allonlinenovel Chapter 165: The Family's Response
Chapter 165: The Family's Response
Looking at His Royal Highness the Crown Prince sitting in the main seat with a serious expression, they had a premonition that many of them would die today.
For example, the two military and political leaders, the Governor of Taiyuan Prefecture and the Chief of the Taiyuan Prefecture.
There were also the second-level Beijia and Sima, who were related to the Xueyantuo's southward march and the defense of Taiyuan City.
These people are either directly from the Taiyuan Wang family, or are trained by the Taiyuan Wang family.
His Royal Highness the Crown Prince will definitely purge all officials in Taiyuan Prefecture who are related to the Wang family, and these people will undoubtedly die.
Those who were not deeply involved with the Taiyuan Wang family were praying in their hearts that they should not be involved, never!!
The weird atmosphere lasted for a long time. Li Chengqian felt that the intimidation had almost worked, so he nodded to Pei Xingjian beside him.
"Your Highness is kindhearted. If you take the initiative to report the evidence of Wang's rebellion in Taiyuan, Your Highness will show leniency in this case and allow you to retire and return home."
"But if you conceal the truth or hope for the best, don't blame me for being ruthless!"
As Pei Xingjian finished his words, without any pause, someone immediately came forward to report the various crimes committed by the Wang family of Taiyuan in private. They described them vividly and said they could provide evidence.
Once the first person starts talking, things become easy afterwards.
Li Chengqian waved his sleeves, turned and left, leaving the scene to Pei Xingjian.
During the whole process, he didn't say a word and easily controlled the officials cultivated by the Wang family of Taiyuan.
After obtaining the evidence, the handling of the Taiyuan Wang family faction and direct descendants was handed over to the Lijingmen who arrived later.
After leaving behind a thousand Black Armored Soldiers, Li Chengqian took the remaining thousand soldiers and rushed back to Chang'an without stopping.
There are 5 days left for the crossing, at least three days on the road, leaving two days for preparation.
But until now, the system has not prompted the time and place of the next time of travel.
At this time, news came from the direction of Chang'an from Li Lijingmen's spies, saying that there were unusual movements among the Shandong gentry.
Lijingmen is similar to the secret service organization of Jinyiwei in the Ming Dynasty, and is divided into three gates: upper, middle and lower.
He was in charge of monitoring all officials and domestic forces, and arresting rebels.
The middle gate is responsible for gathering intelligence, military secrets and secrets of foreign countries.
The next door is the assassination organization Wolf Guard, the number of people is unknown.
The person who came to deliver the message this time was a spy.
Since the Xueyantuo's surprise attack from the south, Li Shimin has issued an edict that the prince has the same power over the Lijing Gate as the emperor. A copy of any intelligence must be sent to the Eastern Palace, and the prince has the right to command the upper and lower gates of the Lijing Gate.
As for the unusual movements of the Shandong family, Li Chengqian handed the information to Li Jing beside him after reading it.
"We still underestimated the reaction of the family."
Li Jing took the information and looked at it carefully, a thoughtful expression appeared on his face, and then he handed the information to Pei Xingjian.
"Your Highness, perhaps things are not what we imagined. I think the aristocratic family suddenly stopped selling grain to the market just to use the Taiyuan Wang family incident to warn Your Majesty and Your Highness, and there will be no further action."
Li Chengqian frowned: "Even if there is no further action, the aristocratic families' use of food austerity policies is enough to make the court suffer.
A sudden decrease in food supply on the market will inevitably lead to an increase in food prices. Without affordable food, people will find it difficult to maintain their food and clothing, and unrest is likely to break out.
At that time, the aristocratic families only need to sit back and watch the skyrocketing grain prices, and see whether the imperial court will open the granaries to release grain, or whether the imperial court will send troops to quell the rebellion.
No matter what decision the court makes, this is a difficult hurdle for us to overcome.”
Li Jing and Pei Xingjian looked at each other.
Li Chengqian is right.
Opening the granaries and releasing grain could certainly stabilize grain prices temporarily, but it would also indirectly weaken the power of the imperial court.
Moreover, the aristocratic families can also send people to buy up cheap grain on the market, hoard it again, and then sell it in large quantities when the price is high.
This in and out not only weakened the imperial court, but also made a lot of money.
In order to stabilize grain prices, the imperial court had no choice but to continue releasing grain.
This will eventually lead to the imperial court’s granaries in various places being emptied.
After running out of food, under the instigation of the aristocratic families, the people started a riot, and watched the imperial army being slowly consumed in the process of suppressing the rebellion.
In the end, whether they take advantage of the situation to cause chaos in the world, or remain dormant and watch the court's strength decline, it will be beneficial to the aristocratic families.
"Your Highness, this is already the territory of Hezhong Prefecture. I would like to go to the family and persuade the Hedong family to open their warehouses and release grain to support the court in winning this grain war."
Li Chengqian looked at Pei Xingjian and said, "Think it through. Even if the entire Hedong aristocratic family sided with the imperial court, they might not be able to defeat the powerful Shandong family. You will be at a disadvantage then."
Pei Xingjian bowed and said, "Your Highness, don't forget that you still have the powerful Guanlong nobles behind you. This grain war is all we have to fight for. Even if both sides suffer losses, we must suppress the arrogance of the nobles. Otherwise, it will be difficult to deal with them in the future."
"Also, the Taiyuan Wang family's grain reserves cannot be wasted. They can be transferred to various places first to calm the first wave of grain price increases."
“At the same time, Your Highness can also send out Li Jingmen assassins, or even your six powerful guards, and even use gunpowder.
Since the noble family is playing dirty tricks on us, we don’t need to show any mercy.”
As he spoke, Pei Xingjian slammed his palm down heavily.
"You mean to assassinate important members of the aristocratic family!!" Li Chengqian asked in surprise.
"It's to assassinate the stewards who are in charge of the food war. These people don't have too many guards around them, so assassination is relatively easy.
After the assassination, the family will certainly send out a new batch of stewards, and the defense force will certainly be strengthened, but we have to continue killing until they are scared to death. "
Li Chengqian nodded: "Assassination can be considered, but after combining with the Guanlong family, our grain inventory and financial resources are still no match for the Shandong family. The court controls only about 30% of the resources, while the family controls 70% of the world's resources. How to win this food war is the key!"
At this time, Li Jing suddenly said: "I have a plan."
Li Chengqian and Pei Xingjian turned their heads at the same time.
"It's time to make public the hybrid rice that Your Highness has secretly planted in the Imperial Farm!"
Pei Xingjian's eyes lit up after hearing this: "Great!"
“As long as the output of hybrid rice is made public, it will inevitably have an impact on the overall trend of grain prices.
We can also use hybrid rice to promote it to the outside world. Whoever is willing to open its warehouse and release the grain will be the first to obtain the hybrid rice seeds.
The reason why the Shandong noble families united this time was just to warn the court and show their strength and status, not to really avenge the Taiyuan Wang family. "
Li Chengqian nodded: "That makes sense. This is also a way to divide and disintegrate, separating those families that don't really want to confront the court and weakening the strength of the Shandong families."