The city of Chang'an is still prosperous and has not been affected by the Southern Tang army's northward march in the past few months. Tens of thousands of Southern Tang troops were completely destroyed about a hundred miles away from Chang'an. Even most people in Chang'an did not know about this. By chance, the market
There were some rumors, but they were laughed off as a joke.
It is true that five years have passed and the Tang Dynasty is somewhat blurred in the people's memory. However, the unpopular taxes implemented by the Tang Dynasty in Bashu, deliberately exaggerated by Zhu Si, made the people of Chang'an extremely disgusted.
For example, shelf tax, tea and wine tax, etc. are related to food and housing among the four major categories of people's daily necessities. How can people not hate them?
Each household with a few ordinary rooms has to pay three to four guan in taxes every year, which is equivalent to the monthly income of ordinary people in Chang'an. The tea and wine tax is also a new tax introduced the year before last. It is not collected directly from the people, but
Adding it to tea and wine has caused the price of tea and wine in Sichuan to increase by 20%. The so-called wool comes from the sheep, which is also a very criticized tax.
Coupled with the emperor's incompetence and heavy use of eunuchs, the Southern Tang army suffered repeated defeats and lost its appeal in Chang'an and Guanzhong.
There is a more important reason for this, that is, dozens of imperial mansions and more than a hundred large estates for powerful people in Guanzhong have been distributed by Zhu Sigua to the people of Guanzhong. Basically, every family has a share, which is used to win people's hearts.
Nearly one million households are involved. If the imperial court returns to Chang'an, will their land be forcibly taken back?
It is this land issue that involves the vital interests of millions of families, so the people in Guanzhong basically do not want the imperial court to come back, and the same goes for the people in Chang'an.
Zhu Si has officially moved the capital to Luoyang. Chang'an's grain, grass, gold, silver and copper coins have been transported away, and even the Guangtong warehouse has basically bottomed out. However, Chang'an is still controlled by Zhu Si, and his adopted son, Qi King Zhu Jinqing, is left behind in Xijing.
, led 30,000 troops and stationed in Chang'an.
The specific government affairs are handled by Jingzhao Yin Du Wenxing. There are military patrols every morning and evening to maintain public order in the city. Generally speaking, Chang'an has not changed much.
That morning, a caravan consisting of hundreds of mules slowly walked into Chunming Gate. The mules were carrying heavy cloth. There were fifty men in the caravan. This number was slightly too high, but still normal.
Within the scope, none of these are actually important. What matters is whether the money you pay to buy the road is within the psychological price of the soldiers defending the city.
The leader of the caravan is a man in his early thirties, tall, burly, and handsome. This man is Zhang Yun, the scout commander who has been silent for several months.
After Zhang Yun and Li Ruyi got married, they were mainly engaged in scout training and never had the chance to go out. After Zhang Yun's repeated entreaties, Guo Song finally gave him a very important task and went to Chang'an as an undercover agent.
When they arrived in front of Chunmenming, the soldiers raised their hands to stop them. A commander of the city defense brigade ran up, looked at them and asked: "Where are you coming from? What kind of goods?"
"Coming from Bianzhou, all the goods shipped are cloth."
The brigade commander glanced sideways at the caravan and said with a hook, "Three pieces of money!"
This is an open request for bribes. If you don't agree, it's just a small matter that you can't enter the city. If you anger the general on duty, they will immediately find spears and knives in your goods and seize them on the spot. It's not a matter of a few strings of money. If you don't go bankrupt, you
Don't even think about getting away.
Zhang Yun took out two pieces of broken silver from his arms, which felt a bit too much. He was about to exchange for a smaller piece, but was snatched away by the brigade commander. The brigade commander weighed it and found that it was at least four taels. He waved his hand.
, "Let go!"
The caravan was finally able to enter the city. The caravan went directly to the Gaosheng Inn outside the gate of Dongshi. This is one of the largest inns in Chang'an, covering an area of five acres. A waiter came up to him and asked, "Do you want to stay here?"
"
Zhang Yun rolled up his sleeves, intentionally or unintentionally letting the waiter see the eagle drawn on his arm, and asked: "Can we live with so many livestock?"
When the clerk saw the eagle on the opponent's arm, he immediately realized that the flying eagle, flying bear, flying tiger, and flying leopard were all four animals with special meanings. The opponent was a flying eagle, and a big shot was coming.
He quickly said: "Of course it can be accommodated, please come with me!"
Everyone led their mules and marched into the inn.
The owner of this Gaosheng Inn is Li An. It has been temporarily requisitioned by the Jinwei Mansion and has become the reception window for scouts from Hedong. In recent months, scouts from Hedong have entered Chang'an in various capacities. The first is
Come to Gaosheng Inn to report.
