Tang Dynasty, my wife Wu Zetian

Chapter 221 Wu Meiniang's Private Visit

Li Zhi's imperial procession headed north.

Wherever they arrived at a place, Sun Simiao would dress up as the father-in-law of a wealthy family, and Wu Meiniang would dress up as his daughter-in-law, and they would stay in a village house.

An old person, a woman, would naturally not arouse others' vigilance, not to mention that the woman is so beautiful, which makes it easier for others to like her.

As we traveled north, we indeed heard a lot of news, among which the land system reform was going very smoothly and there was nothing unusual.

In addition, due to the rise of the Mobei trade route, many merchants stayed in the villages and were called "carbon merchants" by the villagers, which also allowed the villagers to earn some money for food and accommodation.

A few days later, the emperor's procession arrived in Lingzhou. Behind Lingzhou was the Helan Mountains. The area north of the Helan Mountains was deserted and uninhabited.

Li Zhi planned to stay overnight near Lingzhou and then turned west.

That night, Wu Meiniang changed into the dress of an ordinary wealthy woman, took a carriage, and left the emperor's camp with Zhang Duohai and Sun Simiao.

Wang Jishan brought a dozen inner guards with him, disguised as servants for protection, and another hundred inner guards followed from a distance.

There are not many villages near Lingzhou. Fortunately, Li Zhi chose to set up camp near a village.

After riding in the carriage for a while, Wu Meiniang arrived in front of the village.

It was already dark at this time, and the farmers went to bed early and got up early. From a distance, the village houses were pitch black, with no trace of fire.

As soon as the carriage arrived at the village entrance, the sound of dogs barking was heard.

Wu Meiniang was not afraid of dogs. After getting off the carriage, she led her people into the village. The barking of dogs became more and more frequent, and noises came from many houses. It was obvious that the owners of the houses had been woken up.

Wu Meiniang was quite experienced. She walked and looked around and soon found the largest house. When she arrived at the door, Zhang Duohai immediately went over and knocked on the door.

This place is quite far from Chang'an, and the public security is a bit poor, so people dare not open the door at will.

"Who is it?" a voice came from behind the door.

Zhang Duohai said, "We are carbon merchants, and we want to go to Mobei. Since it is getting late, we came here to stay overnight."

After a while, the door finally opened.

A dark-faced middle-aged man looked at Zhang Duohai and saw that he was unusually fat. He asked suspiciously, "Carbon merchants rarely pass through our Lingzhou. Are you really a carbon merchant?"

Zhang Duohai said, "My Alang opened a ranch in Mobei. My Aung and my wife went there to seek refuge with him. It was their first time in Mobei and they were not familiar with the roads."

The middle-aged man asked, "Where are your father-in-law and wife?"

Zhang Duohai turned sideways, and the middle-aged man saw Sun Simiao and Wu Meiniang.

After seeing Wu Meiniang, he was stunned for a moment, then quickly made way and said, "Since you are a carbon merchant who wants to stay overnight, please come in."

Wu Meiniang had a very accurate eye. This family was the village headman, and the person who opened the door was the headman's son.

The whole family was woken up and came out to receive the guests.

The people here are simple and honest, with a bit of the style of the frontier. The old man ordered his son to kill a chicken to entertain the guests, and asked the whole family to pay their respects to Wu Meiniang and the other two.

Wu Meiniang had already finished her meal and wanted to decline, but Sun Simiao winked at her and whispered, "Your Highness, in some areas, it is customary to disrespect the host by refusing their kindness."

Wu Meiniang knew that he was knowledgeable, so she nodded and no longer objected.

There are seven people in the headman's family, including the old headman and his wife, and two sons. The eldest son is married and has a son and a daughter, but the second son is still unmarried.

While the women were cooking, Sun Simiao and Wu Meiniang sat in the main room and asked the old man about the situation.

Sun Simiao smiled and said, "Old man, do you sleep well on weekdays?"

Lao Lizheng said with a smile: "When you are old, how can you sleep? You just lie down with your eyes closed."

Sun Simiao smiled and said, "Did you get up early in the morning?"

The old village head said, "Oh, I can't sleep at the hour of Yin. I'll be more energetic if I go to the farm to work for a while!"

Sun Simiao smiled and said, "Your family has many sons and a lot of land. You must be very busy on weekdays, right?"

In the Tang Dynasty, an adult man was allocated 100 mu of land, including 20 mu of mulberry fields and 80 mu of arable land.

The old village head's family has three men and more than 200 acres of arable land.

