Guiyi Fei Tang

Chapter 229 Prosperity
"Haha, Marshal Jie is now also a county lord!"

"What is this? Look at this..."

"The court didn't give the Jiedushi the official seal, but in the end they gave him the title of Grand Protector of the Jieshuai Duhufu."

"These silks, brocades, gold, silver and jade items must be worth nearly two hundred thousand strings of cash, right?"

"It depends on where it is sold. If it is sold to the inner pass, it will definitely be worth two hundred thousand strings of cash!"

In early September, in the main hall of Longyou Protectorate, Gao Jinda and others looked at the imperial edict sent from Weizhou, and everyone had a smile on their face.

Liu Jilian, who was sitting in the main seat, also smiled, but not because of his promotion, but because he had made a lot of money from the court.

Although these silks and brocades were nothing to the Tang Dynasty, they were enough for Liu Jilian to do many things.

"Well, wait until the first month of the year when the linen is woven, and sell it to the interior of the country along with this batch of silk. The other brocades, brocades, gold, silver and jade articles can be left behind."

Liu Jilong spoke to everyone, then looked at Gao Jinda and said, "Ah Weng from Shannan sent me a letter. It seems that after this year, he will go to the court to serve as an official."

"My brother has been appointed as the governor of Yangzhou, and Yang Canjun has also been appointed as a Hanlin scholar. The next one should be my father-in-law."

"After they are transferred, our import-horse trade will inevitably be hindered. You need to take care of the affairs of the provincial governors and county magistrates."

"These brocades, colored brocades, and gold, silver, and jade articles are now in your hands."

"In addition, half of the money earned from the Guannei Road trade was used to trade for grain with Yang Fugong in Jiannan Road. Based on the grain prices in Jiannan Road, more than 100,000 strings of cash could buy more than 300,000 dan of grain."

After the Tang court successfully split Hexi, it was natural for it to take action against Longyou.

However, the consequences of taking direct action are too great. Therefore, in order to weaken Liu Jilong, it is necessary to first eliminate the factors around him that are beneficial to him.

Feng Ao, Feng Bangyan and Yang Zhiwen of Shannan West Road were the targets of the imperial court.

However, Longyou has been operating in Shannan West Road for so long that it cannot be eliminated by simply replacing the Jiedushi.

Therefore, facing Liu Jilong's arrangement, Gao Jinda bowed respectfully, and then said:
"The governors and county magistrates of each state and county all knew that Minister Feng would be transferred back to the capital, and they all wanted to do some horse trade before Minister Feng left."

"There are several batches of horses entering Longyou from Lizhou and Xingzhou, totaling about 12,000 people."

"I plan to relocate these people to Shanzhou first according to the rules we have set before."

"If officials from other states and counties see that there are other officials from other states and counties trading with us, they will certainly be tempted and rush to make deals."

"The rest of the population will move to Guzhou after the spring."

Gao Jinda had already figured out how to continue the horse-import trade, and his suggestion made Liu Jilong nod in approval.

Seeing Liu Jilong nod, Gao Jinda continued, "Over at Jiannan Road, since we sent back the old and weak last time, Bai Minzhong and Yang Fugong have retreated a bit. The two batches of horses traded this month are basically young and strong, with a number of more than 1,500 people."

"He's also a bully." Liu Jilong chuckled.

Bai Minzhong and Yang Fugong always controlled the population moving into Longyou. Since the two sides began trade, the number of people moving in from Jiannan Road was just over 10,000.

In comparison, the population moving into Shannan West Province has exceeded 40,000.

Although the interests of officials from various states and counties are already tied to Longyou, after Feng Ao left, officials from various states and counties would certainly not dare to sell imported horses as blatantly as they do now.

The volume of horse trade in Shannan West Road will undoubtedly decrease, and the volume in Jiannan Road is small due to the obstruction of Bai Minzhong.

It can be predicted that in the next few years, the population migration rate in Longyou will not be too fast or too large.

Thinking of this, Gao Jinda and Cui Shu both looked unhappy, but Liu Jilong had a good idea and was not in a hurry.

"You still have to pay more attention to the autumn harvest. If you have any difficulties and need my help, please let me know."

Liu Jilong tried to comfort everyone. Seeing this, Gao Jinda and others bowed in response and then left the main hall.

Seeing them leave, Liu Jilong also returned to the inner courtyard and saw the seal that was woven for him.

"Just let the people below take care of the clothes. You don't have to do it yourself."

Liu Jilong approached and spoke, but Feng Hui said calmly: "Everyone knows that you are frugal. Although I can't compare with you, it's not a problem for me to weave some clothes."

