A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Emperor Yuan Cong

Chapter 680 Meeting an old friend in Tingyu Tower

Pingkangfang, Tingyu Tower.

Perhaps due to the influx of thousands of Turkic and Sogdian Hu nobles, the entertainment industry in Pingkangfang has become more and more prosperous. Although in the past, every year, we had to wait until envoys from various places came to Beijing to select people for the imperial examination, and scholars rushed to take the imperial examination. , the time before and after New Year’s Eve is the most lively here.

But this year the peak season has entered early.

In the afternoon, Tingyulou was already bustling with activity.

In the private room, sister-in-law Gao Huitong poured wine for Huaiyu.

"An Dalang will be here soon."

Cao Cao was about to arrive, and An Yuanshou strode in after a long absence, still looking as chic as ever.

"Anlang, long time no see. I miss you so much." Huaiyu stood up with a smile to greet him.

An Yuanshou smiled and wanted to salute.
"What are you doing outside like this?"

After pulling him to the table and worrying about his mother at home for 27 months, An Yuanshou seemed to be more calm.
"Have you arranged a new position?"

"You Xiaowei Zuo Lang General,"

This is the deputy of the Zhonglang General in the Zhonglang General's Palace of Youxiao Weiyi. He has been appointed to the fifth rank. An Yuanshou has been home to Ding You for nearly three years. It is very good to come back and be awarded this fifth rank.

"I also want to thank Mr. Wu for the arrangement," An Yuanshou said with crossed hands. He was originally a member of the Sixth Gate, a sixth-rank official. He was promoted to the fifth rank this time, and he was also the prime minister Wu Huaiyu. He was previously in Recommended by the political affairs hall,
The An family was originally from a well-known family in Liangzhou, a family with two kingdoms. He was also a personal guard of the emperor before, and worked in the Criminal and Constitutional Department. Although Ding You has missed many opportunities in the past three years, he will definitely receive extraordinary treatment when he comes back.

Wu Huaiyu personally came forward to admit him to the fifth rank, and the other prime ministers would not deliberately stop him.

An Yuanshou raised his glass, "I'll toast Erlang first,"

"Why do we brothers have to be so polite?"

An Yuanshou killed him in one go, and looked at Wu Huaiyu, feeling a little confused and unfamiliar. He remembered that they had prepared for Qianniu together in the Left and Right Mansion, and later they had entered the Criminal Justice Department together. But who would have thought that in just three years, this man would worship him three times. He is the prime minister, but he is only a right-winged general and a left-wing general.

Gao Huitong was accompanying him, and they were both former members of the Criminal Justice Department.

"When Anlang comes back, he still has to work as an errand for the Criminal Justice Department, right?" Huaiyu asked.

"Yeah," he nodded.

Zhang Liang, Wu Huaiyu, and Li Dejiang have all left the Criminal Justice Department. Now Liu Dewei is also in charge of the Criminal Justice Department. The specific person in charge is Gao Huitong. Now that An Yuanshou is back, he must be in charge.

However, General Zuolang of the Right Xiaowei is not a sinecure. The Yifu of Youxiao Wei is in charge of its Yiwei, as well as the Leopard Cavalry of the Youxiao Guard, both of which are commanded by General Zhonglang and General Zuolang.

This is the real leader of the army in Chang'an.

The generals and generals who guard Xiaowei on the left and right actually have offices, positions, and no soldiers. Instead, they are generals of the rank and file, and generals of the rank and file.

The left and right Xiaowei troops were named Leopard Cavalry, and their main responsibility in commanding the Neifu Yiwei and Fanshangbing in Beijing was to divide their troops to guard the gates, and to serve as assistants with the left and right guards at the four gates of the imperial city and inside and outside the palace.

An Yuanshou's official position was the Zuo Lang General in the Zhonglang General's Palace of Youxiao Weiyi, and he also secretly held the post of Yuanwailang of the Six Gates.

It can be seen that Li Shimin still trusts this person very much, and the An family still has Li Shimin's trust, or it can be said that it is still won over.

