written request for leave
Southerners are good at water warfare, but less so at other forms of warfare. Although it is not ruled out that they are aggressive in field operations, they are often special cases and require a well-known general to adapt measures to local conditions.
The Du brothers were probably not good generals, and the war in Xinxing and Nanyang counties ended very quickly. Not long after Linghu Yanbao led his army, Zhao Jingzhi, who had accompanied the army on the expedition, quickly returned to report the victory.
The elite cavalrymen of Jingzhou Division took the lead in arriving at the north bank of the Han River opposite Xinxing County, which put the defenders in the city on alert and urgently mobilized troops from the nearby dock garrison to coordinate the defense of the city.
When the men and horses escorting supplies from Xiangyang arrived, the defenders did not take precautions. Instead, they lured them into the city as reinforcements and put them into the city to coordinate the defense. The result was that the city was destroyed and people died.
After the Xiangyang troops captured Xinxing County, they immediately used boats to extradite the Jingzhou troops to the south. After the two sides met, they attacked the Nanyang County City upstream and captured the city shortly after the battle.
When Zhao Jingzhi returned to report his victory, the situation in the two counties had basically stabilized. He only had to wait for a few more days of careful clearing before the expedition troops could return.
Due to the sudden attack, the battle ended very quickly, so most of the characters in the two cities were preserved and were not separated too much due to the war.
According to the registration records searched in the two cities and counties, the registered population in these two counties is about 3,000 households. Even if there are some scattered households, the number of people admitted will definitely exceed the number of registered households in the end. Because the wealthy families in the Southern Liang area had a much larger population than those in the north, many wealthy tribes had no membership.
After Li Tai learned the news, he couldn't help but smile. Nowadays, his Jingzhou is full of waste and needs to be revitalized. The most lacking thing is population!
Although he lost to Xiao Zhen, the third generation emperor, in the fight for wealth before, Li Tai was not poor.
The resources he can control and dispatch are far beyond those of Xiao Qing, especially the production bases and business networks he has operated in Guanzhong, northern Shaanxi, Longyou and other places in recent years. The value of any single item far exceeds that of Xiao Qing. The accumulated wealth.
Although today's Nanyang Basin is in depression, its natural resources and geographical location have not disappeared because of this, and it still has huge potential value. If you want to dig out this value as soon as possible, you must have someone.
As the New Year approaches, some smaller-scale water conservancy projects have also been completed, and the results will be accepted after the spring flood season comes next year. By then, large tracts of unclaimed wasteland will emerge, and the sooner they are reclaimed, the faster they will be profitable.
Although Li Tai has a series of decrees to be implemented targeting local powerful groups, the phased results are still unknown. Of course, he still hopes to have a certain increase in population.
During this period, with the reduction of county officials and the gradual improvement of administrative capabilities within the country, Li Tai even wanted to organize the barbarians into households and grant them farmland.
But it is not because he is engaging in racial discrimination. Whether it is production skills, social organization and living customs, there are very few barbarians who can meet the household registration standards.
It should be noted that registering a household means granting land, and you need to bear the corresponding rent, taxes, corvee, etc. Only when you can meet these requirements can you be called a qualified household with equal land.
The barbarians are not familiar with farming and weaving skills. They may not even be able to support themselves if they harvest the fields. They are highly dependent on their superiors and subordinates. Even if they get something, they have to present it to the chieftain instead of paying taxes to the government. They are scattered in the mountains and fields, and it is easy to go to work. , one moment we established households and assigned fields, and the next moment they dispersed, it was all a joke.
Barbarian groups often need to move to the plains and cultivate and adapt to the plains for several generations before they meet the conditions for household registration and land granting. Even if households are established for temporary political achievements, they will often be dispersed in the event of natural or man-made disasters.
Therefore, the barbarians were basically used for servitude in groups, and the individual value was not high. Even if they were available, they were only used as slaves and could not undertake more complex social division of labor and production.
Of course, if the social environment remains stable for a long time, the production and living resources in the region remain sufficient, and coupled with the government's supporting education and guidance decrees, the civilization cycle of the barbarians can be greatly shortened, and they will soon become no different from the Han people. .
However, Jingzhou under Li Tai's governance does not yet have the foundation to recruit barbarians on a large scale, whether in terms of people's livelihood or other aspects.
Therefore, if we want to increase the household population directly under the jurisdiction of state and county governments, it is more reliable to obtain it from the south, through war capture, through policy attraction, etc.
Of course, the latter requires a longer period, but it is not impossible. Many of the people between Jiang and Han had fled to the Mianbei area, so they may not miss their hometown at all.
Although there have been no large-scale military disasters in Nanliang for a long time, the society is stable and prosperous, but this is only for the upper class.
But in fact, the internal contradictions were probably even more acute than those of the Southern, Song, and Qi dynasties. After all, the upper echelons of the Song and Qi dynasties continued to compete, and the ruling class was constantly being eliminated and changed.
There are old Bodhisattvas in Nanliang, the political environment at the upper level has become stable, and filial sons and grandsons have thrived. Although social productivity is also developing and the total amount of wealth is increasing, the distribution method is becoming increasingly corrupt. Through a series of financial means such as coinage taxation, people's interests are squeezed, and the monk group grows year by year, which has also become a heavy social burden.
