It can be said that although the Tang army in the middle and early periods of Taizong and Gaozong and the Tang army in the Xuanzong period flew under the same banner, they were two armies with completely different natures. The former is a "national army". The majority of the soldiers are the middle and upper classes of farmers in the north of the Tang Dynasty. They serve as soldiers in war and work in agriculture during peacetime. Their main income does not come from military pay, but from the exemption and tax exemption their families receive after joining the army. The rewards of honorary officers and land were not divorced from the social organization of the time; although the latter was nominally affiliated with the Tang Dynasty, the sources of the soldiers were very complicated, including landless Han farmers, ethnic minority mercenaries, and dilapidated nobles. For the children of bureaucrats, whose main source of income is military pay and spoils of war, as soon as they join the army, they break away from the original social organization and join the closed social group of the army.
The reason why the empire's military power experienced a brief trough from the middle and late periods of Gaozong to Xuanzong was because it happened to be in the process of transformation between the two armies. Wang Wenzuo's success was largely due to his active catering to this transformation and reaching the forefront of the times. Forefront. The soldiers under his command come from different countries, different ethnic groups, different cultures, and different beliefs. The only thing that connects them is the desire for victory and wealth. But Wang Wenzuo met the soldiers' requirements, and these soldiers were able to endure all kinds of hardships, leave their hometowns and travel thousands of miles away, and defeat enemies that far exceeded them in number, which the original government army system could not achieve. The price is that this army no longer obeys the empire's orders. It is like a young dragon that has just crawled out of the egg, opening its ignorant eyes and looking for its own future.
"It's impossible to do nothing. After all, many of the soldiers under my command are originally from the Japanese country, and the Jinshan Yinshan Copper Mine Sugar Factory is also in the Japanese country!" Wang Wenzuo pondered for a while: "Let's do this, Wenzong, you go there Go to Yangzhou, recruit a thousand people there, and return to Ryukyu by boat!"
"Is a thousand people enough?" Cao Wenzong asked in surprise.
"That's enough!" Wang Wenzuo said with a smile: "Remember, everyone must prepare a brocade robe. Everyone must choose a tall man, no less than seven feet. The flags, armour, weapons must be good, bright and beautiful, so that the Japanese can see them. I want to admire the majesty of the Heavenly Soldiers of Heaven! Do you understand?"
"This, this -" Cao Wenzong was stunned: "Ming Gong, although taller people generally have greater strength, after all, fighting in battle does not rely entirely on strength. Why do you have to wear a brocade robe? The price is not cheap. It’s not like the Imperial Guards guarding the Vermillion Bird Sect, so what’s the use of just looking good?”
"Wenzong, you still don't understand!" Wang Wenzuo said with a smile: "What the Japanese country lacks right now is not soldiers, but people's hearts and general trends. Do you understand?"
"People's hearts? General trend?" Cao Wenzong looked confused.
"Well! As the saying goes, you can conquer the world immediately, but you can't rule the world immediately!" Wang Wenzuo said with a smile: "After I conquered the Japanese country, I took most of the farmland, gold and silver mines, and Tongshan in Kinki for myself, and sealed the outlying country of Mao to The brave men who serve me in exchange for their loyalty. However, most of these brave men come from rough backgrounds, do not have noble blood, and do not have retainers accumulated over generations to advise them. Many of them are people who rise up on their own. Therefore, their rule over peripheral areas is generally not very good. As a result, rebellions occur every three days. However, rebellions in various parts of the Japanese country are not a big deal. They are all within my expectations. After all, the household registration density in the Kinki area of the Japanese country is more than In other areas, as long as Fujiwara Fubi and Heba Yong don't cause chaos in the Kinki area, they can mobilize forces from all over the place to suppress them one by one, without the need for me to send them reinforcements from other places!"
Cao Wenzong had followed Wang Wenzuo for a long time, and he had already become accustomed to the other party's way of speaking, and he heard the implication: "So this time is different?"
"Well! Ultimately, the way Fujiwara and others deal with rebellion is to recruit samurai and military supplies from the west if there is a rebellion in the east. After the rebellion is suppressed, redistribute the land, property, and tribesmen of the rebels, and punish the idiots who caused the trouble. , confiscate their land and reward those who have meritorious service. This has two advantages: first, it can remove the fools who won the fiefdom by virtue of military merit, but can't even become a master, and replace them with capable people; The second master distributes the territory and issues rewards to increase my child's prestige among the samurai. But if there are rebellions in the east, west, north, and south, then Fujiwara Bubi and He Bayong will not be able to cope with it!"
"This time, the east, west, north, and south are all in chaos?"
