When Lin Xuan took two maids to a cloth shop, Cao Hu came back.
Lin Xuan let Chunyue Yuhe go in first and walked aside with Cao Hu.
"Master Hou, that person is Chencang County Lieutenant, his name is Liu Rengui, because..."
"Wait a minute, you said his name is Liu Rengui?" Lin Xuan exclaimed.
He had asked people to inquire about Liu Rengui before, but there was no news at all. He didn't expect that he would show up now.
"Does the Marquis know this person?" Cao Hu asked with some confusion.
Lin Xuan waved his hand: "If you have heard about it, please continue talking."
"Liu Rengui was the captain of Chencang County. Lu Ning, the captain of Chencang County, was arrogant and broke the law. No one in the local officials dared to offend him. After Liu Rengui took office, he specifically warned Lu Ning not to do it again, but Lu Ning was still as violent and arrogant as ever. Liu Rengui sent people to catch Lu Ning and punish him.
He was beaten to death with a cane. His Majesty was furious when he heard this and had people escort him to Chang'an to prepare for his punishment." Cao Hu told everything he had heard.
Lin Xuan was a little speechless.
The military palace of the Tang Dynasty was called Zhechong Mansion, and the chief officer was Zhechong Duwei. The upper mansion was on the fourth rank, the middle mansion was on the fourth rank, and the lower mansion was on the fifth rank.
In other words, Lu Ning is at least below the fifth level.
The county lieutenant was in charge of public security and catching thieves, which was similar to the director of the county public security bureau in later generations.
But the county captain is only at the ninth rank, which is considered the smallest official.
It's like the director of a county public security bureau beat the commander of a military division to death.
This kind of thing will be very serious even in future generations.
Let alone in ancient times.
Liu Rengui’s behavior falls into the following categories.
Whatever the reason, this behavior was frowned upon in ancient times.
What's more, he also beat people to death.
Lin Xuan didn't know much about Liu Rengui, except that he defeated Fusang in the Battle of Baijiangkou and served as prime minister.
He doesn't know the rest.
Lin Xuan didn't know if this had ever happened in history.
It would be fine if it had happened, but if it hadn't happened, Liu Rengui would have died if he didn't care.
Lin Xuan thought for a while, called Zhang Dayong, and asked him to lead people to protect Chunyue and Yuhe. Then he took Cao Hu to the place where the horses were kept and rode towards the palace.
…
Arriving at the palace, after being notified, I met Li Shimin.
"See your Majesty." Lin Xuan bowed and saluted.
Li Shimin waved his hand and said, "Without courtesy, tell me, what's going on this time?"
"I want to steal someone from the prison of the Ministry of Punishment." Lin Xuan said.
"Finding people? Do you know who are in prison of the Ministry of Punishments?" Li Shimin said in a deep voice.
Lin Xuan nodded: "I know."
You can't get into the Ministry of Punishment Prison without even wanting to.
The prison of the Ministry of Punishment is somewhat similar to the prison in the movies and TV shows. It usually houses criminal officials and rebels.
"You know what you said so confidently?" Li Shimin said with a gloomy face.
He felt that he was too tolerant towards Lin Xuan, which made him become more and more presumptuous.
"Your Majesty, the person I want to capture may be wrong, but there is a reason for everything." Lin Xuan said.
There was no way, he didn't know if Liu Rengui beat Lu Ning to death in history.
The following crime was committed and another person was beaten to death. This is a capital crime.
As a famous minister and general in the early Tang Dynasty, it would be a pity if Liu Rengui died like this.
"Who are you trying to get?" Li Shimin asked.
"Liu Rengui." Lin Xuan said.
"Liu Rengui?" Li Shimin frowned slightly. He felt that the name was somewhat familiar.
Li Mu reminded: "Your Majesty, Liu Rengui is a lieutenant of Chencang County. He was beaten to death by Lieutenant Commander Lu Ning, so your Majesty ordered him to be escorted back to Beijing."
