Tang Dynasty Little Godfather

Chapter 192 Ambition
This sudden appearance of his aunt annoyed Wang Xi, as it disrupted his entire plan. The most crucial point was that if even the Xue Kingdom's princess sided with his aunt in this matter, how could he expect the Linghu and Xue families to stand on the side of the Nameless Academy?

Therefore, Princess Xue's attitude was a very ominous sign.

However, as the ancients said, misfortunes never come singly.

That night.

Wu family.

"Why has Grand Master Wu summoned me here at this time?"

Li Linfu asked Wu Xin with a puzzled look on his face.

He had been busy dealing with court officials and working at the Ministry of Rites, so he rarely went to the Nameless Academy. However, he had been keeping an eye on the Nameless Academy. Everything was normal and nothing unusual had happened. He was genuinely puzzled as to why Wu Xin had suddenly invited him.

Wu Xin said, "If there is no urgent matter, how could I dare to disturb Li Zhongyun?"

Li Linfu asked curiously, "What is it?"

Wu Xin handed a letter to Li Linfu.

Upon seeing that it was Zhang Jiayou who had been accused of embezzlement and bribery, Li Linfu's heart skipped a beat. He immediately realized that Wu Xin had summoned him to impeach Zhang Jiayou, but he said aloud, "The Expansion Commissioner informed Grand Master Wu of this news for...?"

Wu Xin said, "The Land Expansion Commissioner is currently cooperating with the Anye Bureau, busy investigating land and hidden households. If the Land Expansion Commissioner were to directly impeach Zhang Jiayou, it might affect the overall situation. As everyone knows, the Wang family and the Zhang family have a close relationship, but he cannot turn a blind eye to this matter, which is why he revealed this information to me."

"That Yuwen Rong is really cunning!" Li Linfu muttered to himself, then asked, "I wonder how Grand Master Wu plans to deal with this?"

Wu Xin said, "I haven't thought it through yet, which is why I came to Li Zhongyun to discuss countermeasures."

He really wanted to impeach the Zhang family and eliminate the Wang family's biggest supporters in the court, but his identity as a member of the Wu family held him back.

Therefore, he hoped that Li Linfu would do this.

Upon seeing the news, Li Linfu knew why Wu Xin had summoned him. However, he was unwilling to openly offend the Wang family and impeach the prime minister's brother. After all, it was the prime minister's brother who did it, not the prime minister himself. If Zhang Jiazhen was not implicated, given Zhang Jiazhen's personality, he would surely retaliate. He had only recently begun to make a name for himself in the court and was unwilling to do such a thing. He pretended to think for a moment and said, "In my opinion, there is one person who is most suitable to handle this matter."

Wu Xin hurriedly asked, "Who is it?"

Li Linfu said, "It is the Duke of Qi."

Wu Xin looked at Li Linfu in surprise, "Why would Wang Shouyi impeach Zhang Jiayou? If Wang Shouyi finds out about this, I'm afraid he will be furious!"

Having said that, he suddenly realized something, pondered for a while, and then chuckled and said, "Brilliant! Brilliant! Li Zhongyun's plan is truly brilliant."

The next day.

Wang Xi arrived at the Nameless Academy with a touch of dejection.

"This situation is not good!"

"How so?"

Huangfu Seng Niandao.

Wang Xi sighed and said, "We might not be able to get any grapes this year, and the winery will face big problems."

Wang Shuang exclaimed in surprise, "How is that possible? Your family grows quite a lot of grapes."

Wang Xi said, "Even my family's grapes won't be sold to us."

"what?"

Wang Shuang exclaimed in shock, "Your father would rather help your aunt than you?"

Wang Xi nodded and said, "It's not my father, it's my mother. In my mother's opinion, she is only helping my aunt, not dealing with me. Moreover, my mother also believes that giving this wine to my aunt is the most appropriate solution."

Wang Shuang said, "It seems your aunt really does have some tricks up her sleeve."

Wang Xi nodded.

Huangfu Sengnian said, "However, we also have several other kinds of fruit wine."

Wang Xi scratched his head in frustration and said, "It's a pity we didn't hide this beforehand, and we don't know if my aunt will find out, so we can't put all our hopes on this."

As the three chatted, they suddenly realized that Li Jieman hadn't said a word.

Wang Xi couldn't help but look at Li Jieman, only to see the fat man sitting to the side, seemingly distracted. So he called out, "Xiaoman. Xiaoman."

"what?"

Li Jieman seemed to awaken from a dream.

Wang Xi asked, "Did you get any news from your father?"

Li Jie stared at them blankly.

Huangfu Sengnian said, "Say something!"

Li Jie said anxiously, "Maybe we should just give up and stop fighting with your aunt."

Wang Xi hurriedly asked, "What did your father say to you?"

Li Jie said, "Yesterday, I waited until my father was almost drunk before I tried to get information out of him, as we had planned. It turns out your aunt is not someone to be trifled with; she has several powerful families behind her."

Wang Xi frowned slightly and said, "To be honest, my mother almost let it slip yesterday, which made me realize that my aunt may have quite a few families behind her."

Li Jie nodded and said, "Besides your family, there are also the Yuan family, the Linghu family, the Liu family, and the Cui family." Huangfu Sengnian asked, "Why did they join forces?"

Li Jieman thought for a moment and said, "According to my father, it's not that they're allied, but they share the same goal, so their relationship is very close."

"What is your purpose?" Wang Xi asked urgently.

Li Jieman said, "First of all, they are mainly composed of powerful Xianbei clans, and all of them are skilled merchants. However, the imperial court clearly values ​​agriculture more."

