Chapter 45 You know nothing!
When Han Liang heard what Li Yuanji said, he hurried to explain.
Li Yuanji did not give Han Liang a chance to explain. He stared at Han Liang and said, "I have given you the power to supervise the transportation of grain and grass, but if you use other things as grain and grass for the army, shouldn't you inform me in advance?"
During an army's expedition, if other things are needed as food and fodder, they must report it.
If there is a problem with the soldiers' food during the battle, the enemy is likely to seize the opportunity and catch them off guard.
Therefore, this kind of matter must be reported to the general's tent and the chief of the rear army.
Han Liang did not report to Li Yuanji and was caught red-handed by Li Yuanji. Li Yuanji used this matter to talk about it, but he did not get angry.
"This matter was indeed my negligence. I will report it to the commander-in-chief and request punishment."
Han Liang was in the wrong and could only swallow his anger.
Yu Zhining gritted his teeth and said nothing.
Li Yuanji glanced at the two of them and said, "I have already ordered the Luoyang magistrate to collect food and grass everywhere in Luoyang. Before the war, these food and grass will be given priority to the refugees in the city. After the war, I will ask the Luoyang magistrate to allocate a part of it to supply the army.
You don't have to worry about a big mess due to lack of food and fodder."
Han Liang hurriedly said, "Thank you, Your Highness."
By doing this, Li Yuanji was making up for Han Liang's mistake, so Han Liang naturally had to thank him.
Li Yuanji was not foolish enough to take the blame for Han Liang's mistakes. It was simply because he knew clearly what food and grass meant to the army, and what this expedition against Liu Heita meant to the Tang Dynasty.
If this expedition against Liu Heita fails to crush his arrogance in one fell swoop, those people with ulterior motives in other places will surely take the opportunity to start a rebellion and bring chaos to the Tang Dynasty.
As a member of the Tang Dynasty royal family, enjoying the supreme power and countless wealth and glory provided by the Tang Dynasty, of course one has to consider the interests of the Tang Dynasty.
Moreover, if people with ulterior motives in various places take the opportunity to start a rebellion and bring disaster to the Tang Dynasty, the people in various places will be the ones who suffer.
After experiencing one war after another, the people in various places have suffered the most.
"Okay, go down."
Li Yuanji waved to Han Liang.
Han Liang immediately took Yu Zhining away.
After being disturbed by Han Liang and Yu Zhining, Li Yuanji was no longer in a good mood.
He called a group of guards and rushed to the place where the refugees were resettled overnight. After confirming that the Luoyang magistrate was doing his best to resettle the refugees and did not take the opportunity to cause any trouble, Li Yuanji took the guards to a side hall of the Luoyang Palace and settled down.
Not long after Li Yuanji fell asleep, the rooster crowed and the day dawned.
When I was woken up from my daze, it was already afternoon.
As soon as I opened my eyes, I saw two long, big, bloody things swaying in front of me.
Li Yuanji punched him subconsciously.
Xie Shufang screamed and fell to the ground, but the two bloody things in his hands were held tightly in his arms and did not fall to the ground.
Li Yuanji heard the scream and looked carefully, only to realize it was Xie Shufang.
"Why are you dangling two bloody things in front of me so early in the morning?"
Li Yuanji asked depressedly.
Xie Shufang stood up with a bitter face, holding up two bloody things, and said to Li Yuanji: "General Qu Tu said that this thing has a magical effect on men, so he asked me to bring it to Your Highness."
"what……"
Li Yuanji was about to reprimand him, but halfway through his words he immediately realized what Xie Shufang was holding in his hand.
Li Yuanji immediately became interested, "Cut it off from that beast?"
Xie Shufang hurriedly said, "One is from a tiger, and the other is from a bear."
My goodness, you guys have caused so much harm to a tiger and a bear, and even performed physical castration on them.
Only the Tang people dared to cause such harm.
It’s really good stuff.
"Take it and have them deal with it, then go out and find a big family to exchange it for food."
Li Yuanji ordered.
Xie Shufang hurriedly asked, "Your Highness, don't you want to eat it? General Qu Tu said that it is best to eat it fresh and mix it with blood for better effects."
Li Yuanji glared at Xie Shufang and said unhappily, "Do you think I can use it now?"
Xie Shufang was stunned and said awkwardly: "It was my negligence."
Li Yuanji is at the age of full vigor and vitality, so he really has no need for this thing.
If you eat it just for the sake of novelty, your blood will rush up like crazy.
So the things are good, but Li Yuanji can't use them now, and there is no need to take them back to Chang'an.
With Li Yuanji's status, he would never lack this thing wherever he went.
"How is the cleanup of the beasts in the Royal Forest going?"
Li Yuanji asked.
Xie Shufang reported: "Less than 20% left..."
Li Yuanji was stunned and frowned, "So little?"
According to the breeding scale of the royal forest garden and the number of soldiers led by Qu Tutong, Li Sixing and Luo Shixin, it would take at least seven or eight days to clear out the wild beasts.
Xie Shufang said: "We had hunted once before when the Tang army besieged Luoyang. The garrison guarding the royal forest garden was negligent in their duties. Not only did they allow people to hunt privately, they also hunted the beasts and sold them.
So there’s not much left.”
Li Yuanji pondered for a moment and ordered: "Take your men to capture all the guards of the Royal Forest and Garden, conduct a thorough investigation, and dismiss those who have committed dereliction of duty and confiscate their property.
