Late Tang

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The fifth day of May in the second year of Qianfu, the Dragon Boat Festival.

Yesterday, after the town [***] wiped out the remnants of the remnants of the grass bandits on the west bank of the Bian River, all the ministries returned to Songzhou one after another.This is a brilliant victory, the results of this battle have been counted, the secretary Guo Chengan stood excitedly on the Songzhou governor's mansion with a scroll, facing the town [***] officer in the hall and the civil and military officials of Songzhou Officials, as well as a group of respectable officials and gentry, reported the results of this battle.

"As of yesterday, our town [***] entered Songzhou this time, and fought against grass bandits several times. Finally, under the wise command of Marshal Li and the heroic fighting of the town [***] soldiers, With the generous help of the Songzhou government and the local righteous people, we achieved a brilliant victory. According to statistics, our army killed a total of [-] grass thieves, including the main leaders of the grass thieves, Li Chongba and Chu Yanwei. , captured more than [-] people, including Liu Hanhong and Cai Wenqiu, the main leaders of the grass bandits, and rescued more than [-] refugees trapped by the bandits. Yucheng and Dangshan counties have been recovered. In addition, Chuqiu and Shanfu The county has just been recovered, and the grasshoppers in Songzhou have either died, captured or escaped, and there is no one left."

Rao Zhang Rui and others have been in the officialdom for a long time, but they can't help but take a deep breath when they hear such a record.Killed nearly 2 enemies and took more than [-] prisoners. This record is amazing.But in the past two days, many people here have secretly sent people to inquire, and the faces of those who came back are all pale. According to them, there are blood stains everywhere under Yucheng City and within fifty miles to the east of Yucheng City. soil of.All the heads of the beheaded thieves' corpses were cut off, except for the heads of the thieves' leaders, which were preserved in lime and brought back to Songzhou.The rest of the more than [-] heads were built into a huge Jingguan twenty miles east of Yucheng by the soldiers of the town [***].The Jingguan was built with the heads of more than [-] grass thieves together with lime, loess, etc., and it is eighteen feet high, which is extremely terrifying.

The performance of Zhen [***] in Songzhou convinced them that Li Jing was not the kind of person who would kill the good and pretend to be meritorious.What's more, more than 4 captives and more than 5 refugees, nearly 10 people have been taken outside Songzhou City.The nearly 10 people are really not bad, besides, these few days the soldiers of the forward army went home on vacation, and they also personally talked about the battle between the town [***] and the grass army these days, especially The fact that Li Jing personally led [-] soldiers and horses to attack tens of thousands of grass thieves to reinforce Yucheng, and finally repelled tens of thousands of grass thieves with [-] soldiers and horses, is more widely spread.

"Where did Wang Xianzhi and others flee to?" Li Jing took the initiative to ask about the news of the leader of the bandit.

It was Li Wei who stood up and answered, "When the bandits were defeated, they scattered to break through. Wang Xianzhi and other bandit leaders were very cunning. They all had war horses, and they ran away without caring about their brothers. We pursued closely all the way, but there were too many bandits, which affected In the end, Wang Xianzhi and others arranged some boats in Bianshui, and they escaped directly by boat."

Speaking of this, Li Wei felt a little pity.If it wasn't for Li Jing's previous order not to chase after Bian Shui, maybe they would be able to capture Wang Xianzhi and others.

He quietly observed Li Jing's face, but saw that he was not very angry at the news of Wang Xianzhi's escape, and he still smiled.

"Wang Xianzhi is nothing more than that. He completely defeated his [-] troops in the first battle. Right now, he is just a lost dog fleeing from the wilderness. There is nothing to be afraid of." Li Jing comforted Li Wei with a smile, and then laughed a few times: "Guo Secretary, tell everyone, besides beheading Li Chongba, Chu Yanwei, Cai Wenqiu, and Liu Hanhong alive, how many generals have we beheaded and captured this time?"

Introducing the establishment of imperial officers and soldiers into the ranks of the grass army was an initiative proposed by Huang Chao to Wang Xianzhi.Even Wang Xianzhi's original Tianbuping General and the leader of the domestic heroes all came out of Huang Chao's plan.

At the beginning, the grass bandits had no banner, let alone such a neat organization, everything was done according to the copycat method, such as being the head of the family, the ticket commander, and so on.It was Huang Chao, a cultured salt dealer, who gave this team the title of Cao Jun, and gave a complete set of officers and soldiers from Wang Xianzhi to the subordinates.Wang Xianzhi was a great general, and the ten votes below were initially military envoys, and later became Duzhi military envoys.

