Emperor Zhenguan

Chapter 882 One Bright Line Two Dark Lines

The south has always been a difficult place to deal with, even in the period of the former Sui Dynasty. If this problem is investigated, it must be traced back to the Three Kingdoms period at the end of Han Dynasty.The main reason is that the north and south began to split from the time of the Three Kingdoms. Originally, the Jin Dynasty unified the world and it was a very good opportunity to bridge the relationship between the north and the south. However, the Jin Dynasty also split later, and this split lasted for hundreds of years.

When the former Sui Dynasty unified the world and adopted a policy of appeasement towards the south, they wanted to slowly influence them and let them integrate in.Emperor Sui Yang was more radical. He wanted to kill all the Sinicized Guanlong Hu people in the north, and then move the southerners to the north.

As a result, Yang Guang died first.

Since Li Zhiyun ascended the throne, he has also taken a conciliatory attitude towards the south, giving him certain preferential treatment, so that he can concentrate on solving the Turks, the Guanlong people, and suppressing the Shandong gentry.Now that the empire is functioning well, what should be suppressed has basically been suppressed. For the rest, he will move the south.

This time, we must let them know what it means to be afraid!
"It's so strange." Fang Xuanling was walking on the road, stroking his beard, and asked in doubt: "The saint's investigation is so fanciful, isn't it afraid that someone will spread the news back to the south, and nothing will be found out?"

Du Ruhui said in a low voice: "You don't really think that the saint just sends those few people to investigate."

"what do you mean?"

Du Ruhui nodded lightly, "If my guess is correct, His Majesty's spies have already rushed to Jingzhou and other places. You know, the news this time was not sent by the censor."

Fang Xuanling nodded, then frowned and said, "But if we really find out the truth, this is a big earthquake, how many officials will be involved?"

"There are a lot of three-legged toads, but people with two legs are everywhere. Shandong gentry and Guanlong people have been waiting for this day." Du Ruhui said meaningfully: "The sage knows the way of balance. Nian suppressed the Guanlong people, forcing them to hold their heads up, and they were not lenient when dealing with the Shandong gentry, and they had long intended to ease them up."

Fang Xuanling understood, and immediately cupped his hands and said, "Thank you for clarifying the confusion."

"No, you act in the future, remember to be careful, don't get involved with others."

"I understand."

All along, Li Zhiyun knew that he couldn't suppress the Guanlong people all the time, he had to give them a little sweetness, and then slap them.The best solution is to let them divide internally, create internal discord, and fight against each other, and let them become weaker in internal friction.Otherwise, keep suppressing them, and sooner or later the string will be broken.

This time when investigating the south, he asked Yu Zhining and Wang Gui to go to the area secretly as spies.In addition to them, there are people from Xuanyiwei under Li Zhiyun's command.There are three lines in total, one bright line and two dark lines, neither of which knows the existence of the other.

To deal with aristocratic families, it is naturally more convenient to use aristocratic families.The Guanlong people and the Shandong gentry have had a miserable life these years. Only a small number of them have been reused, and most of them have been left out for one reason or another.They will not let go of this opportunity.

After all, they can see that the empire is obviously not like the former Sui Dynasty. The Tang Dynasty is stronger and richer than the Sui Dynasty. Emperor Li Zhiyun is not as crazy as Yang Guang. .What's more, the emperor is so young, who dares to spend with the court all the time.

Simply put, it would be decent to bow your head early.

In the past, if the people of Guanlong wanted to bow their heads, they still had to see whether the emperor would give them a chance to bow their heads, such as Yu Zhining who had stayed in the same position for more than ten years.Now that he has managed to get this opportunity, he will naturally not give up.

Even if he would be hated by other Guanlong people because of this, he didn't care.

"Now, the inspectors of the imperial court should be on their way. We have to hurry up, otherwise those people will take back their feet when the news comes back."

In Jiangling City, an inn, Yu Zhining said this to Wang Gui.

Wang Gui nodded in agreement, "Next, you and I will split up, and I will go to Anzhou."

"I'm going to Suzhou."

After reaching an agreement, the two separated.

Once this case breaks out, it will definitely be a major case.And Yu Zhining's purpose is to set off this big case and increase his political achievements.

Of the big families in the south, Xiao, Chen, Yu, Lu, and Shen are naturally counted.They control most of the waterways and water transportation, the good fertile land, and the fertile forests, they can be described as a wealthy party.In the former Sui Dynasty, the world was in chaos. Although the south was also in chaos, it was basically the south itself, that is, the aristocratic families did not fight with each other, and they supported each other and took advantage of each other.For example, Xiao Mian of the Xiaoliang royal family, and the bandit Lin Shihong and so on.

In terms of damage, the South is far inferior to the Central Plains.The Wagang bandits in the Central Plains wreaked havoc far more than the south.

Therefore, although their losses are there, they are definitely not very big.In addition, after the imperial court pacified the south, it basically did not affect the interests of this side, and still governed the south with southerners, and stability overwhelmed everything else.

Because of this, the southern aristocratic families have always looked down on the north, always thinking that they are poor and barbaric.In addition, they did not invest in Li Tang in the early stage. As a result, after entering the new dynasty, there were very few central government officials from southern families.

That alone, they don't do stupid things.After all, as long as they live in the south and pay their taxes on time as rich landowners, the imperial court will not really kill them.

But the problem is that in the past few years, the southern aristocratic family found that they are getting poorer and poorer now!
To put it simply, as the imperial court built concrete roads on a large scale, built bridges and opened rivers and canals regardless of the life and death of slaves, the trade between the north and the south was much more frequent than that of the previous Sui Dynasty.

From this, they discovered that the products shipped from the north to the south are more expensive than the same, more useful than the same, and more difficult to manufacture than the same, and the profits are all eaten up by the people in the north, and they don't get any share.

Moreover, the prices of rice grains, herbs, porcelain, silk, etc. they transported to the north cannot be compared with those there.They didn't want to buy it, but they couldn't stand the word "Zhenxiang", so they could only play some crooked ways.

Such as smuggling, such as bribing officials, lowering the price of goods in the north, or directly intercepting roads and robbery.

Anyway, in this place, they just say one thing!

Suzhou Lu Mansion.

Lu Wan carefully took out a stack of rice paper in the study, touched the indescribable touch, his heart was about to explode with joy.This kind of good paper can only be found in Guanzhong, and only there can be bought, which belongs to the real "Luoyang paper expensive".I don't know how many Jiangnan scholars are willing to spend a lot of money to buy a piece of paper, but they can't get it.

As a member of the Lu family in Suzhou, Lu Wan naturally coveted it, but this thing is completely priceless, and if he wants to buy it, he can only wait for the merchants in the north to buy it before shipping it over for purchase.

That's it, I can't buy it yet!
It's not alarmist talk, it's a fact.According to the unreliable information that Lu Wan knew, there is a quota for how much rice paper each merchant can get every month, and no one can take more!
He had inquired about the news from the few companies that could get the goods, and he came to the conclusion that behind the other party were dignitaries from the court.

In this way, he gave up his plan to directly communicate with the people behind the other party, and instead took advantage of the locals.

As for the advantages, it is unspeakable.

In short, he didn't feel that he had done anything wrong, because the rice paper was sold at a sky-high price here, and the price they sold to the north was so cheap that it couldn't be cheaper.

(End of this chapter)