Chapter 545: General's Change of Job

It was the third day after Ji Guangchen finally decided to surrender to Li Qing'an. He was deeply touched by the Anxi army who was jailing him. There were a total of sixteen soldiers guarding him. No one cared about him except these sixteen people, which made him have a slight idea of ​​running away. He has been waiting for an opportunity.

Sixteen people were divided into four classes, each class guarding him for three hours, but in the three hours, no soldier was lazy. They were like sixteen statues, guarding the four corners of his tent with all concentration, no jokes, no jokes, and even no communication. They were so silent that they were scary.

As long as he had a little movement, soldiers would immediately check it and record it. He also noticed in particular that the soldiers who changed the post arrived on time, no one spoke, signed and handed over, and the military rules were very strict.

On the first day, Ji Guangchen was surprised. He did not expect that the ordinary soldiers of the Anxi Army were so rigorous. At the same time, he was filled with sneer. Li Guangbi was deliberately showing him! The next day, he slowly became deflated. The Anxi Army guards were impeccable, so he had no chance to escape.

On the third day, he was finally shocked. He had already realized that this was not Li Guangbi who deliberately made it for him to show it, this was the usual style of Anxijun, rigorous and meticulous.

Ji Guangchen began to ponder. From this small detail, he could see the strict military discipline and style of the Anxi Army. This style cannot be achieved in one day or two days. It takes several years or even more than ten years of persistence to form. In contrast, Li Heng's Guanzhong Army seemed to have a very scattered military discipline. Many people came for mixed military rations and pay. When they encountered a more tragic war, they surrendered or fled. This was the case with his army. Thirty thousand people were sneak attacked by 20,000 Anxi cavalry and became a chaotic group. Most of them surrendered or fled. Only more than 2,000 people thought of resisting. What if it were the Anxi Army? Ji Guangchen believed that even if they were sneak attacked, even if the Anxi Army soldiers were in their own formation, they would fight bloody battles with the sneak attack army to the end. Even with their rigor and attention to scouts, it would be difficult to be sneak attacked.

It was this contrast that made Ji Guangchen, who had always been prejudiced against the Anxi Army, began to reflect on himself. He felt the gap between Li Heng and Li Qing'an. Li Qing'an's Anxi Army was tempered from countless bloody battles, but what about Li Heng's army? Most of the soldiers had never experienced a decent war. Can they be compared?

He originally thought that Li Heng would defeat Li Qing'an, and Ji Guangchen would win Li Heng's respect for his loyalty, but now he knows how naive his ideas are. Not to mention that Li Heng will not trust him anymore. Even if he can trust him, Li Heng would not have this opportunity. Li Heng would definitely be defeated by Li Qing'an's hands. The soldiers in the Central Plains were too lazy, and they could not defeat the murderous Anxi army at all.

Ji Guangchen began to consider his future. At this time, he abandoned his arrogance and scholarly aura. He finally found that he actually had only one way, that is, surrender to Li Qing'an as soon as possible, so that he would have the chance to be re-activated.

In this way, he thought for three days and finally expressed his willingness to surrender to Li Guangbi on the way to Luoyang.

In the vast rain and fog, Ji Guangchen was taken into Li Qing'an's tent by several soldiers. The rain was very heavy. Although some soldiers held umbrellas for him, he was still soaked by the wind and rain.

At this time, Li Qing'an had finished talking with Li Guangbi in the tent. Li Qing'an sat in the position of coach to review the memorials sent from Anxi without raising his head. Li Guangbi sat aside. He seemed a little helpless. He didn't understand why Li Qing'an was so cold to Ji Guangchen.

Li Qing'an actually met Ji Guangchen when he was in Chang'an a long time ago. At that time, they were both generals of the Central Army. In his memory, Ji Guangchen was very skilled in military calligraphy and military techniques, and he was very knowledgeable. Although he felt like talking about war on paper, Li Qing'an had to admit that this person was indeed a versatile talent in civil and military affairs. He could not only lead troops to fight, but also govern prefectures and counties.

On the other hand, Ji Guangchen is very arrogant. He neither makes friends with powerful families nor pays attention to ordinary generals like him who have no background. Because of this, Li Qingan does not want to treat such people too favorably, which will make him even more arrogant. Only by severely frustrating his arrogance can he serve himself wholeheartedly.

Ji Guangchen was taken into the tent, and no one handed him a dry towel to wipe his face, and no one gave him ginger soup to warm him up. He stood alone in front of the tent, a little at a loss. At this time, a gust of wind and rain blew, causing him to tremble all over. Only then did he realize that he had surrendered to Li Qing'an.

He quickly stepped forward, knelt down on one knee and said, "The defeated general Ji Guangchen met with His Highness Zhao, the governor of Anxi!"

