Chinese New Year

Chapter 490: Aftermath Arrangements
On the first day of March, Liang Fen, with his servants and escorted by five hundred personal soldiers, drove carts out of the city and lived in a villa outside the city.

That afternoon, Shao Xun entered the city and moved directly into the governor's office.

It is called a government office, but in fact it is also a residence, with offices in the front and people living in the back. It's just a little simple. No wonder Lao Liang doesn't like to live there, but instead lives in his own mansion in the city.

In fact, the Liang Mansion was already empty and a sale order was put up. The house, along with the fruits, vegetables, livestock, medicinal herbs, etc. that had not yet been harvested, were sold for 500,000 coins, which was a bargain.

From this we can also see that Lao Liang is a very straightforward person. He leaves when he says he will, without dragging his feet or leaving any trace. With such means, it is no wonder that he was able to survive during the Eight Kings Rebellion and rise step by step.

You know, many officials died.

Not only high-ranking court officials like Shangshu Ling Le Guang and Zuo Pushe Yang Xuanzhi, but also many lesser officials of unknown reputation, whose casualties were even more severe - well, Shi Yushi Yu Chen also survived, these are all talents.

After nightfall, Shao Xun held a banquet in his mansion and entertained several people: Nanyang Internal History Le Kai, Nanyang Palace Minister Wei Fu, Lieutenant Liang Chen, and a man named Huangfu Chang.

Needless to say, Lucky was hardly the number one family in Nanyang before, but now it has been confirmed. Whether in terms of fame, financial resources or network of relationships, it is the undisputed number one in Nanyang.

When she saw Shao Xun at this moment, she had a very pleasant conversation and kept asking why she didn't bring her nephew here. The old lady missed both her daughter and her grandson.

Liang Chen was a little reserved, but after a few drinks, he gradually warmed up.

Shao Xun once received a secret report that Liang Chen and Liang Fen had contacts and they knew each other's seniority and had a special relationship.

But he just kept it in mind and ignored it.

Liang Chen and Liang Fen may have established a relationship and maintained family ties in order to curry favor with Liang Chen or to protect themselves.

It's good that someone has reported something, but as a person in a higher position you still need to grasp the situation well. You can't take measures against someone just because of a piece of groundless news. Just investigate secretly.

Now it seems that the relationship between Liang Chen and Liang Fen is not that close. They are just clan members on the surface.

The Liang family is a large family. It would be a big mistake to think that all family members are of one mind.

In fact, sometimes they are even enemies.

Shao Xun remembered the person who was sent by the court to take over the defense of Chang'an after the retreat from Chang'an: Liang Liu.

This man was the son of Huangfu Mi's aunt, and had served as the governor of Yangping and Chengyang. He was later killed by the remnants of Sima Yong, among whom was Liang Mai, the governor of Shiping.

It's not surprising that the children of big families are divided into different places and end up like this.

Liang Chen had no problem with this matter; his problem lay in other areas.

When talking about the Liang family, we have to mention the Huangfu family.

The two clans both had stable origins and many intermarriages between them. For example, Liang Liu's mother was Huangfu Mi's cousin.

Huangfu Chang was the son of Huangfu Chong, the former governor of Qinzhou.

Shao Xun had heard of this name.

When the kings of Hejian and Chengdu attacked Luoyang, Sima Yue was still in the camp of the king of Changsha, and the brothers Huangfu Shang and Huangfu Chong also depended on the king of Changsha.

After the war began, Huangfu Chong was besieged by troops sent by King Hejian.

Huangfu Shang took a secret path into Guanzhong and headed west with an imperial edict, intending to get the governors who were besieging Huangfu Zhong to withdraw their troops. However, he was betrayed by his nephew halfway through the journey and died.

Huangfu Zhong was isolated and helpless, so he sent his adopted son Huangfu Chang to break out and go to Luoyang for help, but to no avail.

At that time, Shao Xun was still in Jinyong City, but he did not get to meet this man. He only heard vaguely that he had persuaded a few officials to do something, but it ended in failure.

Huangfu Chang had obviously thought of this as well. He glanced at Shao Xun sheepishly and raised his wine glass from a distance.

Shao Xun was a little surprised. Did you plan some conspiracy to murder me?
But that's all old news.

At that time, the positions were confused. Today they were allies, and tomorrow they were enemies. Backstabbing was common, and nothing was surprising.

After he put down his wine glass, he pondered for a moment, successfully attracted the attention of several people, and then said: "The ancients taught 'to be virtuous and cautious in attacking'. Now that the Nanyang soldiers have returned home, the matter ends here, which can be said to be a good thing."

As he spoke, he gently stood up, put his hands behind his back, and slowly paced in the hall, saying, "Today, there is a difficult matter."

Having said that, he turned around and looked at the people present.

However, Le Kai was much better at supporting the audience than Liang Laodeng, and he immediately asked, "What difficulties do you have, sir? Please tell us, and we will discuss it and perhaps help you."

Shao Xun nodded slightly and said, "Yesterday in the camp, I heard about the dispute between the Nanyang natives and the immigrants. The situation and the scene were so pitiful that I could not sleep or eat in peace."

After that, he sighed and said, "The natives and refugees are all common people. I also know that it is difficult to discuss the right and wrong. Now I just hope that the natives and refugees can live in peace and rest, so that farming will not be abandoned and storage will be regular. What do you have to teach me?"

The other three people all turned their eyes to Lucky.

Lucky actually thought about it beforehand.

We were all smart people. When we saw that Shao Xun had no intention of repatriating the refugees from Guanxi, we knew what to do.

Before coming to the banquet, he even had a brief consultation with representatives of each family. Now these people have each sent servants with letters to rush back to their families to report the news.

