Guiyi Fei Tang

Chapter 234: A Rat in the Warehouse
"Dog-footed Wang Qiu!!"

"Get out of Rongzhou! Get out of Rongzhou!"

In May of the eleventh year of the Dazhong period, because the military pay had not been paid for half a month, hundreds of soldiers from the Lingnan Rongzhou (Rong County, Guangxi) army, at the instigation of Du Yuhou Lai Zheng, expelled Rongguan Jinglüeshi Wang Qiu from the country.

When the news reached Chang'an, it was already June 27th. In order to quell the unrest as soon as possible, the prime ministers of the Southern Court, including Linghu Tao, Cui Shenyou, and Xiao Ye, decided to send the newly appointed Annan governor Song Ya as Rongguan governor to Rongzhou to quell the rebellion.

When Song Ya learned of the court's decree, he immediately followed the example of the Yellow Head Army of Zhongwu Town in Henan Province and ordered the soldiers to wear yellow hats during training. At the same time, he sent a military officer to Rongzhou to inquire about the attitude of the Rongzhou army.

Hundreds of Rongzhou soldiers supported Du Yuhou Lai Zheng as the governor and petitioned the court for him. Song Ya agreed on the surface, but in fact he intensified the training and prepared to send troops to quell the military rebellion in Rongzhou after the training was completed.

"Just as Song Ya said, we must suppress these rebels within a year!"

In mid-July, when Li Chen received the memorial from the governor Song Ya, he immediately agreed to Song Ya's request.

For him, the three towns in Hebei and the towns of Zibo and Qinghai have already caused him a lot of headaches, and Liu Jilian in Longyou has also been making small moves.

At a time like this, if the imperial court couldn't even suppress the small Rongzhou Army, who knows how much chaos would be caused.

Therefore, he took a rare tough attitude towards the rebellion caused by hundreds of soldiers in Rongzhou, just to maintain the appearance of a strong court.

However, after Song Ya was transferred to Rongguan, Annan's position became vacant, and this matter needed to be resolved urgently.

Because of this, Li Chen looked at the ministers in the hall.

"Song Ya was transferred to Rongguan, who can take charge of Annan?"

Facing the emperor's question, Linghu Tao and the others looked at each other, and after discussing, they bowed and said:

"Wang Shi, the governor of Jinzhou, can pacify Annan."

"Your Majesty..." Upon hearing this, the Privy Councilor Ma Gongru bowed and said:
"This Wang Shi seemed to have had a close relationship with Wang Shoucheng in his early years. This..."

As in the past, the ministers of the Southern Court recommended Wang Shi, the governor of Jinzhou, and Ma Gongru, one of the four nobles, told Wang Shi's past experiences just like Wang Zongshi did.

Although Li Chen felt uncomfortable, he thought about the unrest in Annan over the years and finally made up his mind: "Don't talk about the past anymore."

"Since Wang Shi has such talent, we will appoint Jinzhou Governor Wang Shi as the Protector General of Annan and concurrently the Chief Censor, and the Envoy of Annan in charge of the strategy, recruitment, and disposal."

"Your Majesty is wise..." Upon hearing that the person who recommended them had finally been chosen, Linghu Tao and the others finally breathed a sigh of relief.

It’s not that the court was without talented people, but many of them were involved with Li Deyu, Wang Shoucheng and others, and the emperor was most averse to mentioning these two people, which led to many talents not being able to be reused.

With Wang Shi's ability in pacifying the people in Jinzhou and resisting the Tatars, pacifying the people in Annan and resisting the Dongman should not be a problem.

The matter between Annan and Rongguan was settled, and Li Chen felt relieved. He then said:

"The Minister of the Left Feng Ao should be transferred to the capital. I want to appoint the Prince's Grand Tutor Lu Jun as the co-prime minister and the governor of Shannan West Road. What do you think?"

"Your Majesty the Holy Ming..."

Naturally, Li Chen could not hide what Liu Jilian and Feng Ao did in Shannan West Road.

