A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Emperor Yuan Cong

Chapter 1302 Loulan will never be returned until he is broken

Outside Liaodong City,

A large fleet arrived and Wu Huaiyu went to the dock to greet them in person.

The leading ship had a flag with the word "Luzon" written on it.

Wu Chengzhi, the Magistrate of Luzon County, was the first to come down from the boat. His purple robe made him look even taller and more upright.

"Aye."

"Did the trip go well?"

"It was a smooth journey from Luzon. We sailed directly to Shimajin, then to the mouth of the Liaohe River, and followed the Liaohe and Taizihe Rivers to Liaodong City. It was a safe journey."

At this season, the shipping conditions on the Liaohe River and Taizihe River are quite good. At least the section from the mouth of the Liaohe River to Liaodong City is very smooth. The river is wide and the water is deep, so even ships from Luzon can come directly over.

Lu Chengzhi's Luzon fleet transported a lot of food, cotton, cotton cloth, sugar, medicinal materials, etc.

Ma Zhou looked at the fleet docked at the pier and said with a smile, "You are really on time."

"I have promised your Majesty, so I must keep my word."

There is no shortage of food in Luzon. They can even harvest three crops a year. Typhoons and floods will have some impact on the crops. However, the land is vast and the population is sparse. Plantation-based cultivation is quite efficient. Every year, a lot of food can be exported to the Central Plains. This is because Luzon has regulated agriculture and is vigorously developing sugarcane, cotton, tea, and abaca cultivation.
There is plenty of grain in Luzon and it is cheap, but the cost of shipping it out of Luzon is not low, even by sea. In the past, it was shipped directly to Hong Kong Island, Guangzhou Port, or Quanzhou, Zhangzhou, Lugang, and Hangzhou Port.

This time the grain was transported directly to Liaodong, and the freight was more expensive than the grain itself.

Wu Huaiyu patted his son. Although he was a little tanned, he was getting taller and taller. Now he was also a father, and he had really grown up in the blink of an eye.

"Everything is okay at home, Luzon?"

"Very good," Chengzhi said to his father with a smile. Luzon's major pillar industries now are gold mining, smelting, logging, shipbuilding, shipping, trade, as well as traditional grain, tea, sugar, cotton, salt, fishing, and spice processing.

Benefiting from the status of the Wu family in the Central Plains, Luzon, backed by the Central Plains Tang Dynasty, developed rapidly, and promoted local planting, manufacturing and other industries through trade and processing.

Aside from being constrained by population, Luzon is now developing at a rapid pace.

They grow sugarcane to make sugar, grow cotton to spin cotton, and even grow abaca to spin abaca textiles. Shipbuilding is also booming.
As long as it can maintain the current relationship with the Central Plains, Luzon will be able to continue to develop rapidly. After all, Luzon now has a population of more than one million, but it is backed by the Tang Dynasty market with millions of households.

The Tang Dynasty conquered Liaodong.
Luzon would be happy to transport rice, cotton, etc. as reinforcements.

After reading the list of supplies sent by Chengzhi, Ma Zhou was most interested in the cotton and cotton cloth shipped on the ship. It turned out that the emperor only planned to return before the cold winter came, but now he has decided to send troops to stay in these conquered cities.
Liaodong has cold weather early in the year, and the winter is long and very cold. Soldiers from the Central Plains need enough clothes to keep warm during the winter.

Cotton-filled winter clothes are warmer than the old winter clothes filled with wadding.

"This batch of cotton and cotton cloth is just in time." Ma Zhou said. The court had already sent an order back to the mainland, ordering all places to start collecting cotton and cotton cloth and rush to make cotton clothes, cotton shoes, and cotton quilts.

"Let's go into the city."

Wu Chengzhi stood at the dock, looking at the bustling scene. There were people everywhere, including Tang army soldiers, Turkic, Sogdian, Khitan and other barbarian soldiers, and the newly reorganized Goguryeo surrendered soldiers. They were now organized into Gao Huanquan's 12th imperial guard battalion.

