A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Emperor Yuan Cong

Chapter 402
"Pang, a young lackey, pays his respects to Duke Yi."

Wu Huaiyu wears the three-beam Jinxian crown bestowed by the imperial sable cicada on her head, a purple satin gown with a double peacock title ribbon and a large group pattern, a gold belt with ten thousand nails on the waist, and a goldfish bag. In the evening, there were still people waiting there.

The key is that this person was surprising from the beginning.

Wu Huaiyu's brother-in-law, Qiu Shenji, was dressed very flamboyantly today, acting as Wu Huaiyu's entourage, and also wanted to be honored by his brother-in-law, but seeing the excitement of the palace banquet, he was taken aback by this guy.

"Who are you?"

"Pang Xiaotai, the governor of Baizhou, the next official,"

Wu Huaiyu was even more surprised when he heard that this black bear-like guy claimed to be the governor of Yizhou. Since they are all governors, even if they are Xiazhou, they are at least the fourth rank. How can they call themselves so humble? It belongs to Pang, a young lackey.

"Baizhou, but Lingnan Baizhou?"

"Duke Yi really has a lot of knowledge, and he remembers that Baizhou is in the south of Lingnan."

Huaiyu looked at this guy, Baizhou seems to be the Bobai area of ​​Guangxi later generations, Li Jingping, the Lingnan empress, was entrusted with worship, and all the big and small forces in the Lingnan separatist regime at that time were granted officials and titles by the imperial court.

Moreover, 96 prefectures were established in Lingnan at that time. Basically, at the end of the Sui Dynasty, the separatist forces of all parties, even the local raccoons and savages, who randomly assigned land to become kings and claimed to be the governors of the prefectures, were all recognized first, so there was This Lingnan 96 states.

However, in the 96 prefectures of Lower Lingnan, there are more than [-] private households, an average of only a few thousand per prefecture.

Many states used to be counties at all, or in other words, they were just streams controlled by native barbarians.

The self-proclaimed lackey, whose surname is Pang, is now the governor of Baizhou, Pang Xiaotai, who is very young, even a little too young. Wu Huaiyu originally saw that he looked like a black bear spirit, tall, burly and rough, and thought he would be 40 years old. They are only in their 20s.

But the governor has been serving as the governor for many years.

This guy is the barbarian chief of Baizhou. His family has been the tribal leader for generations. At the end of the Sui Dynasty, he also took the opportunity to occupy the land and become the king, and set up his family Xidong as Nanzhou.

The Pang family had been attached to the Ning family, the Feng family, the Xian family, and the Tan family, and even attached to Lin Shihong, the anti-king of Jiangnan in the late Sui Dynasty, Xiao Xian from Nanliang, and Guizhou. Li Xizhi and Qiu He of Jiaozhi, anyway, the little barbarian chieftains, have no position, and whoever is strong will rely on whomever is strong.

When Li Jingping took Lingnan, his father also joined the Tang Dynasty and was awarded the title of governor of Nanzhou. Soon after his father died of illness, the court made him the governor of Nanzhou.In the sixth year of Wude, the imperial court began to slowly adjust Lingnan to take power.

Many barbarians in Lingnan were dissatisfied. Feng Xuan from the Feng family and Ning Daoming from the Ning family raised the flag of rebellion. The young Pang Xiaotai immediately raised his troops to respond. Although the rebellion started quickly, even the major powerhouses in Lingnan were not unified. , Feng An from the Feng family, Ning Chun from the Ning family refused to rebel, and even recruited troops to fight with them.

There was chaos in the south of the Five Ridges, and Pang Xiaotai, the weakest of the rebels, was the first to be defeated. He charged at the front line, but another barbarian chief, Tan Dian, seized the opportunity to raid his hometown. The backyard was on fire, the front was hard to get down, and food and grass were in short supply. , the court reinforcements arrived again,
Pang Xiaotai was besieged and finally had to surrender.

The imperial court dispatched troops to help take back Nanzhou and changed it to Baizhou, still using Pang Xiaotai as the governor.

After suffering a big loss, Pang Xiaotai no longer trusted Feng Xuan, Tan Dian, Ning Daoming, Ning Changzhen and others, so like Feng An, Ning Chun and others, he concentrated on raising the banner of loyalty to the court in order to protect himself.

