A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Emperor Yuan Cong

Chapter 951 Comes and Goes
Guangzhou,

Western Australia Pier,

Wu Huaiyu bid farewell to his brother,

"This man is gone. His fourth uncle is not even sixty yet," Wu Huaiyi said with some emotion. Although Huaiyu said years ago that the warrior Tong would not survive long, he gave up just after the New Year. After receiving the bad news, he still Somewhat surprised.

"I thought I could stay here for another year,"

Along with the bad news that the warrior Yu had disappeared, there was also the imperial edict to summon Wu Huaiyi to the court to be appointed as the Taifu Qingjiajin Ziguanglu doctor.

In nine years, from joining the father-son army to becoming Jiuqing, Wu Huaiyi sometimes finds it incredible when he thinks about it.

"It's better to return to Beijing early so that you can spend more time with your wife, concubines and children. You have been staying in Lingnan for five years, and you have only been back for two or three years."

"Yeah, five years have passed and I really have to leave, but I'm still a little reluctant to leave."

However, Wu Huaiyi also understood the reason why the emperor summoned him back to the court before he had finished his term. Lingnan was indeed remote and wild in the past, but it has gradually improved in recent years.

Not counting the team training in each state and the archers in the countryside.

The war against the left and right Xili barbarians is finally over.

There are also seven garrison towns where soldiers from the Central Plains Prefecture take turns to garrison. Each town has 5,000 garrison troops and 35,000 garrison troops.

The military strength of Lingnan Road is very astonishing, especially since most of the soldiers are not only from the Central Plains, but also have a reputation in Lingnan. How many barbarians raised flags in disobedience, but were killed until the entire tribe was Become a slave.

There are nearly 80,000 soldiers in combat, and the number of regiment training is even called 100,000.

Moreover, such a big move was carried out very smoothly. You must know that this only merged fifty-five states at once. In fact, it was more than that, because the current forty-nine states also include the former left and right Xijisi prefectures. Several states returned to China.

This also means that a large number of officials such as governors, county magistrates, and Chief Shi Sima joined the army were merged. Although their official status was still retained, their official positions were gone. They had to be re-elected in Chang'an and Luoyang. Even if six Those who are above grade can be directly arranged by the staff, but with so many people at once, it is obviously not easy to arrange.

The seven governors have six thousand troops, and the seven governors have three thousand troops each, which is another twenty-seven thousand.

Not to mention other things, when Wu Huaiyu established provinces and prefectures in Lingnan last year, the original ninety-eight prefectures, plus the six Fujian and Yue prefectures, were merged into the forty-nine prefectures.

Nowadays, under the new system of the imperial court, the Tongjun Mansion was renamed as Zhechong Mansion, the Tongjun was renamed as Zhechong Commandery, and the generals were renamed as Zuoguoyi Commandery.

The results of the battle were still very brilliant. Although there had not been much fighting in the past two years, the original rebellious barbarian chiefs in Zuoxi Thirty-six Jisi Prefecture had long been overthrown by the people below, but the camp still had not been withdrawn.

The former King of Lingnan, Feng Ang, was said to be reluctant to miss Shu in Chang'an these past few years.

When it was withdrawn at the end of last year, the original Thirty-six Jisi Prefectures became the Seventy-two Jisi Prefectures. Not only did all the barbarians in Zuoyouxi surrender, but also the Shengman barbarians in the southwest had also surrendered in the past two years. Basically, they all accepted Xingying’s recruitment.

Ning, Chen, Feng Xian and several local wealthy families are now more aware of current affairs than the other, and barbarian chieftains like Tan Dian were killed last year for some reason.

As a result, there were seventy-two Jisuzhous.
Some important places in the original Left and Right Rivers were restructured and established as Zhengzhou, such as Zuozhou, Youzhou, Chongzhou, etc., and some military towns such as Zhennanguan and Guancheng were established.
On the one hand, a large number of provinces and prefectures and counties were merged, and on the other hand, Jisi Prefecture was newly expanded.

There are seven prefectures and forty-nine prefectures in Lingnan Road, and now there are fourteen Zhechong prefectures with sixteen thousand eight thousand soldiers.

But this time it went so smoothly without causing much waves. In the final analysis, the imperial court has strong control over Lingnan, and Wu Huaiyu has a high prestige in Lingnan.
And these also come from the imperial garrison troops and horses in Lingnan, local unity, and even the bow and arrow club.

There was another incident last year that was quite sensational in Lingnan, but no one in Chang'an took it seriously.