It seems that there are a lot of fields, but the ancients practiced rotation farming, usually every three years. The headman's family only cultivated 80 acres a year, and the land had to be divided into two, half for spring farming and half for autumn farming.

So each time the family plows the fields, they only need to work on forty acres.

People in this period planted a lot but harvested little, and farming was not as tedious as it was in later generations. They just had to plow the land, sow seeds, remove weeds, and apply fertilizer.

Even if the village head's family can harvest 80 acres a year, the output is actually not that much, and they can only barely make a living.

A family with only one adult could harvest more than 20 mu of crops a year, which was the level of ordinary civilians. They could have enough food and clothing, but when faced with a famine, they would need relief from the court.

"He is busy, but he is not farming his own fields. He is just farming for others." The eldest son of the village head snorted.

The old man frowned and said, "Da Lang, don't talk nonsense."

Sun Simiao and Wu Meiniang looked at each other with some surprise in their eyes.

When they visited villages before, they also encountered cases where villagers became tenants, but only a small number of them were the poorest group in the village.

This is the first time that the village head has become a tenant.

"Old village head, have you sold your land to someone else?"

Lao Lizheng looked a little uneasy. He coughed and shouted, "Mom, isn't the rice cooked yet?"

"almost."

Seeing that the old village head was avoiding the topic, Wu Meiniang turned her gaze and said to the head's eldest son, "We came from Chang'an and heard that the court is reforming the land system. Good citizens who don't have land can report to the government and will soon be allocated land. Does my husband know about this?"

The eldest son of the village head was looked at by Wu Meiniang, and suddenly felt dizzy and said, "We...we can't report it."

Wu Meiniang asked, "Why is that?"

The eldest son of the village head gritted his teeth and said, "We have already helped the owner to stamp the land deed. From the government's point of view, we have the land. How can we report it?"

Wu Meiniang was slightly startled. This was the first time she had encountered such a situation.

The old man slammed the table and said, "Da Lang, stop talking."

The eldest son of the village head said angrily, "Why can't we tell him, father? We have suffered a great loss. In the future, other places will have land, but we won't. Isn't it aggrieved?"

The old man was angrily saying, "The master has done us a favor, we cannot be ungrateful!"

The village head's eldest son angrily said, "They just want to take advantage of us helping them plow the fields. They are just pretending to be kind. If they were really good people, why would they let us help them deceive the government?"

The old man was stunned for a moment, then lowered his head and remained silent. Wu Meiniang said softly, "What happened? Can you tell us in detail?"

The village head's eldest son glanced at her, his expression softening slightly as he whispered, "We in Lingzhou were once plagued by locusts, and the government relief wasn't enough to feed us. At that time, a young man from a wealthy family came to Lingzhou and offered to buy our land in exchange for helping us through the locust plague."

"Later, we became tenants of that wealthy family. They didn't charge much rent, and they weren't too bad to us, so we all got by."

"A month ago, that Mr. Liu came to Lingzhou again and asked everyone to do him a favor."

Wu Meiniang's eyebrows moved, and she said, "Mr. Liu? Could it be the Liu family of Huayuan?"

The eldest son of the village head said, "Yes, they are a well-known and prestigious family in the interior of the country. They are usually very kind to everyone, so when they made the request, we agreed."

Wu Meiniang asked, "What did they ask you to do?"

The eldest son of the village head said, "They returned the land deeds to us temporarily and asked us to help get them stamped by the government. After the work is done, they will return two strings of cash to each household."

Wu Meiniang raised her eyebrows, and a majestic aura naturally emanated from her body.

Liu actually came up with this method to resist the land system reform. In this way, the land deeds of these people were stamped with official seals, and in the eyes of the court, they were self-cultivating farmers.

Yet they were still, in reality, tenants.

When the village head's eldest son saw the change in Wu Meiniang's temperament, he couldn't help but take a step back.

Wu Meiniang put away her expression and smiled, "What happened next?"

The village head's eldest son hesitated for a moment and said, "After we helped them stamp the seal, we realized we were cheated by them. Alas, it's too late to regret now."

Wu Meiniang asked, "Why don't you report them to the government?"

The village head's eldest son smiled bitterly and said, "We cheated the government. If we sue them, aren't we suing ourselves?"

The old village head said in a deep voice, "The Liu family has always been kind to us. Without their help, we would have starved to death long ago. How can we repay kindness with hatred?"

Wu Meiniang said no more.

