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

Chapter 388 Taking Hulao Pass by Strategy

September and October are the peak season for harvest.

In the North Garden of Chang'an Taiji Palace, the sweet potato seedlings have begun to turn yellow and wither, while the rice is a golden expanse, with heavy ears of rice.

Millet and sorghum are also ripe.

Today, the emperor changed into an old farmer's outfit: a coarse cloth, narrow-sleeved short jacket and wide-legged trousers, with ropes tied above each knee on the two trouser legs, and only a purple headband on his head.

Wielding a hoe, they dug and dug in the sweet potato field, unearthing pile after pile of potatoes.

After several plantings, sweet potatoes have gradually become popular among the noble families of Chang'an, and it is no longer unusual for every household to grow them.

"Your Majesty, the yield of sweet potatoes this autumn is expected to be three thousand catties per mu."

Li Yuan straightened up, gripping the hoe handle, and looked at the piles of golden sweet potatoes. "What an auspicious sign! My private plot yields six thousand catties a year, planted twice a year, in spring and autumn."

The Vice Minister of Agriculture, Wu Shibing, stood beside him and praised the high yield of the golden sweet potato. Although fresh sweet potatoes cannot be directly compared with wheat and rice, the golden sweet potato has a high starch content, and three thousand catties of fresh sweet potatoes can be made into four or five hundred catties of starch.

"Your Majesty's private plot has fertile soil and sufficient fertilizer. With careful seed selection and management, the yield is very high, much higher than others. If the common people also plant it in the future, the yield may be much lower if they lack fertilizer or the soil is not fertile enough."

Li Yuan was aware of this as well. "It doesn't matter. Even on dry hillsides, a yield of a thousand catties per mu is not bad. That can be made into one or two hundred catties of sweet potato flour. In the past, such land would yield less than one shi per mu when growing millet or sorghum."

Sweet potatoes, which can be used as grains or vegetables, don't necessarily have to be processed into starch. Ordinary people can simply steam or boil them to eat; as long as they can fill their stomachs, they are good food.

Right now, what the Tang Dynasty needs most is food.

"Your Majesty, good news from Kanto."

Dugu Sheng, the Junior Supervisor of the Palace, rushed over with a smile on his face. "Your Majesty, another victory report has arrived from Guandong."

Standing in the potato field, Li Yuan thought, "I bet it's Wu Yi reporting good news again. And I bet this time it's the capture of Liangzhou?"

Dugu Sheng was so excited that his eyebrows danced with joy.

"Your Majesty is a genius; you were able to guess at once that Cheng Jia, the governor of Liangzhou who was falsely accused of being Zheng, would lead the five prefectures of Liang, Wo, Bo, Cheng, and Nangu to surrender to Li Shizhong."

"Hahaha, one city today, one city tomorrow, Wu Yi has truly swept through Henan. How many cities have he taken already?" Li Yuan stroked his beard and laughed.

Dugu Sheng laughed for a while and then said, "The good news doesn't stop there; the Liangzhou governor has surrendered."

"Oh, who else has surrendered?"

"Du Caigan, the governor of Puzhou, resented Bing Yuanzhen for betraying Li Mi and surrendering to Wang Shichong. Now, having received a letter from Li Shizhong urging him to surrender, he led the troops of Puzhou to Huazhou under the pretense of reinforcements."

However, after entering the city, they launched a surprise attack, beheading Bing Yuanzhen, the false Zheng Huazhou Xingtai Shangshu Ling, capturing Han Hong, the Xingtai Zuo Pushe, and seizing Huazhou. Xingzhou, Yanzhou, Zuozhou, and other prefectures under the Huazhou Xingtai also responded.

Li Shizhong appointed Du Caigan as the acting governor of Huazhou, Liu Deyi as the prefect of Puzhou, Wei Bao as the prefect of Xingzhou, Han Hong as the prefect of Zuozhou, and his brother-in-law Lu Mu as the prefect of Yanzhou.

Du Caigan launched an attack under the pretext of avenging his former master Li Mi, entered Huazhou and killed Bing Yuanzhen, and the five prefectures of Huazhou and Puzhou responded one after another.

Li Yuan sighed inwardly at Li Mi's continued influence in Henan, and said, "Du Cai is a righteous man. He shall be granted the title of Shangzhuguo and Duke of Wenxi County, and his wife, Lady Lu, shall be granted the title of Junjun."

Liu Deyi was granted the title of Pillar of the State and Duke of Linhe County, while Wei Bao was granted the title of Pillar of the State and Duke of Yangcheng County.

