A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Starting from the Village Chief

Chapter 371 Invincible

Hot summer.

After Li Yi and Li Daliang split up their forces in Neixiang, they marched eastward to Jutan.

Last April, Zhu Can executed Duan Que, the Tang envoy and Attendant-in-Ordinary, then massacred the city of Jutan, burned the imperial edict appointing him Prince of Chu, and marched north to Luoyang to surrender to Wang Shichong. More than a year has passed, and Jutan City remains in ruins.
The city was overrun by refugees, and the roadsides were littered with unclaimed bones.

Li Yijun arrived and set up camp outside the city.

Lu Sichou, Han Li, Cen Ning, and other powerful young men from Nanyang were already waiting there. Deng Yun had previously led the way to pay his respects in Neixiang, where he was commended by Li Yi and appointed Prefect of Yuzhou, which reassured the various clans of Nanyang.

So this time, Lü Sichou and others came, and they all brought a lot of grain with them. Each family brought wheat, millet, pigs and sheep.

Central Army

Six large banners stood in front of the tent, with twelve war drums and bronze gongs on each side, and a banner embroidered with Li Yi's official title.

In the big tent,
The double banners and double scepters are placed at the head of the table.

Li Yi was dressed in gilded silk armor, both magnificent and imposing.

He surveyed the group of powerful figures from Nanyang, all of whom were young people. These young people were decisive and bold, unlike their fathers and grandfathers who were conservative and cautious.

"You are all pillars of the nation and the foundation of the local community. Please excuse the formalities and have a seat."

The group took their seats.

Li Yi waved.
Military Advisor Li Hongjie took out a scroll and read it aloud to the public.

"Lu Sichou was appointed Prefect of Wanzhou, Cen Ning Prefect of Lizhou, Han Li Prefect of Hongzhou, Zhang Jian Chief Administrator of Dengzhou, and Zhao An Chief Administrator of Wanzhou..."

Soldiers from various prefectures and troops from various ethnic groups were selected from the local troops.

Li Yi appointed the sons of various families to positions. For example, those who led the rebellion, such as Lü Sichou and Deng Yun, were either appointed as governors, chief clerks, or county magistrates. Others were appointed as captains, brigade commanders, or military advisors.

Their fathers and brothers also had their own plans.

Li Yi also specially formed a special army of the Dengzhou General Administration, with the imperial guards and his own retainers as the backbone, serving as officers at all levels, and the sons of good families from the upper three classes of Nanyang as soldiers.

This army was not large, only a thousand men.

However, it also incorporated most of the powerful families in the seven prefectures of Nanyang, with each family having sons serving as guards. In reality, this was both an opportunity for them to participate in the conquest and earn merit, and also a way to keep them as hostages.

Everyone knew the truth, but no one objected.

Han Li was appointed as the governor of Hongzhou, which only governed Jutan County, a city in ruins. However, he was not dissatisfied at all; on the contrary, he was very happy.

After all, he was only in his early twenties, and suddenly he became a prefect. Even if he was only a fourth-rank official, he was still a fourth-rank official.

The important thing is this rank.

As for Hongzhou being in ruins now, that doesn't matter. As long as the imperial court captures Xiangdeng, the area will stabilize. With the Tuan River flowing through Hongzhou, the government won't even need to exert much effort.
The local powerful clans and wealthy families would return, recruit displaced people and tenant farmers, and resume farming.

As long as there is a harvest, everything will return to normal.

After entering the tent, Lü Sichou had been secretly observing the young chief steward. He was excessively young, but his every move exuded a commanding presence.

The more approachable and unpretentious the chief steward was, the less he dared to underestimate him.

When meeting with these local powerful figures

Li Yi did not interfere in local affairs; he was now focusing on military matters, appointing the sons of local powerful families as prefects and magistrates.
The original county and prefectural officials were basically left in place and retained.

He accepted the grain, pigs, and sheep sent by various families, but he also wrote notes for them.

It seemed that the host and guests got along harmoniously, and the atmosphere was warm.

Li Yi neither forcefully oppressed the locals, nor did these local powerful figures intend to make things difficult for Li Yi.

"After you take office as prefects and magistrates, you must quickly restore order, appease the displaced people, provide disaster relief, and restore production."

Next, I will send troops to garrison various prefectures and counties, but the number of troops will be limited. I will only station more troops in some cities along the supply routes, and the rest will probably be a team of fifty men, or a brigade of one hundred men, or a regiment of two hundred men.

Local security also depends on your local government; the conscription and deployment of state soldiers, local militia, and able-bodied men must be reasonable.

"When I was in Neixiang, I also told Prefect Cui of Xizhou and Prefect Deng of Yuzhou that the military farms were very important and that cultivation must be restored as soon as possible. Although it is summer now, the abandoned fields can still be sown with wheat, millet, sorghum, and beans after being plowed."