Sixty states were annexed at once, and more than 200 counties were annexed.

The recruitment camp in Lingnan made a triumphant return,

From the time when Wude Dynasty pacified Lingnan, a large number of prefectures and counties were established, and powerful chiefs and commanders were appointed as governors of prefectures and counties, to the current merging of prefectures and counties to streamline officials, this is actually a manifestation of the increasing control of the imperial court.

Not contradictory.

The Jisi area is an area that the imperial court has not yet truly controlled.
But they had been made to surrender, and the imperial court accepted their submission and paid tribute, and granted their leaders the title of governor, county magistrate, etc., allowing them to govern themselves.

This is a big step forward and an increase in control.

This is especially true for the original tribes of Lunzi, who were barbarians and had no interest in the imperial court. However, Wu Huaiyu's conquest camp wiped out the cooked pigs in Zuoyi River. After the flag of the Tang Dynasty had been planted, these people could no longer obey the imperial court. It’s different.

Pay tribute as a vassal,

The imperial court gave officials rewards,
At the same time, border markets are opened to develop trade, so that each can benefit from it, which can be regarded as a win-win situation.

Wu Huaiyu brought a large blank area formerly occupied by the Lunzi tribe into the territory ruled by the Tang Dynasty, which can be regarded as opening up thousands of miles of territory.

The seventy-two prefectures of Najidi are under the jurisdiction of three governor's offices: Yongfu, Guifu and Jiaofu.

During the Chinese New Year, these seventy-two Jisuzhous also made Wu Huaiyu proud.
A mighty tribute group was formed,
Many Jisi governors personally led their children to the court, and some more cautious old guys did not dare to go, but they also sent their children to the capital with tributes.

The delegation from the Seventy-Two Jisi Prefectures in Lingnan came to Beijing to pay tribute, and they showed their face in Chang'an, so that during the New Year's Day, Tian Khan's face was also very bright.

The barbarian chiefs in Zhujizhou also received many rewards.

In any case, after this, Lingnan Road, Qianzhong Road, and Jiannan Road were connected to each other, and there were no longer those tribes of Lunzi who disobeyed the king's rule. No matter what your internal name was, the tribes called Golden Teeth, Black Teeth, or this or that tribe. But now they are all the subjects of His Majesty the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty, and the territory of the tribes is also the Jisu County of the Tang Dynasty.

During the Chinese New Year, the 72 Jizhou Prefectures in Lingnan presented many tributes, such as ivory, rhinoceros horns, bronze drums, silver ingots, five-color parrots, etc.
Forty-nine Zhengzhou, Lingnan Province, not only paid a large amount of two taxes last year, but also paid a lot of Lingnan's municipal shipping tariffs, Bomai, mining taxes, salt, tea, wine and sugar taxes, and miscellaneous industrial and commercial taxes.

Even the Ministry of Civil Affairs was shocked.

It is said that most of the prime ministers who came to the political hall were amazed.
You must know that in the past, Lingnan basically only paid a little tribute, and no taxes went into the national treasury. The court even had to repay Lingnan.

But now Lingnan is turning in more and more every year.
Under the two-thirds tax system, Lingnan retained two-thirds of the prefecture and government, and only one-third was turned over to the court. However, the number was still increasing year by year.

The population of Lingnan is indeed not large, and the official tax revenue from the two taxes is not high. However, there are sea trade and border markets. The mineral mining in Lingnan is also amazing. The scale of sugarcane planting and sugar refining is increasing year by year, and the benefits are good.

Even the imperial court obtained very rich profits by extracting and buying sea goods from Guangzhou's Jiaozhou ports.

Emperor Li Shimin couldn't help but lament to the prime ministers in Chang'an that the profits from trading ships were the greatest, and the proceeds were worth millions, so wouldn't it be better to take them from the people?

The number of goods imported and exported by Lingnan Port now reaches more than 400 kinds. Not only did the imperial court make a lot of money from the removal of tariffs, but it also monopolized some in-demand goods through the buying policy, making another huge profit.

In the past two years, the spices imported from the sea have been much more than those imported from the Western Regions through the land Silk Road. Spices are one of the most profitable imported commodities. The amount of spices brought by any ship to the port is far more than that brought by a camel caravan.

Tea, whose export volume was not large in the past, has been continuously exported via sea in recent years, and the volume is also increasing. This has also driven the cultivation and processing of tea in the south.

There is also sugar, which is also a very profitable product in foreign export trade now. It is more profitable than porcelain and silk.

