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

Chapter 440 Striving for Merit for the King of Qin

"Gentlemen, good news is pouring in!"

After Li Shimin led his army into Ye City, he summoned his generals for a meeting, his face beaming with joy.

Li Yi launched a naval attack at Chanyuan, annihilating more than 15,000 of Liu Shishan's men, and then swiftly captured the undefended Wei, Xin, and Bo prefectures.

Li Daliang also sent a report of victory. He crossed the Yellow River north of Qizhou and entered Dezhou in Hebei. He then seized the two prefectures of De and Di, and then took advantage of the victory to attack Cangzhou.

“The Prince of Yan in Youzhou has taken Yizhou, and Liu Shirang in Bingzhou has also seized Jingzhou.”

Changsun Wuji, the Grand Secretary of the Ministry of Revenue, with his long braided hair and large belly, was the first to step forward. "The situation is excellent, and the recovery of Hebei is just around the corner. I congratulate Your Majesty!"

This brother-in-law of the King of Qin stepped forward and directly claimed credit for the King of Qin.

"If it weren't for the King leading his troops north to tie down Dou Jiande's 120,000-strong army, Li Sikong, the Prince of Yan, Governor Liu, and Chief Steward Li would not have had such a good opportunity."

Especially when Li Sikong was in Weizhou, Dou Jiande led 50,000 troops in a surprise attack. It was only after the Prince of Qin sent General Luo with a hundred war drums to the walls of Mingzhou to beat them, forcing Dou Jiande to retreat, that Li Sikong had the opportunity to annihilate Liu Shishan.

"If it weren't for Your Majesty holding back more than 100,000 of the Xia army's main force, how could we have achieved these victories!"

"Whose credit is this? Of course, it belongs to the King of Qin. The victory in Hebei is the greatest achievement of the King of Qin."

"good."

Yin Kaishan, the Minister of War of the Grand Secretariat, immediately chimed in, "As the saying goes, the King of Qin strategizes within the tent and wins battles a thousand miles away. This is why Minister Li annihilated Liu Shishan's more than 15,000 men at Chanyuan and captured the three prefectures of Wei, Xin, and Bo; General Li Daliang crossed the river and successively captured the two prefectures of De and Di; the Prince of Yan captured Yi Prefecture; and Governor Liu Shirang captured Jing Prefecture."

"It was all thanks to the King of Qin that Dou Jiande's main force was tied down here."

"Without losing a single soldier, the King of Qin, with only 60,000 troops, managed to hold off Dou Jiande's 120,000-strong army for more than two months."
This is true mastery of military strategy!

Li Shimin, sitting in the hall of the Yecheng County Government, was somewhat flattered by their sycophancy.

He waved his hand, "The generals' achievements are all genuine, how can I steal their credit?"

Fang Xuanling spoke up from below, "As the commander-in-chief of the Hebei army, all the troops that enter Hebei to fight are under your command. Their achievements are also your achievements. How can it be said that they are stealing credit?"

"This is thanks to Your Majesty's skillful command."

Li Shimin smiled and said, "Let's not talk about that. Let's discuss what to do next. Dou Jiande has withdrawn to Mingzhou. It seems he wants to stall like Wang Shichong did before. Perhaps he is still hoping for help from the Turkic Khaganate."

Chief Clerk Tang Jian said, "I believe that Dou Jiande can only sit and wait for his death. Retreating to Mingzhou will not save him."

He dared not confront the King of Qin head-on, and had lost his courage.

Now that he has retreated to Mingzhou, we can do as we did when we defeated Wang Shichong: first clear out the outer defenses, and then finally capture Mingzhou city.

Li Shimin nodded; this was in line with his wishes. The situation was very favorable, but Dou Jiande still had about 100,000 troops under his command.

We cannot afford to underestimate him; we must keep a close watch on him.

"I have decided to lead my troops north to Cizhou, and divide my forces to seize Xingzhou, north of Mingzhou, while Li Yi will advance on Zongzhou and Beizhou."
Li Daliang attacked Cangzhou and Jizhou, Liu Shirang attacked Hengzhou and Zhaozhou, and the Prince of Yan attacked Dingzhou and Shenzhou...

After entering June,

The situation in Hebei has undergone tremendous changes, with the offensive and defensive postures shifting dramatically.