If people were to let the daughter of a noble family weave cloth for themselves, they would probably be shocked.

Liu Jilong sat next to Feng Hui and also started weaving.

He once wanted to improve the loom, but he had never seen a loom before, so he naturally did not succeed.

Although he failed to improve the fabric, he did learn some weaving skills, and the cloth he wove was better than the one woven by Feng Hui.

"What else can't you do, sir?"

Feng Hui asked with a smile on her face, but Liu Jilong smiled bitterly and shook his head: "There are too many things I don't know how to do."

Seeing him like this, Feng Hui put away his smile and asked carefully, "My dear, are you worried because your father-in-law is going to be transferred to the capital?"

"Well... a little bit." Liu Jilong nodded in acknowledgement, and then continued:

"In Jiannan Road, although Bai Minzhong and Yang Fugong are engaged in the trade of horses and people with us, they are always blocking it and not allowing too many people to flow in."

"Let Bai Minzhong continue to serve as the governor of Xichuan. If a new governor of Shannan West Road comes who we are not familiar with, the days in Longyou may not be as good as when Aweng was here."

As Liu Jilong explained, Feng Hui frowned slightly and said after a moment: "I do have a plan, but I don't know whether I should tell you."

"Just tell me." Liu Jilian was very curious about what plan Feng Hui would come up with.

Seeing that he agreed, Feng Hui also said: “Although Bai Minzhong is an important member of the Niu Party, it is not that no one dares to offend him.”

"I know a person. If you dare to tell this person about the horse-trading between Longyou and Jiannan Road, this person will definitely find a way to report it to the Supreme."

“By then, even if the Supreme does not believe it, he will have to transfer Bai Minzhong to another place.”

"But if this matter is exposed, the Supreme will inevitably send people to investigate. If they find out that there is a horse-trade between Longyou and Shannan West Road, it will be bad."

Feng Hui's words made Liu Jilong think deeply. After a while, Liu Jilong said, "We can stop the trade with Shannan West Road and wait for Bai Minzhong to be transferred before continuing the trade."

"Don't worry, my dear. You can tell me the name of this person."

Liu Jilong really wanted to know who could impeach Bai Minzhong without any scruples.

Facing his urgency, Feng Hui also smiled and told the story: "When the Supreme was recruiting a consort for Princess Wanshou, Bai Minzhong saw a handsome man in the Hongwen Hall and recommended him to the Supreme."

"Although this man is only the Right Picker of the Hongwen Academy, he is also the top scholar and comes from a family with five surnames. In addition, he is handsome, so he is valued by the Supreme and chosen as a son-in-law."

"However, this person is the top scholar and is from a family with five famous names, so it is natural that he already has an engagement."

"When Bai Minzhong recommended this man, he had already gone to Chuzhou to marry the lady of the Lu family, who was also from the Five Clan."

"The emperor went to Zhengzhou to retrieve the letter of honor sent by Bai Minzhong."

"This man dares not disobey the Supreme, so he can only marry the princess reluctantly."

"Although they were living in harmony after marriage, he still missed the wife of the Lu family, so he hated Bai Minzhong deeply and often reported Bai Minzhong to the Supreme. However, because his accusations were mostly groundless, the Supreme did not believe him."

"If you give the evidence to this person, he will definitely be delighted and will definitely not let Bai Minzhong continue to serve as the governor of Xichuan."

Feng Hui told the story in detail, and Liu Jilong was stunned.

Five famous families, the top scholar...

These two backgrounds were enough for this man to rise rapidly in the officialdom and become prime minister in the future. However, he was chosen as a royal consort and his marriage with Lu, a woman from the Five Surnames, was cut off.

Although the Five Surnames and Seven Aristocrats suffered severe blows during the reigns of Emperor Gaozong and Empress Wu, they gradually gained power again after the An-Shi Rebellion. Therefore, marrying a woman from the Five Surnames was still the wish of most men of this era.

Since this man was a man from one of the five surnames, and Lu was also a woman from the same five surnames, it should have been a good match. However, it was disrupted by Bai Minzhong and intercepted by Princess Wanshou.

He could have married a girl from one of the five surnames, but who knew that he would end up with a living Buddha instead.

With the previous cases of Princess Xincheng and Wei Zhengju, for these young men from prominent families, marrying a princess was no different from cutting off their livelihood.

For a moment, Liu Jilong even felt a little sympathy for this man.

"Who is this person?"

