A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Emperor Yuan Cong

Chapter 830: This time, the dragon goes to sea

"Wu Er is out of the capital?"

"Well, I personally watched the convoy leave at the tea shop outside the city gate. Wu Er was riding a Qinghai dragon horse, looking very proud."

Yankangfang, in the palace of Prince Wei,

Wei Ting and Chai Lingwu were asking and answering questions, and Chief Shi Du Chuke and Sima Su Xu were also there.

The fat King Li Tai of Wei was eating barbecue on the side, his mouth full of oil.

Wu Huaiyu finally left, and this time he took his wife, concubines, and children with him, obviously planning to stay in Lingnan permanently.

Du Chuke rubbed his beard and sighed, "I still don't think we should let Wu Huaiyu leave like this. It will be difficult to deal with the tiger leaping through the jungle and the dragon entering the sea."

Wei Ting ignored him. He felt from the bottom of his heart that Du Chuke had a false reputation.

"Your Majesty, there is something more important than Wu Huaiyu now,"

"What's the matter?" Li Tai's mouth was full of barbecue.

“I wonder if your Majesty has any impression of the feudal path that Xiao Yu has taken recently?”

"Let's talk about it again. Xiao Yu wants to bring up enfeoffment several times every year, but every time it's loud and clear." Li Tai didn't take it seriously and continued to eat barbecue.

I almost choked after eating too much barbecue, so I quickly picked up a glass of physalis and took two big gulps.

After swallowing the roasted meat, he continued to grab the roasted meat with his hands.

When people are fat, they eat more. The fatter they are, the more they eat. The more they eat, the fatter they become. The cycle is endless.

Li Tai, who is in his teens, is already too fat to walk. He has to be carried for longer distances, and even riding a horse is inconvenient.

But he still can't change his delicious habit.

Common people have two meals a day, or even one meal a day, middle-class people and above have three meals a day, and palace nobles have four meals a day, but His Highness the King of Wei has five meals a day, plus some snacks from time to time.

Even his snacks are often barbecue, roasted goose and beef jerky.

It is said that the King of Wei was a wise king, and his courtesy and virtuous corporal were fond of reading. He established his own literature hall at the age of ten, invited celebrities from all over the world to join the library, and even took the lead in compiling the geography book "Kuo Di Zhi". However, the people in the palace Who doesn’t know that this person’s favorite thing is to eat?

I am willing to read, and I am actually very smart. I can write well and write good articles, but I am not as evil as what is said outside.

In fact, in the past, there was a third-rank official who met him on the road and did not dismount and show courtesy. He got angry and taught him a lesson, and even complained to the emperor. As for the so-called repair of books, he just put his name on it, and it was purely to gain fame.

Wei Ting was a little helpless,

He was not trusted by the emperor, and was not appreciated by the prince either. He felt aggrieved, so in the end he had no choice but to take a gamble on the King of Wei.

"Your Majesty, Xiao Yu brings up the old matter every year because the saint never forgets it and intends to return to enfeoffment. But the most important thing now is not Xiao Yu, but Wu Huaiyu who also agrees with enfeoffment, but his idea of ​​enfeoffment is different from Xiao Yu's. , he even advocated enfeoffing the clan to the surrounding areas, or even establishing a clan vassal state in the current Jisi area."

Li Tai disagreed.

"Your Majesty, don't underestimate the enemy. Although Wu Huaiyu is young, his influence in the court is no weaker than Xiao Yu's. In recent years, his influence has even surpassed Xiao Yu's.

If Wu Huaiyu really wanted to promote the enfeoffment system, then this matter might actually come true. After all, the saint intended to enfeoff. "

Wei Ting has been at the center for these years and has a relatively clear view of the situation between the DPRK and China.

Wu Huaiyu has now resigned and left the capital to live in Lingnan, but he has many allies in the court. Li Jing, the right servant, is his teacher, and Yun Na, the warrior who participates in political affairs, is his uncle.

Attendant Wei Zheng was a relative of his Wu family, and even Wei Zheng's second son was a student of his.

Gao Shilian, the Minister of Civil Affairs, was involved in political affairs. He was the queen's uncle. Like Changsun Guojiu, he was both an in-law and a political ally with Wu Huaiyu.

Wu Huaiyu also had many powerful allies in the court.

So in the past, when Mr. Xiao Yu talked about enfeoffment and enfeoffment, there was no follow-up to this matter just by shouting about it. But now that Wu Huaiyuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu, the matter is different.

Li Tai finally stopped cutting the barbecue in his hands.