Not only did he know that Liu Jilong was buying and selling people in Shannan West Road, he also knew that he was flirting with Liu Tong of Lingzhou Shuofang Army.

Thinking of this, he couldn't bear it any longer.

He can appease Liu Jilong, but the prerequisite is that Liu Jilong will no longer become stronger.

Liu Jilong's power has now grown much stronger than it was a few years ago. If his wings are not clipped, it will be difficult to deal with him in the future.

Feng Ao needs to be dealt with, and so does Liu Tong.

"Liu Tongshuofang, Lingwu, Dingyuan and other cities were dismissed as Jiedushi and replaced as Hunan Surveillance Commissioner. He was ordered to rush to the post."

"Tang Chi was appointed as the Left Imperial Guardsman, Chief of Lingzhou Military Governor's Office, Governor of Shuofang, and Transport Commissioner of Lingwu Six Cities, etc."

Li Chen spoke in a deep voice, and all the ministers knew that he was trying to cut off Liu Jilong's support, and they all bowed and praised his wisdom.

As a result, all the officials familiar to Liu Jilong were replaced.

Liu Tong was replaced by Tang Chi, Bai Minzhong was replaced by Wei Mo, and Feng Ao was replaced by Lu Jun.

Without these people flirting with him, Li Chen wanted to see how this guy could grow stronger.

Of course, these people are just appetizers, the real main course is Hexi.

"I heard that Anxi Deputy Protector Zhang Yichao had requested to come to the court several times. I heard that he was old, so I allowed him to come to the court, appointed him as the Right Divine Military Commander, granted him 3,500 acres of permanent farmland in Chang'an, and granted him the first district of the Xuanyangfang residence, and promoted him to the position of Minister of Education."

"Let Zhang Huaishen, the Hexi Defense Commissioner, concurrently serve as the Anxi Deputy Protector General, and recapture the four towns as soon as possible. At that time, he will be the governor of the four towns."

"Liangzhou Governor Suo Xun has made great contributions in defending against the invaders, and is now promoted to Hexi Surveillance Commissioner."

Li Chen's words frightened everyone. Zhang Yichao had begged to enter the court several times just to make the court trust the Zhang family. After all, Zhang Yichao's brother, Zhang Huaishen's father Zhang Yitan, was still in Chang'an.

As a result, although Zhang Yichao entered the court, Zhang Huaishen only got the title of Deputy Protector of Anxi, and did not even get the official title of Governor of Four Towns or Jiedushi of Qixi.

Not only that, the Liangzhou governor Suo Xun was promoted to the position of Observation Envoy. The positions of Observation Envoy and Defense Envoy should have been held by one person, but now they were divided into two people.

Suo Xun was on equal footing with Zhang Huaishen, while Yizhou, Ganzhou and Shazhou were controlled by Li Wei, Li Yizhong and Li En respectively.

Under the stalemate between the three parties, Hexi would never have enough strength to support Liu Jilian in Longyou.

After this, Liu Jilian was completely isolated in Longyou.

Thinking of this, everyone sighed, but also breathed a sigh of relief.

Continuing to allow Liu Jilian to develop would be like having a tiger lying beside the court's bed, making it difficult to sleep.

Fortunately, the two states of Qin and Long are in our hands, separated by the Long Mountains, like a tiger imprisoned in an iron cage.

No matter how ferocious the tiger is, if it cannot escape, the only option is death.

Everyone calmed down, and the imperial edict from Chang'an quickly spread to Guannei, Jiannan, Shannan and other places.

The Jinzouyuan in Longyou, which was stationed in Chang'an, quickly passed the news back to Didao.

The court's actions undoubtedly aroused the anger of the generals in Longyou.

At the end of July, the governors of the thirteen prefectures in Longyou successively requested to enter Linzhou to discuss matters, and Liu Jilian agreed.

When the thirteen people arrived in Linzhou, it was already the afternoon of August 7th.