After defeating the Li family in Yizhou, the officers and soldiers of the Cao Army had additional military ranks in addition to their military ranks.For example, Lord Shang, in addition to being the marching Sima of the grass army, he also has the title of general of the auxiliary army.And Ru Shangrang, in addition to knowing the position of military envoy, also has the military rank of the champion general, which is in line with the military system of the official army.

After the Battle of Yizhou, the grass army expanded rapidly. Not only did they recruit a large number of soldiers, but also many large and small bandits, horse thieves and water thieves came to join them.In order to win people's hearts, Wang Xianzhi assigned a large number of official positions to these people, and these official positions assigned by Wang Xianzhi were correspondingly much higher than those of the officers and soldiers.In the grass army, a group leader who leads ten people can get a deputy lieutenant from the ninth rank, a team leader with 50 people can get the captain from the eighth rank, and a hundred people will , Zheng Qipin Zhiguo Xiaowei.The commander of a 500-man battalion is the sixth-rank Shangzhaowu Xiaowei.A soldier and horse envoy with a thousand-man carriage is the fifth-rank general Dingyuan.Going up, the grass army still has 2000 soldiers and horses, 3000 soldiers and horses, and even 5000 to 2000 soldiers and horses. Every additional level will be one or two higher. 3000 people in one box, from the fourth rank to general Xuanwei, leading 4000 people, from the fourth rank to the loyal military general, leading 5000 people, and the third rank to the champion general, leading [-] people, from the second rank to the general of the army.For example, the several deputies of the Cao army are directly appointed as the second-rank generals of the auxiliary army.

There are so many official positions in the Cao Army that even the official seals cannot be engraved. General-level officers use gold seals, general-level officers use silver seals, and lieutenant-level military seals use copper seals, and the ones below are iron seals. The teammate level, even printed directly with wood.

As a result, now that the town [***] has captured captives, sometimes they can directly search their official seals to know their ranks.

Guo Chengan chuckled a few times, "This time, we killed two generals of Zhenguo, one of Fuguo and one of Zhenguo alive. Besides, General Yunhui, Zhongwu, and Zhuang were killed and captured alive. General Wu, General Xuanwei, General Mingwei, General Dingyuan, General Ningyuan, General Ranger, General Guerrilla and other generals at all levels add up to more than 500 generals, and there are thousands of other lieutenants. The gold seal, silver seal and copper seal are all a lot of money. The iron seal is nearly 2 yuan, and the wooden seal is nearly [-] yuan."

Everyone in the lobby couldn't help laughing out loud when they heard the grass thieves arbitrarily conferring official positions. After laughing, they couldn't help shaking their heads. How could such a grass thieves do anything.It's no wonder that he was defeated in the first battle. Even the emperor would not dare to mess around with the stuff of official positions.Qin Xiaogong once said a word, cherishing officials and stinging nobles is a great disaster for a man.Indiscriminate use of officials and nobles is a great disaster for the country.The emperor was reluctant to confer titles to his ministers, and it was difficult for such an emperor to get the support of his ministers.But if the emperor desperately confers officials and titles, it will be the beginning of a disaster for a country's court.

If you look at the Tang Dynasty, you will know that at the beginning of the founding of the Tang Dynasty, many princes and dukes were granted awards, and the awards were excessive.After Taizong Li Shimin came to power, he began to cut down the nobility, which also attracted Li Yi and others to rebel.Since then, the rewards have been more cautious, there are very few princes, and even the prime minister is only third rank.But at the time of Emperor Xuanzong, he began to confer indiscriminately, and even conferred many county kings, not only for An Lushan, but also for Wang Zhongsi to be the commander-in-chief of the four towns, and Anlushan was given the seal of the three towns. Shuai Yin, and more than [-] elite soldiers.Opened the official position of Jiedu envoys to destroy the Tang Dynasty, and once gave Jiedu envoys concurrently the post of prime minister.

In the current late Tang Dynasty, the official positions of the imperial court became more and more excessive, and various official positions were added at every turn. The Jiedu envoys either added Tongping Zhangshi, or added left and right servants, Zhongshuling, Shangshuling, Sangong and Sanshi. Top honor title.

Except for the more than 2 people who died, the remaining 4 people are a troublesome matter.With so many people, according to the rules, they should be executed.But Li Jing didn't want to execute these people, "In times of war, most of the people who die are heroes!"

Li Jing couldn't help but shook his head and sighed. At this time in the Tang Dynasty, family politics became more and more prosperous. Although ordinary children still had a channel to become an official through the imperial examination, until now, this road was basically monopolized by the powerful families.Those heroes in the mountains and villages either served as pawns for the feudal town, or they became robbers and salt sellers.

In fact, if these people can be given a chance to stand out, it is unlikely that they will all become robbers and salt sellers.

