A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Emperor Yuan Cong

Chapter 1291: Do extraordinary things in extraordinary times

"A wise general will try to get food from the enemy. One catty of enemy food is worth twenty catties of ours. One shi of enemy wood is worth twenty shi of ours."

In Yingzhou Liuchengli,
Li Shimin swept away the depression and dullness of the past few days since he left Yuguan, and even held a banquet in the evening to celebrate the great victory and to show the good news to the kings and envoys of various foreign countries who came to watch the battle.

The king's uncle, Zhangsun Wuji, held a proclamation and announced the results of the battle one by one.

The Battle of Gaimu captured a city, captured more than 20,000 people, and seized more than 100,000 shi of grain. The Battle of Jian'an also captured a city, beheaded thousands of people, captured more than 20,000 people, and seized more than 100,000 shi of grain.

The total number of beheadings exceeded 10,000.
More than 50,000 prisoners were taken.
What made Li Shimin most happy was the seizure of more than 200,000 shi of grain and fodder.

"When Emperor Yang conquered Liaodong, he conscripted civilians to transport grain and stored it in the towns of Luhe and Huaiyuan. None of the oxen on the grain carts returned, and more than half of the soldiers died. The fields were left barren due to missed farming seasons, and coupled with famine, grain prices soared, especially in the Guandong region, where a bushel of rice was worth hundreds of coins."

"Emperor Yang conscripted more than 600,000 rickshaw drivers, each of whom was asked to push three dan of rice. However, the road to transport grain was long and difficult, and the three dan of rice was not enough for the drivers to eat on the way. When they arrived at the towns of Luhe and Huaiyuan, the drivers had no grain to pay, so they had to flee for fear of being punished."

Speaking of this, Li Shimin was full of emotion. When the Sui Dynasty conquered Liaodong, Emperor Gaozu Li Yuan was the Minister of Weiwei, and was in charge of grain logistics and food matters. The young Li Shimin also followed his father and witnessed the difficulty of transporting grain to Liaodong.

It can be said that the failure of the expedition against Liao was largely due to the failure in logistics and food supplies.

The expedition to Liao also drained a huge amount of the national treasury, exhausted the people, caused famine, and then civil unrest, leading to the demise of the Sui Dynasty in the second generation.

Li Shimin knew better than anyone else how precious food was on the battlefield.

The more than 200,000 shi of grain seized was equivalent to one million shi transported from the Central Plains.

The Tang army soldiers were required to receive two liters of food rations per day on the battlefield. One hundred thousand soldiers consumed two thousand dan of food per day, which meant sixty thousand dan of food per month. However, in normal combat situations, the standard was increased by one liter per day, which meant ninety thousand dan of food per month.

But this does not include the food that the army's war horses, draft horses, and a large number of mules need to eat. Mules consume a lot of food, and they cannot just eat grass. Even a war horse consumes five or six times more food than a soldier.

The more than 200,000 shi of grain seized this time was almost enough to cover the food consumption of the Liao army for two months.

However, to transport more than 200,000 shi of grain from the Central Plains to the Liaodong front, it might cost more than one million shi, because a large number of civilian laborers were needed for transportation. It would be better in the inland areas, where there are canals and highways, and transportation is better and more convenient.

But after leaving Yuguan, one had to take mountain roads and valley paths, and also had to pass through Liaoze. Two people pushing a cart to carry three stones of grain in one trip was not enough for the laborers on the road to eat.

If you use oxen to pull the cart, the oxen will basically be useless after one trip.

The saying "one catty of enemy food is worth twenty catties of our own" is definitely not an exaggeration.

These two battles not only demonstrated the power of the Tang Dynasty, but more importantly, they solved many food and grass problems.

Su Dingfang had led the Youying troops and Xiqi's army to forage on the border, and they had obtained a lot of food, grass and livestock.
At the same time, a large number of Goguryeo people from the border areas were driven into the Great Wall. These people left their hometowns and villages and retreated to the rear, and could only retreat to various mountain cities.

This accelerated the enemy's accumulation of food in various mountain cities.

Now the expedition against Liao has just begun.
They destroyed two important enemy towns, raided all the villages on the border outside the Liaodong Great Wall, and drove countless border civilians into the Great Wall.
They also obtained enough food and fodder for the 100,000-man army to last at least three months.

Food supply has always been a major problem that has troubled Li Shimin in his expedition to Liao, so in the end he discussed it with Li Jing, Wu Huaiyu and others, and finally decided to send 100,000 troops to Liaodong and 50,000 to the sea.

This is because no matter how many soldiers there are, the supplies cannot keep up, and too many civilians and food fodder need to be conscripted.

Now, the biggest problem has been solved right away.

And also obtained two large strongholds.

The Turkic and Uighur kings, khans, princes, and envoys invited by Li Shimin were also deeply shocked.
I thought the future of this expedition to Liao was uncertain.
Two ministers died of illness on the way, which was a bad omen.

result,

This is good news.

"Those who have made contributions should be rewarded, and the reward should not be delayed," Wu Huaiyu congratulated the emperor and suggested that an imperial decree be issued immediately to inform the entire army to reward the soldiers who had made contributions this time, and the reward should be heavy.

