Man Tanghong

Chapter 43 The Benefits of Notoriety

The reason why Luo Shixin appeared outside the city with soldiers and horses was because he thought there was a battle to be fought.

It was only after leaving the city that it seemed that King Qi wanted to suppress the refugees.

Ross contemptuously.

King Qi was cowardly like a dog on the battlefield, but he was extremely fierce when dealing with his own people.

However, what King Qi did afterwards made him a little dazed.

After Xie Shufang and Li Sixing arrived with Bingzhou soldiers and horses, Li Yuanji ordered decisively, "All the soldiers and horses, headed by the team, lead a team of soldiers and horses, and send the people outside the city to townships, towns, counties, etc. according to their origins. States, compiled into square columns."

Xie Shufang and the governor of Shanzhou immediately went down to carry out Li Yuanji's order without the slightest hesitation.

The governor of Guozhou was a little hesitant, but when Li Yuanji's eyes fell on him, he hurried to carry out Li Yuanji's order.

Luo Shixin saw that Li Yuanji didn't want to harm the refugees, but divided them into groups, and seemed to have the intention of resettling the refugees, so he immediately rushed forward.

"Your Highness, my minister Luo Shixin, is willing to order Jiangzhou soldiers and horses to assist."

Li Yuanji nodded, "Yes!"

Luo Shixin immediately ordered soldiers and horses to help.

When Luo Shixin went to give the order, Li Sixing approached Li Yuanji, "Your Majesty, Li Sixing, see Your Highness."

Li Yuanji was angry in his heart, so he didn't speak, but just nodded.

Li Sixing hesitated for a moment, and said, "Your Highness wants to resettle these refugees?"

Li Yuanji nodded again.

Li Sixing said with a bitter face: "Luoyang has no shortage of places to resettle refugees, but there is no surplus food to support them."

The once prosperous city of Luoyang experienced a sharp drop in population after several wars.

Now under the Luoyang order, there are only [-] households.

With a population of [-] households, it is not enough to fill the Luoyang Palace, let alone the entire Luoyang.

Therefore, there is no shortage of places for refugees to live in Luoyang. Many abandoned houses, mansions, and royal forests can accommodate many refugees if they are repaired.

But it is precisely because of the small population that Luoyang has no food at all, and cannot afford to support such a large number of refugees.

The military rations cannot be moved, and there is no food to adjust elsewhere.

So refugees are easy to resettle, but hard to raise.

Li Sixing knew the difficulty, so he had to remind Li Yuanji aloud.

Li Yuanji looked at the refugees who were freezing in the cold wind and were covered with sores, looked at those refugees with yellow and emaciated faces who seemed to be starving to death at any time, and gritted his teeth: "Let the soldiers and horses in the mansion and the soldiers and horses in Bingzhou go out first." For some rations, let them have a bowl of porridge a day. Let’s talk about the rest when the Luoyang order arrives.”

Li Sixing was shocked, privately withholding the food and grass of soldiers and horses was against military law, if the soldiers didn't have enough to eat, they would have resentment, if not, it would be a mutiny.

"Your Highness!"

"I'll take care of the commander-in-chief. The soldiers and horses of the mansion and Bingzhou suffered a loss. I will give them some land in Wangzhuang and the fief to cultivate for three years without collecting any taxes. It is regarded as compensation for them." .”

Li Yuanji naturally knew that if his soldiers and horses were not fed enough, the soldiers and horses under him would complain.

So he gave a generous compensation method.

Give them some land without tax, let them plant it for three years, not to mention let them eat less, even if they drink a bowl of porridge a day, they will be happy in their hearts.

The war hasn't started yet, so it doesn't hurt to eat less.

Seeing that Li Yuanji offered such a generous compensation method, Li Sixing didn't care about this issue.

"The rations saved by the soldiers and horses in the house and the soldiers and horses in the fief are just a drop in the bucket."

Li Sixing sighed with a wry smile.

How many refugees?
100,000 people.

The total number of soldiers and horses in the mansion and those in the fief is less than 5000 people.

This is because the soldiers and horses of Bingzhou belong to the Qi Palace, and the establishment is a bit beyond the standard.

Otherwise, there are less than 4000 people.

Even if less than 5000 people do not eat, the rations saved are not enough to feed 100,000 people.

Li Yuanji glanced at Li Sixing, but did not speak.

Li Sixing realized that Li Yuanji didn't want to talk now, so he didn't speak again.

Luoyang Ling did not appear in front of Li Yuanji until two hours later.

After Li Yuanji asked, he found out that in order to flatter him, when he learned of his arrival, he ran to clean up the imperial Lin Wan left by Qian Sui.

The purpose is to make him live more comfortably.

Of course, it's also possible that he wanted to flatter Li Shimin, but he just did it incidentally.

Li Yuanji was not at all polite to the Luoyang order, and asked straight to the point, "As the Luoyang order, why don't you resettle the refugees who fled to Luoyang?"

Seeing that Li Yuanji's tone was not friendly, the Luoyang Commander hurriedly complained and said, "I have to prepare the camp for the army to stay, and also prepare the food, clothing, housing and transportation for the superiors and the two highnesses. I really have no time."

"You don't need to worry about our food, clothing, housing and transportation in the future. You can concentrate on resettling refugees."

Li Yuanji stared at Luoyang Order coldly.

Luoyang Ling felt the unkindness in Li Yuanji, hesitated for a while, and gritted his teeth: "There are only less than [-] households in Luoyang, and there are quite a few vacant houses. It is not difficult to accommodate refugees.

But refugees not only need shelter, but also food.

