Chapter 695: Battle for Jade
The New First Army of Du Baiyue has been slow to end the campaign against Champa, firstly because Zhenla refused to surrender, and secondly because the jungles in the south are very suitable for guerrilla warfare. Many Zhenla troops broke up into small groups to fight with us, which delayed the war.
Zhao Yulin nodded and said that he knew the situation there, and Meng Gong didn't need to worry about it. He had already reminded Baiyue to change their fighting methods. When it comes to guerrilla warfare, we are the ancestors, so there is no need to be afraid. It is just right to use Champa as a training ground for the new army and forge this team into an iron army.
Moreover, we need to train a group of generals who are adapted to guerrilla warfare to deal with the small groups of enemies and small-scale battles that may increase in the future.
Old Cao nodded and praised Zhao Yulin for his comprehensive and good plan. When he first received the news of the defeat in the war in the south, he was worried that his brother would blame the Baiyue for their incompetence.
Zhao Yulin laughed and teased that Lao Cao was more protective of his son than he was. Was it because Baiyue and Lao Cao had walked through the gates of hell together?
He said: Baiyue and he are still brothers in life and death in the same trench, and he knows it well.
Lao Cao smiled somewhat unnaturally.
He told the two elder brothers: The pacification envoys from various places are coming back one after another, and when they are all here, we have to have a good talk about what to do in the future. He asked Lao Cao and Meng Gong to prepare and then tell the pacification envoys how to hold on to the throne.
Cao Cao nodded, muttering to himself that it was easy to conquer a country, but difficult to rule it. Now that the New Song Dynasty had defeated the enemy, it was time to plan how to govern the world.
When I got back, Shunzhidi was still busy issuing an edict to commend the soldiers who participated in the Battle of Busan.
He asked for another item to be added: Prince Wang Dian of the Peninsula should build a large cemetery of benevolence and righteousness in Busan, and erect a tall monument to commemorate the merits of the loyal and brave men of our Shenwei Army; he also asked the Goryeo Kingdom to arrange tomb sweeping during the Qingming Festival, and people who come and go to the cemetery must be respectful.
All of these need to be turned into rules.
Shunzhidi nodded vigorously and wrote quickly.
Zhao Yulin believed that the loyal and brave men of the new Song Dynasty sacrificed their lives and shed their blood to kill the enemy bravely, and their blood should not be shed in vain and should be respected. The achievements of the warriors should not be erased or tarnished by anyone, and rules must be established.
The next day, as soon as he entered the office, he received a piece of bad news: Geng Feihu, the pacification envoy of Jinghu North Road and the prefect of Ezhou, unfortunately fell into the Yangtze River while directing flood control in the Jingjiang section and his life and death were unknown.
The dike in the Jingjiang section broke and floods raged. Jinghu South Road entered a nationwide flood prevention mode and requested central assistance. Yu Jie hurried over to him to discuss emergency response.
Zhao Yulin stared at the continuous heavy rain outside the house, and after a while he said: The floods from Jinghu Lake have been endless for years, which has long been a major problem that has plagued the development of various roads along the river. However, according to the current technology, there is no way to make a big change. As I said before, listen more to the opinions of the old water workers along the river.
He believes that floods should be drained rather than blocked, and that blocking them is impossible. If they are blocked this year, what will we do if there is a bigger flood next year?
Yu Jie nodded continuously and decided to organize officials from the Ministry of Water Resources and the Ministry of Households to go east to organize disaster relief.
Zhao Yulin nodded and told him to plan carefully whether to include the flooded area into the flood diversion area and flood discharge area. The Yangtze River embankment should be built in a planned way and with high standards.
In particular, the management of the Yellow River requires careful consideration, as it is a river hanging above the ground.
Yu Jie nodded vigorously and repeatedly apologized for not doing his job well and bringing trouble to the court.
Zhao Yulin waved his hand and told them not to talk about this and to go quickly.
This blow made Zhao Yulin a little confused. Geng Feihu, the pacification envoy of Jinghu South Road, was his chief of guards, a good official who dared to speak and act, and was honest and upright. How could he have disappeared into the water?
He remembered that Feihu was very good at swimming.
Zhao Yulin asked the maid to invite Dongmei, the chief steward of Shunfeng Division, to come over and whisper to her, revealing all his doubts.
Dongmei said that she was also very surprised to receive the news. Brother Feihu was a man with a very good physique and excellent swimming skills. She would never believe the report from Ezhou that he fell into the water and died.
Since neither the living nor the dead were found, she felt that Brother Feihu must still be alive.
Zhao Yulin asked her to send someone to look for him secretly, and at the same time pay attention to the situation in the officialdom of Jinghu.
Dongmei understood immediately and said goodbye immediately.
In Alimali in the northwest, Wu Qian was also dealing with a case. A secret report came from the Shunfeng of Oduan: the criminal inspector of Oduan Prefecture had the intention of buying a large jadeite found by a local citizen, but it turned out to be a murder case, causing the local people to besiege the prefecture government office.
Wuduan belongs to the southern Xinjiang region, where jade is produced. Local people can find jade by searching in the fields and ditches.
A man named Mamtim found a huge piece of jade in a deep valley. As it was impossible to move it in the deserted depths of the canyon, he went home and told Soren, a big jade dealer in the village.
Sauron went to the scene to take a look, and after confirming it, he bought it for 5,000 strings of cash. He brought people to build bridges and roads, and hired people to transport the jade back. This immediately caused a sensation in the jade world of Wuduan. Jade merchants from far and near rushed to watch. Everyone watched the huge emerald green jade and kept bidding the price, which suddenly rose to 500,000 strings of cash.