Today's drink is because An Yuanshou knew that Wu Huaiyu had returned to Chang'an, so he specially used Gao Huitong to invite Wu Huaiyu to talk about old times and thank him for his recommendation.

"Actually, with Anlang's talents, there are more than enough people to be the Zhonglang generals of the Xiaowei. However, there is no shortage for the time being. I will work on the Zuo Lang generals first, and then arrange them when there are positions."

Huaiyu said.

Now that the world is stable, the problem of too many officials and too few positions has gradually emerged, and it is getting worse. The court has no choice. The only way to go is to reduce the number of inflows and outflows, and at the same time increase the number of officials below the sixth grade to guard the election. , or even reduce the number of candidates admitted to the imperial examination, and those who succeed in the new subject must also be selected first.

Another way is to strengthen the Dingyou system. Once a parent dies, the official will have to Dingyou for three years. In fact, he will give up his seat.
Otherwise, there will be too many monks and too little rice, and it will be too difficult to keep the election.

Although An Yuanshou only awarded Zuolang General this time, after all, he has entered the fifth rank. From now on, the officials appointed and removed by the prime ministers have fallen out of the list of candidates for election.

"I am very satisfied with the ministry of Youxiaowei Zuolangjiang,"

He is only 23 years old, and he is already a Marquis of Wuwei and a fifth-rank official. This is more than 90.00% of his peers.

Although Wu Huaiyu is a little younger than him, who can compare with this Yinxian disciple.

Drinking wine and chatting about past events,
An Yuanshou has spent the past three years in his hometown in Wuwei, Liangzhou, guarding the tomb of Ding You, and he has lived a life that is unworldly. Now that he is back in Chang'an, he feels that the changes are really big.

The biggest change is that Chang'an now has all its walls demolished, and there are shops on both sides of the street. The pedestrians on the road are more lively, and there are Turks and Suhu people everywhere.An Yuanshou himself was also a Sogdian Hu, but his An family moved to Wuwei 200 years ago and became a powerful family in Wuwei early, and is even quite influential in Chang'an now.

Now the Tang Dynasty actually showed a very radical suppression policy towards the Sogdian Hu people. It changed the previous tolerance and even indulgence of the Sogdian Hu people and strictly restricted them. Wu Huaiyu was also one of the leaders of these policies.

But An Yuanshou didn't say much about this.
There are many types of Sogdian barbarians. For example, the Anjia people are those who have migrated eastward for a long time and are actively moving closer to the Central Plains Dynasty. Their families have been serving in the imperial court as early as the Northern Wei Dynasty. In the Sui and Tang dynasties, there were many An family members. Once in Hexi, he sent troops for the Central Plains Dynasty to suppress the rebellious Sogdian Hu Qiang.

At the beginning of Wude, the Sogdian Hu leader Angatuo rebelled in Hexi and became very powerful. The An family worked very hard to provide money, food and troops to suppress them for the court.

So now, whether the imperial court strictly controls the Ao Temple, cancels the autonomy of the Sogdian Hu settlements, or moves most of the Sogdian Hu settlements in the Turks to Shuofang to build Liuhu Prefecture for their care,
An Yuanshou had no objection at all.

An Yuanshou or his father and uncle did not regard themselves as Sogdian Hu. In their eyes, they were also from the Tang Dynasty and a noble of the ruling class.

Although the An family is based in Wuwei, Hexi Province on the Silk Road, and the family has been engaged in Silk Road trade for hundreds of years, their main focus now is on their official career. Making money from trade is just a side job.

The Anjia family did those Sogdian things that threatened them more ruthlessly than anyone else.

An Yuanshou took out two invitations and gave them to Wu Huaiyu and Gao Huitong, "I'm getting married next month. Please come."

Wu Huaiyu smiled and asked, "Which famous family's girl?"

"Feng Yi is under the command of Liu Niang of the Zhai family."

Wu Huaiyu and Feng Yizhai's family roughly guessed the identity of the other party as soon as they heard it.

