Valley Emperor

On the surface, this imperial edict issued by Lin Zhe is to reward Cai Erhu, but in fact it has a deeper purpose, which is to avoid the situation of Jiguanshan before: the young and strong bandits captured are divided up by Fang Dongquan and Huang Xueren.

Based on this, Li Xuan directly imitated Huang Xueren's situation when he surrendered: he was awarded an official title!

He named Cai Erhu the Great General of Zhenxi and gave him the title of Zhenxi Army.

As for not even seeing Cai Erhu's people, Li Xuan, who is unreliable and so on, doesn't care so much. In short, he thinks that if there are two generals with heavy soldiers in the Tang Dynasty, it is better to have three or even three. Four, five, or even more generals with heavy armour.

For a long time in the future, it is Li Xuan's established plan to curb the growth rate of Fang Dongquan and Huang Xueren's strength, and to support more generals to divide their military power. Its importance is second only to resisting the Ming army.

After all, there are many factions below, so he should be at ease as an emperor, otherwise, he is always worried that Fang Dong Plenum will one day lead someone into the 'Imperial Palace'.

It has been more than half a year since this era, and Li Xuan often dreamed of the scene of his own death. Either he was captured by the Ming army and beheaded, executed by Ling Chi, or he dreamed that the Ming army defeated the bandits in the Tang Dynasty. In the end, he threw a well or overhanging beams at the last moment when the enemy came, and sometimes dreamed that Fang Dongquan brought countless armored soldiers into the palace and slashed himself with a knife, and then Fang Dongquan laughed and sat on the dragon chair.

As the saying goes, there are dreams every day and nights. These dreams also represent the two situations that Li Xuan is most worried about and fears the most: being defeated by the Ming army; and his subordinates rebelling!

No matter which one of these two situations it is, for Li Xuan, it is beyond redemption!

The only thing that reassured him was that Bai Yunqi had gradually persuaded most of the Ming army prisoners. There were more than 60 Ming army prisoners before, except for seven or eight stubborn people who still refused to surrender. , the remaining fifty or so people have chosen to surrender one after another under threat and inducement, and joined Bai Yunqi's standing army rear army.

In addition, what made Li Xuan feel more at ease, and even had a little confidence in the future, was that the guards he personally trained were gradually taking shape, and the number of them also slowly increased with the growth of the Tang population.

From the beginning of more than 20 people to more than 50 now.

In the follow-up, Li Xuan also plans to continue to select soldiers of suitable age from the newly surrendered Jiguanshan, Heihuzhai, and Huangguishan people. He estimates that there should be another thirty or forty people.

In this way, the number of the guards directly controlled by him can reach more than 80 people!

The Guards plus the standing army rear army under Bai Yunqi's command, then the power under the control of the 'royal family' can reach more than 100 people. At that time, he will have enough confidence to fight Fang Dongquan, Huang Xueren and the others. And get rid of the current embarrassing status of the puppet emperor to hold real power.

Once he can grasp the real power, then Li Xuan will not hesitate to implement a series of reform plans he envisions.

Among these reform plans, the most important is undoubtedly the military reform!

The armed force of the Tang Dynasty must not be a group of bandits, it must be an army, and it must also be an elite army with strict military discipline and distinct military types.

Because only in this way, the Datang army, which has a small population and fewer soldiers, can resist the attack of the Ming army!

If the Tang Dynasty does not die, only Li Xuan can survive!

The Guards that are being trained today are, to a certain extent, a preliminary test of Li Xuan. Only through the Guards can he test it out: If you want to get an elite army in this era, how to train it and what to use tactics, what equipment to use.

But those are things in the future. For Li Xuan and the Tang Dynasty, accepting and arranging the follow-up captives of Heihu Village and Huanggui Mountain is a big deal.

Because the weather was cold and it was snowing, the team escorting the old and weak prisoners from Heihu Village walked relatively slowly, arriving at Huangzhu Mountain two days later than previously expected.

The three hundred people had just arrived at Huangzhu Mountain, so Liu Bagou led everyone to arrange one by one and gave them a temporary wooden house.

As for other daily necessities, such as clothing and even food, Liu Bagou and the others don't need to worry too much, because although these people from the Black Tiger Village were escorted after their surrender, most of them basically gave their belongings to them. brought.

For these people, moving from Heihu Village to Huangzhu Mountain doesn't actually change much, it just changes to a wooden house.

However, there are still a few people who are short of food and clothing for various reasons. These people are the ones that Liu Bagou and the others need to take care of. The distribution of rice grains and even clothes is a must.

After a busy day, Liu Bagou, with a tired face, found Li Xuan: "Your Majesty, the people from Black Tiger Village have settled down initially!"

Li Xuan said: "That's good, the Prime Minister has worked hard!"

Liu Bagou said: "Serving Your Majesty, how can I work so hard, it's too late to be happy!"

Li Xuan said: "Today, the people sent by the palace to buy outside the mountains came back, and they also brought back a few jars of fine wine. The Prime Minister will bring back a jar!"

When Liu Bagou heard ~www.wuxiax.com~, he just wanted to make a habitual refusal, but after hesitating for a while, he finally didn't say it, but said, "I thank you, Your Majesty, for your gift!"

Seeing his expression, Li Xuan smiled immediately. He knew that Liu Bagou likes to drink, but now there is no wine in the Yellow Bamboo Mountain, only a few wines that were secretly bought from outside.

Now, the Ming army outside is blocking the main passage into the mountain. It is impossible for people to enter and exit on a large scale. Only a few people can enter and exit by small roads.

During this time, the Tang Dynasty also dispatched a small number of purchasing personnel to sneak out of the mountains to purchase some necessary living materials.

Among them, the most important material is a material that is very common and ordinary in the eyes of later generations, but is very important in this era: salt!

There is no salt produced in the mountains, and it is impossible for people not to eat salt. If you want to ensure the supply of salt, you can only buy it from outside the mountains.

But it takes money to buy supplies. Unfortunately, there is not much silver in the Tang Dynasty, and almost all of it is in the hands of the Queen Mother Bai.

Huang Zhushan itself had no money. At first, there was only a small amount of fine silver that Mrs. Bai carried when she fled, and these silvers were later used to buy food and salt.

After attacking Shuilongzhai and defeating the Ming army, they seized some cash, but the amount was not large, only about a hundred taels of cash and some gold and silver jewelry. However, the money was taken away by the Queen Mother Bai. Her reason is very simple: She used all her money to buy food and salt, and now the money she has seized has to be returned to her.

Liu Bagou refused at first, saying that the money was a trophy and would go to the state treasury, but Madam Bai pointed at him and scolded, "God bastard, that's my mother's private money!"

As soon as she spoke, she sent a few old mothers under her to grab the money directly!