Established a millennium family since King Wu defeated Zhou

Chapter 978 Everything is Completed

A horse broke the silence of the God's Capital as day broke out, and then a shocking piece of news spread in the God's Capital.

  "Have you heard? Someone in Jiangnan is plotting a rebellion and attacking the carriage of King Luo."

"How dare you do this?"

"It must be that Prince Luo really found out something in Jiangnan, so he was desperate and decided to do something drastic."

"That must be the case. I wonder what Your Majesty will do."

"Then we must send a large army to suppress it. This is blatant rebellion."

"Don't underestimate Prince Luo. Prince Luo can easily put down the rebellion in Jiangnan."

Rumors spread in the streets and alleys, and people in teahouses and restaurants talked to each other.

Since the Tianhou period, the strict curfew system has been gradually abolished.

It was not until the emergence of paper money that the developed commodity economy naturally gave rise to the middle class.

The people of the Tang Dynasty had greater freedom of speech than officials, and it was normal to talk about these things on the streets.

Unlike the common people who were relatively relaxed and only treated these matters as topics of conversation after dinner, the dignitaries in the capital city of God looked extremely nervous.

Especially the powerful officials who came from Jiangnan and Lingnan, they knew best how horrible the political event of treason and assassination of King Luo was and how big a political storm it would cause, and they were very worried that this incident would implicate themselves.

Emperor Li Shengyi was naturally extremely angry, but the memorial presented to him by Luo Shengxi was different from what most people thought.

……

Luo Shengxi has always been cautious in his actions, so it is impossible for him to get into trouble in Jiangnan. The Jiangnan gentry will not be stupid enough to let anything happen to Luo Shengxi in Jiangnan.

Most of the crimes committed by the Jiangnan gentry were simply smuggling.

If it happened before Emperor Gaozong, this kind of smuggling would certainly be a serious crime, but in this era, smuggling is not a major matter that would lead to the confiscation of property and the extermination of the clan. The feudal aristocracy system is different from the monarchy system.

As long as they don't rebel blatantly, the most that can be done for smuggling is to kill the leaders. Besides, most of these nobles have white gloves, so as long as they pay the taxes, many of them can get away with it.

The imperial court could not force Jiangnan to rebel just because of a charge of smuggling. If Jiangnan, Lingnan and Central South united in rebellion, the cost would be too great to be worthwhile.

But the assassination did happen.

As soon as the incident happened, Luo Shengxi turned his attention to those people whose interests were completely aligned with the Song State.

He thought this was a typical case of killing someone with a borrowed knife.

The purpose was not to really kill him, but to use this incident to kill the Jiangnan nobles.

Although the nobles of Song and Jiangnan cooperated, they were actually enemies. A large amount of power and wealth of Song was seized by outsiders from Jiangnan.

There is a group of nobles born and raised in Song who have long wanted to take back this power, but they lack the strength.

After all, these Jiangnan clans are all large multinational groups. Not only do they have deep roots in the Song State, they also have strong power in the Central Plains and can influence the official policies of Jiangnan towards the Song State.

Moreover, the aristocratic families in the south of the Yangtze River were intermarried with each other and had complex connections. Their united army was difficult for the local powerful people in Song State to shake.

Only the royal family.

Only the royal family of the capital, the emperor with unlimited power, can have enough strength to eliminate these Jiangnan clans and kill so many people in the entire Jiangnan area with blood flowing everywhere.

and.

The most terrifying thing is that this was not only done by the nobles of the Song Dynasty, but also the nobles of the Central Plains were involved.

After decades of development, the State of Song had established several very prosperous cities and reclaimed large tracts of fertile land. In addition, the political environment in the State of Song was safer, so some Jiangnan nobles were ready to transfer their family businesses to the State of Song.

There were also various struggles for power and profit within the Central Plains. Jiangnan was a land of fish and rice, and the aristocratic families were wealthy and powerful. Who wouldn't be jealous? In Huaibei and Hebei, many people wanted to extend their hands to Jiangnan.

Imperial power is like a knife. Many times, the monarch thinks that he wields the knife with his own free will, but in fact, most of the time he is just someone else's knife. The old foxes all know how to use the knife of imperial power to achieve their own goals.

Emperor Li Shengyi is indeed a capable person, but since the founding of the Tang Dynasty, every monarch starting from Emperor Taizong has been quite capable. Those who can survive to this day and still play an active role in the political arena are all masters.

