Chapter 291 The Urgent

He lost Li Mi, but got Abus's Tongluo Army. All these losses and gains were not expected by Li Qingan. Moreover, he agreed to Abus' Tongluo Army to go to Beiting. He only took a fancy to his elite cavalry. He did not consider the political consequences of going to Beiting with Luo's troops. To some extent, his decision was a bit hasty, but he had no time to regret it, so he had to wait and see what happened.

That night, Li Qing'an did not return to Chang'an City, so he directly rested in the military camp.

The next morning, a middle-aged official found Li Qing'an and asked him to enter the palace immediately. Li Longji summoned him to discuss the battle of Tubo.

When Li Qing'an's carriage and hundreds of personal guards walked through Mingde Gate, he could not move forward. About thousands of victims who fled in front of him blocked the city gate. Crying sounds one after another. The old man with yellow faces, ragged women and children, and men sighing mournful eyes were heartbreaking. At this time, a personal soldier of Li Qing'an ran to the car window to report: "General, this is a refugee who fled from Jinzhou and Jiangzhou in Hedong. They had a severe drought last year and had no harvest. When the green and yellow clothes were not met, they really couldn't survive."

"Go and see! Who is managing the city gates, why don't you let them enter?"

The personal soldiers rushed away, and Li Qing'an looked at these victims who were not covered in clothes and could not eat. He couldn't help but think of the two years ago when he went to Henan Road to inspect the victims. They were starving everywhere. There were natural disasters here, but more were man-made disasters. The endless land annexation caused the farmers of the Tang Dynasty to lose their land to survive, making their ability to resist disasters extremely fragile. They were unable to survive if there was a disaster. They left their hometowns and were displaced. This is the fundamental reason why Li Longjiken moved the people of Hedong to Anxi. The problem is really too serious and the farmers can no longer survive.

In the distance, he vaguely saw the yamen runners of Jingzhao Yin and the Jinwu Guard soldiers driving the victims, beating them with sticks, like driving ducks, breaking up groups of victims who were trying to rush into the city. Many of them were beaten to the ground, and dozens of teenagers were knocked to the ground. They got up and ran desperately into the city gate, as if they had hope of survival as long as they ran into the city gate hole. The eyes were so full of desire and eager, but the Jinwu Guard's stick ruthlessly broke their hopes. Several teenagers were covered in blood and neighed and shouted as they were being held out by wooden sticks and threw them into the moat. At the entrance of the city gate, an officer and a Jinwu Guard general rode on horseback, commanding the soldiers and yamen run to drive away the refugees.

The general of Jinwu Guard, Li Qing'an, knew Xu Fangzheng, who was the Lang General of Qianniu Guard back then, and has now been promoted to general, but he did not know the senior official. It seemed that he was at least Jingzhao Shaoyin.

After a moment, his personal soldiers rushed to report: "General, the new Jingzhao Yin Yin, Xian, at the gate of the city, said that the disaster victims were not allowed to enter the city to impact the price of grain."

"So it's him!"

Li Qing'an couldn't help but get angry slightly. Xian Yu Zhongtong officially took office as Jingzhao Yin yesterday afternoon. Thousands of victims were going to the city to beg for food. With such a serious problem, can he only use sticks to drive it away? If the civil unrest is aroused, can he bear the responsibility?

Li Qing'an got off the carriage and turned over the horse. When the victims saw that he seemed to be a high-ranking official, they surrounded him and hundreds of elderly, women and children knelt on the ground and begged, "Mr. Jun, please let us enter the city! If there is no food, we will not be able to survive."

Seeing that a large group of children among the victims were kneeling on the ground, each with thin bones and lonely eyes full of hunger. Li Qing'an couldn't bear it and turned around and said to his personal soldiers: "Distribute the dry food bags to the children."

The soldiers took off the dry food bags from the horse and walked into the hungry people and distributed them to a large group of children. Seeing that Li Qing'an showed kindness, the refugees became even more excited. When they heard the soldiers say that this was the General of the Anxi Jiedushi, the hope of survival was burning in their hearts. No one went to attack the city gate. All men, women, young and old came to tell him about the disaster. The shouts and cries were connected. An elderly man closest to Li Qing'an cried and said, "Without having a little life, we will not come to Chang'an to beg for food. The rain has not fallen for four months. One winter, the bark of Jinzhou was almost completely scattered, and the newly grown wild vegetables were digging out. The whole village and the village fled, some went to Taiyuan Prefecture, but more people fled to Guanzhong. We really couldn't survive. Please tell the general to the emperor, give everyone a relief porridge, and give everyone a little life!"

"General, please!" The refugees begged.