However, Sauron refused to sell it. He was sure that the New Song Dynasty would become more and more peaceful and prosperous, so he wanted to wait twenty or thirty years before selling it. He believed that gold has a price but jade is priceless, and this piece of flawless jade would surely fetch a good price.
Just when he had dug a big hole at home and was about to bury the jade in his yard, someone came to buy the jade from him and only gave him 30,000 strings of cash, asking him to sell the jade, saying that he was buying it on behalf of the state censor. If he didn't sell it, the state censor would sue him for stealing national resources.
Because the imperial court has issued an order, everything valuable underground belongs to the imperial court.
Soran has been in the jade business for a long time, and most of his transactions are small pieces of jade. Although he knows that the government has such a rule, taxes are usually paid according to the transaction amount after completing large transactions. Gradually, it has become the norm in the jade trade. He does not sell jade, and there is no theft without transactions, so what is there to be afraid of.
This guy is a grassland man left behind after the fall of the Chagatai Khanate. He is well-informed, and his strong character makes him fearless, including the government. Thus, a battle for jade began.
Wu Qian called Li Chuan, who was in charge of the garrison, and asked him to lead troops to the Central Plains as a special envoy to quell the civil unrest and to be impartial and objective in resolving the case.
After receiving the order, Li Chuan did not dare to delay, and immediately led his 2,000 men to rush there day and night. First, he surrounded the mob and preached the new Song Dynasty's fair and just way of governing the country, that everyone is equal before the law. He reasoned with reason and would never allow any violation of the king's law.
After stabilizing the people, he immediately investigated and punished lawbreakers, arrested the Chief Justice and his subordinate officials and several cronies of the garrison who had clear facts and conclusive evidence, and had the common people identify them before beheading them in public, declaring that the laws of the new Song Dynasty were ruthless and that officials and civilians were equal.
Seeing that the special envoy was impartial and acted in accordance with the law, Solon summoned the elders to discuss the matter. After they all agreed that the court was fair and just and was the people's supporter, they tied up the culprit who caused casualties and sent him to the government. The civil unrest caused by the jade was quickly quelled.
After this incident, Sauron aged a lot and felt guilty for possessing the jade, so he handed it over to the Wuduan Prefecture directly.
After Li Chuan dealt with the case of Wuduan robbing jade, he was worried about the prefect's instability because Wuduan was implicated, so he had to temporarily take over the prefect's affairs. Instead, he was not happy to receive the green jade donated by Suolong. He told Suolong that the New Song Dynasty governed the country according to law, so he could rest assured and not donate the green jade out of fear.
Soran was grateful, but he was determined to donate.
Li Chuan had no choice. Considering that the civil unrest had just been caused by the greed of the state officials, he summoned all the officials to discuss and accepted the jade. He went to Solon's house in person to praise his contribution and rewarded him with 50,000 silver coins. He also posted notices at the four gates.
The people of Wuduan gradually settled down when they saw that the court enforced the law impartially and the officials were fair in their work.
Through the handling of this matter, Wu Qian saw Li Chuan's prudence and thought that Li Chuan truly implemented the court's strategy of "all the world is one family and everyone is equal", and was suitable for his work in the Western Regions.
He wrote to Zhao Yulin, proposing to appoint Li Chuan as the defense envoy of the Western Regions.
At this time, Chengdu had not yet confirmed the administrative divisions of the Western Regions.
Zhao Yulin was very happy after receiving Wu Qian's letter. He called all the officials to discuss the matter and believed that the Chagatai Khanate, including the land recovered from the Wuchu River Basin, was vast and had a large population. It was indeed a bit too big to divide it into only one route. The two-route division method proposed by Wu Qian could be considered.
After reading Wu Qian's letter, the officials all agreed to divide the area east of Suiye City into Anxi Road, and the newly recovered area around Hamar Khan into Xiyu Road. Wu Qian was appointed as the temporary pacification envoy for Anxi Road, and Gao Jin was appointed as the temporary pacification envoy for Xiyu Road.
He agreed to Wu Qian's nomination of Li Chuan as the Defense Commissioner of Anxi Road, and required Anxi Road to comprehensively and carefully sort out the implementation of laws in various prefectures and counties, and strictly investigate the officials of local inspectors and garrison teams who oppressed the people, neglected their duties, and committed malfeasance.
The garrison troops were required to conduct strict military discipline training and rectification for the garrisons in various places.
Hua Yue believed that it was very necessary. The New Song Dynasty had a large territory, a large population, and complex ethnic groups living together. Without strict laws and a strategy of equality for all, it would be easy to cause ethnic conflicts that could not be controlled, leading to riots and even mob uprisings, causing regional unrest.
Zhao Yulin nodded and asked the Ministry of Revenue to prepare a batch of relief grain for emergency transportation to Jinghu, and to send it first to the areas that were most severely affected by the disaster.
You Shi volunteered to go and comfort the victims in person.
Zhao Yulin agreed and asked him to supervise the flood prevention and disaster relief work. He knew that the man was to blame for his wife's crime and couldn't save his face, so he let him go if he wanted to go out and do something.
After the meeting, Li Liang followed him and reported: Duolin Temple sent monks to pray for the people of Jinghu and eliminate disasters and difficulties.
Zhao Yulin was amused. He was willing to sit down and recite the words "Amitabha" for three days and three nights to pray for the people and keep them safe if a few words of "Amitabha" could solve the problem. He said: The intentions of the monks in the temple are good, but to solve the flood in Jinghu Lake and eliminate the floods in various parts of the country, we still need to use our brains.
Li Liang immediately nodded and proposed that the court issue an imperial decree to all major temples, requiring temples across the country to pray for the common people and the new Song court, and through these temples to unite believers to contribute to the country.