From the Lingnan Rebellion in the sixth year of Wude to the eighth year of Wude, Ning Changzhen, the most powerful patriarch of the Ning family in the west of Lingnan, also formally joined the rebellion, and fought until the summer of the ninth year of Wude. Dian also surrendered to Datang again.

But this Lingnan chaos did not end, Tan Dian took the opportunity to seize many of the Ning family's territory, and then joined forces with Feng Xuan to fight against Feng Xuan's younger brother Feng An.

Pang Xiaotai's Baizhou is caught in the middle, which is also very uncomfortable.

And the court of Chang'an has long been dissatisfied with the chaos in Lingnan. Before that, the court couldn't move its hands and had no time to send troops to Lingnan. Now it is finally able to free up its hands and has this strength.

Therefore, many officials said that Feng An, Feng Xuan, Tan Dian and others supported their own self-respect, separatist regime rebellion, and asked the court to send troops to quell it.

As soon as the news came out, the local emperors in Lingnan were also afraid, and they sent envoys to Beijing to explain, and gave gifts to the dignitaries in Chang'an, hoping that someone could help them speak.

At the beginning, the beginning of the rebellion in the sixth year of Wude was because Ning Changzhen, the governor of Qinzhou, paid tribute to the emperor of Chang'an as usual, and the governors of other states also paid tribute to special products such as tube cloth.

This is also the previous practice. These Lingnan tyrants paid tribute to the central court to show their loyalty to the emperor, and then the central court stopped interfering with them and allowed them to be local emperors without levying their taxes. , regardless of their nationality and population, even the recruitment and garrison of the army, the appointment and dismissal of officials, etc., everything is in their own hands.

It sounds good to say that Lingnan is the territory of the imperial court, but in fact, even in the Southern Dynasties, only the core areas of Jiaozhou and Guizhou in Guangzhou were directly controlled by the imperial court. Tyrannical self-government, or the leadership of those raccoon and barbarian chiefs.

Li Yuan refused the tribute from Ning Changzhen and the others, the reason being that the distance was laborious. In fact, Li Yuan was not satisfied with this nominal surrender at all, and did not want Lingnan to become an independent kingdom like Nanzhong region.

The emperor does not want to pay tribute, what he wants is tax collection, and what he wants is real ruling power.

But Ning Feng and other powerful local emperors were used to being emperors, especially at the end of the Sui Dynasty.

It's just that these tycoons in Lingnan are not united, and they each have their own plans. Although the imperial court has no time to directly send troops to conquer, they can use the authority of the central government to split up and win them over.

Now there are rumors that the emperor is going to send [-] troops to wipe out Lingnan. It is even rumored that the general in command may be Li Jing, or Wu Huaiyu, a disciple of Li Jing.

No matter which one came, the local emperors in Lingnan were very panicked. They were not only afraid of the prestige of Li Jing and Wu Huaiyu, but even more afraid of the [-] heavenly soldiers.

Feng An sent his son to Chang'an, and brought many treasures from Lingnan.

Pang Xiaotai even came to Chang'an Chaoji in person.

When he arrived in Chang'an, he brought many gifts with him, but he couldn't send them out.

Holding the pig's head, I couldn't find the mountain gate.

As soon as people heard that he was the governor of the barbarian chieftain from Lingnan, they immediately rejected him in disgust. Whether it was pearls from Hepu, ivory from Cochin, or gold and silver from Lingnan, they were not interested, so they directly refused.

Pang Xiaotai went to look for Li Jing again. When Li Jing appeased Lingnan, Pang Xiaotai and his father also visited Li Jing, but Li Jing is very cautious now, and he didn't see anyone from Lingnan at all.

Went to find Qiu He, and Qiu He was told that he was too old to care about political affairs.Looking for Li Xizhi, Li Xizhi was the prime minister of Shi'an County at the time. At the end of the Sui Dynasty, he scattered his family wealth and recruited [-] soldiers to guard Guilin.

Although he eventually attached to Xiao Xian, he later voluntarily attached to Datang and became the governor of Guizhou. After entering the dynasty, he participated in the Pingfu Gong Er rebellion and other wars, and is now the governor of Jiangzhou.

