[The one who owes money is the uncle]
When Li Jiji and Guo Chongtao entered Chengdu, they forcibly levied "military rewards" and forcibly plundered 5 million guan from the people of Bashu. After rewarding the army, there were still 2 million guan left.
Although Guo Chongtao and Li Jiqi died unexpectedly one after another, there was another person who knew about the matter, and that was Ren Wan. After Li Siyuan came to power, he appointed Ren Wan as the "Sansi Secretary", the top financial leader of the empire. Li Siyuan's intention was obvious. The country was short of money, and only Shu could help. But how much money Shu had hidden, only Ren Wan, who had followed the army to Shu, knew the inside story.
Of course Ren Wan understood Li Siyuan's good intentions, so he sent Zhao Jiliang to Sichuan to transport the money, together with the money and grain in the Chengdu treasury, back to Luoyang with profit.
Zhao Jiliang was a talented man with both civil and military skills. He first served in the Houliang Dynasty. He was first promoted to the staff by Wang Tan, the Jiedushi envoy of the Baoyi Army, and served as a Jiedushi official. When Yang Shihou was in charge of Wei Bojun, he made him the magistrate of Yuanshi County, and was later promoted to Weizhou to join the army. . When Zhuangzong entered the Wei Dynasty, Li Cunxu heard that he was both civil and military, and was awarded the title of Jin Dynasty. He was in charge of the taxation work in the Weibo area.
At that time, the Liang and Jin Dynasties were fighting along the river, and the consumption was unprecedentedly huge. In order to meet military needs, Kong Qian increased the exploitation of the Heshuo area and imposed excessive taxes like tigers, causing a large number of Weibo people to flee. The loss of productivity made it more difficult to collect taxes. In order to meet the standards, Kong Qian further increased the intensity of exploitation, and so on, falling into a vicious circle.
In the Weibo area, they dug almost three feet into the ground and squeezed out the last drop of oil from the people. However, Li Cunxu still felt dissatisfied and called Zhao Jiliang to question him about his inability to collect taxes.
If it were anyone else, they would only be submissive in person, and then step down and exploit them even more. But Zhao Jiliang slapped his neck, choked Li Cunxu, and asked: "When will Your Highness destroy the rear beam?"
Li Cunxu has never seen such an arrogant person in his whole life, and I saw him today. "Your duty is to supervise taxation, how dare you interfere in military affairs?"
Zhao Jiliang replied: "Your Highness only knows how to attack and defend, and he imposes tyranny without caring for the people. If this continues, not to mention Henan, even the land of Hebei will not be owned by Your Highness!"
Li Cunxu was startled at first as if he heard a thunderbolt. Then he changed his attitude and held Zhao Jiliang's hands gratefully. "Sir, your words have saved the great cause of the world!" So he looked at Zhao Jiliang in a different light and thought more highly of him. He was promoted to the rank of salt and iron judge, magistrate of salt and iron, and magistrate of salt and iron. Your Majesty.
Now, Ren Wan wants to ask for money from Meng Zhixiang. Although the money originally belongs to the court, it is the uncle who owes the money. If he wants to collect the money from the debtor, the creditor must appease the debtor appropriately. of. So Meng Zhixiang was appointed as the minister, and Zhao Jiliang came to act as the special envoy of propaganda.
Zhao Jiliang arrived in Chengdu holding the imperial edict of being conferred the title of Imperial Attendant, and was warmly welcomed by Meng Zhixiang. But when Meng Zhixiang saw Zhao Jiliang's title of "Sanchuan Capital Transfer Envoy", his expression suddenly changed. This title translates to the highest military and political officer and transportation director in Xichuan, Dongchuan, and Hanchuan regions.
What to transport? Transporting treasury, taxes, etc. within Sanchuan.
The title of "Attendant" instantly became distasteful. Give me an illusory honorary title in exchange for the real money in my hands? Grandma!
Meng Zhixiang's men also unanimously opposed handing over the money and food. With no money and no food, how can we feed tens of thousands of troops?
The soldiers of Xichuan held their sabers in their hands, gritted their teeth, and stared angrily. With just one look from Meng Zhixiang, Zhao Jiliang would be killed on the spot.
Meng Zhixiang said to them: "The things in the treasury (two million guan) were originally the money of the imperial court. Now they are presented to the imperial court. We have nothing to say. I admit it. But - the taxes collected by various states and counties, It is used to feed 100,000 Xichuan soldiers, no one can take away a cent!"
The words were directed at his subordinates, but they were meant for Zhao Jiliang.
Zhao Jiliang stood aside and did not dare to express his anger. He had to follow Meng Zhixiang's request and only transfer "national taxes" and give up interfering with "local taxes".