Was Du Caigan's wife, Lady Lu, from Fanyang?

"Your Majesty, Lu's grandfather served as Minister of Rites and concurrently as Minister of Personnel in the previous dynasty, and was enfeoffed as Marquis of Rongcheng County. Later, he was implicated in the Su Wei faction case and was dismissed from office. He was the son of Lu Rou, the Director of the Secretariat of the Western Wei Dynasty."

Li Yuan nodded, "Then I will bestow upon Lu Mu the titles of Pillar of State and Duke of Rongcheng County."

As for Han Hong, Li Yuan didn't neglect him either, bestowing upon him the titles of Pillar of State and Duke of Weicheng County.

"Li Yi is truly a lucky general for me." Li Yuan excitedly drew a map in the field. Wang Shichong had almost taken over all of Henan while the Tang Dynasty was fighting in Hedong. He had even seized some territory east of the Grand Canal and had once extended his reach into Shannan, taking over Xiangdeng.

But now, in just over a hundred days, Li Yi not only reclaimed Shannan, Xiangyang, and Dengzhou for him, but also executed Yang Shilin and intimidated Guang, Huang, Xian, and Sui prefectures.

Now it has swept through Henan, and there have been almost no casualties.

"Your Majesty, there is more good news,"

"What?" Li Yuan was shocked.

"Could it be that Wu Yi forced Xuzhou to surrender as well?"

"We haven't taken Xuzhou yet, but Li Daliang and Guo Xiaoke have already entered the territory of the Xuzhou Xingtai. I expect good news will come soon," Dugu Sheng said.

"So what's the good news?"

"After Li Shizhong captured Zhengzhou, he secretly contacted Shen Yue through the family of Shen Yue, the military commander of Zhengzhou, and successfully persuaded him to defect. Shen Yue agreed to be an inside agent. Li Shizhong first sent Lady Huo, the chief steward of Pingyuan County, with the women of the Shen family into Wulao Pass."
Then, in the middle of the night, Cao Guogong Li Shiji was ordered to launch a surprise attack. Chief Steward Huo and Shen Yue opened the gates and, in coordination with Cao Guogong, captured Wulao Pass in one fell swoop.
They also captured Wang Xingben, the self-proclaimed King of Jing, and his chief clerk, Dai Zhou.

Wulao Pass is actually Hulao Pass. The Tang Dynasty avoided using the character for tiger and instead called it Wulao.

Li Yuan was stunned.

The Eight Passes of Luoyang

There are Mengjin Pass, Xuanyuan Pass, Yique Pass, and others, but Hulao Pass is the most important. "This," Li Yuan was at a loss for words.

At this moment, Wulao Pass is breached.
Wang Shichong only had Luoyang and Xuzhou left. Hanoi was already struggling to hold on. Liu Dewei had recently breached the outer city of Hanoi. Although he ultimately failed to capture Hanoi, everyone knew that given the current situation, Hanoi wouldn't last much longer.

Li Yuan squatted down and looked at the map he had drawn.

Luoyang and Xuzhou are now far apart.

The area south of Mount Song in Luoyang, east of Hulao Pass, and north of the Yellow River was almost entirely under Tang control.

At the beginning of the war, Wang Shichong first sent the crown prince to guard Cijian, and then personally went to fight, hoping that the emperor would guard the country's gate and block the Tang army at the border.

However, they still could not stop the King of Qin's offensive and retreated step by step, now retreating to Qingcheng Palace outside Luoyang.

If it were only the Qin King's army, Wang Shichong's strategy of using fortified cities to defend against the enemy was correct; the Tang army might not be able to outlast Wang Shichong. After all, the Tang army had come from afar, and their supply lines were very long. If Wang Shichong kept the Tang army west of Luoyang, their rear could continuously replenish their supplies.

However, Li Yi's troops, which marched out of Wuguan Pass, first took Shannan and then fought in Henan. In such a short time, they completely wiped out Wang Shichong's outer defenses.

This is certainly related to the fact that Wang Shichong occupied these places for a short time and his control was not strong, but Li Yi was indeed fierce.

They captured Dengzhou and Xiangyang, took Xianzhou and fought in Guancheng, and then seized Wulao.

He did not seize these fortified cities, strategic towns, and dangerous passes by force, but rather by strategy.

"Your Majesty, if Wulao Pass falls, then Wang Shichong will also be unable to defend Luokou Granary."

