Qian Xun, the governor of Muzhou, finally got the result he wanted. Zhang Duanyang agreed to lead his "private soldiers" to return Chun County to quell the pirates.
Qian Xun was overjoyed and immediately said that Muzhou would bear the cost of dispatching the army, and all confiscated stolen goods would belong to Zhang Duanyang's private army, ensuring that Zhang Duanyang would not suffer any loss.
Qian Xun and Zhang Duanyang reached an agreement, and the governors of several other states were also anxious.
There are more or less problems with pirates or road bandits in their jurisdictions, and they all put forward the same conditions and asked Zhang Duanyang to go and suppress the bandits.
Zhang Duanyang naturally agreed to all of them, and now the attitude of several provincial governors towards Zhang Duanyang was extremely respectful.
Originally, the governors of the state were dissatisfied with the imperial court sending Zhang Duanyang as an observer over their heads, but now that Zhang Duanyang had soldiers, he agreed to help them suppress the bandits, and he had never thought of intervening in state affairs since he took office.
Now the governors of various states must be very respectful to him and wish to worship him as a Bodhisattva.
Zhang Duanyang quietly waited for his five thousand private soldiers to arrive. Every day he inspected the construction of new barracks. He had no intention of intervening in the government affairs of the states, and just waited to take his private soldiers to the beach to exterminate the pirates.
The situation in eastern Zhejiang is quietly changing, and the war situation on the court's side is stable and improving.
The troops recruited by the imperial court from all over the country were finally assembled in Huayin. The army under Guo Ziyi's command reached 400,000, which already exceeded the army in Shi Siming's hands.
After the number of troops increased, Guo Ziyi launched another attack and fought another battle with Shi Siming, who retreated to Xiangzhou.
After this battle, although Shi Siming defended Xiangzhou, he lost his troops and generals.
Shi Siming could only withdraw his troops to the city and no longer continue the decisive battle with Guo Ziyi in the wild.
The situation in Xiangzhou changed again. Guo Ziyi learned his lesson this time and no longer only attacked big cities like last time.
Instead, the villages, towns and counties were cleaned up, colluding with the remnants of Hedong, and went deep into the mountains to suppress the bandits. The local forces in Xiangzhou who supported Shi Siming were greatly frightened, and either fled into the mountains or surrendered to the Tang army. Xiangzhou finally settled down.
The counter-insurgency finally saw the light of day, Li Heng once again rewarded the frontline troops, and this time the court could be said to have emptied all its wealth.
At the same time, Li Heng wrote to Guo Ziyi, saying that Shi Siming's main force must be wiped out in this battle!
In addition, the imperial court also wrote to Wang Xuanzhi, instructing Fan Yang and Pinglu's Tang army to also dispatch to attack Shi Siming's home base in Taiyuan.
Li Heng has been in a pretty good mood recently. As long as Shi Siming is overthrown, the Shi Siming Rebellion in Anlu Mountain that has troubled the Tang Dynasty for more than three years can finally be put down.
If he can put down the rebellion in such a short period of time, then his evaluation in history books will definitely be higher than that of his father!
However, during this period, Li Heng became more and more dissatisfied with his father. After the last performance on the stage built on the calyx tower, the emperor seemed to have an addiction to performing. He then performed several times on the calyx tower, attracting the attention of the people of Chang'an.
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Most of the repertoire performed by the emperor were stories of love, hatred, and hatred between emperors, generals, and ministers in history. Among them, the excerpt "Farewell My Concubine" was the most talked about by the people of Chang'an.
This is a story about Xiang Yu, the overlord of Western Chu, who bid farewell to his lover Yu Ji after being ambushed from all sides.
After the performance of "Farewell My Concubine", the story of the emperor and Yang Yuhuan began to be spread in Chang'an City, and people praised their love.
Li Heng, who got the news from Dongchang, spat hard.
Li Heng's feelings for his father are naturally complicated. After all, Li Longji is his father. Although he is not very kind to him, he still made himself the prince, and he also obtained the throne from his father.
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But for the brothers and sisters Yang Yuhuan and Yang Guozhong, Li Heng hated them deeply.
After Yang Guozhong became the prime minister of the empire, he had been targeting the prince Li Heng, and even almost asked his father to depose him.
And Yang Yuhuan caused trouble in the harem. Every time, his father spent a lot of money on Yang Yuhuan, and even used the army to send lychees to Yang Yuhuan at an urgent border post station.
After the fall of Chang'an, even the Forbidden Army was extremely dissatisfied with these two people and believed that Yang Yuhuan was a demon concubine who brought disaster to the country and the people.
How come it took so long for the people of Chang'an to start praising their "love" again?
Li Heng's dissatisfaction with the emperor continued to accumulate, and as the Anshi Rebellion was put down, Li Heng gradually changed.
First of all, the previous emperor who was willing to listen to the opinions of his ministers and follow the good advice has disappeared.
Before Xiangzhou counterattacked, Li Heng was still willing to listen to the opinions of his prime ministers and was willing to turn around when encountering problems.
But since Xiangzhou counterattacked, Li Heng no longer listened to advice.
The first is the issue of the new money law. After the new money law was implemented in Chang'an, under such terrible circumstances, Li Heng still decided to promote the new money law nationwide.
