A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Emperor Yuan Cong

Chapter 989: Princes of the Five Kingdoms
"Do I need to do something?"

"Your Highness does nothing but the best."

In the Xiande Hall, Wu Huaiyu and Li Chengqian each held a cup of tea, seemingly enjoying tea leisurely, but what they said was something that could not be known to a third person.

"Your Highness is still young. Now you just need to listen more, watch more, learn more, and wait quietly."

Today's Li Chengqian can be said to be a very stable prince. Perhaps in the history of the Tang Dynasty, there has never been such a stable prince in the world for three hundred years.

"The King of Wei is seventeen this year. Next year he will leave the capital and go to Liu to seek Changtai to become a vassal."

"I'm afraid of long nights and lots of dreams." Cheng Qian said unabashedly. The only person he still can't let go of is his brother-in-law, King Wei Li Tai.

"Don't worry, Your Majesty, Your Majesty is not the kind of person who changes his orders at night," Huaiyu comforted, but in fact he himself also knew that the emperor changed a lot of things at night, let's just talk about the enfeoffment.

At first, he had no intention of enfeoffing, but only to ennoble and worship officials. However, the emperor was obsessed with enfeoffing, and finally created a clan, meritorious officials, and provincial governors.
But it didn't take long for him to be granted the title of Inspector. Due to the opposition from many ministers, especially the heroes of the title, and the fact that King Li You of Qi was making too much trouble in the local area, Li Shimin finally stopped the title.

On Wu Huaiyu's suggestion, it was changed to Shifeng Biejia.

Cheng Qian's eyes lit up and he understood.

Cheng Qian directly took a map and pointed to the northeastern part of Hainan Island, which is Yazhou, one of the four states of Hainan Island.

The eighth and ninth children were born to Concubine Yin De and Zhang Jieyu. Their deaths were unclear. Everyone knew that they were actually eradicated by Li Shimin, just like their mother disappeared after the Xuanwumen Palace Incident. , were all dealt with secretly. Who made these two concubines have a good relationship with Jiancheng and the others, but they also wanted to kill Li Shimin.

Although Wei King Li Tai was the first to seal the vassal territory, he would not do so until next year.

In history, Cheng Qian and Li Tai fought to the death. In the end, neither of them got the imperial power. Especially when Li Tai originally defeated Cheng Qian in the fight, but in the end he insisted on telling Li Shimin such stupid things as killing his son to pass on his younger brother in the future. Li Shimin was a palace official. How can one believe that someone would be willing to pass the throne to his nephew instead of his son, or even kill his son to pass it on to his nephew?
In a word, a throne was lost.

Li Tai seventeenth will not leave the capital until next year to join the feudal vassal. The King of Wei has already left the palace and lives in Yankangfang, with one person occupying his own place.

"In the past few years, when I was granted the title of governor, all the kings were granted the title when they left the capital, and only King Wei stayed with His Majesty. Next year, your Majesty may be reluctant to leave and stay again." The prince sighed.

Although King Wei is no longer as favored by the emperor as before, he is still a threat after all. Cheng Qian still hopes that this fat brother can stay as far away from Chang'an as possible.

Among Li Shimin's sons, only the third prince, King Wu Li Ke, has reached the age of eighteen this time.

Although Emperor Li Shimin became the emperor by killing his brother, he now attaches great importance to the word filial piety. Regardless of true filial piety or false filial piety, the emperor likes to use filial piety to govern the country and value family ties in public.

"King Wu Li Ke sealed Zhuya Island in Hainan, divided Yazhou into Qiongzhou, and made it a fiefdom for King Wu."

These are the four sons left by Li Yuan who have reached the age of eighteen except Li Shimin. The eldest brother Jiancheng and the fourth son Yuanji were slaughtered by Li Shimin. The third son Xuanba died early and the fifth son Li Zhiyun was captured and executed by the Sui army at the beginning of the army.

"Yesterday, His Majesty told me that he wanted to divide the five kings into vassals."

Father is kind, son is filial, brother, friend and brother are respectful,
What he failed to do in the past, he now wants to accept Qian and the others to do it. If brothers fight, it will violate the emperor's taboo, let alone fratricide.

In addition to the four kings of Jing, Han, Xu and Han who were granted vassal status this time, Li Shimin also had eleven younger brothers, the eldest was sixteen or seventeen years old, and the youngest was only eight years old.