"Zheng Hao and Zheng Fengzheng, the southern ancestors of the Fanyang Lu family."

As he opened his mouth to ask, Feng Hui honestly told him the man's name.

Liu Jilong sighed after hearing this: "If I were him, I would probably fight to the death with Bai Minzhong."

"Haha..." Feng Hui also laughed secretly: "Because of this, he will definitely kill Bai Minzhong and will not be bribed." "That's right." Liu Jilong nodded, then stood up and said:

"I will go find Gao Jinda right now and ask him to send someone to give Zheng Hao the information about Bai Minzhong's trafficking of imported horses."

"Well, my dear, take your time." Feng Hui nodded with a smile. Seeing this, Liu Jilong reached out and pinched her face, making her cheeks blush, before leaving.

When he arrived at the main hall, he soon told Gao Jinda about Feng Hui's suggestion.

Gao Jinda's eyes lit up after hearing this: "If that's the case, then I will inform the officials of the Western Provinces to suspend the import-export horse trade."

"No rush." Liu Jilong comforted him, "First settle the more than 10,000 people on the road, and then keep quiet for another two months."

"Yes!" Gao Jinda left after hearing this and hurried to take care of the matter.

In the next month, Gao Jinda was busy with the autumn harvest while also informing officials from various prefectures and counties in Shannan West Road to ensure that everything went smoothly.

By mid-October, as grain from various counties in Longyou was stored in warehouses, all the maps and books of various counties, including Shanzhou, were handed over to Liu Jilong.

At the regular meeting at the end of October, Liu Jilong also met Li Shangyin, whom he had not seen for many days.

His skin was wheat-colored, making him look less sickly and more healthy.

"Yishan is much healthier now, and much more energetic than when he first came to Longyou."

"How is it? Is it hard to organize the development of public land and the summer and autumn harvests?"

As soon as they sat down, Liu Jilong called Li Shangyin from the crowd. Upon hearing this, Li Shangyin smiled and bowed, saying:
"After being busy for a few months and experiencing the hardships of the people, I feel that this little bit of busyness is nothing."

In the past, Li Shangyin served in other military governorates, mostly doing military and clerical work, which was boring.

This time when he came to Longyou, although he was thrown into Changle County and worked hard for several months, he could see that Zhang Chang and Liu Jilian were training themselves, so he was very busy.

However, despite being busy, he still felt that there were problems with the policies Liu Jilong implemented in Longyou, and he also saw that Liu Jilong still wanted to expand.

Because of this, he felt it necessary to tell Liu Jilong what problems his policy would encounter when expanding outward.

However, it was still a common discussion, and he naturally could not point out the shortcomings of the Longyou policy in front of so many people, so after exchanging a few words with Liu Jilong, he fell silent.

Liu Jilong chuckled a few times when seeing this, and then began to ask Gao Jinda and others to report on the autumn harvest and the progress of opening up public and private fields this year.

"There are 1,946,200 mu of cultivated land in the 12 states and 28 counties under the jurisdiction of Longyou, and more than 714,000 mu of two-year and one-year fertile land."

"This year, more than 374,000 mu of public land and more than 7,600 mu of private land have been opened up."

"This year's autumn harvest totaled more than 782,000 shi of grain. All of the grain from Shanzhou, Taozhou, Diezhou, and Songzhou has been returned to the warehouse. Except for Shanzhou, the three states will resume normal taxation next year."

"At present, the warehouses of various prefectures and counties have accumulated more than 947,000 dan of gold, silver, copper, silk, cloth, salt, tea and other miscellaneous items in the county treasury, which are worth about 670,000 guan."

"The Protectorate has 18,000 soldiers, 2,700 officials, and more than 264,200 civilians."

"In addition, there are more than 2,000 teachers and more than 23,000 students."

"After paying for military pay, salaries, and schooling, the warehouses had more than 322,000 dan of grain and about 500,000 guan of miscellaneous goods."

"The specific details of the expenditure will be written on the blackboard in the main hall later. If you have any objections, you can go and check it out."

After Gao Jinda finished his report, he continued, "All kinds of sundries will be sold to the interior of the country, Jiannan, Shannan and other roads after the spring."

"Half of the money earned was used to purchase food, and the other half was stored in the warehouse."

"Based on the grain prices in Jiannan Road, we should be able to fill up the Linzhou government warehouse."

After Gao Jinda finished speaking, no one commented, but turned their eyes to Liu Jilong.

Liu Jilong looked at everyone and said frankly: "This year, Shangshu Feng may be transferred, and Bai Minzhong in the south will also play some tricks, but these are not important."

