First Minister of the Tang Dynasty

Chapter 307 Appease Jiangling
...

We are all smart people, some things don't need to be explained, Gao Chong just understands what Cen Wenwen means.

Xiao Xian on the surrender altar can be said to be a loser but not a loser, and he insisted not to bow his head. Cen Wenwen was afraid of angering Li Xiaogong, lest Xiao Xian's tough temper would lead to death, so he could only turn to Gao Chong for help.

"Brother Cen, don't worry, King Zhaojun is benevolent and tolerant, and he won't argue with Xiao Xian," Gao Chong said with a warm smile.

As Gao Chong said, facing the stubborn Xiao Xian, Li Xiaogong did not get angry, and there was a faint smile on his face, which was an undisguised sarcasm, "The defeated general, I hope you can always be tough." ".

After finishing the words, Li Xiaogong turned around and stepped down from the altar, and casually ordered: "Put him down, put him in a car and take him to Chang'an".

Wan Xuan heard the words and agreed, and was about to step forward and make a move.

Xiao Xian hurriedly took a step back, frowned and scolded: "I am the emperor of Daliang, please don't be rude."

"Fucking Emperor Liang, without your ancestors, you would be nothing." Wan Xuan was a rough man, and immediately scolded, "What? You need me to do it before you go down?"

Xiao Xian was furious when he heard the words, and glared at Wan Xuan angrily, but seeing Wan Xuan's strong and strong talent, he waved his sleeves down from the altar with knowledge of current affairs, and left with Tang Bing.

When Li Xiaogong came down from the altar, he saw Gao Chong chatting and laughing with an elegant scholar, so he stepped forward and said with a smile, "Why are you so happy?"

Seeing this, Gao Chong pulled Cen Wenben forward, "Your Majesty, there are also talented people in Xiaoliang. This is Xinye Cen Wenben, whose name is Jingren, and he is really a great talent."

Cen Wenwen didn't expect Gao Chong to have such a high opinion of him and to recommend him to Li Xiaogong with such a high degree of sympathy. over the king".

Li Xiaogong was also quite surprised, looked at Cen Wenwen and nodded, "I have heard the name of Cen Jingren for a long time, and I saw him today, and he is indeed a good-looking talent." Then he looked at Gao Chong and said with a smile: "You must know that you are unparalleled in intelligence, it is extremely It’s rare to praise someone like that.”

"Gao Changshi's reputation is too high, and Jingren is ashamed." As a minister of subjugation, Cen Wenwen kept his posture very low, and his attitude was extremely respectful.

Not far away, Xiao Xian looked back at this scene, feeling sad in his heart, and sighed to the sky: "If all the ministers lose me, why don't you have a king."

They were only dozens of steps away. Hearing this, Cen Wenwen looked ashamed and bowed his head in silence.

Gao Chong made a fool of himself, Wan Xuan immediately understood, and pushed Xiao Mian, "You guys betrayed relatives, it's entirely your own fault", it's hard for Wan Xuan, a water bandit, to come up with two idioms, this is why he imitated Han Mo Jinfan thief Gan Ning has the advantage of working hard to become stronger. In his opinion, if the old fellow Gan Ning can become a famous general from a water bandit, then so can he.

Xiao Xian staggered, and walked to the back of the camp amidst the soldiers' pushing and shoving. The officials of Xiao Liang at the gate of the camp felt sad, but they were helpless. This is the general of a defeated army. To be precise, this is the fate of a subjugated king. .

Liu Chan, the empress of the Shu Han Dynasty, came out with his hands bound and carried a coffin. Sun Hao, the last emperor of the Eastern Wu Dynasty, came out with a white sheep in his hands. In comparison, Xiao Xian came out in plain clothes, which is already decent enough. .

At noon of the same day, Li Xiaogong led the army from the West Road into the city, immediately sealed off the treasury, palaces, prisons and other places, and sent Gao Chong to appease the people, Wei Ling, Wan Xuan and others will take over the city defense.

