"How can we give him the status of staying in Tokyo? Luoyang is the heart of the imperial court, and we gave him this status. If he recruits troops in Luoyang and comes to Chang'an, what should we do?" Dou Hua heard the news. He was so angry that he almost dropped the cup. He hurriedly came to see Yang Guozhong and started questioning him. Yang Guozhong knew that he did not get the chance to go to Luoyang to try the case, and it was indeed for his own plan. He was not very angry and said with a smile: "It's just a stay in Luoyang, and an imperial edict can solve it." Ye Chang Although he is domineering, he has no intention of treason" "Mr. Yang is not going to use such words to prevaricate. Ye Chang has no intention of treason, but he does have the intention of scheming against the Qing emperor." Dou Hua said impatiently: "Mr. Yang only said one thing. To be honest, what are your plans? If Mr. Yang is really so confused, I will not dare to serve him anymore, so I can only pray to the saint to retire." Yang Guozhong grinned and hesitated for a moment. The matter is very important. Can you tell Dou? magnificent? After thinking about it, he finally decided to say: "Don't be anxious, Mr. Dou. If Ye Chang dares to seduce you, that is exactly what I want." "What do you mean?" Dou Hua was surprised. "An Lu Mountain." Dou Hua was horrified when he heard this: "Mr. Yang, you must not do it, you must not do it. If this is true, the capital will turn into a sea of ??blood and all the people will turn into powder. Although Ye Chang is cunning, he is still He has a heart of loving and caring for the people. He is a ruthless man in Anlushan. He is cruel and easy to kill and has no scruples in his actions. If he is allowed to enter the Central Plains, the Central Plains will be in chaos. " How can Yang Guozhong control so much? All he can think about now is to borrow money. With An Lushan suppressing Ye Chang, it would be great if Li Heng could also be eliminated. In his opinion, An Lushan was just a side general, and his disaster was much less than that of Ye Chang. So he shook his head and said: "Mr. Dou doesn't know. If Cheng Qianli can defeat the thieves, there is no need to use Anlu Mountain. But if Cheng Qianli is defeated, it will be good if the few troops Ye Chang temporarily recruits can protect Luoyang. How can they defend it?" Capital? We still have to deploy troops to serve the king. Instead of doing this, we should make preparations in advance. If we don't make preparations, how can I dare to do this? Only then did he realize that letting Ye Chang lead the troops was a last resort. "The situation in the Central Plains has reached this point?" he asked in a trembling voice. Yang Guozhong was silent for a while, and then nodded slowly: "You must not spread this matter to anyone else. If there is any news outside, you will know the consequences yourself." After Yuan Chao and others started the uprising, Yang Guozhong gave everyone the impression of being calm and composed. When he saw Li Longji explaining the matter, he said that "His Majesty's grandchildren are naughty boys, dancing with bamboo, spears and wooden knives on the banks of the rivers and lakes. One or two good generals can pacify them." When he commented on the matter to his fellow officials, he said that he was "a little unruly." There is no need to make a fuss if a crowd gathers to cause trouble." But in fact, the rebels in the three places rose up at the same time, making Yang Guozhong nervous as never before. At first, he thought this was something started by Ye Chang. These rebels would not rebel sooner or later, but they only started the rebellion after Ye Chang returned to Luoyang. It was obviously to force the imperial court to appoint Ye Chang with military power. But he immediately rejected this idea: Ye Chang's return to Luoyang was simply the result of Li Longji's confusion. Not to mention that Ye Chang did not expect it in advance, but that Li Longji himself was not prepared in advance. How could Ye Chang fight with those traitors? The thief made a date? He sent his cronies to collect intelligence from all parties and carefully analyze it. Then he realized that in the past few years, in order to compete with Ye Chang for the title of financial expert in Datang, some of the policies he had implemented had actually pushed the burden on the people to the limit. As long as there is a slight famine or disease, the people will have to sell their sons and daughters. Not only Jiangnan Province and Huainan Province, but also Gyeonggi Province and Henan Province, the people are trapped, and the people are complaining. Just a spark will ignite a huge flame. This made Yang Guozhong have to treat it carefully. Let Ye Chang stay in Luoyang, not really to suppress the civil unrest, but actually to prepare a scapegoat for him. If Cheng Qianli couldn't defeat the rebels with tens of thousands of forbidden troops and regiment training, what could those troops Ye Chang temporarily recruited in Luoyang accomplish? "Mr. Ye, I'm afraid it will be difficult to achieve anything with just these troops." Liu Changqing had the same idea as Yang Zhao. He stood in front of the school field outside Luoyang City, looking at the "soldiers" in front of him, and couldn't help but ask Ye Chang road. Although his response that day was not in line with Ye Chang's wishes, Ye Chang was now at the time of employing people and lacked a staff member who could deal with the court and local officials, so Ye Chang still kept him by his side for the time being. Liu Changqing also knew his