The Great Tang General

Luoyang.

In terms of customs, there is no difference between Henan, Hebei and Guanzhong regions.

The people also cheered after learning about the imperial edict to abolish the lowly and promote the good.

Li Xuan was like a hero sent from heaven to quell the rebellion.

He also exempted taxes in the ancient roads of the two capitals, Xingyang, Chenliu, Hebei and other places, making the people grateful.

Now we have to fight against the powerful and divide the land.

How can I not support it?

Li Xuan sent Yan Zhuang to tackle the tough problems in Henan and Hebei.

Although the powerful families in Luoyang were looted by An Lushan's rebels, their farmland was still there.

It is undeniable that the volunteer army and militia in Hebei had the support of many powerful families.

It was because of their collaboration with the prefect that An Lushan had to take care of the rear area before Li Guangbi and Guo Ziyi arrived.

Those powerful families who surrendered to An Lushan had long been purged.

Now the imperial court is dealing with the powerful families in Henan and Hebei, which feels a bit like killing the donkey after it has served its purpose.

Moreover, the Henan Province of the Tang Dynasty occupied most of the North China Plain and extended to the East China Sea.

It is connected to Huainan and Hebei, and is the most core area of ​​the Tang Dynasty.

Yan Zhuang also racked his brains to show his own value.

Henan and Hebei were in a state of disrepair and needed to be rebuilt. In his opinion, it would be more difficult to eliminate the low status and turn them into good people here than in the south of the Yangtze River.

Completion of tasks is also divided into different levels.

Cooperating with the Luoyang Imperial Guards, the Governor's Office soldiers, and the county soldiers, and directly engaging with the powerful, could accomplish the mission, but it was the worst effect.

The best solution now is to avoid harm as much as possible and free the serfs.

In areas where the mountains are high and the emperor is far away, the number of escaped households and serfs must have reached millions.

After coming up with the plan, Yan Zhuang coordinated the whole thing in Luoyang and only asked the local governors and county magistrates to carry out the work of eliminating lowly people and turning them into good people in accordance with the imperial edict.

Report to him when there is a result.

However, this negative behavior made Henan Yin Gaoshi dissatisfied with Yan Zhuang.

Gao Shi once wrote the popular "Yan Ge Xing", satirizing the various ills of the Fan Yang army and expressing his concerns about the Fan Yang army.

It turned out that his concerns were not unfounded.

Naturally, he would not take a fickle villain like Yan Zhuang seriously, and immediately submitted a memorial to impeach Yan Zhuang.

Gao Shi was also a member of a noble family, but like Yang Wan, he was a member of a poor and destitute family.

Those aristocratic families whose fields stretch across miles of fields have lost their clarity and are no longer worthy of being called a great family.

Therefore, Gao Shi presided over the elimination of low status and promotion of virtue in the Luoyang area, which was very radical.

He gave the half-dead Luoyang tyrants a severe beating and seized a lot of arable land in the Luoyang Basin.

Henan Yin, in charge of Henan Prefecture.

In fact, it was also a county-level unit. Before An Lushan's rebellion, Henan Prefecture once had a population of 1.2 million.

Due to the An-Shi Rebellion, its population dropped sharply to less than 800,000.

It is impossible that all of them died at the hands of the rebels. Most of them fled or became serfs.

Gao Shi conducted a thorough investigation of the large families one by one, and sent people to the mountains to look for the escaped families, in order to publicize the benevolent policies of the new emperor so that they could return to the plains.

In total, Gao Shi found more than 30,000 escaped households, pardoned more than 80,000 serfs, and destroyed 200,000 contracts.

Re-register the unregistered and hidden fields.

As for other counties and prefectures outside Henan Prefecture, the process of eliminating lowly people and turning them into good people was relatively slow.

There, various forces are intertwined and cover up each other.

Even though some prefects were Li Xuan's confidants, the county magistrates were too deeply involved with local powerful families.

A matter of life and death.

