A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Emperor Yuan Cong

Chapter 720

Feng An came quickly.

After receiving a letter from his son Feng Zhidai, he only considered it for a day and then decided to go to Beijing immediately.

The King of Lingnan only brought dozens of light cavalry escorts along the Jiangguangyi Road newly built by the imperial court, first along the Beijiang River to Shaozhou, then through the Meiguan Road to Yuling Mountain, and then along the Gongshui River to Ganzhou, where he took a fast boat Go down the Gan River and go straight to Xunyang, Jiangzhou.

After entering the Yangtze River, take a boat to Ezhou, then change the route of the Han River to Xiangyang, then follow the Dan River to Shangzhou, pass through Wuguan, enter Lantian, and go straight to Chang'an.

This journey involves both water and land. Most of the time you can take a boat by water, which is very fast.
In just seven days, Feng An arrived from Gaozhou to Chang'an.

The express letter sent by Feng An before departure was expedited by Yi Road, and it took only five days to reach Chang'an. After learning about Feng An's itinerary, Wu Huaiyu personally went to Baqiao to greet him.

It was afternoon when Feng Ang arrived, and the sun was setting in the west.
When he and dozens of people arrived, they were already dusty.

From Xiangyang, you can take the Danshui waterway and take a boat to Shangluo. There is a section before you have to cross the Qinling Mountains. You can only take the Bahe waterway by land after passing Lantian Pass.

However, the long stretch of waterway from Lantian Pass to Wuguan dries up in winter and the water is shallow, making it difficult for large ships to sail, so it can only be transported by small boats in sections.
Feng Ang and the others have been coming directly on horseback since they arrived at Wuguan.

The Lanwu Road in Shangluo Mountain is not easy to walk. Although it is an important road from Chang'an to the outside of the pass, many places are still quite rugged and difficult to walk.

When Han Yu was going to Chaozhou to feed crocodiles, he passed by this place and wrote the famous line "The horse is standing still despite the snow."

Feng An rushed all the way to Baqiao. He was covered in dirt.
Feng Zhidai ran to greet him and helped his father dismount.
It was the first time that Huaiyu and Feng Ang met.
Wu Huaiyu looked at him. Although he was covered in dust, he could not hide his tallness and majesty. Feng An and Feng Zhidai looked very similar. They were both tall men with beards.

This is very different from the indigenous people in Lingnan who are generally dark and thin.

However, the Feng family is not from Lingnan. They are descendants of the Northern Yan royal family. During the Southern Dynasty and Song Dynasty, 300 people crossed the sea from Liaodong to the south, and later settled in the Gaoliang area. The Feng family formed an alliance and marriage with Li Shuai Feng, and gradually became Lingnan laid the foundation,

No matter how the dynasty changes in the Southern Dynasty, the Feng family will not be affected, but it will become stronger and stronger.

40 years ago,

Feng Ang, who was still a teenager, had already become the magistrate of Songkang County in the Sui Dynasty. Wang Zhongfan and Chen Fozhi rebelled against the Sui Dynasty and besieged Guangzhou. Feng Xuan was sent by Mrs. Xian to reinforce the Sui army in Guangzhou. However, he secretly communicated with the Chen family and deliberately delayed When it was too late, Mrs. Xian asked Feng Ang to lead people to seize Feng Xuan's military power.

Feng An was a brave young man, joined the Sui army, served as a vanguard, defeated the rebels, and even personally shot and killed Chen Fozhi, the leader of the Chen clan in Longzhou.

The following year, Chaocheng and other five states rebelled again. Feng Ang personally went to Chang'an to report to Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty. Yang Jian sent him back to lead the army to conquer. He also lived up to his mission and quickly put down the rebellion in the five states.

It has been 200 years since Feng Ye crossed the sea and joined Liu Song Dynasty.

When Emperor Taiwu of the Northern Wei Dynasty Tuoba Tao defeated Helong, Emperor Zhaocheng of Northern Yan Feng Hong fled to Goguryeo and Northern Yan was destroyed. His son Feng Ye took 300 people across the sea to surrender to Liu Song. After encountering a storm on the way, the fleet drifted to Xinhui, Guangzhou. , so he settled in Xinhui.

By the time of Feng Rong, Feng Ye's grandson, he served as the governor of Luozhou.

Feng Rong's son Feng Bao married the daughter of the Xian family, a Gaoliang slang family. The two wealthy families of Feng and Xian formed an alliance and married, and the Xian family became the leader of Gaoliang. The Liang Dynasty in the Southern Dynasty appointed Feng Bao as the prefect of Gaoliang.

Feng Bao is Feng Ang's grandfather.

