At this time, Zuo Xiang Pei Kuan happened to come to see, Li Qing simply suggested that Li Yu would also summon Cui Lian, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, Pei Mian, and Zhang Yi, the servant of the middle book, and Zhang Yi, the servant of the door, also summoned them, so that several core ministers of the Tang Dynasty held a joint meeting for the recruitment of soldiers.

Now there are only more than 20,000 people in the Anxi Army in the entire Guanzhong, and although Luoyang An Lushan's most elite Youzhou Iron Cavalry has been wiped out, he has defeated the Tang Army twice and has also received a lot of soldiers, plus he is also recruiting soldiers, Li Qing estimates that he has more than 100,000 people in his hands.

Not only does the attack on An Lushan require troops, but also the troops of Hexi and Longyou are empty, if they are not deployed in time, and the Tubo army takes advantage of the weakness, the entire Western Regions will be in danger, so the matter of recruiting troops has become the top priority.

The population of the Guanzhong area is millions, plus Longyou, Hanzhong, and Yizhou, the imperial court can now control the population of no less than 10 million, and the source of soldiers is not a problem, the key is money and food, according to the plan of the Ministry of War, at least 300,000 troops need to be recruited, of which 100,000 troops are distributed in the Western Regions, and 200,000 troops are used to deal with An Lushan, and the current savings and food are far from enough.

The room was very quiet, all the people were silent, at this time Pei Kuan stood up, he is the oldest person in the qualifications, and the oldest, although he is the left minister, but he has no real power, the ruling pen is in Li Qing's hands, he is old and sophisticated, try not to fight for power with Li Qing, but since he has been the left minister, if he is silent in everything, it will also arouse the emperor's dissatisfaction, how to speak tactfully, not offended on several sides, this is what he has to consider, he gave a salute to Li Yu and said: "Your Majesty!" If this is really not possible, we will wait a few more months, and then we will recruit troops after the money and grain are in the treasury after the autumn, and in these few months, we can concentrate on handling the internal affairs first. ”

"No way!" As soon as Pei Kuan's words fell, Li Qing immediately objected, and he stood up and said, "Your Majesty." If it will take a few more months to recruit troops, the minister is worried that An Lushan will take the opportunity to go south, open up the Jingxiang Road, and then advance along the east of the river and annex Jianghuai in one fell swoop. Moreover, with the abundance of the land in Guanzhong. How much grain does Your Majesty think will be available for storage after the autumn? ”

Everyone understands what Li Qing meant, Guanzhong has abundant land and fertile fields, and it is not a problem to feed tens of millions of people, but since the late Kaiyuan Dynasty, it is necessary to rely on the Central Plains and Jianghuai every year to maintain the expenditure of the capital, and the fundamental reason is that the land annexation is too serious, and Guanzhong is a place where the powerful clans are concentrated. After a hundred years of land annexation, there is no one in ten homesteaders, how can there be taxes to collect, and the salt tax is mainly concentrated in Yangzhou, and now the Cao Yun has been cut off, and there is no way to talk about it.

Now Li Qing is even more to the point, if An Lushan gives up Luoyang and goes south. That's a really big problem.

Indeed, the reason why An Lushan chose Luoyang to be the emperor is mainly his personal preference, and he is also ready to use Luoyang as a base to attack Chang'an, if the situation changes dramatically, Li Guangbi in the north will capture Youzhou, and then go south to seize Xiangzhou, open up the passage between the Central Plains and Hebei, plus Guo Ziyi will go southeast from the river, and the Anxi army will go out of the pass. Luoyang will form a three-sided enemy, at that time An Lushan is very likely to abandon Luoyang, and instead march to the rich Jianghuai, even if the rebellion can be quelled in the future, the Tang Dynasty will also suffer a heavy blow.

Just when everyone was thinking about their hearts, a sentence suddenly appeared in the room: "But now that the imperial court really has no money and no food, does Xiangguo want to use his family property to recruit soldiers?" ”

The crowd was shocked. They all looked at the speaker. But it was Zhang Yi, the squire under the door. I saw him sneering on his face, and his eyes were full of disdain. Although it sounded ridiculous, everyone understood that he was referring to the Yang family's property.