So even though he was assassinated, Luo Shengxi restrained his anger and only killed some people without directly implicating others. Otherwise, once he started a killing spree, the waters of Jiangnan would be muddied, and it would not be easy to find out more.

Once he gets to the bottom of this matter, he will make those who are behind this regret coming into this world.

The memorial that Luo Shengxi wrote to Li Shengyi was also telling Li Shengyi not to be too angry and to put the overall situation first.

Luo Shengxi's main purpose of coming to Jiangnan was to investigate the affairs of Jiangnan and the Song Dynasty. He also had an important task on his shoulders, which was to rebuild the Annan Jiedushi Yamen.

The current governor of Annan fled to the State of Song by boat as soon as the incident was exposed. Now he is said to be missing. Luo Shengxi knows that he must be in the State of Song, but is being protected.

Rebuilding the Annan Jiedushi Yamen is a very crucial matter. Now the Annan Jiedushi Yamen, from top to bottom, has been completely integrated with the interests of the Song State.

The military governors were replaced every five years, but no one reported the situation here to the court.

  What does this mean?

Simply replacing a Jiedushi is no longer enough to control this place. Anyone who does not follow the rules here will disappear. This explains why three Jiedushi died here.

Therefore, the entire yamen must be replaced from top to bottom, from the guards to the generals to the clerical officials.

It is really a huge joke that a government office that was used to defend against enemies outside has become a government office that communicates between the inside and the outside.

When leaving Luoyang, Luo Shengxi knew that the imperial court was going to set up a trading office in Guangzhou to be in charge of foreign trade and other matters in the future. This also required the cleanup of the Annan Jiedushi's office.

The weight of responsibility on his shoulders is so great that he is almost responsible for shaping the shape of the southern part of the Tang Dynasty for the next few decades.

……

When the truth was revealed to the Central Plains court, the atmosphere in Song was quite polarized. Some people were in a state of panic, feeling as if the sky was falling. They believed that the court would never let it go and that Song was afraid that it would go to war with the Central Plains.

But some people breathed a sigh of relief and then became eager to try, thinking that this was a good opportunity to confront the Central Plains.

  Given the distance between Song and the Central Plains, as well as the long and mountainous route from the Central Plains to Song and the logistical difficulties, it was impossible for the Central Plains to send a large army to conquer. Moreover, if the Central Plains really wanted to fight to the death with Song, would Yan State in the north just let it go?

To sum up, many people in Song believed that the imperial court was at most competing with Song on the surface, but in fact it did not have the ability to solve the problems here.

After all, the problems of the Song State would not cause the Central Plains to fight to death. They still respected the emperor of the Tang Dynasty, and they would not do anything to the point of completely turning against the Central Plains. The current Central Plains was indeed not comparable to the Song State, and the Song State still needed a longer period of development.

The State of Song was constantly and cautiously testing the bottom line of the Central Plains, while the court of the Central Plains had a clear view of the problem of the State of Song, suppressing it politically and connecting with it economically. This was the solution that Li Shengyi and Luo Shengxi came up with after much discussion.

Firmly control the sovereignty of Song State, let the politics of Song State develop step by step, and wait for the opportunity to regain power. Besides, people of Song State like to do business.

Imperial merchants and Luo merchants can go to Song more often in the future. Since the status of merchants in Song is so high now, it remains to be seen whether the powerful people in Song dare to take action against imperial merchants and Luo merchants.

And the most important one is Luo's Money House. Now Luo's Money House will definitely enter the State of Song in large quantities. It remains to be seen whether the local money houses will develop well in the future, or whether Luo's Money House will encroach on the market share of local money houses.

Another way to control Song State is to strike severely at Jiangnan and Lingnan, then infiltrate Song State on behalf of Jiangnan and Lingnan, and use Song State's rules to control Song State.

……

Luo Shengxi stayed in Jiangnan for a whole year. Although he said to kill less and be cautious, a large number of people still died in the end.

The most important of these is the Xiao family. As one of the most prosperous wealthy families in Jiangnan, the Xiao family is the most deeply involved in this matter, and many things have completely broken Luo Shengxi's bottom line.

In the south of the Yangtze River, many people were sold to the State of Song by human traffickers. This act of openly trafficking common people can only be described as a result of greed.

In the fifth year of Mingguang, Luo Shengxi finally cleaned up Jiangnan. The Jiangnan gentry suffered heavy losses in this cleansing. Most of the wealth accumulated over the years was confiscated. Luo Shengxi was ruthless. These wealthy families who committed crimes were basically in the State of Song and had family businesses, and these businesses could make money.