"As long as we don't have any problems internally, these external problems will not interfere with us."

His words were a bit too optimistic, but in this kind of situation, he had to say something optimistic.

Therefore, after he finished speaking, everyone clapped their hands in agreement, and then Liu Jilong raised his hand to signal Li Shangyin.

"Li Beijia, tell me about the Imperial College."

Li Shangyin stood up and bowed to everyone before saying, "This year, the Imperial College has admitted 727 officials from abroad."

"Among these officials, 572 served in the Imperial Academy and served as teachers in primary schools in various prefectures and counties."

"This year, the number of students under the Imperial College is as high as 23,416, with a total of 2,437 instructors."

"Except for the 572 teachers from abroad, most of the remaining teachers have little knowledge. They can teach students to read and write, but they cannot teach them more advanced knowledge."

"After this year, there will be more than 6,000 15-year-old students graduating, and only 176 of them will be selected to attend Linzhou's university. Where will the rest go?"

"I think it would be better to gather the knowledgeable teachers together to continue teaching these more than 6,000 students."

"In just three years, these more than 6,000 students will at least be able to reach the level of the top six apprentices of the imperial court."

"By then, with more than 6,000 students teaching and learning, the speed of literacy will surely be faster than the current speed of literacy."

Longyou has introduced many foreign officials, but there are indeed not many who are capable.

Fortunately, compared with the straightforward people in Longyou, those who have no skills are also quite knowledgeable, so they can serve as teachers.

There are quite a few students in Longyou, and Li Shangyin has some vague guesses as to why Liu Jilian trained so many students.

Let’s not talk about anything else. If the more than 20,000 students currently studying were transformed into officials, they would be enough to govern millions of people.

As he gained a deeper understanding of the policies in Longyou, he gradually understood a corner of Liu Jilian's ambitions.

Although the three towns of Heshuo, Zibo, Qinghai, and Huaixi were strong in military strength, they were not as threatening to the imperial court as Longyou.

In the past, Li Deyu commented on the situation of the three towns in Hebei. He said, "Although Hebei is strong, it cannot stand on its own and needs to rely on the power and authority of the court to ensure military stability."

In comparison, Longyou is quite different.

In Li Shangyin's view, although the population of Longyou is small, the army and the people are self-reliant, so Liu Jilian has the ability to be self-reliant.

A few months ago, he might have thought that with Liu Jilian's small population and troops, the imperial court would have difficulty in encircling and suppressing him, but the results would be good.

Now it seems that if the imperial court attempts to encircle and suppress Longyou, then given the imperial court's situation, it might be dragged down by Longyou.

Of course, Longyou would also be destroyed by the imperial court, which could be described as a case of the fisherman gaining while the snipe and the clam fight.

Perhaps it was because of this that Liu Jilian was not as impulsive as other generals, but remained forbearing.

In Li Shangyin's view, Liu Jilian is young and strong, and as long as he can suppress his ambition, it is really hard to say what will happen in the future.

But the more he noticed it, the more uncomfortable he felt.

If the world is in chaos, Liu Jilian will probably lead his troops eastward, where he will be hard to find an opponent.

The day when the Tang Dynasty will collapse is not far away.

Although Li Shangyin resented the emperor for suppressing him, he had deep feelings for the Tang Dynasty, and he could hardly repay Liu Jilong for his kindness in employing him.

He was very conflicted during his time in Changle, but when he met Liu Jilong, all this conflict disappeared.

He was already forty-three years old, while Liu Jilong was only twenty-three.

By the time Liu Jilian's ambition became difficult to conceal, he would probably have already been buried in a foreign land. Why bother about what would happen after his death?

Because of this, the look in his eyes when he looked at Liu Jilong was filled with nothing but gratitude and admiration.

Compared to him, Liu Jilong was optimistically discussing the future of Longyou with everyone.

"Linzhou University needs to select students, but the universities in the other eleven states do not."

"The provincial governors should have built universities in various places last year. Then, according to the rules set before, the provincial government will provide money and food for these more than 6,000 students to support them until they graduate!"

Liu Jilong agreed with Li Shangyin's suggestion and at the same time increased investment in students.

Only by investing money and grain in them can Longyou achieve stability and development in future chaotic times and avoid a repeat of the Five Dynasties.

Liu Jilong felt that since he was here, he should at least eliminate some regrets.

After the fall of the Tang Dynasty, there should have been another dynasty whose civil and military achievements were as good as those of the Tang Dynasty, rather than the chaos of the Five Dynasties...

(End of this chapter)