"Searching isn't a bad thing, right?"

"Hasn't the king understood the disadvantages of enfeoffment? If it is just Xiao Yu's enfeoffment method, it is actually the enfeoffment system of the Han and Jin Dynasties. With the king's favor crowning the kings, they will definitely be enfeoffed to a rich land. Maybe It's a place like Yangzhou or Taiyuan,

But Wu Huaiyu's enfeoffment method is dangerous. When the time comes, the enfeoffment may be to Dingxiang outside the Great Wall, Longyou Diezhou, Jianwai Songzhou, or to the left and right streams in Lingnan, or even to the central part of Nanzhong, Guizhou, and even Hainan and other places. Annan and other places,

I wonder if His Highness can accept this? "

Li Tai's face turned ugly, "Wouldn't that be the same as being exiled? How could a saint treat his own flesh and blood like this?"

"But I'm afraid of what might happen. What if the saint listens to Wu Huaiyu's words, or Wu Huaiyu instigates many ministers to come together to remonstrate with him? Your Majesty also knows that the saint has always favored Wu Huaiyu."

"When that time comes, I will regret it too much,"

"We must not sit idly by. We must take the initiative and not sit back and wait for death. Otherwise, we will regret it. We will gain the upper hand by attacking first and suffer disaster by attacking later."

Wei Ting's mind was still very sharp, and he thought that if Jiancheng had been more decisive in his attack, he would not have been defeated.

"Then what should I do?" Li Tai panicked.

He would never go to the wild frontier land to build a vassal state. What's the point of being a vassal king in that kind of place?

"Find a way to prevent enfeoffment,"

Wei Ting raised questions and came up with solutions.

"We first find people to support Wu Huaiyu's method of enfeoffing the four sides. We must make this matter a big deal and make it known to everyone. Then we can incite the kings of the clan to stand up against such enfeoffment and say that Wu Huaiyu is alienating the royal family. The clan wants to drive a wedge between the flesh and blood of the saint, father and son, and wants to exile and harm the emperor’s younger brothers and princes..."

A very classic trick to fish in troubled waters is to muddy the water first. Then you don't even need Li Tai to rush in front. There are so many princes in the clan, whether they are adults or not, there are still many people standing behind them, including the princes and princes who are not yet adults. There is also my mother and my mother’s family behind me.

Li Tai really admired Wei Ting. No wonder the East Palace once suppressed his father so miserably that he almost couldn't stand up. In the end, he was forced to take risks and launch a palace coup.

······

In late autumn,

Wu Huaiyu rode a tall horse and left Chang'an with his family.

The Emperor specially assigned his Imperial Guards to guard the front and rear,

The Wu family's motorcade is very long. This time, there are more than 20 wives and concubines traveling south, and more than 30 young masters and wives. Each wife, concubine and child also has a team of servants and maids.

Even the Sword Princess, who is responsible for the safety of her family members, has a small number of two hundred people, both official and trainee.

The entire team going south consisted of more than 2,000 people.

Because there were many people who went south together, including people from the Wang family in Taiyuan, the Liu family in Hedong, and the Li family in Zhaojun, as well as members of the Wu family, etc.

That's not all,

With such a huge team heading south, the road was actually quite lively.

Fortunately, Wu Huaiyu often marched and fought, so it was not difficult at all to lead such a small force.

The composition of the team was complex, including young and old. They were not in a hurry and were not moving fast. Fortunately, they had complete security, many guards, and a large number of carriages and horses accompanying them, so it was easy.

Even the family members who had just left the city were still in high spirits as they were going on an autumn outing. They were chattering lively along the way.

The older children of the Wu family were also more excited.

The route this time is to start from Chang'an via Languan Wuguan to Shangluo, then transfer to a boat along the Danshui River to Xiangyang, then change to a large ship in the Han River in Xiangyang and go straight to the Yangtze River, then transfer to Jiujiang, and then enter the Gan River. After getting off the boat, cross Meiling by land, and then transfer to Zhenjiang River to take a boat to Guangzhou.

Most of this road is an inland waterway. The Danjiang River, Hanjiang River, Yangtze River, Ganjiang River, and Beijiang River are basically long-distance waterways. Generally speaking, it will be more comfortable and convenient, not so bumpy, and you don’t have to worry about the inconvenience and danger of sleeping in the wild. ,

Walking on horseback along the Bahe River in autumn, you can see that this year is another good year.

People are busy harvesting corn. Now Guanzhong has a large corn planting area, especially in the drought-prone plateaus. When entering southern Shaanxi, in fact, more corn is planted in the mountainous areas, and there are also many potatoes and sweet potatoes. .

