Northern Dynasties Imperial Industry

When the news that the king's army successfully entered Kuaiji and the Three Wus were completely settled reached Luoyang, Li Tai was overjoyed and laughed repeatedly, saying: "The front-line divisions are truly the heroes of the country. They have lived up to the accumulation of personnel over the past years, and have made up for the gap between the north and the south, and their achievements will be recorded in history!"

Although the court has been preparing for this goal for a long time, and there is now a huge gap in strength between the north and the south, it is only natural to achieve such a result.

However, no matter how reasonable the idea and wonderful prospects are, as long as one day it does not become a reality, there will still be variables, especially for such a big thing as the unification of Jiangdong, which contains a lot of variables and historical inertia. No matter how great the possibility is in theory, it needs to be implemented with caution. One day without success, one day can not relax!

The Three Wus are certainly not all of Jiangdong, but they are the most core and most important areas. Since the Yongjia Rebellion and the migration of the elite to the south, except for the early Hou Jing Rebellion, which briefly achieved the achievement of wreaking havoc on the Three Wus, no matter how powerful the northern forces were in any other historical period, they could not achieve this step.

The Tang army has now substantially controlled the Three Wu regions, which is definitely a milestone achievement, and of course it is enough to make Li Tai ecstatic. At least he does not have to worry about falling into a negative example like Fu Jian of the Former Qin Dynasty who failed at the last moment.

This time the report was also very detailed. In addition to describing in detail the actions of the various armies since the royal army entered the Three Wus, there was also a detailed record of the current situation in the Three Wus. Many of the personnel details made Li Tai feel as if he was there, and also slightly made up for his regret of not being on the front line.

It is gratifying that the soldiers have excellently executed various tactical plans and successfully achieved their goals, and what makes Li Tai particularly gratified is the series of performances of Ruo Feng.

This little red-skinned shrimp who was abandoned by his father in his own home and was not without mischief has now become a backbone of the country who is able to sit in one place, hold military and political power, and perform his duties conscientiously, which also makes Li Tai quite proud.

Next, Li Tai took advantage of his happy mood and personally wrote a letter to commend the frontline soldiers. This kind of spiritual encouragement is naturally not as good as the actual material reward, but the army has not yet finished its expedition, and it has to continue to pursue southward and conquer Lingnan and other places, so Li Tai can only use this method to boost morale for the time being. When the expedition returns victorious, the court will have a grand celebration and generous rewards!

Some of the policies implemented by Ruofeng in Wuzhong are also in line with Li Tai's wishes. In the current era, the northern regime's attack on the Southern Dynasty is actually a bit of class struggle. Including Hou Jing, who fled from the Northern Dynasty to the Southern Dynasty, he knew how to win over the middle and lower classes to expand his power and destroy the upper rule of the Southern Dynasty.

The political ruling structure of the Southern Dynasty has undergone several changes, from the early Wang and Ma's clan politics to the Northern Palace generals such as Liu Yu, the second-class gentry and other groups, and then the changes in the ruling structure such as the poor family holding the secrets, but there has always been a huge and deep-rooted unfairness in the distribution of social resources.

Therefore, when discussing this period of history, it is difficult to interpret various contradictions simply from the perspective of ethnicity. The exploitation and persecution of ordinary people by the nobles and powerful landowners in the Southern Dynasties often exceeded the invasion of foreign races. In particular, the Southern Dynasties did not widely promote the fundamental distribution system of equal land, which made the civilians in the Southern Dynasties live in a state of extreme poverty for a long time, and suffered particularly deeply when encountering disasters.

As a long-standing existence, the nobles and powerful families in the Southern Dynasties certainly have certain positive significance for stabilizing the order in Jiangdong, but using amputation to treat venous thrombosis is obviously not the only and rational treatment plan.

But if the tillers have their own land and everyone can live and work in peace and contentment, even without the existence of these social forces called rural righteousness but actually rural thieves, the society can also operate steadily. This is of course a very idealistic and even naive idea, but if those who hold power do not try, and expect these vested interests to take the initiative to spit out the meat and share it with the public, this is not just naive, but a great treacherous foolishness.

The reason why Li Tai has been using various methods to widen the gap between himself and the Southern Dynasty is certainly to make the unification process smoother, but it is definitely not to kill the Southern Dynasty completely by military means, but to ensure that there is enough deterrence to carry out deep social reforms in Jiangdong and allow a wider range of social groups to participate in the allocation of social resources.

Even if we put aside various moral requirements and slogans, allowing more people to participate in the allocation, division of labor and production of social resources is also a very pragmatic approach, which can enable the Tang Dynasty regime to prosper quickly, thereby establishing a greater advantage in the broader regional competition, and then make the four barbarians submit and the various Xias prosper forever!

Of course, the court did not only suppress and eliminate the Southern Dynasty gentry who controlled a large amount of means of production, but also used political resources to replace the local resources in their hands.

If these people are willing to actively join the ruling class of the Tang Dynasty, Li Tai will naturally welcome them. After all, only when there is enough fresh water from the source can the vitality of the political system be maintained, and sufficient self-correction ability be maintained to establish universal ruling power. But if they resist this trend and blindly cling to the old ways, they are destined to be eliminated by the times, and the form of elimination naturally includes physical elimination.

