Guiyi Fei Tang

Chapter 214: Vitality
"Xu..."

At the end of March, when the Tang Dynasty was taking action in Hexi, the sound of horse reins was heard in Didao City.

Yang Zhiwen and Feng Bangyan dismounted one after another, and more than a hundred elite cavalrymen from Shannan behind them also dismounted.

Gao Jinda, Cui Shu and Cao Mao hurried out of the Protectorate-General's Mansion and bowed from a distance.

"General Yang, county magistrate!"

"Haha, nice to meet you all..."

Faced with such a warm welcome, Yang Zhiwen and Feng Bangyan quickly bowed in return, then asked curiously:

"Where did the commander-in-chief and Governor Zhang go?"

Hearing this, Gao Jinda explained, "The Marshal has been managing government affairs at the university in the east of the city these days, and even we haven't seen him for a few days."

"Zhang Zhishi and Li Beijia went to Changle County, so they didn't meet?"

"Li Beijia?" Yang Zhiwen asked curiously, "Isn't he Hu Si Beijia?"

"Huo Si Bei Jia has been transferred to Songzhou as the governor. The current Bei Jia, you two may know him, he is Li Yishan from Xingyang."

Gao Jinda explained, and the two suddenly realized what was going on. Then he said, "I have read his poetry collection before. I heard that he served as a military officer in Zizhou. I never thought that he would come to Longyou."

"Let's talk inside the mansion." Gao Jinda stepped aside to invite the two men in, and at the same time looked at Cao Mao:

"Lord Cao, please ask Marshal Jie to come over."

"Okay!" Cao Mao agreed, and then walked towards the university.

At the same time, Gao Jinda and others also walked into the Protectorate.

Half a quarter of an hour later, Cao Mao arrived outside the university gate and bowed to the soldiers on guard, saying, "Please ask the commander to leave the palace. Yang Canjun of Shannan West Road and Feng County Magistrate are here."

"Please wait a moment, Mr. Cao..."

Without Liu Jilong's military order, outsiders were not allowed to enter the university.

Only a few people knew what Liu Jilong was doing in there.

Cao Mao waited at the door for a long time, and only saw Liu Jilong wearing a silk robe a quarter of an hour later.

"Come on!"

Watching Liu Jilong walk out of the door, Cao Mao looked inside curiously, but Liu Jilong smiled and said:
"When you finish what you are doing, I will let you study here too."

"Yes!" Cao Mao smiled, and Liu Jilian took him back to the Protectorate.

When they returned to the Protectorate, Yang Zhiwen and Gao Jinda had already chatted for a long time.

Seeing Liu Jilong appear, everyone stood up and bowed, and Liu Jilong also bowed and said: "I was delayed by some things and kept my brother and Yang Canjun waiting for a long time."

"No no……"

Yang Zhiwen shook his head quickly, while Feng Bangyan smiled and bowed, saying, "I came to see Lady Qi in compliance with Grandfather's order."

"Okay!" Liu Jilong agreed and turned to look at Cao Mao: "Take my brother to the second hall and ask Miss Qi to go to the second hall to meet my brother."

"Yes!" Cao Mao agreed, and then took Feng Bangyan to the second hall, and at the same time sent someone to ask for the seal from the inner hall.

After they left, Liu Jilong also took the main seat, and Yang Zhiwen, Gao Jinda and others sat back in their seats one after another.

"General Yang, I think you brought me good news this time, right?"

Liu Jilong got straight to the point. Yang Zhiwen was already familiar with him, so he chuckled and said, "Sure enough, I can't hide it from Marshal Jie."

"Right now, there are more than 7,000 horses in Lizhou waiting to enter Longyou, and there are more than 3,000 horses in Xingzhou as well."

"Most of the gold that the Marshal paid last time has been used up."

Yang Zhiwen brought tens of thousands of people to Liu Jilong, but the bad news was that the gold paid previously had been spent.

Liu Jilong was not worried about this, but asked: "I wonder how many hungry people are there?"

"Well..." Yang Zhiwen did not answer immediately, but hesitated for a moment before answering:

"It's hard to count the number of starving people in the Dao. There are tens of thousands of them in Sanchuan alone. Now most of them have been pacified."

"In addition, there are also people who have become bandits due to famine in various states. The government offices in various states are trying to recruit them, hoping that they will come to Longyou to make a living."

Yang Zhiwen did not respond with the specific number, but gave Liu Jilong the feeling that there were still many more.

Liu Jilian knew very well that if there were enough starving people in Shannan West Road, Feng Ao, Yang Zhiwen and the officials of Shannan West Road would find ways to relocate the starving people in order to earn the money they would pay.

Even if there were no hungry people, they would create them.