At this time, Hubu Dozhilang Wu Qidu, who formulated the new money law, wrote to the court that prices should wait until prices stabilized in Chang'an before promoting the Qianyuan treasure to the whole country.
However, Prince Li Chu in Bianzhou wrote a letter saying that his promotion of the new money in Bianzhou had "excellent results" and that all merchants and common people supported the imperial court's new money law.
Li Heng directly ordered several important cities such as Yangzhou, Chengdu, Jingzhou, and Quanzhou to start using Qianyuan Chongbao.
Li Heng also changed his previous mild policy measures and required the people of Chang'an to use Qianyuan Chongbao for settlement, and at the same time banned the use of Kaiyuan Tongbao and other old dynasty currencies.
As soon as this policy came out, the price of Chang'an's Qianyuan Chongbao fell again on the black market, and people instead exchanged the Qianyuan Chongbao for other coins.
The price of grain in Chang'an rose again, and the prime ministers also wrote to the emperor, begging not to be so eager to implement the new money.
But this time Li Heng did not adopt the suggestions of the prime ministers at all, and firmly demanded the implementation of new money throughout the country.
The Mint Workshop of the Ministry of Industry worked day and night to smelt Kaiyuan Tongbao into Qianyuan Chongbao.
Li Heng also issued a death order this time. Even the money sent to Guo Ziyi to reward the soldiers was replaced with Qianyuan heavy treasures. He also strictly ordered Jingzhao Yin and Jingzhao counties to strictly investigate merchants who do not use Qianyuan heavy treasures for transactions.
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This time, Cui Wang, the magistrate of Chang'an County, was the most determined person to carry out the emperor's orders.
After Cui Wang received the imperial edict, he immediately took action.
Chang'an County went a step further and simply declared the use of Kaiyuan Tongbao illegal in Chang'an County.
The government officials in Chang'an County rushed directly to the shops in Chang'an County and snatched away Kaiyuan Tongbao when they encountered it. Some government officials and officials even rushed into the homes of wealthy people in Gelifang and began to search for Kaiyuan Tongbao.
At this time, the entire Chang'an County, which had previously been filled with joy due to the victory of the Tang Army, was now filled with gloom and gloom. Every household closed their doors tightly for fear of being ransacked by the government officials.
Cui Wang, the magistrate of Chang'an County, put all the Kaiyuan Tongbao handed over by the government officials into boxes, and then sent them to the Ministry of Household Affairs from Zhuque Street with gongs and drums.
Li Heng felt even more relieved when he heard that Chang'an County had handed over one million yuan to the Ministry of Household Affairs, and issued an order to commend Cui Wang.
Now other counties in Chang'an followed suit, and like Cui Wang, began to search for folk Kaiyuan Tongbao.
In addition to forcibly confiscating Kaiyuan Tongbao, Chang'an County government officials also forced them to use Qianyuan Chongbao to buy things. They snatched goods from merchants at a price of one to ten, and even resold them to merchants at the market price on the same day.
Under such circumstances, merchants from various counties in Chang'an fled to Wannian County under Wang Chengwei's rule.
When he heard that the merchants were fleeing, Cui Wang became even more angry. He ordered the soldiers to raise the wall on Zhuque Street, and ordered the soldiers to patrol near the wall. Anyone who was planning to flee Wannian County would be captured and taken back to the county jail.
Li Heng was also very satisfied with Cui Wang's ability to act, and ordered the Ministry of Industry to step up the production of Qianyuan Chongbao.
This time Chang'an's new money law caused greater chaos, but for the emperor, all this was just an analgesia for the people. When the Qianyuan heavy treasure passed through the country, the temporary chaos in the money law would end.
Chang'an forcibly implemented the new money, and so did the crown prince Li Chu in Bianzhou.
Li Chu, like Cui Wang of Chang'an, banned the use of Kaiyuan Tongbao in Bianzhou.
He also promulgated a decree that all merchants who report transactions using open source notifications can receive one-tenth of the penalty.
But when it comes to execution, the officials don't care whether you use Kaiyuan Tongbao or Qianyuan Chongbao to trade. Anyway, if they stuff a few Kaiyuan Tongbao into your payment, they can falsely accuse you of using old money for personal use, and then transfer all the money.
All payment was confiscated.
Suddenly, reports became common in the entire Bianzhou, and even the Caoyun Yamen used Kaiyuan Tongbao to pay Lifu, and they were reported to Li Chu. The Caoyun Yamen were turned upside down by Li Chu's soldiers.
Merchants throughout Bianzhou no longer dare to trade with money, and some even barter for fear of being reported.
Bianzhou was originally a commercial city, but now that the money laws are chaotic, transactions cannot be carried out. The atmosphere of dissatisfaction in Bianzhou City is fermenting.
But Li Chu still didn't know how to restrain himself. He made money in Bianzhou, and imitated Zhang Wu at that time, and recruited new soldiers in Bianzhou.
But now the people of Bianzhou hate Li Chu deeply, and those who are willing to join his new army are the ruffians in the city of Bianzhou.
After these people joined the New Army, they wandered the streets all day long, doing all kinds of bad things, and Bianzhou became even more chaotic.