A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Emperor Yuan Cong

Chapter 498 Homecoming
After reaching a friendly agreement with Shuangshiluo, Wu Huaiyu continued to go north by boat, entered Dezhou via the Qinghe River, stopped the boat at Anling, and deliberately went to the hometown of Su Lie in Jizhou, a hundred miles away.

This time he can be regarded as a rich and well-dressed return home. Last year, he was forced by the Cui family to go to Beijing to seek help from his teacher Li Jing. In the end, he met his junior brother Wu Huaiyu. Not only did he settle the conflict with the Cui family, he even married the Cui family in the end. The daughter of the late Cui Shanfu who lived in the Zhengzhou house of the Cui family of Qinghe, and her own daughter was engaged to Cui Zhijiu, the grandson of Cui Shishu, the second son of Cui Yizhi, the grandson of Cui Shishu, Duke of Qinghe County, Yanling Fang, Xuzhou, of the Cui family of Qinghe.

The Cui family of Qinghe had six families, but Su Dingfang was married to two of them.

Of course, Su Dingfang's entry to Beijing not only gained these things, he was recommended by Li Jing and Wu Huaiyu as an official, and then Wu Huaiyu took him to Shuofang, Pingluo Yizhu Liang Shidu, and now he has become the Sima of the Governor's Mansion of Youzhou and the Governor of North Yanzhou, and even There was a school inspector who led the rank of general and was promoted to the third rank Zijin Minister.

It's more than a hundred miles away, and it only takes half a day to ride a horse.

Although Su Lie hasn't been at home for more than a year, the Su's manor is more prosperous now. In the past, the relatives of the Cui family took the opportunity to bully them and wanted to occupy the fields and houses of the Su family, but now the Cui family has become in-laws of the Su family. , even being very polite to Su Lie, who is now in the midst of his official career, the relatives of the Cui family also apologized in the morning.

"When you come to Wuyi, you must try our special donkey meat."

Su Dingfang brought Wu Huaiyu and his party to the Su's Manor in Wuyi, and the governor of Jizhou who was also cited came to visit in person, not to mention the officials of Wuyi County. Countless people came to welcome the visit. Su Dingfang, that's an indescribable compliment.

This feeling is in stark contrast to when I was suppressed in various ways in the early years.

"Yes, when you arrive in Wuyi, you must try donkey meat." Qi Shanxing, governor of Jizhou, said with a smile, saying that he and Su Lie were old acquaintances before.

Among the people who came here to compliment him today, he was the rare and polite person in Su Lie.

This person used to be Dou Jiande's left servant, who was powerful in Qinghe, Benbei Prefecture, and later attached himself to Dou Jiande, and became Dou Jiande's left and right servant with Pei Shiju.In the battle of Hulao, the 5 Hebei army led by Dou Jiande was defeated by Li Shimin, more than [-] were killed, and more than [-] were captured. Dou Jiande was also captured alive.

After the war, the Tang Dynasty also immediately sent Zheng Shanguo, the prince Zuoshu, as the consolation ambassador of Shandong Province to appease Hebei.

At that time, Dou Jiande's wife, Cao Shi, was shot by the left servant and Qi Shanxing fled back to Mingzhou with more than a hundred riders. At this time, the dragons in Hebei were leaderless, but the territory was basically still there.

Some people suggested supporting Dou Jiande's adopted son and recruiting troops to continue fighting. Others suggested simply dividing up the treasury, looting it, and retreating to Douzikeng, Gaojibo and other places to become thieves.

During these quarrels, it was Qi Shanxing who persuaded the Cao family, Pei Shiju, Cao Dan and others, thinking that recruiting troops to fight against Li Tang at the moment would be too late to defeat Li Tang, and it would be better to surrender to the Tang Dynasty. It is inevitable that they will be encircled and suppressed, and they will end up dead.

Under his suggestion, they finally decided to surrender to the Tang army. For those who refused to surrender, they would distribute all the money in the treasury to everyone. Please stop looting and hurting the people.

At that time, Su Dingfang was one of those generals who divided the money and then dispersed.

And Qi Shanxing brought his right servant to shoot Pei Ju, Xingtai Commander Cao Dan, and some generals who were willing to demote, present the Eight Seals of the Cao family and Xia Guochuan, as well as the treasures of Yang Guang who had defeated Yu Wenhua in time, and presented Ming, Wei and Xiang Zhuzhou formally surrendered to the Tang Dynasty.

Qi Shanxing made great contributions. The Tang Dynasty named him the second left guard of the Prince of Qin's residence, assigned him to Li Shimin's command, and granted him the title of Duke of Zhending County.

