Guiyi Fei Tang

Chapter 226: Things Are Difficult
"Sorry..."

"Congratulations to Marshal Jie on his triumphant return!"

On July 24, as Liu Jilian led his army to Baohan County, Hezhou, Ma Cheng specially greeted Liu Jilian and his troops at the city gate and congratulated them on their triumphant return from a distance.

Liu Jilong did not dismount, but smiled and urged: "It's hot, get on the horse early and invite me to your state government office to sit for a while."

"Yes!" Ma Cheng responded with a smile, then jumped on his horse and led the way for Liu Jilong and the others to return to the provincial government.

The team walked into the city, and on both sides of the streets were teams welcoming the triumphant army.

"Long live Longyou! Long live Longyou!"

"Long live..."

There was constant cheering, and many women, when they saw a man they liked, threw fruits, wild flowers and other things to celebrate.

After a few years, most of the people in Baohan County have gotten over their past experiences of slavery.

They were full of life, wearing neat linen clothes, with their hair combed neatly. Their faces were not rosy, but at least they were healthy.

All this stems from the fact that Liu Jilong liberated them and formulated excellent policies.

There were also many people from Shannan, Jiannan and other places who were relocated to Hezhou. Although there was a language barrier, as the students learned Mandarin, the two sides were able to communicate gradually.

Although the people in Longyou today still speak Tibetan as their first language, Mandarin is also expanding at a very fast pace.

To serve as an official in Longyou, one must at least understand Tibetan and Mandarin, and be able to read Tibetan characters and regular script.

Among them, regular script is divided into traditional and simplified characters. After all, for literacy, simplified characters are more in line with literacy requirements, while traditional characters are a bit too complicated.

Because of this, being an official or a general in Longyou is not an easy thing.

Soon, Liu Jilong brought his people to the Hezhou government office and took the main seat.

Ma Cheng sat in the first seat on the left, Li Ji sat in the first seat on the right, and below them were Chen Ying, Cao Mao and others.

Liu Jilong looked at Ma Cheng. Although he still had a head full of black hair, his face looked more weathered.

Once in the third group, Ma Cheng was the oldest one.

When Liu Jilong was seventeen, Ma Cheng was already forty years old.

He is now twenty-three years old and Ma Cheng is forty-six years old.

In another four years, Ma Cheng would be over fifty years old, so Liu Jilong could not help but ask, "Why are those children at home gone?"

"Three children are studying, and the remaining five are being taken care of in the inner courtyard." Ma Cheng said with a smile.

He had eight children, five boys and three girls, but two of them were born after he married Liu Jilong.

The three boys who were studying were 20, 17 and 14 years old respectively. Dalang was studying at the university in Linzhou, while Erlang and Sanlang were studying at the school in Hezhou.

Liu Jilong knew that Ma Cheng's eldest son, Ma Yi, was studying at a university in Linzhou, so he couldn't help but praise him:
"Dalang has done well in Didao. After graduation, he will be able to take up an important position in the army."

"Calculating the time, in another year, your Erlang and Sanlang will also graduate. Are you planning to go to Linzhou University, or do you have other plans?"

Ma Cheng smiled and said, "I don't understand what Dalang is learning, so I won't interfere."

"He told Jiro and Saburo that he wanted them to go to Linzhou University to study, but Jiro wanted to be the Zhibai and start with Zhibai."

"Sanlang is going to join the army, but he is too young. I still hope he can go to Linzhou University to study."

Due to confidentiality regulations, Ma Yi did not tell his family what he learned in college, but he also secretly invited his two younger brothers to go to college.

However, because he did not explain it clearly, his two younger brothers did not intend to proceed in the direction he recommended, but had their own plans.

The people in Longyou can be promoted little by little and become officials of high rank after passing the annual performance evaluation.

Soldiers can also accumulate military merits to achieve promotion.

In response to Liu Jilong's inquiries, Ma Cheng showed a non-interference attitude.

Liu Jilong was silent for a moment, then said: "Longyou values fairness. As long as you have real talent and knowledge, you can achieve your ambitions no matter which path you take."

He implicitly reminded Ma Cheng not to open the back door, and Ma Cheng also expressed his affirmation.

"That's natural. I still remember what you said, Marshal Jie, 'A general without strategy can bring failure to the army.' I agree with you."

"If you don't have that ability, you might as well be a minor official and do what you can."

Ma Cheng said this, and Liu Jilong also said: "Li Ji will be stationed in Hezhou in the next few days, waiting for Shang Bibi's reply, and then send troops to encircle and suppress Lun Kongre on a certain day."

