Tang Qi Tan

Chapter 599 Disposal
Chapter 610 Disposal

This night, for hundreds of officials and thousands of officials in Jiangling City, it was undoubtedly a night of panic and extraordinarily tormenting.Because, many people have received their Shangguan's letter, and went to a certain place overnight for interrogation.

After most of them went there with trepidation, they were only asked a few simple words on the spot, and then sent them back full of questions.But there are also people who enter the designated place and never come out again; this is a bit frightening.

However, to the many scholars and common people in Jiangling City, it seemed plain and uneventful.Only after the curfew ended at dawn and they went out of the house again to gather in the square market, would they hear a few street rumors and see some strange soldiers patrolling the street.

Occasionally, some people in the market who delivered food and firewood or ran errands on the street discovered that several houses in Zi (inner) city where officials and rich people gathered together had been raided and sealed. ; and some weeping and wailing within the high walls of closed doors.

And the Jiangling county government office, which reopened, was taken over by a whole team of armored soldiers.And in the treasury in the back hall of the county yamen; under the supervision of a military academy, a dozen or so old officials tremblingly found piles of old documents and household registrations.

Then it was transferred to another room; it was inspected and compared by a special person.Occasionally, one was picked out individually, and then it became a squad of sergeants running across the street; then, they broke into a certain inn, shop, and folk house, and took all of them away.

In the midst of this continuous search and arrest and the tense atmosphere of the whole city, Jiang Tian, ​​who was supposed to sit in the government office, came to the embankment outside Jiangling City in disguise.Jiangling Mansion is located at the junction of the Jianghan Plain and the upper and lower waterways of the Yangtze River.

Therefore, it is known as the thoroughfare of the seven provinces in later generations.And in this time and space, it is also a strategic hub connecting and running through the Xiajiang Road in the upper reaches of Bashu, the Jiangxi and Huainan Roads in the lower reaches; the Hunan (Sanshui River Basin) Road in the south, and the Shannan East Road (Nanyang Basin) in the north.

As the saying goes, it is a place of victory that "controls Bashu on the right, connects Wuyue on the left, connects Wuling in Nantong, and goes to Shangdu in the north."Therefore, shipbuilding, shipping, and water and land commerce have been extremely developed since ancient times. Just outside the embankment, there are many port and city piers, such as Houhu, Left/Right Shatou, and Caoshi.

And on the open space between the inner side of the levee and Luocheng/Waiguo, a large area of ​​the city and Xiafang area with vehicles, boats, mules, horses, mansions, shops, and buildings has been formed; almost densely occupying the space in the levee, almost all There are not many traces of the old farmland left.

This is also when Taixing was reformed, Jiangling Mansion was directly divided into one of the [-] directly-administered mansions in the world next to the two capitals; An important reason for Jiangling Mansion.Because of the importance of taxation in Jiangling.

We must know that since the founding of the Tang Dynasty, it has been ranked among the most prosperous places in the world with "Yang Yi Yi Er, Chu San Long Si".Among them, Yangzhou Prefecture, which is the economic center of the southeast and a product transshipment hub, naturally ranks first in the world for a long time; followed by Chengdu Prefecture, which is located in the rich and abundant Jiannan Sanchuan.

Ranked third among them is Jiangling Mansion, where the core of the hometown of Jingchu is located; since ancient times, because of the richness and abundance of the place, generations have been able to produce a large number of famous men and women; and there are "more pipas than rice bowls; more measures than crucian carp." Many jokes handed down from generation to generation that "planting flowers is like farming";

Therefore, in terms of taxes and other local tributes provided to the imperial court, Jiangling Mansion also surpassed Liangzhou Mansion, which was located in the "Longsi" and was located at the end of the Silk Road in the Hexi Corridor.It is almost occupied by one prefecture, and the annual tribute, tax and miscellaneous payment of the twelve prefectures in Jingnan is less than half.

It can also be said that the Anshi Rebellion made the densely populated Northland corrupt and dilapidated. At the same time, the imperial court was able to quickly quell the civil strife by relying on the south, which is far away from the flames of war, and the wealth towns in the rear, to continue blood transfusions, and to promote light corvee and light taxation in the north to recuperate. Of the policy.

In the following ten years, they continued to launch successive years of campaigns against Nanzhao and Tubo; even intervened in the civil strife in Huihe, and finally dismembered them, and re-supported and strengthened the Anxi and Beiting Dufu; Zhengtuo's series of long-term strategies.

Although, after more than a hundred years of peace, the importance of Jiangling Mansion as an inland hub has been greatly reduced; even in the economic/tax rankings of the two capitals and sixteen mansions, it has given way to the number one in the South China Sea. The Guangzhou government of the port, and even the Jiaozhou capital of the governor of Annan.

However, compared to Guangzhou and Jiaozhou, which were in fact deeply influenced by the princes of the South China Sea feudal states, who shared considerable profits with various rights and interests; the imperial court center had stronger control in Jiangling Mansion, and the tax revenue was more pure.Therefore, Jiang Tian's visit this time was also entrusted by Liu Zhan, the prime minister.

