Elegy of Tang Dynasty

Chapter 73 What’s easy and what’s difficult

The next day, Fang Chongyong went to Jingzhao Mansion and happened to catch up with Jing Zhaoyin working in the Yamen.

After explaining his intentions, Jing Zhaoyin Wei Jian laughed, and immediately ordered someone to go through the formalities to complete the steps of changing Cui Qianyou from an official slave to a private slave, and then from a private slave to a trilogy, without any twists and turns at all.

As for the minutiae that require multiple guarantees, all of them are ignored, which fully demonstrates what is meant by "urgent matters, special matters, and special personnel."

These days, servants are equated with objects, not just talk, but clearly written in Tang law.

What Fang Zhongyong wants to do is essentially "delivery of goods and goods", and it's over after paying some money.

The transformation of official slaves into private slaves is equivalent to the government's cattle and horses being picked up on the road and taken home by the good family. In theory, they have to be "returned", but in fact, they can be "specially handled", such as redeemed.

This kind of operation is very common. Some officials' homes were confiscated because of their crimes, and their families were turned into slaves. Their whereabouts and circumstances were very complicated.

And after the private slaves were released, it became a series, which is also a conventional way.As long as the owner agrees and agrees to "return it", it can be completed according to the procedure. This is also one of the important sources of the family's private army trilogy.

So these two things are easy to handle, and it can even be said to be effortless.

However, when Fang Chongyong came to the military camp where Longwu Army was recruiting soldiers and horses outside the city to inquire about the recruitment conditions, it was as if he had been poured cold water on him.

He never expected that the well-paid Longwu Army didn't mention much about the qualities that soldiers should have, but there are a lot of moths on the contrary!

If you are not a good family member with Chang'an household registration, you will not be accepted!
People with criminal records will not be accepted!

Even more private military units are not accepted.

As for the martial arts and military strategy related to the quality of soldiers, they are not tested at all.

It's not quite like recruiting an elite army capable of fighting, but it's a bit like a cesspit for the rich and powerful children of Chang'an.

These days, the Tang Dynasty is full of martial virtues and powerful, and no one thinks that the Longwu Army guarding Chang'an has any battles to fight.It seems that not many people who sneak into the Longwu Army are eager to make contributions!Everyone is here for the rewards.

Fang Chongyong walked around inside and outside the camp where recruits were recruited, and he felt that this army must be useless.

He could see that Li Longji wanted to reform Wanqi and eliminate redundant staff because he realized that the former Wanqi had been retired and became a tool for a coup in the palace.

Other than that, it's useless for anything else.

Li Longji wanted to disband Wanqi. Although the method of reorganizing the Longwu Army was good, it was difficult to implement.

No heroic army can be born in the blood of cowards!

The rich rogues and noble dudes from the Gyeonggi area, with them as the main soldiers, what combat effectiveness will the Longwu Army have in the future?
I'm afraid there are many people in the court who understand, but Li Longji thinks there is no problem, and thinks that a strong army can be piled up with excellent equipment.

After all, Li Longji grew up in a deep palace, was good at conspiracy, and was a complete layman in carrying out military affairs.

Fang Chongyong recalled the customs and customs of the Hexi Corridor that Niu Xianke had shown him, and recalled that among the adult men there, the proportion of those who had served in the military was actually as high as over 90%.

Comparing the two, a fool knows where the high-quality soldiers are.

Because Li Longji ordered that those who enter the Longwu Army can be exempted from corvee and part of the tax, so the officials in Beijing and the children of the rich rushed to sign up!
The military camp has almost turned into a vegetable market.

Now the recruitment of Longwu Army can be said to be very hot and the limelight is too high.Because there are too many people paying attention, it is difficult to operate internally.

Fang Chongyong didn't have any special connections in the Longwu Army, and he didn't want to use Fang Youde's name to insert people into the Longwu Army. Therefore, Cui Qianyou's entry into the Longwu Army was in trouble for a while.

Fang Chongyong felt deeply that his communication channels with the government were too narrow. He had a lot of ideas in his head, but no place to use them.Now, he has the reputation of being a wise and handsome son, but he can't do anything and is nothing more than a waste.

If only Old Zheng was still in Chang'an.

As a result, Cui Qianyou had no choice but to live in Fang Chongyong's home as a "buqu" and wait for things to turn around.In his spare time, Cui Qianyou didn't want to have an idle meal, and "discussed" the art of war with Fang Chongyong every day.It's called "Exercise", but it actually talks about the essentials of the art of war, and it can be regarded as a step-by-step teaching of military strategy.