"Why is the dock so busy?"

"Recently, we have been busy harvesting the wheat planted by the Goguryeo people," Huaiyu explained to her son with a smile. Li Ji and Huai Yi went north, while Zhangsun Wuji and Su Dingfang went south.

There were two groups of people, one to attack Xincheng and the other to attack Anshi.

But they were not in a hurry. The emperor gave them a task, which was to sweep away the Goguryeo people along the way. The cavalry would sweep, and the infantry, the barbarian vassal army, and the Goguryeo captives would be responsible for harvesting the wheat in the back.

If the soldiers and civilians in the mountain fortresses of Goguryeo dared to come down the mountain to harvest wheat, they would be captured together.

The Tang army swept everywhere with light cavalry. None of the soldiers and civilians in the small and medium-sized mountain fortresses of Goguryeo dared to come out. They could only watch the Tang army harvest the wheat and even take away the wheat straw to use as horse fodder.

Some of the harvested wheat and wheat straw were directly transported as military rations, while others were transported via the Taizi River and Hun River to Liaodong and other cities occupied by the Tang army for storage.

Wheat is being harvested everywhere recently, and the grain is being transported to Liaodong City via the Taizi River in shiploads. The docks are filled with people carrying the grain, so it's naturally very lively.

"Is this the Xiangping City of the Han Dynasty? It is indeed magnificent."

"Well, now it is Liaozhou City of the Tang Dynasty, and also the seat of Liaodong Governor's Office and Liaozhou."

The Taizi River flows northward from the south side of the east wall, and the city has two layers, inner and outer.

It once withstood three fierce attacks from the Sui Dynasty, but only lasted three days under the personal expedition of the Tang Emperor.

"I can't believe that such a strong city was breached after only three days of defense," Wu Chengzhi sighed. The Liaodong City is much taller and more majestic than the cities and fortresses in Luzon.

Compared with Liaodong City, the castles in Luzon are like aristocratic manors.

"It is true that it took only three days to capture the city, but your majesty led more than 20,000 people to attack this city guarded by more than 40,000 Goguryeo soldiers and horses. Only more than a hundred people died in the battle, but thousands of heads were beheaded, and 40,000 defenders were wiped out, and the city was captured."

Wu Chengzhi was more and more impressed.

During the years he was in Luzon, he often fought with the island natives, who rebelled at every turn, but compared with the Tang Dynasty's Eastern Expedition, the battles he fought were no more than village fights.

"When I heard the news while I was relying on supplies at Shimazin, I thought it was fake. It was unbelievable that we had won so many victories in such a short period of time."

Huaiyu and Ma Zhou took Chengzhi and the others into the city.

The emperor sent someone to summon him.

After seeing the list of transport materials presented by Chengzhi, Li Shimin stroked his beard and laughed, praising Wu Chengzhi for his loyalty.

Although the large amount of supplies shipped from Luzon were not entirely tribute to the court reluctantly, many of them were purchased by the court with prior orders. The fact that they were delivered on time or even ahead of schedule, and in large quantities, still made the emperor extremely satisfied.

"I heard that your majesty personally led the army. Our Tang army was invincible and could not be stopped. Not only did we break through many big cities, we also seized a lot of food and equipment. Now we are harvesting wheat. The food I brought from Luzon is redundant."

"Not too much. There will never be too much food on the battlefield. More storage will provide more security. Taking advantage of the favorable wind now, it would be better if Luzon could transport more food. Of course, the court will allocate money to purchase it."

The lower reaches of the Taizi River and the Hun River are low-lying and flooded when it rains. Although the Goguryeo people spent 16 years to build the Liaodong Great Wall, they did not dredge or manage the Liaohe River, Taizi River, Hunhe River, etc., nor did they build river embankments.

Navigation is affected in some seasons. Under current conditions, the Taizi River and Hunhe River are navigable for half a year, with a total length of more than 400 miles.
You can sail directly from the mouth of the Liaohe River to the city of Liaodong, the city of Baiyan, or the city of Xincheng.