Without the two major granaries, Huiluocang and Luokoucang, Wang Shichong would truly be doomed. Although he still had tens of thousands of troops holding out in Luoyang, how could he possibly sustain the resistance?

"It seems this eastern expedition is coming to an end," the emperor said, looking at the map drawn on the ground. "Issue an imperial edict to appoint Li Yi as the Pacification Commissioner of Henan and Hebei, and to place all armies east of Wulao Pass, north of the Huai River, and in Henan and Hebei under his command."

"Let Wu Yi send troops to seize Luokou Granary first, and then send an army to Luoyang to assist the King of Qin in attacking Luoyang."

"Your Majesty, the troops from Ba and Shu, led by Dou Gui, the Right Minister of the Yizhou Circuit and Duke of Zan, have also arrived in Guanzhong," Lu Kuan reminded him.

Li Yuan thought for a moment, then said, “Send someone to Wugong to deliver an imperial edict to the Prince of Qi, ordering him and Dou Gui to lead the Yizhou troops to reinforce Luoyang.”

"The King of Qi was appointed as the King of Qin's deputy general."

Li Yuan did not forget to give his four sons a chance to gain experience and prestige.

"Send Yuwen Shiji to Luoyang and tell the King of Qin that Li Yi has swept across Shannan and Henan, capturing hundreds of cities. Now the area around Luoyang has been cleared. Tell the King of Qin to launch a general offensive immediately and not delay any longer."

Those damned Turkic wolves are still rampaging and looting on the border; Wang Shichong must be subdued before the snow falls.

Li Yuan picked up a potato from the ground and laid it out on the map he had just drawn. Using the potato as a chess piece, he depicted the Turks invading and plundering everywhere from Xizhou in Hebei to Yingzhou in Liaoxi in the north. The border troops of the Tang Dynasty had almost all suffered defeats and now only dared to retreat into the city.

Li Yuan then sent potatoes to Luoyang, Xuzhou, and Hanoi.
He stared at the map for a while.
Hebei

Dou Jiande is a potential threat.

If he were Dou Jiande, he would no longer be in the mood to sit back and watch the battle unfold. He might have previously harbored the idea of ​​letting the Tang and Zheng armies fight each other so he could reap the benefits.

But now that the Tang army is so swiftly about to destroy Wang Shichong, Dou Jiande will inevitably face the danger of losing his lips and teeth.

We cannot let Dou Jiande go south, otherwise this battle will be troublesome.

The Tang Dynasty cannot afford to drag this out.

Although Li Yi had already captured Huazhou and Wulao Pass, Dou Jiande had previously crossed the Yellow River to capture Jizhou and defeated Meng Haigong and others from Cao and Dai prefectures.

"We must send someone to Mingzhou to meet Dou Jiande."

Li Yuan summoned his prime ministers to discuss how to negotiate peace with Dou Jiande.

"I'm afraid Dou Jiande won't negotiate," Xiao Yu said.

Unless Dou Jiande is stupid, he has no reason to negotiate with Tang at this time, but Tang must appease Dou Jiande first.

"Let's think of a way to buy some time, even if it's just to buy us three to five months," Li Yuan said.

Pei Ji suggested, "Your Majesty, what Dou Jiande desires most now is the two prefectures of You and Ying in the north, especially You Prefecture. Since Dou Jiande raised his army, he has repeatedly attacked You Prefecture. Although he has defeated Li Yi, he has never been able to capture You Prefecture."
If His Majesty were to propose exchanging Youying for the Ji and Cao prefectures south of the Yellow River, Dou Jiande might be tempted.

Xiao Yu immediately objected, "The Prince of Yan surrendered to the Tang Dynasty long ago and has been fighting Dou Jiande alone. How can the court use them as bargaining chips to make a deal with Dou Jiande?"

"It's just a temporary expedient. Youzhou is in Li Yi's hands. If the court issues an edict, would Li Yi hand over Youzhou? At most, the court will tacitly allow Dou Jiande to attack Youzhou."

"Li Yi should be able to hold out for three to five months," Pei Ji said.

Li Yuan was somewhat tempted. "I can send Dou Deming, the official in charge of performance evaluation, to Mingzhou to establish a kinship between Dou Deming and Dou Jiande, and have Dou Jiande be called my uncle."

Dou Deming was the grandson of Dou Zhao, Li Yuan's maternal uncle. Dou Deming called Dou Jiande "uncle," so Li Yuan could call Dou Jiande "cousin." The two could address each other as cousins.

“If Dou Jiande is willing to befriend me, I will give him Xuzhou as well.”

(End of this chapter)