Xie Lanzhi took the cane for support. Wu Qiu's expression was somewhat strange, but he still handed her a conspicuous yellow paper money.
"As the Marshal said, the Northern Region could not hold out for more than half a year. The Thirteen Tribes of the Northern Region still have the will to find another way, such as the Kingdom of Heshi."
Xie Lanzhi smiled faintly: "Shiguo Prefecture is located in a desolate area, mostly mountainous, and it is adjacent to my Southern Region. With the Southern Region in Shiguo Prefecture, they can only act like grandsons. They can't even protect themselves, so how can they care about whether the Northern Region has enough food?"
Wu Qiu chimed in, "So the Crown Prince of the Northern Region has already yielded and presented you with 30,000 sheep. Do you think they should be taken back to the Southern Region or Tianjing?"
"Keep 10,000 for the Southern Region to distribute among themselves, and keep 20,000 for Tianjing," Xie Lanzhi said. "Also, have you found the sweet potato vines that I asked you to find?"
Wu Qiu said, "This plant is cultivated in the Northern Region, but the Khans of the Northern Region are still determined to rely on rice as their main food source, so the cultivation of this plant has always been limited and the quantity is not large."
"Merchants from the Southern Regions mostly brought back sweet potatoes from the Northern Regions. Although they brought the vines, they all withered and turned yellow halfway through the journey. They were no longer of any use."
“Sweet potatoes will do too.” Xie Lanzhi couldn’t wait to tell the little girl that she had found the sweet potatoes she was looking for.
Next month is the beginning of spring, just in time to plant spring potatoes. Summer potatoes will follow.
"Since the Crown Prince of the Northern Region is so sincere, I must consider the implications of his actions for the benefit of the Khan of the Northern Region."
Upon hearing this, Wu Qiu's expression became even stranger. Fearing that Xie Lanzhi might forget, he reminded her, "Marshal, you killed all three generals of the Northern Region."
That's like you lifting a rock only to drop it on someone's foot, completely offending them and then expecting them to be friendly with you.
Upon hearing this, Xie Lanzhi's smile froze.
This was killed by Xie Ying.
Seeing her reaction, Wu Qiu covered his mouth and said awkwardly, "Ahem, the three generals are all the Crown Prince of the Northern Region's uncles. If you kill those people, there will be no possibility of forming an alliance again."
“Even if the Khan is willing, those tribal nobles will fight to the death for the sake of face, so... just treat the trade proposed by the Crown Prince of the Northern Region as trade.”
Clearly, the Northern Region harbors deep resentment over the loss of its three great generals, and even if Tianjing were to try to restore relations with Chongqing as before, it would be impossible.
The Crown Prince of the Northern Region came for food, and he will only leave with food.
But with Si Xitong, the story will definitely be different.
Xie Lanzhi's eyes flickered as she said, "Wu Qiu, my wife is the ruler of the Nine Jin, and if we're talking about the Nine Jin, she's the head of the Eight Jin. I'll entrust the reception to my wife... to Princess Feng Ning."
Wu Qiu thought this method was feasible, but the Xie family would definitely not give up easily.
"Then Mr. Xie."
Xie Lanzhi immediately frowned and said coldly, "Do you think they dare to do it now?"
"They wouldn't dare." Wu Qiu thought that the marshal had already shown great mercy by wiping out Xie Yan's entire lineage, leaving only a few soldiers alive. With the old scoundrel Xie Yan dead, the Xie clan in Tianjing became as docile as dogs, and the elders of the Xie clan in the Southern Region hardly sent any letters to inquire about the matter.
Previously, they would have questioned him. This shows that the Xie family's worship of Wu and their lord had reached the point of blind obedience.
Xie Lanzhi suddenly brought up a seemingly unimportant person: "Has Xie Shiyi been found?"
Wu Qiu said with great regret, "His legs are crippled. You have already shown mercy by not crippling his entire lineage. Now he has obediently returned home and will never come to Tianjing again." As for Xie Yan's lineage, apart from Xie Yongding's family of three, it has been basically eradicated.
Xie Lanzhi never mentioned it again.
Meanwhile, Si Xitong was still in the kitchen making up the menu, preparing nutritious meals for the next three days.
The chefs in the kitchen were all waiting until someone announced, "Marquis Zheng Yi of Yong'an requests an audience with Her Highness the Princess!"
"Him?" Si Xitong frowned slightly. Why would he bypass Lanzhi and come here to find her?
Si Xitong decided not to meet with him; she couldn't cause Lanzhi any trouble at this critical juncture.
Unfortunately, Zheng Yi had already entered and knelt on the ground, his hands hanging above his head, handing her a blue-covered letter.
