A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Emperor Yuan Cong

Chapter 1002: The Divine Protector
It seemed that everyone in Yangjiang came to the dock to greet Wu Huaiyu.

The pier was crowded with people, both curious and in awe.

"Wei Ke, the governor of Enzhou, Xiaguan, pays homage to Wu Sikong."

Among the people who greeted him, Wei Ke, the governor, who was wearing a purple robe and a jade belt, stood out. I don't know whether it was because he was nervous or because he was fat because of the hot weather. His fat face was covered with sweat, and most of his purple official robe was soaked with sweat.

"You have been greeted by Governor Lauwe. This is the first time for us to meet since you took office, right?"

Wei Ke was appointed governor of Enzhou later that year.

The governor of Enzhou was originally Feng An's son, but in the past two years, the game between the imperial court and Lingnan local powerful people, especially the Feng family, became fierce.
Feng An did not dare to contend with the general trend of the imperial court. Even after his eldest son Feng Zhidai died of illness, the Duke of Geng was somewhat disheartened. It was a matter of course that he dismissed the governor's office of Gaozhou and merged the province with Panluo and other states.

Even after a game, the position of Enzhou governor, which had been vacant before, was still sent by the imperial court.

It is said that Wei Ke was recommended by Situ Changsun Wuji.

Wei Ke was born in Jingzhao Weishi, but it was not one of the nine major houses of Jingzhao Weishi, but the Yigongfang among its two branches. Wei Ke's father, Wei Yuanli, was the Sinong Shaoqing of the Sui Dynasty and the Duke of Yicheng County. After entering the Tang Dynasty, he became Sinongqing.

Feng Ang had thirty sons, and he also had many adopted sons. He even helped raise a few of his brothers' sons. For example, Feng You, who married Xu Jingzong's daughter, was the son raised by Feng Ang's brother who died young.

"Sima Xian Jing'en of Enzhou pays homage to Lord Wu."

Years ago, after the imperial court elected Wei Ke as the governor of Enzhou, in order to appease the powerful local families of Feng and Xian, Feng Zhifan, who had been recuperating at home, was granted the title of governor of Enzhou, while Xian Jing'en was granted the title of Sima of Enzhou.

However, Feng Zhishen only served for one year before he resigned due to illness and returned to Lingnan.

Now he only serves as the governor of En, and like Sima Xian Jing'en, he doesn't care much about the affairs of the yamen. But Wu Huaiyu knew the details. Originally, when the governor's office of Gaozhou was dismissed and the eight prefectures of Gaozhou were merged with four prefectures, the imperial court transferred Feng Zhichen to the hinterland as governor, and it was still a wealthy Zhongzhou.

Wei Ke also quickly introduced a group of officials behind him to Wu Huaiyu.

Wei Yuanli even worked with the old patriarch of the Wu family, Warrior Leng, for a few years, and they had some friendship, but Wu Huaiyu and Wei Ke had no contact.
But Wu Huaiyu's eldest daughter, the emperor, granted marriage to the tenth prince, Prince Ji Li Shen, who was born to Concubine Wei.

Among the thirty sons of Feng Ang, Feng Zhichen was relatively capable. Feng Zhishen had served as the governor of Panzhou among the eight high-ranking states of the Feng family.

"Xiaguan heard that Sikong returned to Lingnan a few days ago. I was about to go to Guangzhou to see Sikong, but I didn't expect that Sikong came first."

The troika in Enzhou all have good backgrounds. Wei Ke seems to be always smiling, but he has been here for half a year and there has been no trouble in Enzhou, which shows that this person is quite capable.

Wei Ke is fat and always has a flattering smile when he talks.
He looked like a shopkeeper of a restaurant, but Wu Huaiyu didn't underestimate him. The position of Enzhou governor had been fought for two years, but he could not be confirmed. In the end, he was appointed by an unknown person. It is said that he also left. Changsun Wuji's path shows that Jingzhao Weishi is indeed extraordinary.

The post of governor had been vacant for nearly two years, and there were reasons.

Wu Huaiyu stepped forward and held Feng Zhifan in his left hand, and Xian Jingen in his right hand. In front of everyone, he was particularly close to the two of them, which actually made them feel a bit flattered.

Huaiyu listened to Wei Ke's introduction to the officials in Enzhou. Officials sent by the Chang'an official department accounted for one-third, and it turned out that the old people of the Feng family also accounted for one-third.

"Governor Shi Feng Zhishen met with Wu Kuan."

