Looking at Zhu Wen kneeling in front of him, Li Rupei couldn't believe his eyes. It was Zhu Wen who ended the history of the Tang Dynasty and became the first emperor of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms. It was also Zhu Wen, who killed innocent people indiscriminately because of his cruel personality and excessive debauchery, left a very controversial reputation in history.

The famous Zhu Wen actually led 20,000 soldiers to surrender to him.

Li Rupei's first idea was to kill Zhu Wen immediately so as not to leave any future troubles.

However, this idea just flashed by. Li Rupei is a time traveler who can control and grasp history. He has to do more things in the future. Facing Zhu Wen, he is so nervous and wants to kill him. So can he kill him in the future? Such thoughts are just inner fear, which is awe of history.

He, Li Rupei, wanted to change history and to stand at the top of the world.

Li Rupei personally helped Zhu Wen up.

"General Zhu, you can abandon the darkness and turn to the light. I am very happy. You are under Huang Chao's command and are brave in fighting. I know something. Today you defected to someone, and I welcome him very much. But I also have some words first. The military rules and regulations of the Iron Blood Army are very strict, and no one can be exceptional. Since you are by your side, you must follow these rules, otherwise you will not be polite."

"I swear to be loyal to the prince if I have two hearts, and the sky will be hit by five thunder."

"In front of someone, you don't need to take an oath, you need to see actual actions, and you will understand in the future."

The army led by Huang Chao quickly evacuated, and there was no need for Li Rupei to chase him.

One day later, Song Hu and Gao Chibang arrived at Quanzhou City one after another.

Quanzhou became lively in an instant, and the people around him were still very worried. After all, they were repeatedly robbed by foreign soldiers and had a natural resistance to the army. However, when the Iron Blood Army came to Quanzhou, they did not cause any trouble for them. All the soldiers were sleeping on both sides of the official road. You must know that this is severe winter and the severe cold is unbearable.

After Li Rupei discussed with everyone, he left behind a 5,000 Iron Blood Army, led by Song Hu and stationed in Quanzhou. According to his opinion, from now on, Quanzhou is under the jurisdiction of Shannan West Road and has nothing to do with Shannan East Road. The Iron Blood Army led by Song Hu will also be stationed in Quanzhou for a long time, which is the easternmost point of Shannan West Road.

The army was moving towards Liangzhou.

Zhu Wen was incorporated into Gao Chibang's command. Gao Chibang's task was heavier, with 40,000 soldiers who needed training, including 20,000 soldiers brought by Zhu Wen. All of them were disbanded and re-formed and entered the Iron Blood Army. The 20,000 soldiers brought by Zhu Wen were strictly selected throughout the province, and 12,000 of them entered the Iron Blood Army, and most of the remaining 8,000 were disbanded and returned home.

Zhu Wen participated in the entire selection process, but in fact he also had to undergo rigorous training.

After learning about the process of selecting soldiers by the Iron Blood Army and seeing that the Iron Blood Army strictly enforced military disciplines and regulations, Zhu Wen instantly restrained a lot. He finally understood that the Iron Blood Army under Li Rupei was indeed not an ordinary army.

Soon Zhu Wen learned another news that only 20,000 Iron Blood Army soldiers defeated Huang Chao's 80,000 troops. This situation made Zhu Wen stunned and was glad that he made the right choice. You should know that when he led the 20,000 troops, he still had a trace of luck and thought that he could not tell what the result was if he really fought with the Iron Blood Army.

There were 10,000 Iron Blood Army soldiers ambushed on both sides of the official road. If Zhu Wen really led the army to fight with 10,000 Iron Blood Army soldiers, it would be possible not only to suffer a crushing defeat, but to eliminate the entire army.

When he entered Li Rupei's command, he encountered many things, which made Zhu Wen really calm. He really felt that Li Rupei was not simple, and was definitely not comparable to Huang Chao. If he was foolish under Li Rupei's command, the ending would be very miserable. If An Anxin followed Li Rupei, his future would definitely be bright. After all, Li Rupei's identity was extraordinary.

The army headed towards Liangzhou.

Li Rupei finally had the opportunity to talk to Liu Yunzhang. In his opinion, it was understandable that Liu Yunzhang made the decision to open the city gate to surrender, at least to avoid the massacre of Luoyang, the eastern capital. Besides, the army under Huang Chao performed well, at least not harassing the people or plundering along the way. These are the factors that impressed Liu Yunzhang and prompted Liu Yunzhang to make a decision.

Li Rupei would not look at Liu Yunzhang from the perspective of this era, which also allowed him to accept Liu Yunzhang. After all, the memorials written by Liu Yunzhang hit the nail on the head of the court, which proved that Liu Yunzhang's ability was extraordinary.

