The Leisurely Life of the Prince of the Tang Dynasty

Chapter 449: The Return of the Anxi Army

In Xizhou, one group of Tang troops after another left and returned home.

In the Anxi Protectorate, Di Renjie was packing his bags and looked at Pei Yan who was also packing his bags.

After putting a few books into his bag, Di Renjie simply sat down and asked, "Have you promised General Cheng Yaojin that you would join the army?"

Pei Yan nodded.

Seeing that this guy still had a serious look on his face, Di Renjie had also gotten used to this guy always being alone and having a stern face.

"But the court's arrangement is for you to join the Ministry of War."

Pei Yan asked: "Aren't you also working in Jingzhao Prefecture?"

Di Renjie looked at the bustling Protectorate outside the door and said, "We have fought in the Pamir Mountains, why does the court want us to serve as clerks?"

Pei Yan shook his head again.

"Don't you think it's strange?"

Pei Yan still shook his head.

There were footsteps coming from outside the door, and Zhang Jianzhi came quickly and said, "Huaiying, Pei Yan, I have asked."

Pei Yan was holding a book in his hand and looked back curiously.

Zhang Jianzhi walked into the room, picked up the tea bowl and took a sip of water, and said, "There are many cases of civil officials serving as generals in the court. Although you are civil officials, you can still lead troops to fight in the future. Cui Dunli did the same thing back then."

Pei Yan whispered: "I have heard about it."

"Although Brother Pei works in the Ministry of War, he and the Minister of War supervise the military discipline of the various guards in Guanzhong, so he has to visit the army frequently."

"Then there's nothing to worry about." After saying that, Pei Yan put a few more books into his bag.

"Huaiying, although you are in Jingzhao Prefecture, the cotton from the Western Regions needs to be dispatched to the army. The reason why I let you serve in Jingzhao Prefecture is to facilitate the exchanges between the army and Jingzhao Prefecture in the future and dispatch the various goods needed by the army."

"Wait!" Di Renjie interrupted, "How do you know these things?"

Zhang Jianzhi smiled meaningfully and said, "Someone from Chang'an City sent a letter."

After saying that, he placed a piece of paper on the table.

Di Renjie took the paper, looked at the handwriting on it, and understood at another glance that it was given to him by Zhang Jianzhi's good friend Cen Changqian.

Cen Changqian is the son of Cen Wenben, and Cen Wenben is the current Minister of the Central Secretariat. It is not difficult to find out the reason.

Zhang Jianzhi picked up the kettle and poured some cold water into his mouth, then said: "Besides, in the future, all students in the imperial examinations will have to answer questions about the art of war, and students taking the imperial examinations must first gain experience."

Di Renjie thought for a moment and then said, "I wonder how the Prince of Jin and the Prince of Ji are doing?"

Zhang Jianzhi felt unhappy when he thought that they were all going back.

Seeing him leaving, Di Renjie asked, "What are you going to do?"

"Teaching, teaching people in the Western Regions."

Zhang Jianzhi stretched lazily and left the Protectorate.

During this year, Zhang Jianzhi has been teaching in the Western Regions, and he is quite dedicated to his job.

The Tang Dynasty is still very young. Nine years have passed since the Wude period, twenty years have passed since the Zhenguan period, and now it is only the fourth year of the Qianqing period.

In the past thirty years or so, the Tang Dynasty had already made its mark in the Pamir Mountains and intimidated the various Hu tribes.

At the Kaner Well three miles away from Xizhou City, Li Zhi and Li Shen had to complete their brother's arrangement, which was the production plan for the Western Region, before returning.

The two brothers sat opposite each other with a pile of files in front of them.

Li Zhi looked at the scroll in his hand and said, "With a population of 50,000, is it possible to achieve twice the productivity as before?"

Li Shen asked, "Protector Pei?"

Pei Xingjian nodded and said, "Prince Ji, please speak."

Li Shen hesitated and asked, "How many people used to grow cotton?"

Pei Xingjian replied: "Sixty thousand."

Li Zhi scratched his head and frowned, "What we couldn't do before with a population of 60,000, can we do it now with a population of over 100,000?"

Pei Xingjian also understood this.

Li Zhi was searching his memory for what he had learned in the Eastern Palace when he was a child, as well as various production-related contents.

Li Shen was also thinking hard. His brother's question was too difficult. He said in distress, "In the past, we had my sister to teach us in the East Palace. Now..."

He looked around and saw Cheng Chumo who was eating roasted lamb leg, Li Jingheng who was sleeping, and Pei Duhu who looked indifferent.

No one here can be relied upon.

Li Shen lowered his head, looking frustrated, and said, "If I fail to complete the production arrangements in the Western Region, I'm afraid I won't be able to go back."

Li Zhi slammed the safe table and shouted, "Shendi!"

"Ok!"