No matter how much is produced, there will always be some harvest.

As long as there is food, there is no need to worry about winter and spring.

"This chief steward concurrently serves as the military agricultural commissioner of Shannan, and the governors of each prefecture must also concurrently serve as the military agricultural commissioner of their respective prefecture, and the county magistrates concurrently serve as the military agricultural commissioners of their respective counties."

Regardless of who the original owner of the land was, as long as the land was left uncultivated, it should be cultivated first. When the crops ripened, the grain would belong to the person who cultivated it, and no rent would be required.

"I will petition the court to exempt all seven prefectures under the jurisdiction of the Nanyang and Dengzhou General Administration from rent and taxes this year."

Li Yi didn't bring up the past, and Lü Sichou and the others naturally tactfully didn't either.

The conversation in the tent was about the present, but also about the future.

Lu Sichou clasped his hands and said, “The Grand General is going to attack Tian Zan of Xian Prefecture and Xu Yi of Sui Prefecture. All the families of Nanyang are willing to send their sons to accompany the expedition and serve at the front.”

Li Yi had previously recruited a thousand young men from various families to serve as his personal guards, and had also arranged for them to hold many official positions.

Now he says he will send his sons to accompany him on the expedition. This is naturally to show his loyalty, and also to take advantage of this opportunity to make more contributions and find more opportunities for his sons.

After all, those thousand soldiers...
In fact, they were mostly the second sons or illegitimate sons of various families.

"If you can provide your own clothing, food, horses, bows, swords, and spears, then you can come along. Otherwise, the army doesn't have that many weapons to supply right now." Lü Sichou readily agreed.

In these years of great chaos, those families that have managed to survive all have fortified villages and private armies. Which family doesn't have some armor, some bows and arrows, and some horses?

It's just that each group has different strengths and numbers of people.

The Lü family of Nieyang could summon fifty cavalrymen and two hundred infantrymen at any time, all of whom were armored.

As for the unarmored auxiliary soldiers, they were actually tenant farmers and slaves, and there could be as many as a thousand of them. This was the foundation of the Lü clan of Nieyang in Dengzhou.

Other families could have anywhere from a few dozen to hundreds of armored soldiers.

Next, Li Yi marched eastward, leaving 500 soldiers in each of Neixiang, Jutan, Xincheng, Dengzhou, Xinye, and Nanyang, along with 500 local militia, thus securing this logistical supply line.

Where the Tang army passed,
Local powerful families would lead villagers to welcome them, offering them grain and vegetables. Young men from the area would also carry provisions and volunteer to join the conscription.

From Neixiang all the way to Nanyang,
Although Li Yi left three thousand soldiers behind, the number of newly joined local youths exceeded five thousand.

The grain delivered by each household was plentiful, and Li Yi did not encounter any problems with food supplies.

He traveled directly east from Jutan to Nanyang, while the logistics, supplies, and grain sent by the locals were transported by boat, which traveled down the Tuan River. Not far north of Xinye County, the boat turned into the Yu River and headed north to Nanyang.

Although it was a long detour, transporting goods by waterway through the Tuan and Yu rivers was actually faster and less strenuous.

"Duke of Jin, I would like to request three thousand troops to first go to Biyang City in Xianzhou and capture Tian Zan." Li Shiji was getting restless as he saw that more than a month had passed since the expedition began, but not a single battle had been fought.

After Li Daliang divided his troops in Neixiang, they have now entered Xiangzhou and have repeatedly reported victories, having already captured more than a dozen fortresses controlled by Wang Honglie.

Although these outlying fortresses around Xiangzhou didn't have many garrison troops, they still had real combat achievements.

"No rush." ​​Li Yi was not in a hurry at all. He looked at the map and saw that the vanguard had already entered Yuzhou, north of Nanyang, and had even entered Luyang Pass.

At this time, there were not many troops stationed at Luyang Pass, a strategic pass in the Funiu Mountains that connects the Nanyang Basin to Luoyang in Henan.

Moreover, with the help of powerful local figures in Nanyang, they opened the gates and surrendered directly, thus avoiding a fierce battle.

Now, Li Yi has not only taken over the Nanyang Basin, but has also severed the passage between Nanyang and the Yizhou General Administration.

"Send another messenger to Tian Zan to persuade him to surrender. I, the general, will let bygones be bygones for his killing of Yang Shilin. If he surrenders now, I will still recommend him as the general of Suizhou. If he remains obstinate, he will regret it when the army arrives."

"Why the Governor-General of Suizhou?" Li Fengci asked, puzzled.

Li Shiji smiled and helped explain, "Of course, we want him to contribute to the attack on Suizhou. We won't hold his past against him, but if he wants to continue as the governor, he'll have to conquer his own territory. Of course, he was the governor of Suizhou before, and he has his old subordinates there, so it's easy for him to lead them in the attack."

