A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Emperor Yuan Cong

Chapter 729 Old Fox

"When Prime Minister Wu arrives in Lingnan, our Feng family and Xian family will give full support. As long as Prime Minister Wu gives an order, we will fight with swords, mountains, and seas of fire,"

Feng Zhidai said, patting his chest.

Feng Ang rolled his eyes at his son, "The eight governorates of Gaozhou and the four states of Qiongdao are all the territory of the imperial dynasty. Prime Minister Wu visits Lingnan on behalf of the emperor. Isn't it natural for you to obey orders?"

On the small red clay stove on the kang table, there is a casserole sitting in it, with beef offal and radish cubes simmering in it, with some garlic sprouts, dried chili peppers and old ginger sprinkled in it.

This red, yellow, and white pot,
The fragrance is overflowing.

Beef louver, beef throat, tripe, beef tendon, beef liver, beef loin, beef heart, beef intestine, etc., chives, star anise, cinnamon, bay leaves, ginger and garlic,
Feng Ang was sweating after eating, but he couldn't stop.

"This beef offal stew is really delicious. It's really spicy, but it's very spicy."

Feng Ang was no stranger to chili peppers in the past few years in Lingnan. He knew that the auspicious seeds were passed down by Wu Xiangguo in front of him. It was said that his master, the land god Xiaoyaozi, had collected them overseas.

When he was in Lingnan, he tried it once and didn't want to do it a second time.
But today he ate quite happily.

There is no exquisite banquet,

Wu Xiangguo's tail-burning banquet is very famous in Chang'an. It is said that there are [-] dishes.

Feng An had already eaten several dishes of Wu's Shaowei Banquet in Chang'an, and they were indeed delicious, delicious and well-deserved.

But now I am sitting on the fire bed like this, with a small stove, a clay pot, various beef offal with radish and garlic sprouts, but it is also very delicious.

Spicy, yet enjoyable,

This dish seems to be just like the Wu Huaiyu in front of me. It looks very ordinary, even a little humble, but when combined, it is so delicious and even so spicy.

Wu Huaiyu also broke out in a thin layer of sweat.

In the middle of winter, I eat this beef offal in a pot, paired with Laodong wine. The more I eat, the more I eat, and I take off my coat.

From Yangjiang to Leizhou Peninsula, they are the territory of the eight states of the Feng family. The four states on Hainan Island are also within their sphere of influence. There is no doubt about the strength of the Feng family. They are now the strongest in Lingnan.

However, this time when the imperial court was planning Lingnan, the Feng family was cooperating, so this first blow would not hit their heads.

"Enzhou, Gaozhou, Panzhou, Luozhou, Leizhou, these five coastal states under the Gaozhou Dudufu will be located in Beijin Port in Yangjiang, Bohe Port in Gaozhou, Leizhou Bay in Leizhou, Guangzhou Bay in Luozhou, etc. Five bays and naval camps were built,
Within the Dudu Mansion of Gaozhou, Shicheng of Luozhou and Maoming of Panzhou will each be stationed in a Tongjun Mansion. Liangde of Gaozhou will be stationed in the left town of Yongning Army, and Enping of Enzhou will be stationed in the right town of Yongning Army.

There’s no problem with any of this, right? "

Feng Zhidai took a sharp breath and kept sipping the tea. Hearing this, he patted his chest again, "We completely obey the imperial court's arrangements."

"Well, people in Chang'an say that Duke Feng has a hundred thousand elite soldiers in Lingnan,"

"They are all rumors, absolutely not true," Feng Zhidai explained,

Wu Huaiyu smiled and said, "It doesn't matter whether you have it or not. The court's arrangements have been made. The court will dispatch troops from the Central Plains to Lingnan. The troops originally held by the governors and governors in Lingnan will be reorganized into state and county troops and township regiment troops." ,
The number of soldiers in the upper state is one thousand and two, in the middle state is one thousand, and in the lower state is eight hundred.

The township group consists of 300 people in large counties and [-] people in small counties.

Select the young and fit ones, click to reorganize them, register them on the roster, and report them to the Ministry of War. The rest must be sent to the treasury with weapons and horses released to Nanshan to disarm and return to their fields.
Except for state and county soldiers and township regiment soldiers, private troops and slaves are not allowed to be armed."

Feng Zhidai was hesitant and looked secretly at his father.

Feng An sat there eating radishes. White radish cubes were stewed in a pot, soaked with the flavor of beef offal. It was very delicious.