Therefore, as long as he can afford the money, the hungry people are a renewable resource.

"Chapter Gao, please transfer the gold from the state treasury."

Liu Jilong instructed Gao Jinda, who nodded and then sent someone to get the gold.

This gold was originally left by Liu Jilian for bribing officials or eunuchs in the court in the future.

It seems that we can only use it for horse and port trade first. When Longyou becomes stronger in the future, it will not be too late to find a way to get some gold.

Seeing that Liu Jilong still had enough money, the smile on Yang Zhiwen's face became even more intense.

Soon, more than ten armored soldiers came carrying boxes. The number was more than last time, a total of nine boxes.

Zhibai, who followed, handed over a note. Gao Jinda read it and said to Yang Zhiwen:
"General Yang, here are 18,000 taels of gold."

"Okay, okay..." Yang Zhiwen nodded with a smile, then bowed to Liu Jilong and said:

"Please ask the commander to have someone take the gold to Yin Hotel, and I will take it back to Xingyuan Prefecture when I leave tomorrow."

"Okay!" Liu Jilong agreed, and Gao Jinda immediately ordered people to move the nine boxes to Yin Hotel.

According to their previous agreement, this batch of gold worth nearly 150,000 strings of cash was enough to buy back more than 20,000 people.

The number of people in Longyou will exceed 200,000 after this transaction, and this does not include military officials.

After a few pleasantries, Yang Zhiwen took the opportunity to talk about the situation in Huainan.

"I heard that there was a great famine in Huainan Province, and hundreds of thousands of people were affected. However, other provinces refused to pacify them, and the starving people had no choice but to become bandits."

"In my opinion, these hundreds of thousands of hungry refugees will sooner or later become a major threat to the imperial court..."

Yang Zhiwen spoke in a matter-of-fact manner, Gao Jinda and Cui Shu were shocked:

"Hundreds of thousands of starving people?"

"I wonder if Shannan West Road can pacify him?"

If hundreds of thousands of hungry people entered Longyou, with Longyou's resources, they would only have to live a hard life for a few years at most, and then they would be able to develop with the help of these hundreds of thousands of hungry people.

"Of course that's not possible." Yang Zhiwen shook his head.
"Besides, the Western Region does not have enough money and food to recruit pacification troops, and the Eastern Region will not agree to use the route to recruit pacification troops."

Yang Zhiwen didn't explain it clearly, but everyone understood.

If the Western Road receives half of the people and then says that there is insufficient money and food, then the group of hungry people who enter the Eastern Road will need to be solved by the Eastern Road.

If this matter is done well, the host country will not get any credit, but if it is not done well, the host country will need to pay for the behavior of the western country, and the host officials will naturally not agree to borrow the passage.

There was nothing anyone could do except to feel sorry for them.

Liu Jilong wanted to send people to recruit them, and then buy them back to Longxi as slaves, but the journey was too long. He had not even eaten all the starving people in Jiannan Road and Shannan West Road in the hands of the West Road. If he stretched his hand too far, it would only make the court vigilant.

What's more, these hundreds of thousands of starving people in Huainan will become the last straw that breaks the camel's back for the Tang Dynasty in the future.

If Liu Jilian remembered correctly, whether it was the Pang Xun uprising or the later Wang Xianzhi and Huang Chao uprisings, there were basically starving people from Huainan.

It can be said that the foundation for peasant uprisings in the following decades of the Tang Dynasty was laid during the Dazhong period.

If Li Chen could pacify these hungry people, the Wang Huang Uprising would not have had such a great impact.

Unfortunately, Li Chen failed to deal with this group of people, and his descendants will have to clean up his mess for decades.

Thinking of this, Liu Jilong chatted with Yang Zhiwen for a long time, and finally sent someone to take him to Yin Hotel to rest.

Soon after he left, Gao Jinda bowed and said:

"General, there are only 700 taels of gold, 30,000 taels of silver, and 60,000 strings of cash left in the treasury."

"Based on previous situations, these 150,000 strings of gold will be consumed in half a year at most. By then..."

Gao Jinda hesitated, but Cui Shu comforted him, saying, "The dental merchants can bring at least 60,000 strings of cash to the Protectorate every year."

"Besides, Chen Ying has been in the north for more than three months and will be back before the summer harvest at the latest."

"Although there aren't that many silks this time, there are a lot of brocades and linen, which can be sold for hundreds of thousands of strings of cash."

"Once we take over Shankuo and the other two states, the imperial court will certainly make some gesture, and it won't be a problem to deal with next year."

Cui Shu explained it clearly, but Gao Jinda frowned and said, "The reason why I say this is precisely because we are going to send troops to Shankuo, and we must have some money and food in the treasury so that we can provide relief in time."

"General, when will we send out our troops?"

