Northern Dynasties

Chapter 1358: Fire Burns Jiankang
When the news that the royal army had successfully captured Kuaiji and the Three Wu states had been pacified reached Luoyang, Li Tai was overjoyed and laughed, clapping his hands repeatedly, saying: "The frontline division is truly a hero of the country, living up to the accumulated merits of the past years, mending the gap between the north and the south, and their achievements will go down in history!"

Although the court has been preparing for this goal for a long time, and there is now a huge gap in strength between the north and the south, achieving such a result is only a matter of course.

But no matter how reasonable the idea and how wonderful the prospect is, as long as it does not become a reality, there will still be variables. Especially for such a big thing as unifying Jiangdong, there are a lot of variables and historical inertia. No matter how great the possibility is in theory, it needs to be implemented with caution. We cannot relax until we succeed!
The Three Wus were not all of Jiangdong, but they were the most core and important region. Since the Yongjia Rebellion and the migration of the elite to the south, except for the Hou Jing Rebellion in the early years, which briefly achieved the achievement of wreaking havoc in the Three Wus, no matter how powerful the northern forces were in any other historical period, they could not achieve this.

The Tang army has now substantially controlled the Three Wu regions. This is definitely a milestone achievement, and certainly enough to make Li Tai ecstatic. At least he doesn't have to worry about becoming a negative example like Fu Jian of the Former Qin Dynasty who failed at the last moment.

This report was also very detailed. In addition to describing in detail the actions of the various armies since the royal army entered the Three Wus, it also recorded in detail the current situation in the Three Wus. Many of the personnel details made Li Tai feel as if he was there, which also made up for his regret of not being at the front line in person.

It was gratifying that the soldiers had brilliantly executed various tactical plans and successfully achieved their goals, but what made Li Tai particularly gratified was a series of performances by Ruo Feng.

This little red-skinned kid who was abandoned by his father for foster care and was not without mischief has now become a backbone of the country who is capable of taking charge of military and political power and performing his duties conscientiously. This makes Li Tai quite proud.

Next, Li Tai took advantage of his happy mood and personally wrote a commendation to the frontline soldiers. This kind of spiritual encouragement is naturally not as good as actual material rewards, but the army's expedition period is not over yet, and they have to continue pursuing southward and conquer Lingnan and other places. Therefore, Li Tai can only use this method to boost morale for the time being. When the expeditionary army returns triumphantly, the court will surely hold a grand celebration and generous rewards!

Some of the policies implemented by Ruo Feng in Wuzhong were also in line with Li Tai's wishes. In the current era, the northern regime's attack on the Southern Dynasty actually had a bit of class struggle color, including Hou Jing who fled from the Northern Dynasty to the Southern Dynasty. He knew how to win over the middle and lower classes to expand his power and destroy the upper class rule of the Southern Dynasty.

Although the political ruling structure of the Southern Dynasties underwent several changes, from the early clan politics in which the king and Ma shared the world, to the rise of groups such as Liu Yu and other Northern Palace generals and lower-class gentry, and later to the changes in the ruling structure in which the common people were in charge of important matters, there has always been huge and deep-rooted unfairness in the distribution of social resources.

Therefore, when discussing this period of history, it is difficult to interpret various contradictions purely from the perspective of ethnicity. The exploitation and persecution of ordinary people by the aristocratic families and powerful landowners in the Southern Dynasties often exceeded the invasion of foreign races. In particular, the Southern Dynasties did not widely implement the fundamental distribution system of equal land, which made the civilians in the Southern Dynasties live in a state of extreme poverty for a long time, and suffered even more when disasters occurred.

As a long-standing existence, the aristocratic families in the Southern Dynasties certainly played a certain positive role in stabilizing the order in Jiangdong, but using amputation to treat venous thrombosis is obviously not the only rational treatment option.

But if the tillers have their own land and everyone can live and work in peace and contentment, even without the existence of these so-called village righteousness but in reality village bandits, society can still run steadily. This is of course a very idealistic and even somewhat naive idea, but if those who hold power do not try and expect these vested interests to voluntarily spit out the meat and share it with everyone, this is not only naive, but also extremely foolish.

The reason why Li Tai has been using various methods to widen the power gap between himself and the Southern Dynasty is certainly to make the unification process smoother, but it is definitely not to use military means to wipe out the Southern Dynasty completely, but to ensure that there is enough deterrent power to carry out deep social reforms in Jiangdong and allow a wider range of social groups to participate in the distribution of social resources.

Even if we put aside all the moral requirements and slogans, allowing more people to participate in the allocation, division of labor and production of social resources is also a very pragmatic approach, which can enable the Tang Dynasty regime to prosper quickly, thereby establishing greater advantages in the broader regional competition, and then make the four barbarians submit and the Chinese people prosper forever!
Of course, the imperial court did not just suppress and eliminate the Southern Dynasty aristocratic families who controlled a large amount of means of production. A more generous approach was to use political resources to exchange for the local resources in their hands.

If these people are willing to actively join the ruling class of the Tang Dynasty, Li Tai will naturally welcome them. After all, only when there is enough fresh water from the source can the vitality of the political system be maintained, and sufficient self-correction ability be maintained to establish universal ruling power. But if they resist this trend and blindly cling to the old ways, they are destined to be eliminated by the times, and the form of elimination naturally includes physical elimination.