At this time, Jingzhao Yin Yin, Yu Zhongtong, found someone coming forward. He saw the Jingjie of the Jiedu in the carriage, and suddenly guessed that it was Li Qing'an who arrived. Xian Yu Zhongtong was the former Jiannan Jiedushi. Because of his defeat in the Nanzhao Tubo coalition, he was replaced by Gao Xianzhi and demoted to the governor of the governor of the capital. However, under the guarantee of Yang Guozhong, he was resurrected and appointed Jingzhao Shaoyin. Yesterday, he was promoted to Jingzhao Yin.

Like all members of the Yang Party, Xian Yu Zhongtong was also full of concern and vigilance towards Li Qing'an. If the refugee storm at the city gate was not handled well, Li Qing'an would most likely be caught by Li Qing'an, impeaching him to the emperor, and threatening his newly obtained official position again.

Xian Yu Zhongtong quickly whispered a few words to General Xu Fangzheng, the Jinwu Guard. Xu Fangzheng immediately stopped the soldiers from using force. Xian Yu Zhongtong urged him to come forward and shouted, "General, please listen to me."

"Tell me!" Li Qingan said coldly.

Xian Yu Zhongtong was a little embarrassed. There were more than a thousand refugees among them? How could this be discussed? Seeing Li Qing'an's cold attitude, he had to bite the bullet and said, "General, the emperor once had an order. The victims of Hedong were allowed to eat only in Shanzhou and Henan Prefecture and were not allowed to enter Beijing. I am the imperial court of Jingzhao, so I can only follow the emperor's will and do not allow them to enter the city. Please forgive me!"

"According to the meaning of Xianyu envoy, these refugees would starve them to death outside Chang'an City, or drive them out of the jurisdiction of Jingzhao Prefecture, which had nothing to do with Xianyu envoy, right?"

Xian Yu Zhongtong sighed and said, "I understand what the general means. I will set up a porridge shed outside the city to provide disaster relief, but has the general ever thought that this is only the first batch of refugees, and a large number of refugees will arrive one after another in the future. If I let them enter the city, what should I do if the refugees behind me? If they are allowed to eat all of them into the city, I can't afford this responsibility, and the general will probably not take it. So please don't interfere with my Jingzhao Yin's affairs."

Li Qing'an sneered and said, "I dare not interfere with the government affairs of Xianyu envoys, but moving to Hedong, Henan, and Guanzhong to Anxi is also a matter of the holy edict of the world. If this group of refugees Anzhihui will be the people who will move to Anxi in the future, Xianyu envoys. If they are the people who move to Anxi, then this is my business. I will ask about it. Xianyu envoys, you have also been the governor of Jiannan. You should know the consequences of interfering in military affairs. You should consider it yourself!"

Seeing that Li Qing'an was arrogant and had a tough tone, Xian Yu Zhongtong felt extremely embarrassed, but he never dared to let these refugees enter the city. He had no choice but to bow to Li Qing'an and said, "Then please give me a solution to the problem. If it is reasonable, I will do it!"

In fact, what Li Qing'an wanted was his words. He also knew that refugees would cause riots when they entered the city, and he knew that whether refugees were allowed to enter the city was indeed Xianyu Zhongtong's authority. If he did too much, it would be overstepping his authority. Seeing that Xianyu Zhongtong had already shown a cooperative attitude, he said, "Since Xianyu's envoy said that he would set up a porridge shed to provide disaster relief, please let me take a look at Xianyu's envoy's actual measures. Don't let me see only sticks and drive away, but not the porridge pot and tent. I think if Xianyu can do these things in front, then who would these refugees go into the city to beg for food? Xianyu's envoy think this suggestion is reasonable?"

Xian Yu Zhongtong had just taken office and didn't know how much grain and tent he could use. In addition, these refugees came suddenly, so he didn't have time to arrange disaster relief. Now Li Qing'an clearly wanted to interfere in this matter, so he had to say to his subordinate yamen runners: "Go and notify the two counties of Wannian Chang'an, just say it was my order, and order them to set up porridge sheds outside the city to provide disaster relief immediately."

After giving the order, he bowed and shouted to the refugees: "Dear fellow villagers, I have arranged for relief porridge outside the city. Please wait patiently, and food will be shipped soon."

There was a sudden thunderous cheer outside the Mingde Gate, and thousands of refugees kowtowed to Li Qing'an and thanked him. In their eyes, this was Li Qing'an's most urgent hunger problem for them, not the official riding on the horse!

Li Qing'an smiled at the refugees with fists and said, "Dear fellow villagers, the court is preparing to move 300,000 Central Plains people to Anxi. I can guarantee everyone that in Anxi, each household will have its own land, and each household will not be less than 30 acres. As long as everyone works hard to cultivate, there will be no famine. The whole family has no worries about food and clothing. Children can also study for free. The elderly have the government to supply grain and rice, and no one will come to occupy your land. I welcome everyone to go to Anxi'an home."