“Your Highness, this is a letter personally sealed by the Crown Prince of the Northern Region. The Crown Prince of the Northern Region wishes to establish an alliance with you, the ruler of the Nine Jin.”
Si Xitong glanced at him with cold eyes: "Aren't you afraid of death?"
Zheng Yi was taken aback, and he quickly replied, "As a son, I dare not disobey my father's command."
“That’s true, he was like that even before Father Emperor was alive.” Si Xitong didn’t blame him, but the old man behind him was getting on in years, yet his ambition remained undiminished.
Si Xitong took down the imperial seal and instructed, "The Xie family is very virtuous. I was afraid that it would cause trouble for the Commander-in-Chief, so I have been avoiding the affairs of Jiujin and have been entrusting them to the Duke."
"Now that we are going to discuss the alliance, the affairs of Jiujin will no longer be handled by the Duke. From now on, they will be handed over to Li Ling."
Upon hearing this, Zheng Yi looked up with an incredulous expression: "But Princess, Li Ling's prestige isn't enough to mobilize the troops..."
Si Xitong blocked his retreat: "I have two thousand Xie family soldiers, which is ten times the size of the Jin army. What does Marquis Yong'an think?"
Zheng Yi immediately fell silent. Everyone knew that it was common for Marshal Xie to lead 5,000 men to wipe out 10,000, let alone the Jin soldiers. Even a thousand of them could probably scare away 5,000. Moreover, the Jin soldiers were now notoriously bad, consisting entirely of ragtag troops. Even the best-fed Jin soldiers came from Bingzhou, and they had only ever fought village battles at most. They were nowhere near as good as Xie's soldiers who had come from the battlefield.
However, in doing so, the father was essentially stripped of some of his power by the princess.
Zheng Yi thought to himself, "Her Highness the Princess is starting to become assertive."
Unexpectedly, the alliance, which was a good thing, turned into a bad thing for the Duke of Zheng.
Prince Yelü Lili of the Northern Region will arrive soon. Xie Lanzhi has arranged for a state residence to be set up in preparation for receiving Yelü Lili.
The training ground was packed with people. The experts of the Xie clan began to look forward to the martial arts stage, and then they were carried out of the palace.
Xie Lanzhi was extremely ruthless; she beat up all the belligerent boys of the Xie family and then sent them to the military camp for training.
After Xie Yan's death, no one in the Xie family dared to defy the rules anymore. The Xie family in Tianjing gradually drafted new regulations and abolished the rules set by the old marshal.
Xie Lanzhi specifically abolished the competition for the position among ten thousand people and forbade private fights within the clan. Anyone who disagreed was to settle the dispute one-on-one on the training platform.
After a thorough investigation, Xie Lanzhi discovered numerous flaws in the Xie clan's patriarchal system, with many blurred and controversial boundaries, and even the right to interpret these rules resting entirely with the Xie clan. For example, in the allocation of salt permits and grain rations, most resources went to the upper echelons, the middle echelons received only a small share, and the lower echelons received almost nothing.
Take the buying and selling of grain as an example. The lower-class Xie family could only harvest a hundred catties of grain a year and live on their own. The middle-class Xie family had no worries about food and clothing and could harvest at least a thousand catties every year. The upper-class Xie family controlled almost 95 percent of the resources.
Fortunately, the Southern Region has a three-crop-per-year rice harvest; otherwise, people there would have starved to death sooner or later. Moreover, the Xie Clan's troops largely come from the lower classes. Without a foundation built from the lower classes, how can there be a superstructure?
She drew a line directly across the cake, dividing it so that no one could cross it.
The issuance of this new decree caused an uproar within the Xie family, with many disagreeing. The next day, Xie Lanzhi personally visited to inquire, and the Xie family unanimously changed their tune to defend the new decree.
Xie Guang was also forced to move out of Prince Dun's residence due to the new decree.
Xie Xia also moved out of the Prince's mansion. The two brothers met with miserable faces: "Brother, were you also kicked out by the Marshal?"
Xie Guang, holding his breath, said, "What do you mean? I moved it voluntarily. Why would the Marshal need to personally drive me?"
Not only them, but also Xie Ji, Xie Feng, and others. They all moved out of the Prince's mansion and into the merchant's residence in accordance with the new decree.
Wu Qiu, however, moved into the Right Prime Minister's residence.
When the news reached the ears of the three Xie brothers, they all went to the Right Prime Minister's residence to find Wu Qiu on the very first day. Wu Qiu was also clever and did not return for several days, hiding from them, just waiting for the Xie general to calm down.
Meanwhile, ordinary Xie families in Tianjing were relocated to ordinary tile-roofed houses. In the chaos of war, these houses were considered relatively well-off. Although some were dissatisfied, their monthly grain and stipends were doubled, which quelled the resentment of many.
