A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Emperor Yuan Cong

Chapter 1218: The Emperor is worried about the difficulty in rewarding merit

Follow the Silk Road all the way eastward.

"Why did the Prime Minister leave quietly? Everyone wanted to hold a grand farewell ceremony for the Prime Minister. Also, why didn't the Prime Minister wait until the Duke of Shixing took office before leaving?"

The sound of camel bells can be heard along the Silk Road, and merchants and travelers are everywhere.

Wu Huaiyu rode on his horse and said with a smile, "I appreciate everyone's kindness."

Wu Huaiyu deliberately kept a low profile when he returned to Beijing this time. He knew that the emperor still had many impeachment memorials on his desk. There were more officials impeaching him, and the content of the impeachment was also more.
Many things did happen, such as he slept with the Queen of Shule, he made his adopted son the King of Shi, he promoted and appointed several of his adopted sons as garrison commanders, and other things such as he destroyed Asijie, killed Buzhen Khan and broke the Shi Kingdom, etc. Many things are controversial.

What a lively Silk Road.

Like him, many merchants and travelers were heading east to Chang'an.

Huaiyi was appointed as the Grand Protector of Anxi, which was a good signal. He originally thought that Huaiyi might have no hope of coming to the Western Regions, and Qiao Shiwang would take over as the Grand Protector of Anxi. Unexpectedly, Qiao was only the deputy Grand Protector in the end, and the emperor finally chose Huaiyi.

The emperor's son-in-law Changsun Chong was the governor of Yanqi, which was to take care of the interests of Changsun Wuji and Gao Shilian's faction.

"Prime Minister, many people have falsely accused you of plundering countless gold, silver and jewelry in the Western Regions. But when you returned to Beijing, you traveled with a small entourage and didn't even drink a farewell glass of wine from the Western Regions officials. How could you leave without leaving the place?" said the captain of the guards.

Huaiyu smiled and said, "What you said is true. If I really looted countless gold and silver treasures, would I bring them back to Beijing openly? I must have sent them back quietly a long time ago."

"The Prime Minister is not that kind of person."

Wu Huaiyu laughed loudly.
During the past two years in the Western Regions, many people gave him gifts, including gold, silver, beautiful women, famous horses, etc., but Wu Huaiyu never accepted them personally. He accepted some in the name of the Grand Protectorate or the camp, but they all went into the public treasury.

Wu Huaiyu is not short of money now.
Moreover, even if he did not accept gifts or plunder during his trip to the Western Regions, he still gained huge wealth.

The Wu family has a huge business network. When he came to the Western Regions, people from the Wu family would naturally come as well. Moreover, the Wu family had already operated in the Western Regions a long time ago and already had a business network here.

You can make money by doing normal business.

Providing the Anxi Army with all the necessary supplies, purchasing captured spoils and slaves, etc., and taking advantage of the war in the Western Regions to carry out some commercial mergers and acquisitions, etc., all these operations made the Wu family earn a lot of money.

These are all fair business practices, without any profit transfer at all.

Of course, with Wu Huaiyu in the Western Regions, the Wu family naturally benefited a lot in business.

For example, the spices from the Western Regions were previously resold by the Sogdians from India or Persia. The Sogdians were the largest spice dealers in the Western Regions, not only monopolizing the entire spice market in the Western Regions, but also exporting to the Central Plains and Rome.

Precious spices such as pepper, cloves and nutmeg are comparable to gold.

As Wu Huaiyu conquered various foreign countries in the Western Regions militarily, the Wu family also directly transported a large amount of spices from Luzon to the Western Regions, especially cloves and nutmeg, which were basically exclusive to the Spice Islands controlled by the Wu family in Luzon.
The cloves and other spices from the Western Regions were either previous stocks or had been passed down from the Wu family in Luzon through who knows how many hands.

Most of them were merchants from Java, who bought from ports in the Spice Islands and sold to ports in Srivijaya, then sold to Sri Lanka. Merchants from Sri Lanka then sold to India. Indian merchants then sold to the Arabian Sea or the Red Sea by land and sea, and then through many other merchants to the Mediterranean coast, or north to Tocharistan, Central Asia, etc.
It's a big circle.

I don’t know how many times the price of spices has increased.

The Wu family produces and sells its own products. The crops grown in the Spice Islands are sent to Luzon for processing, and then shipped to Lugang Port in the Spice Island for distribution.

