Tibet

It was the first time that Li Ye met his father's concubine, Mrs. Jiang, and his half-sister Li Yun.

Jiang was about 26 or 26 years old, a native of Luoyang, from a poor family. She learned singing and dancing since she was a child, and later became a singer. By chance, the 18-year-old Jiang met a drunk Li Dai. Jiang served Li Dai for a night, and Li Dai He was so moved that he raised her as a housewife.

A year later, when Yu Wenluo found out, she became furious and took a group of strong women to beat Jiang. At that time, Jiang was already four months pregnant. In order to keep the fetus in her belly, she had to agree to all Yu Wenluo's conditions. He fled Chang'an overnight and returned to Luoyang.

Eight years passed in a flash. Both Jiang's parents died. The mother and daughter were really helpless, so they wrote a letter to Li Dai, which started Li Dai's trip to Luoyang last year.

Although Pei Sanniang was also very angry, she was not Yu Wenluo. For the sake of her children, she accepted the Jiang family and allowed her husband to take her as his concubine. From then on, the Jiang family and her daughter were finally able to settle down.

Mrs. Jiang was very humble in front of Pei Sanniang, which made Pei Sanniang feel a little pity for her. She was pretty good to her. She gave her a yard, several maids and maids, and gave her several sets of gold jewelry and several boxes of clothes. She was paid ten yuan a month. Guan, a little lower than himself, asked the female teacher to teach Li Yun how to read and write.

Jiang's mother believed in Buddhism, and Jiang also placed her hope in Buddha even in poverty. Aunt Mu liked this very much and often took her to the temple.

Daughter Li Yun is eight years old this year. Her skin is very white, like her mother, but her eyebrows and eyebrows are exactly like her father Li Dai. She is also very similar to Li Ye. She is a little beauty. Unfortunately, she has been malnourished since she was a child and has become a little thinner. This little lady is very smart and good at Li Dai especially likes this daughter because she is very observant and sweet-tongued. Even Pei Sanniang likes her very much and allows her to call him aunt.

Li Dai had two sons. One son failed to live up to expectations, which made him half angry, and the other son was too strong, which made him afraid. Only the younger daughter was well-behaved, sensible, sweet-tongued, and followed her father like a little bird. Li Dai found the feeling of being a father again and loved her especially.

Li Ye passed a carriage, and the window opened, revealing the fair and thin face of his sister Li Yun. She asked timidly: "Brother, have you been to Luoyang?"

Li Ye smiled and said, "I'm going west. I've almost never been to the east and south of Guanzhong. By the way, I've been to Hedong City once before, but that doesn't count."

"Luoyang is very big, almost the same as Chang'an. Our family lives next to Luoshui, and I grew up right next to Luoshui.

"Is there anything interesting in Luoshui?"

Li Yun shook her head, "Luoshui is full of stones. All kinds of stones are often washed ashore by the water. When I was a child, I often went to pick up stones with a group of companions. Unfortunately, I ran slowly, and all the beautiful stones were picked up by them. I just had to pick up some pebbles.”

Li Ye thought for a moment, took out an emerald the size of a pigeon egg from his horse bag, and handed it to her, "This stone is very beautiful, give it to you!"

Li Yun's eyes lit up and she held the gem with both hands. She was fascinated by the emerald green color and exclaimed for a while: "It's so beautiful!"

Jiang recognized the preciousness of the gem and was shocked. She quickly said: "This is an emerald. It's so precious. Ah Yun, please return it to me!"

Li Ye smiled and waved his hand, "She is my sister. Giving her a gem is nothing, just accept it! But don't take it out, it will make people jealous."

"Thank you brother!"

Li Yun happily covered the gem on her chest, "I promise not to take it out!"

Li Ye chuckled and said, "Leave it to mother for safekeeping! It will be used as your dowry in the future."

He urged his horse to run forward. In front of him was a big river blocking the way. When the Han River arrived, a tall city on the other side of the Han River was Xiangyang.

Shannan East Road includes thirteen prefectures, including Dengzhou, Tangzhou, Xiangzhou, Junzhou, Fangzhou, Suizhou, Yingzhou, Fuzhou, Jingzhou, Xiazhou, Guizhou, Kuizhou, Wanzhou, etc., and is governed by Xiangyang.

Li Dai served as the observer of Shannan East Road and the governor of Xiangzhou. He was the highest political officer of the entire Shannan East Road. The Jinzou Academy in Chang'an was also established in the name of Shannan East Road, followed by the Thirteen Prefecture Branches.

This is actually a kind of dual leadership. Each state is under the jurisdiction of the imperial court and at the same time it is under the jurisdiction of the observers. Just like the tax bureau in later generations, it is under the jurisdiction of local governments and the General Administration of Taxation.

The powers of the Observer are extremely great, and they can handle everything from military armor, wealth, and folk customs, so they are also called the capital. For example, tax burdens are collected from the various states to the capital warehouse, and then transported to the capital by the capital.