The five princes to be entrusted this time are five princes who have reached the age of eighteen, namely the emperor's four younger brothers, the old Liu Jing Wang Yuanjing, the old Seventh Han Wang Yuanchang, the tenth old Xu Wang Yuanli, and the eleventh Han Wang Yuanjia.

"Even if His Highness is worried about King Wei in his heart, he cannot show it. Instead, when facing King Wei, he must show the friendship of the eldest brother. Especially in front of His Majesty and the Queen, he must be magnanimous. Even if King Wei does something Even if something is wrong, you have to defend it.”

Cheng Qian's reserve position is now stable, so there is no need to attack Li Tai or anything like that. He doesn't have to do anything. Even if Li Tai wants to fight for the reserve again, he doesn't need to fight back. The emperor will deal with the one who dares to jump around.

The emperor said that a prince leaves the imperial court at the age of sixteen and becomes a feudal lord when he leaves the capital at the age of eighteen.

"Where did the five kings grant vassal status?"

But within two years, the enfeoffment was re-determined, and Wei King Li Tai became the first prince to enfeoff and seek to build a vassal state in Changtaizhou.

There is a Nandu River in Yazhou that originates from Limu Ridge, also known as Limu Water and Shecheng Water, and flows northward into the Qiongzhou Strait at Haikou.

Now Li Shimin divides Yazhou into two parts, with Shecheng water as the boundary. Hedong is divided into Qiongzhou, and Hexi is still Yazhou.

Although the south is a mountainous area and is still mainly inhabited by barbarian tribes, it also means that there is still great potential for development.

Prince Wu's Mansion will be built in the original Zhishe City of Yazhou Prefecture.

Wenchang, Anding, Qionghai, Tunchang, Li Ke is a good place, with mountains, rivers, rivers, and several harbors.

It's no worse than Li Tai's Liuqiu Island Chang Taizhou.

It can even be said that Qiongzhou is much more developed than Changtai. After all, the original Yazhou has two large cities, Yancheng and Shecheng, as well as Wenchang, Lehui, Zengkou, and Qiong'an in the lower reaches of the Shecheng River.

The Qiong'an Village, Anding Village, and Zengkou Village in the middle reaches were developed in depth by Wu Huaiyu, together with some relatives of the Cheng family and the Fan family.

Each family invested a lot of effort and defeated many barbarians before they established a firm foothold, opened up strongholds, and established villages. Now Li Ke is taking advantage.

Wu Huaiyu looked at the map.

The emperor's favorite second son, King Li Tai of Wei, had long been entrusted to Liuqiu Island. King Wu Li Ke, who is now called Yingguo Leme by Li Shimin, was entrusted to Hainan Island.
The two princes who pose the greatest threat to the Crown Prince Cheng Qian are both going to be island masters. They are thousands of miles away from Chang'an and really have no chance of threatening the Crown Prince again.

"Where are your four imperial uncles? Where are they entrusted?"

"King Jing entrusted himself to Bozhou on the Central Guizhou Road." He found the Central Guizhou Road on the map, then looked for it and pointed to a place.
Wu Huaiyu actually knew very well where Bozhou was, Zunyi, Guizhou. Bozhou was famous for its history in the Ming Dynasty, when Yang Yinglong, the chieftain of Bozhou, rebelled against the Ming Dynasty.

The Yang family, the chieftain of Bozhou, was the Tang general Yang Duan who first occupied Bozhou in the late Tang Dynasty and ended with Yang Yinglong in Wanli of the Ming Dynasty. They ruled for twenty-nine generations, more than 700 years.

Cheng Qian thought he didn't know about Bozhou, "This Bozhou is also a new establishment. Previously, the Tang Dynasty destroyed DTZ and the barbarians surrendered. The chiefs from central Guizhou also came to Beijing to pay tribute. The court established Langzhou in the northern part of Zangke County in Sui Dynasty. , took over six counties including Gongshui, Gaoshan and Gongshan, and later abolished Langzhou and six counties.

This time, His Majesty restored Langzhou and six counties, changed its name to Bozhou, enfeoffed King Jing Yuanjing to establish a vassal here, and changed Gongshui County to Zunyi. "

Wu Huaiyu looked at the map,

From the fact that Langzhou was established and then abolished very quickly during the Zhenguan Dynasty, it can be seen that the imperial court was not yet able to truly rule this area in northern Guizhou, but this time the emperor asked Lao Liu to enfeoff it, which must have taken a fancy to the importance of the Zunyi area. strategic position,
The Dalou Mountains lie across the territory of Bozhou and form the basic skeleton of Bozhou's terrain. Many rivers originate in it and radiate, forming a landscape of mountains and rivers alternating with the three major water systems of Wujiang, Chishui River and Qijiang flowing around it.