Some of the spices would be bought by foreign merchants and shipped back to the Indian Ocean, Persian Gulf, Red Sea, and Mediterranean Sea by sea from Guangzhou Port or Quanzhou Port.

However, the Wu family went through Guangzhou to Jiujiang and entered the Yangtze River, or went north to Hangzhou Bay by sea, went through the Grand Canal to the Central Plains, and finally entered Jingyangjingluo.

Large quantities of spices were transported from Luzon to Luoyang and Chang'an, and then along the Silk Road through the Hexi Corridor to Gaochang in Xizhou, where they were distributed.

With the advantages in price and channels, the Wu family quickly occupied most of the spice market in the Western Regions, and then cooperated with many traditional Sogdian spice merchants, wholesale spices to them, and let them sell them to Tocharistan, Transoxiana, Khazar, Persia, Byzantium and other places.

The Wu family quickly seized the market with their cost and channel advantages, making a lot of money every day.

In addition to spices, which were its flagship product, the Wu family also had many other products that entered the Western Regions and were sold to Persia and Rome, such as the always popular white sugar, as well as perfumes, soaps, glassware, and white wine.

These things used to be very popular in the Western Regions, but they were all sold by Sogdian merchants. But now, with Wu Huaiyu's conquest of the Western Regions, the Wu family has directly fought their way in. They have reorganized the dealer system here and are making even more money.

In addition to establishing channels to sell their own products, the Wu family also took the opportunity to buy a lot of land, shops, mines, etc. A large number of princes and nobles in the Western Regions were relocated to Chang'an, Luoyang and other places in the Central Plains. They were forced to sell their assets to cash in.
The Wu family took the opportunity to swallow up many assets.

The Wu family was not the only one to do this. The Tang army had achieved a great victory in the Western Regions, and the nobles in Chang'an did not let it go. They had smelled the blood and came over.

They are all scrambling to grab land and taking advantage of various means. Some of them have ugly ways of doing things, but the Wu family still follows the rules.

In two years, he conquered such a vast area of ​​the Western Regions, even directly encompassing the Khazar Tokharistan River, which greatly benefited many nobles and nobles.

This is also the reason why Wu Huaiyu was able to stay in the Western Regions until the situation was completely stabilized. Many people benefited from him and acquired many assets here because of him. They hope that he will stay in the Western Regions longer to make the situation more stable and clear.

Nowadays, the Silk Road is becoming more and more busy and lively.

In addition to the traditional Sogdian merchants, there are now many more merchants from the Central Plains. Behind these Central Plains merchants are aristocratic families or local powerful families.

Conquer the Western Regions,

But it's not just the emperor who is satisfied. Now there are countless powerful families in the court who have actually benefited from it.

There are many people sharing the piece of meat from the Western Regions now, and it is impossible to spit it out.

Wu Huaiyu was the one who brought them huge benefits, so no one would care even if he slept with the Queen of Shule, beheaded a few Khans, and deposed and enthroned a few kings, even if he was a little more arrogant and domineering.

In fact, many people in the court hoped that Wu Huaiyu would continue to guard the Western Regions, just as Wu Huaiyu had previously guarded Lingnan.
When Wu Huaiyu went to Lingnan, many nobles from the two capitals followed him to Lingnan to buy horses and land, and they all made a lot of money later.
Now that we have conquered the Western Regions, everyone will naturally not miss this wave of dividends. With Wu Huaiyu guarding it, everyone feels that the prospects are broad. Even if they invest more capital, they will definitely make a lot of money and their safety is guaranteed.

Wu Huaiyu's return to Chang'an was actually the emperor's intention, as the emperor did not want Wu Huaiyu to stay in the Western Regions. Wu Huaiyi's final appointment as the Grand Protector of Anxi was not the emperor's original intention, but was pushed by many vested interest groups.

They couldn't stop the emperor from recalling Wu Huaiyu, so they pushed Wu Huaiyi up.
Wu Huaiyi's presence in the Western Regions can somewhat reassure everyone.

Wu Huaiyu summarized and analyzed these things through the letters from relatives and friends in Chang'an. But because of this, Wu Huaiyu was particularly low-key when he returned to Chang'an this time.

When everyone is pushing you to stand forward, you have to be careful. Being a representative is not that easy.

Now in Chang'an City, many people are preparing to warmly welcome him back to the court. Although there are also many people attacking him, there are even more people who want to praise him.

This gave Wu Huaiyu a headache.

He didn't care about those attacks. They didn't hurt him and were actually a good thing.

