Northern Dynasties

Chapter 1317 Wu Er Rat Eyes

Although Shen Ke's words were deeply insightful about the current situation, they only pointed out the problem but did not address how to solve it, or in other words, this problem simply has no solution.

Because when Shen Ke talked about this issue, Chen Qian's face changed, and his expression became a little embarrassed. A considerable part of the hot-selling captive goods in the Three Wus now came from his industry. In other words, he was also one of the people who were desperately plundering the wealth of the people in the Three Wus.

His disciples Hua Jiao, Dao Zhongju and others were responsible for Chen Qian's business affairs, earning profits to save money and grain. Since most of the shipping routes were controlled by the court, in order to avoid being seen, he also organized a land transportation team to transport seasonal goods from the north to Wuzhong by carriages and horses and manpower.

This team was formed when Chen Qian was in charge of the Jiankang government. He specially selected young and brave people from the slaves in the East and West Smelting and Shangfang Money Office. These slaves were often captured by Hou Jing's rebellion army and the Northern Qi's invasion of the south. Therefore, they all had good military qualities. There were nearly 3,000 people.

Chen Qian named it Danshan. It usually transports commercial goods. If necessary, it can directly distribute weapons and reorganize into an army. It is also an elite force with considerable combat effectiveness. It is regarded as a trump card in Chen Qian's hand, and is also managed by his confidant Hua Jiao.

The dumping of captured goods in Wuzhong and the plundering of people's wealth could certainly arouse the anger of these Wuzhong local tyrants, but the issue itself was rather embarrassing and not suitable for further discussion, so Chen Qian coughed lightly twice at the table.

Shen Ke understood what he meant and stopped talking about this topic. He said, "Tang is a powerful country and will never be satisfied with the present. They have already carried out various plots to pave the way for the war in the future. If the people of Wu are not prepared, they will be enslaved by the northern barbarians in a blink of an eye! Since you have gathered under the king's command, you should also have this understanding. Now that the king has asked for advice, I have only one thing to tell you: if you promote benevolence and justice and unite as one, you can avoid the tragedy of the country being upside down and the hometown being destroyed!"

Most of the people present had personally experienced the catastrophe of Hou Jing's Rebellion that swept across Jiangdong. When they heard Shen Ke's serious words, the old memories inevitably came to their mind again. Some people couldn't help but say: "Although the Tang Lord is a hero, he is just another hero in the north. Since the Yongjia period, the people have moved south. Since then, the barbarians have lived in the north and the Wu people have lived in the south. There have been some strong men who have invaded the other side, but none of them could last long. The King of Qin and the Lord of Wei all suffered a bitter defeat. Liang Zu was greedy for merit, so he became a disaster for the Hu people.

"The previous people were all talented at the time, but they still could not break this situation that was destined to last forever. If the Tang Lord is a great man, how can he not learn from the lessons of the past? If he ignores all the past events and still insists on attacking me, he is nothing more than a madman who is greedy for merit and reckless. He will hurt himself in the long run, so there is no need to worry about him!"

As soon as this was said, many people at the scene nodded in agreement. The situation of the North-South split had been in existence for many years, and there had been heroes who attacked the South and the North, but the situation of the North-South split had not changed much, except that the forces of each side had increased and decreased.

Therefore, in the minds of many people, the division between the north and the south was already a situation that was destined by fate, and no one could change it. If they tried to challenge it, they would inevitably suffer a backlash. Even the demise of Northern Qi was attributed by many people to the fact that the ruler of Qi sent troops across the river to fight, which resulted in a great loss of troops, allowing the West to take advantage of it.

Such prejudice and obsession, not to mention in the present, even in the future when information is developed, there will still be many people who are obsessed with the glory of some fictitious and imaginary beacon and cannot extricate themselves. When a concept is formed, the more ignorant, the more stubborn it is.

  In the minds of many people in Wuzhong, there was fear, envy, disgust and resistance towards the Tang Dynasty, but there was no picture of the Tang army marching south and completely occupying Jiangdong. Because in their minds, such a possibility should not exist, so why worry about it and cause trouble for yourself?

Hou Andu, who was already rather hot-tempered, could no longer suppress his anger after hearing such pedantic remarks. He slammed the table and stood up, pointing at the Wuzhong tyrants who were still echoing his remarks and shouted angrily: "I have heard that the Wu people are short-sighted. In the past, they believed that the former lord and the king were both great and talented, and they thought that the rumors were wrong. Now that I see all these clowns, I believe it! It is really difficult to discuss major plans with you pigs and dogs!

"The rule of the river was won by the blood of our Jiangdong men. How could it be a gift from heaven? Last year, the bandits invaded Zhongshan. If the first lord had not led us to fight them, you country bumpkins would have been waiting to be slaughtered at home. Why are you still making ignorant and ridiculous remarks today? Now, more than half of the important river defense towns have been seized by the bandits. Instead of worrying about the disaster, you still hope for heaven's help. You are really as stupid as pigs and stupid as hell! Where is heaven's will? Heaven's will is in the hall. If you don't follow it now, you will die!"

The atmosphere in the hall today was not harmonious to begin with. Everyone had their own thoughts, and had not yet reached a unified opinion. Suddenly, Hou Andu started bombarding everyone with a barrage of attacks, directly demoting all the powerful men in Wuzhong to the level of pigs and dogs. Naturally, everyone's faces looked unhappy, and many people could not help but glare at him.

