Since Li Ze left Wuyi, he did not go directly to Luoyang.

After Cao Xuan was defeated by Liu Chenglin in Changyuan, he retreated to Bianzhou. But he did not last long in Bianzhou. With Liu Ruyan taking Xuchang and Tian Ping occupied Huazhou, You Yong and Liu Chenglin's guards allied forces heading straight to Bianzhou, and Bianzhou was completely unavailable. After a little resistance, Cao Xuan led the remaining main force to retreat to Luoyang.

At this point, most parts of Henan have basically fallen into the hands of the Tang army. After the Right Guard led by Shi Zhuang defeated Shanzhou, Luoyang had already appeared on three sides of siege.

The Liang army, which was already in poverty, gathered 100,000 defenders including Cao Xuan under the command of Luoyang garrison Xu Fu, to prepare for a decisive battle with the Tang army in Luoyang.

In this battle, the two sides gathered more than 200,000 troops, which was a rare large-scale military confrontation in recent years. After Li Ze appointed the veteran veteran You Yong as the commander-in-chief of the front and was responsible for coordinating the offensive and defense of the four guards, he was not in a hurry to go to Luoyang.

He knew very well that his strengths were his. When he went to Luoyang, his biggest function was to boost morale. He had never experienced such a large-scale war, nor had he commanded such a large-scale war. He went too early, but instead made the frontline generals reluctant to ask for instructions and report everything, which was not beautiful.

He still remembers the joke that Suning was ambushing his cavalry unit in Daqingshan. From then on, he knew that the confrontation between the two armies was far from as simple as he thought. Although he had read a lot of military books, talking about military affairs on paper and actual command were completely different.

Since you are not good at it, you should be a bystander. When you need to beat the drums and cheer yourself, you should appear on the battlefield at the right time.

What you have to do is to manage good people and use good people, that's all.

So after leaving Wuyi, he came straight to Shandong. He was preparing to take this opportunity to inspect the newly enthroned territories under his rule. Shandong was the first stop, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Anhui, and he had to go there before he could finally reach his real destination, Luoyang.

Anyway, hundreds of thousands of troops can fight without fighting. Just a military deployment of both sides fighting wits and courage will take a long time.

Shandong has been seen by Zhang Xunzhi for more than two years, and its development momentum is still good. This makes Li Ze quite satisfied with his former personal computer secretary. People who came from his side came to do practical things. If he doesn't do well, his face will be lost.

Zhang Xun also regarded Li Ze's inspection as a big test for him. After Li Ze left Qingzhou, he divided the guards' army into two waves, one wave exploring the way forward and the other wave stumbled behind, about ten miles apart. The ones following them were only a dozen ingenious personal guards, who were quite insignificant in private visits, which made Zhang Xun still worried.

But his objections were invalid.

"No need to worry. Under your Governor Zhang's governance, can anyone attack me if there is still sunny day?" Li Ze said with a smile.

"I'm really worried." Zhang Xun said honestly: "Although Shandong has developed well in the past two years, there are still bandits entrenched in the deep mountains and forests and are unwilling to come out. Some of them are used to being mountain kings and are unwilling to make money honestly, while others are scared by the wars that have been fought over the years and are willing to hide on the mountain. The latter type is nothing but, the former type is really a desperate, and they can do everything."

"How did you deal with these two kinds of people?" Li Ze asked with interest.

"There is nothing to say about the former people, they can only be wiped out by force, but the places they occupy are mostly easy to defend but difficult to attack. More importantly, it is difficult to find their people. Once the troops pass, they disappear without a trace, and as soon as the troops leave, they appear again. It is really a headache. For the latter people, we send people up the mountain to persuade them, and try our best to find some of their relatives and friends to persuade them to go down the mountain." Zhang Xundao.

Li Ze nodded. He knew that such bandits with bad nature were indeed difficult to deal with. The dispatch of a large army was not worth it, and there was no cost-effectiveness at all. Small troops could not take advantage of it, which was a headache.