Le Kai didn't mind giving up some more land. Anyway, his family had made a lot of money in the past few years. The number of land, farmhands and soldiers increased dramatically. Yongraoye in the south of Wancheng was also deeply infiltrated by their family, and they traded a lot of high-quality military equipment.

The Le family's troops were brought out and they looked pretty good.

There were more than a hundred cavalrymen, and more than a thousand elite troops wearing iron armor and holding large spears.

There are also weapons such as powerful crossbows that are rarely seen outside.

All of them were accumulated in recent years, and Yongraoye, which has more than 5,000 craftsmen and laborers, made a great contribution.

His two younger brothers, one was the Internal History of Xincai and the other was the Attendant of the Imperial Court, while he himself was the Internal History of Nanyang.

Although the Le family is not a first-rate aristocratic family, it is a local powerful family whose strength exceeds its fame.

The benefits of working with Mr. Chen are too great. Even if he bleeds a little temporarily, he will surely get it back many times in the future. He doesn't mind at all.

But others may not agree with him.

Your sister will marry the King of Chengdu as his concubine first, and the Le family will reap the benefits.

Just when things were a little bit down, his younger sister suddenly transformed herself into Madam Le in Mr. Chen's mansion and gave birth to his eldest son. The Le family continued to reap the benefits.

So your Le family always wins, right? What's in it for us?
So, this matter is actually quite difficult to handle.

The conflict between the natives and the Hakkas is not just talk. The conflict between the natives and the Hakkas in Nanyang has been going on for a long time.

The Wang Mi bandits who were left behind in Henan were able to create conflicts between the natives and the immigrants in just one or two years, not to mention the problems in Nanyang that had lasted for more than ten or twenty years.

But since Lord Chen had asked, he had to express his positive attitude, so he said: "You led the army south and put an end to a great rebellion, which is a victory without fighting. For the people of Nanyang, this is a peace without effort, which is a great benefit. In this turbulent time, we should tolerate each other for the sake of the country. I think that perhaps we can measure the land and distribute it to the refugees to reassure them."

"Oh? How do you measure it?" Shao Xun asked.

"The Wang Ru Rebellion is the boundary. All the land occupied after the boundary must be returned. Those occupied by refugees from Guanxi are not included in this restriction," said Le Kai.

For counties and kingdoms such as Nanyang and Xiangyang, Wang Ru's rebellion was a major event that greatly destroyed local order.

A large number of self-cultivating farmers, some local tyrants and even a small number of gentry just disappeared.

After the chaos, many people crossed the river to the south and took boats to settle in Jiangzhou and Yangzhou.

As a result, there were actually a lot of vacant fields, which were gradually occupied by the nobles and powerful families in Nanyang.

But with the sharp decline in population, they could not actually cultivate so many fields, so a lot of wasteland was picked up and cultivated by refugees from Guanxi.

What Le Kai meant was that it would be a concession for the Nanyang nobles and powerful families to give up the land they had annexed after Wang Ruzhi's rebellion and distribute it to the refugees from Guanxi.

After listening to it, Shao Xun felt that it was quite feasible, so he nodded and agreed: "Hongxu can negotiate with the various tribes on my behalf, and wait for good news."

"I will follow your orders, sir." Le Kai replied.

After discussing with the Nanyang representative, Shao Xun looked at the three Guanxi people and asked, "How many forts have you three visited recently?"

The three of them looked at each other, and finally Wei Fu said, "More than twenty in total."

"How much is the household registration?"

"More than 14,000."

“Does the family have enough food?”

"Just enough to make ends meet."

Shao Xun nodded, this was to be expected.

Even with Liang Fen's help, when faced with a strong backlash from the Nanyang natives, the Guanxi people would certainly start by cultivating the marginal lands that the natives had left uncultivated.

Why are these lands left uncultivated?
Nanyang has experienced wars many times, the earliest of which can be traced back to the period of Zhao Wanglun. Later, it was affected by Zhang Chang's rebellion. After it was barely suppressed, it was hit by Wang Ru's rebellion.

This land is not peaceful.

After the population dropped sharply, there were fewer people and more land, so the natives of Nanyang naturally picked the best and most fertile land to cultivate, and the people of Guanxi could only pick up what was left. Coupled with the factor of abandonment, it is conceivable that the harvest was not high.

It's normal to be hungry.

"I want to recruit a group of Guanxi people to go to Runan counties to farm, and govern them according to national laws and military laws." Shao Xun said, "First recruit 5,000 households, and then recruit 10,000 households. Can you do this for me?"

There are too many refugees from Guanxi in the counties north of Mianyang. After more than ten or twenty years, there are more than 60,000 families, and there are even many "Guanxi people" who were born in Nanyang.

He planned to dilute it, on the one hand to ease the conflicts between the natives and the immigrants, and on the other hand to create a base in Runan and strengthen control over the local area.

Runan was the last fortress in western Henan that had not yet been cleared on a large scale. This large county must be turned into a de facto directly governed territory. Moreover, Runan had more wasteland than Nanyang. Many places had been in their original form until the Tang Dynasty and had never been developed, making them perfect for resettling refugees.

After all, self-employed farmers are the basic base.

He wants direct rule, not indirect rule, and certainly not a united front.

Fifteen thousand households are just the first batch. He will recruit the second and third batches depending on the situation.

But he would not take all the Guanxi people in Nanyang away, as that would be neither realistic nor reasonable. Those who understand will understand the reason.

"When your Excellency gives an order, we must obey it." Wei Fu, Liang Chen, and Huangfu Chang said in unison.

(End of this chapter)