The people below kept blocking and obstructing us, pretending to obey but actually disobeying.

For example, Juyang County.

Juyang is a super large county with a population of 200,000 more than that of Hexi and Longyou combined.

Unlike in history, Juyang today has not been baptized by war.

The powerful families in Juyang were proud of their contributions, so when Xu Yuan and Zhang Xun attacked the rebels, they donated a lot of food and fodder.

Now the imperial court has ordered the release of serfs and the inspection of fields. This is a threat to their lives!
In the Tang Dynasty, unless you were an official, or had a title or military merit, and had a legal and compliant contract, you could buy permanent land.

Otherwise, all of them will be confiscated and the person will be punished.

If you really check the account books carefully, you will find that none of them are legal or compliant.

From the Han Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty, land annexation has always been a major threat to the country, and the state has tried every means to curb it.

However, the powerful families had endless means of plundering and were always able to accomplish the feat of "connecting counties across counties".

In the agricultural era, the policy of not suppressing mergers and acquisitions would cause grain production to soar, but the prosperity would be like a bubble and ultimately short-lived.

In the mansion of the prefect of Juyang, the prefect of Juyang, Xu Yuan, was overwhelmed with anxiety over getting rid of the lowly and promoting the good.

"Oh!"

"With this result, how can I submit a petition to the Supreme?"

After receiving information from various counties again, Xu Yuan slammed the table and scolded Lei Wanchun, the deputy driver.

Juyang had ten counties under its jurisdiction. Except for Songcheng County where he was in charge, the "battle results" reported by other counties such as Zhecheng, Gushu, Ningling, and Yucheng made Xu Yuan furious.

Songcheng County was able to release more than 30,000 serfs and escaped households and obtain 1.8 million acres of land.

The number of serfs and escaped households released in the other nine counties was less than a thousand, and the illegal land was only 100,000 acres.

It is obvious that the policies and orders are not being implemented and people are pretending to obey them but actually disobeying them.

"Since the rebellion was quelled, most of the county magistrates in Juyang have been retained from their original positions, and they are deeply involved with the local nobles. In order to protect themselves, they must help the nobles and powerful families conceal their land."

Lei Wanchun replied to Xu Yuan.

There are some things that everyone knows.

The powerful and wealthy are in collusion with each other and there is no morality.

Unless there is a more powerful force that pushes forward like a tidal wave.

With a crushing attitude, the opponents are left with no power to fight back.

"Jiuyang is one of the ten most important counties. If even Juyang is not well managed, how can we expect other counties to be good? I will petition the court to kill a county magistrate to make the other county magistrates submit and strictly enforce the policy."

Xu Yuan was also a person who led troops to fight, and he was extremely decisive at critical moments.

He knew that he could not report his current harvest to the court.

It is also necessary to investigate all counties to the greatest extent possible.

"Yan Zhuang came here under the order of the emperor, but I didn't hear any instructions from him?"

Lei Wanchun agreed with Xu Yuan's idea, and he thought of Yan Zhuang again.

After all, it was the emperor's personal order to supervise the ministers who were to eliminate the lowly and turn them into good people. How could he be so perfunctory?
"He is a small man. You can't count on him."

When it comes to Yan Zhuang, Xu Yuan, like many other ministers, sneers at him.

Yan Zhuang first instigated An Lushan's rebellion, and then killed An Lushan when the situation was hopeless.

All the intellectuals looked down on him.

Yan Zhuang also understood that his past could not be washed away even if he jumped into the Yellow River.

In that case, he doesn't care if he has more black spots on his body.

If he wanted to be successful in his life, there was only one way, and that was to make Li Xuan feel that he was useful.

Li Xuan was a complicated emperor.

Even though his methods are bizarre, no one will doubt his wisdom.

His love for the people has been demonstrated through his actions.

For his ideal, Yan Zhuang withstood the pressure and finally set out for Xingyang in September.

When he passed by Xingyang, a group of powerful families ignored the governor of Xingyang and went to welcome Yan Zhuang.