Two hundred years is not a long time, but it is not a short time either. The Feng family has laid a foundation in Lingnan.

Wu Huaiyu knew more about the history of the Feng family's ancestors. The Feng family was actually Han Chinese from Xianbei and also served as the monarch of Beiyan.

But in fact, Beiyan was not founded by the Feng family. Because Beiyan was built in western Liaoning and its capital was Huanglong, it was also called the Huanglong Kingdom.

Feng Ba was born as a general. During the Yongjia Rebellion, his ancestors fled to the Shangdang. His father was brave and served the Murong family as a general in Xiyan. After the fall of Xiyan, Feng Ba moved west to Helong in western Liaoning. The Book of Wei said that the Feng family was Xianbei Han people,

But more people believe that the Feng family is originally from the Xianbei lineage, saying that they are actually Sinicized Xianbei people.

Feng Ba was very impressive when he was young. After Murong Bao, Emperor Hui of Later Yan, succeeded to the throne, Feng Ba became the general of the central guard. When Murong Bao died and his brother Emperor Zhaowen of Later Yan, Feng Ba's brothers were all convicted of him. Murong Xi had With the intention of killing them, the two brothers fled into the mountains and hid for a while. They felt that Murong Xi was unpopular and Houyan was in turmoil, so instead of hiding, they might as well fight.

So the brothers asked the women at home to drive into Longcheng and find an opportunity to kill Murong Xi. Feng Ba supported Emperor Hui Murong Bao's adopted son. Murong Yun of Goguryeo ascended to the throne of heaven and restored the surname Gao. Feng Ba's brothers and others all worshiped high positions. .

Later, history books record that Gao Yun was killed by his favored ministers, and Feng Ba put down the rebellion. He was promoted as the king of heaven by the generals, and when he came, he wore a yellow robe.
Wu Huaiyu had enough reasons to believe that the so-called Gao Yun was killed by his favored ministers. In fact, it should be said that Feng Ba had already grown up, so he killed Gao Yun.

Feng Ba is still very capable. He replaced Gao Yun just like Sima replaced Cao.

Feng Ba became the king of heaven. He only changed the Yuan Dynasty but not the name of the country, which was still Northern Yan. Moreover, he also learned from the lessons of Later Yan's defeat, revitalized the imperial court, purged officials, eliminated corvee labor, and encouraged farming and mulberry farming, thus maintaining peace in Northern Yan. The situation has lasted more than twenty years,
However, after his death, Feng Ba's younger brother launched a palace coup, deputy crown prince Feng Yi, and established himself as king. However, after he usurped the throne, he only reigned for three years before being attacked and destroyed by the Northern Wei Dynasty. Feng Hong and his people fled in panic to Goguryeo, Feng Hong had always despised the Goguryeo people. When he fled to Liaodong, he still issued orders and rewards and punishments as he did in Beiyan, but the Goguryeo people took away his attendants. Later, Feng Hong planned to cross the sea and flee south, and the Northern Wei Dynasty came to ask for it again, so the King of Goguryeo simply took it away. Kill them all.

However, after Feng Hong's death, several descendants escaped, and one of them returned to the Northern Wei Dynasty. Queen Wenming of the Northern Wei Dynasty was Feng Hong's granddaughter.
One of Feng Hong's sons, Feng Ye, led 300 people across the sea to join the Liu Song Dynasty, which was known in history as the Northern Crossing of Yan to the South.

From Feng Ye to Feng An, six generations have passed, and he has been a shepherd for all his life.

If Feng Zhidai takes over as the governor of Gaozhou, he will be the shepherd for the seventh time and achieve the foundation of Nan Ba ​​Tian.

The Feng family has been shepherding for the seventh generation in Lingnan, and they are married to the Xian family, the leader of the Lingnan slang people, for four generations, but Feng An still has a very obvious northern appearance.

Wu Huaiyu felt that Feng Ang's family should belong to the Sinicized Xianbei people, not the Xianbei Han people.

After 200 years in Lingnan, they still have some Lingnan raccoon style.

"Feng Gong, you have worked hard all the way."

"Please, Prime Minister Wu, come pick me up. Zhidai has been in Beijing for a few years. Thank you for taking care of me."

Huaiyu smiled and said, "General Feng and I hit it off and chatted very well, and now we are married," Huaiyu said about the marriage.

Feng Ang laughed happily and said, "Thanks to Wu Xiang Bu abandoning me, I am willing to marry a vulgar southern barbarian like us. It would be a great honor for me."

"The Feng family is not a southern barbarian. It was a royal family when Beiyan crossed to the south."