Thousands of refugees burst into deafening cheers again. Although Li Qing'an did not give them urgent need of porridge and tents, Li Qing'an gave them more precious things, that is hope.

Amid the excited applause of the people, hundreds of personal guards protected the carriage and slowly drove into Mingde Gate.

In the meeting hall in the imperial study room of Xingqing Palace, Li Longji was discussing the issue of sending troops to Tubo, with Geshuhan and several prime ministers. This was a temporary meeting. The reason was that Li Longji misremembered the time to receive the Grand Food Envoy. He came to Datong Hall an hour earlier, but learned that it would take an hour before the reception began. As an emperor, Li Longji would certainly not admit that he remembered it wrongly, so he held this temporary meeting of the Political Affairs Hall.

Li Linfu did not come to see him for health reasons. Yang Guozhong, Zhang Jun, Chen Xilie, Wei Jiansu, Yang Shenjin, Wang Gong, who had just been promoted to prime minister, and the new crown prince Li Yu and others attended the meeting.

Another main figure in this battle, Li Qing'an, the governor of Anxi, has sent someone to call, and it should be coming soon. Before discussing military affairs in detail, Li Longji is concerned about whether the court's money and food can support this battle. According to Geshuhan's plan, a total of 150,000 troops from Hexi and Longyou will be transferred to the war. In addition, Li Qing'an also promised to transfer 50,000 Anxi troops to cooperate with the Longyou Army's operations, so that the 200,000 troops were originally scheduled to start in October in late autumn, but due to Li Qing'an's objections and the plateau

In the special climate, the combat plan was ahead of July, with the combat period of about three months. This required one million stones of grain, of which 700,000 stones were supplied to Longyou and 300,000 stones were transferred to Anxi. Considering the transportation consumption on the road, the court needed to raise at least 1.2 million stones of grain, as well as a large amount of military supplies such as military pay, weapons, tents, and forage. Li Qing'an also proposed a requirement of 50,000 dan of tea. This was because when the Anxi army had insufficient military rations, cattle and sheep were used as the main food, and tea was urgently needed in the army.

At this time, Li Qing'an also arrived. He stood quietly in the queue and listened to the opinions of various important officials. As the Minister of the Taifu Temple, Yang Guozhong was in charge of Taicang and Zuo Zang, who were in charge of storing money and grain. He was explaining the preparations for the grain.

"Your Majesty, I carefully checked the stored grain in Taicang and the major grain depots in Guanzhong yesterday afternoon, and totaled 600,000 stones of grain. Considering that the Hedong disaster victims would pour into Guanzhong in the spring, they could only take out 400,000 stones of grain at most."

"Shangshu Yang, where is your 500,000 stone of grain enough?"

Geshuhan couldn't help but interrupt Yang Guozhong's words and said angrily: "I plan for one million stones is already the minimum requirement. You don't understand the situation on the Tubo Plateau. The road is difficult and the physical exhaustion is extremely exhausted. If you encounter bad weather, the battle is likely to be postponed. If there is no military ration to keep up, more than 100,000 troops will fall into hunger. If the entire army is defeated due to the cut off of food, the Tubo army will march straight in. At that time, not only will Hehuang be lost, but the Tubo army will also enter Longyou. Who will protect your Yang Shangshu's ten thousand family property?"

Geshuhan has been really angry in his heart these two days. Yesterday, he won nothing. Not only is the title of the prince out of reach, but he didn't even have ordinary rewards. Last year, he won a series of victories, but Li Longji seemed to be missing, which made Geshuhan really depressed. Until last night, his aide Gao Shi got the truth from an official of the Ministry of War. His military newspaper in Tubo was rewrited by Linghu Fei, who was then the right assistant minister of the Ministry of War. Although the content was good, Gao Shi's gorgeous rhetoric and effort were exhausted.

All the war scenes written were gone, such as "The general died in a hundred battles, and the soldiers were willing to sacrifice their heads." These exciting sentences were gone, only the number of casualties, injuries, and how many enemies were killed, and so on. In addition, Gao Shi deliberately used tragic sentences to realistically write about the excessive deaths of the Tang army. This made his military newspaper lose its glory, and Li Longji naturally lost his interest. The final result was Li Qing'an and Gao Xianzhi were incredibly glorious, while his brother Shu Han became a forgotten person, extremely embarrassed.

This incident made Ge Shuhan hate Linghu Fei very much, and naturally hated Wu Jiwu, and he also hated Yang Guozhong. He even thought that Linghu Fei did not have such courage, and it should be Yang Guozhong's instructions.