Li Qing was furious in his heart, if it was a normal opinion, he didn't care, but like this, he secretly had thorns, how could he tolerate it, but Li Qing was not reckless, Zhang Yi was also an old minister, his mind should not be so simple, besides, he had no grievances with him, why did he dare to say such a thing, and what was his purpose?

Li Qing quickly glanced at Li Yu, and saw that he was stunned at first, and then a trace of approval appeared in his eyes, Li Qing couldn't help sneering in his heart, what a shrewd speculator, and now he has left an impression in the emperor's heart that he is not afraid of power.

At this time, Li Yu immediately said: "Zhang Shilang, you are talking nonsense, Li Xiangguo is very right, the matter of recruiting troops really cannot be delayed any longer, the fifth Shangshu, you are the head of the household, it is better for you to talk about it." ”

Fifth Qi's face was expressionless, sitting there motionless, as if he hadn't heard anything, Li Yu's face suddenly swelled red, very embarrassed.

At this time, Li Qing stood up, arched his hand to Li Yu and said with a smile: "Your Majesty, the minister has a way to solve the urgent need to recruit troops!" ”

Li Yu immediately sat up straight, and he said eagerly: "Li Xiangguo, please speak!" ”

Li Qing smiled slightly: "The minister is still the old saying, when the extraordinary time, when using extraordinary methods, for the people of Guanzhong, what they need most is not money, but land, if the imperial court can take out a part of the land and exchange it for military service with the people, the imperial court will sign a contract with them, for example, those who are willing to be soldiers for five years can exchange for twenty acres of land, and the land can be rented to their families first, and when the five-year period expires, the land will naturally belong to him; If they are unfortunately killed, the court will pay their families an additional ten acres of land, in this way, as long as the court prepares food, without spending a penny, the problem of recruiting soldiers will be solved, and the money originally prepared for recruiting soldiers can also be used in other places, such as adding an incense burner to His Majesty's study, and so on. ”

"This. Where is the land in the imperial court? He vaguely seemed to understand something, but he couldn't figure it out for a while, but Li Mi suddenly realized that Li Qing had said for a long time that any recruitment was fake

The real goal is to take the opportunity to open the gap in solving the land problem, isn't this the unfinished business of Ji Qiong?

It's like unraveling the most critical looper, and one thing he has been unable to figure out is also easy to solve, that is, why did Li Qing kill those clans in the name of the rebels, it turned out that his purpose was this, most of the land in Guanzhong was occupied by the clans, so that it would be easy for him to recover these lands, of course, this was just a gap, but once this opening was opened, this laid the groundwork for him to solve the land annexation problem in the future.

"Awesome! Sure enough, it is much more powerful than Zhang Qiu and Qiong! Li Mi secretly praised twice, and he watched the situation on the field silently.

"Do you have any opinions on Li Xiangguo's proposal?" Li Yu couldn't decide, so he threw this problem to everyone.

"Lee Sang-kook wants to exchange land for soldiers. The idea is good, but the imperial court no longer has a public land in Guanzhong, so Li Xiangguo shouldn't want to give them the land in Anxi! ”

Li Qing glanced at him, and saw that it was Zhang Yi, the servant of the door, and he sneered lightly and said: "Who said that the imperial court has no land, according to my Tang Dynasty law, the land without a territory will be owned by the government, for example, Zhang Shilang is a third-grade official." According to the standard, it should be ten hectares of land and twenty-five hectares of Yongye field, but the records of the household department actually only grant 15 hectares of land, of which five hectares are in Gaoling County, and there are ten hectares in Fenzhou, Hedong. According to Li Qing's understanding, the other three hectares of land must be the name of Zhang Shilang, since it is impersonated, it is the borderless land, and since it is the borderless land, then the imperial court can take it back and redistribute it, Zhang Shilang. How can the imperial court have no land, you say? ”

Zhang Yidi's face was red and white for a while, he didn't expect his old bottom to be so clearly grasped by Li Qing, he was about to open his mouth to argue, but Li Qing stopped him with a wave of his hand, "Zhang Shilang doesn't need to explain, Li Qing also said that this is an extraordinary time, and extraordinary methods should be used." Li Qing will not move the land rewarded by the imperial court, but other than that, I will take it back, if you refuse or fight against the government, I'm sorry! All were requisitioned as soldiers to reason with An Lushan. ”