Yan Zhuang also left the governor of Xingyang aside, and spoke of the emperor's grace and the will of heaven, implying that he was very favored by the emperor.

Otherwise, how could he, a rebel leader, become a high-ranking official in the Secretariat?

The powerful families were also very convinced. They believed that Yan Zhuang was a favored minister and only Yan Zhuang could keep their land.

There is the Xingyang Governor's Office in Xingyang, and the governor is the fierce general Hun Yu. He has been patrolling the area every day in recent days, so they are very scared.

Now that Yan Zhuang is here, they don’t have to be afraid anymore.

"Master Zheng, the serfs you released have too few plots of land. Let's discuss and release more. Don't make it difficult for me. If the current Supreme wants to recreate the Kaiyuan era, at least we have to do it like the period of inspecting households and expanding land."

Yan Zhuang spoke privately to the Zheng family of Xingyang.

"We will not embarrass Lord Yan. We will take out our own property and donate it to the court."

The head of the Zheng family assured Yan Zhuang.

After the imperial edict to remove the lowly and promote the good came, they felt as if the sky was falling and the earth was collapsing, and they didn't know what to do.

Fortunately, not long after that, Yan Zhuang privately sent someone to ask them for bribes, claiming that he could help the powerful families in Xingyang settle the matter.

The powerful families were desperate and dared not rebel, so they could only choose to trust Yan Zhuang.

Therefore, during this period, they have been in conflict with the county government.

"Well, I will hold a banquet in a few days, and the head of the Zheng family will organize all the powerful families to come and discuss with me."

Yan Zhuang pondered for a while and then said.

"I will wait and follow Mr. Yan's orders."

Xingyang was too close to Luoyang, and a group of people had been purged after An Lushan's rebellion, which made them feel uneasy.

Now Yan Zhuang is their only support.

The powerful families all believed that this storm would only blow for a while, and as long as they could withstand it, they would be able to escape danger.

A few days later, Yan Zhuang hosted a banquet for the powerful families of Xingyang at the prefect's residence in Xingyang City.

However, after the powerful families in the counties entered the prefectural governor's office, they never came out again.

Only one day later, Yan Zhuang left Xingyang City and headed for Chenliu.

The powerful families in the counties lost their masters and were leaderless. Many of them surrendered under the attack of the Jinyiwei and county soldiers.

Those county magistrates, county assistants, and county lieutenants who pretended to obey but actually disobeyed were all arrested.

At this point, they finally understood that Yan Zhuang had deliberately deceived them so that they would be off guard and could be caught in one fell swoop.

Yan Zhuang ordered the roads to Xingyang to be temporarily blocked to prevent the news from spreading.

He rushed to Chenliu and then to Chenliu County without stopping. He had already ordered the Jinyiwei to dress up as his confidants and deceive these powerful families.

Let the powerful families think that Yan Zhuang is their life-saving straw.

In fact, Yan Zhuang's heart is even darker.

He designed another Hongmen Banquet, using the smashing of cups as a signal to capture all the powerful families of Chenliu.

Then Yan Zhuang came to Juyang under the rule of Xu Yuan.

The reason why the county magistrates and powerful families of the nine counties in Juyang dared to disobey Xu Yuan in public was because they received news about Yan Zhuang in advance and bribed Yan Zhuang, so they felt confident.

After all, Yan Zhuang is the interviewed and deposed ambassador of Henan and Hebei.

During the Tianbao period, the powerful and wealthy families were adept at bribing the "imperial envoys".

Although it was a new emperor, new ministers, they still did not change their mindset and met the insidious and cunning Yan Zhuang.

Originally, they still had a certain influence in their own territory, and the county magistrate took the overall situation into consideration and did not dare to use force to suppress them easily.

Once you fall into Yan Zhuang's trap, there is no chance of escape.

"Taiwan Governor Xu, it has been several months since we eliminated the lowly and made them good people. You have not supervised the work well!"

