now many troops have gathered in Gaocheng City and Changwu City, and there are also many militiamen who have been left here to serve beyond their term.

It is not easy to find the villagers.

I haven't found Luo San yet.

Someone came to see him first.

"I am Ji Wen, a military officer in Qinzhou. My courtesy name is Siwen."

A young man in a blue round-collar official robe found him and introduced himself.

Li Yi immediately understood who the other party was.

Ji Sujun's elder brother, the eldest son of the Ji family, and the sixth son-in-law of Dou Jin, the Minister of Civil Affairs of the current dynasty, had previously heard that Ji Wen was working in Qinzhou.

His father-in-law Dou Jin was originally the governor of Fufeng.
"I am Li Yi, a military officer in the lower camp, courtesy name Wuyi."

The two looked at each other.

Li Yi called Liu Heizi over and said, "Make tea for the guests."

Ji Wen is about thirty years old, tall and thin, and has some similarities with Ji Sujun. He is quite handsome, but he is only an eighth-rank military officer and is not doing as well as Li Yi.

The Ji family is really in decline.
Although he married Dou Jin's daughter, it can be seen that he might not be very favored by his father-in-law, otherwise he would not have been promoted to the eighth rank.

"You should know why I'm here!" Ji Wen went straight to the point.

Li Yi nodded, "Su Jun has been with me for a while, and he's doing fine."

Ji Wen still had a stern face: "I know that Su Jun was given to you by His Majesty, but she is from my Ji family. I want to take her back. Of course, I won't take her away for nothing. I will give you a horse."

Li Yi felt uncomfortable after hearing this.

"Su Jun has suffered a lot in the past five years in the Ye Ting Palace. Why didn't anyone from your Ji family help her during these five years?"

Ji Wen said coldly: "This is our Ji family's family affair."

Li Yi smiled and said, "In fact, on the day I took Su Jun out of the palace, I asked about her family situation. I wanted to help her contact her family and tell her the news of leaving the palace, but you know how she reacted. She refused to tell me about her family situation at first. Later,

She told me about her family situation, but she also said she didn’t want to go back to the Ji family or have any further contact with them.”

This made Ji Wen blush immediately and glared at Li Yi.
"I'll give you two horses, good Turkic horses, worth at least fifty thousand coins."

Li Yi chuckled.

"I won't sell Su-kun like an animal."

"Add two more horses, or give you 100,000 yuan!"

Li Yi said frankly: "Although I am not from a famous family, I am not short of money now."

"Sujun is doing well with me now. Of course, if she is willing to return to the Ji family, I am willing to help her, let her be a good person, and send her home. I don't need you to pay a penny."

Ji Wen looked disdainful and said, "How much do you want? Just name your price. Although my Ji family is not as powerful as before, it is not something that any random person can come and step on or extort.

My father-in-law is the current Minister of Civil Affairs, Mr. Dou, and the Fufeng Dou family is a prominent and distinguished clan.”

"General Ji, you don't have to use your father-in-law's family background to pressure me. I still say the same thing. After returning to Chang'an, you can come to my house to see Su Jun. If she is willing to go home, I will not force her to stay. But if she is unwilling to leave, it will be useless even if you move out of the Dou family."

The meeting ended in a bad mood.

Ji Wen left angrily.

Li Dejiang came out from next door and asked, "Have the guests left?"

"He's not really a guest." Li Yi smiled and waved to him, "We just boiled the water and the tea isn't ready yet, and he left. Let's drink it alone."

Li Dejiang is also a man of temperament. Along the way, he and Li Yi have become friends.

"One hundred thousand coins for a slave, this is a good deal."

"That's my woman. I won't sell my woman." Li Yi said bluntly.

Li Dejiang gave him a thumbs-up and said, "That's a very domineering statement. I like it."

When he learned that the Ji family had been involved in an incident at Ji Sujun's husband's house and had been confiscated into the imperial court, and that they had distanced themselves from the family for the past five years without paying any attention to them, he could not help but mock the Ji family, "This is quite wicked. They turned a blind eye to it at first, but now they come here and act like they're making a big deal out of it. Bah, they talk about morality and justice, but they're actually full of thieves and whores."

