Chapter 298 Basic Market
August, the first year of Xiaochang.
This is still a turbulent month for today.
The Rouran were still gathering their troops, and Po Liu Han Baling also received information that the Rouran were going to help the Northern Wei send troops.
Po Liu Han Baling was able to attract so many people to follow him, so he was certainly not an ordinary person.
Ever since Wei Kegu was attacked and killed, and Po Liu Han Baling took control of Wuchuan and Huaishuo, more and more rebels gathered in the two towns.
Po Liu Han Baling sent his men and disciples to count the number of people. A rough estimate was that the number of refugees from the six towns gathered near Wuchuan Huaishuo reached 200,000.
Although the number of people increased, Po Liu Han Baling was still worried day and night.
At this time, Po Liu Han Kongque, who had gone to Guanzhong to contact other rebels, also returned to Wuchuan City.
Po Liu Han Kong Que is Po Liu Han Baling's most important assistant. After listening to Kong Que's report on the situation in Guanzhong, Po Liu Han Kong Que asked:
"True King, although King Wei (Wei Ke Gu) was killed by villains, our army is already strong. Why are you still so worried?"
Po Liu Han Baling stood up with the crane staff in his hand.
After being announced as the true queen, Po Liu Han Baling did not have a harem, did not wear fine clothes, and her food, clothing and other expenses were the same as before. Even the people serving her were her former disciples.
However, because of his busy military affairs, Po Liu Han Baling's temples turned completely white. When Po Liu Han Kong Que saw him, he felt that the King had aged ten years in an instant.
Po Liu Han Baling faced his most important assistant and said with all his heart:
"Our army may seem powerful, but in fact it is in imminent danger!"
Po Liu Han Kongque looked at Po Liu Han Baling in confusion.
All I heard was this "True King" say:
"The six towns are in chaos. We no longer have any government warehouses to rob. We have been plagued by war since the white disaster last year and have no grain left."
"Nowadays, the largest number of people have gathered in Huaishuo, Wuchuan. Among these people, only a part of them agree with my ideas and join us voluntarily. Most of them join me because they can't afford to eat."
"There are so many mouths to feed. As long as the government troops guard the Baidao Road and prevent us from moving south, our army will be defeated once the Rouran cavalry arrives."
Po Liu Han Kongque was shocked. He didn't expect that such a smooth situation would actually hide such a huge crisis.
But upon closer thought, Po Liu Han Baling's analysis was indeed correct. With so many people gathered together and having nothing to eat, even if the Rouran people had not moved south, they would have collapsed by winter.
Po Liu Han Kongque said:
"True King, how about leaving these people behind?"
Po Liu Han Baling shook his head and said:
"No matter why they follow me, as long as they come here, they are my people."
"It is my mission to protect them. If we abandon them, what is the difference between us and the Pseudo-Wei?"
Po Liu Han Kongque was speechless. If it were not for Po Liu Han Baling's lofty ideals, he would not have followed the true king.
The true king has not changed, but unfortunately the hearts of the people in the six towns have changed.
Po Liu Han Kongque volunteered to be the vanguard to lead the way for the army of Liuzhen to attack Baidao City.
But Yuan Shen personally guarded Baidao City. Yuan Shen knew how to use troops. Yuan Tianmu also begged for a lot of supplies from Xiurongchuan. The morale of the government troops was greatly boosted, and they blocked the army of Po Liu and Han Baling from heading south.
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There were also constant conflicts in Guanzhong.
Xiao Baoyin regained control of Yongzhou, but did not dare to garrison on the front line.
Because Liu Kai was defeated, Xiao Baoyin was impeached by the Guanzhong nobles. He did not dare to appoint people from Guandong as generals anymore. Finally, he appointed Wei Sui, the former prefect of Xianyang, who was Wei Xiaokuan's cousin, as the vanguard general. This temporarily calmed the anger of the Guanzhong nobles.
