Chapter 1319 Lord of the World
The post horse communication system between Shannan and Chang'an has been strengthened in recent years, and now it has become very smooth, especially in wartime. The changes in the war south of the Yangtze River can be delivered to Chang'an in a few days through the transmission of fast horses.
In Chang'an, when Li Tai saw the war report sent by his cousin Li Xun, he was a little surprised for a while.
In his impression, Wang Lin is a typical corrupt and chaotic tyrant, and he also lacks moral standards. The overall impression is relatively negative. This time he suddenly led his troops out of the control of the Tang army, which shows that he is active and hard to guard against, so Li Tai also wants to take this opportunity to completely eliminate Wang Lin.
After all, the north has been unified now, and the goal of unifying the world will be put on the agenda. Whatever plots are made against the south next, the Tang Dynasty can directly take action. As for Wang Lin, the tool man, the role is not too big, and there is no point in keeping him.
Wang Lin went through so much trouble, but in the end he just surrendered, which was more or less beyond Li Tai's expectations.
Now he is busy with a lot of military and political affairs, and he doesn't know some personnel as comprehensively and thoroughly as before. His first reaction to the news was that Wang Lin might be cheating again. After all, this guy is used to being fickle, and he will bend when he meets a strong person and become chaotic when he encounters a change. He is no different from Hou Jing and his ilk.
So he is inclined to eliminate the matter directly, and even thinks that it is too cumbersome for Li Xun to ask the court for instructions on this. However, when he saw the surrender table presented by Wang Lin and the views stated by Li Xun in the memorial, his thoughts also changed.
Although he was the leader of the Bafu before, he was at best just a local tyrant. There are also people in the world who are as powerful as him, so his thinking about people and things is to start from the perspective of confrontation, weakening or even eliminating the other party, so as to achieve the final victory.
But now he is the emperor of the Tang Dynasty, and he is preparing to become the master of the world. Therefore, his thinking must change from the confrontation mode of local tyrants to the broad tolerance of the master of the world.
The so-called tolerance is not to harbor filth without bottom line and principle, but a mentality that regards everything in the world as part of oneself. People and things in the world, whether good or bad, are all part of the king's cause. All land under heaven belongs to the king, whether it is fertile plains or cold and barren wilderness, all the people on the shore of the land are the king's subjects, whether they are benevolent talents or shameless bandits.
With such a mentality, looking at goodness and evil again will have a different feeling. It is no longer just based on one's own likes and dislikes, but also a sense of responsibility as the master of the world.
There is a sentence in Li Xun's memorial that touched Li Tai's heart. Wang Lin is indeed a person who is unrepentant and difficult to change. However, the world has been divided for many years, and the customs, laws and moral education are very different. There are also many people and things that are in conflict with the Tang Dynasty's education laws and regulations in terms of cognition and words and deeds. Should the court maintain a tough attitude of purging or adopt an attitude of tolerance and education?
"Lin is not a pity, but Tiannan is about to return to China. What is the will of heaven? It may be obvious here. The wind and thunder contain it. Everyone looks up to the slightest. Therefore, I dare not make a private decision on this matter. I will teach in Nanchuan and wait for the imperial edict to come."
After reading the memorial, Li Tai thought about this problem from a different angle, and then he had a new idea.
Wang Lin was a controversial and well-known figure in the Southern Dynasty. On the eve of the Tang Dynasty's acquisition of Jiangdong, accepting such a surrendered person can indeed reflect the tolerance of the Tang Dynasty.
Although the conquest of Jiangdong cannot be completely relied on these united front means, military conquest is still the most important method, but showing enough tolerance can also reduce the resistance of Jiangdong people, and avoid being led to extremes by those with ulterior motives and choosing to resist stubbornly, thereby increasing the overall unification cost.
Wang Lin is indeed greedy, chaotic, and capricious, but it cannot be said that he is completely without merit. The Southern Liang has been destroyed for so long, and he can still maintain the cohesion of his troops and exert a strong combat effectiveness. This person's military talent is indeed good, not to mention that in the original history, he even once played a brilliant record of almost wiping out Chen Baxian's founding meritorious group.
Li Tai also tried to put himself in Wang Lin's perspective to make assumptions, and he could probably understand Wang Lin's psychology. He probably wanted to take advantage of his current eagerness to unify the north and the south to surrender, and actively play the role of a guide, so as to win a future for himself and his subordinates.
Li Tai recognized Wang Lin's ability, but he also knew that to control such a person, he had to guard against his backlash at all times. In fact, the Tang Dynasty was not short of military talents, which was one of the reasons why he did not consider accepting Wang Lin at the beginning. He had the energy to guard against Wang Lin, so he might as well be more attentive to his own talent pool.
