The Tubo people did not send out a large army to attack, but they used various methods of bribery, threats, assassinations, and plundering. They had only one purpose: to integrate the large number of Qiang and Hu tribes living in this vast area into the Tubo Empire and make them the Tubo Empire. Part of the army threatened the Chengdu Plain, the western capital of the Tang Empire, and attacked the Longyou and Guanzhong areas of the Tang Empire from three sides. In the face of the aggressive actions of the Tibetans, the response of the troops stationed in Jiannan Road in the Tang Dynasty was much weaker and slower. They rarely took direct military action, but moved the Qiang and Hu tribes who were threatened by the Tibetans to states and counties closer to the interior. , to avoid being used by the Tubo people.
"Why not send troops to deal with it?" Wang Wenzuo asked.
"What?" Perhaps because of his accent, Li Jin didn't hear Wang Wenzuo's question clearly and asked attentively.
"Why not send troops to deal with it?" Wang Wenzuo raised his voice: "When soldiers come, they will cover up the water and the earth will cover it up. The former governor-general should understand, right?"
"King Governor, things are not that simple!" Li Jin said with a wry smile: "If the soldiers come to stop them, they must have soldiers and generals. And right now, Songzhou has no soldiers or generals. Naturally, the Tubo people can only take one step forward, so we will give in." Already!"
"Without soldiers or generals?" Wang Wenzuo frowned: "How is this possible? I saw it on the way here. Chengdu is densely populated and the people are wealthy. Not to mention Luoyang, even the surrounding areas of Chang'an are inferior. Why? Will there be no soldiers or generals?"
"You don't know something, Governor Wang!" Li Jin sighed: "It is true that there is money, food and people here, but there are indeed no soldiers. Over there in Songzhou are guest troops from Longyou in Guanzhong. They are not many in number. If you don’t have enough heart, you can’t resist the Tubo people! As for why? Do you know how many Zhechong mansions there are in Jiannan Road? 11 mansions in total!”
"11 mansions, so few?" Wang Wenzuo was shocked. He spent his time studying the geography of the military fortresses around Songzhou along the way. He didn't pay much attention to the number of military fortresses on Jiannan Road. After all, he was just Songzhou. The governor of the prefecture's governor's office is not the military and military envoy of the Jiannan branch. He is not in charge of his duties. But the number of 11 Zhechong Prefectures was indeed a bit beyond his expectation. Although he also knew that the Tang Dynasty's government troops were concentrated in Longyou, Guanzhong, and Hedong, the Jiannan Road was vast (including several parts of the southwest today). Most of the province's land), there are many ethnic minorities under its rule, and the situation is complicated. The number of garrison troops is on the same level as Jiangnan Road (7 prefectures), Huainan Road (9 prefectures), and Lingnan Road (6 prefectures), but not as many as Shannan Road (15 prefectures). There are so many houses, which is really shocking.
"Yes, there are only 11 mansions! Governor Wang, do you understand my difficulty now? It's hard for a clever woman to make a meal without rice!"
Wang Wenzuo nodded, and his view of the somewhat decadent old man in front of him changed. Of course, the number of Zhechong Mansion did not fully represent the number of local garrison troops. There were also vassal soldiers, volunteers, recruits, and soldiers transferred from other provinces. Fubing, but it can still be reflected to a certain extent. Jiannan Road covers Jianmenguan and Gannan in the north, Lancang River and Ailao Mountain in Yunnan in the west, Guizhou Province and northern Guangxi Province in the south, and the Three Gorges in the east. It may have the largest land area and the largest number of ethnic minorities among the ten roads in the Tang Dynasty. , one of the most complex terrains, with such a large territory and such a complicated situation, there are only 11 Zhechong Prefectures. Even if they are all Shangfu, there will only be more than 10,000 to less than 20,000 troops to support them. What is enough? No wonder he behaved so passively in the face of Tibet's aggressive advance.
"Your Majesty, Governor, the court said that the Shu army is too weak to fight! It is true that the Shu army is not as brave as the Guanzhong Longyou army. This is mainly because the horses are not as good as the Guanzhong Longyou army. The galloping and cover-up attacks are not as good as the Guanzhong Longyou army. However, when it comes to infantry trekking through mountains and rivers, , In fact, they are no less than those from Guanzhong and Sanhe. But no matter how good the soldiers are, they must learn martial arts, clarify the laws, and have strong armor and soldiers before they can fight. And in this regard-" At this point, Li Jin sighed and then No more words were said.
When Wang Wenzuo heard this, he already guessed what the other party had not said. An important function of the Zhechong Mansion in the Tang Dynasty was to train inspection soldiers during the slack period: how to use weapons, various formations, and how to identify The banner is golden and the drum is clear, and the military law is explained. In this way, after going to the battlefield, we will be a fighting force instead of a ragtag group. It is not difficult to see that the number of Zhechong Prefecture not only determines the actual local strength, but also determines the number of local military-trained soldiers (because the number of people who have actually been trained must exceed the quota of Zhechong Prefecture, because of the existence of veterans, And there’s usually more than enough
Yu), we can think of it as the military potential of a place.
