Guiyi Fei Tang

Chapter 366: Revitalizing Beiting
In mid-September, with the end of the autumn harvest, people all over the world enjoyed the joy of harvest.

However, people's joys and sorrows are not the same. Compared with the simple joy of the people in Longyou, the people of the Tang Dynasty were broken up and killed because of the tax increase by the court.

Some people choose to hide in the mountains, while others choose to become bandits.

Compared with them, the 90,000-strong army of Dokang Tubo was also forced by the Longyou army to embark on the road back to Weixi.

Their team stretched for more than ten miles, and tens of thousands of horse-drawn carts were loaded with looted spoils, which were money, food, and other valuables worth nearly hundreds of millions of dollars.

On horseback, the Tibetan soldiers were wearing brocade robes of varying sizes, their faces filled with satisfied smiles.

They showed off their gains to each other. Some of them grabbed gold and silver treasures, some grabbed fine cloth, and some grabbed mountains of food.

Everyone's face was filled with excitement and pride, as if this plunder was the most glorious moment in their lives.

But while they were showing off, Shang Moyan, the backbone of the three armies, was lying in the bedding in the carriage of the team, with cold sweat on his forehead.

It was the transition from autumn to winter. Three days ago, he was frightened by Liu Jilong. Perhaps he was exposed to the wind after sweating, so he caught a cold that night.

When Liu Jilong learned about this, he quickly sent a military doctor to treat him.

Although his illness has been mostly cured, the shadow left by Liu Jilong still exists.

"Cough cough cough...water..."

The atmosphere in the carriage was very depressing. Shang Moyan coughed a few times, and Lu Danzeng quickly handed him a kettle.

After taking a few sips of warm water, my originally dry and itchy throat suddenly felt much more comfortable.

"Dad, how do you feel?" Mei Ludanzeng was sitting next to him, gently patting Shang Moyan's back.

Shang Moyan shook his head and forced a smile: "Much better..."

Lu Danzeng nodded when he heard this, but he knew in his heart that his father's illness was not just a cold, but more of a psychological pressure.

Although he didn't know how Liu Jilong threatened his father that day, his father seemed a little taciturn from that day on.

“Abba, you don’t have to worry about what happened before.”

Meilu Danzeng comforted him, "I have reached an agreement with the commander on your behalf. More than 200,000 horses have been exchanged for 500,000 dan of grain, 100,000 dan of roasted tea, 20,000 dan of coal, and 5,000 boxes of sauce, vinegar, and wine."

“These supplies are enough to bring us closer to those families in U-Tsang and help us gain a foothold in the Six Guards of Dokham.”

After hearing this, Shang Moyan's eyes flashed with relief, and then he slowly said: "Tenzin, you did a good job..."

Before he could finish, Lu Danzeng added, "But the commander said that these things need to be delivered separately. Now we can only send people to Diezhou and Songzhou to escort 300,000 shi of grain."

"For the rest, we will have to wait until the spring of next year when the snow melts before we can send people to Diezhou and Songzhou to transport the rest."

"It will be around this time next year before we can get the goods back from Longyou."

After Lu Danzeng finished speaking, Shang Moyan nodded, then sighed and said, "It's a pity that we can't occupy six states."

Without Lu Danzeng's silence, he also longed to occupy those six states, but their strength was not enough, and even if they occupied them, it would be difficult to defend them.

"How many of us were killed and wounded..."

Shang Moyan asked, and Lu Danzeng subconsciously reported: "More than 13,000 soldiers died, and about 30,000 of the troops were killed or injured."

"But in addition to the money and food we obtained from the looting, we also got an additional 20,000 sets of armor."

"After today, we will have 50,000 soldiers..."

Facing Lu Danzeng's gradually rising tone, Shang Moyan shook his head and said, "Having armor is just the beginning. What is really important is training."

"We can't support 50,000 soldiers. 30,000 is already very good, so we will temporarily put away the armor and distribute it when the battle begins."

"Yes!" Even Lu Danzeng knew what Shang Moyan was referring to.

Although they were all wearing armor, 500 well-trained officers and soldiers were able to defeat thousands of armored bandits. This was the case with the Longyou Army and the Duokang Army.

It was not the first time that Shang Moyan had seen the soldiers under Liu Jilian's command, but it had been four or five years since he last saw them.