If it wasn't for preventing the Jiangnan clans from becoming desperate, Luo Shengxi would have squeezed out every last bit of their wealth, instead of doing it now, leaving some room.

Luo Shengxi did not delay and the carriage continued to move south. This was the first time he came to Lingnan after many, many years.

When I first came to Lingnan, I just passed by in a hurry. At that time, I never thought that Lingnan, a remote place that was not very outstanding in the territory of the empire, which people in the capital called the countryside, could hide such a big thing.

When Luo Shengxi stepped into Guangzhou City, he felt that everything seemed like a different world. The surprise this place brought to him and the emperor was really too big.

……

Li Shengyi was handling government affairs in Shendu, and at the same time he was keeping an eye on the developments in Luo Shengxi. He even had little time to take care of the things happening in Tianzhu.

Luo Shengxi had been in Jiangnan for so long, so naturally this matter spread everywhere.

When the other princes learned about this, they were confused at first, and then had complicated expressions.

Especially the princes of Yan State.

Looking at the cattle and sheep outside the felt tent, checking the cracked skin on my hands, and thinking back to the cold wind and snow, I couldn't help but feel a little resentful. These southerners really know how to enjoy themselves. We are herding sheep and suffering from the cold here, but they are living so comfortably.

The one who was most vulnerable was the King of Yan. Among all the kings, King of Yan was the strongest, with a million soldiers under his command. But now it seemed that he was the one who was living the most uncomfortably, and the land he was allocated was the most barren and coldest.

"Someone is coming."

The more he thought about it, the more unhappy the King of Yan became. He called his servants in and said loudly, "Go and submit a memorial to the emperor in the capital of gods. Tell him that there is another snowstorm on the grassland. The cattle and sheep are freezing to death. More food and grass are needed."

After the messenger left, the King of Yan rubbed the golden knife in his hand, looked in the direction of the south, looked east and west, sighed, and finally decided to forget it. He really couldn't fight, so he could only ask for some food and grass to survive. Yan State is the most special one among all the countries now. Other countries are agricultural countries, especially Chu, Song, Qi, and Wei. They are pure agricultural countries. Even Chu and Song have better land conditions than the Central Plains.

Even the Qin State, which fled the farthest, discovered large tracts of arable land and became a semi-agricultural and semi-nomadic country.

Only the Mobei area allocated to the Yan State was completely unsuitable for farming and could only be used for grazing, and the environment was harsh. Throughout history, whenever the weather was bad, the Yan State had to move south to the Central Plains to plunder.

Of course, looting is not allowed now, but the climate on the grassland will not change just because the Han people occupy this place. It still snows one after another, making people living on the grassland miserable.

As for the solution, it is to ask for disaster relief subsidies from the Central Plains. If the Central Plains provides disaster relief, Yan will certainly not make trouble. If the Central Plains does not provide disaster relief, then Yan will have to go south and get it themselves. To sum it up in one sentence, if Yan can survive, then everyone can survive together. If Yan cannot survive, the Central Plains will not have an easy life either.

The Yan State's natural environment, which is completely unable to be self-sufficient, is the fundamental reason why the Central Plains has always been wary of it.

The State of Yan was a country that always needed subsidies from the Central Plains. The Tang Dynasty court not only sent a large amount of grain and cloth to the State of Yan every year, but also sent paper money per person so that the State of Yan could trade. After all, the State of Yan really had nothing valuable and had no exchange value at all. It could not participate in the commodity economy at all.

But it was impossible to prevent Yan from participating. Although it was poor, it was powerful and domineering. It was still very useful to the Tang Dynasty, so the current situation was formed.

Taiping left Li Shengyi with a peaceful and prosperous era, but it does not mean that there are no problems. These are relatively big problems and very difficult to solve. They can only be delayed temporarily, in case someone can solve this structural problem in the future.

……

In the seventh year of Mingguang, Luo Shengxi waited in Guangzhou for the Song Dynasty to send back the former governor of Annan. This high-ranking official of the Tang Dynasty who fled for fear of crime could not escape the sanctions of the Tang Dynasty in the end. He became a discarded pawn in the game between the Song Dynasty and the Tang Dynasty. Luo Shengxi had him tortured to death in front of the newly established Annan governor's office to shock all officials.

In the end, Luo Shengxi did not enter the Song State. He simply exiled a large number of Jiangnan gentry to the Song State. He wanted to add fuel to the fire of the already quite balanced Song State, and also take this opportunity to conquer cities and territories in the political arena of the Song State.