Li Yi didn't react that much.
The tea is ready,
The two men drank tea and chatted. Li Dejiang felt that this trip was not worth it. It was too boring. Not to mention the boring march, but now that he had arrived at the front line, it was like he would end up in jail.

"If you can't even drink alcohol, what's the point?"

"I think this trip was worthwhile, and I gained a lot of knowledge."

In the next few days, there was still no movement on the front line. Li Yi didn't know what Xue Rengao was thinking. If you want to fight, you fight. If you don't want to fight, you retreat.

Isn't this a slow death if we are stuck in this stalemate now?

He searched for a few days but still couldn't find Luo San and the others. Li Shimin gave him a task.
Li Jing had previously thought that his fried rice was suitable for making dry rations for the march, better than wheat rice. Following his suggestion, Li Shimin put Li Yi in charge of making fried rice in Gaocheng City.

Allocate millet and laborers to him,
This is not a difficult task. He just needs to pass on the method of making fried rice and be responsible for monitoring the process and quality inspection.

After taking on this task, he had more dealings with logistics, which made it easier for him to find people.

A few days later, he really found Luo San.

Luo San and the other two were in Changwu City. Li Yi found them through an old official in charge of food in the logistics department, so he wrote a note and transferred Luo San to Gaoqiong City.

Not only Luo San was found, but also Luo Wu, Erlang and Fugui, who were in the same group with him, were found. They had been serving and working together, building city walls and digging moats in Changwu City.

After receiving the transfer order, the four people were confused as to why they were suddenly transferred to Gaocheng City.

The four of them followed to Gaocheng City with doubts.
After entering the city, he saw Li Yi, whom he hadn't seen for a long time.

"Wuyi, are you also serving on the front line?" Erlangzi was surprised.

Luo Wu, however, noticed the green round-collared official robe on Li Yi and asked, "Is the village chief an official now?"

Li Yi walked forward with a smile, "I finally found you. I'm relieved to see that you are all right."

"Wuyi, what position are you in now?" Erlang asked.

"Military officer," Li Yi invited the four people into the house. "You must have had a hard journey. Knowing you were coming, I specially stewed a leg of lamb and baked a basket of Hu cakes for you. Wash your hands quickly and eat. We talked while we ate."

Luo San and the others came to their senses and were also overjoyed.
Not only did I meet an old friend in a foreign land, but I also met a backer.

They ate meat, ate bread, and drank soup with big mouthfuls. The four of them had served extremely hard in the past two months and had lost a lot of weight. They ate this meal like hungry tigers coming down the mountain.

"Is everything alright at home? Are Lanxiang and her brother obedient? Is there enough food?"

After the four of them devoured their hearty meal, they began to inquire about the specific circumstances of their parents, wives, and children at home.

Li Yi made a pot of tea and told them in detail about the changes in Luojiabao Village since they separated. Hearing about the earth-shaking changes, the four of them were extremely shocked.

Li Yi opened a workshop and a school. Many people in the village worked for him to earn money, and the children also studied there for free.

"It's like a dream," Luo San sighed.

Luo Wu had never expected that he would have to exceed his term for so long just to replace Luo Er in service for a stone of grain, nor had he expected to meet Li Yi here.

"From now on, you guys will stay here with me. I'll be in charge of making fried rice now, and you guys will just follow me from now on."

After hearing this, the four of them were also very happy and followed Li Yi steadily.

At this time Liu Heizi came in from outside.

Luo San and the others looked at him in surprise, "Is this Liu Heizi from Guo Erlang's family?"

"Heizi has now settled in our Luojiabao. He has reformed and is following me."

Liu Heizi came up to greet everyone. He had been caught stealing from Li Yi and Luo San and the others had beaten him. He didn't remember that and greeted everyone enthusiastically. He also talked about how he had settled down and divided the land after Li Yi's help, and even got married.

Everyone was deeply saddened by what they heard.

"Uncle San, you don't have to envy Heizi. When you return home after the war, I will find another woman for you to marry." Li Yi said with a smile.

(End of this chapter)