Wu Huaiyu laughed twice,
Feng Ang stopped his chopsticks, glanced at his son, and then said to Wu Huaiyu, "We all obey the court's arrangements. If there is no problem with the Feng family, there should be no problem with the Xian family."

The imperial court's move to rectify and recruit local soldiers and horses was relatively fierce and touched the core of the Feng family. However, in the face of the general trend, Feng Ang was not able to resist.

Fortunately, the court also left some leeway.

Even if the eight states of the Feng family are all divided into lower states, in 64, there were still [-] soldiers from each state, and there were three or four counties in each state. The total number of rural regiment soldiers was more than [-] people. Taken together, the eight states of Gaofu There are about [-] county soldiers and township regiment soldiers.

Including the four states of Qiongdao, there are still at least five to six thousand posts.

Although the Feng family's military strength is more than this, in fact, the Feng family's soldiers are not standing troops.

Having this forehead is actually enough. If the day comes, mobilization will come in time.

Although Feng Ang was scheming, he also knew that now that the imperial court had passed, there would definitely be follow-up actions. For example, although the state soldiers and rural soldiers were nominally the commanders of the governors of various states, they were of course also under the control of the governor's office. There would be many restrictions in the future, especially To register the roster, every soldier must be counted.

Moreover, the military officers will surely gradually be mixed with military attachés sent by the imperial court.

"Come on, a toast."

Wu Huaiyu raised his wine glass and said with a smile.

Feng An and Feng Zhidai also raised their glasses quickly. The warm Laodong wine entered their throats and gradually became intoxicating.
Wu Huaiyu and his father were drinking and talking, and Feng Ang and his son also gave in step by step.
Wu Huaiyu said that towns should be set up to garrison troops, prefectures should be opened to garrison troops, navy camps should be built along the coast, inspections should be set up at pass wharves, and each state should send its chief Shi Sima.
Officials need to be assessed, and people need to be registered into households.

He said one thing, and the two men agreed to the same thing. Even if they had to reorganize and streamline the soldiers in their hands, they were willing to hand over the roster for reorganization. Everything was so harmonious and smooth.

Anyway, whatever you say is what you say,
The King of Lingnan sat there like a confused old landowner, and young Feng Zhidai did not dare to refuse anything.

Returned drunk.

The carriage of the Feng family and his son left the Duke's Mansion of Jin.
The carriage turned around the side street and entered the avenue. Feng An, who had been drunk with his eyes closed, opened his eyes and slowly sat up straight.
He let out a long breath of alcohol.

Feng Zhidai looked at his father drunkenly,

Feng Ang ignored him, just lost in thought in the carriage.

Faced with the overwhelming action of the imperial court, even though the imperial court was a bright sign and told you step by step, Feng Ang became more and more cautious and did not dare to be careless in the slightest.

He knew that now was the most critical time,
The imperial court is not the Barbarian King of Xidong like Tan Dian, nor is it an enemy within the family like Feng Xuan, nor is it an old Lingnan rival like Chen Longshu.
Not to mention opponents like Wei Guang, the general manager of Guangzhou in the Sui Dynasty, and Murong Sanzang, the deputy general.

This time they were not facing the officials of the Central Plains court in Lingnan, but the power of the entire court.

Disparity in strength.

Many people think that Lingnan is the Lingnan of their Lingnan people, and even the Lingnan of the Feng Chenning family. They are not afraid of the Central Plains dynasty at all. It doesn’t matter who is the emperor in the Central Plains. They Lingnan people close their doors and are still in the south of the Five Ridges. Boss.

But Feng An knew that this would make Yelang arrogant and sit in a well and look at the sky.

Chen Fozhi, Wang Zhongxuan, Xian Baoche, Xian Zhichen, Feng Xuan, Ning Changzhen, Ning Daoming, Tan Dian, etc., which slang leader had a good end against the Central Plains Dynasty?

The carriage arrived at the mansion given to Feng An by the emperor, the old Wu Prince's Mansion, now the Duke Geng's Mansion.

After getting off the carriage and entering the house, the two men returned to the study.
Boil water to make tea,

Father and son sit opposite each other.

"Father, are we just going to do nothing?" Feng Zhidai felt very uneasy.

Feng Ang picked out the tea leaves from the tea cake with a tea needle, "Think carefully before taking action. Don't panic and run around whenever something happens. If you run around in confusion, you can easily fall into someone else's trap."

"But if this goes on..."