Liu Yunzhang never expected that Li Rupei and he took the initiative to talk to him. Although he was involved in Li Rupei's command, Liu Yunzhang felt a little guilty. After all, his decision to open the city gate to surrender damaged the interests of the Tang Dynasty and damaged the image of the court. This was an unscrupulous stain. Only by doing things steadily under Li Rupei's command can he prove himself.

Liu Yunzhang was so grateful that he could speak out.

When talking about the many decisions of Shannan West Road, especially the requirements for the gentry and wealthy families, Liu Yunzhang fully agreed. He talked about the pain that the people had to bear, on the one hand, they had to bear taxes from the court, and on the other hand, they had to pay additional taxes from the local governors. This left the people with no way to survive, and they could only join Huang Chao's rebellious army and maybe they could survive.

The people who joined Huang Chao's army were those tenants who had nothing. In fact, these tenants were also farmers before, but because of the heavy taxes, they were forced to sell their land and become people who had nothing. The taxes they had to bear were surprisingly heavy. Liu Yunzhang once learned that a tenant had to take out 80% of the harvest on the cultivated land every year, pay it to the gentry, and bear the taxes from the court. In the end, the tenant could not survive and led the whole family to the lake.

Li Rupei's care for the people and his emphasis on agriculture were even more agreed by Liu Yunzhang. He knew very well that in order to expand his strength, the governors from all over the country recruited sergeants on a large scale and formed a large-scale army, focusing only on military affairs, regardless of people's livelihood. Such a regime cannot be stabilized at all. You must know that the prosperity of the people plays a decisive role in the stability of the regime.

The only thing that Liu Yunzhang did not understand Li Rupei's policies was his attitude towards merchants.

As a scholar, Liu Yunzhang had a bad view of merchants. He believed that there was no traitor, and the government had to strictly control merchants, making them afraid of the government and dare not do anything randomly. However, Li Rupei had different views. If merchants did not make money, they could not be called merchants. As long as merchants made money within the legal scope, the government would support them.

Li Rupei's understanding is absolutely correct from a realistic perspective. This is the truth proven after a thousand years. Only when merchants make money and pay a lot of taxes can they reduce the burden on farmers. Otherwise, the so-called slogans such as affordability and rest and recuperation are empty slogans. With the increase of war and the growth of the army, all the burden will eventually be passed on to the people. Even the most wise monarch cannot avoid such a vicious cycle.

Li Rupei did not argue with Liu Yunzhang, but just settled the accounts patiently. He took the Iron Blood Army as an example. If the Iron Blood Army expanded to a scale of 100,000 people, the silver consumed more than one million taels each year was a huge expense. The government could not earn so much money, then only the people would bear it. If it was all distributed to the people, even if it was 100,000 families, each family would have to bear the tax of ten taels of silver. This is undoubtedly an astronomical figure for ordinary families and cannot be afforded at all. This is not considered the expense of the government. Taking Shannan West Road as an example, it is considered the expense of all government officials. The silver required every year is also close to one million taels of silver. Such a huge expense, just obtained from the land, the burden on the people is too heavy to bear.

Salt industry tax is one of the main channels of origin, but to put it bluntly, salt industry tax is also exploited from the people.

If you pay attention to the transactions of merchants, it will be different. For transactions of merchants, the tax is set on the basis of one ten draw, and all taxes from merchants are exempted. In this way, merchants can bear it. As long as they can strongly support and develop merchants and increase commercial exchanges, they can collect a large amount of taxes. If they are properly managed and they charge several million taels of silver every year, it is not too difficult. If they can do this step, they can truly reduce the burden on farmers.

Developing merchants requires vision, the government needs to treat merchants honestly, and need to get the support of merchants.

Although Liu Yunzhang did not understand these principles very well, he could understand it at all. Li Rupei quickly understood the importance of merchants through the method of settlement of accounts. However, he was a little surprised by Li Rupei's confidantness. It was not until later that he realized that Li Rupei wanted to give him important responsibilities and let him lead the civil servant team in Shannan West Road.

Li Rupei did think this way. He had many talents under his command, but not many people were truly prestigious, especially in the court, with very few officials. Liu Yunzhang was one of the best candidates. He was born as a Hanlin bachelor, and many of Liu Yunzhang's views did put the people first, which was in line with Li Rupei's thoughts. As for Liu Yunzhang's other different views, the two could exchange opinions and unify their views. As long as the two could fully exchange opinions and achieve consensus in their understanding, Shannan West Road could develop on the right track. At that time, it was time for Li Rupei to truly start to achieve great success.

Therefore, from the beginning, Li Rupei treated Liu Yunzhang differently, and placed an equal position.

The so-called scholars died for confidants, not to mention that scholars like Liu Yunzhang were respected and valued by Li Rupei. He made up his mind to devote himself to everything and do everything well.
Chapter completed!