As the saying goes, Bozhou is located between Sichuan, Lake, and Guizhou. The northwest is surrounded by cut mountains as a pass, and the southeast is surrounded by rivers as ponds.

It borders Wujiang River to the south and Chishui to the west.

The sowing area covers thousands of miles, and tens of millions of acres of land can be cultivated without worry. Although it is still relatively backward, it has huge development potential. At the same time, it is also the northwest gateway of the Central Guizhou Road, with Dalou Mountain, Chishui, and Wujiang Rivers. You can advance, attack, retreat, or defend, and you can become rich and self-sufficient even behind closed doors.

The imperial court established Bozhou here, and even assigned a prince here, which was indeed a good chess piece.

The previous governor of Langzhou was a local cattle chief who had been granted a title. Later, he stopped paying tribute, so the court abolished Langzhou.

To the west of Bozhou is the Luzhou Governor's Mansion on Jiannan Road, and to the north is Yuzhou. Bozhou can definitely become a bridgehead in the imperial government's strategy in central Guizhou.

Today's Central Guizhou Road is basically still ruled by Jisi, but the imperial court will definitely not stay at this stage forever, and will definitely continue to penetrate into central Guizhou.

The current basic strategy of the imperial court in developing central Guizhou is to first open up an important transportation artery, a post road, a commercial road, and a military channel. This artery comes from Hunan, Yuanling, Jishou, Huaihua, Yelang, Zhenyuan, Guiyang, Anshun, and Zhenning , Liupanshui, this line is a key plan in the future.
Bozhou is not on this line, but Bozhou can also become a window to the northwest. In the future, the imperial court can even open a northern line from Yuzhou to Guiyang via Bozhou outside the main line.

In fact, there is a lack of salt in Guizhou. In the past, there was an ancient salt road from Yuzhou to Bozhou and Guiyang. There was also a waterway from Luzhou through the Chishui River and then into Bozhou via a tributary.

Just salt, Bozhou will not be poor in the future.

Li Shimin's eyes were still vicious.

In the name of the enfeoffed brothers, we set up Bozhou and hammered a nail, which also opened a skylight in the middle of Guizhou.

Perhaps, it is possible that the Yang family, which has ruled Zunyi for more than seven hundred years in history, will never appear again.

"The king of Han entrusted himself to the northwest of Annan Road, which was originally home to the Heman tribe. Previously, Qiu Xingze, the governor of Jiaozhou, led his troops to defeat and conquer them."

The emperor newly established Guyong Prefecture as a fiefdom for Han Wang Yuanchang.

Huaiyu looked at the map and found this fiefdom. Wu Huaiyu couldn't help but be surprised when he saw this place. The emperor was always so discerning.

This Guyong Prefecture was originally located on the water and land route between Annan and Yunnan. Guyong was also called Jiayongbu, which is the mouth of the river.

From Jiaozhou City in Annan, sail through the Red River to Jiayongbu, which is about a thousand miles of water distance, and then disembark at Jiayongbu and land on the north bank. By land and water, you can travel from Hekou, Mengzi, and Kaiyuan to Kunming, and you can also go west Arrive directly at Dali, Erhai Lake.

You can also go up the river from Jiaozhou for two thousand miles to Butou (Yuanjiang), and then reach Dali by land.

These two Yunnan-Vietnam transportation arteries were opened by the imperial court starting from the Zhenguan Dynasty.

Ancient Yongbu, which later became the mouth of the river, was a must-see place.

This large area from Hekou County to Honghe County, south of the Red River, and north of the Heishui River, plus the triangle of land from the north bank of the Red River to the Nanxi River, and from the mouth of the river to Baping City in Mengzi, also belongs to this Han Dynasty Guyong Prefecture.

This Guyong Prefecture not only occupies a traffic point, but it is also a protruding part of Annan Road protruding into Nanzhong.

Moreover, the imperial court's South Middle Road basically had the Red River as its southern boundary. If it crossed the Red River, it would be out of reach.

The fiefdom of Han King Li Yuanchang is far enough away.
But fortunately, it happens to be located on the Yunnan-Vietnam transportation artery, so it is not bad. The imperial court must ensure the smoothness of the Yunnan-Vietnam transportation line. After all, if this transportation line is maintained, Yunnan will have a convenient outlet to the sea, and even Central Guizhou and Shu can also go to sea from here.