"I know, but we have to keep our composure. Don't worry, there will be people who can't keep their composure, and there will be people who are jumping up and down, such as Tan Dian."

Tan Dian is the handsome man Feng An has been attacking for the past few years.
This guy also has some skills. The places where Tandian is active are Luo Doubian and Rong Yubai Zhuzhou Mountains, which is also the Yunkai Yunwu Mountain area.

His family has been the chief of Xidong for generations, and they have submitted to the Chen family of Longzhou for generations. During the Kaihuang period, Chen Fozhi launched an army to attack Guangzhou, but died at the hands of Feng Ang who rescued him. Chen Fozhi's son fled to the west mountain of Longzhou. After hearing the news, Tan Dian led Dong Ding He came back to avoid trouble, and later sent him to Qinzhou to join Ning Mengli.

After the defeat of the Chen family in Longzhou, he allied with the chiefs of the Yunwu and Yunkai mountains, slowly substituting the Chen family's traditional sphere of influence in the Yunkai mountains, and expanded southward to the mountainous areas of Luozhou, Gaozhou, southwest It expanded to the Beiliu area of ​​Hezhou,
He became Daqushuai, the largest Li chieftain in eastern Lingnan.

Chen Longshu asked Ning Mengli to send troops to attack Feng Ang in Qinzhou, but Ning Mengli made excuses. It was not until Ning Mengli died of illness in the early Tang Dynasty that Chen Longshu followed Ning Changzhen and returned to the Tang Dynasty.

The Tang Dynasty intended to rely on the fame and power of the Chen family in Longzhou, so the Chen family was able to return to Longzhou.

When Chen Longshu returned to his hometown, he urgently needed help from the imperial court, so he actively established prefectures and counties in the mountainous areas. He opened five counties including Xinyi and Huaide, established Funan Prefecture, and became the first governor of Fuzhou Prefecture.

Chen Longshu's Funan Prefecture overlapped Tan Dian's sphere of influence, which was also the former Chen family's sphere of influence. His return caused Tan Dian great dissatisfaction.

So the two turned against each other and became enemies.

Tandian encouraged Zhuxidong to refuse naturalization and refuse to pay taxes, so they joined forces and drove Chen Longshu away and occupied Nanfuzhou.

In the sixth year of Wude, Qinzhou Governor Ning Changzhen paid tribute to Hepu Dazhu, but was rejected by Tang Emperor Li Yuan. This caused uneasiness among the Lingnan chiefs, who believed that this was a sign that the imperial court was going to send troops to Lingnan.
Ning Changzhen found Tan Dian, Feng Xuan, Ning Daoming and others to gather to discuss rebellion against the Tang Dynasty. Ning Chun, the governor of Nanhezhou on the Leizhou Peninsula, opposed it, as did Chen Longshu of Longzhou and Feng Ang of Gaozhou.

In the end, Lingnan formed two major camps, the anti-Tang camp and the Zhongtang camp, which attacked each other. In the end, Ning Chang, Zhen Ning Daoming and others were killed one after another.

Pang Xiaotai, Feng Xuan, Tan Dian and others were all defeated and accepted recruitment.

The forces in Lingnan have gone through a round of reshuffle.

During this round of chaos, Tan Dian's strength was not much weakened. On the contrary, he took advantage of the chaos to expand his power. After the war, in order to seize Luozhou territory, he and Feng Xuan turned against their friends, and Pu Xiang attacked and plundered him. Later, the imperial court sent envoys. After appeasement, the two stopped fighting.

Not only did Feng Xuan die of illness,
The Feng family finally ended the civil strife, and Feng Xuan's disciples all obeyed Feng An and asked for help from Feng An to resist the invasion of Tan Palace.

Feng An then continued the fight with Tan Dian in the Luodou Mountain area. The fight lasted for several years. Although Tan Dian was not as powerful as Feng An, Feng An had no advantage in the Yunkai Mountains.

"After you return to Lingnan, the first thing you do is to use the power of the imperial court and the hands of Wu Huaiyu to destroy Tan Palace and pacify Luo Doudong. The rest can comply with the imperial court first."

In Feng Ang's view, even if the imperial court really wants to invade Lingnan, it is not terrible. After all, it is thousands of miles away. The enemies of the Feng family have to be Lingnan's enemies in person. It is people like Tan Dian and Chen Longshu, not Chang'an. here.

When the imperial court comes, they can transfer some benefits and cooperate, but there is no way to negotiate with people like Tan Dian and Chen Longshu.

(End of this chapter)