However, the court is currently still hindered by the existence of the Southern Chen court and cannot directly issue orders to the Three Wu areas. The court has always pursued the strategy of training a group of loyal soldiers who are willing to maintain the Tang Dynasty's rule by granting land to the military government.

Although it is not suitable to keep too many soldiers in Jiangdong, it is necessary to maintain basic local security and deter scoundrels. Especially those nobles who have been deprived of many rural assets will inevitably find ways to fight back. In this case, ruling Wu people by Wu people is a very cost-effective way.

However, Li Tai's good mood was soon ruined by another accident. Wang Ban secretly entered Jiankang and set fire to Jiankang Taicheng, which naturally greatly destroyed the tacit understanding between the court and the Southern Chen court. After the incident, in order to prevent Wang Ban from causing more damage, the commander Quan Jingxuan quickly led his troops to land in Jiankang City, controlled Wang Ban, and quickly sent his nephew Quan Xu and Wang Ban's uncle Wang Sengyin to Luoyang to report the incident and apologize.

"The family's inferiors were blinded by family hatred and acted without regard for the friendship of the country. They are indeed guilty. But I beg Your Majesty to consider that they acted out of filial piety. The old Chen Baxian betrayed his loyalty and assassinated Wang Situ, which was an ugly act that shocked the world. Fortunately, my uncle and nephew were protected by Your Majesty and have been able to live until now. However, if the family hatred is not avenged, they will be ridiculed by the world and will be dead even if they are alive. However, this boy's private actions this time violated military orders. If a canonical punishment is required, I would like to take his place..."

After being summoned into the hall, Wang Sengyin knelt on the ground with a thud and said in a deep voice.

Li Tai did not directly answer Wang Sengyin's request, but frowned and looked at Quan Xu and asked: "What is the current situation in Jiankang? Is the chaos under control? Is there any unrest among the people?"

When Quan Xu heard this question, he lowered his head and answered hurriedly: "Wang Ban set the fire in the middle of the night, and there were not enough guards in Jiankang Palace at that time. The fire was not controlled immediately and spread to burn many palaces. Fortunately, there were no casualties. Then the general hurriedly led his troops into Jiankang, captured Wang Ban and his followers, and imprisoned them in Shitou City. I and other generals also felt that Wang Ban's behavior was pitiful..."

"Humph!"

When Li Tai heard this, he suddenly snorted coldly, which scared Quan Xu so much that he stopped talking immediately. He also knelt on the ground like Wang Sengyin, and hurriedly handed over the memorial that Quan Jingxuan had submitted to him with both hands.

Li Tai took the memorial and read it. He saw that in addition to describing the course of events, there was another layer of inside information and Quan Jingxuan's apology. In short, Wang Ban's setting fire to Jiankang City was not just an act of revenge, but part of a premeditated plan to occupy Jiankang City.

It should be noted that at present, the Southern Chen and the Tang Dynasty were still in an alliance relationship. This certainly gave the Tang Dynasty a channel to intervene in the affairs of the Southern Chen, but it also restricted the Tang Dynasty's role.

For example, Ruo Feng in Wuzhong could not directly promulgate and execute some government orders in the name of the court. Also, although Quan Jingxuan's troops had already broken through Hengjiang, they had not yet entered Jiankang City.

Conquering the Three Wus was certainly a great achievement, and entering Jiankang City was also a landmark event of great significance. Quan Jingxuan and other generals naturally hoped to seize this opportunity to go down in history and move into Jiankang as soon as possible. So after the news that the war in the Three Wus had come to an end, Wang Ban acted in the name of personal vengeance to create an excuse for the rear army to enter Jiankang.

Quan Jingxuan knew that such a trick could not be hidden from the Supreme, so he described in detail the planning of the matter and the reasons for doing so in the memorial. The reason why he did not ask the court in advance was because it was not a glorious thing after all, and the court would not support and instruct the front-line divisions to do so, so Quan Jingxuan planned and executed this matter as the commander of the front-line divisions for expediency.

In this way, the Tang army officially entered Jiankang City, while at the same time retaining the initiative to the court, allowing the court to intervene and handle the matter with a relatively public image and attitude.

After reading Quan Jingxuan's memorial, Li Tai sighed inwardly. In fact, he had not yet figured out how to put an end to this relationship with Southern Chen. Quan Jingxuan's actions provided him with a choice.

After a brief thought, he made a decision: Wang Ban, who set fire to Jiankang Palace out of personal vengeance, was immediately stripped of his post and sent back to the country, then exiled to Hexi and appointed as the governor of Dunhuang. Quan Jingxuan, who failed to supervise, was ordered to assist the Jiankang guards and city defense affairs and make meritorious contributions to ensure the stability and security of Jiankang City.

As for the victim in this incident, Chen Chang, the ruler of Southern Chen, he was asked to move to Qin County in Jiangbei and live there for a while. The Tang Dynasty would send craftsmen and materials to the south to repair and renovate the burned palace buildings. After the repairs were completed, he would be asked to return to the old palace.