Guiyi Fei Tang

Chapter 243 Good fortune and misfortune depend on each other
"I made the right choice by choosing Wang Shi to enter Annan."

In mid-February, words of praise were rarely heard in the Purple Palace.

Li Chen sat on the golden platform with a memorial in his hand, and the owner of the memorial was none other than Wang Shi, who had been rejected several times in the past.

It has been several months since Wang Shi was sent to Annan, but he actually arrived in Annan in the twelfth month of last year, only two and a half months ago.

At that time, the situation in Annan was in chaos. The former Protector of Annan, Li Zhuo, was corrupt and tyrannical. He was very harsh on the Changshan barbarians under the rule of Annan. He often forced the Changshan barbarians to buy and sell their horses and cattle at a low price of one bushel of salt for one cow.

The barbarian chieftain Du Cuncheng gathered a crowd to demand an explanation, but Li Zhuo sent troops to suppress them, causing resentment among the barbarians in Annan.

It happened that there were 7,000 winter defense soldiers on the Linxi Plain in the northwest of Annan Fengzhou, but they lacked food and clothing, and their armor was incomplete, so they needed the assistance of the Qiwandong barbarians nearby.

The chief of the Qiwandong barbarians was named Li Youdu, who often assisted the imperial court in guarding Linxiyuan.

After Li Zhuo suppressed the barbarians, Li Youdu accepted Nanzhao's invitation and invaded Annan at Nanzhao's instruction.

Li Zhuo was unable to control the rebellion, so he was transferred away from Annan.

Originally, the imperial court wanted Song Ya to garrison Annan, but as a result of the military rebellion in Rongzhou, Song Ya was transferred to Rongguan, so it was Wang Shi's turn to serve as the Protector General of Annan.

At present, the military rebellion in Rongzhou has not been resolved, so Annan has no external aid and can only rely on Wang Shi to pacify the situation.

After Wang Shi arrived in Annan, he understood why the situation in Annan was so chaotic.

Although the Annan Protectorate had a large number of troops under its jurisdiction, they had long been regarded as subordinates by the generals elected by local powerful people and were difficult to mobilize on a daily basis.

The only people who could accept Wang's deployment were more than 800 old and weak people who were not fully armed.

Therefore, Wang Shi was not in a hurry to resolve the chaos in the northwest, but instead focused on training his troops.

At that time, the Annan soldiers were dominated by powerful generals, the best of whom was Luo Xinggong, the Annan governor.

Luo Xinggong had 2,000 armored soldiers under his command, and other powerful generals who were affiliated with him also had more than 2,000 armored soldiers under their command.

Wang Shi had only 800 weak soldiers with incomplete armor, while Luo Xinggong and others had more than 4,000 armored soldiers.

From the perspective of others, Wang Shi would have a hard time in Annan, but facts have proved that the best strategy is to be straightforward.

On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, Wang Shi summoned Luo Xinggong and others to the Protectorate with the order of the court. After Luo Xinggong and others arrived, Wang Shi overturned the case and controlled Luo Xinggong and others with more than a hundred armored soldiers. He summoned all the soldiers in the city, beat Luo Xinggong on the back in front of all the soldiers, and demoted him to Wenyang County in the south (Beishan, Laos).

Seeing this, the soldiers in the city did not dare to act rashly. Wang Shi took the opportunity to promote the bravest and most skilled fighters among his 800 soldiers, and soon took control of the more than 4,000 elite troops under the jurisdiction of the Annan Protectorate.

Relying on nearly 5,000 elite troops in his hands, Wang Shi appeased the officials of the prefectures and counties and the military generals in remote areas, while ordering his men to use tree knots as fences to surround Jiaozhi City.

Not only that, he also ordered people to dig trenches outside the fence and plant bamboo outside the trenches, making it impossible for the southern barbarians to quickly attack the market outside Jiaozhi City.