Gao Chong was already very familiar with the method of appeasing the people, so he immediately wrote a notice to appease the people, ordered the officials of the Jiangling government office to copy hundreds of copies, posted them in every street and alley, and dispatched literate people to interpret them at crowded intersections. Preach.

He also ordered the government servants in Jiangling to walk in the streets and alleys with gongs in hand, singing and reading the notices while beating gongs and drums.

To be honest, when they got the Anmin Notice, which was written in vernacular, Jiangling’s officials were very contemptuous, thinking that Gao Chong had no ink, but Gao Chong didn’t bother to explain this. He is a scholar.

The lavishly rhetoric of the Anmin Notice is all about the general public's terribly low literacy rate. How can they understand it? Even if they ask someone to read it, they still cannot understand it.

"What do you think, Brother Jing?" Gao Chong couldn't help asking with a smile when he saw Cen Wenwen lost in thought while holding the Ann Min Notice.

Unlike the treatment of other prisoners, Gao Chong summoned Cen Wenwen to the Jiangling government office.

"Although the words and sentences are straightforward, they are easy to understand for ordinary people, and the content is also what the people care about, such as land, taxes, etc. This notice should quickly appease the hearts of the people," Cen Wenwen said truthfully.

Seeing that Cen Wenwen was willing to speak, Gao Chong nodded and felt a little relieved. If he was willing to speak, it meant that Cen Wenwen was not loyal to Xiao Liang and had not deviated from the original track.

There were very few literati in the Tang army who conquered Liang. If Gao Chong was alone in the vast Jiangling City and the newly occupied old place of Xiaoliang, he would definitely be powerless. He had to rely on the old ministers of Xiaoliang, and Cen Wenwen was the best among them. The latter is really the talent of Zaifu, Gao Chong will definitely not let him enjoy the happiness in prison.

"Brother Jing Ren is a wise man. I believe I don't need to say too much. Now that Xiao Liang is gone, the hearts of Lingnan Qiuhe and Feng An belong to the Tang Dynasty, and only Lin Shihong and Liang Shidu are left as clowns. The sage recommended you, but I wonder if brother Jing would like to become an official?" Gao Chong said straightforwardly.

Originally, this was just a process. Cen Wenwen persuaded Xiao Xian to surrender, and he cooperated extremely. In terms of action, he was already surrendering to the Tang Dynasty.

"Thank you for not giving up, Jingren is willing to surrender." Cen Wenwen didn't seem surprised by Gao Chong's straightforwardness, and bowed in salute.

"Very good", Gao Chong was very happy when he saw this, he pulled Cen Wenwen to sit down, "with Jingren's help, Jingchu will be able to stabilize quickly".

Afterwards, with the great assistance of Cen Wenwen, Gao Chong quickly appeased the people in Jiangling and the Jingji area of ​​Xiaoliang. Under the persuasion of Zheng Wenxiu and other former officials of Xiao Liang, they all abandoned their weapons and surrendered.

After appeasing the people, Gao Chong started to liquidate the scum among Xiao Liang's old officials, and escorted dozens of Xiao Liang's surrendered officials to the street through methods such as open and unannounced visits and heavy rewards.

In front of the people of Jiangling City, he read out the crimes and let the sufferer come to the stage to confide. In the end, these dozens of corrupt officials were beheaded for public display amidst the overwhelming public grievances. The people of Jiangling all applauded.

The land of Jingchu deserves to be a rich land of fish and rice. After dozens of corrupt officials were executed, their family properties were confiscated, and there was more than enough rewards for the three armies.

After dealing with this matter, Chang'an's imperial decree finally traveled across mountains and rivers to Jiangling.

After reading the imperial decree, Gao Chong was overjoyed, and everyone congratulated each other, among them, Cen Wenwen was even more surprised, thanking Gao Chong endlessly.

(End of this chapter)