Yan Zhuang complained to Xu Yuan in front of Juyang City.

"This is my dereliction of duty. I will apologize to the Supreme." There is nothing to say. He really did not supervise the work well.

Of the ten counties in Juyang, nine were out of control.

"It seems that you are a Jinshi because of your ancestors' influence, otherwise you wouldn't be so bad."

Yan Zhuang suddenly made a personal attack on Xu Yuan.

"How dare you bully me, you thief?"

This sentence made Xu Yuan ignore his status and curse at Yan Zhuang.

His great-grandfather Xu Jingzong was one of Li Shimin's "Eighteen Scholars of the Qin Palace" and later became prime minister, and he could not be defiled.

As early as the end of the Kaiyuan period, Xu Yuan had already passed the imperial examination and became a Jinshi.

He was originally an official in Yizhou. In the early years of Tianbao, Zhangchou Jianqiong was the governor of Jiannan. He could not stand Zhangchou Jianqiong's nepotism and corruption, so he made a few sarcastic remarks.

As a result, he was demoted to the position of county lieutenant, followed by a long period of ups and downs.

Xu Yuan admitted that his talent was not as good as Zhang Xun's, so he handed the rebel army over to Zhang Xun for command and managed the logistics and food himself.

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But Yan Zhuang cannot bully him at will.

In terms of rank, Yan Zhuang is not as good as the prefect of Juyang.

Juyang is a super large county ranked among the top ten in the world, and it is a real third-rank county. Xu Yuan was also named the male of Ningling County by Li Xuan for his meritorious service in suppressing the rebellion.

"How dare you! I am the dethronement envoy appointed by the Supreme Lord himself. I am responsible for removing the lowly and making the good. All the counties must obey my orders. I also carry the imperial sword and have the power to execute first and report later."

Yan Zhuang waved his hand, and the Tiance Guard cavalry behind him quickly moved forward.

Lei Wanchun felt indignant for Xu Yuanming and immediately ordered the county soldiers to follow him to protect Xu Yuan, creating a tense situation.

The people around to welcome Yan Zhuang were very shocked. What happened?
"Taishu Xu, calm down. Shaojian Yan, calm down..."

He Liguang took the opportunity to step forward and persuade Yan Zhuang and Xu Yuan to remain calm.

He signaled the Tiance Guards to retreat and not approach Juyang City.

He Liguang was originally the governor of Lingnan. After being summoned to Chang'an by Li Xuan, he was appointed as the Minister of the Imperial Household.

He was the deputy sent by Li Xuan to assist Yan Zhuang.

He knew Yan Zhuang's plan and understood that Yan Zhuang deliberately angered Xu Yuan and put on a show for outsiders in order to lure out the snake.

Xu Yuan was not a hot-tempered person. He just turned away without greeting Yan Zhuang.

Yan Zhuang ignored him and went to receive a wealthy family from Zhecheng County.

He also used his mouth to spread the news to the powerful families in other counties and asked them to come to Juyang City.

With the Tiance Guards sent by the Supreme following them, no one dared to touch them.

The powerful people felt relieved when they learned that Yan Zhuang and Xu Yuan almost had a fight.

They have to show up sooner or later; they can't stay in the county forever.

Together with the county magistrate, they went to Juyang to pay a visit to Yan Zhuang.

In Juyang City, it was too late when they realized they had fallen into a trap.

They could only curse Yan Zhuang in their hearts for being despicable and shameless, but they had to beg for mercy from Yan Zhuang.

Xu Yuan also understood why Yan Zhuang suddenly attacked him a few days ago. It turned out that he wanted to capture the leader first.

By controlling the leaders of the powerful families, the imperial court could easily control the local tyrants.

The remaining residue is nothing to worry about.

Yan Zhuang continued to Qiao County, next to Juyang.

Qiao County was better than Juyang County, where about half of the counties were out of control and had already been out of control. It was too late for Yan Zhuang to fool people.