The Xie family, who were poor in the southern region, also began to redistribute land for cultivation. Each household was given an additional five mu of land. Larger households had to set prices for their grain, and they had to hand over a certain amount to the clan for each grain they sold.
Xie Lanzhi had everything arranged meticulously, and the Xie clan underwent a thorough purge and new orders. Many members of the Xie clan had initially thought that their relatives would cause trouble, and given their martial spirit, a fight might break out.
The result was not a fight, but rather a harmonious situation. The lower-level officials were unwilling to follow the middle-level officials in causing trouble, so the middle-level officials went to the upper-level officials for help, while the upper-level officials looked on with bitter faces and pleading eyes at Xie Lanzhi.
When Xie Lanzhi heard about this, she said directly to the Xie family's upper echelons: "You're not satisfied? If you have the ability, then come and replace me. The new decree will be implemented as the Xie family's ancestral rule, and future generations will not be allowed to change it for a hundred years."
A century?! The upper echelons of the Xie family were all shocked and immediately launched a petition.
A note from the author:
Thank you to all the little angels who voted for me or watered my plants with nutrient solution between 18:42:28 on December 3, 2021 and 11:39:06 on December 4, 2021!
Thank you to the little angel who threw the landmine: 迷1个;
Thank you to the little angels who watered the nutrient solution: Tongyanwuji (10 bottles); XwX (5 bottles); Xinxin (2 bottles); nawa21 (1 bottle);
Thank you so much for your support! I will continue to work hard!
Chapter 44 The sweet potatoes at Lanzhang Palace are really delicious.
Xie Lanzhi then cut a piece of cake and gave it to the middle class. The middle class tacitly divided it among themselves, and the lower and middle classes each reaped the benefits without complaint, leaving only the upper class with their castles in the air. With no one to support them, the dissenting voices naturally disappeared.
Xie Lanzhi's "one slap and one piece of candy" approach had a remarkable effect.
Only Xie Guang, drunk and provoked, ran to Xie Lanzhi crying his eyes out, saying that the new decree restricted eating and drinking, and that he was still enjoying the treatment of a prince.
Xie Lanzhi never expected that this simpleton would be so easily fooled by his subordinates that he wouldn't even acknowledge them. She personally stepped in to teach him a lesson.
For the next two weeks, Xie Guang was not seen attending court; it was said he was recuperating in his new residence.
Xie Lanzhi then sent some medicinal herbs to Xie Guangfu.
Si Xitong knew that she valued Xie Guang, and also knew that he was being used as a pawn.
"Lanzhi, he is, after all, a great general with countless subordinates. It seems inappropriate for you to take action directly."
Xie Lanzhi knew it was inappropriate, but she had no other choice. She sighed and said, "His position is only one place away from mine, so naturally he is envied by the clansmen. He is not smart, so those clansmen who consider themselves talented are even more dissatisfied with him."
"If we're really talking about fighting, there's probably no one in the Xie family who can fight better than me."
"But if someone is attacked from the shadows..."
Xie Lanzhi understood without her saying a word, and Si Xitong understood her good intentions: "Alright, you hit him to protect him, and at the same time, it can serve as a warning to those who have improper thoughts."
Xie Lanzhi nodded and asked, "What about Xie Ji?"
Si Xitong said, "This man is loyal and incorruptible, so there's no need to doubt him. However, he has been harboring resentment towards Xie Guang for quite some time. He will respect you, but not Xie Guang. Therefore, there will be many frictions between the two. As long as you keep an eye on things, he will never dare to disrupt the current balance."
"Besides, you specifically arranged for Wu Qiu to be stationed in the Right Vice Minister's residence, wasn't that precisely to create a rift between them and Wu Qiu, thus drawing a clear line between them?"
The young girl always had a clear understanding of the situation.
A thought struck her, and she decided to ask Si Xitong for a reward: "What about me? What does Little Phoenix think of me?"
Si Xitong no longer avoids using nicknames. In the past, she was afraid that Si Xitong's martial arts skills were insufficient, so she acted cautiously. Now, she has no such reservations.
Now she wants a reward.
Si Xitong blinked and asked seriously, "How would you rate me, Marshal?"
"In your heart, both publicly and privately, what am I like?" Xie Lanzhi asked bluntly.
In reality, she was very nervous and more concerned about how the young girl would perceive her.
Ever since she acquired martial arts skills, she's either fighting or using her power to intimidate people; she looks like a... warlord no matter how you look at it?
Si Xitong thought about it seriously, then tilted her head and answered, "Lanzhi never seems to subdue people with force. She's not like a street thug."
"Street, street thug." Xie Lanzhi's smile vanished instantly.