A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Emperor Yuan Cong

Chapter 1285 Hedong Duo
Zichen Palace.

The emperor announced several pieces of good news.

The ninth prince, Li Zhi, the Prince of Jin, married Wu Liu, the eldest daughter of Wu Huaiyu, the Duke of Chu, as his wife. Then the Emperor's daughter, Princess Jinyang, was married to Wu Jizu, the eldest son of Wu Huaiyi, the Duke of Song.

The emperor finished speaking.

All the important ministers of the Purple Gold rank who were summoned to the Purple Palace to discuss matters could not help but look at the Huaiyu brothers.

Not only are the brothers two dukes, but the two brothers have also married their daughters to the emperor. Wu Huaiyu's two daughters married princes, and one son married a princess. Now the brother's son also married a princess. This is really unique.

"Also, Princess Gaoyang arranged a marriage with the Duke of Yingzhou. The Duke of Yingzhou's second son, Li Siwen, married Princess Gaoyang."

The emperor chose Prime Minister Li Ji's second son as Princess Gaoyang's second consort. In order to make up for the Li family, the emperor also issued a special decree to allow Li Siwen to inherit the title of Duke of Shu from Li Ji's father Li Gai.

Last year, Li Siwen was just a ninth-rank junior military officer in the Prince's Right Guard. He followed Li Ji in the battle in Mobei and came back to report the victory, which made him famous and he was promoted three levels.

Now he is married to a princess, appointed as a royal consort, and inherits the title of Duke of the State. He is a winner in life.

But Li Ji was kneeling in the hall. Although he was smiling, his smile was very stiff and he did not look very happy.

Princess Gaoyang was originally the second daughter-in-law of Fang Xuanling. Less than a year after their marriage, Fang Yiai was exiled to the Western Regions because of his involvement in a treason case. The emperor asked Gaoyang to divorce her husband. Almost everyone in Chang'an knew that Princess Gaoyang was not a person who was filial to her parents-in-law and loved her husband.

Many people fled Chang'an immediately after hearing that the emperor intended to choose Gaoyang as his consort.

Yesterday, Wu Huaiyu came on behalf of the royal family to act as a matchmaker for Princess Gaoyang, but Li Ji's face was as wrinkled as a chrysanthemum.

But in the end Li Ji did not dare to refuse.
Li Siwen wanted to refuse, but was slapped in the face by Li Ji.

Li Ji knew that Gao Yang was not a good person. He was arrogant and domineering. He might break the rules and be dissolute in the future.
But Li Ji couldn't and didn't dare to refuse.

Because of his background, although Li Ji was listed as a member of the royal family, he was not a true royal family. His original surname was Xu. He was one of the founders of Wagang in the late Sui Dynasty. After Li Mi was defeated, he continued to lead the old Wagang troops. After the Tang Dynasty recruited him, he surrendered. Li Yuan once made his father a king.

He surrendered to the Tang Dynasty as a separatist at the end of the Sui Dynasty, and was of the same type as Luo Yi, Du Fuwei, Gao Kaidao, Guo Zihe, Zhang Changxun and others. However, those separatists who were given the surname of the country died one after another later.

They either surrendered and then rebelled again and were killed, or were charged with treason and executed, or simply died suddenly.

Li Ji was lucky, but it was also because he had been cautious for many years. Even though the emperor made him stay in Bingzhou for sixteen years without moving, he did not complain at all.

Now the emperor wants to marry Princess Gaoyang, who has a bad reputation, to his second son. Even if the second son is unwilling, he has to make him agree.

Li Ji agreed to the marriage, and Huaiyu went back to report. Li Shimin was very satisfied.

At this moment, the man in the hall stroked his beard and laughed.

Li Ji smiled along, but it was a very forced smile.

But he is definitely much better than Zhishishili. Zhishishili was previously involved in a treason case, expelled from the court and exiled, and the princess even divorced him. Now he has been recalled by the emperor and his title has been restored, but the princess has remarried.