Once you enter the inn, you don't need to worry about the mules and goods, Jin Wei Mansion will take care of them.
Everyone went into the house to rest, and it was lunch time. The waiter brought them lunch. At this time, Song Tian, the leader of the Jin Wei Mansion stationed in Chang'an, also came to see Zhang Yun. Zhang Yun's official position was the commander of the 200,000 Jin army.
There are a lot of Zhonglang, Zhonglang, and generals, but there are currently only ten commanders.
The commander can lead tens of thousands of troops to control one area alone, such as Ma Daxiao, the commander-in-chief of Suiye, Liang Wu, the commander-in-chief of Lingwu, etc.
So Zhang Yun came to Chang'an and was basically the leader of this operation.
The Jin Wei Mansion is another independent system and does not belong to the military, so although Zhang Yun has a high official position, he is quite polite to Song Tian.
Zhang Yun took out a booklet from his arms, looked at it and said with a smile: "Today, together with us, there should be 750 scouts entering Chang'an!"
"That's right. Including the commander, there are a total of seven hundred and fifty people."
Song Tian hesitated and asked: "I wonder how many people will come in total for this winter hunting operation?"
Zhang Yun smiled slightly and said: "The initial number is 1,500 people, and the upper limit is 2,000 people. It depends on whether you can accept so many people?"
Song Tian laughed, "Commander, do you know how many houses we have to house our brothers? There are fifty empty houses. You can live in them silently. As long as you don't go out, there will be no problem even if you live in three thousand people."
"If someone lives in an empty house, it won't be discovered?"
"It might have been possible before, but not now."
"Why?"
"The reason is very simple. In the past, we might have been discovered because of Shunfeng'er and Meihua Neiwei, who accepted informants. But now that Zhu Si has moved the capital, Shunfeng'er and Meihua Neiwei have also moved to Luoyang, making Chang'an safer."
Zhang Yun nodded, pondered for a moment and asked, "What kind of person is Zhu Jinqing?"
Song Tian smiled and said: "Zhu Jinqing is a rough man with a bad temper and loves wine and hunting. But one good thing about him is that he listens to Zhu Si. Zhu Si does not allow him to enter the palace, so he never dares to enter the palace. Zhu Si allows him to enter the palace."
He didn't want to have a conflict with Jingzhao Yin Du Wenxing, so he simply made rules with Du Wenxing about what things he couldn't do, such as sending troops to disturb the people, extorting and extorting shops, etc. There were basically not many."
"But when I went into the city, I was blackmailed for four taels of silver."
Song Tian laughed, "So when I say basically there aren't many, I don't mean there aren't any. You are coming from out of town, so of course you will be blackmailed. If it's a local shop, they won't dare. Du Wenxing doesn't allow it."
Zhang Yun chuckled and said, "It seems that Jingzhao Yin Duwen has a pretty good reputation as an official."
Song Tian said calmly: "People from the Du family in Jingzhao. The Du family couldn't stop Zhu Si from visiting again and again, so they reluctantly arranged for the unimportant Du Wenxing to come forward. This Du Wenxing was originally just the seventh-grade Gaoling County magistrate, but when he arrived at Zhu Si's place, he changed his identity.
Becoming a third-rank Jing Zhaoyin, this official position makes people dizzy."
"How could this happen?"
"There are many reasons. The main reason is that none of the well-known civil servants are willing to serve Zhu Si. Basically all the officials in Zhu Si's court were former county officials, state officials, and the like. They turned into bad fish and rotten shrimps and became ministers among doctors. Du Wenxing was in the seventh grade.
The foundation of the county magistrate is not low. In addition, he represents the Du family. This is Zhu Si's deliberate attempt to win over the Guanzhong family. For example, his minister Youpushe in the Luoyang court, and the minister of the Ministry of Personnel, are members of the Zheng family in Xingyang."
"Okay! When will we move into the house?"
"Tonight, we are leading everyone in batches to Xinchangfang, where your house is."
Zhang Yun pondered for a while and then said: "In addition, I have a small request. I hope to get an official identity, a special identity that can be checked on the streets, such as a county magistrate, etc. I may have to go to various houses.
Contact your subordinates.”
Song Tian thought for a while and said: "Actually, you don't have to go to the county government office. The tax office has easy arrangements. You just need to spend money to buy a patrol tax inspector. The key is whether Commander Zhang can speak Chang'an Mandarin."
Zhang Yun laughed and said, "I am a native of Chang'an. Do you think I can speak Chang'an Mandarin?"