However, now Wang Lin has some value in the market, so it is not a bad idea to accept him, but Li Tai does not intend to keep him in Jiangdong. The future integration of Jiangdong will inevitably go through a process, and there will inevitably be twists and turns. Keeping Wang Lin, a greedy and chaotic person, in a familiar environment is equivalent to encouraging him to make trouble.
While thinking about where to place Wang Lin and his subordinates, Li Tai saw another memorial on the table, so he took it out and read it again.
This memorial was sent to the court by Li He, the governor of Youzhou. It tells the story of the remnant bandits of the Northern Qi in Yingzhou, Liaoxi. Hulugu and other remnant bandits of the Northern Qi recruited the Donghu tribes such as Kumo Xi to cross Yanshan Mountain to attack Youzhou.
Before Yang Zhong returned to the court, he led the Youzhou army to attack Yingzhou in the east. At that time, Hulugu and others did not dare to fight, but led the troops to withdraw from Yingzhou and go to the Hu tribes such as Kumo Xi in the northeast.
Because the court strategy had been adjusted at that time, there was no plan to attack Liaoxi in a large scale for the time being, so Yang Zhong led his troops back after sweeping. Later, Li He became the governor of Youzhou and built a defense line along the Jieshi Mountain line near the sea to prevent the remnant bandits of the Northern Qi from disturbing Hebei along the Liaoxi Corridor.
However, in addition to the Liaoxi Corridor along the Bohai Sea, there are also a series of mountain passes in the Yanshan Mountains in the north to enter and exit Hebei from Liaoxi. In the early years when the Northern Qi ruled Hebei, tribes such as the Kumo Xi and the Turks often used this passage to disturb Youzhou, and the Northern Qi army also attacked the various Hu tribes from this passage.
Now that the Tang Dynasty has become the new ruler of Hebei, the offensive and defensive forces are different, and the situation has become that Hulugu and other Northern Qi remnants frequently enter and exit through the Yanshan Pass to disturb Youzhou.
Before the demise of the Northern Qi, Hulugu's younger brother Huluxian served as the governor of Youzhou. Many of his troops were Youzhou divisions and brigades. These people also had a better understanding of the geography and personnel of Youzhou, so they always gained something from looting.
For his own survival and growth, Hulugu was also actively contacting the Donghu tribes that he had previously looked down upon, and pulled them into his team to restore the country. As the army withdrew from Youzhou, it soon developed into a major disaster in the northeast.
Although Li He, Gao Lin and other garrison commanders were also actively responding, the Tang Dynasty had controlled Youzhou for a relatively short time, especially when it did not have sufficient military forces to mobilize. It was already a great achievement to ensure the general control of Youzhou and prevent the remaining bandits of Northern Qi from roaming inward and causing chaos. There was really no extra force to completely eliminate such disturbances.
In the few months since Li He took office as the governor of Youzhou, the number of households lost by bandits in Youzhou reached more than 3,000. Li He complained and pleaded guilty at the same time. The bandits were too rampant, and he was somewhat helpless.
Li Tai did not want to pursue Li He's apology too much. Even if someone else went there, if they were not assigned a large number of troops to guard, they might not do as well as Li He.
As for continuing to send troops to the northeast, it was not in line with the overall strategy of the court at the moment. These areas of the former Northern Qi are still mainly for integration and recuperation. Once the army stays in the northeast for a long time, the supplies needed, whether they are raised nearby or transported over long distances, will cause a sudden increase in pressure on Hebei, which will continue to be unrelieved, thus breeding public resentment.
Now there are new personnel changes in Jiangnan. The Tang Dynasty has sent troops to intervene, and sufficient forces must be reserved to deal with the situation that may continue to expand. The military operations in the north need to be controlled as much as possible. Under such circumstances, temporarily controlling the riots in a corner of Youzhou is also a choice that conforms to the national conditions.
Under such circumstances, it is a good choice to relocate Wang Lin and his tribes to the north of Youzhou to prevent the remaining bandits of the Northern Qi and the invasion of the Donghu troops from the south. Although the geographical span from Jiangnan to Hebei is not small, Wang Lin must have known that even if the Tang Dynasty accepted his surrender, it would be impossible to place him in the heart of Guanzhong.
As for the differences in transportation methods and combat situations between southern ships and northern horses, they are actually not as big as imagined. The Nanchuan area where Wang Lin has been active in recent years is actually the Poyang Lake Plain and the hilly area on the western foot of Wuyi Mountain to its south. Most of the battles are on land to attack cities and capture strongholds. As for the Yangtze River line, most of it has long been locked by the Tang army. In addition to the Tang army's warships and large ships, there are various cargo ships.
Of course, no matter what, Hulugu is a first-class general in the north. Now as a remnant of the fallen country, he is quite vicious. Once Wang Lin, an equally vicious remnant of the Southern Liang Dynasty, leads his troops to the north, he will directly bear the military pressure exerted by Hulugu, which is also a severe test for him.