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

Chapter 630 I shall avenge my elder brother
"Heaven is helping our Great Tang!"

Li Yuan sat on the throne, looking at the victory report before him.

Three pieces of good news arrived in Beijing almost on the same day.

Prince Zhao, Li Xiaogong, defeated Fu Gongshi at Wuhu and captured three towns including Liangshan. The Pacification Commissioner, Ren Gui, captured Yangzhou. The lord of Guangling, Long Kan, surrendered. Li Jing took advantage of the victory and attacked and captured Fu Gongshi's stronghold, Danyang.

Prince Qin, Li Shimin, ambushed and killed Jieli Khan at Yehuling outside Beiyan Prefecture, capturing and killing more than 30,000 people and taking Jieli Khan prisoner.

Prince Li Yi of Wu'an led eight generals to attack the Khan's court in Dingxiang, capturing and killing more than 10,000 people, seizing more than 10,000 horses, and more than 100,000 other livestock.

Li Yuan picked up the victory report from Li Xiaogong, the Grand General of Jingzhou and Prince Zhao, and then he picked up the victory report from Li Shimin, the Prince of Qin.

After a while, he picked up the document belonging to Li Yi, the Grand General of Bingzhou and Prince of Wu'an.

Look left, look right,
I never get tired of looking at it.

All the prime ministers rushed to the scene.

"Congratulations to your majesty, congratulations to your majesty."

After all the prime ministers had offered their congratulations, the crown prince arrived late.

"Brother, come quickly! The Turks have been defeated! Shisheng has captured Jieli, Wuyi has breached the Khan's court, and Xiaogong has also broken into Fugong Shidanyang's stronghold in Jiangnan."

Hahaha,
Furthermore, both Tuli Khan and Yusheshe have surrendered to our Great Tang.

He managed a forced smile.

Li Yuan was so happy that he danced with joy and didn't notice Jiancheng's discomfort.

Three reports of victory were laid out there.
Li Yuan instructed Feng Deyi, the Grand Secretary, to give everyone a detailed report, one by one.

"First, Fu Gongshi sent his generals Feng Huiliang and Chen Dangshi with a fleet of 30,000 men to garrison at Bowang Mountain," Feng Deyi said, while having someone bring him a sand table of Jiangnan.

Thirty li southwest of Dangtu County, there is Tianmen Mountain, which stands facing each other across the river. To the east is Bowang Mountain, and to the west is Liangshan Mountain. He pointed out the location on the sand table.

"Chen Zhengtong and Xu Shaozong led 30,000 infantry and cavalry to garrison Qinglin Mountain."

There is a lake in the southeast of Dangtu County, and Qinglin Mountain to the west of the lake.

"The rebel army chained iron chains across Liangshan to block the Yangtze River, built the Crescent Moon City, which stretched for more than ten miles. They also fortified Jiangxi to resist the imperial army."

Prince Zhao Xiaogong and Li Jing led their naval forces to Shuzhou, while Li Shiji led 10,000 infantrymen across the Huai River, first capturing Shouyang and then Xiashi.

Huiliang and his men held firm and refused to fight. Xiaogong sent a surprise force to cut off their supply lines. Huiliang's army was short of food. That night, they sent troops to attack Xiaogong's camp, but Xiaogong remained calm and unmoved.

Later, during the meeting, the generals all believed that the rebels occupied the strategic land and water routes and possessed a strong army, making a swift victory impossible. They suggested that it would be better to directly attack Danyang and seize their stronghold. Xiao Gong agreed with their suggestion, but Chief Clerk Li Jing argued that although Fu Gongshi had elite troops on both land and water, he himself still had a considerable number of troops in Danyang.

If we don't take Bowang first, even if we march directly to Danyang, Fu Gongshi is holding Shitou City, and it will be difficult to take it quickly. In that case, the Tang army will be attacked from both sides, which will be very dangerous.

The enemy general only wants to wear us down; we must break through their lines head-on.

Based on Li Xiaogong's detailed report of victory, Feng Deyi reviewed the battle with the emperor and his ministers.

Li Jing first used the old and weak to attack the enemy camp, while Li Xiaogong led the elite troops to wait in ambush. After the old and weak troops attacked, they pretended to retreat to lure the enemy into pursuit, and then the Tang army's elite troops ambushed them.

At the critical moment, Kan Ling, the adopted son of Du Fuwei, a general of the Jianghuai Army, appeared in front of the rebel army, took off his helmet, and revealed his identity.

Many of his former subordinates in the Jianghuai Army were persuaded by him on the battlefield that they had been deceived by Fu Gongshi, and many of them actually defected to his side in the face of battle.

The morale of the rebels plummeted.

Li Jing then led his elite troops in a surprise attack, causing the enemy army to collapse. The Tang army pursued them for over a hundred li, and the 60,000-strong rebel army at Boshan and Qinglin were completely routed.