“Send another letter to Lu Zushang, the governor of Guang Prefecture, and Zhou Faming, the governor of Huang Prefecture, and ask them to lead their troops to Xian Prefecture to join forces.”

Lu Zushang hailed from the Lu clan of Fanyang. His father was a Tiger-like General of the Sui Dynasty, and the family had been wealthy for generations. He was also known for his chivalry. At the end of the Daye era, he gathered local strongmen to protect his hometown. After Yuwen Huaji murdered the emperor, he declared himself governor. Later, he, along with Zhu Can, Zhou Faming, and others, all submitted to Li Mi and petitioned for his ascension. After Li Mi's defeat, he returned to the reign of Emperor Tai of Luoyang and was appointed Governor-General of Guang Prefecture and Duke of Shen.

When Wang Shichong declared himself emperor, he immediately severed ties with Luoyang and instead submitted a petition to Chang'an to surrender, remaining as the governor of Guang Prefecture.

Zhou Faming's situation was similar. He came from the Zhou clan of Runan. His elder brother was originally a general of the Southern Chen dynasty, but later surrendered to the Sui dynasty. Zhou Fashang, who repeatedly distinguished himself in battle and was enfeoffed as the Duke of Qiao, died a few years earlier. Zhou Faming, during the chaos at the end of the Sui dynasty,

He dispatched his sons and nephews to conquer Anlu, Mianyang, and Qichun, which were under Xiao Xian's control, thus occupying four prefectures and proclaiming himself the governor of Huangzhou. He had previously served under Zhu Can, Li Mi, and Yang Tong of Luoyang, but later submitted a memorial to the Tang Dynasty to submit to its rule.

Li Yi didn't really trust these local warlords; they were like weather vanes, easily swayed by the wind. The main reason they submitted to the Tang Dynasty was that the Tang army had defeated Zhu Can and established the Dengzhou General Administration in Nanyang, directly connecting with them, thus forcing them to submit under pressure.

Li Yi is now ordering them to send troops.

Whoever fails to send troops will be used as a pretext to attack Li Yi once he has captured Xian and Sui.

If they are sensible enough to send troops, then Li Yi can use their troops to fight Tian Zan, Xu Yi, and Wang Honglie.

No matter what, Li Yi will make money.

Moreover, as long as they send troops, they can create the feeling of being surrounded by enemies on all sides for Tian Zan, which will help Li Yi subdue the enemy without fighting and force him to surrender directly.

After all, Tian Zan had just killed Yang Shilin. Xianzhou was not originally his territory; his base was in Suizhou.

This kind of small warlord has no deep roots and no strong military force. As long as Li Yi has enough influence, he will have to kneel down.

This is unlike Wang Shichong, who could hold out to the bitter end. Therefore, to deal with Tian Zan, we can slowly encircle him, make a big show of force, and force him to surrender, instead of fighting him head-on.

"Then I request to first lead troops to capture Fangcheng, block the Fangcheng Mountain Pass, and cut off the passage between Xianzhou and Henan," Li Shiji requested again.

"Alright, you lead 3,000 elite soldiers and 2,000 auxiliary soldiers. If Fangcheng resists, there's no need for a direct assault. Just set up camp at the Fangcheng mountain pass and block the passage."

Fangcheng Pass, also known as Fangcheng Gap, or locally as the Wind Gap, is a natural gap in the northern part of the Nanyang Basin. It is a subsided mountain range that forms a funnel-shaped graben, narrow in the northeast and wide in the southwest, measuring thirty li east to west and forty li north to south.

This natural pass became a vital transportation route for traveling south to Jingzhou and north to the Central Plains.

Although Li Yi predicted that Wang Shichong's main force should be deployed around Luoyang to deal with Li Shimin's upcoming attack, he still had to guard against Zheng's army moving south. With 5,000 men stationed there, unless Wang Shichong sent a large army, Wang Shichong would lose contact with the entire Xiangdeng region, and even Xiansui.

Li Yi himself led the main force to first capture Shangma County in Tanghe, and then besieged Xianzhou.

Li Yi felt no pressure at all when dealing with Tian Zan, a small-time warlord who was a fence-sitter.

"The Grand Steward's unhurried manner makes me feel that you are certain that Tian Zan will surrender?" Huo Yu asked with a smile.

“Yes, I’ve analyzed it on the map eighteen times. Tian Zan only has one option: surrender, unless he’d rather escape to Luoyang alone, but I believe he won’t.”

"I think the chief steward is a bit too confident."

"Want to make a bet?" Li Yi asked.

"Okay, what should we bet on?" Huo Yu asked with a smile. Looking at her cheerful and carefree manner, Li Yi forgot that his son, Li Wenxiang, was a fierce general on the battlefield.

(End of this chapter)