"I still have to count on you to take good care of the logistics of these elite cavalrymen, and make sure nothing goes wrong."

"Don't worry, General Jie!" Ma Cheng assured, and asked:

"Wasn't it Marshal Jie himself who led the troops to wipe out the terror?"

In response, Liu Jilong shook his head and said, "Discussion on heat phobia is no longer what it used to be."

"He has no more than a thousand soldiers now. If Li Ji and Shang Bibi join forces, they will be enough to wipe him out."

Looking back now, opponents like Lun Kongre, who once brought tremendous pressure to Liu Jilong, are nothing more than that.

He cannot fight on the front line forever, so he has to leave opportunities for the generals below and let them grow slowly.

Because of this, starting from the recovery of Longnan, he deliberately let the generals take charge, and he usually supervised the army as a bystander.

If a situation arises that the generals below cannot handle, it will not be too late for him to step in and deal with it.

Thinking of this, Liu Jilong looked at Li Ji: "Li Ji, are you confident?"

"Don't worry, Marshal Jie, I will take Lun Kongre's head and present it to you!"

Li Ji bowed in a deep voice, his face showing no sign of confidence or guilt, only calmness.

Liu Jilong nodded when he heard this, and looked at Chen Ying and Cao Mao: "You two follow Li Ji to encircle and suppress Lun Kongre, and I will lead fifty cavalry back to Didao tomorrow."

Liu Jilong was still very relieved about Li Ji.

He was a little irritable in front of himself because he couldn't stand others insulting him.

If he is allowed to take charge on his own, his scheming and tactics will be exposed, and he will definitely not end up well.

Thinking of this, Liu Jilong gave a few brief instructions and went to Yin Hotel to rest.

The next day, he returned to Didao with fifty elite cavalrymen, and three days later he returned to the Didao Protectorate.

As expected, there were indeed many things piling up in the Protectorate waiting for him to deal with.

"Yang Fugong from Jiannan Road wanted to sell us a batch of imported horses, but Yu Conghui and Wang Tao have already seen that these imported horses are all starving people from Jiannan Road who were hit by disasters. They are all old, weak, women and children, with no young and strong adults."

"Women and children are fine, they can also enrich the population of Longyou, but the elderly and the weak..."

At the ceremonial gate of the Protectorate, Gao Jinda spoke as he followed Liu Jilian towards the main hall.

As soon as he finished speaking, Liu Jilong also walked into the main hall and sat down in the main seat.

"If the old and weak have a skill, they can also be brought to Longyou."

Liu Jilong exhaled a breath of foul air, responded and continued:
"Except for Yang Fugong, is there no one else selling horses in Jiannan Road?"

Facing his question, Gao Jinda quickly said: "Of course there is."

"In the past half month, more than 700 people have moved in from Jinzhou, Wenzhou, Fuzhou and other places. They were all trafficked by officials from those prefectures and counties."

At this point, Gao Jinda couldn't help but shook his head and said:
"Bai Minzhong used to be a prime minister and pacified the Tanguts. But he actually thought that he could control the county officials with a few documents."

"He wants to control the horse-importing trade, but the county officials won't agree."

Gao Jinda seemed to be lamenting that Bai Minzhong was too naive, but Liu Jilong said:

"He naturally knew that it was impossible to curb the officials below him, and his move was just for show to the court."

While Liu Jilong was speaking, Cui Shu came forward and made him a pot of tea. He knocked his fingers to express his gratitude, picked up the teacup and took a sip.

"Besides this matter of Jiannan Dao, is there anything else?"

"Yes." Gao Jinda nodded in response, and then continued:

"Zhang Zhifang put down the rebellion of the barbarians in Huizhou, but afterwards he led the Tianxiong Army and the Huining Army to massacre most of the rebellious barbarians, causing the population of Huizhou to decline."

"There's news from Minister Feng. It's estimated that there will be no oral-horse trade in the next two months."

"Also, there is news from the court that the imperial court is planning to transfer the minister to Beijing to serve as an official."

Among the several pieces of news, except for Zhang Zhifang's massacre of Huizhou, which did not surprise Liu Jilong, the other two pieces of news were beyond his expectations.

Fortunately, with the help of Feng Bangyan and Yang Zhiwen, he had already used the proceeds from the horse-trade to infiltrate officials from various prefectures and counties in Shannan West Road.

Even though the imperial court replaced the governor of Shannan West Road, it was unable to stop officials from various prefectures and counties from continuing to trade with Longyou.

Unless the imperial court has the courage to replace all officials in one go, the horse trade between Shannan West Road and Longyou will never stop.