Following Li Yi's great victory at Chanyuan, the other Tang armies also accelerated their advance, especially Li Yi, the Prince of Yan in Youzhou, who had previously made little progress.
June,

Li Yi has successively recovered the four prefectures of Ding, Luan, Lian, and Zhao, and together with the previously captured Yi Prefecture, he has quickly moved south.

After Li Shimin reached the outskirts of Mingzhou, he dispatched two generals, Wang Junkuo and Luo Shixin, who divided their forces to sweep through Xingzhou and join forces with Liu Shirang in Hengzhou.

At the end of June,
Prince Li Yi of Yan, Prince Li Kaidao of Beiping, Prince Li Da'en of Dingxiang, Prince Li Shenfu of Xiangyi, and Liu Yirang, the Inspector General of Bingzhou, joined forces in Xingzhou.

Their meeting not only crippled Dou Jiande's northern front, but also completely severed Dou Jiande's connection with the Turks.
Even if Jieli wanted to send troops to help, they wouldn't be able to get there anytime soon, not to mention that he had also cut off their reinforcements and supplies from the rear.

With the situation looking very favorable and Li Shimin now commanding tens of thousands more troops, he began preparations for the final all-out offensive.

To break through Mingzhou City,
We must first take Mingshui City. Mingshui City is separated from Mingzhou City by the Zhang River. Mingshui City is located to the east of Mingzhou. Taking this city will naturally further sever Dou Jiande's connection with the east.

This June,

Li Yi had been fighting in Zong and Bei prefectures, east of Mingzhou. This area was Qinghe County of the Sui Dynasty, and many Xia generals, such as Dou Jiande, came from here.

Dou Jiande, Cao Dan, Liu Heita, Gao Yaxian, and others all came from Zhangnan County, Beizhou, or the surrounding areas.

Although Dou Jiande moved the capital to Mingzhou,
But Beizhou was their birthplace, and they were very supportive of Dou Jiande. After Li Yi captured Weixinbo and three other prefectures, his offensive was thwarted when he entered Zong and Beizhou.

There were almost no more instances of surrendering after being persuaded to open the city gates with a mere proclamation.

Every city and every fortress represents a stubborn resistance and steadfast defense.

This gave Li Yi a headache. He wasn't good at fighting these kinds of tough battles, nor did he want to. So, in June...

Li Yi was stuck in Qinghe County. Li Yi's army swept along both banks of the canal, and when they encountered resisting cities and fortresses, they did not attack them directly, but first cleared out the surrounding villages.

By collecting grain, blocking the canal, and attacking the Xia army's supply lines, Li Yi's 20,000 troops managed to trap the Xia army in the castles of Zongbei and Beizhou, preventing them from leaving.

Xia's army had some troops in each city, but they lacked elite main forces and dared not leave the city to fight. Li Yi, on the other hand, lacked siege equipment and was unwilling to launch a strong attack on a fortified city.
Thus, the two sides fell into a strange standoff in June of that summer.

The area outside the city was entirely under Li Yi's control, while the castles were mostly still in the hands of the Xia army. The two sides seemed to be keeping to themselves and there was no fighting, so it was unusually quiet.

Compared to Luo Yi's conquest of four states, Li Yi's progress seemed to have stalled.

Fortunately, the summer grain harvest had just begun, and the Tang army had seized a considerable amount of wheat in Hebei. Li Yi had also captured three prefectures, and he had the Grand Canal for transportation, so he was not worried about the supply of provisions.

It's hot.

Li Yi simply took a vacation.
His 20,000 troops were naturally unwilling to attack those stubbornly resisting fortified cities and fortresses in such hot weather.

Practice a little in the morning and evening, and you'll be well rested during the hot midday hours.

Luo San came to Li Yi with a stack of land deeds. The emperor had previously rewarded him with ten qing of land in Hebei. After the great victory at Chanyuan, the emperor rewarded him with another twenty qing. When he captured the three prefectures of Wei, Xin and Bo, the emperor granted him another thirty qing of land.

Five thousand acres in total,
Luo San then selected 1,000 mu of land for him in each of the five prefectures of Wei, Xin, Bo, Li, and Wei.

"The land was selected in the suburbs of the prefectural city and several major county towns. Five hundred acres of land were selected in the suburbs of the prefectural city to facilitate the construction of the manor. We will also build workshops, breeding farms, etc."

Each prefecture also selected 100 acres of land on the outskirts of each county to build a small estate, which would also include mills, oil presses, and pig farms.