Feng An then smiled. Of course he knew the history of the Feng family very well, but there was nothing to show off about something like this that happened hundreds of years ago. Besides, the Feng family only had two generations of Beiyan generations, and the two Beiyan families The emperors were all usurpers, so there was so much to say. In the end, Feng Hong died at the hands of the Goguryeo people, which was so embarrassing.

Feng Ang was a little amazed at the young prime minister in front of him.
When he was young, he met Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty when he entered the court, and later he served as the guard of Emperor Sui Yang in Luoyang. He also met many dignitaries of the Central Plains court. There were four or five nobles in the Sui Dynasty, but he could tell them at a glance. There weren't many that made him feel a little amazed.Yang Su was once one, but how old was Yang Su when he became prime minister, and what age is Wu Huaiyu now?
Feng Ang remembered that Yang Su gave him a very domineering and sharp-edged feeling. He even had a bit of aggression and coercion, giving people the feeling of being targeted by a poisonous snake. On the contrary, Wu Huaiyu was completely different. Although This is also a person who is both a general and a prime minister.
Huaiyu welcomed people into the post house.
Let the post house arrange a rest first, take a shower and change clothes.

When Feng An came out, wine and food had been prepared here.

In addition to Huaiyu and Zhidai, those who came to pick up Feng Ang were also Pang Xiaotai. Wu Huaiyi and Xu Jingzong were not here today. Their identities are relatively sensitive, so it would not be appropriate to come to greet them.

There wasn't much food and wine in the inn, just roasted chicken, stewed meat and some vegetables.

Feng Ang is not picky.

While Wu Huaiyu was toasting, he also explained the emperor's arrangements. Feng Ang came to the court and was appointed as the prince's Shaobao, and he was appointed as the general of Zuo Xiaowei. Chang'an was given the first palace, and the southern suburbs were given a manor with [-] acres of land.

"Your Majesty will allow Duke Geng to enjoy a few years of peace and happiness in Beijing. He will also spend more time with Your Majesty and provide advice for Your Majesty for the Tang Dynasty. As for Lingnan, let Zhi Dai return to take charge."

Feng Zhidai paid homage to the military governor of Gaozhou and other eight states, the governor of Gaozhou, the Duke of Gaoliang, the general Zuowuwei and the deputy commander of the prince's right guard.

Of the eight governorates in Gaozhou, six were Feng An's sons and two were his nephews.

Among the four states on Yazhou Island, two are Feng Ang's nephews and two are descendants of the Xian family.

This is equivalent to the Feng family occupying the governorship of ten states.

Feng An listened carefully and did not speak in a hurry.

It turned out that he commanded eight states, and now the governor's office of Gaozhou is still eight states, but in fact four states were added to eight states, and the court also replaced Baizhou with Douzhou.

Baizhou is to the west of Yunkai Mountain. It was captured by him after he fought for the imperial court to put down the rebellions of Pang Xiaotai, Feng Xuan, Tan Dian and others. It was a stronghold of the Feng family extending into the west. Now that the imperial court wants to take it away, replacing it will be very messy. Douzhou.

Luozhou, Douzhou, and Bianzhou, which is separated from Gaozhou, are close to the Yunkai Mountains and have always been occupied by Zhuxi Dong barbarians, making them very difficult to control.

Douzhou was originally within the Chen family's sphere of influence, but the Chen family now has no control over it.

However, after Feng Ang thought about it carefully, he felt that this exchange was not bad. Baizhou was originally the sphere of influence of the Ning family, and Douzhou was originally the sphere of influence of the Chen family.

Relatively speaking, Baizhou is isolated to the west of Yunkai Mountain, while Douzhou is close to Gaoliang. If the Chen family wipes out the Douzhou barbarians, it will threaten the core of Feng family's Gaoliang.

Now Baizhou is replaced by Douzhou. Although Douzhou still has to be defeated, Gaoliang will be more stable after defeating it.

The Feng family did not lose from this transaction.

It doesn't matter if the four Yazhou prefectures are separated. The imperial court had previously established the Yazhou Governor's Office, which was held by the descendants of the Xian family. Although it was also affiliated to the Gaofu, the court now gave the Feng family two governors to the four Yazhou prefectures. , not a bad deal either.

"Prime Minister Wu, the Xitong barbarians in Luo, Dou, and Bian states are going to raise their troops to rebel in the next year. I'm afraid there will be a big chaos. How will the court arrange it?" Feng Ang asked.