There were rumors that the imperial court was going to send Li Xizhi to serve as the governor of Guizhou again. Pang Xiaotai went to visit Li's family, but Li Xizhi didn't see him, let alone accept the gift.

Pang Xiaotai was depressed, desperate and frightened.

He had never been to Chang'an before.

Only now in Chang'an did I realize that the city of Chang'an is so big and those nobles are so proud. In the south of the Five Ridges, he was a mighty one anyway, but when he arrived in Chang'an, even the Marquis Wu of a street shop dared to reprimand him, and the concierge of the noble family dared to insult him.

Although Pang Xiaotai is young, he is very brave, but he doesn't know much about communication and entertainment. Now he is like a fool in Chang'an, and he is even ridiculed as a local turtle from the south of the Five Ridges.

Later, he met Feng An's son, Feng Zhidai, and they traveled northward together. Feng Zhidai was Feng An's second son, and he was appointed governor of Chunzhou. This guy was very familiar with the Central Plains.

His father, Feng An, served in the court during the Sui Dynasty. Later, Feng An and his son recruited an army from Lingnan to fight for the Sui Dynasty. Fighting and walking along the way, he abruptly went from Jiangdu to Gaoliang in Lingnan to join forces with his father, and fought thousands of miles, which is very impressive.

Feng An later led more than [-] prefectures to the Tang Dynasty, and was named Geng Guogong by the court. He was also the governor of the eight prefectures.

Feng Zhidai was sent by his father to Chang'an for activities, and he was also sent as a hostage. It sounds like serving the emperor.

He felt uncomfortable seeing Pang Xiaotai being ridiculed by Changan like this, so he pointed out a way for Pang Xiaotai to find Xu Jingzong.

Many princes and dignitaries in Chang'an didn't see the native turtles when they heard about them, but Xu Jingzong got very close to Feng Zhidai recently.

Although Xu Jingzong's politeness was obtained by Feng Zhidai's large amount of gifts and beauties in exchange, Feng Zhidai still felt it was worth it.

Of course, Xu Jingzong is now a provincial minister and also studying national history. He is in an important position. With his help, Feng Zhidai has found a way now. The Duke had been to Li Jing's house, and although he didn't get any promises, at least Wu Huaiyu and Li Jing were willing to sit down and listen to him talk about the current situation in Lingnan.

Feng Zhidai showed Pang Xiaotai a way, and Pang Xiaotai immediately went to visit Xu Jingzong.

Sure enough, after Xu Jingzong received a large number of gifts from him, he said that he would introduce him to Duke Yi. He had agreed to bring him here today, but the emperor summoned Xu Jingzong temporarily, and Pang Xiaotai had to come by himself.

He put on a very low posture, not only brought many gifts, but even greeted him very humbly. He called himself a lackey.

Anyway, after Xu Jingzong took his money, he told him that if he could get the help of Duke Yi, then all his problems would be fine.

Pang Xiaotai thought about it, and felt that he still had to lower his posture.

Anyway, he is a barbarian chieftain in the South of the Five Ridges, and he is willing to be the running dog of the emperor of Chang'an, so he is not ashamed.

Things had to be done, and if he couldn't do it well, it would be difficult for him to continue to return to Lingnan as a local turtle.

Wu Huaiyu was very surprised after hearing this guy kneeling and licking.

"Xu Xueshi introduced you?"

"Yes, Xu Xueshi originally said that he would come to pick up Yi Guogong together, but His Majesty summoned him temporarily,"

Since it was introduced by Xu Jingzong, Wu Huaiyu asked him to get into his carriage, "Let's chat in the carriage, you should also be going to the palace for a banquet, right?"

Pang Xiaotai nodded and hurried into the car.

Xu Jingzong had introduced Feng Zhidai to meet him before. It is said that Xu Jingzong and Feng Zhidai hit it off and fell in love very much. Of course Wu Huaiyu knew Xu Jingzong's virtues. His weakness was greed for money and lust. Feng Zhidai sent Xu Jingzong away Ten beauties and ten carts of money were given to him. How could Xu Jingzong stand the test of such a generous sum?