This is a great victory at the beginning.
Got to boost morale.

"Yes, they should be rewarded." Li Shimin laughed. "Li Ji, Ma Zhou, and Wu Huaiyi, the three of you, conquered Gaimu City and captured a lot of prisoners. So each of them will be promoted to a higher rank, and given an additional 100 households. In addition, each of them will be given a county baron title for their military merits."

"Li Daozong, Su Dingfang, and Zhishishili, three generals, have made great contributions in conquering Jian'an City. They will also be promoted to the next level of official rank, given the title of a hundred households, and one of their sons will be given the title of county baron."

When this reward was issued,
There were many exclamations below.

I'm really envious.

It's really rare.

From the founding of the Tang Dynasty to the present day, there are only about eighty meritorious officials who have been granted titles.

The largest number was 2,800 households in Wu Huaiyu, and the smallest was only 300 households.

On average, only a few hundred households were actually sealed.

Now, each of these six generals will be given an additional 100 households of real fiefdom, and one of their sons will be given the title of baron, and the six will be promoted to the next level of official position.

"All soldiers who participated in the battles of Gaimu and Jian'an will be awarded the second rank, and all officers above the ninth rank will be promoted one rank!"

"Your Majesty, I have a suggestion," Wu Huaiyu stood up again.

"My dear, please speak."

"The more than 50,000 slaves captured by Gaimu and Jian'an, as well as the livestock, money, and silk, I suggest that they be directly rewarded to the soldiers who broke into the city. All of them should be distributed. As many as they can get, these captives, money, and silk should be first distributed to each person and then distributed after the war. Or you can send people to transport them to Yingzhou first, and then transport them back to the interior in batches to distribute them to the soldiers' homes."

As soon as Wu Huaiyu made this proposal,
Someone immediately objected, arguing that since the cities of Gaimu and Jian'an had already been captured, the next step would be to set up prefectures and counties, send officials, appease the local natives, and make them citizens of the Tang Dynasty.

Those who used to herd sheep continued to herd sheep, those who used to farm continued to farm, those who used to be craftsmen continued to be craftsmen, and those who used to do business continued to be businessmen.
In short, it is to make the four classes of people happy and contented, accept the rule of the Tang Dynasty, and become one of the people of the Tang Dynasty.

What the Tang Dynasty wanted was conquest and re-establishing its rule in Liaodong. If they took all the people away and made them slaves, it would just be an empty city and a vacant land. What would be the point of coming there?

Wu Huaiyu looked at this person, well, old acquaintance and old rival, Wei Ting.

This guy has been at odds with Wu Huaiyu for nearly twenty years. To be honest, he is quite capable. He has been able to stay in the court by making a lot of efforts. Even though his career has had ups and downs and he has been sent out frequently, he can always return to the court soon.

This guy was originally a close confidant of Jiancheng. He was the Prince's Left Guard Commander twenty years ago. He had a good family background, and was from the Jingzhao Wei family, the Xiaoyaogong branch. His father, Wei Chong, was the Minister of Civil Affairs of the Sui Dynasty and also served as the Governor-General of Yingzhou. In his early years, he followed the army to attack the Southern Chen, but was defeated and captured. He was also a relative of Yang Guang, and his daughter married Qi Wang Yang Ling as a concubine.

If you look at Wei Ting's resume, it's actually very impressive.

During the Zhenguan reign alone, he successively served as the Minister of Nobles, Shangshu Youcheng, Libu Shilang, Huangmen Shilang, Yushi Dafu, Dianzhongjian, and Taichangqing.
He once had the opportunity to become prime minister, but was blocked by Wu Huaiyu and Ma Zhou, which led to an irreconcilable hatred between the two. However, because of this, Wei Ting's official positions became lower and lower over the years.

"Mr. Wei, His Majesty trusted you and entrusted you with the important task of transporting military rations, but you said that the river was blocked, which caused the military rations to be delayed. If it weren't for the several generals on the front line who broke into the city and seized three months' worth of rations, our army would have been facing a dangerous situation of insufficient rations right after the attack.
You still have the nerve to stand up and point fingers now, do you have the qualifications?"

Wei Ting was speechless and blushed after hearing Wu Huaiyu's words.

As the saying goes, food and fodder must be sent ahead before the army moves.

Before the troops were dispatched, the emperor had already asked the Minister of Rites Wei Ting and Xiao Rui to be responsible for the transportation of grain and grass to Hebei and Shandong.
As a result, Wei Ting messed up the job. The grain and fodder could not be transported to the destination on time, but he said it was because of the blockage of the canal.

Li Shimin didn't care about your reasons. If you didn't do your job well, it was your responsibility. No need to give reasons. So he dismissed him from the post of Taichang Qing and let Yuchi Jingde take over the duties of Taichang Qing.

"Now is a time of war. Special times call for special actions. Do you want to imitate Emperor Yang's attack on Liaodong City?"

When Yang Guang led a million strong army to attack Liaodong City, the Sui army attacked the city walls several times and were about to capture the city, but the defenders raised the white flag and said they wanted to surrender, asking the Sui army to stop attacking first.