What she saw in front of her made Li Jing even more determined in her heart.The only way is to attract all the talents in the world to your own sect, or in other words, give all the talents in the world a chance to come to your sect and stand out.In that way, the elites will stand on the same side as him, and naturally no one in this world can compete with him.

"Who would be willing to be a rebel if there is a chance to get a job? It is said that Wang Xianzhi also wanted to seek security, and that Huang Chao even participated in many imperial examinations. The rebel Wang Jingwu also only wanted to seek security. It's just a Jiedushi." Zhang Rui was indeed very careful, and said softly to Li Jing with emotion.

Although Li Jing and Zhang Rui's words were not loud, everyone in the hall heard them and they sighed.Back when Qiu Fu was in chaos, there were only a group of ordinary people.By the time Pang Xun rebelled, many soldiers had already joined.As for the grass bandits at the moment, although their power is not too big, and the scale has not surpassed the Pang Xun Rebellion, there have already appeared a large number of low-level military officials in the feudal towns, low-level officials in the government, and even unsatisfactory scholars, and even many disasters. Bankrupt landlords, etc.With these people among the grass thieves, they have even broken away from the small fights of ordinary thieves.

"Send all the official seals of the thieves, as well as the leaders of the beheaded thieves, to Chang'an." Although he won a big victory, Li Jing was not very excited.Instead, I felt chest tightness.

"How to deal with these prisoners?" Guo Chengan asked.

Li Jing was silent, reaching out to rub his temples.There were as many as 4 captives. Among these people, there were not many real thieves, and most of them were just hungry people who had no food to eat.Let him get rid of these people, Li Jing can't do it.After thinking for a long time, Li Jing slowly said: "Those who wear copper seals and above, after interrogation and registration, send them to Chang'an together. Those who have expired copper seals, they will be escorted to the courtyard to guard the border and hoard fields, even if they are exiled. , it can be regarded as a chance to reform and atone for one’s sins. Moreover, it will be sent to Liaodong, and it will be supervised by my town [***], so there is no need to worry about troubles again.”

With such a score, although there are as many as 3000 people who will be escorted to Chang'an in the end, at least the other [-] young and strong are staying.Bringing it to Liaodong can also develop Liaodong.

Hearing this arrangement, Zhang Rui was a little shocked.Such a major matter must at least be decided by the envoy Song Weilai, and the emperor and the Zhengshitang have to be consulted.Li Jing actually made such a decision?But thinking about it, I felt a little appreciative of Li Jing's arbitrariness.After all, if the court decides, these people are likely to be killed or demoted to slavery.Now that Li Jing made such a decision, it was considered a good deed.

"How will the more than [-] refugees be arranged?"

Speaking of these refugees, Li Jing was a little embarrassed. After all, although some of these refugees were young and strong, most of them were old, weak, women and children.Dengzhou and Liaodong are temporarily overcrowded. Unless Li Jing lays down more territory in Liaodong, there is really no room for arrangements.What's more, even if people are needed, there are many people outside Dengzhou who want to enter Dengzhou, and most of them are young and strong.

"How does Zhang Shijun plan?" Li Jing threw this troublesome question to Songzhou. After all, many of these refugees were local people in Songzhou.

Zhang Rui thought for a while, "Songzhou has suffered huge losses after the bandit attack. For the time being, we can only resettle the refugees in Songzhou, and the rest of the refugees can't do anything."

Li Jing nodded, this is also true. "How about this, the refugees from Songzhou will be resettled by Mr. Zhang, and the rest will be taken with me when I return to Dengzhou, just in time to take them back to their original places and hand them over to the local governments for resettlement."

After deciding on a few important things, everyone was much happier.

Although Wang Xianzhi, Shang Junchang, Bi Shiduo, Chai Cun, Liu Yanzhang, Cao Shixiong and other thieves have not been caught yet, but this time the grass thieves are almost gone, more than 2 were wiped out, more than 4 were captured, and finally escaped from Bianshui Yes, only about 3000 people.Such a small number of people is really not worth mentioning.

However, in the end, Li Jing still told the officials of Songzhou that after the Dragon Boat Festival, the town [***] will pull out the entire army and continue to chase the grass thieves eastward, and must completely wipe out these thieves.Hearing that Li Jing was going to lead his army to leave so soon, Songzhou was filled with complicated emotions.Zhen [***] stayed in Songzhou, although Qiuhao was innocent, but the supply of the army depends entirely on Songzhou, which is not a small burden.But although Wang Xianzhi was defeated and fled, in Caozhou not far to the northeast, there was another bandit soldier led by Huang Chao, the deputy commander of the grass bandit.They were also worried, what if Li Jing left and Huang Chao killed him again?

At this moment, none of the officials, big or small, in Songzhou thought of Mu Renyu, the commander-in-chief of this town, Xuanwu Army! (To be continued.)