Chapter 43 The Benefits of Notoriety

The reason why Luo Shixin appeared outside the city with his troops was because he thought there was a war to fight.
After leaving the city, we discovered that it seemed that the King of Qi wanted to suppress the refugees.
Luo Shixin was full of contempt.
The King of Qi was as cowardly as a dog on the battlefield, but he was extremely cruel to his own people.
However, the King of Qi's subsequent actions made him a little confused.
After Xie Shufang and Li Sixing arrived with Bingzhou troops, Li Yuanji decisively ordered, "Each unit, led by the captain, will lead a group of soldiers to organize the people outside the city into groups according to their original places of origin, such as townships, towns, counties, and states."
Xie Shufang, the governor of Shanzhou, went down to carry out Li Yuanji's order without any hesitation.
The governor of Guozhou was a little hesitant, but when Li Yuanji's eyes fell on him, he hurried to carry out Li Yuanji's order.
Seeing that Li Yuanji did not intend to cause trouble to the refugees but to divide them up and seemed to have the intention of resettling them, Luo Shixin immediately rode forward.
"Your Highness, I, Luo Shixin, am willing to order the troops of Jiangzhou to assist you."
Li Yuanji nodded, "Okay!"
Luo Shixin immediately ordered his soldiers to help.
When Luo Shixin went to give the order, Li Sixing came close to Li Yuanji and said, "I, Li Sixing, pay my respects to Your Highness."
Li Yuanji was angry, so he didn't say anything and just nodded.
Li Sixing hesitated for a moment and said, "Your Highness, are you going to resettle these refugees?"
Li Yuanji nodded again.
Li Sixing said with a bitter face: "Luoyang does not lack places to accommodate refugees, but there is no extra food to feed them."
The once prosperous city of Luoyang saw its population plummet after experiencing several wars.
Now there are only three thousand households under the jurisdiction of Luoyang.
Three thousand households could not fill up the Luoyang Palace, let alone the entire Luoyang.
Therefore, Luoyang has no shortage of places for refugees to live. Many abandoned houses, mansions, and royal gardens can accommodate many refugees after some renovation.
But precisely because of the small population, Luoyang had no food at all and could not afford to feed such a large number of refugees.
The military rations could not be moved, and there was no rations available from other places.
Therefore, refugees are easy to resettle but difficult to feed.
Li Sixing knew the difficulties, so he had to remind Li Yuanji.
Li Yuanji looked at the refugees who were frozen in the cold wind and had sores all over their bodies, looked at the refugees who were pale and thin and seemed to be starving to death at any time, and gritted his teeth and said, "First, let the soldiers in the palace and Bingzhou save some rations and provide them with one bowl of porridge a day. The rest will be discussed after the Luoyang order arrives."
Li Sixing was shocked. Privately withholding food and fodder from soldiers was against military law. Soldiers would be resentful if they were not well fed, and they might even mutiny.
"Your Highness!"
"I will deal with the general's tent. As for the troops of the palace and Bingzhou, I will give them some of the land of the royal manor and the fiefdom to cultivate for three years, and I will not collect any taxes, as compensation for them."
Li Yuanji naturally knew that if his soldiers were not fed enough, they would complain.
So he offered a generous compensation.
Give them some land, don't collect taxes, let them farm for three years, let alone let them eat less, even if they only have a bowl of porridge a day, they will be happy.
The war hasn't started yet, so it doesn't matter if you eat less.
Seeing that Li Yuanji offered such generous compensation, Li Sixing did not care about this issue.
"The little food rations provided by the soldiers in the palace and the soldiers in the fiefdom are just a drop in the bucket."
Li Sixing sighed with a wry smile.
How many refugees are there?
One hundred thousand people.
The total number of soldiers in the palace and the fiefdom is less than five thousand.
This is because the Bingzhou troops are under the jurisdiction of the Prince of Qi's Palace and the establishment is a bit oversized.
Otherwise, there would be less than four thousand people.
Even if there are less than 5,000 people and they don't eat, the saved food rations will not be enough to feed 100,000 people.
Li Yuanji glanced at Li Sixing and said nothing.
Li Sixing realized that Li Yuanji didn't want to talk now, so he didn't say anything.
The Luoyang Order did not appear in front of Li Yuanji until two hours later.
When Li Yuanji asked, he found out that this guy, in order to curry his favor, went to deal with the royal family left over from the former Sui Dynasty when he learned of his arrival.
The purpose is to make him live more comfortably.
Of course, it is also possible that he did it just to flatter Li Shimin.
Li Yuanji was not polite to the Luoyang magistrate and asked directly, "As the Luoyang magistrate, why don't you resettle the refugees who fled to Luoyang?"
Seeing Li Yuanji's bad tone, the Luoyang magistrate quickly complained, "I have to prepare a camp for the army to stay, and also prepare food, clothing, shelter and transportation for all the superiors and the two princes. I really don't have time."
"You don't need to worry about our food, clothing, shelter and transportation from now on. Just focus on resettling the refugees."
Li Yuanji stared coldly at Luoyang Ling and gave orders.
The Luoyang magistrate sensed Li Yuanji's ill intentions, hesitated for a moment, and said through gritted teeth: "There are less than 3,000 households in Luoyang now, and there are quite a few vacant houses. It is not difficult to accommodate the refugees.
But refugees not only need shelter, they also need food.
There is not even a grain of food in the Luoyang granary now.
I can’t conjure up food either.”
Li Yuanji frowned and said, "Is there no way at all?"
Luoyang Ling shook his head with a bitter face.