There is still a lot of room for improvement in transportation on the Liaohe River mainstream. In the future, dredging the river and building embankments and weirs will not only improve navigation and transportation capacity, but also help water conservancy and irrigation.
The Liaohe Plain is very fertile, but the Goguryeo people have never been able to manage it on a large scale, and it is flooded every year when it rains, which is a pity.

If the Liaohe River is dredged a little, it can be navigated directly to Tieling.

Just by building dams and canals in the lower reaches of the Liaohe River, we can reclaim thousands of hectares of farmland, all of which can be irrigated.

Liaodong is fully capable of being self-sufficient and even has surplus grain reserves. As long as Liaodong can solve the supply problem, it will be able to stabilize.

Wu Huaiyu and Li Shimin have already discussed the issue of the future management and development of Liaodong. The first thing is to dredge the river and develop river-sea transport. In the initial stage, material supply support from the Central Plains will inevitably be needed, and sea-river transport is undoubtedly the lowest cost and fastest.

The Liaohe River, Hunhe River, Taizi River and other rivers were used for transportation, docks were planned, dams were built, and grain fields were reclaimed.
Only when there is sufficient food can the army be stable.

The food in Luzon is very cheap. Shipping it to Liaodong by sea is still more time-saving, labor-saving and cost-saving than transporting it from the inland of the Central Plains to Liaodong.

The emperor also patted Wu Chengzhi's arm and said that the court would take as much grain as Luzon could transport, and the price would be a little higher than the current batch, and Luzon would never suffer any loss.

Another great advantage of purchasing and transferring grain from Luzon, Annan and other places is that it will not affect the grain prices in the Central Plains.

According to past experience, if a large amount of grain is purchased from the mainland, even if the court pays for it, it will cause the price of grain to rise.

Even though the imperial court has built many granaries over the years, the movement of large quantities of grain will still trigger major chain changes.

In fact, this year the emperor personally led an expedition to Goguryeo,
The allocation and transportation of grain from Hebei, Henan, Hedong, Jiangnan and other places has caused the price of grain to continue to rise. Although the imperial court has been regulating the price of grain, the people's concerns about the war have caused many people to start hoarding grain, and the price has been rising slowly. Now, a dou of rice costs twelve cents.

Although this is still lower than the grain price when the Sui Dynasty conquered the Liao Dynasty, it is still a lot higher than the three cents a dou of rice in the third and fourth years of Zhenguan.

"I will immediately gather and organize merchant ship owners to purchase food from Southeast Asian countries such as Zhenla, Linyi, Funan, and Srivijaya, and then ship it to Liaodong by sea."

"Well, thank you for your hard work, my dear." Li Shimin said, and took off a jade pendant from his body and gave it to Wu Chengzhi as a reward.

Two coachmen pushed three stone of grain and transported it thousands of miles to Liaodong, but these three stone of grain were not enough for their food on the road as the cost of land transportation was too high.

A ship can carry thousands or even tens of thousands of stones.

Another point is that purchasing food from Southeast Asia is really cheap. Even if the cost of sea transportation is included, it is still much cheaper than collecting food and transporting it by land in the mainland.

Even if we collect grain from Henan, Jianghuai and other places and transport it to Denglai, and then transfer it to sea transportation, the cost is still high.

Encouraged, Wu Chengzhi boldly made a request.

"Luzon's climate allows two or three harvests a year, but there is a severe shortage of labor. Large tracts of wasteland cannot be reclaimed for planting. I dare to ask that we exchange grain for some Goguryeo slaves to go back and reclaim the wasteland and plant grain.

This way, Luzon can also transport more food to Liaodong."

After hearing this, the emperor stroked his beard and laughed, "Your request is not a problem at all. There is no shortage of slaves in Liaodong now. What is lacking is food, salt, tea, cloth, and cotton. You have come thousands of miles to transport food here, so I can naturally satisfy your request."