When he met Liu Jilian's soldiers again this time, he felt that his 90,000 troops were like child's play in front of Liu Jilian's 20,000 troops.

"Tenzeng, when you get back, you should return to Songzhou to study. We must learn the strengths of Longyou..."

"Yes!"

The carriage that the father and son were riding in gradually went away as their voices became fainter.

At the same time, Liu Jilian, who had complete control over the six states, was also slowly planning the migration of people from the states and counties, preparing to completely absorb the more than 200,000 people into the six states.

The three thousand reserve officials who had been prepared long ago marched south and arrived at the designated prefectures and counties before winter.

A population of more than 200,000 may sound like a lot, but when they began to migrate, the average number of migrants per state or county was not that many.

There were six states and eighteen counties. After the people were relocated, each state had no more than 40,000 people, and each county had a population of just over 10,000.

Under the regulations of Longyou, each county had 22 civil and military officials, and each official was accompanied by three to five direct officials.

Three thousand officials went south, and were employed in only eighteen counties. This number seriously exceeded the number of officials regulated in Longyou, but Liu Jilong had no choice.

Quite a few scholars have been trained over the years, and he must arrange positions for them.

For this reason, as September came to an end, Gao Jinda hurried south to Shiquan County, Maozhou before winter.

This small county of Maozhou, which connects the three eastern states with the three western states, has now become the best place for Liu Jilian to handle the government affairs of the six states.

It took Gao Jinda nearly half a month to place all 3,000 officials in the county government offices so that they could assist in government administration and arrange and handle all matters, big and small, in each county.

"General Jie, at this rate, how many scholars will we have to support in the future? How many official positions will we have to solve?"

Inside the Shiquan County government office, Liu Jilong, Gao Jinda and others were sitting in the simple county office.

Gao Jinda started to complain, but Liu Jilong started to explain to him:

"Longyou can support tens of thousands of students because it is close to the Silk Road and has a lot of money but few people."

"But if we expand our territory in the future and take in more and more people, but the land we take in is mostly not enough to cover our expenses, then naturally we won't have enough money to support so many students."

Before humans entered the electrical age, it was a fantasy to let every child have books to read.

If Longyou had not been backed by the Silk Road, Liu Jilian would not have been able to support so many soldiers and students.

For example, during the Chenghua period of the Ming Dynasty, the prefect of Jiaxing promoted community schools and issued an order: "If children from the public do not go to school at the age of eight, their fathers and brothers will be punished."

Many people take this statement out of context and say that compulsory education was implemented during the Chenghua period in the Ming Dynasty.

However, the fact is that Jiaxing Prefecture had sufficient finances, so it had money and grain to build community schools so that children from the common people could have books to read.

However, if we look horizontally at other states and prefectures in the Ming Dynasty during this period, we will find that other states and prefectures did not have this decree at all, because the financial resources of other states and prefectures could not support too many community schools, let alone so many scholars.

Especially in many prefectures in the southwest and northwest, even if there are tens of thousands of people in a prefecture, they only support one or two hundred students in the prefecture school.

The current system in Longyou is only suitable for the current Longyou. If someone in other provinces follows its example, they will go bankrupt even if they want to support 3,000 students, let alone 3,000 students.

Even if Liu Jilong made movable type printing and improved papermaking technology public, the various schools could not support too many students because their own expenses were too high and their income was too little.

Even if the system in Longyou does not change, with climate change and the gradual decline of the Silk Road, Longyou will gradually be unable to hold on.

The group of officials and students under Liu Jilian's command were just a flash in the pan before the decline of Longyou.

Thinking of this, Liu Jilong couldn't help but change the subject and asked, "How many people are there in the six states, how much land is there, have they all been registered?"

"Okay!" Gao Jinda smiled without hesitation: "It won't take too long for more than 3,000 officials who are proficient in arithmetic to measure the few cultivated lands in the six states."

"The current population of the six states is between 40,000 and 50,000. After all, Shang Moyan and his men did not abduct the people of the other six states except for the craftsmen."

"The total population of the six states is 272,357 people, with more than 68,900 households." "In addition, among the cultivated land measured in the six states, there are 287,654 acres of paddy fields and irrigated fields."

