The Flourishing Tang Dynasty: Beginning with Marrying Yang Yuhuan

Chapter 84 Planning and Celebration

In the past two years, Li Ying has been thinking about what he should do next after settling in Anxi.

It is totally unrealistic for Anxi to compete with the imperial court with its strength alone, so the only option is to expand further.

If you want to expand, there are two ways. The first is to vigorously develop Anxi. The second is to start with Anxi and gradually expand your influence to Beiting, Hexi, and Longyou.

These two paths cannot be achieved overnight, and require waiting for the right opportunity and gradual infiltration.

So now Li Heng’s focus is on the first point, the development of Anxi.

Regarding the development of Anxi, Li Heng has already made some plans in the economic, military and political aspects, but generally speaking, he cannot take too big a step and still needs to proceed cautiously step by step.

Li Heng believed that the first step in this step-by-step strategy was to follow history and develop basic agriculture.

Only when the agricultural base is well developed can he further implement other plans.

Historically, after the Tang Dynasty took control of Anxi, it began to implement water conservancy projects and reclaim wasteland for farming in agriculture.

However, since the external environment of Anxi was not very stable and it was often harassed by foreign enemies, the development of Tang Dynasty's military farming in Anxi was not smooth and was roughly divided into four stages.

The first stage, from 630 to 657 AD, was the pioneering period.

The second stage was from 658 to 702, which was the development stage.

The third stage was from 702 to 763, which was a period of high speed.

The last period was from 763 to 791. During this period, Tubo cut off Anxi's connection with the imperial court. Anxi was trapped alone and had basically no development.

The period that Li Heng is currently in is a golden age of rapid development. It is also the development of military farming during this period that has provided a certain material basis for the later entrapment of the "Lone Loyalists in the Northwest".

It is beneficial for Li Heng to encounter this golden period.

Moreover, compared with the golden period in history, Li Ying has three advantages.

The first advantage was that he repelled Tubo from Xiaoboluo ten years in advance, which made his external environment much better.

The second advantage is that he will not mess around like the military governors in history such as Gai Jiayun.

The third advantage was that he knew some more convenient and effective agricultural tools of later generations, as well as agricultural crops suitable for Anxi.

However, the second and third advantages are still relatively vague. To truly implement them, they require a large number of talents and solid work.

Especially talents. No matter how good the plan is, without talents to implement it, it will not only fail to be implemented, but will also have the opposite effect.

Therefore, Li Heng wanted to take the opportunity of celebrating the opening of the government office to select and train some talents.

……

The officials, local clans and common people of Anxi were all a little surprised to hear that Li Heng was going to hold an agricultural competition.

Because according to their understanding, the entertainment methods of today's nobles who have established their own houses include poetry, singing and dancing, as well as various extravagant amusements, such as upgrading the game of pitching pots to throwing gold and silver, and having a feast for the drunken mind.

I have never seen a noble prince like Li Heng wanting to play with some agricultural and water conservancy equipment.

However, if the superior likes something, the subordinates will welcome it.

Li Ying liked these things, so they went to explore the people and things in these areas.

When Li Heng established his government, many people related to agriculture and water conservancy gathered in Qiuci.

……

……

……

On the sixth day of the second month in the twenty-sixth year of Kaiyuan, it was time to move. Li Heng and Yang Yuhuan moved into the new mansion, held a grand banquet for their guests, and held performances to have fun with the people.

The first half of the show was filled with poetry, singing and dancing. In addition to the talented men and beautiful women from Anxi, some people from other places also came.

Gao Shi, who was far away in Hexi, always remembered Li Heng's kindness. He wanted to come to congratulate Li Heng in person, but he was now a general in Hexi, had made contributions, and was highly valued by Wang Zhongsi. He could not spare the time, so he asked his friends to come on his behalf to congratulate and convey Wang Zhongsi's blessings.

Li Heng did not neglect the people sent by Wang Zhongsi and Gao Shi at the same time, and received them personally.

In the side hall, the servant brought in the people sent by Wang Zhongsi and Gao Shi.

The leader of the group bowed to Li Ying and said, "I am Wang Wei, your humble servant, and I pay my respects to His Royal Highness Prince Shou."

"Wang Wei?" Li Ying was a little surprised when he heard the name.

Li Ying looked at Wang Wei carefully and saw that Wang Wei was about thirty-five or thirty-six years old, with an outstanding demeanor.

"It's General Wang." Li Ying invited Wang Wei and his party to take a seat and said, "If I remember correctly, General Wang is now the judge of Hexi."

"That's right." Wang Wei replied politely, "Your Highness is really well-informed and has a good memory. In the 23rd year of Kaiyuan, I was promoted to Zuo Shiyi. Last year, I was transferred to Hexi and became the judge of General Wang Zhongsi."

Li Heng knew something about this matter.

Wang Wei was promoted by Zhang Jiuling, and his transfer to be the judge of Wang Zhongsi was also Zhang Jiuling's doing.

Speaking of which, Wang Wei can be considered as Zhang Jiuling's man.

But on the other hand, Wang Wei and Gao Shi were friends, and the relationship was a bit complicated.

Li Ying paused for a moment, then smiled and said, "General Wang is very busy with his official duties, but he is still here from afar. I am honored."

"I dare not." Wang Wei stood up, bowed to Li Ying again, and said, "I am entrusted by General Wang Zhongsi and General Gao Shi to come and congratulate Your Highness on your new home."

As he spoke, he had someone present him with a sword and a box of special brushes.

The sword was given by Wang Zhongsi, and the special brush was given by Gao Shi.

Li Ying took a look and said with a smile, "There is no need to send these gifts. General Wang came in person and could send a congratulatory poem, which would be the most precious gift."

Wang Wei said: "General Wang Zhongsi and General Gao Shi knew that Your Highness loved poetry and prose, so they did not write any poems, but invited a few talented people to come."

"Oh." Li Ying looked at the people Wang Wei brought with him and said, "Please introduce them to me, General Wang."

Wang Wei introduced them one by one: "This is Wang Zhihuan, this is Meng Haoran, this is Cen Shen..."

Hearing these names, Li Heng was stunned again, because although he didn't know these people, he had heard of their names.

Wang Zhihuan was born into the Wang family of Taiyuan and was a good friend of Gao Shi.

In 726, Wang Zhihuan was the chief clerk of Hengshui in Jizhou. Later, he was slandered and resigned from his post.

In 732, Gao Shi went to Jimen to visit Wang Zhihuan, but Wang Zhihuan was not there.

Li Heng guessed that it was he who employed Gao Shi, so Gao Shi told Wang Zhihuan about this, hoping that Wang Zhihuan would visit him in order to resume his official career.

In 734, Meng Haoran visited Zhang Jiuling. Zhang Jiuling admired him very much but did not employ him. Later, after Zhang Jiuling was demoted, he was reappointed.

As for Cen Shen, although he was friends with Gao Shi and others, that was several years later. Logically, they should not be familiar with each other now.

In other words, these three people come from different forces, and they are either frustrated people or people who have never made a fortune.

Their purpose of coming here to present poems may be more than just presenting poems.

(End of this chapter)