Taught Fang Chongyong how to set up camp, how to march, and how to organize the team, starting from the most basic things bit by bit.

As for the possibility of joining the Longwu Army, as the days passed and the soldiers were saturated day by day, it gradually became unattainable.

The name of the handsome son of Jie is not everything, there are too many famous people in Chang'an city.Staying here is like a running man with his hands and feet tied up, and he feels uncomfortable no matter what.

Fang Chongyong had the urge to leave Chang'an urgently.

He felt that if he continued to stay here, he would be useless.

Even if the scumbag father Fang Youde is the Jiedu envoy of Youzhou, based on this alone, trying to stir up the situation in the turbulent Tang Dynasty and climb up step by step is almost like daydreaming.

The prosperity of the Tang Dynasty is like cooking oil in a raging fire, and it cannot last long.

Fang Chongyong wanted to plan more for the future and did not want to sink with this ship.He was waiting for Wang Zhongsi to return to Hexi, and then used this opportunity to go to Bian Town to practice.

The troubled times are about to begin, and any poems and articles, any songs and dances to promote peace are all false.Only the knife in your hand is the only thing you can really rely on.

Fang Chongyong felt that he didn't need to deal with those literati in the future, there was no need to waste time on the imperial examination, and there was no need to stay in the Chang'an center and play trick games with those bureaucrats.

These things are all time-wasting hot chickens. Even if they play out of the lotus, after the chaos arises, they will not be able to withstand the fatal blow of Qiu Ba and the others.

Force and military power, strategy and the use of troops, and even the ability to manage a party and manage logistics are all necessary for future survival, and this is the direction in which he strives.

As for why he had to wait for Wang Zhongsi to come before going to Hexi, it was not because the Tubo people were too fierce. Fang Chongyong was afraid that he would be left unattended when he arrived in the border town, and he would be sent away by the Tubo people after a wave.

Safety first, life-saving.

……

Just when Fang Chongyong learned the art of war with Cui Qianyou every morning, and went to He Zhizhang's place to "practice calligraphy" in the afternoon, and his life was dull and boring, there was no wind and waves in the Datang Center!
Zheng Shuqing, the minister of household affairs and transshipment envoy, was sent to Luoyang on official business and inspected the grain storage situation in Hanjiacang.

If you don’t check it, you don’t know.
Hanjiacang's inventory is about [-]% less!Its vacancy rate can be said to be a new low since its establishment!It’s probably a little better than the day it was first completed!

In the past few years, both the government and the public have been praising Pei Yaoqing for his achievements in water transportation, and the treasuries of various places are full.Unexpectedly, Hanjiacang, which was the "No. [-] warehouse in the world" during the Wu Zhou period, was mostly empty!

Simply appalling!
Li Linfu wrote a detailed memorandum, stating to Li Longji the fact that Luoyang, as a place for grain and grass transshipment, was far from meeting the standard.

Li Longji was furious after reading this memorandum. In a rage, he dismissed all the officials who had previously handled the grain transfer and investigated them!

As a result, courtiers immediately wrote a letter saying that the reason for the vacancy of Hanjiacang was not because of this, and hoped that Li Longji would take back his order.

In matters of government affairs, in fact, there are not so many right and wrong in many cases, there are only "doing something and not doing it".

From a certain point of view, those people are not purely unreasonable, they are quite reasonable.

Pei Yaoqing reformed water transportation and adopted "sectioned" transportation. He transported more than 700 million tons of grain to Chang'an in three years, and his achievements were indeed dazzling.

However, the development of things has its two sides.Gains and losses are the norm.

The water transport reform was at the expense of the water transport from Biankou to Luoyang.It has a long-term and profound impact on the layout of the water transportation in the Tang Dynasty and even the layout of the national economic center.

It's just that most people don't see this at this time.

There have been examples like this before.

At the beginning, from the time when the Northern Zhou Dynasty destroyed the Northern Qi Dynasty, to Yuchijiong Xiangzhou and rebelled against the Sui Dynasty.Those in power saw the terrifying power of Yecheng in gathering the hearts of the people in Hebei, so they changed the waterway of the Zhang River so that the Yellow River water transport route no longer passed through Yecheng.

Yecheng, which had flourished for hundreds of years since the beginning of the Three Kingdoms, has now declined.Yecheng, which lost its water transportation, also lost its status as the economic center of the north.