This is very embarrassing.

He wanted to stage a happy reconciliation, but unexpectedly, as soon as he set out on the road of exile, the imperial sister immediately found another man to marry.

After returning, Zhishisili was seriously injured and had to go to Liaodong to serve as the governor of Jinzhou in frustration.

"Three days later, I will move to Luoyang."

The emperor, in a good mood, finally announced that this meant the Eastern Expedition would officially begin.

After Wu Huaiyu and Huaiyi left the palace, they walked side by side.

"You have offended Duke Ying this time." Huaiyi said.

"Mr. Ying should know that this is not my intention. If he insists on taking his anger out on this, there is nothing I can do." Wu Huaiyu and Li Ji had no grudges against each other, but they did not have any feelings for each other either. Although many of Wu Huaiyu's Wu Party's core members were from Wagangzhai,
But it has nothing to do with Li Ji. Although Qin Qiong, Cheng Yaojin, Niu Jinda Wu Heita and Li Junxian are from Wagang, these people are not from the same mountain as the former three in command of Wagang.

Qin Qiong and his men were not originally officers of the Sui Dynasty, but armed forces of local landlords and tyrants. They joined the Wagang later. By that time, there had been a fierce battle in the Wagang and Li Mi was in charge.

Even his former close comrade-in-arms Changsun Wuji has parted ways with Wu Huaiyu. Li Ji is now allied with Changsun Wuji.

"I would like to thank you on Dalang's behalf for this marriage." Huaiyi said.

"Da Lang is our eldest son and grandson. You won't have any objection to him marrying Princess Jinyang, right?"

The prince consort of the Tang Dynasty did not really have to have only a princess as his wife and could not have a concubine. It was just that if the prince consort of the Tang Dynasty wanted to take a concubine, it was the same as in ordinary gentry and commoners, and he also had to obtain the consent of his parents and wife.

Because most of the Tang Dynasty princesses were unruly, and some did not even respect their parents-in-law, so when the prince consort met such a person, it would be like inviting an ancestor home. If you want to take a concubine, it is entirely up to the princess' mood, and if she says not to allow you, then you can't.

"Princess Jinyang grew up in your house. I know her well. She is a sensible and polite child. Jizu and the princess have known each other since they were young, and they are childhood sweethearts. It is a blessing for that boy to marry Princess Jinyang after several lifetimes of cultivation."

Little Sizi grew up in the Wu family and recognized Wu Huaiyu as his adoptive father. When Liu'er was a child, she was also raised by Empress Zhangsun in the palace. Li Shimin also recognized Wu Liu as his adopted daughter and conferred her the title of Princess of Anlu County.

"Xuan Fu suggested this to me. Otherwise, I would not have thought of this. It's a good thing to keep the wealth within the family."

Wu Huaiyi also laughed and was extremely satisfied with this marriage. If it was Princess Gaoyang, he would naturally avoid her, but he liked Princess Jinyang very much.

Based on his understanding of Jinyang, after Jizu marries her, the princess will probably take the initiative to help him take in a concubine.

Although in general, the second legitimate son of a noble family would marry a princess, there were also many cases where the eldest legitimate son married a princess, such as Zhangsun Wuji, Wu Huaiyu, Xiao Yu, Fang Xuanling, etc.

In fact, there were not so many restrictions on the prince consorts in the Tang Dynasty. Not only could they take concubines, they could also hold an official position. Even the prince consorts in the early Tang Dynasty could basically rise rapidly in their official careers.

"It's not bad for Liu Niang to marry Prince Jin. He has a gentle personality and is very kind and filial. Liu Niang and Prince Jin grew up together. They are a match made in heaven." Huaiyi thinks this is a good match.

A match made in heaven.

Wu Huaiyu nodded,
Li Zhi's temperament seems a bit soft now, but in fact he is gentle on the outside but strong on the inside, and he acts cautiously. This kind of character is actually very good.