All the food was sent to the magistrate of Luoyang to provide relief to the refugees, and money was given to the soldiers who had accompanied the magistrate in resettling the refugees in the past two days.
Then send a message to Li Sixing, asking him to take his men and cooperate with Ma Zhou and Luoyang Ling to resettle all the refugees who have fled from Hebei."
“Yes!”
Xie Shufang bowed and agreed.
With the three capable officials, Li Sixing, Ma Zhou and the magistrate of Luoyang, plus the cavalry from the Prince of Qi's palace and local government offices, they should be able to barely accommodate the refugees.
After Li Yuanji handed the matter down, he never asked any more questions.
He waited quietly in the Luoyang Palace for wealthy families from all over the country to deliver food, and waited quietly for Li Shimin to arrive with his army.
…
On the twenty-eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, Liu Heita captured Xiangzhou.
On the first day of the first lunar month
At the same time, the troops headed straight for Weizhou.
The fourth day of the first lunar month.
Li Shimin led his central army and rushed to the outskirts of Luoyang City.
What Li Shimin saw and heard along the way made him feel so depressed that words could not describe it.
Before the expedition, Li Shimin knew that a large number of refugees from Hebei would inevitably flock to Luoyang. For this purpose, he mobilized a large number of capable officials to cooperate with government offices in various parts of Luoyang to resettle the refugees.
But as soon as he entered the peach forest, he found something wrong.
There was not a single refugee to be seen on the official road leading to Luoyang.
There were quite a few cavalrymen and local government officials hanging around on the official road.
When Li Shimin asked someone, he found out that it was his younger brother who had ordered the officials in the mansion and his subordinates to force officials in government offices across the country to resettle the refugees.
Officials from all over the country had no choice but to obey.
Li Shimin was surprised and wanted to ask officials from all over the country what they thought of Li Yuanji.
The answer he got almost shocked Li Shimin.
An official who was forced by Li Yuanji to take out all his family's food to help the refugees not only did not say anything bad about Li Ji, but instead kept praising Li Yuanji.
It was the first time that Li Shimin discovered that being a villain could actually elicit praise from the victims.
Li Shimin thought there might be something fishy going on and immediately sent people to investigate.
After investigation and interrogation, Li Shimin finally figured out the whole story.
Those officials who were forced by Li Yuanji to take out all the food in their homes to help the refugees, had people in their families take out even more food and buy an official position from Li Yuanji.
From the fifth rank and below, 10,000 shi of grain, and so on for the rest.
Or the officials under the jurisdiction of the King of Qi, such as the Prince of Qi's Palace, Bingzhou, and Xiangzhou Road.
Li Shimin felt that with the bad reputation of the Prince of Qi's Mansion, no one would be willing to serve under Li Yuanji.
But after Li Shimin entered the territory governed by the Luoyang magistrate, he realized that the kind of official positions that no one wanted to hold in his eyes were almost sold out.
Not only were official positions almost sold out, but even the price of grain needed to obtain an official position was rising.
The wealthy families in Luoyang actually don't have much food, but they have many in-laws.
When it was confirmed that there really was a fool who exchanged a fifth-rank official position for food, the wealthy families in Luoyang went crazy.
Everyone called their friends to raise food.
Food from various states around Luoyang that had not suffered from the war poured into Luoyang frantically.
The Yang family of Hongnong in Guozhou, relying on the name of their mother's family, used 30,000 dan of grain to obtain an official position in Xiangzhou from Li Yuanji.
Afterwards, people from the Hongnong Yang family escorted another 5,000 shi of grain to Luoyang.
The reason was that when the people of Hongnong Yang family went to Li Yuanji to buy an official position, Li Yuanji got furious on the spot and said that we were both sons-in-law of Hongnong Yang family, so why did Hongnong Yang family give him food when his second brother went to war, but he did not?
Even though the people of Hongnong Yang clan told Li Yuanji they had made a secret deal with Li Shimin, Li Yuanji still arrogantly asked the people of Hongnong Yang clan to send him a batch of grain, otherwise he would make things difficult for the people of Hongnong Yang clan who went to serve as officials in Xiangzhou Road.
Li Shimin felt terrible when he saw the people from the Hongnong Yang family escorting carriages with small flags with the word "Yang" on them into Luoyang City.
When he sent people to find the Hongnong Yang family to raise food and fodder, the people of Hongnong Yang family insisted that they had no food. After he promised that the Hongnong Yang family could run salt and iron businesses in various places in East Shaanxi, the people of Hongnong Yang family quickly took out 20,000 shi of grain.
He even looked up and told him that if it weren't for the fact that he was Yang's son-in-law, the benefits he promised would be worth ten thousand shi of grain.
Li Shimin's face is only worth 10,000 shi of grain.
Li Yuanji didn't even give him any face and extorted five thousand .
"Madams, there's something fishy about your family's home!"
Li Shimin sighed in his heart as he watched the grain transport convoy of the Hongnong Yang family disappear at the gate of Luoyang City.
"Your Highness the Prince of Qi actually dared to grant an official position privately. This is a serious crime!"
Wang Xu, the governor of Chang'an, who was far behind Li Shimin, shouted with a stern face.
Li Shimin suddenly turned around, glared at Wang Xu, and cursed, "You know shit!"