Lingnan is changing from a barbaric land in the past, a place that Chang'an people didn't bother to mention, to a place where gold and silver flow. In the past few years, countless noble families from the Central Plains have also sent their children to Lingnan's horse racing enclosures to make money. Woolen cloth.

under such circumstances,

Wu Huaiyu continued to serve as the Lingnan Observation and Deposition Ambassador, continued to serve as the Economic and Strategic Envoy of the Seven Prefectures of Lingnan, and also served as the Salt and Iron Envoy, the Farming Envoy, and the Annan Protector.
But Guangzhou is now the center of Lingnan, and Guangzhou Port is also the largest port for foreign trade.

Under such circumstances, it was inevitable for the emperor to transfer the governor Wu Huaiyi back to the court.

The two brothers are officials in the same city, and they are still of this level. It is very inappropriate and must be avoided.

"Actually, you should be the one to return to the imperial court. Your abilities and achievements are enough for you to return to the imperial court as prime minister." Huaiyi sighed.

"I am doing well in Lingnan and can play a better role." Wu Huaiyu could only say this.

He and the emperor had a tacit understanding for a long time, so he had no resentment at all about the current arrangement.

"Dang Hongren is probably not easy to get along with," Wu Huaiyi reminded his brother.

"Don't worry, it's easy to get along with you, but not easy to get along with," Wu Huaiyu chuckled. Dang Hongren is the new governor of Guangzhou.

This person is actually very senior, coming from the Guan Long General family.

In the Sui Dynasty, he was the brave general of Yang Guangxiao's Guo army, which was equivalent to the deputy general Yingji Lang of Yingyang Mansion at that time, and the same as the current Lieutenant Guoyi of Zhechong Mansion.

After Li Yuan raised his army, Dang Hongren led 2,000 people to surrender to the Tang Dynasty. He also participated in the battle to attack Chang'an and contributed a lot of effort. He later served as a general under Li Shimin and was also the founding general of the People's Republic of China.

From Wude to Zhenguan, he has been serving as the governor in the southwest. Li Shimin commented that he was capable and talented in handling affairs.

Wherever he went, he made outstanding achievements and won the respect of the emperor.

"This man is greedy for money," Huaiyi reminded his brother. "As soon as he arrived in Guangzhou, he stretched out his hands everywhere and looked ugly."

Wu Huaiyu also heard about it,
Dang Hongren was brave in fighting, not afraid of life and death, capable, energetic and strategic in his work, but he did have a problem, he was drunk and greedy, and he was greedy for money and lust.

I heard that when he was the governor of Nanzhong, he exploited the barbarians a lot and was even more rude to the border merchants.

But I heard that he will do things after receiving the money.

There are actually many generals like this. Even if you act a little recklessly in a place like Nanzhong, the court will actually turn a blind eye. Even if you squeeze the merchants or even bully the tribe, it is not worth mentioning, even if you go too far. The tribe rebelled, but as long as you can calm down, no one will care about you even if you pacify the tribe and sell them all as slaves.

The Chang'an court was aloof, and some of them really regarded the southwestern barbarian tribes as human beings.

Whether it is Dou Gui, Duan Lun, Wei Yunqi, Guo Xingfang, Cheng Yaojin, or Dang Hongren, if they move there, they will go to war with the barbarians, and if they move, they will capture tens of thousands of people as slaves. It is actually very complicated, but no one will A closer look shows that to the imperial court, the southwestern barbarians were uncivilized and dishonest, and the role of the generals there was to conquer and intimidate them.
If you don't accept it, fight until you are convinced.

As for whether it was because of you, how you started the fight, or something else, who cares? What Changan cares about is the result, not the cause, or even the process.

Dang Hongren served in the southwest for ten years and served as the governor of two places. There he was as arrogant and domineering as the emperor, with a rough style and a habit of being greedy.

When I arrived in Guangzhou, I was suddenly fascinated by this colorful world. Although Guangzhou is not as good as Chang'an and Luoyang, it is indeed much more prosperous than places like Rongzhou.

Wu Huaiyu also knew the emperor's intention of transferring Hongren to the party, just like Zhang Shigui took over as the governor of Guizhou last year.

Lingnan is getting better and better, so the emperor will naturally strengthen his control over the personnel in Lingnan. Wu Huaiyu, the observer and strategic envoy, is only a temporary envoy, while the governor and governor are the permanent official positions of the imperial court.

"Lingnan is full of gold and silver. If Dang Hongren is smart, I don't mind giving him some advice, but if he messes with me, then I can't blame him."

(End of this chapter)