The reason why Luo Shixin appeared outside the city with his troops was because he thought there was a war going on.
After leaving the city, I discovered that the King of Qi seemed to be suppressing the refugees.
Luo Shi was confident in his contempt.
The King of Qi was as cowardly as a dog on the battlefield, but he was extremely cruel to his own people.
However, what King Qi did next made him a little confused.
Li Ji was in Xie Shufang, and after Li Sixing arrived with soldiers and horses from Bingzhou, he decisively ordered: "The soldiers and horses of each department, headed by Duizheng, will lead a team of soldiers and horses to move the people outside the city into townships, towns, and counties according to their place of origin.
The states are compiled into square columns."
Xie Shufang, the general manager of Shaanzhou, immediately went down to carry out Li Ji's order without any hesitation.
The general manager of Guozhou hesitated, but when Li Ji's eyes fell on him, he hurried to carry out Li Ji's order.
Luo Shixin saw that Li Ji was not harming the refugees, but was sorting them out, and seemed to have the intention of resettling the refugees, so he immediately rode forward.
"Your Highness, your minister Luo Shixin is willing to order Jiangzhou soldiers and horses to assist you."
Li Ji nodded, "Yes!"
Luo Shixin immediately ordered his troops to help.
When Luo Shixin went to give the order, Li Sixing approached Li Ji and said, "Your Majesty, Li Sixing, is here to see you."
Li Ji was angry, so he didn't say anything and just nodded.
Li Sixing hesitated and said, "Your Highness wants to resettle these refugees?"
Li Ji nodded again.
Li Sixing said with a grimace: "There is no shortage of places to resettle refugees in Luoyang, but there is no extra food to feed them."
The once prosperous city of Luoyang experienced a sharp decline in population after experiencing several wars.
Today, under the Luoyang Order, there are only 3,000 households.
The population of 3,000 households is not enough to fill the Luoyang Palace, let alone the entire Luoyang.
Therefore, there is no shortage of places for refugees to live in Luoyang. Many abandoned houses, mansions, and royal gardens can be repaired to accommodate many refugees.
But precisely because of its small population, Luoyang has little food and cannot support such a large number of refugees.
Military rations cannot be moved, and there is no food available elsewhere.
Therefore, refugees are easy to resettle but difficult to raise.
Li Sixing knew the difficulties, so he had to remind Li Ji aloud.
Li Ji looked at the refugees who were frozen in the cold wind and covered with sores, looked at the refugees who were sallow and thin, and seemed to be starving to death at any time. He gritted his teeth and said: "First let the soldiers and horses from the government and the soldiers from Bingzhou go out."
For some rations, we will give them one bowl of porridge a day. For the rest, we will wait until the Luoyang order arrives."
Li Sixing was shocked. It was against military discipline to seize food and fodder for soldiers and horses without permission. The soldiers would be resentful if they didn't have enough to eat, which could lead to mutiny.
"Your Highness!"
"I will take care of it at the commander's account. The soldiers and horses in the palace and the soldiers and horses in Bingzhou have suffered losses. I will give them some fields in Wangzhuang and the fiefdom to cultivate for three years without collecting any taxes. This can be considered as compensation for them.
."
Li Ji naturally knew that if his soldiers and horses were starved of food, his soldiers and horses would complain.
So he offered a generous compensation package.
Give them some land without taxation and let them farm it for three years. Not to mention letting them eat less, even if they have a bowl of porridge a day, they will feel happy.
The war hasn't started yet, so it won't hurt if you eat less.
Seeing that Li Ji had given such a generous compensation, Li Sixing didn't care about this issue.
"The little rations saved by the soldiers and horses in the house and the fiefdom are just a drop in the bucket."
Li Sixing sighed with a wry smile.
How many refugees are there?
One hundred thousand people.
The total number of soldiers and horses in the palace and in the fief is less than 5,000.
This is because the Bingzhou soldiers and horses are subordinate to the Prince of Qi's Mansion, and the establishment is a bit excessive.
Otherwise, there would be less than four thousand people.
Even if there is no food for less than 5,000 people, the rations saved will not be enough to feed 100,000 people.
Li Ji glanced at Li Sixing and said nothing.
Li Sixing realized that Li Ji didn't want to talk now, so he didn't speak again.
Luoyang Ling did not appear in front of Li Ji until two hours later.
When Li Ji asked, he found out that in order to flatter himself, when he learned that he was coming, he ran to clean up the royal flowers left by the former Sui Dynasty.
The purpose is to make his stay more comfortable.
Of course, it's also possible that he was just doing it in order to flatter Li Shimin.
Li Ji was not polite to the Luoyang Order and asked straight to the point, "As the Luoyang Order, why don't you resettle the refugees who fled to Luoyang?"
Seeing Li Ji's unkind tone, the Luoyang Ling hurriedly complained: "I have to prepare the camp for the army to stay, and also prepare the food, clothing, housing and transportation for the superior officials and the two highnesses. I really have no time to spare."
"You don't have to worry about our food, clothing, housing and transportation from now on. You can just concentrate on resettling the refugees."
Li Ji stared at Luoyang Ling coldly and ordered.
Luoyang Ling sensed Li Ji's unkindness, hesitated for a while, and gritted his teeth and said: "There are now less than three thousand households in Luoyang, and there are quite a lot of vacant houses. It is not difficult to accommodate the refugees.
But refugees not only need shelter, but also food.
There is not even half a grain of grain in the Luoyang granary now.
I can’t even produce food.”
Li Ji frowned and said, "Isn't there any way?"