"Will King Jin be given a fiefdom on Ryukyu Island in the future?"

"Well, the King of Ji went to Zhuya Island and Qiongzhou, and the King of Jin went to Liuqiu Island and Changtaizhou, which were the fiefs of the King of Wei and the King of Wu."

"That's great. Everything is ready. The royal city, the palace, and the manor are all well run. We can just pick them up when the time comes. How great is that." Huaiyi said with a smile.

Wu Huaiyu also nodded.

"You said, can those two princes come back?"

"Why come back? It's good to stay in the Western Regions. It's more than 10,000 miles away from Chang'an. If you stay there honestly, you can guarantee your safety in this life. But I can't guarantee that if you come back."

Last time, many members of the royal family were implicated and demoted, including the King of Wei, the King of Wu, the King of Shu, the King of Qi and several other princes. In addition, several of the emperor's brothers, including the King of Jing, were also exiled.

That is to say, King Jiangxia Li Daozon returned early.

It's not easy to come back with the charge of treason.

The two brothers went to Yong'anfang,

The emperor ordered the construction of a new gate for the mansion where Wu Huaiyu once lived.

The Wutou Gate was taller, and there were more halberds in front of the gate.
A new plaque was hung on the brand new and tall gate of the mansion: Duke Song’s Mansion.

He was appointed as the Grand Pillar of the State, the General of the Zhenjun Army, the General of the Right Guard, the Grand Protector of Anxi, and the Duke of Song, with a fief of 300 households.

Wu Huaiyu stood there and looked at the magnificent gate.

"Eighteen years really just flew by in the blink of an eye."

Huaiyi was also very emotional. Eighteen years ago, he had just replaced his father and entered the Yuan Cong Imperial Army. In the palace coup in June, he also made contributions in front of Xuanwu Gate. In addition, he was the nephew of Wu Shigui, the meritorious official of Taiyuan Yuanmou and the chief officer of the Yangzhou Grand Military Governor's Office, and was awarded the ninth-rank team leader.
He went to Mount Zhongnan to recruit Xue Wanche, but was ambushed and nearly killed.

He escaped from the encirclement but fell off a cliff. When his life was hanging by a thread, he met his brother Huaiyu who had been separated from him for nine years.

"Eighteen years seem like a dream. I never thought that I would become a duke." Huaiyi sighed, stroking his beard.

"Yes, Xue Wanche was a terrible person back then. My brother almost lost his life to him, and even Xuanfu was almost killed by him later. But now, the grass on Xue Wanche's grave is several feet high, and the Xue family has been destroyed and exiled thousands of miles away.
My brother has now far surpassed Xue Wanche. At least my brother has pacified the Western Regions, conquered the northern desert, and successfully engraved a stone tablet at Yanran. "

Dismount and enter the mansion.

The two brothers were drinking tea in the courtyard. "Recently, our Wu family and many other relatives have been almost breaking down the door of our house. They all want to join the expedition to Liaodong and gain fame." Huaiyi said.

Although the imperial court dispatched an army of 150,000 this time, they only selected elite soldiers from the palace.

Even though many passionate young people from all over the country wanted to provide their own food and clothing, volunteer to join the army, and die in Liaodong, the emperor did not agree.

However, for ordinary people, the road to volunteering to join the army is blocked, but for the children of nobles, there is still a chance.

This opportunity is to accompany him as a child or a subordinate.

At that time, they can serve as personal soldiers and household generals, or they can form a camp for young men and obey orders. If they make contributions, they will naturally be rewarded.

"is it a lot?"

"There are many people every day, and everyone wants to go to Liaodong,"

Fame, wealth and honor will be achieved immediately.

The men of the Tang Dynasty were eager to join the army because it brought great benefits.

If you are lucky, you can become an official after a battle, which means you can directly cross the class.

In the Tang Dynasty, where social status was strictly enforced, this was enough to make people sacrifice their lives. In addition, in the early Tang Dynasty, there were more foreign wars than defeats, and every war was profitable. The various rewards and spoils were very generous, which was much better than farming.