Two officials in scarlet robes came out and bowed to meet them. They looked like they were both in their thirties.

"Hello brother Feng, hello brother Xian."

Among the officials in Enzhou, Wu Huaiyu was very concerned about the very burly Mai Bingcao.

Otherwise, he would have been driven away long ago, or rather sidelined.

"When I was in Beijing years ago, I heard that you had sent me a message to visit you, but things were busy at that time and I never had time to meet you." Wu Huaiyu said with a smile, and then introduced his son to him. and the accompanying envoys and officials.

The other third was a group of officials selected and appointed in Lingnan after Wu Huaiyu came to Lingnan. Some were from his shogunate, some were selected from Lingnan, and some were selected by him through examination in Lingnan.

"I heard that Mai Bing Cao's grandfather was Duke Wu Lie of the former Su Kingdom?" Huaiyu asked.

The young man heard Wu Huaiyu's question and hurriedly stepped forward to answer, "My ancestor is none other than Lord Wu Lie of the Su Kingdom of the previous dynasty."

"General Mai is amazing," Wu Huaiyu praised.

Mai Bingcao's late grandfather, although he has passed away many years ago, is still a legendary figure whose name is mentioned all over the world. He is Mai Tiezhang,

When he was young, he was a thief in Nanchen chasing the wind.

It is said that Mai Tiezhang is from Shaozhou. He is brave and powerful. The most special thing is that he can travel five hundred miles a day and catch up with galloping horses. He is rough and debauched and loves to drink. He likes to make friends. He usually makes a living by fishing and hunting. industry.

During the Taijian period of the Southern Chen Dynasty, he collaborated with others to become a thief, and was captured by the governor of Guangzhou. From then on, he became a servant of the imperial court, specializing in holding an umbrella for Empress Chen.

This guy became a royal slave, but he still kept his trade as a thief. After Empress Chen retired from the court, he often walked for more than a hundred miles, ran to South Xuzhou at night, climbed over the city wall, sneaked into the city to steal, and rushed to the city the next morning. When I come back, I can still hold an umbrella for Empress Chen.

He did this a dozen times until someone recognized him,

But Chen Shubao didn't believe it when the prosecution in southern Xuzhou came to empress Chen. After all, although this guy had been a thief before, but now he had to hold an umbrella for him every day, so how could he possibly travel more than a hundred miles away to become a thief? ?

Later, Cai Shangshu came up with a way to verify it. He offered a reward of a hundred gold to recruit people who could expedite and secretly deliver the edict to South Xuzhou. When Mai Tiezhang heard that there was such a good thing, wouldn't this be gold falling from the world? So he hurriedly responded to the call and ran to Southern Xuzhou with the imperial edict in his arms. Sure enough, he came back in time to go to court the next morning.

At this time, the bizarre theft case was solved, but Empress Chen did not deal with him because of it. Instead, he felt that this guy was quite capable. After giving him a warning, he let him go and resumed his civilian status.

After the Sui Dynasty destroyed the Chen Dynasty, rebellions occurred all over the south of the Yangtze River. Mai Tiezhang devoted himself to quelling the rebellion of the Sui general Yang Su, and made many military exploits. This guy wore a straw on his head and swam across the Yangtze River alone at night to find out the enemy's situation, and then he was able to calmly stay in the rebel areas. Swim back again.

Although Mai Tiezhang didn't know a single Chinese character and was a thief, his bravery was appreciated by many Sui Dynasty generals such as Yang Su and Li Che, and he became a chariot and cavalry general.

After Yang Guang succeeded to the throne, Han King Yang Liang rebelled, and Mai Tiezhang followed Yang Su to quell the rebellion. He fought as a vanguard every time and made great contributions. After that, he was transferred to local civil servants such as the governor of Laizhou and the prefect of Runan. He is a thief and comes from a low-level background. He knows what the people need.
Therefore, when he was in office, bandits in the territory disappeared and the people were peaceful.

By the time he conquered Liaodong, he had already been promoted to the rank of General Youtunwei. He was guarding his children with Duke Rong Guo, who was also from Nanchen, and was the two southern generals who were deeply trusted by Yang Guang at that time.

Unfortunately, when Mai Tiezhang was a pioneer crossing the Liao Dynasty, he died in battle on Liao'an. Yang Guang paid a large sum of money to redeem his body and named Su Guogong, with the posthumous title of Wu Lie.