As soon as the emperor opened his mouth, he rewarded Wu Chengzhi with a hundred slaves.

Then he said that this batch of materials would be settled with Goguryeo slaves, and Wu Chengzhi would load the slaves directly at the Liaodong wharf and could even get a better price.

In the future, when Luzon transports food, cloth, cotton, medicinal herbs and other supplies, they can be directly exchanged for slaves of equivalent value and transported back to Luzon to reclaim wasteland and grow crops.

Anyway, these slaves will be sold no matter they are sent to Youying, Qingnipu or Shimajin Port.

The emperor was delighted with the large amount of supplies delivered, and he even gave a special banquet to entertain Wu Chengzhi and his party that day.

At night, Huaiyu and Chengzhi slept side by side.

"Your Majesty, during the dinner, you asked me to load the ship with slaves on the way back. Is it cost-effective to transport these Goguryeo slaves back to Luzon? Are they easy to manage?"

"It is a good deal to exchange food, cotton, sugar, and medicinal herbs for slaves. What Luzon lacks most now is people. We have fought from Luzon Island to the Spice Islands. We now own such a large territory, but we have no people on many islands. We can only hand them over to the surrendered native chiefs for management.
Even on the main island of Luzon, there is still a large amount of land that has not been reclaimed and many mines that are not being mined. Even the shipyards, salt fields, sugar fields, and textile mills are always short of workers.

In recent years, the imperial court has become increasingly strict on immigration to Luzon, and it has become increasingly difficult to recruit Han immigrants. We can only bring more slaves over, or recruit and assimilate some of the native barbarians."

No matter whether they are Goguryeo people, Mohe people, Baekje people, Turks or whatever, as long as they are people, Luzon is in short supply of them.

Exchanging food and other supplies for slaves is definitely not a loss.

The materials shipped from Luzon were not all produced by the Wu family. Many of them were purchased from Luzon and even from surrounding areas such as Annan, Liuqiu, and Linyi.
After the Wu family purchased and transported them to Liaodong, even if they paid the purchase price given by the court before, they could still make a lot of profit. Now they don't exchange them directly for money, but for slaves, transport them back to Luzon, or even sell them to Ryukyu, Lingnan, Annan and other places. In fact, the profit here is higher and they make more money.

Of course, Wu Huaiyu reminded his son that when these slaves were transported back, in addition to being used in the Wu family’s own estates, farms, and mines, they should also be sold first to Han immigrants in the Luzon Islands and consumed within Luzon first.

"Your Majesty's personal expedition this time went really smoothly. I never thought the Goguryeo people were so vulnerable." Wu Chengzhi sighed.

"The Goguryeo people are not that weak, they just encountered a very strong opponent. Your Majesty has made a lot of preparations in advance for this Eastern Expedition. Moreover, there are so many famous and powerful generals on this expedition. Any one of them would be unbearable for them, let alone so many."

"If Your Majesty lets Aye take command, it will be enough to sweep across Liaodong."

"It's good like this now. I just want to go to Luzon to retire as soon as possible."

"Aye is still so young."

"I'm a grandfather now, and I have a lot of grandchildren and great-grandchildren," Huaiyu said with a smile.

It was a rare opportunity for the father and son to have the chance to chat together while sleeping, and they talked a lot that night.

the next morning,
The emperor summoned Wu Huaiyu and his father to have breakfast together.

Xue Rengui presented an urgent report from Anshi City. Zhangsun Wuji reported that the lord of Anshi City, Liang Wanchun, refused to submit to the Tang Dynasty, and that Go Yanshou of Nousa in the north and Go Huizhen of Nousa in the south, led 150,000 Goguryeo and Mohe soldiers and were rushing to Anshi City for rescue.

Li Shimin looked at the report and was stunned for a moment.

"Huaiyu, you've predicted it right again. Liang Wanchun really refused to surrender, and Goguryeo really sent another 150,000 troops to rescue him."

"Anshi City is bound to face a tough battle. How do you think we should fight this battle?"

(End of this chapter)