"Bam—"

"Damn it, the corrupt government is clearly trying to isolate and trap us to death."

"If you ask me, we have to show the court our fists!"

"The richest place in Longyou is Qinzhou. I think we should take this opportunity to ask the court for Qinzhou. If the court refuses to give it to us..."

"Damn it, I have to endure the humiliation of these filthy bastards!"

"Let's just rebel. Let's see whether his Shen Ce Army is more powerful or our Longyou Army is more powerful!"

"Inverted!"

In the main hall of the Protectorate, Li Ji and others were cursing and swearing, and Li Ji, Huke Guang, Cuo Ben and others were even saying they wanted to use force.

The population of Longyou is insufficient, and it relies solely on the influx of people from Shannan West Road.

Now the chief officers of the three prefectures near Longyou have been replaced, and it is obvious that the court is targeting them.

If Longyou does nothing, wouldn't it be a laughing stock to the world?
Li Ji and his men were cursing, and Chen Jingchong, Gao Jinda, Cui Shu, Cao Mao, Li Shangyin and others also looked unhappy.

They know more information, so unless it comes to a matter of life and death, they would not say anything like becoming an enemy of the Tang Dynasty.

After all, Li Ji and his men had bad tempers, and Gao Jinda and his men did not think of dissuading them. They just waited for Liu Jilong to come forward and appease them.

Fortunately, Liu Jillong did not make them wait too long. Soon, Liu Jillong appeared in the main hall with two soldiers, and the originally noisy main hall came to an abrupt end.

"I've been walking here and the most noisy place is the main hall. Why isn't it noisy anymore?"

Liu Jilong frowned slightly and glanced at everyone.

"General Jie, this bastard court treats us like this, shouldn't we fight back?"

Huke Siguang could not stand the humiliation, so he bowed and saluted, and took the lead in attacking.

Seeing this, Cuo Ben also hurriedly followed suit and bowed: "General Jie, everything we have is given by you. As long as you open your mouth, we will immediately send troops to retake Qinzhou and occupy Longshan."

"That's right!" Li Ji also bowed to Liu Jilong and said:
"Although Gao Pian is powerful, we are not pushovers."

"Recapture Qinzhou, take Longshan, and rely on gunpowder and catapults. Even if the imperial court sends hundreds of thousands of Shen Ce troops to attack us, we have the confidence to stop them!"

"Jie Shuai..."

Li Ji, Hu Siguang, Cuoben and others were young and strong, and they could not stand being bullied, let alone seeing Liu Jilong being bullied.

In their view, if the imperial court does not allow them to develop better, then they will give the imperial court a beating. Once the imperial court realizes how powerful they are, it will naturally negotiate peace and withdraw its troops.

However, for Liu Jilong, now is not the time to turn against Tang Ting, even though he is still feeling angry.

The reason is simple: if the Tang court wants to continue to exist, it must be tough enough on certain bottom line issues.

Therefore, when facing some people who stand out, even if he cannot defeat them, Tang Ting will grit his teeth and kill them.

Facing a vassal state of Liu Jilian's size, peace talks and appeasement would not work. This would only make other vassal states look down on the imperial court. By then, war would break out and the current situation would no longer be able to be maintained.

Originally, Longyou was restrained by the Helong Tubo, but now even Lun Kongre was killed by Liu Jilian, so the only thing he could do was to restrict Longyou to prevent Liu Jilian from continuing to grow.

If Liu Jilian swallowed his anger, the prestige of the imperial court would be enhanced, and he would certainly be given certain benefits afterwards to appease him.

Thinking of this, Liu Jilong walked up to the main seat and sat down, saying in a deep voice: "Our population has just exceeded 300,000. 300,000 people have finally settled down and lived and worked in peace, but you want to restart the war. What do you think?" "General..." Li Ji couldn't help but stepped forward and bowed:
"It's not that we want to bring the people back to war, it's just that this crooked imperial court is going too far!"