shortcomings. It was okay to live in a stable place as a civil servant. Due to his physical condition, it was impossible for him to really go to war with the army, so he basically did not interfere in military affairs. But when he saw these newly recruited soldiers today, he couldn't help but say it. "Don't blame him, these soldiers are really ugly. Although they are all young and strong, their faces are oily or they have tattoos on their bodies. At first glance, they don't look like good people. Li Cheng, who was standing by, also looked uneasy. He was originally a stay-at-home officer in Dongdu, but now he was dismissed from his post due to the unrest among the citizens and was renamed the Luoyang Order. He was also responsible for cooperating with Ye Chang in recruiting manpower and raising military resources. ThisAll the tedious things in life are his responsibility. Ye Chang nodded: "As for the children from good families, these people are useless. Are there any children from good families who are willing to make meritorious deeds?" "There are only such people in Luoyang City." Li Cheng said angrily: "Children from good families are not worthy of use." , If you have any ambition, you have already joined the army and gone to the border. How can you stay in Luoyang? These people are just rogue rangers. They are brave, but they have no military discipline." "The military resources in the city are sufficient. "What's the status of the soldiers and armor in the arsenal?" Ye Chang asked again. Seeing that Ye Chang was not entangled in the issue of troop sources, Li Cheng calmed down a little: "There are sufficient military resources and armor, and this is also thanks to Ye Gong. In the past two years, he is the only one who has advocated enriching the arsenal." Since Li Longji ascended the throne, the Tang Dynasty has been at peace for decades, and there have been almost no wars in the mainland, so military preparations have been very slack. Most of the armor in arsenals everywhere was moth-eaten and rusty, and even the gun handles and bow bodies were rotten and unfit for use. Since the eleventh year of Tianbao, Ye Chang has written to Li Longji one after another, requesting that the rotten armor everywhere should be disposed of and replaced with new armor. Li Longji handed the matter over to Yang Guozhong, and Yang Guozhong saw an opportunity to make money, so he agreed to the matter. Although Yang Guozhong and Ye Chang had a bad relationship, this did not stop them from working together to make a fortune. Therefore, the armor in the arsenals of various places in the Tang Dynasty was melted into iron and sold to the Liaodong Iron and Steel Workshop, where it was further tempered into steel, and then the armor was made and transported to the arsenals in various places. In this process, all the money from selling scrap metal went to ordinary corrupt officials, while the money to purchase new armor had to be taken out of the national treasury. Both Yang Guozhong and Ye Chang made a lot of profits. Although it has not been implemented for a long time and the national arsenal has not been completely replaced, most of the arsenals in Chang'an and Luoyang have been replaced. Li Cheng reported to Ye Chang that there were 6,000 armors in Luoyang's arsenal, and the weapons could arm 50,000 people. "How is the food?" Ye Chang asked again. "Henan Province has suffered from natural disasters for three consecutive years, either floods or droughts, so there is not much food in stock. The same is true in Gyeonggi Province. Previously, Chang'an transferred 200,000 shi from Luoyang to store grain. Now, the amount of food in stock is only about 600,000 shi." He said. At this point, the worry on Li Cheng's face was very obvious: "There is not much food stored among the people. We originally relied on Huainan Road to distribute food. Now that the war in Huainan has started, we have to support Cheng Zhili's army first, and the rebels block the canal, so we have to I'm afraid it will be difficult to transport food." Ye Chang's brows suddenly knitted together. This is a big problem. Even if he has all kinds of plans, he must first solve the food problem. In recent years, due to the promotion of cash crops such as cotton, the grain output of Henan Province and Gyeonggi Province has plummeted, and they are far from self-sufficient. They mainly rely on transportation from Huainan Province for supplies. It is for this reason that the role of track rails is particularly obvious in winter when food is scarce and the Yellow River may freeze. But now that thieves are everywhere and Huainan Road will become the main battlefield, food in the Central Plains is a serious problem. ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? does and does is a?short?grain stockpile?