This Zhai family may be from Buluoji. Buluoji has the surnames Liu, Qiao, Hao, Bai, Mu, and Yu. To be more specific, Buluoji is the fusion of the Xiongnu ethnic groups during the eastward migration of Qiuci and Sogdia in the Western Regions. And formed a mixture,

Buluoji means fish in Turkic language, and the surname Yu means that he was born in the fish country of the Western Regions, the Balukjia Kingdom.For example, the surname Bai in Bu Luoji comes from the Kingdom of Qiuci, and the surname Zhai also comes from Qiuci.

The Zhai family of Feng Yi, like the An family of Wuwei, all moved eastward from the Western Regions a long time ago. Even the Zhai family was originally a Sogdian family in Qiuci. When they moved eastward, they merged with the Xiongnu tribe and became a tribe.

They settled on both sides of the Yellow River in Shanxi and Shaanxi, and many settled in Fengyi,
Those who settled further south became more integrated into the Central Plains dynasty. Zhai Liuniang's father was a military general in the Sui Dynasty and a local Sabao. It is said that the An and Zhai families were also married for generations.

An Yuanshou and Lady Zhai Liu were engaged since they were children. They were originally going to get married, but they had to postpone it due to the death of An's mother.

Now that An Yuanshou is 23, the marriage cannot be postponed.

Feng Yi has nine surnames: Yu, Zhai, Ji, Dang, Lei, Yin, He, Li, and Kou. The Yu family is the most powerful. The famous general Yu Juluo in the Sui Dynasty came from this family, followed closely by the Zhai family.

In the early Tang Dynasty, many Buluojihu rebelled, but mainly the tribes in Lishi and Andingna in the [-]-mile mountainous area on both sides of the Yellow River rebelled. Families such as Feng Yiyu and Zhai did not participate. In fact, these families had existed as early as the Northern Zhou Dynasty. Since then, he has become more sinicized, becoming an official, leading troops to fight,

In the early Tang Dynasty, there were many generals and commanders in the Tang army who suppressed the Buluoji Hu.

However, the Zhai family still retains many Sogdian traditions, such as the Fire Worship Cult.

"Okay, I will definitely attend the wedding then."

An Yuanshou was only 23, and it was not too late to get married at this age. In fact, although he was not married yet, he had already had many concubines, not to mention the maids Ji Ji and others, and he had nine children.

That's what nobles are like,
Even if you are over 30 years old and have a lot of concubines and children, as long as you have not married a wife, you can still call yourself unmarried.Many children from well-known families often do not marry until they are in their 30s in order to be well-matched, but this does not prevent them from taking concubines, maids, and children in their teens.

To marry a wife is to marry a wife, to take a concubine is to take a concubine, and to have a child is to have a child. They do not affect each other.

"I heard that Hou Junji offended Erlang?" An Yuanshou asked with a smile.

"I can't say I'm offended. He and I are not the same person anyway, and we never pee in the same pot."

"That guy is quite arrogant and domineering. He grabs whatever he likes. I'll help Erlang collect some information about him." An Yuanshou said with a smile. Hou Junji did not dare to offend the An family easily, but the An family But he didn't pay much attention to the upstart Hou Junji.

Under normal circumstances, of course, the An family would not go out of their way to offend him, but if they choose between Wu Huaiyu and Hou Junji, or even Wu Huaiyu has people like Qin Qiong, Li Jing, and Cheng Yaojin, then the An family will not hesitate. Kick Hou Junji.

"When I returned to Chang'an, I found out that Erlang actually knocked out some of Hou Junji's teeth in court, and even General Su could beat him up in the street. I really missed a lot of excitement."

Huaiyu smiled and said, "Thank you Brother An for your kindness, but it doesn't matter your background. As long as a fool like Hou Junji is not too stupid, we don't need to care about him and just let him dance."
If he goes too far, I will take action. "

No matter what, Hou Junji is still the emperor's confidant. He grew up wearing crotchless pants with the emperor, and he even blocked the emperor's arrows like Qiu Xinggong.

When you beat a dog, it depends on the owner. It’s not too much. It’s better not to beat others easily.

After all, he is still the prime minister.

An Yuanshou shook his head, "How do you think a person like Hou Junji is worthy of being prime minister?"

(End of this chapter)