That night, Wu Meiniang and others rested at the village headman's house, and returned to the emperor's camp early the next morning.

Li Zhi had already woken up and was washing his face in his tent. Seeing Wu Meiniang return to the tent, he looked up and asked, "Meiniang, did you gain anything from your outing this time?"

Wu Meiniang said seriously: "Jiulang, there is a great harvest!"

Li Zhi was shocked and hurried to ask what happened. Wu Meiniang then told him about the method that Liu had used to get the people to help them stamp the land deeds.

"Your Majesty, this is the situation. Fortunately, you came out to investigate this time, otherwise we would have been deceived by these noble families."

Li Zhi pondered for a moment and said, "Fu Sheng, send someone back to Chang'an to check the amount of Liu's land. Also, find out the year of the locust plague in Lingzhou and who was responsible for disaster relief in Lingzhou."

Wang Fusheng said, "Yes," and turned and left.

"Jiulang, should we return to Chang'an or continue our inspection?" Wu Meiniang asked.

Li Zhi turned his head and looked towards the west. He said, "Go further west to Shanzhou, and then return to Chang'an. Calculating the time, by the time we return to Chang'an, news from Subi should have reached us."

……

Subi is located southwest of Lhasa City, backed by the Great Snow Mountain. There is a long river in the area, called the Subi River, which has given birth to countless tribes in Subi.

Among the three major tribes of Subi, Sunbo is located on the north bank of the Subi River, while Niangbo and Dabo are located on the south bank.

Early that morning, Deputy Ruben of Niangbo was handling government affairs when a female official suddenly came running over and said, "Deputy Ruben, Ruben is back."

Deputy Ru Ben was surprised and said, "How come you're back so quickly? Come with me to greet him!"

The female official said, "No need to greet him. Ru Ben ordered three Dong Dai and went to the Nanka tribe."

Between Niangbo and Dapo, there is the Niqu River, and there are three small tribes near the river bank.

Among them, the Nanka tribe is the largest one.

Lu Dongzan was placed under house arrest here, and Niangbo and Dabo each sent an army to guard him.

After Niangbo Golden Bird returned to Subi, he issued two orders.

First, order the Niangbo tribe to prepare for battle, and second, send people to the Great Snow Mountain to investigate whether there are Tubo troops.

Then, he led an army of 3,000 and headed straight to the Nanka tribe to settle accounts with Lu Dongzan.

When she rushed to the Nanka tribe, she found that Dabowu had also arrived with his men.

The two men did not exchange much words and directly brought their men to the outside of Lu Dongzan's tent.

When they came out of the tent, they were stunned.

There should have been troops guarding outside the tent, half from the Niangbo tribe and half from the Dabo tribe, but at this moment, there was no one outside the tent.

The two rushed into the tent, and sure enough, Lu Dongzan was not inside.

"Chief Nanka, where are the Ludongzan people?" Dabowu asked angrily.

The Nanka chief defended himself, "You and the Golden Bird Ruben were guarding him, and you also ordered my men not to approach. How could I know where he went?"

Niangbo Golden Bird said, "Chief Dapo, it seems that the Tang people did not deceive us. Someone in our tribe was bribed by Lu Dongzan."

Dabo stamped his feet and roared, "I must find the traitor and cook her alive!"

At this time, a member of the Niangbo tribe entered the tent and said anxiously, "Chief, all the scouts sent to investigate the Great Snow Mountain have lost contact!"

Niangbo Golden Bird took a deep breath and said, "Chief Dapo, it seems we need to work together to resist the Tibetans!"

Dabowu ignored her and asked a secret agent of the inner guard behind him, "General, what should I do now?"

After Cheng Wuting escorted the two to Subi, he separated from them to prevent any accidents and only sent one spy to follow each of them.

The spy said, "Chief Dapo, please obey Chief Niangbo's command for the time being, join hands with us to resist the Tibetan army, and wait for reinforcements from the Tang Dynasty!"

Dabowu then glanced at Niangbo Jinniao and said, "Okay, I'll follow your instructions for now. How do we fight next?"

Niangbo Golden Bird said, "The terrain of our tribe is not suitable for defense. We should all lead our troops across the river to the north bank of the Subi River, join forces with the Sunbo tribe, and defend the mountain!"

Dabo said: "That's it!"

At the same time, Cheng Wuting, who was hiding in the Subi stronghold, also received the news and knew that the plan was successful. He immediately sent someone to report to Chang'an.

Next, all we have to do is wait for the emperor to order an attack on Tubo.

(End of this chapter)