Meng Zhixiang and Zhao Jiliang were old acquaintances and had a certain degree of friendship. He knew that Zhao Jiliang was a talented man with both civil and military skills. As for the transfer of food and wages, each of them performed his own duties and his own duties, so he went to the court and requested that Zhao Jiliang be allowed to stay in Xichuan. , and reported that he was the deputy envoy of Xichuan Jiedu.
You expanded the army; you kept the money; but you still want to detain the talents of the imperial court and poach socialist corners? What do you want to do?
Li Siyuan surrendered and appointed Zhao Jiliang as the training envoy of the Guozhou regiment, rejecting Meng Zhixiang's request.
Meng Zhixiang refused to do anything, and directly hid the book making, forcibly detained Zhao Jiliang, and wrote another memorial, asking the court to show mercy and approve his request. After being rejected again, he sent an envoy to Luoyang for the third time to express his love.
The matter was only three, and Zhao Jiliang had been detained by Meng Zhixiang, so Li Siyuan had no choice but to go along with the situation and agreed to Meng Zhixiang's request, so that both parties could save face.
In this way, Zhao Jiliang became the deputy envoy of Xichuan Jiedu and Meng Zhixiang's most important adviser. From then on, Meng Zhixiang would come to Zhao Jiliang to discuss countermeasures regardless of big or small matters. Zhao Jiliang also became one of Meng Zhixiang's future founding ministers.
With money, food, an army, and talents, Meng Zhixiang still had to eliminate the last worry, which was his family in the rear. So he sent people to Taiyuan to welcome his wife, children and children to Chengdu.
In order to take the overall situation into consideration, the weak Li Siyuan swallowed his humiliation and made concessions everywhere. However, he should not forget that there was a "hawkish" official beside him, An Chongjie.
An Chongjie had long disliked Meng Zhixiang. Because Meng Zhixiang was the governor of Xichuan appointed by Li Cunxu. He was Li Cunxu's brother-in-law, not Li Siyuan's brother-in-law. He was Li Cunxu's person, not Li Siyuan's person. It would be best if Meng Zhixiang could be transferred back to the central government. However, this is a fantasy. Even Zhao Jiliang cannot come back. Can Meng Zhixiang come back?
In An Chongjie's view, Xichuan Meng Zhixiang will rebel sooner or later.
What about Dongchuan? Needless to say, it will also be the opposite.
Dong Zhang, the military governor of Dongchuan, was a godbrother of Kong Xun and Jingnan Gao Jichang. They were all domestic slaves of Li Rang, the richest man in Bianzhou. He was later recognized as an adopted son by Li Rang, and Li Rang was recognized as an adopted son by Zhu Wen, so Dong Zhang, Kong Xun, and Gao Jichang were all Zhu Wen's godsons.
Li Cunxu overthrew the Later Liang Dynasty, Dong Zhang surrendered, and bribed the powerful officials of the Later Tang Dynasty in large quantities, thus retaining the high salary of high-ranking officials and gaining Li Cunxu's trust.
Like Kong Xun and Gao Jichang, Dong Zhang, who counterattacked from slaves, had keen observation skills. He shrewdly hugged Guo Chongtao's thigh and licked Guo Chongtao vigorously. He followed the army to conquer Shu and got the good job of guarding Dongchuan.
Meng Zhixiang of Xichuan and Dong Zhang of Dongchuan were all members of Guo Chongtao. This was one of the reasons why Guo Chongtao was framed. Whether he was from Guo Chongtao or from Li Cunxu, in short, he was not from Li Siyuan.
Especially Dong Zhang, who was also a brother of Kong Xun. The relationship between Kong Xun and An Zhongjie was also very delicate. They were close to each other in the early stage. Later, due to the issue of "Li Siyuan's choice of daughter-in-law", Kong Xun betrayed An Zhongjie and the two turned against each other.
This is why some history books give two completely opposite explanations when talking about the relationship between Dong Zhang and An Chongjie. Some historical materials say that An Chongjie was suspicious of Dong Zhang and suppressed him, and eventually forced him to rebel; others say that An Chongjie protected Dong Zhang and wanted to use Dong Zhang to suppress Meng Zhixiang.
The book is not exhaustive. This book gives the golden key to see the essence of the facts: the relationship between An Chongjie and Kong Xun. In the early stage, An Chongjiao had a good relationship with Confucius, so he wanted to support Dong to destroy Meng. After breaking with Confucius, he wanted to defeat Dong and destroy Meng.
An Zhongjiao advocated the reduction of vassals and the layout of the two rivers. What layout did he make, and what results would he reap?