Wei Sui certainly did not dare to take the initiative to attack Qizhou. Like Liu Kai at that time, he built a city near Yongcheng to confront Mozhe Tiansheng's army.
However, after Mo Zhe Tiansheng won a great victory, he ignored the imperial army and did not even leave too many troops in Qizhou. Instead, he led his troops to cause trouble for Hu Chen.
The two sides fought for several rounds on the border of Qinzhou and Jingzhou, and finally Hu Chen was defeated and retreated to Jingzhou.
At this time, Yuan Hao, the King of Beihai, who was hiding in Huazhou, first saw Hu Chen being easily defeated by Su Ze's wedding team, and then saw him being beaten up by Mo Zhe Tiansheng. He suddenly felt that he was capable.
He led his troops out of Huayin City and also wanted to attack Hu Chen and take back some of Huazhou's land.
However, Hu Chen was unexpectedly beaten repeatedly and was already full of anger. When he saw Beihai King Yuan Hao coming again, he personally led his army to attack Yuan Hao's army.
Yuan Hao was defeated and fled back to Huayin with only a few thousand people, and once again gave up most of the cities in the western part of Huazhou.
The battle situation in Guanzhong was confusing and the Northern Wei court was even unclear about whether to reward or punish Xiao Baoyin.
At this time, Li Daoyuan, who was exiled from Luoyang by Yuan Yi, received an order from the court and rushed to Luoyang in a hurry.
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There was a war in the north, but because of his son Xiao Zong's reckless actions, Xiao Yan's northern expedition army was defeated, and Xiao Yan did not dare to send another army to the north.
In particular, after Xiao Wei, the Prince of Nanping in Yizhou, was defeated by Hou Jing, he fell ill after fleeing back to Chengdu. He wrote a letter to Xiao Yan to apologize and request to return to Jiankang.
Xiao Yan also had feelings for his younger brother. Yizhou itself was a small army, so Xiao Yan certainly would not pursue his guilt.
Xiao Yan retained Xiao Wei's title and treatment and allowed him to return to Jiankang to recuperate.
However, the post of governor of Yizhou was vacant, and the court of Southern Liang began to fight fiercely for this lucrative post. In the end, it was Xiao Yan who made the final decision and appointed his eighth son, the 14-year-old Prince of Wuling, Xiao Ji, as the governor of Yizhou.
Of course, the fourteen-year-old Xiao Ji was unable to govern Yizhou well, so Xiao Yan arranged for capable ministers to assist him and sent him to Shu to replace Xiao Wei.
The princes of the Liu Song Dynasty in the Southern Dynasties had great power, and they killed each other endlessly in order to compete for the throne.
The Southern Qi learned the lesson of the Liu Song Dynasty and was very harsh on the royal family. Instead, it allowed Xiao Yan, a distant branch of the royal family, to usurp the throne because the princes of the close branches of the royal family had no real power and were unable to protect the royal family.
After Xiao Yan ascended the throne, he divided his sons into different fiefdoms. This was also a lesson learned from the Southern Qi Dynasty, and he used vassal kings to protect the royal family.
Perhaps influenced by the newly favored monk Bian Ji, Xiao Yan instructed Xiao Ji not to easily go to war with the Northern Dynasty before his departure.
After dealing with government affairs, the Bodhisattva Emperor once again handed over government affairs to his favorite minister Zhu Yi, and he himself immersed himself in Buddhism, poetry, Go, and calligraphy.
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In comparison, the five states and one county occupied by Su Ze was a rare paradise compared to other places in the Northern Wei Dynasty.
Su Ze, wearing farmer's clothes, was harvesting millet at the edge of Yongle City under the protection of [Daxia Dragon Bird Guard] and a group of guards.
"Plant one grain of millet in spring, and harvest ten thousand seeds in autumn. There is no idle land in the world, and farmers still starve to death."
Su Ze was harvesting millet and reciting poems at the same time. The close ministers who were working in the fields with him all had complicated expressions on their faces.