"We can definitely fulfill my brother's request." Li Zhi's eyes suddenly showed great confidence.

Not knowing where this confidence came from, Li Shen looked back and still didn't see anyone coming to help.

A gust of wind blew, and Li Shen's mind woke up. He faced reality again and said, "Let's go back to Xizhou City first, and then make plans."

"it is good."

After returning to Xizhou City, the two brothers spent the whole night looking through files, most of which were about the governance of the Western Regions in previous years.

By chance, Li Zhi discovered the files of the Western Region Production Guard House.

Li Shen looked at the bright moon outside the window in distress. The moon in the Western Regions was also very beautiful. His sister would not come to help him at this time. If she could help, she would have sent someone to send a letter.

At this time, Li Shen felt a little ashamed. He felt embarrassed to tell anyone that he was raised by his royal brother.

Li Zhi called out, "Shendi, Shendi."

Li Shen stood up and asked, "What's wrong?"

Li Zhi flipped through a book, "This is the file of the Western Region Production Guard House."

Li Shen also perked up immediately, rubbed his eyes, looked closer, and asked in confusion: "Huh? Why isn't the Production Guard House in the Western Region under the jurisdiction of Jingzhao Prefecture?"

Li Zhi also discovered the problem and said, "This is the Weifu, which is in the military and is of course not under the jurisdiction of Jingzhao Prefecture."

"Wait a minute." Li Shen paused, pacing back and forth, thinking, "Is this similar to the Guanzhong production model back then?"

Li Zhi said: "Really?"

Li Shen felt that in the past few years, he had gone to Mount Tai or to the south of the Yangtze River, or at worst lived in Luoyang, and almost missed the years when Guanzhong developed most rapidly.

Li Zhi said: "Can the method used in Guanzhong be used here?"

Li Shen took the scroll and tore off the words "Production Guard House". He looked at it again and said, "Isn't this the production method in Guanzhong?"

In the following days, Li Zhi and Li Shen still had no intention of leaving Xizhou. They had been traveling around various pastures in the Western Regions during these days, and even went to Tianshan several times.

Di Renjie looked at the two statues at the foot of Tianshan Mountain, one was the statue of Tian Khan, and the other was the statue of Guo Luotuo. Pei Xingjian rode his horse aside and asked, "Are the Kings of Jin and Ji not going to go back?"

Pei Yan said: "There is no rush to return to the court."

Lou Shide looked at the busy Prince Jin and Prince Ji, and said, "In the past, if the princes of the royal family did not return to the court according to the imperial decree, they would most likely be suspected."

Di Renjie said: "I won't be suspicious. The Prince of Jin and the Prince of Ji were raised by your Majesty. Besides, your Majesty's brothers and sisters are more united than any other dynasty."

Lou Shide said: "I am overthinking."

Just when Li Zhi and Li Shen encountered difficulties again, the source of the problem was the division and construction of the Wei Palace. The doubt was... what to do in the future?

"Report! Prince Jin, Prince Ji has someone coming from Chang'an."

Li Zhi asked in surprise, "Someone from Chang'an?"

Li Shen looked up and saw a group of cavalrymen coming towards Xizhou City.

The people coming were a group of cavalrymen wearing black armor. When the cavalrymen came before him, Li Zhi could see clearly who they were.

Li Zhi frowned and looked at the person who came. He recognized this person as Yan Zhaofu, the son of Yan Qinli, the Shaoyin of Jingzhao Prefecture.

Yan Zhaofu looked around and said, "This is Xizhou City."

Li Zhi asked in confusion: "Why are you here?"

Yan Zhaofu brushed off the dust on his body and said, "My father asked me to help Prince Jin and Prince Ji."

Li Shen smiled and said, "That's great."

During the half month they stayed in Xizhou, Li Zhi and Li Shen dismantled the production guardhouses in the Western Region. From now on, there would be no more production guardhouses in the Western Region. This involved farming planning, increasing the cotton planting area, using household registration, and treating small households as individuals, adopting a large-scale continuous cultivation method.

This is a model in which a large group is divided into smaller households, dividing the cotton-growing areas into three main planting areas in the north, south and east directions.

And the planning of karez was re-divided.

Looking down from the distant hillside, you can see several figures busy at work in a large open field.

The small figure of Li Zhi was running among the fields, discussing farming matters with the officials of the Ministry of Agriculture stationed in the Western Regions.

Individual production was separated from the large group, and official residences were added to form a very large prefecture with the Anxi Protectorate as the core.

After Li Shen finished writing the report to the court, he remembered that the construction of the Anxi Protectorate and the Four Towns of Anxi were integrated with the current production plan, which was itself an extremely huge topic.

After finishing these things, Li Zhi and Li Shen spent New Year's Eve in the Anxi Protectorate, planning to set off in the first month of the new year.