Another example is that when Li Dai was the minister of the Ministry of Revenue the year before last, he transferred millions of dan of grain from Jiangnan East Road and Liangzhe Road. He just transferred it from the warehouse of the capital. Otherwise, how much time would it take to transfer it to each state?

The biggest difference between the Observer Envoy and the Jiedushi Envoy is military power. Shannan East Road is not a military town, so it has no defense function. Although it has no defense function, it does not mean that there is no army. Each state has state soldiers, mainly to prevent bandits and thieves.

The state soldiers in large states are led by tuanlian envoys or captains, while the state soldiers in small states are under the supervision of the governor. Then there is a capital training envoy, and Li Dai serves as the capital training envoy of Shannan East Road.

The total number of state soldiers in the thirteen states is approximately 15,000.

Li Dai's appointment as the observation envoy of Shannan East Road this time was actually arranged by Prince Li Heng, with a special mission. Seeing that An Lushan's rebellion was imminent and the emperor did not take it seriously, Prince Li Heng began to secretly plan. Li Heng considered arranging Li Dai to have you. The two major options are, one is to let him take over Bashu, and the other is to take over Shannan to protect Jianghan water transportation.

Bashu was Yang Guozhong's hometown. Li Heng did not compete with Yang Guozhong, so he retreated and asked Li Dai to go to Xiangyang to serve as the observation envoy of Shannan East Road.

Li Dai's mission was to defend Jianghan. Of course he had to consider forming an army. This is why Li Ye followed his father to Xiangyang. He wanted to help his father build an army.

After taking office, Li Dai was busy meeting with officials, commanding his subordinates, understanding the people's sentiments, and controlling finance, taxation, and food, while Li Ye began to think about military affairs for his father.

There is also a functional department under the Observer's Office, similar to the Ministry of War, called the Department of Military Affairs, but it has no real power and is mainly responsible for some civilian affairs.

The order's name was Wang Wenzheng, a native of Xiangyang. When Li Ye found him, he was flattered. Wang Wenzheng knew who Li Ye was. He was the governor of Anxi and a general of hussars. He had just been named King of Lu. He was much more powerful than his father.

He brought a thick stack of documents and files and placed them in front of Li Ye, and introduced: "There are 15,000 state soldiers in Shannan East Road, including 5,000 in Xiangzhou, and 2,000 in Dengzhou and Xiangzhou each. These three major states alone account for 9,000 people, and the remaining 6,000 people are distributed among the ten states."

Li Ye nodded and asked, "Are all these armies under the control of the governors of each state?"

"Except for the three major states, the rest of the states are under the jurisdiction of both the governor and the governor."

“Are there any thorns in these three major states?”

Wang Wenzheng thought for a moment and said, "I can't talk about stabbing the head, but the state soldiers all have a close relationship with the local wealthy families. Some of the state soldiers are even the villagers of wealthy families."

Seeing that he was a little hesitant, Li Ye smiled and said, "Are the three major states difficult to manage?"

Wang Wenzheng nodded, "The general is absolutely right. The state soldiers in the three major states are all under the jurisdiction of the regiment training envoys, and they simply ignore the orders of the observation envoys. The former observation envoy Yuan Huan called the state soldiers for training twice, and all the soldiers came. The 6,000 troops from Xiaozhou and the state soldiers from the three major states did not come, and among them was Chang Lian, the training envoy of the Xiangzhou regiment, at the head."

"What's Chang Lian's background?"

"Chang Lian is the son-in-law of Prime Minister Du Xian. He is backed by the Du family in Xiangyang. He has been serving as the training envoy of Xiangzhou regiment for twenty years. He is nicknamed He Baihu. His five sons have all served as generals and controlled the training of Xiangyang's five thousand regiments. Known as the Five Tigers of Xiangyang, they control Xiangyang City, bully men and women, and do all kinds of evil. I heard that He Baihu will celebrate his 50th birthday next month. In fact, he already celebrated his 50th birthday in November last year, and now he celebrates it again. Everyone They all say that he is trying to show off to the new observer, to let the observer know who is the master of Xiangyang."

Li Ye nodded, this is a local snake! It was the same in every state and county in the Tang Dynasty. Foreign officials had to have a good relationship with local snakes and protect their interests in order to serve as officials smoothly. Otherwise, life would be difficult and government orders would not be able to get out of the government offices.

If my father wanted to be a relaxed observer and the rest would be simple and leave the army alone, he wouldn't have any trouble.

But no! At the beginning of the Anshi Rebellion, An Lushan would definitely order the army to attack Jianghan, seize Jingxiang, and cut off the Tang Dynasty's water transportation from Jianghan.

Therefore, military power must be grasped and the army must be trained into a combat-effective army.

Of course, Li Ye didn't have time, but he could keep three hundred soldiers to help his father control and train the army.