Travel to the early Tang Dynasty and become a salted fish

Chapter 503: Help or hold back?

"Chu Mo is just a businessman."

"Although he is indeed unique in business, it does not prove that he will also be involved in other aspects."

"What's more, Li Junxian, Wang Dehai and Samurai Xun are all there now."

"With the capabilities of the three of them and the large army in their hands, how can they let a merchant take advantage?"

"To take a step back, even if the Japanese plague is eliminated in the future, if Chu Mo dares to rebel, even Li Junxian and the others will not be able to restrain him."

"I will definitely have surrendered the Turks by then and withdrew my hand. When the imperial army presses in, how can we be afraid of a mere Chu Mo?"

After hearing Li Ji's analysis, Li Shimin's worries were instantly relieved.

"That's right, these words deeply touched my heart. It's just Chu Mo. Wuji, you really don't need to take it too seriously."

Changsun Wuji opened his mouth and wanted to say something, but after meeting Li Shimin's warning eyes, he had no choice but to shut up.

At this time, Wei Zheng on the side spoke again:

"Your Majesty, although Chu Mo is now in a corner and does not pose much of a threat, this conscription is really a big deal, and the imperial court must set a regulation at all costs instead of letting them do whatever they want."

As soon as he finished speaking, Du Ruhui stood up again: "That's wrong, Xuancheng, do you know how many Dingkou there are on Chu Mo's current fiefdom? What is the length of the coastal defense line that he needs to guard against?"

Hearing Du Ruhui's question, Wei Zheng shook his head:

"His Majesty has issued a decree before, allowing Chu Mo to recruit people who want to move. The Ministry of Revenue should be the most aware of this matter."

After everyone heard this, they all looked at Dai Zhou, the Minister of Household Affairs.

Dai Zhou had a sad face, faced everyone's gaze, and sighed helplessly:

"My lords, you don't have to look at me like this. To be honest, our household department doesn't know how many people Chu Mo has accepted this time."

"How could you not know? Isn't your Ministry of Household Affairs always assisting with migration matters?"

Changsun Wuji asked, glaring at Dai Zhou angrily.

"Ahem, um, my household department is indeed assisting with the migration, but you don't know."

"Due to the previous drought and the frost disaster a few days ago, people from all over the country were fleeing, and the Ministry of Household Affairs was unable to make effective statistics."

"And when Chu Mo's migration policy came out, all those refugees came in droves. Although Chu Mo had made corresponding selections, most of the refugees were still accepted."

"Although they have been temporarily resettled and have not started large-scale migration, our Ministry of Household Affairs is also sending more personnel to conduct statistics, but there are too many people, and our current statistics of the Ministry of Household Affairs are also very difficult. Therefore, knowing that now, We haven’t even counted it yet.”

Hearing what Dai Zhou said, Li Shimin's face suddenly darkened. He was about to point at Dai Zhou's nose and curse a few words, but found that the other party was looking at him with aggrieved eyes.

Li Shimin met the other party's resentful eyes and suddenly remembered that the other party was indeed asking him for help every day, but he only treated it as an unimportant matter and ignored it completely.

I ignored it before, but now that something went wrong, I have to ask the other party to stand up and take the blame, which is really unbearable.

Then he coughed and said:

"I know about statistics. Dai Zhou can't be blamed for this. Let's see. After today, all the ministries will allocate manpower to help the household department. We will count the numbers first and then make plans."

Hearing that His Majesty the Emperor wanted to assign statistical tasks to various ministries, everyone's faces became ugly.

Why should other departments like us help complete the affairs of his household department?

Not to mention the thankless nature of this matter, if it goes wrong in the end and is blamed by His Majesty the Emperor, wouldn't everyone be in trouble?

When everyone thought about it, they felt a little bit at a disadvantage.

Du Ruhui watched the whole process. Seeing that it was almost done, he spoke again:

"Your Majesty, gentlemen, there is no need to bother with this matter. In my opinion, it is still the same strategy as before, let Chu Mo recruit troops at will."

"What's the meaning of this?"

Li Shimin frowned and looked at Du Ruhui again. He always felt that the other person was uneasy and well-intentioned.

Du Ruhui chuckled, met Li Shimin's probing eyes and said:

"As we all know, Chu Mo is just an opportunistic businessman. He has no ambitions, is narrow-minded, and loves success. Therefore, if we limit the number of soldiers he can recruit, he will definitely feel unhappy."

"When he feels unhappy, he likes to cause trouble everywhere. Even though he is in Lingnan now, if he really uses his methods, I'm afraid it will cause us a lot of headaches."

"If that's the case, then why not let go and let him recruit troops with all his strength."

"Li Ji also said before that Chu Mo's men are all just losers. With the constraints of Li Junxian and the others, there will definitely be no trouble."

"And we let him freely recruit troops, not to mention how many young men are available in his territory."

"It's just that if he recruits all these young men to suppress bandits, then who will cultivate the fields in his territory?"

"Without farming, where would his food come from? Without food, how could he support such a huge army?"

"With this vicious cycle, I believe it won't be long before Chu Mo loses everything."

"And the most critical point is that even if Chu Mo can recruit a large number of troops, he can be self-sufficient, and he can even mobilize troops from other places."

"But, have you ever thought about it. Chu Mo only cooperates with the conscription and provides food, supplies and military pay for the army. But the real control of the army is still in the hands of Li Junxian. As long as Li Junxian does not collude with Chu Mo, then the other party will He has three heads and six arms, and no matter how aggressively he engages in military warfare, he cannot escape the palm of the imperial court."

After listening to Du Ruhui's words, everyone suddenly realized that he was waiting for Chu Mo here.

Changsun Wuji, who was on the side, always felt that something was wrong. If Chu Mo was so easy to control, how could he keep so many people in a circle when he was in Chang'an City?

However, before he could express his doubts, Li Shimin spoke directly and agreed with Du Ruhui's proposal.

"What Keming said is very true. Today's matter has been decided. I will send someone to give Chu Mo and the others an order to recruit troops on their own and take charge of all matters of suppressing bandits."

Seeing that it was a done deal, Changsun Wuji could only sigh and say no more.

When the discussion was over and everyone dispersed, Du Ruhui took a deep look at Changsun Wuji, then left the palace and headed to the Prince's Mansion.

By the time Chu Mo and Li Junxian received the imperial decree, it was already half a month later.

When they saw that they were only asked to recruit troops, but there was no specified number, everyone was confused.