Yang Guang actually ordered his soldiers to retreat.

As a result, the Goguryeo people caught their breath and filled the gap in the city wall, and then refused to surrender when the time came.

The key point is that this happened several times, and every time the Goguryeo people played this trick, Yang Guang agreed.

He even sent other generals to attack other cities in different directions, but he still required that if the defenders were willing to surrender, they should not be attacked by force. After the enemy surrendered, the city would still be returned to them.

"Your Majesty, they will also be your subjects from now on."

"Not yet. If they were willing to surrender before the city was captured, that would be another matter. But these people were captured after the city was breached after a tenacious resistance. How can we treat them so well?"

"Besides, if we keep the 50,000 people in these two cities, then we have to leave them some food. Then the more than 200,000 dan of grain we seized would not be in vain. What are you going to use to make up for the food gap caused by your failure to deliver the grain?"

"No matter from which perspective, these 50,000 prisoners cannot be kept. They should be transported to Yingzhou or even Youzhou as soon as possible, or sent directly to Qingniwa Port to be auctioned off and sold to merchants in exchange for money to reward the soldiers, or the merchants can be asked to transport grain to Qingniwa Port in exchange."

Li Shimin thought seriously about Wu Huaiyu's suggestion.

The soldiers who had just made great contributions must be rewarded, but it was not enough to just award some honors to so many soldiers. They had to be given actual rewards, but this was also a large sum of money.

Wu Huaiyu suggested that the more than 50,000 prisoners be distributed as rewards to the tens of thousands of soldiers in the two armies. Almost every person could get a prisoner of war slave. A young and strong slave could be sold for tens of thousands of coins in the two capitals. Even women and children could be worth thousands or tens of thousands of coins, which was a considerable sum.

It can greatly save the national treasury expenditure. After all, war is very expensive.

Of course, the most important thing is the truth that Huaiyu said. If we keep these people, we must also leave food for them. What the Tang army lacks most now is food, especially food for the front line.

Leave the food behind and send these people to Youying or Liaonan.

The captured food could be kept at once, enough for 100,000 troops for three months, which is no small number.

If Wei Ting had done as he suggested, the imperial court would have been left with a group of unstable Goguryeo people and would have had to consume a large amount of precious food.

If they followed Wu Huaiyu's advice, the morale of the soldiers on the frontline would surely be high. After all, they could be awarded honors and receive thousands or tens of thousands of dollars in rewards, and the court could save money on rewards, especially on the transportation of food and fodder, which would greatly reduce the burden.
Taking all factors into consideration, Wu Huaiyu's suggestion is superior no matter how you look at it.

"Very good. Just as the commander said, we will transport all the captured Goguryeo soldiers and civilians to Yingzhou in western Liaoning and Jinzhou in southern Liaoning to sell them. The money and silk obtained from the sales will be used to reward the soldiers of the two armies who broke through the cities."

Li Shimin's eyes fell on Wei Ting.
"Use Gaimu City to establish Gaizhou, and appoint Wei Ting as the governor of Gaizhou. You will go to Gaimu immediately to take up the post. The capture of the prisoners in Gaimu City and the garrison will all be left to you."

Gaimu City is located in the northeast of Liaodong City and the southeast of Xincheng. It is a key city connecting the two major strongholds of the Liaoshui defense line. However, after Li Ji and Wu Huaiyi took over Gaimu City, it was impossible for them to stay in the city forever.

According to the plan, he would immediately lead his army south to meet the emperor at the city of Liaodong. The emperor's first major target for this expedition was Liaodong city.

Attacking Jian'an or Gaimu City is actually a combination of real and fake. In order to mobilize the Goguryeo people, we must first pull out two of their teeth and annihilate some of their forces. It would be best to capture the enemy's city as a stronghold and obtain some food and grass.

This laid a solid foundation for the emperor to lead his army to besiege Liaodong City.

But it is impossible to give up Gaimu City, which was conquered with great difficulty.

Even if we have to sell all the tens of thousands of captives in Gaimu City now, this castle will still be useful.

Station troops, store food, and defend against enemies.

Wei Ting had never expected that he would suddenly become the so-called governor of Gaizhou.

The city will soon become a deserted one, so who will he, as the governor, be in charge of?
"I will give you a thousand soldiers and horses. You are to guard Gaimu City. You must defend this city. If anything fails, I will hold you responsible."

Wei Ting felt miserable and wanted to curse.
But in the end, he didn't dare to refuse. This was the front line of the battlefield, a military tent, and military law was enforced. There was no room for bargaining.

"Duke Wei, His Majesty is giving you a chance, you must seize it and don't let His Majesty down again." Wu Huaiyu was rubbing salt into his wounds.
But there is nothing wrong with what you said.
Wei Ting failed to transport grain and grass on time and was expelled from the army as per the discussion. Now he is a commoner, which means he serves as a civilian and makes meritorious contributions while serving his sentence.

You are just a commoner, but the emperor has appointed you directly as a governor. Doesn't this mean he is re-employing you?

Wei Ting really wanted to say, I will give you this good opportunity, you can become the governor of Gaizhou.

(End of this chapter)