"According to your wishes, each household will be given a working ox or draft horse, and those over fifteen will be given a set of farm tools. The monthly grain distribution is five dou for large households and three dou and five liters for small households."

"After the people learned that we did not collect miscellaneous taxes, but only the main taxes, and gave them food and farm tools to cultivate their land, they no longer wanted to go back."

Gao Jinda was smiling and very happy.

Liu Jilong nodded slightly after hearing this, and then continued: "Food, farm tools, and animal power are only the basics. In addition, coal, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, and tea must also be rationed."

"According to the standard of two kilograms per household per month, is that too much?" He asked Gao Jinda, who sat in his seat and tapped his abacus a few times, then shook his head and said:
"It's not much, but the total amount of money and grain spent in three years will not be less than 300,000 strings of cash or 3 million dan."

"After three years, the six states will be able to reclaim at most 700,000 mu of arable land. Including the current arable land, even if there are one million mu of arable land, the annual tax revenue will only be 300,000 shi."

"At this rate, it will take at least twelve or thirteen years to recover the capital..."

Gao Jinda looked at Liu Jilong, as if asking him whether he wanted to do this thankless task.

In his opinion, the greatest benefits could be achieved by relocating these 200,000 people to the three states of He, Lin and Wei, because there was ready-made public land that could be divided equally.

However, Liu Jilong would definitely not relocate these people, so he could only make things difficult for the other party in this way.

Facing his embarrassment, Liu Jilong smiled and said, "Three years may not necessarily allow them to be self-sufficient, but I don't plan to let them stay here for three years..."

Gao Jinda's eyes lit up when he heard this: "Are you still planning to use troops against Xichuan?"

The reason why he didn't ask about the north was that if Liu Jilian wanted to use military force to relocate people to the north, he would definitely move these 200,000 people directly to the three states of Helin and Wei. There was no need to keep it a secret here.

"Whether I will use military force against Xichuan depends on the intention of the court in sending Yang Zhiwen here."

Liu Jilong spoke frankly, and Gao Jinda nodded: "General Yang has already arrived in Wenzhou, and it is only four or five days away from here."

"If we can learn from him the attitude of the imperial court towards Longyou, we can indeed arrange many things in advance."

"But judging from the court's previous attitude, I'm afraid..."

Gao Jinda hesitated and dared not speak, fearing that his words would become a prophecy, but Liu Jilong did not shy away from this and said calmly:

"If the imperial court wants to fight, then fight, but it's best to let the imperial court take action first..."

Liu Jilian was eager to take over the six states in order to break the situation in Xichuan where he could attack or defend.

Now that the six states are in hand, and Longyou controls the upper reaches of the Yellow River and Wei River, no matter from which direction the imperial court attacks Longyou, Longyou is in a dominant position.

The only thing the imperial court could still rely on was the Long Mountains between Qin and Long states.

"How much grain do we have left?" Liu Jilong asked Gao Jinda. Gao Jinda replied, "More than 3.7 million dan."

"But I have already instructed before I went south, so the government offices in Longyou, Liangzhou and other fourteen states should buy out the old grain from the people."

"According to past practice, we can collect at least 2 million shi."

After Gao Jinda finished speaking, Liu Jilong said without hesitation: "It will snow soon. When the time comes, we can use the reason that grain is difficult to transfer and reduce our grain trade with the court to less than 50,000 dan per month."

Since the imperial court dared to openly discuss whether to attack Longyou, Liu Jilian would naturally fight back.

Grain trade can continue, but the total amount of trade will be decided by Longyou.

"Yes!" Gao Jinda agreed without hesitation, and Liu Jilong continued to ask: "What has Gao Pian been doing during this period?"

Liu Jilian also felt a little strange about Gao Pian's transfer to Xichuan.

However, when facing Gao Pian, the pressure on him was not as great as in the past.

After all, Longyou was very weak in the past, but it is very different now.

"Gao Pian provided relief to the victims and distributed the unowned land in Shuzhou, Pengzhou, and Jiazhou to the poor families in Xichuan."

"I heard that in less than two months, hundreds of thousands of people flocked to the three states. In addition, tens of thousands of warriors were recruited from the starving people. After the Xichuan troops were eliminated, 50,000 troops were retained."