Many rebels even drowned in the river; more than 10,000 were killed or drowned.

Li Jing pursued relentlessly, reaching Danyang first. Fu Gongshi still had tens of thousands of troops, but dared not fight and abandoned the city to flee.

Fu Gongshi fled eastward, his men scattering along the way. Li Shiji led his troops in pursuit. When Fu Gongshi reached Jurong, he was left with only a few hundred men. His generals intended to capture him and hand him over to the Tang army, but Fu Gongshi discovered this and escaped with a few dozen personal guards. He fled to Wukang, where he was besieged by local strongmen and their militia.
He was captured and taken to Danyang, where he was executed by Li Xiaogong and his head was displayed to the public. The rebellion of Fu Gongshi in Jianghuai was almost quelled as a result.

Previously, the rebels had blocked the river and were in a standoff. The imperial court kept urging them to hurry up and was extremely worried. At one point, it even issued an edict to send Li Shimin south to lead the army to quell the rebellion.

Unexpectedly, the rebels were defeated so quickly.

The battle ended in a draw, and there were no further developments.

Li Yuan looked at the sand table.

He laughed loudly and said, "Li Jing is truly the nemesis of Xiao Xian and Fu Gongshi. Both of them were killed by Li Jing."

Those who have made contributions will naturally be rewarded, and this should not be delayed.

Overjoyed, Li Yuan immediately issued an edict.

Li Xiaogong was appointed as the Right Vice Minister of the Southeast Circuit, and Li Jing was appointed as the Minister of War of the Circuit.

"The general administration offices of the empire were changed to governorships, and Yangzhou was promoted to Grand Governorship. Prince Zhao Xiaogong was appointed Right Vice Minister of the Southeast Circuit and concurrently Grand Governor of Yangzhou."

Li Jing served as the Minister of War of the Provisional Government and concurrently as the Chief Administrator of the Yangzhou Grand Military Commission.

The Shannan Circuit Office was abolished.

Li Gui, the younger brother of Li Xiaogong and Prince of Hanyang, was appointed as the Grand General of Jingzhou, while Liu Zhan, the former Right Vice Minister of the Secretariat, was appointed as the General of Xiangzhou.

After this battle, Jiangnan was basically pacified, and Li Yuan could finally breathe a sigh of relief.

“Pei Jian, you’ve always said that to fight external enemies, we must first pacify the internal situation. But now it seems that we can fight external enemies and pacify the internal situation at the same time. Hahaha.”

Zhao Junwang Xiaogong, Yongkang Gong Li Jing, Wuyang Gong Li Daliang, Guan Guo Gong Ren Gui, Cao Guo Gong Li Shiji, and others, all used only southern troops and still managed to quell the rebellion in Jiangnan.

Qin King Shimin, along with Wu'an King Li Yi and Huaiyang King Daoxuan, had repeatedly defeated the Turks in the northern frontier, and now they had captured Jieli alive and breached the Turkic court.

"Prime Minister Feng, please tell everyone about the two great victories of Shimin and Wuyi."

"These are two battles that are worthy of being recorded in history."

The emperor lavished praise on Li Shimin and Li Yi, but the crown prince, kneeling in the hall, found every word grating.

Even when the emperor made a joke about Pei Ji, Li Jiancheng felt that the emperor was mocking him.

After all, the principle of "pacifying the internal before resisting external aggression" was Li Jiancheng's consistent stance.

He had always been a proponent of peace talks with the Turks. But now, Li Shimin not only repelled the Turks, but even captured Jieli alive in this cold January. Li Yi, whom he had been unable to win over, also broke into the Khan's court.

It was another military adventure that he had always disapproved of.
But they succeeded once again.

Their success only served to highlight how weak and ineffective his peace proposals were, and how incompetent his previous retreat in Hedong appeared.

Talking about taking risks or disregarding the bigger picture now would only make him seem incompetent.

The winner takes all, it has always been like this.

Jiancheng was somewhat lost in thought.

Suddenly, the emperor laughed and said, "Wu Yi is hereby enfeoffed as the Prince of Dai and appointed as the Grand General of Bingzhou, and Dao Xuan is hereby enfeoffed as the Prince of Wei and appointed as the Grand General of Youzhou."

The Dingzhou Grand General's Office was downgraded to the Dingzhou Central Military Governor's Office, and Zhang Daoyuan was appointed Military Governor of Dingzhou.

Together with the six major governorates of You, Jing, Yi, and Yang.

The Yizhou Circuit Administration and the Xiangzhou Circuit Administration were abolished, while the Shaanxi East Circuit Grand Administration and the Southeast Circuit Administration were temporarily retained.

"Great victories in the North and South! A general amnesty is hereby granted!" Li Yuan laughed heartily, unable to contain himself.