In response to his question, Liu Jilong asked, "Is there any news from Guzhou?"

"Yes!" Cui Shu nodded and said, "Lun Kongre and Shang Bibi fought in Huangshachuan. Shang Bibi had many soldiers and Lun Kongre was unable to gain an advantage. He led his troops back to Mochanchuan in the middle of the twelfth lunar month."

"Judging from the duration of the fighting between the two sides and the speed at which the troops retreated, it should be mainly a standoff, and the casualties on both sides should not be too great."

Upon learning that Lun Kongre had retreated back to Mochanchuan, Liu Jilong nodded slowly, and after thinking for a moment, he said:

"Order the four towns of Min, Lan, Wu, and Lin to send out six regiments each, and the remaining towns to send out three regiments each. The army will assemble at Fenglin Pass."

"Troops from all states must arrive at Fenglin Pass before July 1st!"

As Liu Jilian issued the military order, the nine towns in Longyou sent out a total of 39 regiments and 7,800 soldiers.

According to the ratio of four cavalry to six infantry, there are about three thousand elite cavalry and about four thousand eight infantry.

If Hezhou were to be used to supply food and fodder, at least 7,800 laborers and 5,000 horse-drawn carriages would be needed to support the transportation of food and fodder.

"Are there enough civilians in Hezhou?"

Liu Jilong asked Gao Jinda, who bowed and said, "Why not move all the people we have captured this time to Hezhou and use the able-bodied men as laborers?"

"If we recover Shanzhou, we can just place them there."

Gao Jinda naturally knew that there were not many Han people in Shanzhou, so he decided to settle the more than 10,000 new people in Shanzhou.

Liu Jilong naturally agreed to this: "Just follow what Gao Changshi said."

As soon as he finished speaking, Liu Jilong stood up and said, "There are still many things to do at the university. Please keep busy. I will leave first."

"Marshal Jie, please go slowly..."

The two men bowed and when they stood up, they saw Liu Jilong had already walked out of the main hall.

Looking at Liu Jilong's back, Gao Jinda frowned and said, "There are no other teachers in this university. There are only the general and the 52 students. Even the books are printed secretly. I really don't know what they are teaching."

"The commander has his own ideas. Let's just focus on the summer harvest." Cui Shu said and walked out, and so did Gao Jinda.

As they left, nearly a hundred light cavalry also rushed to various states, preparing to inform them of the troop mobilization in advance.

That afternoon, Zhang Chang, who was inspecting land reclamation matters with Li Shangyin in Changle County, Linzhou, received a transfer order.

He took a quick look at it, then put it away and looked at the dozen or so light cavalrymen who came to deliver the message:
"I will go back in half a month. You can report this matter to Marshal Jie."

"Yes!" More than a dozen light cavalrymen bowed in response, then jumped on their horses, turned their horses' heads and returned to Didao.

At the same time, Zhang Chang turned around and looked not far away.

In front of him were nearly 10,000 Changle people who were engaged in spring ploughing, and more than 3,000 new Changle people who had been resettled less than three months ago and were reclaiming wasteland.

Li Shangyin, who was only considered a talented writer by the world, was now wearing a casual suit made of coarse linen. Surrounded by the magistrate, the county magistrate, the chief clerk and others of Changle County, he was learning about several main laws of Longyou.

"Li Biejia, the laws of Longyou are divided into eight main contents."

"Article 1: The land cultivated by the county government and the people is public land, and the land cultivated by the people is private land."

"After the public land is reclaimed, it will belong to the Protectorate, and the Protectorate will distribute it after the reclamation is completed."

"During the period of reclamation of the public land, the Protectorate was responsible for the food rations of the people, with a monthly ration of five dou for the elderly and four dou for the young."

"Private land reclamation needs to be reported to the county government and registered before it can be reclaimed. All taxes are exempted during the three-year reclamation period. After the three-year reclamation period, taxes will be collected according to the land tax, and it can be bought and sold normally."

"Article 2: Public land is distributed according to the registered population. The sale of public land is prohibited, but leasing is allowed. The land tax is paid by the owner of the public land."

"Article 3: The amount of public land to be distributed shall be based on population, and shall be distributed equally between men, women, old and young."

"Article 4: The regional standard for land distribution is to be distributed in units of 'county groups'."

"The county government and the militia organized the reclamation and then began to distribute the land. First, the land problem of the common people under the militia system was solved, and then the land distribution problem of the new officials in the county government was solved."

"Article 5: The forests belong to the Protectorate, but the Protectorate needs to designate some of the forests as firewood mountains, which are then shared by the people. The firewood mountains need to be replaced every year to prevent the forests from being destroyed."

"Article 20: The land tax is %, which is % tax and % tax."