In the memorial, Wang Shi stated that he was still training his troops and that he would be able to defeat the Changshan barbarians if they invaded.

Finally, Wang Shi hoped that the court would allow him to release the hostages of Champa and Zhenla and establish diplomatic relations so that he could concentrate on dealing with the Changshan barbarians.

Li Chen was very satisfied with what he said and did, so he was generous in praising him.

After all, the situation in Annan had been in chaos for many years. Now, only two and a half months after Wang Shi arrived, he had already understood the situation in Annan and pacified it. This shows his great talent.

"Your Majesty, Nanzhao is trying to sow discord between the Changshan Barbarians and the imperial court. Their ambition is clear to see."

"I request that the military governors and inspectors in Xichuan, Dongchuan, Qianzhong and other places set up more checkpoints to prevent Nanzhao from invading in the future."

Linghu Tao was quite good at analyzing the current situation. Since Nanzhao dared to incite the Changshan barbarians to attack Annan, it meant that the other side was already prepared to invade.

All in all, the Tang Dynasty and Nanzhao had maintained non-aggression for 28 years.

The reason for such a long period of peace and tranquility was not that Nanzhao was no match for the Tang Dynasty, but that the Nanzhao King Quan Fengyou was young at the time, and Xichuan was guarded by Li Deyu, making it difficult to invade.

Now, twenty-eight years have passed, Quan Fengyou is forty-one years old, and all the internal problems of Annan have been suppressed by him. The remaining problems need to be expanded externally.

Because of this, the falling out between the Tang Dynasty and Nanzhao may have happened in recent years.

Thinking of this, Li Chen nodded and said, "In this case, let's do as you said and set up more passes to prepare for the enemy in advance."

"Your Majesty the Holy Ming..."

Linghu Tao and others couldn't help but flatter him again, but at this time Li Chen coughed twice, causing everyone to quiet down.

This time he coughed so violently that even a blind person could tell it was not fake.

Without waiting for anyone to speak, Li Chen calmed down after drinking a sip of tea. After a while, he spoke: "I want to build an imperial building to grant amnesty. What do you think?"

"Yulou Sishe", as the name suggests, is nothing more than pardoning guilty officials and civilians in the Imperial Tower.

This imperial tower can be an existing city gate tower or a newly built imperial tower, depending on the emperor's choice.

However, judging from Li Chen's intention, he was obviously planning to build a new imperial tower. However, the financial situation of the Tang Dynasty was not good at the moment, and it simply could not come up with the money to carry out the amnesty in the imperial tower.

Because of this, even someone like Linghu Tao, who was used to watching from the sidelines, couldn't help but say, "The cost of the imperial building is very high, and it must be named, and the number of pardons is too high. I think..."

"Do I need to make something famous?" The voice from the golden platform interrupted Linghu Tao. Linghu Tao looked up and saw that Li Chen looked unhappy, which made him feel uneasy.

The emperor was very good at cultivating his qi, and normally he would not show it on his face even if he was unhappy. But now that the emperor was openly unhappy, Linghu Tao naturally did not dare to continue to refute.

Unfortunately, Linghu Tao kept his mouth shut, but Cui Shenyou next to him did not:
"Your Majesty has not yet built a crown prince palace, and the whole world is looking forward to it."

"If this ritual is performed, it can be performed even in the suburbs, let alone in the imperial tower?"

Cui Shenyou said this originally to flatter Li Chen, but he didn't know that Li Chen's health had begun to show signs of deterioration at this time, and the number of times he took long-term medicine increased dramatically every day.

Therefore, after Cui Shenyou said this, Li Chen subconsciously suspected Cui Shenyou.

He believed that someone had leaked his situation to Cui Shenyou, and Cui Shenyou's words were also a subtle urging for him to appoint a crown prince as soon as possible.

Thinking of this, Li Chen fell silent, and after a moment he said: "Prime Minister Cui is right, let's just leave it at that for now."

After he finished speaking, he stood up and walked towards the side hall.