"They can't pacify the hungry people themselves, so we pay them to do so. Is that wrong?"

"If they can feed the people of the world, then even if we want to appease the hungry, no one will be willing to leave their homes."

"Yes!" Hu Siguang also followed suit and bowed:

"In the final analysis, it is because the imperial court is unpopular that we are raising an army to follow the will of the people!"

"Ridiculous!" Liu Jilong frowned and scolded the three people, then said:
"Raise an army? What kind of army are you raising?"

"Don't forget, we are the Longyou Guiyi Army, not bandits who want to show off their power!"

"Although the imperial court has restricted us, it has provided us with financial support several times, which is a favor to us."

"If we start a rebellion, what will the world think of us?"

Liu Jilian left the three men speechless. After all, the Tang court had given Longyou hundreds of thousands of strings of money and silk. No matter what the purpose was, the money did fall into their hands.

Seeing that the three of them were speechless, Liu Jilong softened his expression and said:

"The world is in such a state and unrest is imminent. I know you can all feel it, but now is not the time to show off."

"Can the replacement of officials in the imperial court curb us?"

"Wei Mo has been in office for almost three months, but aren't there still hundreds of hungry people migrating to Longyou from Jiannan Road every month?"

"If Jiannan Road is like this, how much better can Shannan Road be?"

“We’re still growing, just not as fast as before.”

"I know what you are worried about, but don't worry, our chance will come soon!"

Liu Jilong has achieved his current status not to serve anyone as a servant or a dog.

The reason why he controlled his temper was mainly because he knew that the first bird to stick its head out gets shot, and Longyou’s foundation was not enough to be the first bird to stick its head out.

Although the Tang court was weak, it had not yet used up all the wealth from the Huichang Restoration. A lean camel is bigger than a horse, not to mention that Longyou was not a steed, at most a foal.

When the external enemy Nanzhao breaks off relations with the Tang court, and the internal uprisings and rebellions have almost exhausted the Tang Dynasty's strength, that will be the time for them to take the stage.

"I agreed to your coming to Didao just to convince you. If any of you disagree, you can stand up and argue with me. Whoever can refute me, I will agree to rebel!"

Liu Jilong looked at everyone and told them his purpose directly.

However, faced with Liu Jilong's straightforwardness, everyone seemed very restrained and no one dared to argue with him.

They knew they couldn't argue with him, so they didn't dare to argue with him.

Seeing that they were silent, Liu Jilong sneered, took out a booklet from the table, threw it on the ground and said:
"This is the booklet that Chief Secretary Gao handed to me this morning. It contains the names of the twelve officials in Linzhou who embezzled taxes and grain."

"Ma Cheng, Chen Jingchong, Li Ji, Zhang Chang, some of your old subordinates are here..."

Liu Jilong's words sounded like a joke, but everyone knew that they were more like sarcasm.

"There were more than 300 officials in Linzhou, and 12 of them were caught embezzling taxes and grain. What does this mean?"

"I asked last year, are there any of us who are the corrupt officials I wrote about in my storybook?"

"At the time you all assured me that there were no suspects, but now after a quick check, we have found twelve people."

"I don't know how many people would stab their own people in the back if we really fought with the imperial court."

"No... they didn't stab their own people."

These words made everyone blush. Li Ji and others even lowered their heads, not daring to pick up the document, let alone read the contents inside.

"What? Don't dare to look?"

Liu Jilong stood up and walked to the desk, picked up the document, opened it and gestured to everyone.

"Guess what methods they used to embezzle taxes and grain?"

Liu Jilong patted the documents and said, "You think they are stupid, but actually they are very smart!"

"For an acre of land that produces one dan of grain, they should have collected two dou of grain, but they collected two and a half dou, handed over the two dou to the government office, and kept half a dou for themselves."

"This is what I found in Linzhou. I really don't know what the situation is in the other twelve states."

"If there are twelve such people in each state, doesn't that mean that among the 2,800 officials in Longyou, at least 156 are embezzling taxes and grain and exploiting the people?"