Luoyang Ling shook his head with a grimace.
He is not a fool. If he had food in his hands, how could he miss this opportunity to make a contribution.
Whether you donate food to the imperial court to make military rations or use it to provide relief to refugees, it is a great achievement.
It's easy to go up one liter.
But he had no food and could not raise food.
It is really difficult for a clever woman to make a meal without rice.
Li Ji had a sullen face and fell into deep thought.
After a long time, he stared at Luoyang and asked, "Are there any big families in Luoyang?"
Luoyang Ling suddenly stared.
Li Sixing and Qu Tutong also stared.
Luo Shixin, who was eavesdropping on the side, also looked at Li Ji in shock.
From what Li Ji said, it seemed that he wanted to take action on a wealthy family.
Except for a very small number of reckless and rogue bandits who cannot become popular, most of the decent or capable forces are not willing to make enemies of wealthy families.
Because a large family is not a family, but a collective.
Killing one family will make other families vigilant.
When necessary, they would also summon clansmen, servants, etc. to form a large team.
In the troubled times of the former Sui Dynasty, any rebel king who succeeded had a powerful family member or several powerful families standing behind him.
Li Tang's empire is not stable now. Liu Heitai is in Hebei, Liang Shidu is in Shuofang, and there are also many rebel armies entrenched in Jingzhou, Yangzhou and other places.
Li Yi, Du Fuwei, Gao Kaidao, etc. are still 'warlords' at present.
Once the big family members are moved and a wave of rebellion among the big family members against the Tang Dynasty is set off, then the seedling of Li Tang will most likely die.
It is precisely because of this that Li Yuan, Li Shimin, and Li Jiancheng knew that those wealthy families had food in their hands, but they did not take action against those wealthy families.
Luoyang Ling felt terrified and opened his mouth, but did not dare to say a word.
Qu Tutong, Li Sixing, and Luo Shixin looked at Luoyang Ling, wishing they could see through him.
Whenever the Luoyang Order said a wrong word, they would immediately start a murderous attack.
They are the beneficiaries of Li Tang's founding of the country and must firmly support Li Tang's unification of the world.
Li Ji can be a fool, but Luoyang Ling does not have the qualifications.
"Do you have?!"
Li Ji asked loudly.
Luoyang Ling was shocked and said hurriedly: "No...it's gone a long time ago. Since the big war in the middle of the year, the big families in Luoyang were either killed in the war or left Luoyang."
Li Ji looked disappointed.
Qu Tutong looked at Li Sixing crazily.
Li Sixing hurriedly said: "Your Highness, the big family is the mainstay of our Tang Dynasty and must not be harmed."
Li Ji knew why Li Sixing said this.
The Tang Dynasty family was so notorious that Li Yuan was not easy to mess with, so how could Li Sixing just watch him poke the hornet's nest.
But he really didn't mean to take action against the wealthy family.
He just wanted to get some food from a wealthy family through interest exchange.
Li Ji ignored Li Sixing and instead ordered Luoyang: "Send a message to the big families around Luoyang. Anyone who wants to become an official can offer 10,000 shi of grain. For an official of the fifth rank, he can get 9,000 shi of grain."
The upper level of the sixth level is worth eight thousand shi of grain, the lower level is the sixth level, and so on.
The royal palace belongs to the officials, Bingzhou belongs to the officials, Xiangzhou Road belongs to the officials, they can choose at will."
In extraordinary times, only extraordinary methods can be used.
When you can't move a big family, you can only exchange your official position for food.
Although this method is not very attractive to the direct descendants of those wealthy families, and those wealthy families might sneer at it if they find out about it, it still has a certain appeal to the collateral families of those wealthy families and their collateral families.
Some wealthy rural families might also scrape together a batch of grain and seek an official position.
Li Ji didn't care at all as to whether the person in exchange for official position was talented or not.
When those people enter the officialdom, those who are talented will be transferred to useful places. Those who are not talented will be tricked by their colleagues without Li Ji taking action.
Even if their colleagues couldn't trick them, the Tang Dynasty still had many uncultivated wild lands to accommodate them.
As long as those aristocratic families and wealthy families are not stupid, it is absolutely impossible for them to send a fool to serve as an official.
The only disadvantage of Li Ji doing this is probably that he will be criticized by the officials in the court, even if he did it for the sake of refugees.
If the public commentators don't complain, they would be derelict in their duties.
Qu Tutong, Li Sixing, and Luo Shixin were obviously relieved when they heard that Li Ji had no intention of attacking the wealthy family.
When they heard that Li Ji was exchanging his official position for food, they didn't say anything except laughing bitterly in their hearts.
Li Ji exchanged his official position in his own house and his own territory for food, and did not exchange his official position in other places for food. In this regard, he would not conflict with the imperial appointees, nor would he conflict with Li Shimin and Li Jiancheng.
conflict.
Therefore, I will only be targeted by Yanguan, not others.
After Li Yuan learned about this, he would probably lift the board high and lower it gently.
First, he sent someone to convey the order, scolded Li Ji, and ordered Li Ji not to do this in the future. Then he cut off one of Li Ji's idle positions.
If other people did this, they would have to shed their skin even if they didn't die.
If Li Jiancheng dares to do this, his reputation will be ruined and his position as prince will be unstable.
If Li Shimin dared to do this, Li Yuan and Li Jiancheng would probably wake up with laughter, and then help him become famous like crazy, and his reputation would be ruined.
If Li Ji did this, his reputation would be ruined. What does it matter?
Isn't it reasonable for a notorious prince to do a notorious thing?