Li Shen patted the thick file beside him and said, "Zhaofu, it turns out that the so-called construction of the four Anxi towns and the construction of the Anxi Grand Protectorate are the same thing."

Yan Zhaofu said: "No, it should not be the same thing, but they complement each other."

Li Shen whispered, "From the perspective of production science, the population of the Western Region has increased, but population growth does not mean an increase in productivity. Replanning and allocation is the top priority."

Yan Zhaofu said: "I grew up in Jingzhao Prefecture, and these are the things I have seen and heard since I was a child."

Li Zhi and Li Shen could only do this much. The four Anxi towns could not be built, and the rest of the matters were left to the officials in the court.

Regardless of whether they would be scolded by their brother and sister when they returned to Chang'an, Li Zhi and Li Shen accepted it. At least they had planned the cotton planting plan for the next few years, and that was all.

A group of generals left with Prince Jin and Prince Ji.

The soldiers went home whenever they could.

They spent New Year's Eve in Xizhou City and then went to Chang'an together.

Di Renjie rode on a camel, looking at the Prince of Jin who was chatting with Jiang Shiren, and asked, "Your Highness Prince Ji, is this enough for the Western Regions?"

Li Shen's body also swayed with the camel's movement. He smiled and said, "It's time to go back. My brother has said in his letter that it doesn't matter if we can't do well. Just go home safely. Even if we don't do the future, the court will arrange it."

Di Renjie sometimes envied Prince Jin and Prince Ji, not because of their identities, but because of their state of mind.

Li Shen said: "It doesn't matter if we stop here. At least it won't be worse than before."

Pei Yan said: "It is indeed not going to be worse than before."

The three of them laughed heartily again.

Li Shen didn't care much, because among the brothers and sisters in the Eastern Palace at that time, they had the worst learning ability.

There are many powerful people in Chang'an, powerful and strong.

In addition to the more than 100 guards of the Flying Tigers, the rest of the people present were generals, including General Cheng, General Zhang, Xue Rengui, Wang Xuance, Pei Xingjian, and Jiang Shiren.

As they walked along the way, they saw a forest. The trees were not tall, but there were many of them.

The closer you get to the Hexi Corridor, the more merchants come and go. Along the way, there are even merchants from the Western Regions doing business with merchants from Guanzhong.

Li Zhi asked, "Can they avoid paying city taxes if they do business this way?"

Pei Yan shook his head and said, "These merchants will eventually have to enter the customs to trade, and then they will have to pay market taxes. It's just that the goods are too scarce, so they would rather go out of the customs to trade, so as not to be sold out when they arrive at the Hexi Corridor."

Yan Zhaofu stayed in the Anxi Protectorate, and he didn't know whether the court would build Jingzhao Prefecture in the Western Regions, but it was most likely that it would.

Along the way, you can also see court officials heading to the Western Regions.

Before we knew it, it had been the fifth year of the Qianqing reign. Today, the Hexi Corridor is very prosperous and crowded crowds can be seen on the streets of Wuwei County.

Li Shen ate the authentic Zenggao and said with emotion: "I haven't eaten it for a long time. I can't even remember its taste."

Li Zhi also ate the zonggao and said, "I finally feel like I'm home."

Wang Xuance asked Di Renjie curiously, "Do the King of Jin and the King of Ji like zonggao very much?"

Di Renjie said, "I heard from Prince Jin and Prince Ji that they used to eat zong gao in the palace."

Wang Xuance nodded in understanding and said, "I met an alchemist in Tianzhu."

Di Renjie drank the mutton soup and asked, "Indian alchemist?"

"Well, later on, that alchemist was chopped to pieces by Li Yibiao."

"Ah?" Di Renjie was surprised.

"The alchemist said he could make an elixir of immortality. I didn't believe it at first, but when Li Yibiao found out about it, he killed him."

"really?"

Wang Xuance looked reminiscent and said, "There was a general among the generals who led the Eastern Expedition. He kept many alchemists at home. When His Majesty learned about this, he ordered him to dismiss all the alchemists. Li Yibiao may have killed him because he knew that His Majesty did not like alchemists."

Di Renjie said: "He deserves to be killed."

Xue Rengui brought Li Zhen over and introduced him, "This is General Li from the Zhechong Prefecture of Longxi Road."

Everyone stood up and saluted.

The general of Zhechongfu in Longxi Road is Li Zhen, the son of Ying Gong. He has been guarding the Hexi Corridor and occasionally visits Qinghai Road.

Li Zhen looked at the many generals, as well as the King of Jin and the King of Ji in the tavern, and saluted and said, "Hello everyone, the accommodation has been arranged, you can rest after dinner."

Wang Xuance said, "Thank you very much."

Li Zhen bowed and said, "Don't thank me. You have already made your name known in Guanzhong after the battle at Congling. I have to thank you for the sake of the country."

(End of this chapter)