Tibet

The Li family from Longxi arrived a little earlier than expected. On the morning of the fifth day of the first lunar month, Li Ye received an important guest, Li Qiu.

Li Qiu was the cousin of Li Kui, the Minister of Justice. He lived in Jincheng County. He knew about the Liu family's affairs on the first day of the first lunar month, but he was not in a hurry to intercede and sent an eagle letter to his cousin Li Kui.

He received a reply from his cousin Li Kui yesterday evening. There were only four words in the reply: "Save if you can."

He immediately sent an appointment with Li Ye and came to visit Li Ye this morning.

Li Qiu is about forty years old, thin, with a long beard, fair skin, and looks very elegant. In fact, he was also a Jinshi and once served as the Shaoqing of Zongzheng Temple.

Due to poor health, he took a year off sick. When the Tubo invaded and occupied Lanzhou, Li Qiu took his family to take refuge in Chengji County, Qinzhou. After Li Ye regained Lanzhou, he moved back.

Li Ye invited him to the distinguished guest hall. The two of them were seated separately, and a maid came in to serve tea.

Li Qiu sighed: "Yesterday I went to the streets and discovered that His Highness had set up a relief camp. All the homeless people had food to eat and a place to sleep. No one froze to death on New Year's Eve. This is the first time ever. , as Lanzhou gentry, we are very ashamed, but also very grateful to His Highness."

Li Ye smiled and waved his hands and said: "Your Majesty is out of touch when you say this. Since I am the Lord of Helong, it is my duty to care about the people. In fact, I did the same in Xiangyang at the beginning. I don't want to see old people and children wandering on the streets. Hanyang The Salesian Church in the county has done very well, so I promoted several county officials from Hanyang to serve as county magistrates in various counties. It can be said that this is the first key point for me to evaluate the performance of officials, and it will be the same in Helong in the future."

Li Qiu pondered for a moment and said, "Generally, the officials conduct the assessment!"

Li Ye shook his head, "The envoy may not be aware of the agreement reached with my court. All county and state officials in Helong are appointed by me. Among them, the governor of the state is recommended by me and reported to the court for filing and approval. The assessment is all my business. , there is a Department of Civil Affairs under Jiedu Mansion, which is responsible for evaluating and selecting officials."

"Then what are the criteria for selecting officials, Your Highness?"

"My selection process for officials is not lenient. First of all, one must have fame. If not, one must also have real talent and practical knowledge. After our selection and assessment, experience is the most important. Priority will be given to those who have been an official for more than three years. Preferably a local official."

Li Qiu nodded. He vaguely guessed what Li Ye meant. He was probably trying to recruit local officials from the Central Plains and Hebei.

Li Qiu stopped caring about official matters and returned to business. He pondered for a while and said: "I heard that the Liu family was arrested collectively on New Year's Eve. It is really shocking. Frankly speaking, the Li and Liu families are closely related and are closely related by flesh and blood. , could your Highness please explain to me which law of the Tang Dynasty the Liu family has violated?"

Li Qiu said hard and softly, "The Liu family is from my Li family. What law have they committed?" Do you want to punish him?

Therefore, Li Qiu emphasized the four words "Law of the Tang Dynasty" very seriously.

Li Ye sneered in his heart, took a bag of files from the side and put it on the table, "All the crimes committed by the Liu family are in it, so that you can take a closer look and see if I have wronged them?"

Li Qiu looked at the thick stack of files. He was really big-headed. He said for a long time: "Your Highness, can you tell me briefly?"

"Colluding with Tibet and betraying the Tang Dynasty is treason. It is clearly stated in the laws of the Tang Dynasty."

Li Ye pretended to be confused when he saw the other party, and said coldly: "Isn't it that you don't know this person Pang Wuyuan?"

Li Qiu quickly explained: "When the Tubo came, all the Li family members moved to Chengji County in Qinzhou. I did the same. I only came back in October last year. I have heard of this name, but I don't know who he is. , and I have never seen it.”

"He is Liu Yuan, the nephew of the envoy, the leader of the Tubo Han officials, who surrendered to the Tubo in Shanzhou."

Li Qiu pretended to be shocked, "I really don't know about such a thing."

Li Ye sneered, took out Liu Yuan's confession from the file, and took out Luo Shengfei's testimony, and handed them to Li Qiu, "You will know after you read it."