Speaking of this, Li Qing turned to Li Yu again and said, "Your Majesty." Anxi has few soldiers. I'm afraid it won't be able to support it for a long time If the Tibetan army attacks the Western Regions, or An Lushan's soldiers invade Tongguan. All of them are extremely dangerous things, so this matter is very urgent, please ask Your Majesty's permission. ”

At this time, Li Yu had fully understood what Li Qingdi meant, and he also knew that Li Qing's solicitation of his opinion was just to give face, even if it was not allowed, he would also forcibly expropriate the land, and even use more vicious means, but it was accurate, and he didn't know how many people he would offend, he was really in a dilemma, and couldn't help but look at Li Yu, only to see him nod lightly, meaning to persuade himself to agree.

Li Yu was so helpless that he had to say to Li Qing: "Li Xiangguo will look at this matter!" ”

Li Qing gave a long salute and replied loudly: "The minister obeys the order!" ”.

At the end of June of the twelfth year of Tianbao, the grain in Guanzhong was in an emergency, and the official price had reached 800 wen per bucket, but it was also priceless, and the price of grain in the black market had reached 1,500 wen per bucket.

At the same time, the household department took the lead in setting the upper limit of grain storage for each household in the Guanzhong area, and the excess grain must be sold to the government, and the violators will be punished heavily, and ask for four encouraging complaints, and the informants flocked to the neighborhood for a while, some of the neighbors were digging up the land to hide the grain, and some of the slaves were telling the master to hide the grain in the grange.

On the first day of the seventh month, the Anxi army beheaded more than 300 people who hid grain and rice and sold rice privately on Chang'an Avenue in public, and at the same time, the Anxi army searched all over the granges, and found 300,000 stone of grain in the eight granges of Li Cong, the former king of Qing, at this time, the king of Qing was dead, and Li Qing then ordered the heir of King Li and Princess Qing to be killed with a cane, and confiscated all his family property.

By 10 July, the government in various places had collected more than 3 million stones, and the grain was immediately put on the market, and the price of grain in Chang'an plummeted, and the rice was no more than 100 wen per bucket.

But the matter is not over, at the beginning of July, the imperial court ordered a re-inspection of the land in the Guanzhong area, Li Qing started with some of the clans, based on the information verified by Zhang Qiu and Qiong that year, all the land that exceeded his Yongye field and part of the land specially rewarded was returned to the government, and the clan all gritted their teeth, but Li Qing still ordered the army to carry out strongly, and then obtained hundreds of thousands of hectares of land.

Li Qing immediately issued a conscription order, exchanging land for military service, whether slaves, tenants, or yeoman farmers, they could sign up, and those who served in the military for three years would get 10 mu of land, those who served in the military for five years would get 20 mu of land, and those who served in the 10-year military service would get 50 mu of land.

The news spread, and the recruitment points in various places were lined up in long queues, and the number of applicants was innumerable, especially the slaves such as ant colonies, and the conscription reached 300,000 within half a month, and Li Qing selected 80,000 of them to expand the Anxi army.

Subsequently, Li Qing ordered the general Tian Zhen and the general Bai Xiaode to lead 50,000 people each to Longyou and Hexi to garrison the Tibetan Koubian.

At the beginning of August of the twelfth year of Tianbao, Li Qing ordered the general Nan Jiyun to lead 20,000 troops quietly out of Tongguan and rush to Nanyang through Shaanzhou to prevent An Lushan from going south to take Jingxiang; In September, Guo Ziyi led 50,000 Hedong troops to quietly move south from Taiyuan and crossed the Yellow River at Lingbao, while Li Qing personally led a large army to sit in Tongguan, and ordered the general Li Siye to lead 50,000 Anxi troops to enter Shaanzhou.

Just when the Tang army was preparing to attack Luoyang on a large scale, news suddenly came from Luoyang City: An Qingxu launched a mutiny and killed An Lushan.