These can help farmers increase their rations. In recent years, people have even relied on these grains to engage in household breeding, raising pigs and chickens, which can also increase a lot of income and even improve their lives.

Occasionally, you can also see some cotton fields in the fields.

The income from growing cotton is also good. The seed cotton is harvested and sent directly to the workshops. Most of the cotton workshops in Guanzhong are now owned by the Wu family. Because the Wu family is accustomed to signing purchase contracts with the people who grow cotton in advance, the people are also willing to grow cotton, and the income is relatively guaranteed.

Wu Huaiyu looked at the harvest fields and sighed in his heart,

The eight-hundred-mile Guanzhong Plain is indeed quite fertile and rich. After the unification of the world, the lives of the people in Guanzhong have also changed the fastest and most.

Just ask the locals casually, and you will know.

Guanzhong was rich, but annexation became more serious because of it. The nobles desperately annexed land, but the land in the hands of common people was getting less and less. As a result, many people became tenants, or even slaves, or worked for others to farm, or He was forced to enter Chang'an City and became a low-level service worker in that huge city.

"Fellow fellow, now that the imperial court is opening up the frontier, the surrounding areas lack population. The imperial court encourages people from narrow villages to move to wider villages. Once they settle in the border areas, they can allocate their fields and grant them land. Why are you not willing to go?"

The wrinkled, tanned, tired old man with a hunched back faced this big man who looked extraordinary at first sight, and replied tremblingly, "The little old man is fifty-five this year, and in five years he will live a full life. I have lived so long, but I have never left the boundaries of Wannian County. The farthest places I have gone to are Chang'an City and Zhongnan Mountain.

The Kuanxiang mentioned by the imperial court was too far away to go. "

Anyway, no matter what Wu Huaiyu said about the benefits of immigration, about dividing the land, renting free farm tools, seeds and even cattle, or even the court would provide settlement allowance, etc.,

The old man just shook his head desperately.

Unless he really had to, he didn't want to leave Chang'an, and he didn't dare to leave if there was still a little bit of choice.

The vast majority of villagers think like this: Lingnan, Yanbei, Longyou, Hetao, where are they?

It’s too far away to think about or go.

Faced with their thoughts, Wu Huaiyu didn't know what to say. The lower class people were, the more rigid their thinking was.

For example, who have immigrated to Lingnan in the past two years?

In the past, the most people who went there were soldiers, then officials, and then businessmen. Those who were soldiers or officials had no choice. The soldiers did not dare to disobey the military orders. And officials also have to obey orders. Who dares to disobey orders?

Tens of thousands of soldiers from the Central Plains were garrisoning in Lingnan. Most of them were garrisoning for one or two years and returned home after serving. They were only temporarily garrisoning in Lingnan. They were not that resistant. It was only temporary anyway.

However, the more than 20,000 soldiers of the Lingnan Tongjunfu were selected from the Central Plains. From then on, they immigrated to Lingnan. Because of the many superior attributes of the soldiers at this time, many Central Plains people were still willing to go to Lingnan for the status of the soldiers. After all, the people in Lingnan who can choose the soldiers are at least small and medium-sized landowners, and they are relatively knowledgeable. They are ruthless people who dare to gain fame and wealth on the battlefield. Of course, they don't mind moving to Lingnan to settle down.

The government soldiers were stationed in Lingnan, and then brought their wives, concubines, and children from the Central Plains. This was the backbone of the immigrants, but unfortunately the number was still too small.

The common people do not want to go, but the aristocrats and wealthy families are now rushing to go to Lingnan. This is my experience. In the eyes of the poor, Lingnan is a miasma and barbarism, a deadly place. But in the eyes of the aristocratic and wealthy families, Lingnan is a dangerous place. Gold and silver are everywhere now, opportunities are everywhere,

Whoever goes first will get more opportunities, and whoever goes first will get more opportunities.

"Alang, it's getting late. Do you want to stop traveling and prepare to set up camp?"

"it is good,"

Although it is not too late at this time, with so many people and horses camping in the wild, they still need to make some preparations. Wu Huaiyu, with his wife, concubines and children, does not dare to be careless at all. Even in the Gyeonggi area, there are still hundreds of people. He still requires the same strict care for the imperial army and his hundreds of servants and swordsmen as when camping in the army.

Caution is the boat,

If someone is really bold and comes to Lintong Mountain to pretend to be a thief and kill Li Yuan, that's fine.

(End of this chapter)