Li Qing'an still ignored him, but Li Guangbi next to him couldn't stand it anymore, so he smiled and reminded him: "Has General Ji decided to serve our general?"

Ji Guangchen's face was flushed and it was very difficult to ask him to say what he wanted to surrender, but he knew that he had to express his opinion. He gritted his teeth and said, "I am willing to serve the general for his job!"

Li Qing'an's face then calmed down a little. He gave a wink to his personal soldiers and said slowly: "General Ji, please get up!"

Two personal soldiers helped him up and handed him a dry towel and ginger tea. Ji Guangchen silently wiped the rainwater from his face with the towel, but shook his head at ginger tea, saying that he didn't need it.

"Thank you, General!"

Li Qingan still ignored him, Ji Guangchen didn't say anything, lowered his head. His former arrogance was completely invisible to him at this moment. After a while, Li Qingan put down his pen and said lightly: "I wonder what General Ji's plans are in the future?"

"I am willing to obey the general's arrangements."

"What if I don't let you join the army anymore?"

Ji Guangchen didn't understand what Li Qing'an said, and he sighed and said, "Then I'm willing to go home to farm!"

"Oh!" Li Qingan smiled slightly and asked him again, "I wonder how many acres of land is in General Ji's home?"

Ji Guangchen's family is a large Luoyang clan, but his own family does not have much land. His parents only leave him a hundred acres of land. He pondered for a moment and said, "Minister's parents left 120 acres of land, and the Yongye field in Huinister also has two hectares of fertile land, which is totally so much."

Being an honest official and not greedy for soldiers’ food and salary is also one of Ji Guangchen’s advantages. Li Qing'an is interested in this. He nodded and said to him: “I just said that I don’t want General Ji to join the army again. It just so happened that the prefect of Huaizhou was transferred last month. The new prefect has not decided yet. You can go to Huaizhou to be the prefect! At the same time, he also serves as the Huaizhou regiment training envoy."

Huaizhou is located north of the Yellow River, which is today in Jiaozuo, Henan, and also belongs to Duji Province. Although Ji Guangchen did not understand why Li Qing'an did not allow himself to join the army and became a prefect, since he had surrendered to Li Qing'an, he naturally had to obey the arrangements. Moreover, being a prefect is far better than his initial expectations. He thought he would be demoted to be a general of the Central Army.

This shows that Li Qing'an still valued him very much. Ji Guangchen was excited. He quickly bowed and said, "I am willing to go to Huaizhou to take up his post!"

"Well! I should call you Ji Jun now."

Li Qing'an's smile disappeared, and he said to Ji Guangchen solemnly: "You go to Huaizhou and do two things for me this year. First, we must train farmers according to my Anxi regiment training Baojia method, and send them military weapons to hide their troops. The minimum limit I give you is to train 30,000 regiments to train militias. The number of people is not capped. The more the more, the better. If An Lushan invades the south, Huaizhou will be damaged for the first time. I don't want the people of Huaizhou to become slaughtered lambs, do you understand?"

Ji Guangchen felt awesome in his heart and hurriedly bowed and said, "I understand the humble profession!"

Seeing that he was sincere, Li Qing'an's face gradually calmed down and said, "The second is to cooperate with Pei Xi, the prefect of Henan and the chief of Duji Province, to impose land restrictions. The land of thirteen powerful families in Huaizhou is within the limit, involving a total of 27,000 hectares of fertile land. Pei Xi will give you a specific list. You must equalize the land before the end of the year. You must not neglect the law because the landlord is Li Heng's person, otherwise I will rule you with military law."

"I dare not be a humble position. In fact, humble position also supports restricting the land, and I also have my own ideas about restricting the land by the general."

"Is that true! Do you have any ideas? Let me tell you?" Li Qingan asked with interest.

Just as Ji Guangchen was about to speak, Li Qingan waved his hand and smiled: "Sit down and talk!"

Li Guangbi next to him stood up and smiled and said, "Since I'm talking about the article, I'll say goodbye first."

"No! You sit down and listen."

Li Qingan didn't allow him to leave. He knocked on the table and said a little displeased: "You, Li Siye, and the other one, all know how to fight. Not to mention Li Fei Yuanli, it's just a rough man. This is not enough. You should learn like Duan Xiushi. Not only is it a martial arts strategy, but also a civilized governance. You can only stand alone in the future, especially the land issue. This is the fundamental problem of the rise and fall of all dynasties. This is the case thousands of years ago, and it is the same in thousands of years. You must be patient and listen!"

Li Qing'an's tone became more and more severe. Li Guangbi wiped the sweat from his forehead. He knew that his lord would not take ordinary trivial matters seriously, but he was very strict in fundamental major matters. He did not dare to argue, so he sat up straight and prepared to listen carefully.