"But as Shandong develops better and better, these people's lives are getting harder and harder. In another two years, they may disappear." Speaking of this, Zhang Xun became excited again: "The people at the foot of the mountain are getting better and better. The people who are willing to go up the mountain to become bandits are basically gone, and they have no source of troops. Even the original ones, more and more people are running away secretly, like the largest bandits entrenched in Liangshan. According to the latest information, they are only a thousand people left. We have designed many checkpoints around, but they have

The signs of coming out of the mountain can send a message immediately. Now, civil defense in various places has become increasingly improved. A large number of retired soldiers have been organized to conduct certain military training during the slack season. Once something happens, they can quickly gather in villages, towns and counties. Liangshan bandits went down the mountain many times, but they were all concentrated when we just occupied the entire Shandong. In the past year, they have only gone down the mountain twice and attacked our two villages. However, under the struggle of the militia in the villages, with the rapid support of the surrounding villages and the rapid attack of the county garrisons, they all lost a lot."

"When life is better, naturally no one is willing to be a bandit." Li Ze smiled, but thought to himself that Liangshan has indeed been a good place for bandits to occupy since ancient times. I just don't know if there will be a hundred and eight heroes in the Liangshan School in the future. However, as long as the new dynasty built by himself can be passed down forever, there are a high probability that these heroes will become good people who abide by the law.

"So, economy and people's livelihood are the first priority." Zhang Xun nodded and said, "Everyone yearns for a peaceful and peaceful life, but if you want to live such a life, you must first have money."

"It's very good to say that there is a governor like you in Shandong. I think it's not far from their real good life." Li Ze sighed.

"If you want to achieve the living standards of the people of Wuyi, it will take at least ten years of operation." Thinking of the prosperity of Wuyi, Zhang Xun shook his head and said.

"Take it slow, once the world is really peaceful and the people are truly enlightened, the energy they can burst out is beyond your imagination. And the government only needs to provide positive guidance," Li Ze said: "The prosperity of Wuyi is because it is now our political center and can be regarded as a commercial center. Where a large number of rich people gather, money comes easily, and living standards will naturally improve quickly. But the real root is still on the crops harvested by one knife, in the workshops that work day and night, in the merchants who travel north, or on the fleets that are not afraid of the wind and waves, and in the sound of reading in those schools."

"Li Xiang said it very well. If the building can withstand the storm, the foundation must be solid." Zhang Xun said: "I am willing to ramm the foundation into a very solid hammer for Li Xiang."

Li Ze patted Zhang Xun on the shoulder and nodded.

"It is only the first step to conquer this world. Governing the world is the real problem, and it is even more difficult to maintain the good momentum." Li Ze said: "Zhang Xun, I think you are very clear now. I, Li, have made up my mind to become independent on behalf of Tang, because I think I can better govern this world and let the people live a better life."

"Li Xiang should have made this decision long ago." Zhang Xun smiled and said, "This is the responsibility given to you by God."

"I never doubted that I could unify the world easily, but as this pace became faster and faster and closer to this goal, I became more and more distressed. Which founding emperors in the past dynasties were not wise and powerful? Who did not immediately recuperate after taking office? But in the future, the tragedy of generations was always impossible to avoid, and the dynasty finally embarked on the road of collapse. Since the Han Dynasty, there has been no such historical cycle that can avoid such a long-term stability and last forever?" Li Ze said.

Zhang Xun opened his mouth, and many answers flashed through his mind instantly, but they were all denied one by one. Those answers have been experimented with in all dynasties, but they cannot change the ending. He never thought of such a far-reaching question, and for a moment, he could not answer it.

Seeing Zhang Xun becoming a mute, Li Ze smiled and said, "You don't have to answer this question immediately. Think about it carefully. We have decades to think about it in the future. For the same question, I also asked the heads and minds of Yixing Society like Yang Kai and Cao Zhang, and I have assigned them relevant tasks. This time, I will also ask Chen Wenliang, Xu Xiang and others. You are the backbone forces of the next New Dynasty. You are all the new generation of senior officials who have been educated for many years in Wuwei Academy. Or, you can give me a new answer. Like your father, Cao Xin, and the older generation of rulers in Wuyi, they cannot give a solution to this problem."

"Li Xiang, I will think about this issue seriously." Zhang Xundao.

"Every dynasty, every founding emperor thought of this problem, but it was not solved in the end. I hope that we can finally solve this problem." Li Ze took a deep breath.

Zhang Xun did not echo. He just thought about this question briefly and felt that the question was too big and difficult.

Li Ze turned his head and looked out the window. Outside the window, there were still golden waves of wheat rising and falling with the wind, but there were very few people in the fields.
Chapter completed!