Li Shimin remembered that Liu Rengui actually beat Shangguan to death for his crimes, which made him very angry, so he had some impressions.
"Since you said there was a reason, I will call him here and ask him personally to find out what is the reason for him to commit the following crime!" Li Shimin said.
As the highest level of the class, he naturally does not want the following wrong situations to occur.
If you can kill Shangguan today, should you rebel tomorrow?
However, Li Shimin was not someone who couldn't listen to what others had to say. In addition, he was also curious about Liu Rengui and wanted to see what kind of person was so bold.
"Thank you, Your Majesty!" Lin Xuan thanked him.
Li Shimin waved his hand and told Li Mu to bring Liu Rengui.
"According to various signs, Western Turks and Xue Yantuo may fight after the beginning of spring. What do you think of this matter?" Li Shimin asked.
"Isn't this what His Majesty wants?" Lin Xuan asked puzzledly.
Li Shimin shook his head and said: "I hope they fight, but now the court is short of food and will have to wait until next year's autumn harvest to have food. However, the war situation is ever-changing. If the grassland war has an outcome before the Tang Dynasty sends troops, it will be troublesome.
.”
Although Western Turks and Xueyantuo are two countries, they are both Turkic in nature.
Although the two countries are fighting, their strength will be weakened a lot, but once one of them annexes the other, it will not be a good thing.
When the Eastern Turks were destroyed, Li Shimin supported Yi Nan in establishing Xue Yantuo, except because the Tang Dynasty did not have the ability to completely eliminate the Eastern Turks.
Another reason is that we don’t want the grasslands to be unified.
Once the Western Turks and Xue Yantuo went to war, if the Tang Dynasty could not send troops in time due to food problems, it would probably delay the war.
"Your Majesty, both the Western Turks and Xue Yantuo have at least more than 200,000 troops. They shouldn't be able to decide the winner so quickly, right?" Lin Xuan said.
Don't look at the battles in history where a small number defeated a large number. Hundreds of thousands of people were wiped out in one battle.
But that was not a real fight at all.
Those battles were fought at the right time and in the right place, and neither one of them could be missing.
But grassland war is different. The grassland is flat and the nomads are all cavalry.
There is no geographical advantage to take advantage of.
This is also the reason why the Central Plains dynasties mostly adopted a defensive approach when dealing with nomads.
Li Shimin shook his head and said: "You don't understand the Turks. Although the Turks are brave and fierce, they respect the strong. Once the mud is cooked or the Yi Nan's strength is damaged, the tribes under their control are likely to be destroyed.
Will surrender."
Lin Xuan nodded. The situation Li Shimin mentioned is really possible.
Although the Western Turks and Xueyantuo were khanates, they were still tribal systems.
Except for the tribes they directly control, the other tribes are all vassals.
They respected Nishu and Yinan as great khans just because they were more powerful than them.
Once their strength is damaged and the tribes under their opponents are no longer suppressed, those tribes will naturally not fight to the death for them.
It is easy to solve this situation. Just when they are about to decide the winner, Datang takes the opportunity to send troops.
This way they didn't have time to integrate other tribes.
But there is a prerequisite, that is, Datang has enough food and grass and can send troops at any time.
However, the Tang Dynasty has no food at all. Although it can produce some food and grass by squeezing, it cannot support long-term operations at all.
This kind of problem is easy to solve, as long as there is food.
The purpose of Li Shimin asking Lin Xuan was to see if he had any way to solve the food problem.
"Your Majesty, although the past two years in the Tang Dynasty have not been smooth, there have been no natural disasters, right? The court has no food, but the people have it. The court has no shortage of money now, so just spend money to buy it." Lin Xuan said.
.
"You think I don't know? But most of the food is in the hands of the aristocratic family. Although those grain stores sell grain, they are all retail. If I send people to buy it on a large scale, the aristocratic family will definitely increase the price of food." Li Shimin said.