Wu Huaiyu has also heard about Feng An's name for a long time. This is called the Emperor of Lingnan. Although he actually controls only a small part of Guangdong and Guangxi, the Feng family and the Xian family will have great influence. Hainan Island They belonged to both the Leizhou Peninsula and the Feng family, not to mention that the Feng family itself and the Ning family and Chen family have always been related by marriage, and their relationship is intricate.

The imperial court is now shouting at Lingnan to fight and kill, but the important officials who really made the decision did not make a decision lightly. After all, if there is a real fight, they will have to mobilize troops, allocate food and grass, and even die. turmoil.

Politics is not fighting and killing. When it is time to compromise, you must compromise.

Feng Ang, Tan Dian, Feng Xuan and others are just attacking each other. After all, they have not rebelled against the Tang Dynasty, and the court has to be cautious.Wu Huaiyu is also an important member of the imperial court now, and of course he is willing to listen to the explanations of people from Lingnan in person if he has the opportunity.

On the way to the palace, the two chatted all the way in the carriage.

This Pang Xiaotai is only in his 20s, but he has been the governor for eight years, and he rebelled for more than a year in the middle. Since the end of the Sui Dynasty, he has followed his father and led his troops in battle since he was a teenager. He is very tough.
This guy said he had a lot of drums.

The barbarian tribes in the south of the Lingnan like to cast bronze drums, cover them with cowhide, and draw lightning and frog patterns as totems. Pang Xiaotai's drums are not cowhide drums, but the leather drums of the enemies he killed. Although this kind of drum is not as good as cowhide bronze drums So intense, but also kind of special.

It's a pity that his tribe is small after all. He can indeed dominate in Baizhou, but looking at the whole of Lingnan, it's not worth mentioning. It's not easy to survive in the cracks. In the past, he was just a warrior in the tribe. So I don't think so.

But the difficult maintenance of the past few years has also made him very clear that it is not easy to keep the family business.

"Our family has been passed down for so many generations in Baizhou. I can't let him be broken in my hands. I have to guard the stockade and land passed down from my ancestors. I have to keep these tribal people and prevent them from being captured by other tribes and powerful chiefs. take away."

Wu Huaiyu smiled.

"If you want to keep the foundation of your family and tribe, the only way is to be loyal to the court, follow the court and always serve the court."

"My Pang family is willing to be loyal to His Majesty the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty and the court of the Tang Dynasty for generations. I also ask Duke Yi to help me."

With Pang Xiaotai's help, he hoped to keep his position as governor of Baizhou, and even more so, the territory of Baizhou.

"This is no problem, but there is a premise. You have to take the initiative to report to the imperial court, open caves to accept raw animals, lead the subordinate raccoons to organize households, divide counties and townships, implement the central government's land equalization system, etc., and request the imperial court to send out troops. Officials assist in governance,"

Everything Wu Huaiyu said was like a knife piercing Pang Xiaotai's heart, but now Pang Xiaotai also understands that it is no longer the era of Wude, let alone the era of Daye, and it is impossible to shut the door and separate one side up.

Sooner or later, the imperial court will take back the ruling power, collect taxes, garrison troops and dispatch officials. These are all inevitable, but it will be sooner or later.

"You don't have to worry. Even if Baizhou is registered as a household of Qimin, at least for a hundred years, the main population of Baizhou will still be your Liao tribe. Apart from taxation and service, there will not be much change,"

What Huaiyu said was the truth, even if the imperial court garrisoned troops to garrison land, it would take time to immigrate to garrison land, and the priority must be to move to important places such as Guangzhou, Guizhou, and Jiaozhou. Baizhou is a remote mountainous area, and it must be the last.

As for the garrison and immigration, to reach a scale, they can surpass the local raccoons, not to mention a hundred years, not even a few decades.

Those are things that will happen a long time later, what to do now, cooperate with the court to continue to stabilize his position as governor, and keep the stability of Baizhou, which is the most important thing.

"Thank you Duke Yi for your guidance." Pang Xiaotai finally figured it out.

"If you really understand, then you go back and remember to do one thing, learn from Feng An, and send more children from the clan to Chang'an to study in the Imperial College or serve as errands in the Imperial Army.
In fact, you can also come to Beijing to serve the emperor, even if you are no longer in Baizhou, but as long as you can make the emperor remember, or even appreciate, then you don't have to worry about your clansmen in Baizhou. "

(End of this chapter)