Why does Jiannan Dao only have eleven Zhechong mansions even though it has sufficient human and financial resources? This involves the positioning of several roads under the Tang Dynasty. The Guannai Road is the foundation, Longyou and Hedong are the two wings of the screen, Hebei, Huainan, and Jiangnan are granaries and financial resources, Henan is the screen that guarantees water transportation and the eastern capital Luoyang, and Jiannan Tao is the private treasury of the emperor, providing silk, gold, silver and copper and various specialties to support the Longyou army in Guanzhong. Under this positioning, Jiannan Road does not need and should not have too strong military potential, otherwise it will consume local financial resources to raise troops (although the government soldiers do not need to receive military pay, they usually have to exempt a large number of young and middle-aged people from tax and labor). , reducing the financial and tax contributions to the central government; secondly, the local military potential is too strong, and once it is exploited too much, the rebellion will be difficult to control. A wealthy but weak Jiannan Road is in line with the overall interests of the Tang Dynasty.
Therefore, there were only 11 Zhechong Prefectures in Jiannan Road in the early Tang Dynasty. However, what the founders of the Tang Empire did not imagine was that the rise of the Tubo people turned Songzhou, not far from Chengdu Prefecture, into a front line. The competition between the Tang Dynasty and the Tubo people affected the Liuzhao land located around the Erhai Lake in the southwest. In the fourth year of Yonghui (653), in order to gain the support of the Tang Empire, Nanzhao King Xinuluo sent Ziluo Shengyan as an envoy to the Tang Empire. Emperor Gaozong of the Tang Dynasty appointed Xinuluo as the governor of Weizhou. The other Wuzhao and Heman tribes were threatened by Tubo and often abandoned the Tang Dynasty and joined Tubo. Nanzhao always attached itself to the Tang Dynasty and thus received the support of the Tang Dynasty. After nearly a hundred years of hard fighting, King Piluoge of Nanzhao finally unified the land of Liuzhao and became a powerful country in the southwest.
The good relationship between Nanzhao and Tang Dynasty did not last long. In the tenth year of Tianbao (751), Xianyu Zhongtong led 80,000 troops out of Rong and Xunzhou to attack Nanzhao. Geluofeng sent an envoy to apologize and ask for peace. Those they captured and plundered expressed their willingness to surrender to the Tang Dynasty. If they were not allowed, they would "be returned to Tibet. The land of Yunnan is not owned by the Tang Dynasty." Xianyu Zhongtong refused, and marched to the West Erhe River. They approached the capital of Nanzhao, Dahe City, and were defeated by Nanzhao. Sixty thousand Tang soldiers died. Nanzhao also suffered heavy losses, and the Dongcuan settlements below Ziqu and Jing prefectures in Yunnan were destroyed by Tang soldiers. [11] In this year, Nanzhao fell to Tubo, and Tubo named Geluofeng "Zanpu Zhong" (meaning Zanpu's younger brother). At this point, Jiannan Road became the Tang Dynasty's front line second only to Longyou. Over the next hundreds of years, the Romance of the Three Kingdoms in the southwest of Nanzhao, Tubo and Tang Dynasty continued until the fall of the Tang Dynasty. Tubo and Nanzhao also perished almost at the same time. It can be said that they started and ended at the same time.
"How many soldiers and horses are there in the Songzhou Governor's Mansion?" Wang Wenzuo asked.
"The number of soldiers is 2,800. In addition, we can recruit additional soldiers from Jizhou!"
"If you want to recruit soldiers, you have to either pay them or give them rewards, which all cost money! I saw that the states and counties are rich along the way. Is there any payment or anything like that?"
"Yes, a little, but not much!" Li Jin said with a wry smile: "The Eastern and Western Sichuan Rivers have to pay a lot of money in silk taxes to Guan Nei Dao every year, and they can't spend much to reward the army!"
"No money and silk?" Wang Wenzuo was surprised: "Shu brocade is famous all over the world, how come Jiannan Road can't come up with money and silk to reward the army?"
"If you don't believe me, Governor Wang, you can go to the market and take a look. The Shu brocade in Chengdu is one to two percent more expensive than the Shu brocade in Chang'an. Why do you think that is?"
It turns out that there is no waterway from Shu to Guanzhong, and the land route is also very rugged and difficult, and the transportation cost is extremely high. Therefore, unlike places such as Jiangnan, Jianghuai, and Hebei that transport grain into Guanzhong, taxes in Shu are first converted into weight. Light, unit-valued coins and brocades were then escorted to Chang'an. The result is that Shu brocade is obviously produced in Chengdu, but the Shu brocade in the production area is more expensive than the Shu brocade in Chang'an. The government has no shortage of food, brocade, and coins. Wang Wenzuo wanted to recruit Fan soldiers, but the elders and leaders of the Fan tribe wanted copper coins, cloth and silk, especially Shu brocade. The Fan soldiers came for Tu's rewards, and they were not very interested in food.