He is not a fool. If he had food, how could he miss this opportunity to make a contribution?
Whether donating the grain to the imperial court as military rations or using it to help refugees, it is a great achievement.
Going up one liter is easy.
But he had no food and couldn't raise any.
It is true that a good cook cannot cook without rice.
Li Yuanji frowned and fell into deep thought.
After a long while, he stared at Luoyang Ling and asked, "Are there any wealthy families in Luoyang?"
The Luoyang magistrate suddenly widened his eyes.
Li Sixing and Qu Tutong also widened their eyes.
Luo Shixin, who was eavesdropping on the side, also looked at Li Yuanji in surprise.
From what Li Yuanji said, it seems that he wants to target the wealthy and powerful families.
Except for a very small number of ruffians and bandits who could not make a difference, most of the decent or powerful forces were unwilling to become enemies with the wealthy and powerful families.
Because a wealthy family is not just one family or one office, but a collective.
If one family is killed, the other families will become alert.
When necessary, they would gather clansmen, servants, etc. to form a large team.
During the chaotic times before the Sui Dynasty, every rebel king who managed to become powerful had a powerful family or multiple aristocratic families behind him.
Li Tang's rule is not stable now. There is Liu Heita in Hebei, Liang Shidu in Shuofang, and many rebel armies entrenched in Jingzhou, Yangzhou and other places.
Li Yi, Du Fuwei, Gao Kaidao, etc. are still "warlords" at present.
Once the aristocratic families were disturbed and a wave of rebellion against the Tang Dynasty was set off among them, the young Li Tang would most likely be doomed.
It is also because of this that Li Yuan, Li Shimin and Li Jiancheng, knowing that those aristocratic families had grain, did not target them.
The Luoyang commander was terrified and opened his mouth but dared not utter a word.
Qu Tutong, Li Sixing and Luo Shixin stared at the Luoyang Order, wishing they could see through him.
If Luoyang Ling said anything wrong, they would immediately jump up and kill people.
They are the beneficiaries of the founding of the Li Tang Dynasty and must firmly support the Li Tang in unifying the world.
Li Yuanji could get away with it, but the Luoyang magistrate did not have that qualification.
"Do you have?!"
Li Yuanji asked loudly.
Luoyang Ling shuddered and said hurriedly, "No...long gone. Since the great war in the middle of the year, all the wealthy families in Luoyang were either killed in the war or left Luoyang."
Li Yuanji looked disappointed.
Qu Tutong gave Li Sixing a crazy look.
Li Sixing hurriedly said: "Your Highness, the wealthy are the backbone of our Tang Dynasty, and must not be harmed."
Li Yuanji knew why Li Sixing said this.
The aristocratic families of the Tang Dynasty were notorious, and even Li Yuan was not easy to mess with, so how could Li Sixing just watch him poke that hornet's nest?
But he really had no intention of targeting the wealthy families.
He just wanted to get some food from the wealthy families through the method of exchanging interests.
Li Yuanji ignored Li Sixing and said to the Luoyang magistrate: "Send a message to the wealthy families around Luoyang, saying that those who want to become officials can offer 10,000 dan of grain to get an official position below the fifth rank, 9,000 dan of grain to get an official position above the sixth rank, 8,000 dan of grain to get an official position below the sixth rank, and so on.
They can choose officials from the royal palace, Bingzhou, and Xiangzhou as they wish."
Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures.
Since it was impossible to move against the wealthy and powerful families, the only thing one could do was to exchange official positions for food.
Although this method has little appeal to the direct descendants of those aristocratic families, and those powerful clans might sneer at it when they know about it, it still has a certain appeal to the collateral branches of those aristocratic families and the collateral branches of the powerful clans.
Some wealthy rural families might also pool together some food and seek an official position.
As for whether the person who exchanges for the official position has talent or not, Li Yuanji doesn't care at all.
When those people enter the officialdom, those with talent will be transferred to useful positions, and those without talent will be betrayed by their colleagues without Li Ji having to do anything.
Even if their colleagues fail to kill them, the Tang Dynasty still has many uncultivated wild lands to accommodate them.
Those aristocratic families and wealthy clans, unless they are stupid, would never send a fool to be an official.
The only disadvantage of Li Yuanji doing this is that he will probably be criticized to death by the censors in the court, even though he did it for the refugees.
If the censors do not criticize, they will be derelict in their duty.
Qu Tutong, Li Sixing and Luo Shixin were obviously relieved when they heard that Li Yuanji had no intention of targeting the wealthy families.
When they heard that Li Yuanji was going to exchange his official position for food, they didn't say anything except smile bitterly in their hearts.
Li Yuanji exchanged food for official positions in his own mansion and his territory, and did not exchange food for official positions in other places. In this regard, there would be no conflict with the court's appointment of people, nor would there be any conflict with Li Shimin and Li Jiancheng.
Therefore, he will only be targeted by the censors and not by anyone else.
After learning about this, Li Yuan would probably raise the board high and then drop it gently.
First, he sent someone to convey his imperial edict, scolding Li Yuanji and ordering Li Yuanji not to do so in the future. Then he removed one of Li Yuanji's idle positions.
If other people did this, they would be badly injured if not killed.
If Li Jiancheng dared to do this, his reputation would be ruined and his position as crown prince would be unstable.
If Li Shimin dared to do this, Li Yuan and Li Jiancheng would probably wake up with laughter, and then would go crazy to help him become famous, and his reputation would be ruined.
What does it matter if Li Yuanji's reputation is ruined by doing this?
Isn't it reasonable for ?
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