Cui Shenyou, however, was unaware of the emperor's thoughts and thought that his advice had been recognized, so he bowed happily and sang: "May you live tens of millions of years..."

These words made Li Chen even more upset, and he thought that Cui Shenyou was hinting at his poor health.

He quickened his pace of departure, and seeing this, Linghu Tao, Cui Shenyou and others also left the Purple Palace.

After they left, Wang Zongshi walked into the side hall.

Li Chen saw him and asked in a deep voice, "Is there anything wrong recently?"

Wang Zongshi was stunned when he heard this, and after recalling for a moment, he said, "If we talk about the matter, it's probably that Situ Zhang reorganized the Right Shenwu Army and laid off many rich and powerful young men."

"There have been many impeachment petitions against him recently, but they were all suppressed by the Internal Privy Council."

Li Chen did not ask any further questions after hearing this. He just nodded and kept silent, then lowered his head to handle the affairs of state.

However, while he was dealing with it, he coughed very frequently. Every time he coughed, he would look at Wang Zongshi covertly, but Wang Zongshi was calm and there was nothing wrong with him.

While he was worried about his own health, Liu Jilong who was also in Longyou felt full of energy because there had been many happy events recently.

"Don't push, line up properly. No matter how long you wait, you will get meat porridge. If anyone dares to cut in line, the report will go forward, and those who cut in line will have to line up again!"

"If it's not enough, bring more..."

"Don't squeeze!"

Also in mid-February, more hungry people poured in from Jiannan Road and Shannan Road. From New Year's Day to now, more than 3,000 people have poured in, most of them are women, children, and young and strong people, and it is rare to see the elderly and the weak.

But this is not surprising. For the elderly and the weak, grass and tree roots are simply indigestible. Most of them starved to death before they reached Longyou.

On the contrary, women and children have the protection of young and strong people. As long as they walk into the territory of Longyou and eat some corn porridge, they can basically survive to the resettlement site.

Didao did not accept hungry people, but it was a transit station for them heading north.

Most of these starving people were resettled in Shanzhou and Lanzhou.

This was done not only to reclaim the land in the two states, but also to facilitate future immigration to Liangzhou.

"There are still many starving people pouring into Longyou from the south that we haven't had time to count, but judging from the current situation, the starving people will continue to pour into Longyou at least until the autumn harvest."

"The imperial court didn't want us to obtain population through the horse-mouth trade, but now we don't have to do the horse-mouth trade at all."

"The commander is indeed favored by heaven!"

Gao Jinda and several others stood with Liu Jilian in front of the west gate tower of Didao. Liu Jilian was looking down at the starving people outside the city, while Gao Jinda was lamenting the luck of Longyou.

But before Liu Jilong could respond, Li Shangyin next to him said:

"Now the government is corrupt and the people are suffering. Only Longyou has enough food and clothing in the tens of thousands of miles of territory. Naturally, the people are eager to surrender. This is the will of the people."

"Yishan is right." Liu Jilong echoed Li Shangyin's words. He did not believe in the talk of heaven's favor. The Tang Dynasty had been in power for 240 years, and corruption among officials was a normal thing.

Even if the bureaucracy was not corrupt, the imperial court would naturally have to increase taxes in order to maintain the huge military expenditures.

In such an environment, if the people do not make a living for themselves, they can only wait to be exploited and die.

"I heard that there are so many starving people in Huainan that it is difficult to count them."

Cui Shu also took the opportunity to speak up, and at the same time he couldn't help but say with regret: "It would be great if we could bring all these hungry people to Longyou."

"Don't even think about it." Gao Jinda interrupted with a wry smile: "Even if the court wants to see them starve to death, they will not hand over the hungry people to us."

Hearing this, Li Shangyin also nodded and said, "If we were near Huainan, the officials of Huainan Road would probably let the people pour into the country."