All Yang Guozhong did was nothing more than to suppress his brother Shu Han. Although Li Qing'an was highly rewarded, he was far away from the Central Plains and had little impact on the court. Gao Xianzhi's Jiannan was small in area and lacked resources. The only frontier ministers who could really have an impact on the court were An Lushan from Fan Yang and him from Longyou. Suppressing his brother Shu Han was equivalent to picking up An Lushan. He could understand Yang Guozhong's tricks.

Geshuhan is a person who can't help but feels hot. When Yang Guozhong said that at most there were only 400,000 shi of grain, Geshuhan's fierce temper suddenly broke out, pointing directly at Yang Guozhong's land and houses in Longzhou. The atmosphere in the court suddenly became very awkward, and Li Longji's face also sank. He was neither happy with Yang Guozhong pouring cold water. Two days ago, Yang Guozhong told him that he could go to the Yangtze River to adjust grain from the Jianghuai River. Why don't he mention this matter now? He only said that there was insufficient food in Guanzhong. At the same time, he was not satisfied with Geshuhan's uncultivated attack on the public. This attack obviously contained personal emotions, and Li Longji did not speak, and the court was silent.

At this time, Zhang Yun coughed and stepped forward and said, "Your Majesty, what Mr. Yang said is the truth. I can testify. Every sentence Mr. Yang said is true. Among the 32 official warehouses in Guanzhong, there are a total of 610,000 stones of grain. There are 200,000 stones of rice that the court officials have not paid, so the situation is even more serious, but it is not impossible to solve it. Please listen to my words."

At the critical moment, the old minister was able to speak. Li Longji's face calmed down slightly and said, "Please say it with Aiqing Zhang."

Zhang Yun glanced at everyone and smiled and said, "The key is the time of this battle. If General Geshu sets the battle in March or April, the court does not have time to prepare, but now it is set in July, and there is still a few months of combat time. I think we should have enough food to support this battle. We can consider the maturity of summer grain in various places, considering that the disaster in Hedong has been slowed down due to the maturity of summer grain, so we will have enough food to support this battle."

Zhang Yun's doctrine of meanness seems to be very reasonable and has no loopholes, but if you think carefully, you will find that his suggestion is actually very empty. Summer grain is usually mature in June, but it takes time to collect rent and transport grain to Chang'an. How much time does it take to transport grain from the west of Chiling in Chang'an? If you follow the usual experience, you have to wait until the end of the year at the earliest. It is unrealistic to transport it to the military camp in August and September. Even if the grain in Guanzhong and Longyou can save time, how much tax can the court receive from Guanzhong and Longyou?

Without historical records and specific data as a basis, Zhang Yun's words can only be used to make a cake to satisfy his hunger, but Li Qing'an discovered a subtle point. On this black and white issue, Zhang Yun did not take the gray route, but spoke for Yang Guozhong. Did Zhang Yun already have the intention to form an alliance with Yang Guozhong?

"The emperor and grandfather, my minister has something to say!"

Li Yu's speech interrupted everyone's thoughts, and everyone turned to look at him one after another. Li Longji's eyes were filled with smiles, and he nodded with relief: "Let's just say it."

Li Yu slowly walked forward and bowed to the important officials and said, "I traveled all over Guanzhong during the autumn harvest in October last year. Large areas of fields were full of rice, and one acre of land could produce three stones. But how many of these fertile lands paid for land taxes? According to my investigation, only two or three out of ten, and the same is true for Longyou. In this way, the imperial court could collect land taxes from Guanzhong and Longyou. Last year, the Ministry of Revenue recorded 540,000 stones, and it was a bumper harvest year, but this year it would only be less or more. Everyone should know the reasons. So I ask Shangshu Zhang, are all the 500,000 stones planned to be given to Longyou, and Shuofang, Hedong, Jiannan, and Fan Yang all tightened their stomachs and waited for other places to deliver food?"

Although Li Yu did not mention land annexation in a single word, what he pointed out was still a serious land problem. The court was silent again. In fact, everyone was very clear about Zhang Yun's suggestions, but it was just an excuse. The court rent was insufficient, so they could only make money through other tax exploitation methods such as funding, alteration, household tax, etc. To purchase food for wealthy households as military rations, and to bear increasingly heavy military pay. As the number of fugitive households increased, the Tang Dynasty's financial resources became increasingly tense and they could not make ends meet every year.

Everyone knows that with the current national strength of the Tang Dynasty, it is impossible to support a large-scale battle. However, if Li Longji wanted to fight this battle, the ministers dared not object, so Zhang Yun used the method of eating Yin and ate the food to solve the food shortage. However, the emperor's eldest grandson Li Yu unceremoniously exposed the painted skin.

"What does the emperor's grandson mean?" Li Longji asked patiently.
Chapter completed!