"Apart from these, is there anything else?" Liu Jilong looked a little tired. Gao Jinda and Cui Shu looked at each other and shook their heads.

Seeing this, Liu Jilong stood up and said, "If there is anything, leave it for tomorrow. I'm going to rest first."

"Marshal Jie, please go slowly..."

The two men bowed to each other, and Liu Jilong returned to the inner courtyard, where he saw the emperor's concubines and servants welcoming him at the inner gate.

After a few pleasantries between the couple, Feng Hui took him to wash and change clothes, and went to have a good rest with him.

While Liu Jilian was resting, Tuoba Huaiguang's head was delivered to the Southern Court of Chang'an after a few days of rapid delivery.

Linghu Tao took a look at Tuoba Huaiguang's head, frowned and asked someone to close it, then began to read Liu Jilong's memorial.

The content is nothing more than relying on the prestige of the Supreme Being and the imperial court, and describing how hard the battle was and how many casualties there were, in order to recapture Shanzhou and behead the foreign general Tuoba Huaiguang in the suburbs.

"They took Shanzhou in half a month, but they said they had more than 3,000 casualties?"

Linghu Tao's face did not look good. He felt that Liu Jilong was treating the officials from the three provinces and six ministries as fools.

However, even though he knew that Liu Jilian was fooling people, he chose not to expose him. After all, the court did not need to pay pensions to those soldiers who died in the battle.

The only problem was that Liu Jilian recaptured Shanzhou, and such a feat would certainly entail rewards.

The amount of this reward is too much, the Supreme will be unhappy.

If the reward is too little, the Supreme will be unhappy.

Thinking of this, Linghu Tao felt a little headache and couldn't help missing Pei Xiu who had been dismissed.

At least when Pei Xiu was around, he would discuss these financial and food matters with the Supreme, instead of having to do it himself.

"What is Lu Xiang doing recently?"

Linghu Tao thought of Lu Jun and couldn't help but ask the officials beside him.

But in the face of his question, the official hesitated, and finally saw Linghu Tao frowning, and then he said: "Lu Xiangcheng is sick and recuperating for many days..."

"But according to rumors, Prime Minister Lu does not seem to be ill, but often goes to the villa in the south of the city with relatives and friends..."

"..." Upon hearing the official's words, Linghu Tao's face turned ugly.

He is working so hard here, but Lu Jun still has the mind to go to the villa outside the city for fun?
He naturally knew that Lu Jun was dissatisfied with not being able to obtain the position of 'Tongzhongshumenxia Pingzhangshi', but he couldn't claim to be sick just because he was dissatisfied and throw the affairs of the three ministries onto his own shoulders, right?

Linghu Tao was full of resentment, but he had to deal with the matter of Liu Jilong's recovery of Shanzhou.

With no other choice, he could only get up and go to the Zichen Hall of the Daming Palace.

An hour later, he was summoned while standing outside the Zichen Palace.

When he walked into the side hall of the Purple Palace, Emperor Li Chen was in high spirits because of the long-term medicine he had just taken.

Seeing Linghu Tao, Li Chen's ruddy face showed a smile: "Zizhi is here?"

He called Linghu Tao by his courtesy name, an unstable behavior that he would not normally do.

In this regard, Linghu Tao had to take a look at the "longevity medicine" on the table.

Although he didn't know whether the "longevity medicine" was effective, he knew that the emperor's attitude was abnormal.

Thinking of this, he just wanted to quickly resolve the issue in Longyou and then return to Nan Ya.

"Your Majesty, I, Linghu Tao, wish you a long life!"

"Please stand up and take a seat!"

Linghu Tao bowed respectfully, and Li Chen generously gestured for him to stand up and gave him a seat.

"Thank you, Your Majesty!"

Linghu Tao sat on the crescent-shaped stool and handed Liu Jilian's memorial to the eunuch, who then presented it to Li Chen.

Li Chen took the memorial and read it, then laughed and said, "Liu Jilong actually lost 3,000 soldiers and generals in order to recapture Shanzhou. This is really worth celebrating!"

"..." Hearing his words, Linghu Tao's heart tightened, and he became more certain that the 'longevity medicine' was not normal.

He opened his mouth, intending to remind the emperor, but in the end he closed it for fear of displeasing the emperor.

When the words came to his lips, they turned into: "Your Majesty, Liu Jilong's move is nothing more than showing off his merits in order to seek rewards from the court."

"I think the court can just ignore it, or just allocate some money and food to brush it off."

Linghu Tao expressed his thoughts and also mentioned the matter of appointing Zheng Lang as prime minister.