Hearing this, Wang Wenzuo was speechless by the weird fiscal and taxation policies of the Tang Dynasty. Fortunately, he took a handful of wool from Emperor Li Zhi and bought thousands of pieces of Shu brocade before setting off, otherwise he would not even be able to give it to the leader of the tribe. I can't even get the greeting gifts. As the saying goes: If you don't have rice in your hand, you won't even come when you call me! Just by raising your arms and shouting a few passionate slogans, you can make others work for you. This kind of thing does not happen in real life.
"Mr. Li, the use of troops is nothing more than rewards and punishments. When I come here this time, my pockets are empty. Please give me 100,000 pieces of silk and 50,000 pieces of money to reward the army!"
"One hundred thousand pieces of silk,
Fifty thousand dollars? Li Jin laughed and said, "Captain Wang, let's not bargain. Ten thousand pieces of silk and five thousand guan are enough. If you want more, I will have to resign and find someone else." Take my place."
Hearing that Li Jin suddenly reduced his asking price by zero, Wang Wenzuo was speechless for a while. Finally, he smiled bitterly and said: "Ten thousand pieces of silk and five thousand guan of money, what can you do with this?"
"Wang Governor, this is all you have. If someone else were to be the Governor of Songzhou Governor's Mansion, I would not give it to you. Although I have been driven out of Chang'an for many years, I have also heard that the emperor and the queen are all I value you so much that you rarely go to the emperor or the empress to complain, but others don’t have this ability!"
Wang Wenzuo was dumbfounded by Li Jin's words, as if he was relying on the emperor's favor to bully Shangguan. He had no choice but to bow his hands to Li Jin and say, "Thank you, Shangguan, for the generous gift!"
After leaving the Yamen, Wang Wenzuo returned to the post house, planning to stay in Chengdu for two days, visit the two cities, and replenish the necessary things for the high-altitude area before setting off. After all, Chengdu was the largest metropolis in Southwest China at that time, and the market was full of everything. If you missed it, you would have nowhere to buy many things.
"Five hundred catties of ginger, five hundred catties of garlic, one hundred stones of salt, seven hundred catties of mutton oil, four hundred sets of sheepskin gloves, four hundred pairs of leather boots, four hundred hats..." Wang Ence held a brush in his hand and quickly wrote on the paper. on record.
"My lord, the ginger, garlic and salt are for eating, so why buy so much mutton oil? Is it also for eating?" asked Igilian Bod.
"What you use to smear your face and hands can of course be eaten!" Wang Wenzuo said: "The terrain in Songzhou is high and windy, and the weather is cold. If you don't apply mutton oil on your face and hands, the cold wind will blow, and there will be cuts, which will hurt. It hurts like hell! It’s so cold, my fingers and toes are all gone, and I can’t even draw the bow. How can I fight? By the way, if there is a good prescription for frostbite, buy it with money and prepare more!"
"So cold? Colder than Ezo Land?" Ijirenbod exclaimed.
"It may not be colder than Ezo, but it is definitely higher than Ezo. The higher the place, the stronger the wind. Besides, you are a member of a noble family, and you must be wrapped in fur even in winter. How can ordinary soldiers compare with you? "
Ijilianbode was speechless by Wang Wenzuo's words and could only hey twice. Wang Ence copied the list and took people out to purchase. There were twenty or thirty kinds of various goods on the list, and the quantity was so large that by evening, almost half of them were still unfinished. The shopkeeper smiled apologetically and said: "Sir, there are so many goods on this list, and it will take time to adjust the goods in the store. No matter how fast we rush, we can't finish it. Why don't you leave your address and name, and I will collect them all and send them to your house tomorrow. , so you can relax!"
"These goods don't belong to your family, can you handle them all?" Wang Ence asked.
"It's true that Xiaoren's family is not so full, but Xiaoke naturally knows better than you, Master, where the goods are and which ones are of good quality. All you need to do is pay a deposit of one hundred guan!"
Wang Ence felt slightly moved when he heard what the man said. He had been following Wang Wenzuo for some time. He did ordinary tasks every day and was not treated like Wang Wenzuo's "brother" at all. As time passed, he didn't say anything, but he felt a little depressed in his heart. This time it was such a hard job again, so he nodded.
"Okay, I'll do as you say! But you must deliver it tomorrow, otherwise I won't be able to spare you!"
"Don't worry, our shop has been in Chengdu for three generations and is well-established. You can ask about its reputation."
Wang Ence was about to ask someone to pay for it, but someone tugged at him. When he looked back, it was Wang Pu who asked, "What's wrong?"
"Sir!" Wang Pu lowered his voice and said, "We are strangers here and we are not familiar with the place. It is better to be careful! Let them prepare the goods and we will come to buy them tomorrow. No deposit is required!"
"You just do what I decide!" Wang Ence said angrily: "If there are any mistakes, I will tell my brother. It's not your turn to talk! Go and pay the deposit!"
Wang Pu was helpless when he saw this, so he had to take out one hundred coins to pay the bill as Wang Enci said.