However, since Pei Yaoqing's water transportation reform, because of the diversion of the water transportation route, Luoyang is no longer the only way to go, so the water boats willing to go to Luoyang have become increasingly scarce.

In three years, the water transportation from Biankou to Luoyang has been reduced by almost 80%!

The transportation volume has gone from one million stone at its peak to less than 20 stone now.

The core of Pei Yaoqing's water transport reform, in addition to segmented water transport, is to use Biankou as the core of transshipment and abandon the previous strategy of using Luoyang as the transshipment core.

The water ships are not going to Luoyang, and Hanjiacang can only go in and out. Is it any wonder that the grain stocks are decreasing?
Under the voices of all kinds of praises from the court, the impact of this major change has obviously been deliberately ignored and downplayed.

In this reform of water transportation, the government established Heyin County (to the east of Heyin County, Henan Province) and Heyin warehouse at the intersection of Bianhe River and Yellow River, Baiya warehouse in Heqing County (fifty miles southwest of Mengxian County, Henan Province), and Baiya warehouse on the Yellow River. On the north bank, there is a Jijin warehouse to the east of the three gates, and a Sanmen warehouse (one is used as a salt warehouse) to the west of the three gates.

This reform directly led to the rise of the water transport economy with Bianliang as the core in the future, and established the basic economic pattern of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms. Its impact was so far-reaching that no one except Fang Chongyong, an "experienced person", could fully understand it.

However, the method of transporting grain to Chang'an by stages is adopted. If the water transport conditions are suitable, then transport; if the water transport conditions are not suitable (such as dry season), then it will not be transported.

Its reform ideas are revolutionary.

The implementation effect of this reform cannot be said to be bad, but there is a core problem: such high-intensity grain transportation is unsustainable.

The volume of transportation has increased, but the transportation cost has not decreased substantially. Most of these transportation costs have to be paid by merchants.This is the economic price that must be paid for establishing the capital of Chang'an.

In fact, throughout the entire Tang Dynasty, it was only in the past few years that the amount of grain transported to Chang'an reached more than 200 million shi per year.

The grain and fodder from Hebei all come from the "Six States of the Yongji Canal", while the grain and fodder from the Jianghuai River, because the river route is too long, is often blocked and overturned by tank boats, resulting in extremely high grain transportation costs.Pei Yaoqing's water transport reform had a great impact on the North grain of the Canal, but not so much on the grain in the Yangtze and Huaihe Rivers.

If the shipping cost is high, someone must pay the bill, either the court or a merchant.

If the imperial court refuses to pay, the folks will stop doing it, and no one's money comes from waste.

What's more, the grain and grass from Jianghuai have been transferred to the Heyin warehouse now. If they want to transfer to Luoyang, then they have to go a long way, and these grain and grass cannot be transferred from Luoyang to Chang'an.

So now the merchants in Jianghuai no longer want to transport grain from Jianghuai and Jiangnan to Luoyang, because the freight is too high and unprofitable.The current mode used by the imperial court is to transport grain by "tendering", and the tank boats directly controlled by the government do not have an advantage.

That is to say, after the merchants transported the grain and fodder to Luoyang, the government would purchase them uniformly and subsidize the freight.

According to the actual investigation by people sent by Li Linfu, the average shipping cost for every shijianghuai grain shipped to Luoyang exceeds 50 Wen.The corresponding freight subsidy is pitifully low.

The shipping cost is too high, and the shipping fee given by the imperial court is too low, so merchants are not willing to transport grain from Jianghuai!
So from this point of view, Hanjiacang is mostly empty, not because the transit officials are unwilling to work hard, but because there are many objective constraints that make them unable to use their abilities.

The poor transportation of grain is not only a problem of transportation, but also the overall mechanism of the imperial court, which cannot adapt to the new economic situation!

These twists and turns of the truth, it sounds like that's the case.But in Li Longji's view, what he needs is not an excuse, but whether things have been done.

Hanjiacang is the country's strategic reserve. If it is not fully stocked, it is dereliction of duty!
Should he, a saint, worry about other issues?
As for the change of the canal route or the way of water transportation, he didn't want to ask about those things, and he didn't want to hear about them!

Facing the new predicament, Li Linfu gave Li Longji his own prescription.

First of all, all the old transfer officials were dismissed and replaced with new ones (mostly Li Linfu's own party members). This is called neither breaking nor establishing.

Secondly, in the Luoyang area, the Harmony Buying Law was implemented, and Fengnian purchased grain from the private sector at a high price, which was [-]% higher than the market price, in order to meet the storage needs of Han Jiacang.