"It's a pity that we are separated from Huainan by the Shannan West and East Roads. Not to mention Bai Minzhong, even Lu Jun would not agree to let hundreds of thousands of starving people pass through the Shannan West Road."

Although Lu Jun was a bit of a slacker, it was not stupid.

Even if Liu Jilian sent money, he could not allow the hungry people in Huainan to flood into the country. After all, no one could guarantee that the hungry people could still remain rational when they were hungry.

By then, hundreds of thousands of hungry people would plunder along the way, and he would really become a sinner.

Liu Jilong was well aware of this, and he comforted everyone:
"Don't think about these nonsense things. What we should do now is to comfort the hungry people in Jiannan Road and Shannan West Road."

"If we eat two groups of hungry people fleeing north, our strength will increase a lot."

Liu Jilian's words won everyone's approval. After all, there were tens of thousands of starving people in the two regions. Even if only 10% of them fled to Longyou, it would be enough for Longyou to have enough food.

"Come on!"

In the distance, Zhang Chang rode his horse onto the bridle path, then rushed towards this side. He dismounted in time when he arrived in front of everyone, and was very happy.

"What's wrong, so happy?"

Liu Jilong looked at Zhang Chang, who handed the reins to the soldier beside him and bowed hastily, saying:
"General, there is news from Taozhou that Shang Bibi bribed the nobles in Luoshui City to transfer Xima and his subordinates away and promoted Shang Moyan to be the Qiliben of Duomiweifu."

"Shang Moyan led more than 2,000 elite cavalry and armored soldiers to the south to take over Duomiwei Prefecture. Let Diezhou prepare 2,000 sets of armor and 50,000 dan of grain for trade on May 15th."

"It seems that he is planning to start with those small tribes in Duomai."

Zhang Chang was very happy. After all, the cattle, horses and sheep looted by Shang Moyan were all for trade, and he could make at least double the profit by selling them in Longyou.

Liu Jilong nodded after hearing this: "It should have been done long ago."

It has been twelve years since Dazhong, and he doesn't have time to wait for Shang Moyan to develop slowly.

What he wanted was for Shangmoyan to use war to support war, quickly capture Duomai, Weixi, Bogan and other places, and establish contact with Nanzhao.

Once Nanzhao and the Tang Dynasty fell out, Shang Moyan could join forces with Nanzhao to invade Xichuan.

Shang Moyan only needed to contain the Xichuan troops on the western front. With the strength of the Xichuan troops on the southern front, they would definitely not be able to stop the Nanzhao troops who had been gathering strength for nearly thirty years.

When Xichuan was in danger, he could lead his troops south, using the excuse of rushing to Xichuan's aid to plunder Xichuan's population and resources back to Longyou.

However, with Shang Moyan's current strength, he cannot tie down the Xichuan troops on the western front or even ask Xichuan to send more troops to the western front.

"What is the annual output of the various military weapons workshops in Longyou?"

Liu Jilong asked Cui Shu, who bowed and said, "There are currently 28 military equipment workshops and more than 7,600 military equipment craftsmen."

"Every year, we produce more than 4,200 sets of armor, 7,000 pieces of various military equipment, more than 167,400 kilograms of gunpowder, and all kinds of siege and defense equipment, all maintained at 2,800."

"Also, Commander, Chen Jitong said that the craftsmen have tested out a more powerful black powder, which is much more powerful than the black powder we are using now."

Cui Shu's words cheered Liu Jilong up. He looked at Zhang Chang and said, "You and Cui Shu will come with me to the gunpowder factory."

After saying that, he turned to look at Gao Jinda and Li Shangyin and said, "The matter of trading with Shang Bibi and the others will be left to you two."

"Yes!" Everyone agreed, and soon Liu Jilian, Cui Shu and Zhang Chang were seen leading more than a hundred elite cavalrymen to the gunpowder factory.

More than an hour later, they arrived at the gunpowder factory, which had obviously been expanded a lot.

It would be more accurate to say that this is a city rather than a gunpowder factory.

