Chastity Layman

South of the Five Ridges is transforming from a barbaric land outside Huawai to a land under the rule of the Tang Dynasty.

Although the emperor granted Qin Lang many special powers, such as inheriting the system of worship, beheading first and playing later, etc.

Ministers do not have the right to worship, this is the prerogative of the monarch, the right to appoint officials and rewards from the government affairs hall, the Ministry of officials, and the Ministry of war is also bestowed by the emperor.

Under normal circumstances, local officials do not have the right to worship officials, whether they are guarding one side or serving as an official. Generally, they only have the right to make recommendations.

Before the Tang Dynasty actually controlled Lingnan, what Feng An and other local kings had in their hands was actually only the power of performance, that is, to recommend people to the imperial court to serve as their own official positions, and the imperial court routinely approved all of them and issued official seals, etc.

This is a normal procedure, although in the past Feng An and others did not actually need the real consent of the court, they often appointed officials on their own and added a performance afterwards.

But now the emperor has given Qin Lang the privilege of entrusting the system to worship, which is much more powerful than the general dethroning ambassador, let alone the power of the observer. A local official's achievements, supervision and assessment, and the results of the assessment are played in the court.

However, the deposed officials have greater power, inspecting according to the order, and even directly dismissing or demoting unqualified officials, or even punishing them, and directly promoting and rewarding meritorious officials.

Basically, observation envoys are now permanent official positions. Officials below the fifth rank can be dealt with directly, and officials above the fifth rank must be dealt with by the court. To depose an envoy can deal with local officials of the fourth rank and below.

Qin Lang's position as an economic envoy was to control the entire Lingnan civil and military local officials, regardless of rank, as long as they were officials within the Lingnan Three Routes, Nine Prefectures and Twelve Armies, they could be directly dealt with. This disposition is not only the evaluation and rating of political performance, but also promotion and transfer, etc., and it can even directly confer titles and honors on meritorious ministers.

His privilege can be granted directly without first asking the imperial court for instructions. It is a privilege granted by the emperor's imperial edict, and the imperial court will recognize it after the entrustment.

From princes and dukes down, Qin Lang can do obeisance.

For the local officials in Lingnan, Qin Lang held such a great power, but it was too great, a word could decide a person's promotion or even life or death.

This is the highest authority bestowed by the emperor.

On the one hand, the emperor gave incomparable decentralization of power, but on the other hand, he sent a double supervising army, and established the Supervising Army Mission and the Guanjun Rong Mission in Guangzhou. It has to be said that decentralization and supervision are actually not contradictory. It is convenient for you to do things, but you also send someone to supervise, or even send double copies to show your importance.

Some people may think that the emperor's doing this is not suitable for people to doubt, but in fact, the system is more reliable than people after all.

Gao Fu, a military envoy and regular attendant, is said to be from Lingnan. His family used to be a wealthy Han family in Lingnan who moved south. When he was young, his family was implicated in a rebellion and later implicated. He was castrated when he was young. Sent to the palace as a slave, in the blink of an eye for many years, he has gradually become a regular servant of the fifth rank, and even this time he is released from Beijing to serve as a supervisor, which is actually another step up.

A palace eunuch from a wealthy family in Lingnan came to serve as an envoy to observe military capacity. His origin is undoubtedly very important. He understands Lingnan better than ordinary eunuchs, and he may even have some old and relatives here. When he came, his eyes went dark.

The other military supervising envoy was Zhizhong censor Gao Feng, whose style name was Jifu. This was the nephew of Prime Minister Gao Shilian, and a leading figure in the young generation of the Gao family in Bohai.

At the end of the Sui Dynasty, his elder brother served as the county magistrate of Ji County, so he followed his elder brother to study in Ji County. Afterwards, the people in the city rebelled, and his elder brother died in the rebellion. Enemies, sacrifice their heads to their elder brothers.

Soon after, Gao Jifu led his troops to Wagang, and soon after Li Mi was defeated, Gao Jifu, Jia Runfu, Liu Dewei, and Li Houde joined the Tang Dynasty, and was initially awarded the governor of Zhizhou, Cao Junjun.

In the ninth year of Wude, after Li Shimin came to the throne, Gao Shilian's nephew was also awarded the post of supervisory censor. With his reputation of uprightness and his achievements in impeaching and overthrowing several ministers, he quickly became a middle-ranking official. Shusheren, after that, also worked part-time in the East Palace, and performed well.

Last year, he was promoted to be the vice-officer of Yushitai, governing secretary and servant of Yushi. This time, he was transferred to Lingnan to serve as the supervisor of the army.

In order to show importance, Li Shimin also asked Gao Jifu to serve as the observation and interview envoy of Guangdong Road, and Gao Fu to serve as the envoy of Guangzhou City.

One of the two high officials is also the city ship envoy, in charge of the city ship trade in Guangzhou Port, and the other is also an observation and interview envoy, in charge of the examination and supervision of Guangdong officials, so the power is naturally greatly increased.

After a burst of cheers, everyone entered the Yamen.

Sitting down separately, Qin Lang looked around.

He was the only one in the hall full of crimson green officials in purple robes.

Among the many faces, they are actually crossing the river from the Central Plains. There are not any local officials. Feng An, Ning Xuan, Chen Longshu and other Lingnan tycoons have been moved left and right by the court in recent years, and they have no chance to get involved in the Lingnan government. decision-making power.

In the past few years, the post of provincial governor and county magistrate who stayed in the local area could not be kept.