There is not even half a grain of grain in the Luoyang granary.

The minister can't change the food either. "

Li Yuanji frowned and said, "Is there no way?"

Luo Yangling shook his head with a bitter face.

He is not an idiot, if he had food in his hand, how could he miss this opportunity to make meritorious deeds.

Whether it is dedicating food to the imperial court as military rations or giving it to refugees, it is a great achievement.

Going up a liter is a breeze.

But he had no food, and could not raise food.

It is really hard for a clever woman to cook without rice.

Li Yuanji was sullen and lost in thought.

After a long time, he stared at Luoyang Ling and asked, "Are there any big households in Luoyang?"

Luoyang Ling stared at him.

Li Sixing and Qu Tutong also stared.

Luo Shixin, who was eavesdropping, also looked at Li Yuanji in astonishment.

According to what Li Yuanji meant, it seemed that he wanted to take the big family members under the knife.

Except for a very small number of reckless and rogue bandits who can't make a fortune, most of the decent or capable forces are unwilling to be enemies of the big family.

Because a large family is not a family, but a collective.

Kill one family, and the other families will become vigilant.

When necessary, they will also gather clansmen, servants, etc., and pull up a large team.

In the chaotic times of the former Sui Dynasty, all the anti-kings who could become famous had a powerful family or a number of powerful families standing behind them.

Li Tang's country is not stable now. Hebei has Liu Heitai, Shuofang has Liang Shidu, and Jingzhou, Yangzhou and other places also have many rebel troops entrenched.

Li Yi, Du Fuwei, Gao Kaidao, etc. are still 'warlords' at present.

Once the big family is mobilized and a wave of anti-Tang is set off by the big family, then Li Tang, a young seedling, is likely to die.

It is precisely because of this that Li Yuan, Li Shimin, and Li Jiancheng knew that those wealthy families had food in their hands, so they did not attack them.

Luo Yangling felt terrified, opened his mouth, but didn't dare to say a word.

Qu Tutong, Li Sixing and Luo Shixin looked at Luoyang Ling, wishing to see through Luoyang Ling.

But if Luoyang Ling said a word wrong, they would immediately violently kill people.

They are the beneficiaries of Li Tang's establishment of the country, and they must firmly support Li Tang to rule the world.

Li Yuanji can be stupid, but Luoyang Ling is not qualified for that.

"Do you have?!"

Li Yuanji asked loudly.

Luoyang Ling was agitated, and hurriedly said: "No...it's long gone. Since the mid-year war, the big households in Luoyang either died in the war or left Luoyang."

Li Yuanji looked disappointed.

Qu Tutong frantically gave Li Sixing his eyes.

Li Sixing hurriedly said: "Your Highness, the big family is the mainstay of our Great Tang, and must not be hurt."

Li Yuanji knew why Li Sixing said this.

The clan of the Great Tang family had a great reputation, Li Yuan was not easy to provoke, how could Li Sixing just watch him stab that hornet's nest.

But he really didn't intend to take the big family's family seriously.

He just wanted to get some food from the big family through the method of interest replacement.

Li Yuanji ignored Li Sixing, but said to the Luoyang order: "You send someone to send a letter to the big households around Luoyang, those who intend to become an official, offer [-] shi of grain, and officials under the fifth rank will get [-] shi of grain. The top six ranks, eight thousand stones of grain, the bottom six ranks, and so on.

The officials of the Wangfu, the officials of Bingzhou, and the officials of Xiangzhou Dao, they can choose at will. "

In extraordinary times, only extraordinary methods can be used.

In the case of not being able to move the big family, they can only exchange their official positions for food.

Although this method is not very attractive to the direct descendants of those powerful families, and those powerful families might scoff at them if they know about it, it still has a certain attraction to the collateral descendants of those powerful families and the descendants of the powerful families.

Some wealthy rural clans may also collect a batch of food to seek an official position.

Li Yuanji didn't care at all whether the person who exchanged the official position was talented or not.

When those people enter the officialdom, those who are talented will be transferred to useful places. Those who are not talented will not need Li Ji to take action, and their colleagues will kill them.

Even if their colleagues can't kill them, Datang still has a lot of uncultivated wild lands to house them.

As long as those aristocratic families and powerful families are not stupid, it is impossible to send a fool out to be an official.

The only disadvantage of Li Yuanji's doing this is that he will probably be criticized to death by the officials in the court, even if he did it for the sake of refugees.

It would be dereliction of duty if the officials don't complain.

Qu Tutong, Li Sixing, and Luo Shixin were visibly relieved when they heard that Li Yuanji had no intention of targeting the wealthy family.

Hearing that Li Yuanji exchanged his official position for food, they didn't say anything except a wry smile in their hearts.

What Li Yuanji exchanged was his official position in his own house and his own territory for food, and he did not exchange official positions in other places for food. conflict.

Therefore, he will only be targeted by the speaker, and will not be targeted by others.

After Li Yuan learned of this, he probably would have raised the board high and lowered it gently.

First send someone to pass the decree, scold Li Yuanji, order Li Yuanji not to do this in the future, and then cut Li Yuanji's idle job.

If other people do this, they will lose their skin if they don't die.

If Li Jiancheng dared to do this, his reputation would be bad, and the position of prince would not be stable.

If Li Shimin dared to do this, Li Yuan and Li Jiancheng would probably wake up laughing, and then madly help him to make a name for himself, and his reputation would be rotten.

What does it matter if Li Yuanji's reputation is bad for doing this?
Isn't it reasonable for a notorious prince to do a notorious thing?
(End of this chapter)