Hou Jingneng responded to hundreds of responses in Nanliang, which was also an obvious manifestation that its internal contradictions had reached an extreme point. A large number of middle- and lower-class soldiers and civilians would rather follow an ambitious soldier who fled south than let the descendants of the Xiao family have their blood drawn.
As a leader of the Guanlong Army who accompanied the rise of the military system, Li Tai may not be considered a progressive class, but as a time traveler, he always maintains the concept of progress.
Therefore, for the people captured from the Southern Dynasties, he did not use the captured people as slaves and slaves as usual practice before, but treated them as civilians and directly assigned them to households.
Perhaps among the concepts of the military and civilians of the Southern Dynasties, the Western Wei regime represented barbarism and backwardness. The formation and transformation of concepts did not happen overnight, but it always needed to be done. There are many turbulent stories about princes and generals in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, but no matter whether they rise or fall, the common people are the most innocent.
Shortly after Zhao Jingzhi returned, Linghu Yanbao and others also escorted the captives from the two counties back one after another. And Li Tai had already arranged for state and county officials to prepare households for these prisoners. Although he gave these people preferential treatment, it was not given in vain.
Although the people are innocent, they also love blind obedience. At least they must know that this preferential treatment is hard-earned, and then they will know how to cherish the life they have obtained.
Therefore, when registering these prisoners, they must be allowed to describe their miserable lives in Nanliang and accuse the officials who abused them. This step may seem simple, but it actually destroys the old authority in their hearts. If you think your life in Nanliang was pretty good, you don’t need to create households and grant farmland anymore. Come here and continue to enjoy the hardships.
Naturalized households were organized into li and neighbourhoods, and people selected from the previous batch of Fancheng soldiers and civilians served as li and neighborhood chiefs. They were responsible for leading these newly registered households to stabilize as soon as possible and prepare for land equalization and production. In addition, the previous complaint meetings must continue, with one neighborhood for five days and one mile for ten days. Only by attending enough times can the land be granted and agricultural tools, grains, seeds, etc. be distributed.
Li Tai also dispatched state officials to randomly attend these neighborhood mutual complaint meetings and record down the deeds of Nanliang's mismanagement as told by the residents. He planned to wait until the land transfer was completed and the villages were demarcated, and then these deeds would be recounted in the villages, so that they could be recorded. All villagers can deeply feel the political gloom and miserable life in Nanliang. Comparing it with today's situation where farmers have fields and live a stable life, one will naturally feel even more emotional that the good life was created by Governor Li!
Jingzhou is busy with rural construction and ideological transformation, but Xiangyang seems relatively calm.
After the war between the two cities ended, Xiangyang sent the Jingzhou troops out of the country with gifts. Li Tai thought that Xiao Jin would send another envoy soon to discuss the next move. However, until the New Year came, there was no news from Xiangyang, which made people doubly puzzled. .
What also puzzled Li Tai was Nan Liang's Northern Expedition in Huaibei. According to historical calculations, the result should have been achieved. He had previously sent people to Wang Sizheng's office to inquire about the news, but Wang Sizheng didn't know much about it, but Mohu responded that the two sides seemed to be still in a confrontation.
Even though Li Tai is resourceful and resourceful, he is still short of ears and eyes. Something important was happening somewhere he couldn't see.
In the city of Jiankang, which is far away on the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, the winter is warm and although it is slightly cool, it is not overwhelming. Today, Prince Xiao Gang hosted a banquet for scholars from Wende Province in the Xuanyou Hall of the East Palace.
The crowd in the hall was already intoxicated with wine and became more and more open-minded. All kinds of diction, songs, and profound talks could be heard endlessly. Literature and metaphysics were prominent schools in the Southern Dynasty, and the prince was also a master of them. He also loved the open atmosphere in the hall and was not angry because the scholars were slightly disrespectful.
At this time, an old man strode into the hall, causing the atmosphere in the hall to suddenly become cold. Even those who were drunk and pretending to be open-minded were sitting upright and did not dare to act impudently anymore.
The old man's name was Liu Jin, and he was the chief official of the Eastern Palace, Prince Zhan Shi. He had a strong character, and even the prince treated him with courtesy and did not dare to be rude.
The prince was waiting for the servants to set up a new seat for Liu Jin, but Liu Jin made a courtesy and said: "There is urgent news from Jiangling. Please move to the farewell hall."
After hearing this, the prince did not dare to neglect. When he entered the other hall, he received the letter from King Xiangdong from Jiangling and hurriedly read it. It said that King Xiao Jin of Yueyang used power and was suspected of killing famous people in the area. Du family, the King of Eastern Hunan begged the prince to support him in leading an army to Xiangyang for a thorough investigation.
After reading the letter, the prince's face suddenly changed, and he immediately said angrily: "Since the matter is so evil, I should report it to the Western Province! The seven officials rashly sue me, how can I respond?"
He complained here that the King of Xiangdong made it difficult for him. Before he could think of how to respond, another eunuch from the inner garden walked in quickly and kowtowed: "The official body is not stable, please go to the Wende Hall quickly, Your Highness." "