There is also the opportunity to grant land,

Who wouldn’t be excited?

For the children of the Wu family, they were not so short of money and land, but they also wanted to gain merit and official positions.

Even after ten years of hard study, one may not be qualified to take the imperial examination. Even if one has the chance, the new imperial examination system is so strict that one has to pass five levels from the county examination to the palace examination. There are so many scholars in the world, and with an examination held every three years, only a hundred or so Jinshi are admitted. It is too difficult.

War comes fastest.

"You are the deputy commander of the Liaodong Road this time. You can select some outstanding children of your family or relatives to join the army. This will give them the opportunity to gain experience and also allow them to protect you and take care of you." Huaiyu did not object to his children joining the army.

After all, when he first went to Longyou to join the army, he also brought many children from the Wu family, the Fan family and other families with him. This tradition is quite good.

Not only does it involve family members and relatives helping each other and supporting the younger generations, it also brings many benefits and conveniences to oneself.

On the battlefield, swords and guns are ruthless, so of course one’s own children are the most trustworthy and reliable.

"You, the Sima of the Liao expedition, should also take some with you." Huaiyi said with a smile, "I can't break the rules and take too much, I'll give some to you."

There were actually more people who wanted to hitchhike with Wu Huaiyu, but he still agreed.

"You ask them to come to my place, and I will select them carefully then."

This time, Wu Huaiyi was appointed as the deputy commander-in-chief of Liaodong Road. As Li Ji's deputy, he was the main force of the central army. He was very confident about this eastern expedition. With the emperor leading the army in person, success would be achieved immediately.

Wu Huaiyu did not hide anything when facing his own brothers and gave his analysis.

"This expedition will end before the snow falls. The result will probably be to annihilate most of Goguryeo's manpower in the Liao River area, capture several of their major cities, and destroy the Liaodong Thousand Mile Great Wall that they spent 16 years to build.

By then, it will be almost time to return home.”

Wu Huaiyi disagrees with this speculation.

"It would be a great success if we could achieve such a result. We could not destroy Goguryeo in one battle, but we could inflict heavy damage on it. If this battle could achieve the result I mentioned, it would be no different from destroying them.

In the next few years, if they continue to bleed, Goguryeo will completely collapse, and then destroying him will be a matter of course."

He believed that Li Shimin must have had a clear understanding of this, as he could tell from the scale of the army mobilized by the emperor.

There were a total of 150,000 troops by land and sea, and 100,000 Tang troops on land in the direction of Liaodong. This number of troops was actually far from enough to deal with the countless mountain cities across Liaodong.

Even if there will be some auxiliary troops such as Xiqi, Mohe, Turkic, and Tiele,

However, from the deployment of the troops, it can be seen that the emperor's so-called one-war annihilation of Liao was just a slogan, and the real strategic goal was only the Liaohe Plain.

It is a major city and town on the so-called Liaodong Great Wall defense line, including Liaodong City Jian'an City, Anshi City, Gaimu City, and Xincheng.

The emperor would not really care about the gains and losses of a city or a place.

They would not even think of fighting all the way to Pyongyang.

The real goal would be to focus on the so-called Great Wall defense line, mobilize the main force of Goguryeo's elite, and annihilate or severely damage the Goguryeo people's living forces along the Liaohe River.
It doesn't matter whether the city is broken or not.

What’s the use of the city if the main force is gone?

After drinking a pot of tea at Huaiyi's place, Huaiyu went back to his home in Xuanyangfang.

As soon as I entered the house, I saw Erlang Chengye and his younger brothers shooting arrows together, with a few young men with unfamiliar faces standing next to them.

The Wu family's men are all pretty good at archery.
Sixty range shots can hit the target,
At this time, the Wu family men finished shooting, and one of the young men next to them came out and directly ordered the target to be moved back forty steps.

