【Great Famine】
Li Cunxu's care for the "Heshuo Gang" can be clearly seen from Li Cunxu's appointment as prime minister, which has been explained in detail in the previous article. In other words, Li Cunxu attached great importance to the power of Wei Bo, Zhenzhou, and Dingzhou. Everything has its yin and yang sides. What can be used by me will inevitably threaten me at the same time. Li Cunxu attached great importance to the "Heshuo Gang" and was also very afraid of it, just like he would treat a general with great achievements.
Not long ago, the Khitan invaded south to harass, so Li Cunxu adopted a strategy of killing two birds with one stone, recruiting troops from the Heshuo area to garrison the border to defend the Khitan. In this way, it can not only protect the territory and territory, but also weaken Heshuo's power.
Although he paid enough attention to the strategy, Li Cunxu's management of the Heshuo area was very bad, just like his management of the whole country.
For example, Kong Qian, a master of money-making, was re-appointed to impose excessive taxes and extortionate taxes, scraping away the land and draining the last drop of the people's oil; another example was allowing eunuchs and actors to rob people's daughters, the actor Jing Jin and the eunuch Wang Yunping robbed 3,000 people at one time in Weibo Women, more than a thousand of them are the wives and daughters of Sergeant Wei Bo.
In addition, Li Cunxu's plans for Wei Bo's army and civilians have not yet been fulfilled. When Li Cunxu first acquired Wei Bo, he received an elite armed force carefully built by Yang Shihou, a famous general of the Later Liang Dynasty - Yinqianxiaojiedu, with a total of 8,000 people. Li Cunxu used them as his personal bodyguards. This elite force fought bravely and was invincible. During the bloody battle along the river, they charged into battle and made countless meritorious deeds. Li Cunxu said many times that after the Hou Liang was destroyed, they would be greatly rewarded.
After the Liang Dynasty was destroyed, Li Cunxu did reward them many times, but the amount disappointed them. For example, Li Cunxu easily gave actors the position of governor, but none of these brave warriors who were born and died in the capital were rewarded with the title of governor. Guo Chongtao once reminded Li Cunxu that he must take care of the feelings of Wei Bo's soldiers. Li Cunxu turned a deaf ear to all of this and still went his own way, only giving large rewards to eunuchs and actors.
In the third year of Tongguang (925), a great famine occurred in the Central Plains. Farmers fled one after another, making it more difficult to collect taxes. The continuous heavy rains made the roads muddy and difficult to move. Both land and water transportation basically came to a standstill, even if there was relief. Disaster relief food cannot be transported. As a result, all the official warehouses were empty, and there was no way to get military rations.
Kong Qian, the highest person in charge of the administrative unit, would stand on the gate tower of the east gate of the city every day, looking eastward eagerly, hoping to see grain transport ships. As soon as the grain transport ship docked, the hold was immediately opened and grain was distributed on the spot. However, the grain that could be transported was still a drop in the bucket.
The officers and soldiers had no food and had no choice but to sell their sons and daughters and pawn their wives in exchange for food. There were dozens or hundreds of elderly military family members who could not be sold in groups. They formed a group and went to the wilderness to dig wild vegetables to satisfy their hunger. A large number of them actually starved to death on the way to dig wild vegetables and never came back.
My wife was sold, my children were sold, my parents starved to death outside... Is this the glory and wealth that was originally promised? The entire Hebei region is filled with resentment, and public dissatisfaction is boiling, almost to the breaking point.
The soldiers and civilians of Hebei were weeping and struggling on the edge of death. Their families were destroyed and their wives and children were separated from each other due to the great famine. However, their sage Li Cunxu led Empress Liu and three thousand beauties from the harem, cheered in front of and supported by the personal guards. Go hunting to the south of Luoyang. On the 20th of the twelfth lunar month in the third year of Tongguang (925), the magnificent lineup set off in great numbers, and it was not until the 24th of the twelfth lunar month that they returned to the palace.
On the day of return, it snowed heavily, and many low-level officials and ordinary soldiers in the retinue died of cold and starvation.
In this great famine, the Yi and Ruer watersheds were the most severely affected and were among the hardest-hit areas. There was not a single grain of food for miles around. When the royal hunting team passed by here, they still ordered the local supply of food.
