Northern Dynasties

Chapter 1327: Preparing for the Battle of Liaodong

In the past year, although the territory controlled by the Tang Dynasty and the population ruled by it have increased greatly, the court officials are still not optimistic about the revenue prediction of money and grain taxes at the end of the year.

This is indeed the case. The newly added land and population have only completed the initial work of allocating land to households this year, and there is not even enough time to officially go into production.

Therefore, the imperial court could not directly obtain tax revenue from the growth of this part of registered households. In addition, it had to reserve a portion of fiscal revenue in the coming year to help these new registered residents resume production. Items such as grain seeds, farm tools, and livestock had to be provided by local governments.

The imperial court also has a policy of relief and appeasement for the people in these places. In the next three years, the rent and taxes of each household will not be collected in full. Even if the taxes are collected, most of them will be retained in the local area for the construction of water conservancy, land reclamation and other projects that benefit the people.

Therefore, in the court's administrative plan, it will take at least three to five years for the court to start to obtain considerable income from money and grain taxes in the former Northern Qi territory. Before that, all income must be directly invested in local management and construction.

However, due to the existence of the Hebei Buddhist group, the time for the court to obtain revenue from Hebei was greatly advanced, and even considerable profits were achieved within the same year.

After the examination in Yecheng was over, Zu Ting set out again to clean up the temples in Hebei. This time it was no longer a simple inspection, but an action coordinated by the local government and the military. If the monks in the temples failed to pass the examination and obtain the certificate of ordination, the temples would be required to make rectifications or simply be closed down.

After the rectification work is completed, it will take a long time to see how effective it is. But the harvest is already so rich that it is jaw-dropping.

A few days ago, the imperial court dispatched envoys to conduct inspections and registrations of households, and the targets were only the population and land protected by temples. However, the current cleansing of the temples themselves is directly touching upon and digging up the wealth and goods accumulated by these temples over the years.

Putting aside other kinds of property that cannot be measured, the total amount of grain and food that is easy to count confiscated from temples in various prefectures in Hebei Province reached more than 13 million dan!

This number is certainly astonishing, but when it was placed in front of Li Tai, he was not very surprised, because this was not the first time that such a thing happened to him.

It should be said that Li Tai's career development was inseparable from the great help of Buddhist masters from all over the country. The most recent systematic oppression and plunder of the monks was when he first entered Guanzhong and took charge of the Bafu several years ago.

That wave of exploitation of the Guanlong temples allowed him to directly obtain more than 9 million shi of grain, which not only made up for the deficit caused by internal turmoil, but also gave the then Ba Fu the confidence to strengthen its operations in the Longbian area and focus on attacking the Tuyuhun and other border Hu forces, thus laying the foundation for stability in the western border and allowing the Ba Fu to concentrate on fighting the Northern Qi.

The people's livelihood in Hebei is far more superior than that in Guanlong, and the power of the monks is also stronger. As a result, only more than 13 million stones of silver were found in the temples this time. Although the number is very objective, it did not exceed Li Tai's expectations. He even felt that the Buddhist monks in Hebei were nothing special.

The temples in Hebei Province did not have much in the way of savings. This was probably because the East-West war that started last year had caused long-term instability in Hebei Province, and the war had further caused the consumption and loss of temple property savings. The fact that so much money could be confiscated today was enough to show how rich the original savings were.

Although Li Tai was used to being lavishly fed and did not take this seriously, he had to admit that this harvest did greatly alleviate the various expenses of the court at the moment. It not only made up for the huge consumption of previous military operations, but also provided a very solid material foundation for the implementation of various subsequent affairs.

At present, with the autumn taxes arriving in the capital and other kinds of harvests, Guanzhong is temporarily short of supplies. As the roads in and out of Guanzhong are not smooth and it is not convenient to transport large quantities of supplies, Li Tai ordered that this batch of supplies be transported to the Heluo area and stored temporarily for future distribution and use.

At the same time, Wang Lin's troops who surrendered from Nanchuan also arrived in Heluo. As it was already winter, the court ordered that these people from the south of the Yangtze River would be resettled in the north after the spring of next year, and that they would stay in Heluo for the winter. After receiving this arrangement, Wang Lin immediately requested to come to the court to express his gratitude. Li Tai hesitated for a moment and agreed.

"Wang Lin, the remnant of the Liang dynasty, the criminal, kowtows to His Majesty! I am a criminal who is extremely ugly and worthless, but I am fortunate to have received His Majesty's mercy and have been able to survive in the human world. Therefore, I am here to kowtow to Your Majesty and thank you for your grace. I am deeply moved and I swear to repay your kindness with my life and soul!"

Wang Lin was greatly shocked when he was led to Chang'an. When he arrived at the palace, he was so nervous that he dared not breathe. After entering the palace, he knelt down and bowed deeply to express his gratitude. "This is not the court. Wang Lin does not need to be polite. Just take a seat and answer."

Li Tai sat in the hall, lowered his eyes and looked at Wang Lin and said with a smile.