Therefore, they joined forces and relied on their family influence to block policies that were detrimental to commerce. A few years ago, the imperial court planned to abolish customs duties, but they managed to stop it.

The Central Plains dynasties have always valued agriculture and suppressed commerce, and the Tang Dynasty was no exception, enacting many laws to inhibit business.

Especially in the early years of the Zhenguan era, after the great chaos at the end of the Sui Dynasty, the first priority was to restore agriculture. Judging from the laws at that time, the main theme was to encourage agriculture, while commerce was also suppressed.

However, based on the core foreign policy of "Heavenly Khan," the Tang Dynasty had to open up, and various ethnic groups began to integrate.

However, foreign ethnic groups are generally commercially minded, especially many officials in the Tang Dynasty who were from foreign ethnic groups, such as Qibi Heli and Ashina She. They certainly supported commerce because it was beneficial to the development of their own ethnic groups.

One key reason why the Central Plains and the North were always at war was whether the Central Plains traded with them.

Because they need supplies from the Central Plains.

The Central Plains sometimes refused to trade with them because it would create a lot of trouble and increase the administrative costs for the Central Plains dynasties.

However, it was difficult for the Tang Dynasty to completely suppress mercantilism like other dynasties.

Even though laws restricting commerce were continuously added from the Zhenguan to the Yonghui periods, the overall business environment in the Tang Dynasty was still becoming more relaxed.

Furthermore, it is no longer the Zhenguan era, and the end of the Sui Dynasty is nearly a hundred years ago, which has led to the gradual rise of mercantilism.

Encouraging trade necessitates influencing the court's policies.

While the Xianbei tribes had fully integrated into the Central Plains, some families still retained mercantilism. They preferred trading to land. In addition, some of the major Central Plains tribes were also mercantilistic. These people, in pursuit of their own interests, would naturally influence the court's policies to suppress commerce.

However, it doesn't refer to any specific group. In fact, it includes groups like the Guanlong Group and the Hedong Group. This "group" is just a collective term for regional power, not a true alliance.

Wang Xi nodded and said, "I see. So this wine is very important to them because it is deeply loved by the powerful and influential people in the court."

“Yes, yes, yes. My dad thinks so too.” Li Jieman whispered again, “But that’s not all, they are very ambitious.”

Wang Xi then asked, "Anything else?"

Li Jie said, "These people have been pushing the court to expand outwards, ideally to conquer the Abbasid Caliphate, because that would facilitate their trade. Currently, their main business is trade with the Western Regions."

Huangfu Sengnian frowned and asked, "On what grounds do they advocate for the imperial court's external expansion?"

Li Jie said, “Our Great Tang has always used the Fubing system, but the Western Regions are so far away, and there is not much land for the soldiers to cultivate. Now, many places rely on commerce to support the war.”

Wang Shuang immediately replied, "I know that. All the generals in the Western Regions are merchants and are making a fortune."

Li Jieman said, "Yes, yes, that's it. Generals who do business have to sell the treasures of the Western Regions to the Central Plains to make money. They specialize in doing that. Many border generals have very good relationships with them."

But that's not all. The imperial court is currently undertaking military reforms, and they all support it. Unfortunately, my father didn't say much about it, and I don't know why they support it.

Huangfu Sengnian said, "That's not hard to understand."

Wang Shuang asked anxiously, "What do you mean?"

Huangfu Sengnian said, "Actually, one of the main reasons for this military system reform is the expansion into the Western Regions. According to the Fubing system, soldiers should be rotated every two or three years, but the Western Regions are far away, and the Fubing system simply cannot be maintained. This is why many deserters have appeared in various places."

Therefore, the imperial court recently plans to switch to a conscription system. If they strongly advocate external expansion, they will naturally support a conscription system, as only a conscription system can sustain continued expansion into the Western Regions; the existing militia system is simply not feasible.

Wang Xi said, "It might be more than that. The Fubing system mainly revolved around the Equal-Field System, which was agriculture, but the conscription system changed to currency, so it naturally leaned towards commerce."

Li Jie nodded vigorously, "Yes, yes, Monk Nian is right. Since they are so powerful, we might as well not fight them. There's no need for us to fight them. Anyway, we'll keep the money."

Wang Xi, Huangfu Sengnian, and Wang Shuang looked at each other, their expressions hesitant.

If things are like this now, the power behind them is truly outrageous. Wang Xi gradually understood why his mother was biased towards his aunt in this matter.

However, Huangfu Sengnian was strong-willed and had never submitted to anyone. He said, "Our power is not weak either. Otherwise, why would Madam Zixia use business tactics to deal with us? At least we still have a favored minister here."

Wang Xi glanced at him, pondered for a moment, and said, "We can't act impulsively. We should consider what benefits we would gain if we won. If there are no benefits, then there's really no need to fight with my aunt."

Wang Shuang said, "I don't see any benefit in it."

Li Jie nodded repeatedly.

Wang Xi said, "There are some benefits, it just depends on whether we have the courage."

Huangfu Sengnian glanced sideways at Wang Xi, "You wouldn't be thinking of doing this!"

Wang Xi said, "If we can obtain this power, we will become even stronger."

Li Jieman was startled, "Are we sure we can do it?"

Wang Xi laughed and said, "My aunt is so young. If she can do it, then of course we can too, and we can even do it better than her. It just so happens that I promised to cooperate with my future father-in-law to sell wine on the grasslands. If we have this force, it will be very easy. At that time, we may even have enough power to help Uncle Wang become the Minister of War."

Wang Shuang slammed his hand on the table. "Alright! Let's do it this way!"

(End of this chapter)