The Flourishing Tang Dynasty: Beginning with Marrying Yang Yuhuan

Chapter 195 Li Lin’s Plan

Jiannan.

Li Lin received Li Longji's commendation and hosted a banquet for his subordinates.

After three rounds of drinking, Li Lin said to Yang Zhao, "General Yang, this is a good idea. It will send so much money to the court in one go."

Yang Zhao is Yang Guozhong.

Yang Guozhong's method was actually very simple. It was to convert the millet from the charity granaries in various places in Jiannan into commercial cloth and put it into the Zuozang. He also converted the capitation rent and land tax into commercial cloth and sent it to the capital.

Although the method is simple, it solves the problem of "the difficult road to Shu" in disguise. At the same time, it also reduces consumption during transportation and reduces the required transportation capacity.

However, Yang Guozhong was Yang Yuhuan's cousin, and logically he should have been attached to Li Heng, but why did he attach himself to Li Lin?

We have to start from the beginning.

Yang Guozhong had always behaved badly before. He was addicted to alcohol and drugs, greedy for money and lustful, and idled around all day. People in the Yang family had never liked him very much.

Historically, Yang Yuhuan did not "value" Yang Guozhong very much from the beginning. Instead, after Yang Guozhong gradually became successful, Yang Yuhuan felt that Yang Guozhong could become the "pillar" of their Yang family, so she strongly recommended him to Li Longji.

On the one hand, Li Longji wanted to replace Li Linfu with a new person, but on the other hand, he felt that Yang Guozhong was also good at financial management, so he accepted Yang Yuhuan's recommendation.

Now, Yang Guozhong no longer has Yang Yuhuan as a springboard and can only seek other ways.

Then Li Lin came.

Li Lin entered Jiannan as an official in charge of promotions and demotions. He wanted to make his mark in Jiannan, so he followed Li Heng's example and first rectified the administration of officials.

Corruption was rampant throughout the Tang Dynasty, so it was too easy to achieve results by rectifying the administration of officials. Li Lin's rectification ended up affecting Yang.

But Yang Xuanlu did not do anything foolproof, and Li Lin could not find any good excuse, so he targeted Yang Guozhong.

Li Lin originally wanted to deal with Yang Guozhong, but Yang Guozhong cried to Li Lin about the harsh treatment he had received from his wife, expressed his loyalty to Li Lin, and even offered his wife to him.

There is a very interesting record about Yang Guozhong in history.

Once, Yang Guozhong went out for a long time. When he came back, he found that his wife was pregnant. Then he asked his wife how she got pregnant.

His wife said that she missed Yang Guozhong so much that she became sick, and she also had intercourse with Yang Guozhong in her dream, and then she became pregnant with this child.

After hearing this, Yang Guozhong was deeply moved, so he let his wife give birth to the child and named him Yang Xun.

This event was recorded in "Tianbao Kaiyuan Yishi", and historians have two speculations about it.

The first speculation is that people hated Yang Guozhong so much that they deliberately fabricated such a story to mock him.

The second speculation is that Yang Guozhong had to calm his wife first and find the person behind the scenes, but after finding the person, he realized that he could not afford to offend this person for the time being, so he endured it.

No matter what speculation is made, Yang Guozhong is a profit-seeking, capricious villain who can do anything to achieve his goals.

Li Lin accepted Yang Guozhong's loyalty, not because he was bewitched by beauty, nor because he really believed that Yang Guozhong would be loyal to him.

Instead, Li Lin felt that Yang Guozhong was of great use to him. He could use Yang Guozhong to divide the Yang family and deal a heavy blow to Li Heng's "backyard".

But he didn't expect that Yang Guozhong, who looked like a useless guy, actually solved a big problem for him and won Li Longji's favor. Li Lin was very happy. After praising Yang Guozhong, he gave him a substantial reward, saying: "General Yang has made such a great contribution. I will ask the court for your credit. At the same time, I will personally reward you with 10,000 pieces of cloth and 10 slaves."

Yang Guozhong was overjoyed and quickly saluted Li Lin, saying, "Your Highness, your kindness is so great that I will never be able to repay you even if I die."

Li Lin said: "As long as you do your job well, I will not treat you harshly. Now, go and get busy."

"Yes." Yang Guozhong stepped out.

After Yang Guozhong walked away, Li Lin asked his confidant beside him: "What should we do next?"

Li Lin's confidant Wei Zichun said, "Your Highness, I think you should take charge of the road construction. The Shu Road is difficult to travel. If Your Highness can take charge of the construction of the Shu Road, it will definitely be a great achievement. Zhang Jiuling built a highway in Lingnan back then."

Wei Zichun was a talented man and was good friends with Li Bai, who once wrote a poem for him.

Li Lin said, "To build a highway, we need money and people. Most of Jiannan's money has been sent to Chang'an. We can't find that much money now. Should we ask the court to return it?"

Xue Liu, another adviser of Li Lin, said: "Building the road is certainly a great achievement, but this achievement is not enough for Your Highness to take control of the military and political power of Jiannan."

"That's right." Li Lin agreed with Xue Liu's words and asked, "What do you think would allow me to take control of Jiannan's military and political power in a short period of time?"

Xue Liu said: "War, only when war breaks out, will the Saint hand over the military and political affairs of Jiannan to Your Highness."

Li Lin nodded and said, "But the war between Jiannan and Tubo requires the support of Nanzhao. We can't attack Tubo directly. Nanzhao is close to the Tang Dynasty, so it's not easy to use military force against Nanzhao."

"No." Xue Liu shook his head and analyzed: "After Prince Shou took Shibao City, Tubo withdrew its army to the southwest, and stationed more and more troops west of Jiazhou and Rongzhou, vaguely intending to capture Jiazhou and Rongzhou. In addition, although Nanzhao has a close relationship with the Tang Dynasty, they have always wanted to get involved in eastern Yunnan. Also, although the Tang Dynasty set up Jimi Prefecture in eastern Yunnan, the local clans in eastern Yunnan often wavered between Tubo and the Tang Dynasty, and the court has long wanted to strengthen control."

What Xue Liu meant was that they could fight with Tubo in Jiazhou, Rongzhou and ignite the powder keg of eastern Yunnan.

Li Lin had the same idea in his mind. He pondered for a moment and said, "But we have no official background."

Xue Liu said: "We have no reason to be the enemy, so we can let others send out their troops first."

"How can we get others to send out troops first?" Li Lin asked.

Xue Liu said: "We can collect more tribute from the people of eastern Yunnan. During the years that the Tang Dynasty ruled eastern Yunnan, we rarely collected more tribute from them. Now is the time when the court needs money, and they should also contribute a little."

"What if they choose to pay tribute and swallow the humiliation?" Li Lin asked again.

Xue Liu said: "If they can endure it, we will also receive money. With the money, we can give it to the court and use it to build roads."

"Good idea, let's do it." Li Lin agreed, paused, and said, "Let Yang Zhao collect the tribute."

Yang Guozhong was not Li Lin's direct descendant. If something happened and he couldn't handle it, he could put the blame on Yang Guozhong. If he made a contribution, the credit would be his.

Li Lin felt that this was the best way to use the treacherous villains, and he was making the best use of people and things.

Wei Zichun was quite disdainful of Yang Guozhong, but Li Lin had made up his mind, so he didn't say much. He just said, "Your Highness, Yang Zhao must have gone to the casino by now. Do you want to send him a message now?"

Li Lin said, "Don't worry. Let him gamble to his heart's content. When he loses all his money, let him go to collect the tribute. He will surely be happy to go."

(End of this chapter)