Of course, Luo Shengxi had roughly identified some of the people involved in the assassination, including even the King Song’s relatives and clansmen.

The matter is very clear at this point. This was indeed not an assassination attempt against Luo Shengxi. They just wanted to arouse the wrath of the court.

Everyone knew that this matter would not end well. In order to avoid being involved in a bigger matter, those who participated in this matter committed suicide in Song State instead of entering the Tang Dynasty to accept the final confirmation of their crimes. Luo Shengxi did not go to Song State because he guessed such an outcome. He looked through the case and confirmed that all those involved in this matter were dead, so he did not pursue the matter any further. Thus, this assassination case against the imperial envoy came to an end completely.

……

After Luo Shengxi returned to the Divine Capital, he went straight into the palace. After the two brothers had a chat, they talked about the current situation in the world.

Li Shengyi sighed, "Axi, when I first took over the Tang Dynasty, I was full of confidence and felt that nothing could stop me from creating great achievements. But now it seems that this is not the case. It seems that I can do everything, but I can do nothing."

Luo Shengxi felt the same way. "Being a Saint King is like this. You always have to consider many things. If you can kill people at will, then things will be simple. But if the price is to destroy the current political atmosphere, then it is really not worth it. After all, this is not a time of chaos."

Ever since Taiping ascended the throne, the Tang Dynasty has always been committed to creating a relaxed political environment. That is to say, most things are done according to the rules so that everyone can work peacefully instead of living in white terror, worrying about when they will die every day.

If a social environment makes people unable to calm down, there will be no development. If officials do not do their job well and think about how to survive every day, how can they handle government affairs, judge cases, and serve the people?

However, the creation of such a political environment would inevitably require the giving up of some imperial power.

If it were an arbitrary emperor, he would have fought from north to south in this matter of Jiangnan, and even started a war in Jiangnan and the Song Dynasty, but the price to pay would have been too high.

Although Li Shengyi had a strong character, he was not that kind of emperor.

He pays more attention to reason when doing things.

His goal is to make the person who was killed feel that he deserved to die after killing someone. People in the world will only praise him and will not think that there is anything unfair.

Creating such an atmosphere is what Li Shengyi believes is the greatest contribution he can make to the world.

Li Shengyi lay casually, holding a wine pot in his hand, "As long as we continue to do things according to the current method, there will be no major problems in this world. If I can completely conquer Tianzhu during my lifetime, that will be enough.

In recent years, the food demand from Yan State has been increasing. I don’t know what happened. Is it true that disasters have started to happen again on the grassland, or what else is going on? "

Luo Shengxi suddenly remembered what he had forgotten before.

Hearing what Li Shengyi said, he immediately sat up and said in a deep voice: "Your Majesty, I have something extremely important to say. These words are related to the future of the Tang Dynasty for one or two hundred years."

Li Shengyi rarely saw Luo Shengxi in such a serious state, and he quickly sat up and said, "Axi, tell me, I am listening here, do we need to call all the prime ministers?"

Luo Shengxi shook his head and said: "The prime ministers don't need it, they won't understand such things even if you tell them.

This is what the old master said before. "

Li Shengyi sat up straighter when he heard this. What the national teacher said must be something very important.

Luo Shengxi slowly said, "Your Majesty, do you still remember what our mother and father told us before, why the Tubo Empire came into being?"

Although Tubo has been wiped out, there are still a large number of people living on the plateau. Li Sheng nodded and said, "Of course I remember. My father said that there was no empire on the snowy plateau before because the weather was cold and we couldn't grow crops, so we couldn't support so many people. But now the snowy plateau is hot, so there are so many people. With a large population, a powerful empire was formed. The same is true for Liaodong. Liaodong never had so many people before."

The current Tang Dynasty occupies lands such as India and Central and South. Luo already knows the various lands from south to north. Only warmer places with more rain can be used for farming. From south to north, the weather is getting colder and the rain is decreasing, so farming is not possible in Mobei. This is somewhat similar to the 400-centimeter isohyet in later generations.

It's just that there is no accurate instrument to measure it.

Luo Shengxi continued, "That's right, because the temperature in the world is higher than before, even if it's a little higher, it has a significant impact on the weather and climate, so now many places have abundant rain and are suitable for farming. This temperature usually lasts for a hundred years.

Our ancestors said that now is the warmest time, and the climate will gradually drop again in the future. When that time comes, the snowy plateau will become unsuitable for human survival again. The snowy plateau can now accommodate more than 10 million people, but in the future it may only be able to accommodate more than 1 million people, and a large number of lakes will disappear.