Luo San then produced a stack of land deeds and property deeds. "These are land deeds and property deeds for buying land, houses, and shops in five prefectural cities and a number of county towns. As Alang said, we've basically bought some houses and shops in good locations in every city."

Luo San is very efficient. He now has a group of managers and employees working under him, each doing their own thing, and he makes the final decisions.

Li Yi glanced through it casually and then nodded.

“Ah Lang, why spread the land out like this? Why don’t we just buy a few large plots of land on the outskirts of the state capital and build a few manors? Wouldn’t that be easier to manage than spreading it out like this? Besides, land on the outskirts of the state capital is more valuable.”

Li Yi simply said, "It would be beneficial for our family's business layout to have an estate in the suburbs of each prefecture and county. Moreover, if the same 5,000 mu of land is scattered in twenty or thirty places, it will not be very conspicuous. If you concentrate it in a few places, it will be more eye-catching."

By now, Li Yi is no longer short of money.

There are many ways to make money.
He now wants to earn money not only, but also the kind of money that others want to praise.

Even making money from things that have barriers to entry.

Farmland is not only for growing food.

The fields on the outskirts of the city can be used to grow vegetables, flowers, fruit trees, and livestock. In this era of difficult transportation, fresh vegetables and fruits, and even chicken, duck, fish, meat, eggs, and dairy products, can mostly only be supplied locally.

Therefore, by spreading the land out a bit, setting up a small estate in the suburbs of a prefecture or county, even if it doesn't have to be too big, this business can still be done.

Even some of the Li family's current products, such as bamboo paper, persimmon wine, and soap, can be sold through these shops scattered throughout various prefectures and counties, forming a sales network.

Luo San couldn't grasp Li Yi's plan immediately, but he was a good executor. The plan was the boss's business; he, as the manager, just needed to do things according to the plan.

"At each of my estates, I recruited many displaced people as my retainers, carefully selecting able-bodied young men with families. It was roughly one displaced family per fifty mu of land."

Each estate had at least three to five workshops, while the estates on the outskirts of the prefecture city employed a hundred households of displaced people as retainers and tenant farmers, twenty households to cultivate the land, and the rest to work in various workshops, livestock farms, and shops in the city.

Li Yi nodded.

Every time the Li family buys land or property, they recruit a group of retainers, mostly displaced people, disaster victims, and those without household registration.
They are recruited and settled in various places, either to farm or to work, and can also be temporarily dispatched. They are all family members, so it is convenient to use them.

When the children of these tenant farmers turn six, some of them will be sent to the school run by the Li family. There will be an exam every year, and those who are talented, hardworking, and have good grades will be promoted, while those who do not perform well will drop out of school.

After those children completed three years of basic education, the Li family would have workshops and shops come to select them. Those selected would be given targeted training and enter different training classes, which usually lasted for three years.

Some students studied accounting, mainly focusing on arithmetic and bookkeeping. Others studied medicine and pharmacy, which were sponsored by medical clinics and pharmacies. After three years, they would return to the clinics and pharmacies, starting as apprentices, but they would learn quickly and be more valued than regular apprentices.

There are also many other classes, such as blacksmithing, woodworking, lacquerware, brewing, papermaking, animal husbandry, veterinary medicine, and textiles, all of which are specially commissioned by the Li family.

"Large estates on the outskirts of our state capital will purchase fifty slaves to keep, while small estates on the outskirts of county towns will keep ten slaves..."

In Hebei, Luo San helped the Li family acquire five state estates and twenty-five county estates, and kept five hundred slaves.

The number of retainers recruited reached one thousand households.

This number even moved Li Yi a little.

"Third Uncle, do you think the number of retainers, tenants, and slaves recruited for the estates and shops is a bit too many?"

"Not many. We're not just farming. Besides the 5,000 mu of land, we also have many workshops, shops, and breeding farms. We need manpower everywhere. We're just starting out now, but as we grow, we'll definitely need more people."

"Ah Lang, don't worry about having too many people and it not being worthwhile. We've done the math. The more people there are, the stronger our manor's economy will become. Just take slaves for example, it's like raising cattle and horses. They can work and reproduce. The little slaves they produce are just like foals and calves, they can also increase in value. It's worth it."

Luo San and Li Yi did the simple economic calculations together.
Li Yi could only smile when he heard this. That's how the accounts were, but sometimes he still wasn't quite used to them.

(End of this chapter)