Mr. Guan, you are Kong Qian, not Liu Qian, so you cannot witness the miraculous moment. It is difficult for a clever woman to cook without rice, and there is indeed no food.
The accompanying officers and soldiers searched the land and dug three feet into the ground, and found that there was indeed no food. Instead of showing mercy to the people, they became angry with shame and angered the people, "How can we deal with you when you ask us to go back?" Then they started to destroy the people. Furniture, demolishing people's houses, and then taking away the dismantled wood and using it as firewood. They are simply worse than robbers and bandits!
Not to mention the local people, even local officials ran into the mountains to escape.
Speaking of this, it is connected with a small foreshadowing in the previous article, that is, the army of Li Jiji and Guo Chongtao faced serious difficulties in logistical supplies and only brought about ten days of food into Shu. Therefore, the whole army is worried. Once Qianshu resists tenaciously and the war reaches a stalemate, then just as Guo Chongtao said to Li Jiqi when entering Dashan Pass, we will never return. The army that conquered Shu really wanted to fight to the death. Unexpectedly, after entering Shu, a large amount of military rations were seized one after another, so that the army no longer had any worries.
In the third year of Tongguang (925), there was a rare severe drought in the first half of the year, and a rare flood in the second half of the year. The country's harvest failed, and a great famine followed. At the same time, Li Cunxu launched another war to destroy the country, which made the later Tang Dynasty's economy on the verge of collapse even worse.
At the end of the year, Li Cunxu held a meeting to discuss ways to deal with the disaster. All civil and military officials, from Prime Minister Douluge down, were helpless. Only Li Qi, the Minister of Civil Affairs, revealed the real source of danger behind this natural disaster - man-made disaster.
Li Qi pointed out that first of all, we should live within our means. Government expenditures and military deployment must refer to fiscal and taxation, and reserve sufficient strategic reserves, so that even if there is a disaster, we can easily deal with it; secondly, we must stop Kong Qian from manipulating the exchange rate, shearing sheep, Cutting leeks and other naked acts of robbing people!
Li Qi's words hit the nail on the head.
The so-called "government expenditures" mainly refer to Li Cunxu's personal expenses, especially hunting; while the deployment of the army refers to the war against Shu. Good guy, there is a huge famine across the country, a large number of people are starving to death, and the army is selling its sons and daughters, and yet you are launching a large-scale war! Fortunately, Qianshu was brave enough to surrender almost without a fight, but what if he resisted tenaciously? The consequences could be disastrous!
She criticized the emperor Li Cunxu and Kong Qian, who was in charge of finance. Li Qi was loyal and forthright in admonishing, and was not afraid of the powerful. This is the narrow-minded, insidious and cunning Li Qi in Guo Chongtao's mouth, the Li Qi who was squeezed out by Guo Chongtao.
Li Cunxu said that Comrade Li Qi's opinions were very constructive and should be treated positively. The organization must fully study, strictly implement and implement them... So he ordered relevant departments to implement Li Qi's suggestions.
Any reform that touches the interests of vested interest groups will inevitably encounter resistance. The deeper the impact, the greater the resistance. This kind of resistance is not necessarily all fierce backlash and verbal debates. For example, Li Qi’s financial reform encountered Tai Chi masters. On the surface, the relevant departments (Kong Qian’s interest chain) must accept the emperor’s orders unconditionally, but they are just words. In actual operation, Li Cunxu's order was like a piece of waste paper.
Li Cunxu also turned a blind eye and acquiesced to this. As mentioned earlier, Li Cunxu, a prodigal, spent money excessively. He needed someone like Kong Qian to fill the bottomless hole for him. Of course, it was impossible to do this using conventional financial means. Li Cunxu knew this well. He needed Kong Qian to create a clever name, pay excessive taxes, and pay taxes. Excessive taxation and extortion. Everyone gets what they need.
Li Qi's suggestions fell into disfavor and there was no reply.
The famine was still spreading and had affected the palace's food supply. Li Cunxu really had no choice, so he planned to drive to Bianzhou to ask for food.
The imperial censor Yan Guan quickly dissuaded him, saying that instead of moving, it would be better to tighten his belt and save money. Since ancient times, there has never been an emperor who went around begging for food! Although the land of Shu is now peaceful, Huainan is still unyielding. We cannot expose our weaknesses yet.
Even the emperor had to eat for free, which shows how serious the famine was.