Li Qingan said nothing more and said to Ji Guangchen: "Tell me!"

Seeing that Li Qing'an was also mercilessly scolding Li Guangbi, Ji Guangchen was even more afraid of Li Qing'an. He slowly sat down and sorted out his thoughts: "I thought that the general should be targeted at restricting land, and everyone could not fight together. Now it should be to ease land annexation rather than completely overturn the reform. That would cause the landlords in the world to oppose the general. Wang Mang was too radical in the Han Dynasty and offended the world's powerful people, which made his new dynasty short. I hope the general will not repeat the same mistakes."

Although Ji Guangchen's words were not innovative, and many people have reminded Li Qing'an, it is rare for him to see this as a general. Li Qing'an nodded and said, "Tell me, who should I limit the land?"

Ji Guangchen thought for a while and said, "The General said just now that he was the powerful and powerful who surrendered to the Southern Tang Dynasty. The reason why these people surrendered to the Southern Tang Dynasty was to oppose the General. It is natural to take them for granted. I think the General did the same. There is also a big family with land, and it is also an easy person to attack. I advise the General to take action against them."

"Are you talking about a temple?" Li Qingan asked with a smile.

“It’s the temple!”

Seeing that Li Qing'an understood his thoughts, Ji Guangchen couldn't help but laugh and said, "Since the Wu Zetian era, the occupation of fields in Buddhist temples has become more and more intense, no less than that of the royal family and the powerful. It is a major cancer of the Tang Dynasty. Starting from the first year of Tianbao, Li Longji respected Taoism and suppressed Buddha, and his purpose was to restrict the encroachment of land in temples. However, he failed. Not only was the unification of fields in Buddhist temples and fields not restricted, but the Taoist temples also began to occupy fields. The people suffered so much. Emperor Jingzong began to limit fields, but it was only targeted at the royal family and the powerful people. Before he had time to take action against Buddhist temples and Taoist temples, I advise the general to start attacking the world temples after limiting the fields of the powerful family in the Southern Tang Dynasty. This will not only ease the annexation of land, but will not be hated by famous families in the world. What do the general think?"

Ji Guangchen actually has selfishness. His Ji family is a famous family in Luoyang. He is very clear about their class’s concerns about the future. They are afraid that Li Qing'an’s new policy will affect their vital interests. If that is the case, they will definitely stand up to resist Li Qing'an’s regime. Ji Guangchen largely supports Li Heng because Li Heng clearly promised to protect the interests of their class. As the relevant stakeholders of famous families, Ji Guangchen certainly hopes to have the opportunity to convince Li Qing'an, at least tell Li Qing'an what their class thinks. Today was the first appointment after his surrender, but he accidentally got this opportunity. Ji Guangchen seized this opportunity to express his wish to Li Qing'an.

For Li Qing'an, more than one person has raised this question to him, including the Pei family, Cui family, Lu family, Dugu family, etc. They all hope that Li Qing'an's new policy will not involve too much and do not infringe on the interests of famous families. Today, Ji Guangchen is just repeating what many people have said, but today Ji Guangchen's words are very effective.

Just as quantitative change will change qualitatively to a certain extent, Ji Guangchen's words were the first persuasion after Li Qing'an began to compete for the Central Plains, which forced Li Qing'an to calm down and consider his next political strategy.

After seeing off Ji Guangchen and Li Guangbi, Li Qing'an stood in front of the tent with his hands behind his back. He stared at the night and the rainy weather, but his thoughts fluctuated. If a party or a strong figure in history wants to win the world, he must rely on one class and destroy another class. What class does Li Qing'an need to rely on?

‘Do you rely on the peasant class?’

Li Qing'an shook his head. From ancient times to the present, those who seized the world have always used the peasant class, rather than relying on the peasant class. Liu Han, Li Tang, Zhao Song, and Zhu Ming were all like this. But how could he take the world on horseback? The Qin Dynasty did not know the current affairs and overthrew the Warring States aristocratic class, but failed to cultivate a new relying class in time. He ruled the world in tyranny, and lost the people's hearts, and was used by the old nobles, and died in the second lifetime. The same was true for the Sui Dynasty. Emperor Wen of Sui established the three provinces and six ministries system in order to completely destroy the aristocratic system since the Han and Jin Dynasties. As a result, he violated the interests of famous families. He also because he did not establish a new relying class. As a result, the world's tyranny rebelled, causing the Sui Second Emperor to die, but was finally picked up by Li Tang.

History tells Li Qingan in a resolute and never looking back that the deceased has passed, and only those who come can follow the trend is his wise move. He relies on famous families to destroy the Li Tang royal family and establish a new class to destroy the aristocratic families. As long as he wins over the peasant class, the aristocratic families will not have the foundation to rebel.
Chapter completed!