Early Tang Dynasty: forge ahead

Chapter 201 Lingzhou Affairs

Depose the envoy?
This time it was Chen Qingsi's turn to correct his attitude and asked: "What happened in Lingzhou?"

Deposing an envoy is no small amount of power.

The deposed envoy was an official position first created in the Tang Dynasty, and deposed meant to demote or abolish.

The Tang Dynasty had a vast territory, numerous state capitals, and countless local officials.

In order to prevent local officials from misbehaving while in office, which would affect the rule of the imperial court, the position of deposed envoy was specially established.Responsible for observing local people's livelihood conditions, inspecting local officials' case-solving files, inspecting officials' daily expenses, and inspecting local customs; from the increase or decrease of local household registration, the shrinkage of cultivated land, the amount of taxes and servitude, the number of prisoners, and the number of traitors and thieves There are many aspects to evaluate the abilities of local officials.

If the local official's body is inactive, as long as he is below the fifth rank, the deposed envoy can remove him at will. If he is above the fifth rank, he can be suspended immediately. The court will send someone to investigate and confirm.

The same is true for promotion. For those who are particularly deviant in politics, officials below the sixth rank do not need to be discussed by the court and will be implemented according to the report of the deposed envoy.For those above the sixth rank, the imperial court will send someone to review their merits before promotion.

The official position of the deposed envoy is a bit like an imperial envoy. He does things cheaply and kills first and then reports.

Therefore, Li Shimin's criteria for appointing deposed envoys were "to be straight-spoken, not afraid of the powerful, and to be benevolent and tolerant."

Moreover, if the deposed envoy engages in malpractice for personal gain, he will not only be convicted according to the law, but will also be notified to the whole world to serve as a warning, and the road to being reinstated will be cut off.

Therefore, the lowest level for any deposed envoy is fifth grade.

Li Zhi first appointed him as the fifth-rank official and Chaosan doctor, and then appointed him as the deposed envoy. It was obvious that something special had happened after careful consideration.

Li Zhi said: "Not long ago, General Zuo Xiaowei and He Li, the public deed of the state of Xi, led the tribe to see them, saying that their tribe had been treated unfairly, and asked me to provide him with justice."

When Chen Qingsi heard about Qibi Heli, she knew that the matter was serious.

Qibi Heli was the hereditary chief of the Tiele tribe. He defected to the Tang Dynasty during the Zhenguan period and fought for the Tang Dynasty in the south and north. He attacked Tuyuhun, destroyed Gaochang, defeated Qiuci, and conquered the Western Turks. In terms of military achievements, even the Han generals have no equal. There are few people who can compare with him.

What's more worth mentioning is that Qibi Heli was completely conquered by Li Shimin's charm.

In the 16th year of Zhenguan, Xue Yantuo's power was becoming stronger. The Tiele tribe wanted to defect to Xue Yantuo, so they captured Qibi Heli, a provincial relative, and captured the pearl khan Yi Shiyi man who presented it to Xue Yantuo.

Yi Nan personally persuaded Qibi Heli to surrender.Qibi Heli drew his sword and shouted in the direction of the Tang Dynasty: "How can there be a martyr of the Tang Dynasty who was humiliated and imprisoned? Heaven, earth, sun and moon, would you like to know my heart!" Then he cut off his own ear to express his will.

Li Shimin, who learned about Qibi Heli's surrender, said directly: "This is definitely not Heli's intention."

People around him said that the Tiele people were like a fish in water after returning to the grassland, but Li Shimin once again said firmly: "No matter how hard your heart is, you will never betray me."

Li Shimin completely trusted Qibi Heli, a Tibetan general, and Qibi Heli devoted his life to repaying Li Shimin's trust.

Qibi Heli eventually died of illness on the front line against Tibet. From surrendering to the Tang Dynasty to dying of illness before the battle, this Tibetan fought for the Tang Dynasty for a full 45 years.