"What? You've only been a slave for a few days and now you think you're the master. You want to be a Tibetan noble?!"

He closed the book and looked around at everyone. He saw that they had buried their heads in their arms, wishing they could turn into quails.

"The imperial court wants to restrict us. This is inevitable and something we will definitely experience."

"If we lose our patience, we will fall into the court's trap."

"The government is so corrupt. Even if the officials in Chang'an want to restrict us, they have to think about whether they can control the people under them."

"If we are really enemies with the imperial court, then the competition is not about who has more courageous soldiers on the front line, but about who has fewer people stabbing in the back."

"How many officials, soldiers, and civilians do we have now?"

"Now the officials are embezzling taxes and grain. Will the generals suck the blood of the soldiers, eat the pensions of the brothers who died in battle, and eat the families of the brothers who were left alone?!"

"General!" Li Ji could not help but stand up and said:
"Brothers won't do that..."

For the generals in Longyou, drinking the blood of their soldiers and eating the families of their lonely brothers is almost their red line.

When they followed Liu Jilian from Hexi, most of the Han soldiers were alone. After they died in battle, many of the survivors could not forget them.

Because of this, they couldn't bear the mere mention of the words "eating a lone soldier and destroying his entire family".

"What, can't stand it anymore?"

Liu Jilong snorted coldly and threw the document on the table: "You can still remember those brothers who died alone in the battle, but can your subordinates remember it?"

"I heard that many generals and officials took leave during the Ghost Festival this year."

"Are you really asking for leave for something, or are you hiding something?"

Everyone had different expressions and opened their mouths, but in the end, no one could say anything.

Seeing this, Liu Jilong looked at Cao Mao and said, "Cao Mao!"

"Here!" Cao Mao stood up subconsciously, and Liu Jilong said:

"You can select 200 people from the army and government offices and set up the Censorate today."

"You and your two hundred men don't need to do anything else but visit the armies and civilians in the counties and cities of Longyou until you find the people I mentioned!"

"Yes..." Cao Mao had a bitter taste in his mouth. He knew that he had accepted a job that would offend people, but he also knew that someone had to do it.

I have known Li Ji, Ma Cheng and others for the longest time, and many generals also know me, so it would be best for me to handle this matter myself.

He bowed in response and slowly sat back in his chair. Seeing that no one else spoke, Li Shangyin could only bite the bullet and speak himself:

"Marshal Jie, these twelve people who committed crimes..."

Before he could finish his words, Liu Jilong looked at him coldly, forcing him to hold back the rest of his words.

But he also knew that Liu Jilong was protecting him because he shouldn't have said such words.

It was only because no one else spoke that he thought of speaking.

"Why don't you keep silent? Let Yishan speak later, and then we can target him together?"

"Marshal Jie, we are not..."

Liu Jilong questioned everyone, and everyone tried to explain, but Liu Jilong interrupted:
"I know you are all reluctant, but this matter must be resolved."

He took a deep breath, put his hands behind his back and clenched them tightly.

"The twelve officials who committed the crime, along with their families, will all be relocated to Hexi via the Dadouba Valley Road!"

　Population map of Longyou Protectorate:

　　62,538 households and 294,334 people.

　　Linzhou: 5,454 households, 27,216 people

　　Hezhou: 7,412 households, 34,950 people
　　Minzhou: 7,260 households, 31,642 people

　　Weizhou: 6,824 households, 29,457 people
　　Lanzhou: 6,322 households, 28,700 people

　　Chengzhou: 5,200 households, 24,850 people

　　Wuzhou: 4,823 households, 22,471 people

　　Shanzhou: 4,716 households, 29,650 people
　　Guzhou: 3,952 households, 19,300 people
　　Taozhou: 3,860 households, 18,777 people

　　Diezhou: 2,835 households, 14,652 people

　　Songzhou: 2,662 households, 13,520 people
　　Dangzhou: 1,452 households and 9,460 people.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)