There were 600 armored soldiers stationed in the gunpowder factory, 360 craftsmen, and more than 1,300 family members.

After Liu Jilong and his companions arrived, Chen Jitong hurried to greet them.

"I heard that the power of gunpowder has been increased?"

Liu Jilong happily dismounted and asked Chen Jitong, who immediately responded with a smile, "I have been promoted. Please come in, Marshal Jie."

He led the way and took them deep into the gunpowder factory.

The gunpowder factory was built between mountains and gullies. It was not wide from north to south, but long and narrow from east to west.

After Chen Jitong's expansion and renovation, the east-west distance is now nearly two miles, and it belongs to two cities in the east and west.

To the west is the living area for craftsmen and their families, and to the east is the area for making and experimenting with gunpowder.

After everyone passed through the living area, they soon saw the craftsmen who were working.

Since saltpeter, charcoal, and sulfur were processed outside and then transported in, the craftsmen only needed to make gunpowder from the raw materials or conduct experiments.

Liu Jilian had already heard about the production of gunpowder from Cui Shu, so he did not ask.

"Zhao Sanlang, get two kilograms of new and old gunpowder and go to the training ground in the east!"

"Yes!"

While on the way, Chen Jitong stopped a young man, and after giving him some instructions, he continued to take Liu Jilong and the others to the training ground used for experiments.

The parade ground was one hundred steps long from east to west and fifty steps wide from north to south.

Due to frequent experiments, many stone walls and rammed earth walls were built on the training ground.

After Liu Jilong and others dismounted, someone brought them gunpowder soon after.

Chen Jitong ordered people to arrange it, and he explained to Liu Jilong:
"General, the old-fashioned black powder is one part saltpeter, two parts sulfur, and three parts charcoal. The new-fashioned gunpowder is one part sulfur, two parts charcoal, and three parts saltpeter."

When Chen Jilian finished speaking, Liu Jilong's heart skipped a beat.

Because the formulas were too similar, Liu Jilong couldn't help but suspect that he had memorized the black powder jingle incorrectly.

"Are you sure this will work?"

"Look, Marshal Jie, we can start the experiment soon."

Liu Jilong asked Chen Jitong uncertainly, and Chen Jitong bowed and pointed to the parade ground in the distance.

Sure enough, two craftsmen not far away had already stuffed the new and old black gunpowder into the solid rammed earth wall.

The two men left the fuse very long, and after lighting it, they trotted away from the spot, and waited only after running fifty steps away.

"boom--"

Soon, two dull thunders were heard, and dust suddenly rose up on the training ground, blocking everyone's vision.

"Let's go!"

Liu Jilong motioned for everyone to follow him. Before they got closer, the dust gradually settled, revealing two different rammed earth walls.

The two rammed earth walls are each ten feet thick, ten feet high and ten feet wide, and can be said to be a square cube.

After the gunpowder pit was dug and detonated, a large pit one foot deep and three feet in diameter was blown out on one side, and a pit more than two feet deep was blown out on the other side, and the entire surface collapsed.

At this time, without Chen Jitong saying anything, Liu Jilong knew that he had remembered the gunpowder formula incorrectly.

"This new type of gunpowder just changes the proportion?"

Liu Jilong asked Chen Jitong, and Chen Jitong went on to explain: "We also processed the saltpeter."

"How to deal with it?" Liu Jilong asked, and Chen Jitong explained:

"The saltpeter was crushed into powder and boiled with water, and the saltpeter foam was taken out and added to the gunpowder."

"Nowadays, we add spring water to an iron pot, put in 100 kilograms of saltpeter, boil it three times, and then add 1 kilogram of ash water to boil it."

"After firing in this way, the hot water is on the top, the mud and foam sink to the bottom, and the pure saltpeter is in the middle."

"As long as you take out the pure saltpeter and add it to sulfur and charcoal, the power of the gunpowder will become greater."

(End of this chapter)