"Well, otherwise they wouldn't have written to me specifically, otherwise what else would I need them to do!" Wang Wenzuo said with a smile: "After all, there are still Silla people who are causing trouble behind the scenes! But the Silla people don't do this because they want to The purpose of attacking the Japanese country is just to make me fall into it. The deeper the trap, the better. It is best to fight in the Japanese country until I am exhausted and exhausted. When they rise in the future, I will no longer be able to intervene! I bet that this trick must be done by the old fox Jin Yuxin. Come to think of it, I can smell his filthy smell from thousands of miles away!"
"Jin Yuxin? Not Jin Famin?" Cao Wenzong asked.
"Jin Famin is still young, and his Taoism is still shallow!" Wang Wenzuo sneered, completely unaware that he was several years younger than Jin Famin. He twirled the beard under his chin: "These two old guys, Jin Chunqiu and Jin Yuxin, have been vixens for thousands of years. They suddenly turned from chess pieces to chess players, which is admirable. Do you know? This old guy is here Muddy the water so you can fish!”
"I have heard about this. The last letter from the Xiongjin Governor's Office said that the Silla people had sent a Goguryeo royal family in their possession to the Liaodong rebels!"
"Hmph!" Wang Wenzuo sneered: "This unlucky guy probably won't live long and will probably die at the hands of the Silla people!"
"In the hands of Silla people? Why do you say that?"
"I dealt with the Silla people a lot when I was in Baekje. Let's put it this way! As allies, the Silla people are a hundred times more terrifying than enemies. They will dig traps on your way forward, sit back and watch you fall into them, and then Forcing you to empty your pockets to buy a life-saving rope. Do you think the Silla people sent descendants of the Goryeo royal family to the rebels to support his restoration of the country? You are wrong, he is causing trouble for Gao Kan and forcing Gao Kan Without the strength to deal with the encroachment of the Silla people on the border, as long as Gao Kan meets the conditions of the Silla people, the Silla people will immediately betray this unfortunate guy to Gao Kan!"
Cao Wenzong opened his mouth wide and stared at Wang Wenzuo dumbfounded. His head could no longer keep up. Seeing the appearance of his subordinates, Wang Wenzuo sighed in disappointment: "Don't you understand? For the Silla people, they have learned from the experience of the Goguryeo people. It is very dangerous to rashly start a war with the Tang Dynasty, so the best way is Always be an ally of Datang, so that you can stab him in the back more easily!"
"Then, why didn't Gao Duhu directly send troops to conquer Silla?"
"No soldiers, no money! How to fight?" Wang Wenzuo sneered: "Xue Rengui lost 100,000 people in Dafeichuan, all of them veterans. The court has to fill this vacancy, which will take at least three to five years. Gao Kan must dare to ask When the imperial court requested to conquer Silla, the Minister of Household Affairs was the first to fight against him!"
Cao Wenzong sighed: "The Tang Dynasty was rich and powerful, so why did Dafeichuan become like this after losing a battle?"
"It is true that the Tang Dynasty was extremely wealthy, but for every foot of cloth used to make one foot of clothing, there was not even an inch of extra cloth. Xue Rengui lost a hundred thousand people in Dafeichuan at once, not counting soldiers, but just armor, weapons, livestock and horses. Tens of millions are gone, how much is the annual income of the imperial court? How do you think it can be replenished? It can't be replenished!" Wang Wenzuo sneered: "Wen Zong, I won't hide it from you. We can't rely on the imperial court for matters in the east. In the end, we can only We rely on ourselves. Since the Silla people are causing trouble in my territory, I won't be polite. Aren't Wu Xiaoyi and the others in Silla? After you take a thousand people to the Japanese country, don't come back for the time being. Stay in Silla. Over there, do a few things for me!"
"Yes!" Cao Wenzong hurriedly bowed his hands and saluted: "Then the recruitment of soldiers will be as per your request, each wearing a brocade robe?"
"Yes, you still don't understand?" Wang Wenzuo sighed: "The Silla people will not send troops to the Japanese country. The more troops I mobilize, the more money and food will be consumed. Once the soldiers pass by, nothing will grow. The war will only get bigger and bigger, and in the end the chaos will be over, and there will be nothing left in the place. The rebels in the Japanese country only raised their troops because they heard that the Tang Dynasty had suffered a huge defeat, and they couldn't do anything anymore. And I Send a thousand soldiers in brocade robes and bright-looking armor. When the Japanese bumpkins take a look at it, they will immediately understand that the Tang Dynasty is still a heavenly being. Most of them will naturally drop their weapons and surrender, and the remaining few will be easy to deal with. .”