There is no construction without destruction. Shang Moyan and You Shilong invaded Xichuan. Although they abducted a large number of civilians, a large number of wealthy and powerful families also suffered, and many unowned fields appeared out of thin air.

Gao Pian divided the land equally, which not only solved the problem of dense population in Chengdu Prefecture, but also solved the problem of declining population in the three states and the army's inability to recruit civilians.

It must be said that he was quite courageous, and he was not afraid of the wealthy and powerful families who survived the disaster coming to settle accounts with him.

"Gao Pian's stay in Xichuan is not good news for us."

Liu Jilong spoke realistically. Although he did not take Gao Pian seriously, it did not mean that Gao Pian would not cause him trouble.

Because of his sudden rise, Gao Pian was transferred from the Shence Army to a remote area ten years earlier, which changed many things.

In history, Gao Pian could be described as wise before he was fifty years old.

At the age of 43, he was exiled to Annan and served as the Protector General of Annan, in charge of the recovery of Annan.

During the two years before and after, he recovered lost territory, pacified local ethnic minorities, and sent troops to kill the rebel leaders with blood and iron, so that Dali dared not invade the border.

After recovering Annan, he considered that the waterway between Jiaozhou and Guangzhou was blocked by many huge rocks, making shipping inconvenient, so he recruited workers and laborers to dredge the river channel and facilitate the transportation of materials between Jiaozhou and Guangzhou.

From then on, there was no delay in shipping between Lingnan and Annan, and the Annan Protectorate had sufficient supplies.

In addition, Gao Pian built Jiaozhi City, making Jiaozhi City impregnable from then on.

After that, Gao Pian was sent to Tianping, where he made many achievements. Until he was sent to Xichuan, he became arrogant at the age of over 50, and almost fell into trouble when dealing with the Chengdu general.

Later on, Liu Jilong didn't know if this guy had taken too many pills, but he did more and more crazy things.

Youth is brave and resolute, middle-aged is calm and steady, old age is cowardly and crazy...

Thinking of this, Liu Jilong couldn't help but look at Gao Jinda: "You shouldn't take the elixir, right?"

"Pills?" Gao Jinda paused and asked in confusion, "Didn't you say that thing was poisonous, Marshal?"

Gao Jinda had read many books written by Liu Jilong, so he naturally knew about mercury poisoning from elixirs.

"It's better not to eat it. This thing is not a good thing. Countless emperors have died from it throughout history."

Liu Jilong breathed a sigh of relief. He and Gao Jinda had been friends for more than ten years, and he didn't want to see Gao Jinda taking drugs and becoming like Gao Pian in his later years.

But then again, it seems that Gao Pian started taking drugs slowly during his time in Xichuan, and now I have not heard that he has a drug habit.

Liu Jilong thought about it and realized that people usually take drugs to prolong their life. Although Gao Pian is about to turn 45, he is still in his prime overall and should not be thinking about taking drugs.

But this makes this guy even more difficult to deal with.

To deal with such a person, it is best to use the strategy of sowing discord, and there are many things about Gao Pian that are worth using the strategy of sowing discord.

After thinking about it, Liu Jilong looked at Gao Jinda and said, "Think of a way to spread the rumor that Gao Pian wants to control Sanchuan and establish his own regime in Dongchuan and Shannan West Road."

"It would be best to send someone to pretend to be a servant of Gao Pian's family and try every means to get the court officials to recommend Gao Pian to control Sanchuan."

Gao Jinda became excited when he heard this, knowing that his commander had the idea of dealing with Gao Pian, so he immediately asked, "What if it backfires and the court really appoints him to control Sanchuan?"

"No problem!" Liu Jilian was not worried about this matter, because he knew in his heart that it was impossible for the Tang court to hand over Sanchuan to one person for control.

Even if the emperor agreed, the eunuchs in the Northern Department would not agree.

Thinking of this, Liu Jilong was about to continue discussing the details with Gao Jinda, but at this time he saw Huke Siguang entering the yamen with a big smile on his face.

"What's wrong?" Liu Jilong asked in a high voice.

"General!" Hu Siguang walked quickly into the hall and took the initiative to bow and said:

"Anxi reported victory. Envoy Zhang joined forces with the Khitans and severely damaged the remaining Uighurs in Tingzhou. Ponteler led his army to retreat westward to Huangcaopo!"

(End of this chapter)