"Your Majesty, Minister of Works Zheng Lang resigns due to illness and begs to retire and return home..."

With these two things in front of him, Li Chen was not as unhappy as usual, but said excitedly:
"Liu Jilong was awarded 30,000 rolls of silk, 20 pieces of gold, silver and jade, and 20 pieces of brocade."

"As for Zheng Lang, since he is ill, we will allow him to resign and return to Chang'an to recuperate as the Prince's Junior Tutor."

Li Chen simply set the tone for the two things, and Linghu Tao breathed a sigh of relief when he heard it.

He didn't expect the emperor to be so easy to talk to today, but he also realized the harm of "long-term medicine".

"Since Zheng Lang is ill, let's appoint Cui Shenyou, the assistant minister of the Ministry of Revenue and the judge of the Ministry of Revenue, as the minister of the Ministry of Works and the co-prime minister!"

Although Li Chen felt a little overexcited after taking the medicine, his mind was still clear.

He had already learned about Lu Jun from the eunuchs of the Northern Division. Since Lu Jun didn't work, it was natural to find someone who could work.

Otherwise, it would be difficult for Linghu Tao alone to support such a huge system as the Southern Court.

"Your Majesty the Holy Ming..."

Linghu Tao breathed a sigh of relief when he heard this. He was indeed very tired these days.

"If you have nothing else to do, please leave for now."

Li Chen seemed to calm down a little. Linghu Tao bowed respectfully and then left the Purple Palace.

However, he did not leave the Daming Palace. Instead, he asked someone to inquire about the information of the Imperial Medical Bureau, wanting to know how often the emperor took the "long-term medicine".

It wasn't long before he got the information he wanted.

In recent days, the emperor has been taking "longevity medicine" more and more frequently, which makes Linghu Tao think of those emperors who died because of taking elixirs.

Although the long-term medicine was a decoction, Linghu Tao always felt something was wrong.

But his reason told him that if he continued to investigate like this, it would only be harmful to himself.

After thinking it over and over again, Linghu Tao still didn't dare to take care of this matter.

Half an hour later, he returned to the Southern Court to handle government affairs, but just as he sat down, he learned something extraordinary.

"You said that the governor of Qixi, Zhang Yichao, wants to be invited to Beijing to serve as an official?"

Linghu Tao frowned, his tone questioning.

The Minister of Personnel standing in front of him nodded quickly and stepped forward to hand over the petition: "This is the petition, please take a look."

Linghu Tao took the application and opened it, only to find that Zhang Yichao had actually applied to come to Beijing to serve as an official.

"Do you think... this application should be..."

The Minister of Personnel spoke cautiously, but was interrupted by Linghu Tao before he could finish:
"Although Zhang Yichao led the righteous army to recapture Hexi, he had been to Lhasa in his early years and had unclear connections with many foreign peoples. We cannot judge him by common sense."

"I'm afraid he did this because he was dissatisfied with the court's reassignment of his position and the division of Hexi."

"Then..." The Minister of Personnel asked tentatively: "Does it need to be rejected?"

"Of course!" Linghu Tao agreed without hesitation.

Although in recent years, there have been frequent military governors who were expelled and fled to Chang'an to seek refuge with the court, Zhang Yichao has a very high prestige in Hexi. Since there are no soldiers to drive him away, why should he seek refuge with the court?
Linghu Tao wanted to reject Zhang Yichao's request directly, but after thinking about it, he said, "Forget it, let him stay for the time being."

"Yes..." The Minister of Personnel breathed a sigh of relief, then took the petition from Linghu Tao and slowly left the main hall.

Shortly after he left, Linghu Tao dealt with the matter of Liu Jilong's recovery of Shanzhou.

In accordance with the emperor's oral instructions, he ordered the Secretariat to draft the imperial edict and submit it to the Ministry of Palace Affairs for review. After confirmation, the six ministries under the Ministry of State Affairs would execute and issue it.

In this way, the more difficult issues he had on hand were resolved.

Logically speaking, he could also breathe a sigh of relief and go back to have a good rest.

But when he thought of the bowls of longevity medicine in the Zichen Hall and the emperor's condition after taking the longevity medicine, he couldn't help but become worried.

If the emperor really died from taking long-term drugs, how should I deal with it?
Thinking of this, Linghu Tao couldn't help feeling tired, and couldn't help but think of his good friend who was summoned to Longyou by Liu Jilian... Li Shangyin.

Even though the two broke up due to their different political views, he still missed the old days from time to time.

"Li Yishan, I really don't know what you can do in Longyou..."

(End of this chapter)