After a hundred steps, he shot an arrow and hit the target. Then he continued to draw his bow, shooting arrow after arrow, until he shot ten arrows in one go.
All ten arrows hit the bull's eye.

This caused Wu Chengye and the others to cheer loudly.

"Brother Xue, come here."

Another tall man walked out of the crowd, drew his bow and aimed at the target a hundred steps away, and shot ten arrows in a row like a shooting star chasing the moon, and all ten arrows hit the center of the bull's eye.

Wu Huaiyu clapped his hands and stepped forward, "I wonder where these two are from, their archery skills are so amazing."

Only then did everyone realize that Wu Huaiyu had returned.

Erlang Chengye introduced the two of them.
The young man who shot the arrow earlier was a relative of the Wu family. He was the cousin of Shibalang Chengying’s fiancée, Wang Fangyi, from the Taiyuan Wang family.

His grandmother was Li Yuan's sister, Princess Tongan. His sister was originally engaged to Prince of Jin Li Zhi, but unfortunately she died of illness later.

"King Fangyi of Taiyuan pays homage to the Grand Commandant."

Wu Huaiyu patted his arm and said, "We are all relatives, why be so polite?" He found that Wang Fangyi's arms were particularly long and his ears were quite big, a bit like the big-eared thief Liu Bei, whose hands were below his knees. He was really tall, at least seven feet and five inches.

"This person is also from Hedong, Xue Rengui from the Hedong Xue family, and a good friend of Brother Wang." Chengye introduced.

"Xue Li from Hedong, courtesy name Rengui, is from the southern branch of the Xue family. His sixth generation ancestor is the King of Hedong in the Northern Wei Dynasty." Xue Rengui saluted respectfully to Wu Huaiyu, his eyes full of admiration.

Judging from his clothes, they are much simpler than Wang Fangyi's.

After some questioning, he learned that Wang Fangyi wanted to ask Wu Huaiyu for help. He wanted to go to Liaodong to join the expedition. Xue Rengui was his good friend and wanted to take him to Liaodong this time.

Although Xue Rengui said that he came from the famous Xue family in Hedong and his sixth generation ancestor was the King of Hedong in the Northern Wei Dynasty, in fact, by his generation, his family had fallen into poverty and he was from a very poor family when he was young.

But he was born into a famous family after all. His ancestors had been officials for generations. Even his father had been an official in the Sui Dynasty. It was only because he died early that the family fell into poverty.

But the so-called poverty is much better than that of ordinary civilians. No matter how poor they are, they still have a piece of ancestral land to cultivate.

Wang Fangyi's father died early, and he was an orphan with a widowed mother. He was not liked by the Princess Tongan and was driven out of the house. He had to go to the countryside to run his own estate. This experience made him get along well with Xue Rengui, who had a similar experience, and they became good friends.

When they heard that the emperor was going to lead the army to Liaodong, the two men discussed it and both wanted to fight for fame on the battlefield. However, the court did not allow the people to volunteer to join the army. So Wang Fangyi finally thought of a way. His uncle Wang Renyou's daughter was engaged to Wu Huaiyu's son in her early years.
He was thinking of finding Wu Huaiyu and going to the Liaodong battlefield as his descendant.

Xue Rengui also wanted to make achievements and bring honor to his family. His wife Liu also supported him to go to Liaodong to join the expedition.
So the two brothers shamelessly came to the Wu family, but they were quite confident because they were not only tall and mighty, but also good at riding and shooting.
He was confident that he could catch the Taiwei's eye and would be able to make achievements in Liaodong. All he lacked was an opportunity.

After hearing their intentions, Wu Huaiyu was also surprised that he could actually meet two fierce men here at once.

Wang Fangyi and Xue Rengui were both fierce generals during Emperor Gaozong's reign. It is no exaggeration to say that they were capable of defeating ten thousand enemies.

Such a fierce man wants to go to Liaodong with him,
Of course it is accurate.

(End of this chapter)