On the contrary, he felt somewhat uneasy about those people who wanted to welcome him warmly and grandly and praise him loudly.

The merits of this Western Expedition were indeed great enough.
It was so great that it could even surpass Li Jing's previous achievements in conquering the Eastern Turks and Tuyuhun. This time, Wu Huaiyu not only conquered the Western Turks, but also conquered dozens of countries in the Western Regions in one go.

Among them, several tribes and countries were actually destroyed.

It is impossible that his achievements surpass those of his master. No one can surpass the emperor Li Shimin.

But it is possible that one's achievements become too great and threaten the ruler.

Low-key,

I must keep a low profile this time when I return to Beijing.

Wu Huaiyu rode a horse with his entourage and guards. He had no ceremonial guards and did not wear a purple robe or jade belt. He looked like a big merchant on the Silk Road, carrying a lot of goods to Chang'an to sell.

·····
Changan.

East Palace,

Emperor Li Shimin came to the East Palace today specifically to see his grandson.

The Crown Prince's Consort Wu had just given birth to a son for the Crown Prince Chengqian. This was her second child; her first was a girl. The emperor bestowed upon her the title of Princess Taiyuan with a fief of 300 households.

Now, only one year later, Wu gave birth to another son for the prince. This is also the prince's third son. The first two sons were born to Wu Huaiyu's niece, Prince Liangyuan Han.

Cheng Qian held Li Sanlang in his arms and showed him to his father.

As soon as Li Shimin saw this little guy, he fell in love with him.
"This child looks a lot like me."

Li Shimin took the child and held him in his arms with a smile, making the child laugh. The little guy actually smiled at him, which made the emperor even happier.

"Good grandson, hahahaha, the royal grandfather likes it and named him Xian. He hopes that the grandson will become a wise king in the future."

The emperor was so happy that he wanted to confer a title on his grandson.

"Grant my grandson the title of Prince of Longxi."

Cheng Qian had not expected that his father liked his third son so much. He smiled and said, "Sanlang has not been named yet. Please give him a name, father."

Cheng Qian's first two sons were both born to Han, and were named Li Xiang and Li Jue.

Li Xiang was the eldest grandson of the emperor. Although he was born out of wedlock, he was loved by Li Shimin since he was born. He was directly named Prince of Dunhuang when he was three years old.

After that, the second son, Li Jue, was born and was named Prince of Yanmen when he was one year old.

Now, on the first day of the third child's birth, he was conferred the title of Prince of Longxi.

Li Shimin held his grandson and teased him, "I thought Huaiyu returned to Beijing early and should be able to catch up with his nephew, but unexpectedly he didn't catch up."

"Send someone to Longyou Road to welcome him and tell him that he has a new nephew."

After holding and teasing Li Xian, the eighth grandchild, for a while, the child yawned and fell asleep, and the wet nurse took him back to Wu's side. Li Shimin asked Cheng Qian to take a walk outside, and both of them were full of joy.

After walking for a while, Li Shimin suddenly asked Cheng Qian,

"Huaiyu has made such a great contribution in the Western Regions this time. How do you think he should be rewarded?"

Cheng Qian did not answer immediately. Before this, Wu Huaiyu had been promoted to the title of Si Tu, one of the Three Dukes, for his merits in the Western Expedition, and he also still had the title of Prime Minister, who was also the co-director of the Secretariat. Now that he had returned to the court, it was indeed a problem as to how to reward him.

It is difficult to reward great achievements.

It is impossible to make him a king. There was a rule at the beginning of the Tang Dynasty that people with different surnames could not be kings.

Since the founding of the country, the imperial court has conferred titles on many kings, but they were all given the surname of the country and listed as subjects before being conferred the title of king. Or, the chieftains of the barbarians who surrendered were conferred the title of king, but they were basically given the surname of the country.

Now is not the beginning of the country. Even though ministers like Wu Huaiyu have made great contributions, it is not appropriate for them to be granted a surname and be crowned king.

"Like Li Ji, be given a national surname?"

Li Shimin shook his head. "Not enough. If you have made contributions, you must be rewarded. Otherwise, who will work hard for the court in the future?"

"Then grant me a surname and make me king?"

"It's not appropriate to make him a king." The emperor hesitated, and finally said this to his son.

"Then how much money and land will be rewarded?"

"It is said that the Wu family is as rich as a country, and he is not short of money and land."

The emperor and the prince were silent for a moment.

It's really hard to reward such a great achievement!

(End of this chapter)