They are all from the Central Plains, and they may have been very familiar with them in Chang'an in the past, so everyone is not acquainted.

The observation envoys, Changping envoys, inspector envoys, and command envoys of the three ways, the governors, long history, and Sima of the nine capitals, the governors of various prefectures, and the military envoys of various armies.

The hall is full.

They all came to see Qin Lang.

Even Cheng Chumo, the governor of Tonghai, who was far away in Yunnan, and Niu Jianhu, the admiral of the Nanyang Navy, rushed over specially.

"I'm still in Chang'an, and your boy's request for help is one after another, as if Tonghai is about to fall. I just arrived in Lingnan, and you arrived in Guangzhou before me. It seems that Tonghai is not in danger. Well."

Cheng Chumo was dressed in silk armor, "Didn't I come here on purpose to rescue Duke Wei? Those damn barbarians started attacking after you left, Lord Wei. At the beginning, they came here overwhelmingly and fought a few tough battles with us. After losing the battle, they began to break up into parts and carry out attacks. Now our Tonghai Mansion is raging with flames of war. Everyone has to carry a knife on their buttocks when they go out to farm, and they have to carry their bows and arrows on their backs to deal with them at any time. The barbarians are attacking!"

"Fortunately, we have established strong fortresses at several key points, and there are many blockhouses on every communication line, making us invincible, but we are always attacked and harassed by them, and we can't stand it. Even caravans now All have been greatly affected, the trade routes are no longer safe, and the number of merchants has decreased a lot, if this continues, Tonghai Mansion will be cold."

The Nanman harassed from the south, Dong Cuan moved from the north, and the Wuman tribes harassed from the east. Tonghai Mansion was now enemies on three sides, and Xi Cuan on the other side could not really make people feel at ease.

"I really can't bear it. In the past six months, our business routes have been robbed repeatedly, not to mention the mines, many have been destroyed, and even our crops and fields have been greatly affected. Many barbarian villages have also been destroyed. They attacked, they fought and dragged, and now many barbarian villages either directly fell to them and made trouble with them, or secretly flirted with them, tipped them off, even led the way quietly, and even provided them with money and food. They are dirty, Duke Wei, must organize a full-scale counterattack, otherwise, Tonghai Mansion will really be completely cold if this continues."

Qin Qiong was holding the teacup. Although Cheng Chumo said it seriously, judging from his expression, the situation must still be under control, otherwise, he would not dare to come to Guangzhou.

"When I was still in Chang'an, didn't I already pass on the will of the saint to you? Tonghai increased the quota of 2,000 regular soldiers. In addition, three new Zhechong mansions were established in Tonghai Mansion, and 3,000 mansion soldiers were selected. Beside the barbarians, you also added 4,000 to Tonghai Mansion, and also specially approved a 6,000-strong wolf battalion. This is a real increase of 12,000 people. You wouldn’t say that the soldiers returned Not enough?"

"Moreover, I also let the South China Sea Navy resume the cruise on the Red River, sent more ships, and even set up the Navy's Red River Water Village on the north bank of the Red River in Tonghai Prefecture, and even the Marine Corps stationed there. gone."

Lao Cheng wasn't too polite, "That's right, you can click on the new government soldiers, put on the garrison, and train the wolf soldiers. These all have to be a process, it takes time, and it's not just a word, you can do it." From ordinary people to elite soldiers? Not only training, but also equipment, food, horses, etc. It will take at least half a year for the new army to take shape."

"Don't tell me this. Your main task now is to defend and counterattack, mainly defending the city, relying on several fortresses and a vertical and horizontal transportation network, and dividing the defense with blockhouses and fortresses. It's not that you want to cross the river to attack the city. Pull out the stronghold, so even if it is a newly selected soldier, equipped with excellent weapons and armor, it is more than enough to deal with the barbarians."

"There is only one who can be a thief for a thousand days, how can he be a thief for a thousand days?" Cheng Chumo complained, "It's not a thing for us to just defend like this. Fight across the river and directly destroy that Lashazhai."

Qin Lang shook his head.

"It's not yet time. You are certainly uncomfortable with the way you are playing now, but in fact those barbarians are more uncomfortable than you. They have to pay a higher price, consume more food and grass, and kill and injure more people. Who do you think will Can't spend it?"

"We have fortresses, castles and watchtowers. Why do we have to go to the deep mountains and old forests to fight them? One mistake, if you are ambushed and attacked, have you thought about the consequences? So don't rush to fight big battles, keep this Momentum, continue to consume with them, the barbarian will feel even more uncomfortable."

Regardless of whether it is the Tang army or the barbarians, war is essentially an act of consumption. To gather troops and march back and forth will inevitably delay farming and grazing production, and even consume more food and grass.

Manzi went to fight on Tang Jun's territory, even if he was broken into parts, the problem of supply would still be a problem.

"Chumo, go back and step up your military training, plowing and fighting at the same time, remember to defend the castle and fortress, use bunkers to control the main traffic routes, squeeze the barbarians' movement space, and attack their supply lines. Barbarians also need to eat , the more people there are, the greater the consumption. When they have nowhere to grab food, they still have to transport food from the south bank of the river. When the time comes, Jianhu cooperates with you to block the Red River, and you block the roads with thousands of towers in Tonghai Mansion. Jiang’s barbarians couldn’t get enough food in the end, so how could they fight?”

In the end, these people either withdrew, or they could only attack the castle fortress that stored food, but isn't this what the Tang army expected?