"In case of natural disasters or other special circumstances, the militia and the county government need to jointly submit a petition to the Protectorate, which will send officials to verify the facts. If the facts are true, the land tax for the same year will be exempted."

"Article 8: Officers, soldiers, officials and craftsmen are allocated land as usual, and additional official land is allocated. The official land is allocated in accordance with the "Longyou Official Land Law."

After the Changle County Magistrate finished speaking, the county magistrate next to him added: "These eight articles are mainly aimed at the laws on land distribution, taxation, and reclamation."

Faced with the two people's explanations, Li Shangyin's brows were furrowed and never relaxed.

"Are there any detailed provisions in the law regarding the leasing of public land?"

Li Shangyin questioned the three people, and the Magistrate of Changle County explained: "The lease is for an official term, the shortest is three years and the longest is ten years."

“In addition, the Protectorate has the right to redistribute public land twice or even multiple times.”

Hearing this, Li Shangyin frowned even deeper.

He could understand that Liu Jilong made these laws in order to avoid land annexation, but in his opinion, Liu Jilong's laws were completely in opposition to the aristocratic families, the powerful, and the common people.

The reason why the noble families and common people are powerful, besides doing business and serving as officials, the most important thing is to annex land.

The buying and selling of public land is not allowed, which cuts off their roots. The amount of private land is not enough to satisfy their appetite.

Although public land could be rented, the Protectorate could redistribute the public land, which undoubtedly made the powerful families even more unbearable.

If they just renewed the official lease regularly, they could still annex the land through leasing, but they would have to pay rent to the people over a long period of time.

After all, it is not up to them to decide how much the rent is.

But if public land can be redistributed, then they have worked so hard to annex the land, but it will be redistributed by the Protectorate in the blink of an eye, which means they have worked in vain.

With Liu Jilong's method, coupled with his personal prestige and charm in the Longyou area.

This set of laws will not cause any problems in Longyou and Hexi because the powerful people in these places have too weak foundations.

But if he entered the areas outside Longyou, Liu Jilian would undoubtedly become the public enemy of the aristocratic families and the common people.

As for the people, what does their support mean?
If Liu Jilian wanted to govern the world, he had to rely on the powerful families and common people.

Thinking of this, Li Shangyin fell into deep thought, and he didn't even notice Zhang Chang's arrival.

"Li Biejia, how do you understand?"

It was not until Zhang Chang spoke that Li Shangyin came back to his senses. He bowed and said, "I want to see the complete set of laws in Longyou Law. Where can I find it?"

"Here is fine." The Magistrate of Changle County bowed and said:

"The Marshal has set up libraries in every county. Books in the libraries can be borrowed and browsed. From laws to various books in Longyou, the libraries have them all."

"Library?" Li Shangyin was stunned until the county magistrate explained the function of the library to him. Then he reacted and nodded.

Zhang Chang had never been exposed to the real Tang Dynasty, and he did not know the impact of the land law in Longyou on Li Shangyin.

In addition, he also needed to rush back to Didao to prepare for military operations, so he said to Li Shangyin:

"Brother Yishan, I only have half a month to help you organize the reclamation, land distribution and autumn harvest in Changle County. After half a month, I have to go back to Didao to prepare for the military."

"Military affairs? Are we going to fight a war?" Li Shangyin asked doubtfully, and Zhang Chang nodded:
"Marshal Jie plans to retake Shanzhou first, and then look for an opportunity to retake Kuzhou."

"Okay." Li Shangyin originally wanted to discuss the issue of "Longyou Law·Land Law" with Liu Jilian, but when he heard that there was going to be a war, he calmed down.

After all, this set of laws is implemented very well in Longyou. The main reason is that I still need to study it carefully.

If I rush to Liu Jilong without fully understanding the situation, I will inevitably expose my ignorance during the discussion.

"Without investigation, there is no right to speak; investigation is to solve the problem."

This was one of the few sentences he learned in Longyou, and it was also one of the sentences Liu Jilong ordered people to write in the government offices of various states and counties.

Each state and county government had a blackboard newspaper, the content of which mainly reported the financial and expenditure situation within the Protectorate, state and county governments, as well as major and minor events that had occurred.

"Without investigation, there is no right to speak; investigation is to solve the problem."

“Civil investigation is about understanding the problem and getting the right solution to the problem.”

Li Shangyin remembered this slogan very clearly, and he also remembered other slogans vividly.

He asked many people in the yamen, and they all said that it was written by Liu Jilong.

So he went to ask Liu Jilong again, but Liu Jilong said that it was written by someone else.

He asked Liu Jilong who wrote it, but Liu Jilong just smiled and didn't tell him who wrote it, so afterwards he also thought it was written by Liu Jilong.

(End of this chapter)