"The three states of Luo Doubian are now under the jurisdiction of the Gaozhou Governor's Office. If the Xitong barbarians in the three states rebel, the Gaozhou Governor's Office will naturally be responsible for suppressing them. Don't worry, Mr. Feng. The imperial court is reorganizing Lingnan this time and establishing six governor's offices.
Each governor's office will be garrisoned by one or two armies, such as the Qing Navy in Guangzhou, the Ningyuan Army in Rongzhou, the Jingjiang Army in Guizhou, the Jing Navy in Jiaozhou, the Jianwu Army in Yongzhou, and the Yongning Army in Gaozhou.

There are six military trumpets: Jinghai, Jingjiang, Qinghai, Jianwu, Yongning, and Ningyuan.

The imperial plan is that each army will be divided into about 5000 men, with a total of 3 men. The imperial court will dispatch 5000 men from the Central Plains to garrison in Lingnan, and then deploy 5000 men from the current armed forces under the governors and governors of Lingnan to join forces. The troops dispatched by the imperial court were reorganized,

After these [-], the Central Army will be stationed in Lingnan. In addition, [-] soldiers and horses from various states will be organized into the Lingnan Regiment to train rural soldiers.

Except for these 6 people, the rest of the troops will be sent back to their fields one after another.

According to this plan, the Gaozhou Governor's Mansion, that is, the Yongning Army, will have an establishment of [-] troops, with the left and right armies having [-] troops each, a Yajun Army with [-] troops, and another [-] rural troops.

The imperial court will send Yongning Army envoys to lead the five thousand Yongning Army. Among them, Yongning Yabing and Gaozhou Governor can also command.

The five thousand united rural soldiers were commanded by the eight governors of the Gaozhou Governor's Office, with five hundred in each state, and one thousand returned to the governor's command.

Feng Ang heard this and asked, "If we organize it according to this, there will be only 1 regular soldiers in the eight states of Gaofu, plus [-] rural soldiers, a total of only [-] troops. Luo Dou argued that if the barbarians in the three states rebelled , no less than one hundred thousand, ten thousand versus one hundred thousand, difficult."

"The imperial court is also aware of the issue Mr. Feng mentioned," Huaiyu smiled.

"The imperial court's plan is to establish another unified military office in Lingnan, and two statistical offices within each governor's office, for a total of twelve offices, each with 200 people."

These are [-] soldiers. These soldiers will not be selected locally in Lingnan, but in Zhongyuan. Then they will come to Lingnan and bring their families with them. After arriving in Lingnan, they will be stationed in several places. The important land on the edge of the city of the governor's palace was divided into fields and granted, and forts were built to station troops.

These government soldiers are different in nature from the previous six armies.

The six armies belong to the border town army. They are also drawn from the government soldiers. In addition to taking turns guarding the border in Lingnan, the government soldiers in Lingnan do not need to go to Beijing. However, if there is a big war, they will be called up. Chosen.

Therefore, these [-] soldiers from the Four Prefectures are stationed in Lingnan. If there is any major rebellion in Lingnan, they can be called into battle at any time.

"It's still not enough." Feng Ang shook his head.

"Guangzhou, Jiaozhou, and Qinzhou have municipal shipping departments. The imperial court will set up naval patrols in these three places, each with 3000 people. In addition, there will also be a coastal inspection department along the coast, with 3000 people."

Another eighteen thousand,
They will all be transferred by the imperial court, and they are naval forces. Lingnan has a long coastal line. These 8000 people patrol the sea and perform coastal inspections. They are also a strategic mobile force. They can also be reinforced if needed inland. After all, Lingnan The waterways are also smooth and convenient.

Feng An silently calculated in his mind that the six armies of the Dudu Mansion were transferred from the central government with [-], the Tongjun Mansion with [-] superiors had [-], and now there are three patrol navy with [-], and three coastal inspection departments. Another nine thousand,
Forty-seven thousand and four, Feng Ang was secretly alarmed when he got this number. There were still fifteen thousand locally selected border troops and thirty thousand rural soldiers, so the imperial court had a lot of troops in Lingnan.

Even if the [-] government soldiers overlap with the border town army, the regular army of the imperial court is no better armed than Lingnan.

If these soldiers and horses are in place, there will be no fear of Xidian rebellion, and even powerful chiefs like them will have to be afraid.

"Actually, Lingnan is remote and hot. If many troops from the Central Plains are not acclimated to the climate, the rebellion of Luo Dou and Tuo barbarians will not be possible. They just occupied the dangerous mountains and forests for a while and were arrogant. The states in Lingnan mobilized troops to form a crusade. It is not difficult to pacify them. I am willing to pacify them myself. If the court trusts me, Zhi Dai will be enough."

Feng An said.

Huaiyu laughed, knowing that this old boy felt threatened, but what had been arranged by the court, how could it change because of you?
(End of this chapter)