After Mai Tiezhang's death, his eldest son Meng Cai inherited the title and gave him a million yuan for the funeral. At the time of the funeral, Yang Guang asked Yu Wenshu, one of the five nobles, who was a defeated general in the Liao Dynasty, to bring more than a hundred people with him. The defeated general held the iron staff in front of the car and led the coffin. All the officials below the prince were buried in the suburbs.

He is a true legend.

Mai Bingcao's father, Mai Jicai, was the third son of Mai Tiezhang. After he was killed in Yang Guang at the end of the Sui Dynasty, he followed Feng Zhidai from Jiangdu back to Lingnan. Mai Jicai has been under the command of the Feng family and his son.

Mai Jicai also married Feng An's daughter.

I have long heard that Mai Bingcao is quite like his grandfather, and he is even very good at running. His father was the Shenxing Taibao of the Sui Dynasty, and he was the Lingnan Shenxing Taibao of the Tang Dynasty.

To be honest, just Enzhou Bingcao felt wronged by Mai Bingcao. A group of people entered the city,

Wu Huaiyu deliberately stayed with Mai Bingcao to drink tea with him.
Mai Bingcao's name was Xiu Ming, whose surname was Yiting. Not only did he marry Feng An's daughter, but his grandmother's surname was also Feng. She was Mai Tiezhang's first wife, and in terms of seniority, she was Feng An's aunt.

Although Mai Xiuming's father married not a daughter of the Feng family but the Liu family, Mai Jicai had a younger sister who was married to Feng An's cousin.

The marriage of three generations of Mai Feng,

The Mai family has been in Lingnan longer than the Feng family. "My ancestors of the Mai family lived in Songyang, a prefecture in the east of the Yangtze River. Their original surname was Qu. During the Western Jin Dynasty, our ancestors refused to accept the permission, and they were appointed as right servants. Later, during the Wuhu Rebellion, they took their relatives with them. Twenty-four families moved to Shixing County and lived in Shixing County. During the former dynasty, they had made meritorious services and received titles. They were specially ordered to harvest wheat for wheat."

Wu Huaiyu didn't expect that the Mai family had such a history. It turned out that their family used to have the same surname as Qu, the Wang Qu family of Gaochang, and it had only been three generations since they changed their surname to Mai.

And these three generations are all married to the Feng family.

Shixing is now Shaozhou.

However, Mai Jicai, Mai Xiushi and his three-bedroom team had already moved to Yangjiang.

Drinking Yangchun Yunwu green tea,

Wu Huaiyu chatted with them, feeling quite relaxed.
Saburo Chengzhi has a young mind, and everything he comes out feels new and curious this time.

"This place is called Yangjiang, but why is the river outside the city called Moyang River?"

Mai Xiushi explained for him with a smile, "The name outside Yangjiang City comes from Moyang River, and the name of Moyang River comes from Mo Yang. Yangjiang was once called Gaoliang, but it was called Mo Yang earlier."

"What does Mo Yang mean?" Wu Chengzhi continued to ask.

However, Xian Jingen smiled and said, "Let me answer this, Sanlang. Mo Yang is our slang. We slang people live in this generation. In our slang, cow means Mo, sheep means Yang, and Mo Yang means cow and sheep." the meaning of.

This was once a place where cattle and sheep lived, and it was a rich place.

Wu Huaiyu remembers that in later generations, Yangjiang was most famous for its kitchen knives.

The Yangjiang Shibazi kitchen knife is quite easy to use, at least it won’t break when cutting garlic.

Huaiyu asked casually how the kitchen knives in Yangjiang were, but unexpectedly the answer was that Yangjiang knives are quite famous in Lingnan.

There is still a reason for this.
At that time, Mrs. Xian Tai stationed troops in Liangyang and used Yangjiang as her base camp, where she accumulated grain and forged weapons. Many blacksmiths gathered here, and Yangjiang's blacksmithing and forging knives later became more and more famous.

At the end of the Sui Dynasty, Feng An divided the eight states, and Yangjiang City was forging iron and forging knives day and night. When the Tang Dynasty reached Lingnan, the blacksmiths in Yangjiang also changed careers, switching from military to civilian use, from forging weapons to forging kitchen knives, hatchets, etc.
Yangjiang is close to Guangzhou, and Guangzhou-Foshan is now a famous iron-smelting town in the country. Yangjiang knifesmiths sell iron materials from Foshan and then cast various kinds of knives, which are exported to various places and are quite famous.