Afterwards, Liu Heikai rebelled against the Tang Dynasty twice, and Qi Shanxing did not flirt with the generals in Hebei at all, and actively helped to put down the chaos.

He was born as a hero in Hebei Province, and he had a good reputation in the village. When he was Zuo Servant in Dou Jiande's Xia Kingdom, he always advised Dou Jiande to be kind.

Although Su Dingfang chose to divide the money and go back to his hometown to farm instead of surrendering to the Tang army, and later even ran out twice to respond to Liu Heitai's rebellion against Tang and avenge Dou Jiande, but Su Dingfang did not blame Qi Shanxing for surrendering to Tang, and Qi Shanxing could understand Su Dingfang.

The two families used to be close to each other, and they were both heroes. Even in the Sui Dynasty, when Su Dingfang and his son organized town soldiers to encircle and suppress thieves to protect the people, Qi Shanxing was their father and son's big money maker for the town soldiers. Funding, and the Su family father and son have always protected the Qi family.

Before Su Dingfang had a dispute with Cui's family, Qi Shanxing also mediated the reconciliation, but now seeing Su Dingfang's achievements, Qi Shanxing is happy for him.

Su Lie's wife, Gao Shi, is the daughter of Dou Jiande's general Gao Yaxian. When Su Lie voted for Dou Jiande, Gao Yaxian appreciated him very much. He not only made him his vanguard general, but also adopted him as his adopted son, and finally married his daughter to him. .

If Gao Yaxian hadn't acted quickly, it is said that Dou Jiande originally wanted to betroth his daughter to Su Lie.

Mrs. Gao personally cooked local special donkey meat for everyone.

"Put donkey meat into pancakes. This is our local specialty. It's quite delicious. It's similar to Chang'an's Gulouzi, but our stuffing is marinated donkey meat, not mutton."

A basket of long, thin pancakes with a layer of golden and crispy skin was served. Wu Huaiyu liked it at first glance, and smelled a good aroma from a distance.

Quickly picked up one, swallowed it down, with a crunch, the chest skin was shattered, and the scum fell straight down, but the inside taste was very soft.

He took another bite and bit into the donkey meat inside.

Still warm, crumbled and delicious.

"Sister-in-law's donkey meat tastes really good."

"This donkey meat is stewed with old soup." Gao introduced.

Qi Shanxing is also a gourmet, he is very familiar with the Su family, and he doesn't have to shy away from the Gao family. He even likes the Gao family's donkey meat Gulouzi very much, and he will definitely eat it every time he comes to the door.

"Ms. Gao's donkey meat is stewed in a large pot with old soup, secret condiments, and the choice of donkey meat is also very particular. It must be the young donkey meat raised in the wild or fatter donkey meat. Good, you can’t use the kind of old donkey who has been doing heavy work all the year round, the donkey meat is not rotten and not fragrant, the old donkey is only fragrant but the meat is not tender.”

"Ms. Gao's donkey meat is well selected, and the heat is good. You see, this donkey meat doesn't clog your teeth no matter whether it's good or not. If you eat it outside, the donkey meat from seven or eight of the ten families is not easy to chew and easy to clog. tooth.

The donkey meat here today should be on the rib plate, neither fat nor thin, just right. "

Gao couldn't help but praised, "The governor of Qi is really an expert."

Wu Huaiyu felt that although this stuff was a donkey meat pie, it tasted a bit like donkey meat on fire, but the donkey meat on fire was just cut open and chopped donkey meat in between.

"I think sister-in-law's cake is also very good. It's crispy on the outside and soft on the inside,"

A donkey meat pie is quite particular. It is not steamed or fried, but rolled out with good noodles and wrapped with donkey meat, first pressed with a wooden mold on the pan to shape the dough, and then roasted on a fork. There must be no shortage of procedures, and there must be no rush.

In this way, the final baked cake will be more bulging, crisper, and more fragrant, and even the edges will turn yellow, and it can even be crispy.

Gao Yaxian was also a local tycoon in Hebei, General Dou Jiande, who later served as Liu Heita's Zuo Servier and died in the Battle of Mingshui. Gao was also a young lady who received a good education.

When he arrived in Wuyi, Huaiyu discovered that Su Dingfang didn't really return to his hometown to farm after his defeat. He went home to become a big landlord. Songs, slaves, and even many dependent fugitives.

It is precisely because Su Dingfang's family business is very rich that some people wanted to invade it at the beginning, and it was because Su Dingfang had no official position. Brother Min, he also has a teacher named Li Jing.