The same will happen in Liaodong at that time. The grain output will definitely decrease. Even if it decreases by one third, it means that one third of the population will not be able to survive.

And this climate will definitely affect the Central Plains.”

  When Luo Shengxi just said this, Li Shengyi's face changed drastically. He had already thought of other things, "If Mobei encounters a natural disaster and can't solve it, won't it go south?

If what Axiyi said is true, there will definitely be natural disasters in the Central Plains by then. As long as there is a little less rain, there will definitely be droughts in some places. If there is not enough food and grass to provide disaster relief to Yan State by then.

The consequences..."

Luo Shengxi replied solemnly: "It's unthinkable!"

Li Shengyi was shocked by what Luo Shengxi said about the future. He asked anxiously, "Axi, do you have any ideas? Since the temperature is getting lower, can we raise it, such as lighting torches everywhere in the world?"

Luo Shengxi was so shocked by Li Shengyi's fantasy that he opened his mouth but didn't know what to say. Li Shengyi also knew that what he had just said was too ridiculous and waved his hand.

Luo Shengxi said in a deep voice: "This is the domain of heaven, and we humans cannot interfere. If we really want to solve this problem, we can only vigorously develop the current land. When the Central Plains and the North encounter drought in the future, at least we still have the South as a backup.

The two precious lands of Tianzhu and Zhongnan can produce three harvests a year, which may be the guarantee for the Tang Dynasty to survive the crisis in the future.

Your Majesty, we have a heavy burden on our shoulders. We need to increase the importance we attach to India and Central and South China. We can no longer rely on the Central Plains and Hebei as important grain production areas. As you know, natural disasters have often occurred in the North China Plain since ancient times.

We must have two or three granaries outside the North China Plain to ensure that we can respond to crises. If natural disasters occur in these places at the same time, it may really be that God wants to destroy the Tang Dynasty."

Luo Shengxi's meaning was very clear. In the past, the Chinese states basically relied on the big mine of the North China Plain and the two small mines of the Guanzhong Plain and the Shuzhong Plain to dominate East Asia.

Later, Jiangnan came into being, but it was not as good as the North China Plain, and was only slightly stronger than Guanzhong. It was of no great use and could only wander around.

But now there is an opportunity, that is, Central and South China and India. The Ganges Plain is almost larger than the North China Plain. The North China Plain can produce one crop a year, while the Ganges Plain can produce three crops a year. These are simply not the same level of land.

Since such good land has fallen into the hands of the Tang Dynasty, it would be a waste of resources if we do not use it as mining land.

Luo Shengxi is asking Li Shengyi to increase resource investment in these two areas.

in case the emergency.

To prepare for the future when problems are bound to arise.

Li Shengyi was deep in thought and did not give a direct answer. After a long while, he slowly said, "Axi, how can the court control the Ganges Plain? The Snowy Plateau is a hurdle that can never be circumvented. After that place develops, can it really help the Central Plains?"

This is what Li Shengyi is worried about. A snowy plateau means that if large-scale traffic is to be allowed between the Central Plains and India, it must pass through Central Asia, which greatly increases transportation costs. Especially for food, how can it be transported over such a long distance for both people and horses to eat?

Li Shengyi's worries were very reasonable. In an era without trains, it was impossible to transport grain thousands of miles away. You should know that Chang'an in Guanzhong was abandoned because it was inconvenient to transport grain.

Luoyang was known as the divine capital because of the canal that allowed for the transportation of grain at low cost.

Even Chang'an is too far away, let alone India.

Luo Shengxi smiled and said, "Your Majesty, I have a solution!

water transport!"

water transport?

Li Shengyi was shocked.

Luo Shengxi smiled and said, "Tianzhu is near the water. I have visited it and found that there is a good place to build a dock. As long as we overcome the difficulties, the giant ships of our Tang Dynasty can depart from the coast and reach Tianzhu.

Tianzhu has a dense network of waterways, so we can load the grain onto ships and then transport it back to the Central Plains. There is almost no consumption in water transportation. Once we get to the Central Plains, we can use the canal to send it to other places in the Central Plains."

"Wonderful!"

Li Shengyi clapped his hands and said in surprise: "Water transportation, why didn't I think of it? Since merchants can travel by water and my army can travel by sea, then grain transport ships can certainly travel by sea as well.

It seems that it is urgent to continue to develop navigation technology.

I know that Luo Clan has done a lot of research on this, so I'll leave this matter to Luo Clan!"

(End of this chapter)