However, the court is still hindered by the existence of the Southern Chen court and cannot directly announce the government orders to the Three Wus. The court has always been pursuing the strategy of training a group of loyal soldiers who are willing to maintain the rule of the Tang Dynasty through the form of granting land to the military government.

Although it is not suitable to retain too many armored soldiers in the Jiangdong area, it is also necessary to maintain basic local security and deter the scoundrels. Especially those nobles who have been deprived of many rural assets will inevitably find ways to counterattack. In this case, ruling Wu people by Wu people is a very cost-effective way.

However, Li Tai's good mood was soon destroyed by another accident. Wang Ban actually entered Jiankang privately and set fire to Jiankang Taicheng, which naturally greatly destroyed the tacit understanding between the court and the Southern Chen court.

After the incident, in order to prevent Wang Ban from causing more damage, the commander-in-chief, Quan Jingxuan, quickly led his troops to land in Jiankang City, controlled Wang Ban, and quickly sent his nephew Quan Xu and Wang Ban's uncle Wang Sengyin to Luoyang to report the incident and apologize.

"The family was blinded by family hatred and acted without regard for the friendship of the country. It is indeed a crime. But I beg the Supreme to think that his actions were also out of filial piety. The old Chen Baxian betrayed his faith and killed Wang Situ, which was an ugly act that shocked the world. Fortunately, my uncle and nephew were protected by the Supreme, so they have been able to live until now, but if the family hatred is not avenged, they will be ridiculed by the world, and they will be dead even if they are alive. But this son's private actions this time violated the military order. If it is necessary to be punished, I would like to take his place..."

After being summoned into the palace, Wang Sengyin knelt on the ground with a plop and said in a deep voice.

Li Tai did not directly answer Wang Sengyin's request, but frowned and looked at Quan Xu and asked: "What is the current situation in Jiankang? Is the chaos under control? Is there any unrest among the people?"

When Quan Xu heard this question, he bowed his head and replied: "Wang Ban set the fire in the middle of the night, and there were not enough guards in the Jiankang Palace at that time. The fire was not controlled in time and spread to burn many palaces. Fortunately, there were no casualties. Then the general hurriedly led his troops into Jiankang, captured Wang Ban and his followers and imprisoned them in Shitou City. The ministers and other generals also felt that Wang Ban's behavior was pitiful..."

"Humph!"

When Li Tai heard this, he suddenly snorted coldly, scaring Quan Xu to stop talking immediately. He also knelt on the ground like Wang Sengyin, and hurriedly presented the memorial that Quan Jingxuan had asked him to submit with both hands.

Li Tai took the memorial and read it. He saw that in addition to telling the story, there was another layer of inside information and Quan Jingxuan's apology. In short, Wang Ban's setting fire to Jiankang City was not just a venting of anger for personal revenge, but a part of a premeditated plan to occupy Jiankang City.

It should be noted that the Southern Chen and the Tang Dynasty were still in an alliance relationship. This certainly gave the Tang Dynasty a channel to intervene in the affairs of the Southern Chen, but it also limited the Tang Dynasty's role.

For example, Ruo Feng in Wuzhong could not directly promulgate and execute some government orders in the name of the court, and Quan Jingxuan's troops, although they had already broken through Hengjiang, had not yet entered Jiankang City.

Conquering the Three Wus was certainly a great achievement, and entering Jiankang City was also a very significant landmark event. Quan Jingxuan and other generals naturally hoped to seize this opportunity to go down in history and enter Jiankang as soon as possible. So after the news that the war in the Three Wus had come to an end, Wang Ban acted in the name of personal revenge to create an excuse for the rear army to enter Jiankang.

Quan Jingxuan also knew that such a trick could not be hidden from the Supreme, so he described in detail in the memorial the whole process of planning and the reasons for doing so. The reason why he did not ask the court in advance was that it was not a glorious thing after all, and the court could not support and instruct the front-line divisions to do so, so Quan Jingxuan planned and executed the matter as the leader of his front-line divisions for expediency.

In this way, it not only caused the fact that the Tang army officially entered Jiankang City, but also retained the initiative to the court, so that the court could intervene and deal with the matter with a relatively public image and attitude.

After reading Quan Jingxuan's memorial, Li Tai sighed in his heart. In fact, he had not yet thought about how to put an end to this relationship with Southern Chen. Quan Jingxuan's doing so provided him with a choice.

After a little thought, he made a decision: Wang Ban, who set fire to Jiankang Palace for personal hatred, was immediately deprived of his position and taken back to the country, and then exiled to Hexi and served as the governor of Dunhuang. Quan Jingxuan, who failed to supervise, was ordered to assist the Jiankang guards and city defense affairs and make meritorious contributions to ensure the stability and safety of Jiankang City.

As for the victim in this incident, the Southern Chen King Chen Chang, he was asked to move to Qin County in Jiangbei for a while, and the Tang Dynasty sent craftsmen and materials to repair and renovate the burned palace buildings, and asked him to return to the old palace after the repairs were completed.