After dinner, he went for a walk outside the Su family's manor with Qi Shanxing and Su Lie. Su Lie had a good reputation here, but his own family was still a neighbor, and he came to greet him when he saw him from afar.

It's no wonder that he participated in the anti-Tang Dynasty twice before, and he can still be a strong and powerful man in the countryside, and he has a good relationship with his neighbors.

Stay at Su's house at night.

At night Su Dingfang did not accompany his wife but came to Huaiyu with a pot of wine.

Today's homecoming trip is indeed very happy, but after the people leave, I feel that it is meaningless.

"Can't sleep? I haven't been with my sister-in-law for a long time, so you have to accompany me well."

"I want to talk to Erlang about something."

"Brother, tell me straight."

"Next year's Northern Expedition to the Turks, you also know the imperial court's deployment plan. The teacher is the commander. He will lead the six-way Northern Expedition and personally lead the main force in the middle. We are only on the sideline of the East Road. The main task is to block Xieli's retreat to Xiqi. ,
We are not the main force, and we have no chance to go directly to Dingxiang. Why does Erlang seem to be going to Dingxiang Jieli for what Erlang is doing now? Isn't it to steal the teacher's credit, isn't it? "

Wu Huaiyu smiled, "Brother, you are wrong. The teacher is the commander of the Northern Expedition. As long as Jieli can be eliminated, no matter what kind of army wins, the great achievement is the teacher's. Teacher's negligence."

Su Lie poured wine for the two of them, and asked, "Even according to what Erlang said, if we want to seize the first victory of defeating the enemy and capturing the king of the main force in the middle, we don't have much chance in Youzhou. The journey is farther than that of Hedong Daishuo. We only have 2 horses, and Erlang is also training heavy infantry, Mo Dao soldiers, and heavy armored Youzhou Tuqi, which are not suitable for long-distance raids!"

"Even if Erlang really wanted to, I'm afraid he has no chance."

Huaiyu laughed, "Brother, you know the art of war better than me, but we are not fighting Xieli now."

Su Lie was stunned.

"Why is that so inspiring?"

"Bluffing, making a lot of noise."

Huaiyu didn't hide it from Su Lie anymore, "Actually, I'm doing this now, one is to strengthen our border defense of Hebei soldiers and horses, and the other is to prepare for the future acceptance and surrender of the Turkic tribes, even Xiqi, and to deal with Goguryeo in the future. prepare for."

Talking about dealing with the Turks, Xi and Khitan Su Lie all feel reasonable, but dealing with Goguryeo, isn't that a little too far away?
In the past two years, I have never heard that the Goguryeo people dared to provoke Datang. The Goguryeo people have all moved to the peninsula in recent years and sent troops to Silla.

"I really want to conquer the Turks and capture Xieli, but I don't need [-] troops. All I need is [-] light cavalry. The rest are used to confuse the enemy and prepare for the battle."

"Three thousand Qingqi to capture Jieli?" Su Lie felt that Wu Huaiyu was crazy for wanting to make meritorious service. Although Jieli had been a little bit unlucky in the past two years, but a dead camel was bigger than a horse. What happened to Dingxiang after a thousand journeys?

"We just need to be surprised,"

"It is impossible for 3000 people to approach the Dingxiang Han Court quietly without Jieli knowing."

"Actually, to destroy Jieli, it is not necessary to attack Dingxiang."

"?" Su Lie couldn't help but have question marks in his head.

Since Qimin Khan, the Turkic Khans have used Dingxiang as their khan court (Helinger), how can they capture Jieli if they don't attack Dingxiang?

"Brother, do you believe me?"

Su Lie looked at him, although it sounded outrageous, but his intuition still believed that Huaiyu should be believed.

"tell me the story?"

"I'm going to let senior brother select three thousand elite light cavalry, which imitate the Turkic wolf cavalry, from formation to armor banners, and even speech, all imitate the Turkic cavalry. In one year, the senior brother turned these three thousand cavalry into A Turkic wolf rider."

"One year later, we will use these three thousand fake wolf riders to capture Xieli alive!"

It sounds interesting, but Su Lie wants to know more specific details, "Erlang is drinking, let's chat in detail!"

The [-] Modao army, [-] armored cavalry, including the entire Hebei Road [-] army, these are just Wu Huaiyu's smoke bombs.

The real killing move is just the three thousand wolf cavalry.

Huaiyu asked Su Lie to train and lead the three thousand wolf riders.

(End of this chapter)