Especially Wei Xiaokuan who was standing behind Su Chao. General Su’s last two sentences, “There is no idle land in the world,” weren’t they referring to the annexation of land by the powerful?
The Wei family is a powerful family in Guanzhong. Now his uncle, Wei Sui, the prefect of Xianyang, is a general under Xiao Baoyin. The Wei family's land in Jingzhao is also connected to other places.
Wei Xiaokuan was a little confused, and the young men sent by their families to Su Ze were equally confused.
On the one hand, there is family, and on the other hand, there is family, country and the world. Young people are always idealistic. They are willing to leave their families and serve in the shogun's court of Su Ze, and they also have pursuits for their own lives.
When this pursuit goes against the rise and fall of the family, how should they deal with it?
Su Chao was the one who reacted quickly. He immediately said:
"General, this poem expresses sympathy for the farmers. Why not just title it "Song of Pity for the Farmers"?"
Su Ze's "poetic nature" was aroused, and he continued to recite:
"When the day of hoeing is noon, sweat drips down the soil. Who would have thought that every grain of Chinese food on the plate is hard work."
This time Wei Xiaokuan and others had to applaud.
The simple words contain compassion for the farmers, and persuading them to be frugal is also in line with Confucian political correctness. This poem with strange rhythm has the characteristics of Yuefu poetry - collecting folk customs and hearing things.
In ancient times, poetry itself was a vehicle for the Yuefu organization to collect public opinion.
The poems in the Book of Songs actually reflect the style of the time.
When the two poems were put together, the theme became clear, and Wei Xiaokuan also breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that General Su was not targeting the powerful families.
Seeing the changes in the expressions of these young lords from noble families, Su Ze also sighed in his heart.
If Su Chuo had not sorted it out, this poem of Song of Pity the Farmers would have been interpreted as a crackdown on land annexation.
Su Ze was certainly not happy with these powerful families annexing land, but that was the way the world was.
The military, logistics, and government operations all rely on the local powerful families.
Even with the help of the system, Su Ze would not be able to fight against all the powerful families in the world.
But there is still a way out.
Continue to promote the Three-Chief System of Empress Dowager Wenming and cut off the roots of the powerful families based on the nature of the land.
What’s more important is that Su Ze still needs an army that completely obeys his orders.
In the historical timeline before Su Ze traveled through time, the reason why Erzhu Rong could act recklessly was because he had an army that completely obeyed his orders and could help him "host the Heyin Diving Competition" without having to worry about the opinions of the people of the world.
But later, Gao Huan and Yuwen Tai were unable to have the final say within their own groups.
Yuwen Tai wanted to use the Eight Pillars to win over the Wuchuan Group, forming the powerful Guanlong Group, and finally replacing the Zhou with the Sui Dynasty.
Gao Huan was even more miserable. He was directly coerced by the Xianbei-ized military leaders of the Six Garrisons. The Northern Qi Dynasty abandoned the trend of the northern regimes gradually becoming assimilated to the Han Dynasty after the Five Barbarians' Invasion of China, and chose to actively become Xianbei-ized. In the end, it quickly became corrupt and decadent, and the world was in chaos.
The reason why Erzhu Rong was so powerful was that he defeated the people of the Six Garrisons and absorbed their backbones to form an army that was completely dependent on him.
This is very similar to Dong Zhuo and Cao Cao. Dong Zhuo relied on the Liang Province Legion that he led all the way, and then took over the Luoyang Imperial Guards after He Jin's death.
Cao Cao's initial rise was due to the Yellow Turban Army from Qingzhou that he conquered in Yanzhou.
This is the importance of the base.
Therefore, Su Ze can only implement the three-chief system in a small area now, and even has to use money to redeem the inferior land of those big families, or pay money to organize the people to cultivate the land.
Su Ze raised his head and looked towards the north. Such days would soon be over, and a large number of high-quality bases would be arriving soon!
(End of this chapter)