The Feng family did not make weapons but instead made kitchen knives, which was also in line with the trend.
Of course, there may not be other options for this. For example, although kitchen knives and scissors have been modified, the blacksmiths, workshops, and foundry industries are still retained. Once the situation changes, the Feng family can actually quickly return to the military industry.

This is the foundation of the top local wealthy families. As the saying goes, the glory of a great family is worth a thousand pieces of gold.

When the Feng family was at its peak in the late Sui Dynasty, it controlled more than 20 states, covering an area of ​​2,000 miles. Even now, the Feng family still has tens of thousands of servants.

Not only are they rich, land and people, but the resources and influence they have are extremely amazing, like the ships in Beijin Port, the blacksmith shops in Yangjiang City,
With a single order from the Feng family, those merchant ships and fishing boats can become warships, and the fishermen and sailors can become navy.

The villagers in each manor of the Feng family can become soldiers.

And those shops that sell kitchen knives will immediately be transformed into weapon workshops.
And young and brave officials like Mai Xiushi can even become the vanguard general of the Feng family immediately.

Moreover, the Feng family has been operating in Lingnan for so many generations. They have in-laws all over the country, and their influence has penetrated into every aspect in southeastern Lingnan.

Even Wu Huaiyu, a high-ranking official from Chang'an, could not get around the Feng family. He had formed an in-law relationship early on, and even now they have to marry again.

The pot of tea was not finished,
Wu Huaiyu took advantage of the good atmosphere and proposed to the Feng Xian family that he wanted to propose marriage to Sanlang.

Wu Chengzhi is already engaged to Xu Jingzong's eldest daughter, and this marriage will definitely not change.

Now he proposes marriage to marry a girl from two families as his concubine.

Given the status of the two families, it seemed a bit uncomfortable for their daughter to be a concubine for Takesaburo.

Feng Zhishen and Xian Jingen both hesitated for a moment, but finally looked at each other and saw acceptance in each other's eyes.

No one wants to reject Wu Huaiyu directly.
"You two don't need to be too embarrassed. I, Wu Huaiyu, am not the kind of person who imposes things on others, and I don't ask for the legitimate daughter of the two families. I will be very satisfied if I can ask the two concubines to be the concubines of my Sanlang."

As soon as these words came out, the two of them secretly breathed a sigh of relief. It would be embarrassing if Wu Huaiyu insisted on having two legitimate daughters.

I am a noble concubine, but I am a concubine after all.

"It is an honor for me that Duke Wu has taken a liking to my family. However, I do have some regrets. Several of my legitimate daughters are not of the right age. If Duke Wu does not despise my daughters who were born as concubines, then those of my concubines should be treated as such by Duke Wu. Choose with Saburo and choose whoever you like."

Feng Zhishen immediately stated that his late brother's eldest son had long been engaged to Wu Huaiyu's eldest concubine, and now Wu Huaiyu wanted to take his daughter as a concubine for his son. This was a good thing.

Although Wu Sanlang was born as a concubine, he was already the Marquis of Luzon, and he also had the hereditary position of governor of Luzon. Even if Luzon was just a big island in the sea, wasn't he still the governor?

He is still just a benefactor.

Feng Jingen also said that his daughter was chosen by Wu Sanlang.

The child Takesaburo was right in front of them. Although he was still young, the more he looked at him, the more he liked him. He had a certain air of a warrior and he would definitely be promising in the future.

This son-in-law wants it.

"I heard that Mai Bing Cao was once a vanguard general under Feng Gong. He was unparalleled in bravery and was good at water, land and cavalry battles. Now he joins the army as Enzhou Bing Cao. It's really a bit unfair.

If Mai Bingcao is willing, how about I transfer you to the Lingnan Economic Strategy Army as deputy military envoy? "

Mai Xiushi was a little surprised. Both father and son had been deeply imprinted with the Feng family. Although he was a court official now, he was a member of the Feng family. This was a fact that everyone knew in their hearts.

"Mai Bingcao doesn't have to answer right away. You can think about it slowly first. How about giving you a month to think about it?" Wu Huaiyu smiled and waved his hand, interrupting Mai Shixiu who was about to answer.

This man is very similar to the legendary hero Mai Tiezhang, and is a rare talent. He used to be Feng Zhidai's deputy, but now that Feng Zhidai is dead, he has succumbed to the post of Enzhou Soldier Cao, which is a waste of talent. .

If you can win him over, you can not only weaken the Feng family's strength, but also add more generals to yourself, why not do it.

(End of this chapter)