The last time he met Wang Lin, this guy was still a frivolous and excited young man. When he met him again many years later, he saw that his temples were already gray and he was no longer as high-spirited as before. He couldn't help but feel a lot in his heart and sighed: "Last year, Wang Situ brought you to visit me. You were both loyal and brave men who were going to sail south to defeat the giant bandits. Now one of you is a dead soul by the river, and the other has become a lone outlaw in the rivers and lakes. Life is really unpredictable!"

After hearing this, Wang Lin's face was filled with panic and shame. Back then, their Southern Liang army had just repelled Hou Jing's western expeditionary army. They were indignant that the Emperor Tang, who was then the governor of Jingzhou in the Western Wei Dynasty, was watching from the side. Relying on the advantage of boats, they went to the front of the Wei army camp and shouted. Later, they were escorted by Wang Sengbian to the Wei camp to apologize. They felt humiliated at the time. Now when they heard the Emperor Tang talking about this old story, they regretted it in their heart. They had just stood up, but they knelt down on the ground again in a hurry, not daring to make a sound.

Li Tai sighed casually, but he didn't want to scare Wang Lin so much that he couldn't move. For a moment, he felt a little happy, and waved his hand and said, "It's rare for old friends to meet again, so there's no need to delve into the right and wrong of the story. If I hold a grudge against the past, you would have been fed to fish and turtles long ago."

After hearing this, Wang Lin stood up tremblingly and retreated carefully to the seat. Although his knees were on the seat, he still didn't dare to sit down.

"When you submitted a letter to surrender a few days ago, I was also thinking that Wang Lin is just a warrior, greedy and chaotic by nature, recruiting fugitives, rebellious and lawless people, and his moral character is even less worthy of praise. What benefit should I gain from accepting you?"

As soon as Li Tai opened his mouth, Wang Lin couldn't help but groan in his heart, and hurriedly left the table and knelt down. Li Tai was happy again after seeing this, and then continued: "Only your words are quite touching. All the people in the world are the king's subjects. Wang Lin used to be a troublemaker in the rivers and lakes, and he did a lot of harm. Although he lacks virtue, his military strength is still considerable. China has been in chaos for many years, and there are many bandits around us. If you must die, it is better to let you go to the border and let your hawks and dogs serve you, rather than cutting off your head under the sword of the law and leaving you with a bad name. Even if you die on the battlefield, it can be called heroic."

"I thank the Supreme for his gift. This is exactly what I have in mind. Rather than continue to wander around the world and live a miserable life, I would rather follow the will of heaven and devote myself to the righteous path! I am not born shameless. In the past, the world was full of ups and downs, and I didn't know how to deal with it. I could only make a living by being cruel. But today, fate is clear, the world is clear, and those who have lost their way also know where to go. I will follow the will of the Holy Spirit!"

After hearing this, Wang Lin hurriedly bowed his head and spoke in a deep voice, his attitude being extremely respectful.

Li Tai laughed again after hearing this, and asked a staff member to present a map of Liaodong and put it on Wang Lin's desk, saying, "Although the Yangtze River saved the Southern Dynasty for a while, it also limited the vision of you southerners. Wu Mingche surrendered to me before, and I showed him the topography of the Qiang on the right side of Long. Not long after, he captured the Turkic Khan in battle.

I am showing you the mountains and rivers of Liao. I am not sending you to the northeast to suffer from the bitter cold. I also have a purpose. Although there are still Qi bandits in Liaoxi, they are no longer a concern. After we pacify Jiangdong in the future, the old city of Liaodong will also be recovered by the country. Sending you there now is also a prelude to things to come."

After hearing this, Wang Lin's expression suddenly became a little excited. He quickly bowed his head to the ground and said in a trembling voice: "Lin is so lucky. The old sins have not been eliminated, and the new achievements have not been made. I have already been included in the Supreme Lord's plan to promote the great plan of the Chinese. I can only repay this special favor with my heart and soul! When I go north in the future, I will not be afraid of the battle and will be the first to kill the enemy. If I don't do my best, the heaven and earth will hate me!"

Naturally, launching an eastern expedition to Goguryeo to recover the former territory of Liaodong was also one of Li Tai's future plans.

Although there have been many comments in later generations about the expedition against Goguryeo during the Sui and Tang dynasties, mainly due to the negative comments caused by Emperor Yang of Sui's several defeats, at that time, Goguryeo was an undoubted border bandit that had invaded the ancient Han city. If it was not conquered and recovered, the country could not be said to be intact.

Therefore, no matter how difficult or cost-effective the Eastern Expedition to Goguryeo is, it is a strategy that must be implemented.

Li Tai didn't expect Wang Lin to play a big role in this plan, but it didn't prevent him from being motivated. Since you've been so excited about the internal rebellion, let's see what kind of destructive power you can exert in Liaodong. The reason why Wang Lin was placed in the Northeast was partly because Li Tai was optimistic about this guy's destructiveness.

Soon after meeting with Wang Lin, a report from Ruo Feng from Guangling was delivered to Chang'an. After learning about this, Li Tai felt helpless for a moment. Could it be that everyone knew that he had just made a fortune, and now they were competing to find things for him to do?