¡ 600,000 dan, Luoyang alone has a population of hundreds of thousands, how long can it last? "The track is the key." After pondering for a while, Ye Chang said: "Liaodong can still transfer some grain But Liaodong is also at war now, and there is not much grain in stock Originally, we could go to Silla to buy some grain. It is impossible to buy it now. Either way, I will write to Liaodong and ask them to change their strategy. Defeat Silla first and force the people of Silla to pay for food. "No problem, let's allocate 200,000 stones of grain from Liaodong first, plus the grain reserves, to last until the end of this year As for the hungry people in the suburbs, we will move them to Liaodong and Hebei for food." Ye Chang turned his eyes. This matter cannot be handled by Luoyang alone. The whole Henan Province must be mobilized. ""In the coming year, whether it is to adjust grains in Liaodong or to relocate people to eat, they can only be dealt with temporarily. The real trouble will be in March next year. If the war cannot be calmed down until March of next year, it will be a time of drought" When Li Cheng said this, his voice trembled. The autumn harvest is not long now, and the people still have some food in their hands, so the famine will not break out completely. However, the famine will not fully break out until after March of the next year. At that time, it will not be tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of victims, but maybe millions of victims waiting for food. "There are still five months, as long as we can quell the rebels and relocate the people." Go to Jiangnan to eat, go to Shu to eat, and go to Yunnan to eat." "After all, water from afar cannot quench the thirst of the near" Ye Chang glanced at him, smiled, and said nothing. This look was so strange that Li Cheng was stunned for a moment: "What does Mr. Ye mean?" "It doesn't mean anything." Ye Chang said calmly. Li Cheng's heart trembled, and he suddenly remembered something. It was rumored that Ye Chang went to Liaodong this time and broke up with Li Linfu's daughter. He is now alone The Li family's wife is as beautiful as a fairy, but Ye Chang still divorces her. Fate, could it be that he has a legacy from the Northern Dynasties and likes men rather than women? Li Cheng is a handsome man with a dignified appearance. Thinking of this, he justFeeling a little stiff, he calmly took a few steps away from Ye Chang. Ye Chang ignored his thoughts. The reason why Ye Chang laughed was actually because he secretly praised himself for his foresight. He has been planning a major event since Tianbao's eighth year, and it has been six years now. He has always been very clear that population is China's greatest advantage. In this era when there is still plenty of free space, China must explode its population, use population to drive expansion, and occupy all available land first. However, the two major factors limiting population growth are food and medical care. Medical care can be solved through health education, while high-yielding crops must be introduced for food. He had not thought before that he could obtain corn and potatoes from the Americas, so he set his sights on the Champa Kingdom south of Annan. He introduced Champa rice from the Champa State and vigorously promoted it in Yunnan and Lingnan. Because the Han people in Yunnan still mainly live on the two plains of Dianchi Lake and Erhai Lake, food production is limited and transportation is not very convenient. But Lingnan is different. The number of Han people in Lingnan has increased sharply in recent years, and many plains have been opened up. Champa rice is very suitable for the climate here. In addition, the terrain is remote, and Yang Guozhong's evil regime has not yet arrived. Therefore, starting from the twelfth year of Tianbao, Lingnan grains There have been good harvests year after year, and there is a lot of grain in stock. In order to prevent the low price of rice from hurting farmers, in recent years, ships from Liaodong have gone south, or ships from the south have gone north to Liaodong to purchase goods. Ye Chang has asked them to ship grain from Lingnan to the north. In three years, a full 800,000 stones of grain were stored in Lushun and Dongmou. Among them, there are more than 300,000 stones stored in the warehouse outside Dongmou Pier. These grains were used by Ye Chang as strategic reserve grains and were not used for leisure. Now it seems that they can be used. "Actually, there may not be no food." Liu Changqing said from the side. "Where is the grain?" "According to someone's knowledge, in addition to official warehouses, there are also private warehouses in Chang'an and Luoyang. The price of grain is so high now because private warehouses are hoarding rice. Otherwise, the autumn harvest would have just happened. "This?" Everyone knows this, but no one is willing to expose it. Anyone who dares to hoard rice at this time must have someone powerful behind him. Ye Chang didn't want to get involved in this matter at the moment. He looked at the lazy soldiers again and sneered at the corner of his mouth: "These people are in the city" Before he could finish his words, he saw a rider coming from the city. Galloping over, the knight arrived in front of him, dismounted, and knelt down on one knee: "Emergency military situation on Huainan Road." Ye Chang's heart trembled: "Say." "Doctor Cheng and the thieves fought in Lujiang County. Three groups of thieves joined forces. It was so powerful that Doctor Cheng asked the court for help. Cheng Qianli was a veteran general who had been in Beiting and Anxi for many years. It was only at the beginning of this year that he was promoted to the center and was replaced by Li Siye - Ye Chang originally wanted Nan Jiyun to replace him. Yes, but Nan Jiyun's time in Anxi was still short, and there were no big battles in the past few years, which was not enough to convince the public, so Nan Jiyun just became the deputy envoy of Beiting Jiedu. , he asked the imperial court for help, but it turned out that the tens of thousands of soldiers he brought were not enough. "How many rebels are there?" "Ye Chang asked with a frown. "The three thieves combined have 400,000." "400,000." Li Cheng, Liu Changqing and others next to "400,000" all looked pale and looked shocked. Only Ye Chang could remain calm at this time.