"I understand!" Only then did Cao Wenzong feel relieved and hurriedly said: "I will immediately buy a thousand pieces of fine Sichuan brocade and take them to Yangzhou to make war robes!"
"Go, go!" Wang Wenzuo couldn't help but feel a little heartbroken when he heard this. This thousand pieces of Shu Brocade is not a small number, but compared to the military expenditure, it is a small number. After Cao Wenzong left, he picked up the letter again and read it carefully twice before lighting a candle and burning it. Now that he has reached the position of a feudal official, he has become more aware of the difficulties of maintaining an empire. To outsiders, you have gold and silver as large as the sea and soldiers as large as the mountain, but compared to the troubles you have to deal with, you are really stretched thin. The most important thing the emperor has to do now is to rebuild the defense of Longyou, and this requires money and food. Jiannan Road, as the emperor's treasury, will definitely shed blood.
"Ming Gong!" Yiji Lianbode came in from the door: "Liu Rengui has left Beijing!"
"He left the capital. Didn't he just enter the political hall? Why did he leave the capital again? Did he offend the emperor or the queen?"
"No! The emperor asked him to be the governor of Longzhou. He should be responsible for transferring money and grain to Longyou!" Yiji Lianbode handed over the document.
"Oh?" Wang Wenzuo took the document with a smile and read it twice carefully: "There is also a call for the people of Guanzhong to go to Longyou to guard the border. This is an offending mission! But the emperor did choose the right person. Liu Gong is not afraid of offending. People’s people!”
"Recruiting the people of Guanzhong?"
"Well, the simplest method is Sanfu, the area around Chang'an, where the population is the most dense!" Wang Wenzuo threw the document aside: "Whether it's building a city or farming, you all need people, and Longyou is already short of people. This time After the war, there was an even greater shortage of men. If you want to rebuild the Longyou Army, the first thing you have to do is to find people. However, most of the land of Sanfu is in the hands of noble clans, and most of the population is under them. Liu If I want to get enough relocations, I have to either move the homeless population in Chang'an City or move the hidden households of big families. Neither of these are easy to deal with!"
"That's true!" Yiji Lianbode recalled the situation at that time: "Back then, tens of thousands of evil boys were sent from Chang'an to cause such a big mess. Both the east and west cities were burned down. I don't know what will happen this time. !”
"Let Mr. Liu worry about this matter! We have things to worry about! Yijirenbode, let me ask you a question, if I ask you to raise two hundred thousand pieces of brocade, are you sure?"
"How long?"
"Go to Chang'an with Qiushi!" Wang Wenzuo said: "The emperor has given me the favor to serve as the military envoy of Jiannan Branch to handle the camp and field. Sichuan has always been famous for its wealth. At present, the imperial government is facing hardships, so I am also You have to be wise, instead of waiting for the emperor to speak, you should take the initiative to pay for it yourself!"
"That means there are still three months left!" Yijilianbode thought for a moment: "Such a big number can't be determined at the next time. We need to discuss it with Mr. Xiaolang first and then give you an answer!"
"Little Prince?" Wang Wenzuo was stunned when he heard this, and then he remembered that Yijilianbode was talking about Wang Ence. He frowned: "Discuss with him? Why discuss with him?"
"That's what happened. During this period, Xiaolangjun was responsible for all the contacts with merchants from Chengdu and various places in central Sichuan. For a figure as big as 200,000 pieces of silk, we definitely cannot rely solely on merchants from Chengdu. We need to contact merchants from other places. When a merchant borrows money, if he doesn't discuss it with the young man, I really don't know what to do!"
"Oh?" Wang Wenzuo frowned: "Ence, no, has he done well during this time?"
"The young man was a little unfamiliar at first, but he is very attentive and diligent, and he learns how to deal with people very quickly. Now he is quite famous in the business community in central Sichuan, and several chambers of commerce want to elect him as their leader!"
"Recommend him to be the leader?" Wang Wenzuo snorted coldly: "Those old foxes are not easy to deal with. They probably want to appoint Ence to take the blame, right?"
"It was indeed true at the beginning, but as time went by, those merchants also discovered that Mr. Xiao Lang is not a person who can be bullied. In addition, your prestige and official position are increasing. Unless you are a fool, how can you dare to do this?"
"I didn't expect this kid to actually do it!" Wang Wenzuo muttered to himself. He kicked Wang Ence to Ijilianbod because he didn't want to see this disgusting thing again and let him fend for himself far away. But he didn't expect that he was still making some achievements in Chengdu. No matter he relied on his own power, achievements are achievements. Since achievements have been made, they must be recognized. This is the basic condition for an organization to be able to maintain its sustainability.
(End of chapter)