The 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th Battalions of the Sishui Army went to Qiao County and cooperated with the Jinyiwei and county soldiers to suppress the rebellious local tyrants.

Qiao County was also a super large county.

The powerful people dared to openly resist when they were left with no other options because they thought they controlled a large number of serfs and tenants.

Little did they know that the powerful families could only deceive the serfs who were isolated from the news, but could not control the tenants who farmed under their command.

Before the Jinyiwei eliminated the lowly and made them good people, they announced to the tenant farmers that the emperor would allocate land to them in the future so that the families could have enough food and clothing.

So they had been looking forward to this day.

The powerful people used serfs as the main force to resist the Tang army, but they could not hold out for more than a few rounds and fled in all directions.

Some serfs even couldn't stand the oppression of the powerful and turned against them.

The Tang army quickly captured the local tyrants in Qiao County.

As time went on, some powerful families realized the current situation and handed over their land in exchange for peace.

They had already understood that the tenants were under mental control of the imperial court and that the serfs were not very reliable, so resistance would only lead to death.

In places like Donglai County and Dongmou County, even the prefects rose up in rebellion.

Under the threat of powerful families, they refused to recognize Li Xuan as the legitimate heir under the banner of "welcoming the Holy Martial and Divine Emperor" and wanted to continue to support Li Longji to ascend the throne.

Che Guangqian sent 8,000 naval troops to attack Donglai and 3,000 cavalry troops to attack Dongmou. Under the guidance of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, the rebellion was put down in less than seven days.

A number of powerful families suffered heavy casualties, and some of them had made preparations and fled across the sea.

Once you enter the sea, life and death are uncertain.

Currently, Che Guangqian has to stabilize the situation on the Shandong Peninsula and has no time to send the navy to pursue.

The Tang Dynasty already had weak control over the coastal areas of Shandong, but now it can solve the problem once and for all.

By October, Yanzhuang had crossed the Yellow River to Hebei.

He first went to Weicheng and took over this county which was once the most populous county in the world.

Then, he successively captured Ye County and Qinghe County.

There is no such thing as a wall that is impenetrable. Even if the roads were blocked, the news could not be leaked, and the counties in Hebei finally got the news.

They all cursed Yan Zhuang for being despicable and shameless, for taking their gold and setting up a trap to cheat them.

Yan Zhuang no longer hid anything.

The infantry from Fan Yang and Ping Lu, led by Liu Zhengchen, deputy governor of Ping Lu, marched south to the counties of Hebei.

Yan Zhuang ordered the vigorous implementation of the policy of eliminating the lowly and promoting the good. The Jinyiwei and government officials frantically promoted slogans to the common people and tenant farmers, such as "fight the tyrants and divide the land" and "every household gets land and has abundant food and clothing year after year".

If the powerful families show signs of rebellion, they must be separated from the people.

In this way, they will collapse without even having the chance to recruit soldiers and rebel.

Some powerful families held the county magistrate hostage and defended the county town, but were attacked from the inside by the Jinyiwei and the common people.

Some of them intimidated the people and killed the Jinyiwei in advance.

After Yan Zhuang learned the news, he adopted a strategy of dividing and winning over the people, causing them to kill each other.

Especially those powerful families who made contributions to the suppression of An Lushan.

Yan Zhuang promised them that if they gave up their land and liberated the serfs, he would not ask about the mistakes they had made in the past.

When their lives were threatened, many powerful families believed Yan Zhuang's lies.

As a result, Yan Zhuang arrested them all afterwards.

He has no right to pardon the powerful who have committed crimes. Only the supreme ruler has the right to grant amnesty.

When the situation was very good and the living space for powerful families was getting smaller and smaller, Dugu Yu, the prefect of Jingcheng County in Hebei, was killed by powerful families.

Jingcheng County was the fourth most populous county in Hebei, with a population of over 800,000 before An Lushan's rebellion.

Not long after, Le'an County, which was connected to Jingcheng County, rebelled.