Li Qiu looked at the confession and then looked at Luo Shengfei's testimony. He was secretly annoyed. Luo Shengfei was a small person and was not worth worrying about. The key was the Xin family behind Luo Shengfei. Without the approval of the Xin family, how could Luo Shengfei testify for Li Ye? The Xin family compromised with Li Ye and stabbed the Liu family in the back.

"Liu Yuan indeed deserves his punishment, but does this have anything to do with his father Liu Shengdian? What about the other Liu family children? Could it be that they also colluded with Tubo?"

Li Ye took out several more documents and handed them to Li Qiu, "This is the letter of appointment from Ma Chongying to Liu Shengdian, intending to appoint him as the deputy governor of Longyou in Tubo. There are also letters written by Shang Jiexi and Ma Chongying to him. This is amazing." I didn’t forge it.”

Li Qiu cursed Liu Shengdian in his heart for being stupid. He didn't destroy such an important document and was caught as evidence by others. How could he intercede?

Li Ye took out various pieces of information again, "The Liu family's crimes include setting up an intelligence point in Jincheng County for Tubo and collecting information for Tubo. This information was collected by several sons of the Liu family, including city defense, food, population, water sources, etc. Important information was seized by my men at the Tibetan intelligence point, and their confessions were admitted, and the evidence is conclusive."

Li Qiu said for a while: "Of course they are guilty. I completely understand His Highness's arrest, but can Your Highness give the Li family some face and spare their lives?"

Li Ye sneered and said: "I also want to give face to the Li family, but if I bend the law for personal gain, how can I explain it to the officers and soldiers of the three armies, and how can I explain it to the thousands of Longyou people? How can I be worthy of the innocent people who were massacred by the Tubo people? ?”

"Does Your Highness have to kill them?"

Li Ye said slowly: "The crimes of the four Liu family members are unforgivable. I will make their crimes public and execute them publicly, but I will still give the Li family a face. There are no Liu family members involved in the case. I can spare them, but I will not It is for the sake of the Li family to implicate them, otherwise I will exile them all to Beiting. In addition, I will not kill the wives, sons and daughters of the Liu family, but their property will be confiscated. I will let everyone know that betrayal Longyou’s fate.”

Li Qiu walked away step by step. He already vaguely understood that Li Ye was killing people to establish his authority, and at the same time he was also warning the Li family that he could kill the younger brother of the Li family today, and he could also use other crimes to deal with him in the future. There was such a demon king in the Li family and Helong. He must notify his brother immediately.

On the sixth day of the first lunar month, Helong Jiedu Mansion posted a notice to execute Liu Shengdian and his son for treason of colluding with Tibet and betraying the Tang Dynasty, and confiscated all their property. This news immediately caused a sensation throughout Jincheng County.

At noon, Liu Shengdian, his father and his son, were publicly beheaded at the top of Guangwu City.

In the official room, Liu Yan and Li Mi were looking through the Liu family's thick property inventory. Except for the house where they lived, which had not been confiscated, other land, shops, grain, gold, silver, copper coins and other various properties were stored in the three major estates. The food amounted to half a million shi. This was two years' accumulation of food, but it was not taken away by the Tibetans.

There are also 400,000 pieces of cloth and 130,000 pieces of silk and satin.

Liu Yan sneered: "There is still so much wealth that has not been taken away by Tubo, and there is even a lot of wealth that has been swallowed up by the Liu family who pretended to be a public servant."

Li Mi said calmly: "The Tibetan civil servants did not come. The Tibetan military generals are very rough and do not care about the details at all. This shows that the benefits obtained by surrendering to Tibet are very generous."

Liu Yan nodded and asked Li Ye: "Copper coins alone can support our military salary for half a year. There are so many farmlands and shops. Your Highness doesn't leave any to them?"

Li Ye thought for a while and said: "Ten shops can be left to them. The other shops will be auctioned publicly, and all the land will be designated as military land. In addition, the Luo family's grain store in West City will be returned to the Luo family."

"Your Highness, where are these gold and silver?" Li Mi pointed to the gold and silver on the list.

Li Ye took a look at the inventory and found that there were 500,000 taels of silver and 60,000 taels of gold. This should be the accumulation of the Liu family for a hundred years.

Li Ye thought for a moment and said: "Put out 140,000 taels of silver and send it to Li Fuguo, Yu Chaoen and Cheng Yuanzhen after the spring. These three people are very important to us!"

Li Mi nodded slowly. That's what he meant. If you have money, you must spend it.