For the imperial court, guarding this passage would make it more convenient for the imperial court to manage the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau. After all, the Red River waterway is still very convenient, whether it is transporting troops or grain.

King Xu Li Yuanli was entrusted to the northeast of Qinghai Lake and the southern foot of Datong Mountain, which is also the source of Huangshui River. Last year's battle of Niuxindui in Tuyuhun took place here.

The emperor established Haiyan Prefecture here and enfeoffed it with King Xu Yuanli.

As for the old eleventh Korean king, his mother is Yuwen Zhaoyi, his uncle is Yuwen Shiji, and his father-in-law is Fang Xuanling. With this relationship, of course he will not be granted too far away. This time, he will also be enfeoffed in Longyou. .

It is located at the source of Tao River, east of Xiqing Mountain, and located in Xicangzhou.

The east, west and north sides of the state lie on the Tao River, and manage the Taoyuan area.

It leans against Taozhou with its back and the mountains to the west as a screen.

It is also on an important transportation route, passing through Taozhou and Minzhou to Weizhou and Longxi. It goes down the Wei River, crosses Longshan and returns to Guanzhong.

Li Yuanjing, king of Jing, enfeoffed Bozhou in northern Guizhou, Li Yuanchang, king of Han, enfeoffed Guyong prefecture in northwest Yue, Li Yuanli, king of Xu, enfeoffed Haiyan prefecture at the source of Huangshui in northeast Qinghai, and Li Yuanjia, king of Han, enfeoffed Cangzhou in the west of Taoyuan.
King Li Ke of Wu was entrusted with Qiongzhou on Hainan Island, and King Li Tai of Wei was entrusted with Changtaizhou on Liuqiu Island.

Huaiyu drew circles around these six fiefs.

Scattered in the south and north of the world,
Go their separate ways.

The territory is not small, each has several counties, but each one is more remote than the other.

Of course, although it is now remote, the location is very important.

Of course, those two islands don't count. Those two islands don't have much military strategic status, but they are suitable for farming and living a leisurely life.

In comparison, Bozhou, Guyongzhou, Xicangzhou, and Haiyanzhou are all strategic locations.

"Your Majesty has sent people to build palaces in several princes' fiefdoms, and selected craftsmen, slaves and some people to move there," Cheng Qian said.

Wu Huaiyu felt that the construction of the palace was fake. The emperor estimated that what he wanted to build in those places were military fortresses. Just like the palaces built by the Sui Dynasty, they were actually military fortresses.
Just like Jinyang Palace, the palace eunuch Pei Ji later donated the grain, grass and weapons stored in Jinyang Palace to Li Yuan to start his own business. It was a full 90,000 shi of grain and grass, 50,000 pieces of miscellaneous colors, and 400,000 pieces of armor.

It can be said that Li Yuan was able to succeed in starting a business, and the equipment from Jinyang Palace played a big role.

A strong royal city fortress, coupled with a protective army, its strength will definitely crush the ordinary indigenous barbarian chiefs. I just don't know whether these young emperor's younger brothers and princes can open up in the wilderness, and whether the food and grass economy can keep up. ?

Brothers Li Tai and Li Ke don't have to worry about this. They are on the island and face very weak barbaric forces. There is also a court nearby, so they just need to farm with peace of mind.

If the vassal king had qualified staff around him, they would definitely be able to make a lot of money from border trade given their superior position on the border road.

Think about it, didn’t the Turks make a lot of money by occupying the Silk Road in the Western Regions? The same was true for the Tubo and Uighur people later.

Prince Yuan Jing of Jing guarded the salt road between Sichuan and Guizhou, Prince Yuan Chang of Han guarded the land and water ports between Yunnan and Vietnam, and the brothers Prince Xu and Prince Han also guarded the two intersections of the Qinghai Road of the Silk Road.

Even though brothers Li Ke and Li Tai were on the island, they actually guarded the sea trade routes.

Compared to them,
Wu Huaiyu's Luzon deviated from the shipping routes and trade routes and was hidden in the deep sea where no one knew.

Luzon has only established twelve strongholds so far, with a total of only more than 30,000 people. It's too little. After returning this time, we have to speed up the progress. By the end of this year, we must at least find a way to increase Luzon's immigrant population to 50,000.

(End of this chapter)