After Hou Andu scolded him, even Luo Ya, a brave general under Chen Qian who was also from Wuzhong, could not help but speak out: "Hou Gong, what you said is wrong! My hometown has suffered disasters, and you have seen more than just a few. Before you, my hometown went through disasters, and although we were injured, we did not die. Today, the elders of Wuzhong are alive not because of your resistance! Even if the bandits cross the Yangtze River and Jiankang is not defended, my fellow countrymen can still shed blood on our hometown! Don't you see the righteous people of the old days, who almost went to the ocean and still made a comeback!"

Hou Andu was not angry after listening to Luo Ya's argument, but laughed even more: "Is what Luo said the reason why you Wu Er are so confident? If you are brave and enterprising now, you will all be the country's trusted minions and glorious in the future. But now you are cowardly and stay in the countryside, waiting for the enemy to come and follow the Taoist priests to become bandits? Is this the plan that ordinary people should have? Is this the plan that a warrior can make?"

After Hou Andu's ridicule, many Wuzhong tyrants in the court immediately became flushed. Obviously, this retreat was also in their imagination. Although Chen Qian was also distressed that these Wuzhong tyrants lacked courage, he could not allow Hou Andu to continue to ridicule like this, otherwise people's hearts would be scattered.

So he immediately stood up, personally took Hou Andu's hand, and led him out of the hall, telling him not to stay in the hall to create hatred. However, when he returned to the hall, several Wuxiang tyrants had already left the table full of indignation.

Chen Qian was somewhat helpless about this. As for this meeting, it naturally could not continue. He could only declare it over temporarily and move to another hall to hold a banquet with wine and food to appease the crowd.

"Although my plan has failed, it has at least let the court know that the people of the Three Wus are furious and dare not easily stir up trouble. This will give me some free time to calmly plan for the future."

After the banquet, Chen Qian gathered his trusted men to analyze the current situation: "The Tang army's crossing of the river is a foregone conclusion, and the previous plan to advance to Nanchuan is not feasible. At today's gathering, we can see that the people's hearts are still not enough. If we want to make the people rise up, we still need to urge and tempt them more! Fortunately, Hou Gong is willing to advance the plan, and the gentlemen of Jin'an, Dongyang and others can also help. We only need to think about the plan.

Now that the northern barbarians are advancing towards Guangling, Jingkou will certainly be in turmoil. Xu Du used to be greedy for money and had a lot of estrangement from me. This time he came to the court with a chutzpah, but he still failed to stop the court's plan. After returning to the town, he will think about how to make a living. Among the countries, I am the only one who can support him. Deyan went to visit him for me, and let him know that I still value him, so don't make mistakes again! "

Although the Wuzhong tyrants had different mindsets and could not unite, the momentum created by their gathering under Chen Qian's tutelage made the court dare not act rashly against them. If they wanted to continue the confrontation, Xu Du, who was stationed in Jingkou, was still an important figure, so Chen Qian had to continue to fight for him. It happened that the court ignored Xu Du's demands in order to cater to the requirements of the Tang Dynasty, so Chen Qian arranged for his confidant to go to Zhongju to lobby and contact.

Then he pointed at Han Zigao and several other generals under his command and said, "The price of cloth in Wuzhong is getting lower and lower, and it is difficult for poor people to make a living. Zigao and others should go to the countryside to recruit fugitives and sneak into Wujun. When the war in Nanchuan becomes more intense, you should occupy Wujun directly and wait for me to join you!"

Although Jiangdong has no shortage of products, the price of cloth is one of the most important indicators of people's livelihood. The cheaper the cloth, the poorer the people, and the more difficult it is to make a living. This is because materials such as kudzu and hemp are the few raw materials that poor people can obtain, and hemp and kudzu cloth are also the few products they can produce in exchange for daily necessities. The unsalable cloth directly cuts off their livelihood.

Normally, when the livelihood situation reached this point, the prefecture and county government and the local tyrants would come forward to provide relief, because if it continued to develop, it would affect political performance and public security. But at the moment, Chen Qian needed to control more extra-legal forces, so he deliberately did not provide relief, and instead recruited soldiers from these dead people.

The current Wujun prefect Shen Junli is also from the Wuxing Shen family. He is the brother-in-law of the current imperial son-in-law and the king's son-in-law Chen Chang. In addition, his father Shen Xun was abducted from Jiangling last year and later returned to Jiangdong from Chen Chang. Therefore, his position is closer to the court.

Therefore, Chen Qian planned to take advantage of the fact that the Tang army and the imperial troops were fighting against the rebel army in Nanchuan, and use the threat of bandits to attack Wujun, so as to completely control the land of the Three Wus in his own hands. In this way, he could connect with Xu Du in Jingkou to control the government. If the Tang army really invaded in a large scale, he could also defend the land. If he could not repel the Tang army, he could also do as the powerful people in Wuzhong planned, and learn from Sun En, the Taoist priest of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and go boating on the sea, waiting for the right time to return.

Not to mention Chen Qian's various plans and calculations, when the Shannan side of the Tang Dynasty learned that the court was finally going to use troops in Shannan again, the public was in an uproar for a while. All the generals eagerly requested to fight and refused to give in. Even after the Chen army was in place, the Tang army had not yet completed the reorganization.

The National Day holiday has begun, I wish you all a happy holiday!!!