Faced with such a Tibetan general, no one in the court regarded him as an outsider. Li Zhi also followed his father's attitude and treated Qibi Heli very favorably.

The matter came to Li Zhi through Qibi Heli, and Li Zhi had to give Qibi Heli an explanation no matter what.Li Zhi briefly explained the situation to Chen Qingsi.

Chen Qingsi also got an idea.

This matter has to start with the national policy of the Tang Dynasty.

The Tang Dynasty has always adopted a system of using barbarians to control barbarians, placing pro-Tang nomadic tribes outside the territory of the Tang Dynasty, and then establishing Jizhou and Jixian to implement one country, two systems. It did not interfere too much in the lives of the local Hu people and gave them a high degree of freedom.

There are pros and cons to this system, but to be honest, it’s a no-brainer move.

Many people follow the trend and analyze things without considering the environment at all and only look at the results.

The late Sui Dynasty was one of the eras with the largest population decline in China's thousand-year history. At the beginning of Daye, there were more than [-] million households. By the Wude period, there were only more than [-] million households left, and the population dropped sharply by three-quarters.

The whole world is in ruins, and the population is extremely short.

The Tang Dynasty destroyed the Eastern Turks, and the north was frightened and shocked, and many people came and returned.

In that case, how could Li Shimin choose?

Should we move them inland to live with the Han people and repeat the mistakes of the Five Husbands who destroyed China?
Or should we leave them alone and let them establish a new Turk?

Or genocide?
The Tang Dynasty did not have enough internal population, so how could it be possible for the Tang Dynasty to send people to spend huge sums of money to occupy grassland that was not suitable for farming?

Using barbarians to control barbarians is a way to have both ends of the world, and it is also a helpless solution.

The current Tang Dynasty is like two countries put together. The Han Dynasty is the basic base and the Tang Dynasty has complete control. However, the surrounding nomadic tribes still live as usual, except that their khans have changed from Turkic to Great. Emperor Tang.

They usually do their own thing, but when Tian Khan gives an order, their various ministries gather their troops to fight for Tian Khan, and then divide some of the spoils.

It's just that the two sides failed to fully assimilate each other, and friction was inevitable when getting along with each other.

Not long ago, there was a conflict between the frontier troops in Lingzhou and the Sijie tribe among Tiele's fifteen divisions.

Li Zhi said: "According to the past, every spring, when the ice and snow melted, the northern ministries would bring their leather, cattle and sheep to Lingzhou for trade. For this reason, the imperial court established Huaiyuan County north of Lingzhou to facilitate mutual trade. Xia Ling Huang Heshou, the governor of the second state, got the news that the Sijie tribe was rebellious and that his young clan leader was coming to Huaiyuan County to do business, but was actually hiding weapons and intending to plunder Huaiyuan County. Governor Huang did not dare to be careless and sent his subordinate Colonel Xu Kai led his troops to stop the search, and both sides used weapons. We injured many people, and several people on the opposite side also died."

He frowned and said: "Huaiyuan County Magistrate Feng Yang intervened and said that this was a misunderstanding and finally reached a settlement. The matter should have ended here. But for some unknown reason, the people from the Sijie Department followed the tribute team. When they arrived in Chang'an, they reported that Captain Xu Kai had oppressed their tribe and slandered them to rebel for a BMW. It was said that a wild divine horse appeared in Xiakou Mountain in Mobei, and it took the Sijie tribe three months to capture it. Xu Kai heard the news Later, if the request failed, we used this method to force them to hand over the divine horse."

"In addition, the other party also said a lot of Xu Kai's evil deeds. The truth is unknown."

"There is another thing worth noting. Feng Yang reported this matter to the prime ministers, but the report never mentioned the matter of the divine horse. I don't know whether it was intentional concealment or something. I don't know the specific situation."

"Ai Qing is quite capable of solving cases. It is most appropriate for you to handle this matter."

(End of this chapter)