It's just that wherever his eyes pass by, whether it's the city under the embankment or the port city outside the embankment; the most intuitive feeling is a large area of ​​cold and empty scenes; among them, there are only a few burnt docks, and there are a few boats and merchants coming and going; But it also seems to be in a hurry.

Most of them were frowning or sighing, more like families who fled to Fucheng with their families to seek asylum.Obviously, after a long period of peace and prosperity, the war that broke out suddenly and spread to the Jiangling city has had a serious impact on the territory of Jiangling Prefecture.

Therefore, during the whole day, Jiang Tian led people to patrol outside Jiangling City, checked the surrounding terrain and inquired about the hydrological situation, checked the water and land patrols and checkpoints arranged on the periphery; and found many problems on the spot.For example, some people took the opportunity to pretend to be officers and soldiers and set up cards for blackmail.

There were also people swimming on the river with punting boats, using the transition as a cover to rob the fleeing people.Obviously, the social order in a place a little farther away from Jiangling City has been allowed to collapse; this also made Jiang Tian lose confidence and hope in the officials in Jiangling Mansion.

Therefore, he then transferred several regiments of Xingyuan cavalry from the city, and ordered to expand the range of warning and search; he also ordered people to rush to build civil structure fortresses at some designated locations.After being busy until nightfall, Jiang Tian still did not return to the city but came to the southeast of the city.

A tributary of the Jingjiang River that passes around Jiangling City joins Dachan Lake in Anxing County here, forming a estuary called "Haoxue" that hits sandbars and river swamps; Therefore, under the moonlight, the boundless water is shining like a sea.

This is also an area where "Jiawei is full of hope" and "haunted by giant thieves" since ancient times.Therefore, there is always a water village of the Jinghu Navy under Jiangling Mansion.It's just that this water fortress has been breached and burned to nothing, leaving only a few blackened and dilapidated ruins still standing stubbornly.

In the silence of the whistling wind, the rushing water, and the chirping of insects and birds, a dozen figures suddenly appeared from the ruins.I saw them wearing short leather armor and tight jackets unique to the navy, with bare legs and short hips, and their heads were shaved short, saluting silently.

They were members of the naval scouts who were specially pardoned and pardoned after the preliminary interrogation by Jiang Tian, ​​and returned to their crimes and meritorious deeds; most of them were from local fishermen and boat people.Jiang Tian made the condition of taking in and protecting their relatives in exchange for their unconditional cooperation.

One of the sailors, with freshly torn scars on his face, saluted respectfully: "Greetings, Shangguan, the ancient battlefield you want to find is in the depths of the sandbar not far away; it is said that the ancient battlefield of the Three Kingdoms Even now, there are occasional rusty weapons being rolled out by Chao Xun."

"Okay, then please lead the way!" Jiang Tian nodded and said: Jingzhou/Jiangling Mansion has been an important point in Jianghan since ancient times, and a place where military strategists must contend in troubled times. It can be said that there have been large-scale battles; There were three major battles between Wei Wu/Wu Shu.

The most famous one is "Crossing the River in White Clothes" by Lu Meng attacking Jingzhou; it caused Guan Yu, the martial sage who had just "flooded the Seven Armies" in the Battle of Xiangfan and reached the pinnacle of his life; In the long river of history.Therefore, there are ancient battlefields all around.

Of course, there are actually not so many lurking aliens in Jiangling City.In addition to the gut-eating ghost who became the local censor's official, only two others of the same kind were found; they were the son of a wealthy businessman who had a lot of friends, and a captain who had escaped from Unity.

But this discovery is enough to make these local powerful figures feel insecure, and they don't know who else they can trust around them.Therefore, they would rather not go home for a short period of time, but stay in the government office to accept the protection of laymen and soldiers, and entrust them with overall investigation power.

And Jiang Tian took advantage of this opportunity to establish his prestige, and just took away some existences in key positions that might be in the way in the name of interrogation and review; even if no loopholes and handles were found in the end, it would be no problem to isolate them for a period of time.This can also better supervise others.

This is also an upright conspiracy method. In a short period of time, it is clear that the situation is wrong, and it is difficult to pick out specific problems.Therefore, Jiang Tian adopted two-handed preparations and multi-pronged follow-up measures with one inside and one outside, and the movement and silence were appropriate.With this in mind, he came to the sandbar.

I saw the sky completely turning the clouds to see the moon, and generously sprinkled soft light on everything; it also dyed the clear and dark water surface, the weeds and reeds swaying in the night wind, and the delicate sand dunes into frost. white color.Then with a thought, Jiang Tian took out a small skull out of thin air.

This skull is only as big as a child's fist, translucent and transparent like agate; it also has traces of frosty patterns; it is like a handicraft carved out of chalcedony.However, this is a strange thing from another world, a certain existence found in the underground altar of Seina City.

It is also the source of the alien headless horseman (Dulla Khan) who came with the frost in the flowing mist.However, after the transformation across time and space, the skull that was originally the size of a normal human head has shrunk to such a small size, Jiang Tian intends to use it to try.

(End of this chapter)