Once completed,

"Your Majesty, I congratulate you on resolving the Turkic threat,"

"The soldiers of the Hedong Army will return in triumph to the capital to receive their rewards."

"Now that the Turkic border threat has been eliminated, there is no need to maintain 100,000 border troops in Daibei. The garrison troops can be withdrawn gradually."

With spring plowing just around the corner, this allows the soldiers and farmers to return home for a proper rest without missing the planting season.

By maintaining a garrison of 20,000 to 30,000 troops in Daibei, the imperial court could reduce its annual expenditure on supporting 70,000 to 80,000 people. Now, with everything in ruins and needing rebuilding, this is precisely the time for rest and recuperation…

The emperor's laughter stopped abruptly.

The Crown Prince's words were somewhat inappropriate. Regardless of whether what he said made sense, the discussion at this time should be about rewarding those who have made contributions, not anything else.

These words are especially inappropriate for the Crown Prince to say.

His words inevitably revealed a hint of jealousy towards the King of Qin's military achievements.

"We'll discuss this later," Li Yuan said, his smile fading. "Supervisor Pei, the court should immediately dispatch envoys to Daibei and Jiangnan to comfort the victorious soldiers."

Record their merits and award them imperial wine.

···
When Li Jiancheng left, his steps were unsteady and he felt very dizzy.

Back at the East Palace,

He summoned the Imperial Kitchen Attendant, Ren Can, and ordered, "Bring me some snacks to go with the wine, and a pot of mulberry wine."

"What troubles Your Highness?"

"Go quickly." Jiancheng was annoyed and gave Ren Can, whom he usually doted on, a cold look.

The food and drinks were served.

Li Jiancheng had just finished two drinks when Li Yuanji arrived.

"Brother, are you drinking alone here?" Ugly boy Li Yuanji plopped down opposite Jiancheng, picked up his ivory chopsticks and started stuffing sliced ​​mutton into his mouth. "I'm feeling down too, so I'll keep you company."

Li Yuanji, the deputy commander of the Hedong military camp, was sent back to Chang'an by Li Shimin before the new year under the pretext of having to return to the capital to report on the military situation in Daibei.

He was quite happy when he returned. It was freezing cold in Daibei, and he didn't want to spend the New Year in the border region. It was nothing like the bustling and lively Chang'an.

But who knows,
Li Shimin, the second brother, truly didn't treat him like a real brother.
He had just headed south when...
They then led their troops out of the pass and recovered Daibei, Mashuo, and Yunzhong.

It's fine if he doesn't get the credit.
But just after the New Year,
This second brother and Li Yi pulled off an even bigger heist.

They captured Jieli alive, breached the Khan's court, and achieved remarkable feats on two fronts, capturing and killing over 50,000 Turkic soldiers in total.

The Hedong Military Camp hasn't been disbanded yet.
His deputy commander's trip back to Beijing...

As a result, Li Shimin and his men made several great achievements, but he had nothing to do with them and didn't get any credit.

Li Yuanji was furious. When he returned to the capital, he hadn't heard a single word about retaking Yunshuo or even attacking Jieli.

They didn't take him seriously at all.

After drinking a pot of Puzhou mulberry wine,

The two brothers were full of complaints about Li Shimin, which was really unfair of them.

As Yuanji got drunk, he slammed his hand on the table and said, "Brother, the second son is trying to take your position as crown prince. You can't just sit idly by like this anymore."

Think back to the previous dynasty, how Crown Prince Yang Yong was deposed by Prince Yang Guang of Jin.

Li Jiancheng, reeking of alcohol, had reddened eyes.

"Li Shimin treated Li Yi, Li Daoxuan, and Li Daozong like his own brothers, while we seemed like outsiders."

If you ask me, we should just go all the way and kill him. Only a dead man can prevent him from threatening my brother's position as crown prince.

Li Jiancheng downed the wine in his cup in one gulp, his eyes red as he shook his head at Yuanji, "Don't talk nonsense. We and Shimin are brothers born of the same mother. How can we kill each other?"

Li Jiancheng thought to himself, but he was still concerned about his reputation.

Besides, he is the crown prince, and it hasn't come to the point where he needs to kill his brother yet. If he really does take action, even if he succeeds and removes a major threat, he will still leave an indelible stain on his record, and might even face the risk of incurring the emperor's wrath, being punished, or having his heir deposed.

“If you are unwilling to do it yourself, brother, I will kill him with my own hands,” Yuanji said through gritted teeth.

Even after completion, he still shook his head.

Li Yuanji said anxiously, "I'm doing this all for my brother's sake. What benefit do I get? Hesitation will only lead to more trouble."

To strike first is to be strong, but to strike later is to suffer disaster.

Brother, don't you even understand this simple principle?

(End of this chapter)