Jinyiwei seized the opportunity and organized a volunteer army in the two counties.

Tens of thousands of people gave up their hoes and joined the rebel army.

At the same time, Yan Zhuang ordered He Liguang to lead a thousand elite Tiance Guards to pacify Le'an County.

Liu Zhengchen led two thousand infantrymen to attack Jingcheng County at night.

At this time, the rebel army, led by the Embroidered Uniform Guard, defeated the powerful army and surrounded them in Cangzhou City.

After the elite palace troops arrived, the heavy armored infantry quickly climbed up under the cover of powerful crossbows.

When the rebels were defending the city, civil strife broke out in Cangzhou City. The rebels had no fighting spirit and were captured by the government army in an instant.

The powerful man who presided over the murder of the prefect committed suicide.

The remaining powerful men led the remaining troops to break out and fled to Yanshan City, east of Cangzhou City.

The government troops pursued the enemy to the outskirts of Yanshan City and broke into it.

The other counties such as Raoan, Leling, and Husu had no followers at all.

The powerful families dared not resist anymore.

As for Le'an County, it was even worse off. It was a coastal county with a small area and a small population. Facing the rebel army, it was powerless and could only retreat to Yanci City to defend itself.

A Jinyiwei henchman named Ma Sui disguised himself as a county soldier and captured the rebellious Le'an prefect Cui Kehua.

As a result, the county seat Yanci City was captured.

The people in Hebei region were eager for liberation, and more and more people joined the ranks of support.

Facts have proved that powerful people without the support of the people are like rootless duckweed.

As long as the Jinyiwei in a county has not been wiped out, one can use the knowledge learned to immediately organize an army to fight against the powerful.

Not to mention that the main elite troops of the Tang Dynasty are distributed in various major locations.

After the hardest bone in Hebei was gnawed off, the soldiers went out to sweep the area.

Increase the intensity of eliminating inferiority and turning it into goodness by one level.

The county governors of Henan also ended their gentle measures and implemented coercive measures against those powerful families who did not obey their orders.

Resistance will be treated as rebellion and will be dealt with without mercy.

The general trend is unstoppable, and the county magistrate knows that he cannot be perfunctory in removing the lowly and turning them into good people. He cannot accept gold from the powerful.

Because everyone knew that others had freed a thousand serfs and hundreds of thousands of acres of land.

You are far from your goal, there must be something wrong.

But there are also those who are not afraid of death and take risks, and after careful calculation, they leave behind troubles.

But these consequences will not emerge in the short term.

Li Xuan once said that the process of changing from lowly to good is not a one-time thing, but a never-ending one.

By the spring of the second year of Qianyuan, more and more powerful families collapsed.

By the summer, the campaign of removing lowly officials and replacing them with talented people in Henan and Hebei came to an end under the auspices of Yan Zhuang, which took a full year.

After the integration of land in the entire Henan Province, it exceeds 150 million mu.

The total population increase in Henan Province was over 2 million.

Li Xuan had reason to believe that there were still hidden registered permanent residents in Henan Province.

Because the area of ​​Henan Province is too large, it is larger than the later Henan and Shandong provinces combined.

Although the plains are fertile, the mountains are continuous.

The Tang Dynasty is now mainly focusing on building roads and has no energy to develop deep mountains and forests.

Even the search for mineral resources is mostly done on the outskirts of the mountains or between village ridges.

After the reunification, Henan Province had more than 1.6 million households and a population of more than 10.35 million.

This is Henan Province after the war.

As for Hebei Province, it was more affected by An Lushan's rebellion.

There are 145 million acres of arable land, but the population is only 1.56 million households, with a population of just over 10 million.

On the contrary, it is less than Henan Road.

The Hebei Province is not completely clear yet, and the Taihang Mountain area still needs to be sorted out slowly.

In comparison, Henan Province should be able to open up more land.

In this era, as long as Henan Road is developed well, it will not be a problem to feed a population of 30 million.

(End of this chapter)