The money and silk needed came from Jianghuai and Jiangnan.

Thirdly, the household tax will be increased in the six prefectures of Yongjiqu, Hebei.

Finally, instead of transporting grain from the Jianghuai River to lighter and more valuable cloth and local specialties.Then use these cloths to go to Hebei to buy grain for transshipment.

In this way, the cost of transshipment can be reduced, and the grain reserves of several strategic granaries can be filled at the same time to prepare for the war between the Hexi Corridor and Longyou.

As for all the grain in Hebei being transported away, leading to "small problems" such as expensive food and cheap cloth, Li Linfu has not thought about it.

It's just that Hebei is the Hebei of the Tang Dynasty, not the Hebei of Hebei.When necessary, sacrifices must be made.The so-called balance of interests, when considered in an all-round way, naturally someone has to make sacrifices.

Jiangnan and Jianghuai are far apart, and the Tongji Canal is often blocked, so transportation conditions are really poor.Even if Li Linfu wants these places to be "sacrificed", the efficiency is too low!

Only Hebei has manpower, strength, and good transportation conditions.

All in all, Li Linfu's plan does not require expansion of the canal's transportation capacity in the next few years.After the new river channel is excavated and the grain and fodder from Luoyang can be transported directly to Chang'an, the overall plan will be made.

Li Longji was very satisfied with the detailed plan, but he still asked Li Linfu several key questions.

Li Longji asked: Will such a reform affect the grain and fodder supply in Chang'an?

Li Linfu said that it will not affect, because there is a continuous supply of food in Hebei, and the freight for transshipment is still low.

Li Longji asked again: Should the treasury pay more money?

Li Linfu said no, because Jiangnan and Huaihe paid taxes and replaced rice grains with cloth for easy transportation.Therefore, the money in the treasury is not reduced, but increased!
Li Longji asked again: Will it affect the war in Youzhou?
Li Linfu replied: The tax increase is only for the six states of Yongjiqu, and not for other places in Hebei. The grain and fodder are only used for military supplies in the border town of Youzhou, so there will be no bad effects.

Hearing these words, Li Longji was completely relieved.

He directly issued an edict, ordering Zheng Shuqing, the Minister of the Ministry of Households and the transfer envoy, to be responsible for the transfer of grain and fodder in Hanjiacang, regardless of other things, to supply the grain and fodder needed for the Hexi war.

And a special granary was built outside Chang'an City and around Guangyuntan in the lower reaches of Ba River.It is specially used for grain harvesting to receive grain from Guandong.

After finishing all this, Li Longji took Yang Yuhuan to Huaqing Palace in Lishan for vacation, and no longer intervened in government affairs. Li Linfu took charge of the overall situation, and only had to deal with it first and then report.He will come back next year on the Lantern Festival.

Huaqing Palace is built on the back of the mountain and facing the Wei River, leaning against the Li Peak Mountain. It is large in scale and has magnificent buildings and pavilions all over the Li Mountain.This place is famous for its high-quality hot springs. It was first named "Tangquan Palace" and later changed its name to Hot Spring Palace.

During the Kaiyuan period, it was renamed Huaqing Palace again. Because it was in Lishan Mountain, it was also called Lishan Palace, also known as Ligong Palace and Xiuling Palace.

When the harsh winter comes, taking a bath in a hot spring is indeed a treat only an emperor can enjoy.

It has to be said that it was Yang Yuhuan who awakened Li Longji's second spring.Since he was a boy, he has been overcoming obstacles and toppled one political opponent after another, finally creating this prosperous situation.

Is it just for those unworthy sons?Li Longji obviously does not believe that "success does not depend on me."

For him, enjoyment comes first to me.Yang Yuhuan stimulated Li Longji's desire for enjoyment, making him addicted and unable to extricate himself.

……

"Finally arrived in Chang'an."

Outside the Chang'an Chunming Gate, the burly Wang Zhongsi watched the people who were coming and going, and couldn't help but let out a sigh of emotion.

With the order of the saint, he returned to Guanzhong from Kuizhou and was appointed as the general of the left army of the Longwu Army, responsible for guarding the Chang'an Palace.

This appointment...was actually not what he wanted.

"Let's talk in the palace first."

Wang Zhongsi sighed. He hadn't returned to Chang'an for a long time. He didn't know if things had changed.

　This section is another in-depth content, so I hope I don’t need to explain it in a separate chapter.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)