Chapter 349 Hebei Issue
Li Heng appointed Li You as the Grand Marshal of the Army, and Gao Xianzhi remained the Deputy Marshal of the Army. At the same time, he promoted Gao Xianzhi to the position of Minister of War and co-director of the Secretariat.

As the name suggests, Tongzhongshumenxia Pingzhangshi is a "Pingzhangshi" who has the same power as Zhongshusheng and Menxiasheng. He is also a prime minister, but neither the left prime minister nor the right prime minister.

The Tang Dynasty had a system of multiple prime ministers, and the heads of the three ministries, namely the Secretariat, the Ministry of Palace Affairs, and the Ministry of State Affairs, were all prime ministers.

Among them, since Li Shimin had served as the head of the Secretariat, the Shangshu Ling, in order not to surpass Li Shimin, other officials kept the position of Shangshu Ling vacant. Therefore, the second-in-command of the Secretariat, "Shangshu Pushe", became the de facto prime minister.

Gradually, people got used to dividing the Secretariat and the Ministry of Palace Affairs into left and right. The head of the Secretariat became the Right Prime Minister, and the head of the Ministry of Palace Affairs became the Left Prime Minister.

At the same time, in order to let everyone know that these three people were prime ministers of the same level, the emperor gave them a unified official title, called Zhi Zhengshi.

However, for various reasons, the emperor often did not want to allow only three people from the three ministries to participate in decision-making, or wanted to use his own people, so the position of Tongzhongshumenxia Pingzhangshi came into being.

In addition to the three high officials with real power and the Tongzhongshumenxia Pingzhangshi, the three masters and three dukes are also considered prime ministers, but they have no real power.

Gao Xianzhi was conferred a title, Li Heng promoted Chang Qing to be the Minister of Personnel and co-director of the Secretariat, Cen Shen was appointed as the Prefect of Jingzhao, Zhang Guangsheng was in charge of the imperial guards, and the rest of the military generals were rewarded in turn.

As for civil officials, Li Heng promoted Liu Yan to be the Minister of Revenue, and the Transport Commissioner of Jingji Road, Guannei Road, Hedong Road, Jiannan Road, and Shannan Road, the Commissioner of Changping, and the Commissioner of Minting. Diwu Qi was transferred to be the Vice Minister of Revenue, and the Transport Commissioner of Huainan Road, Jiangnan Road, and Henan Road. Wang Wei was promoted to be the Minister of Shangshu, and Wang Wei's brother Wang Jin was promoted to the Minister of Punishment.

After letting his own people take charge of the three important departments, namely the Ministry of War, the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Personnel, Li Heng did not leave other people behind.

Wei Jiansu was promoted from the Minister of War to the Palace Attendant, and he still served as the Prime Minister. Zhang Jun served as the Minister of Works, and the rest of the former officials in the court were assigned to the Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of Works.

At the same time, Yuan Zai was promoted to be the Minister of Dali Temple.

Yuan Zai was Wang Zhongsi's son-in-law and had previously served as the Chief Justice of the Dali Temple. The reason why Li Heng promoted him was not to give face to Wang Zhongsi, but because he knew that Yuan Zai was a cruel and ruthless person and had a good relationship with Wang Jin. He wanted to use Yuan Zai as a cruel official to cooperate with Wang Jin and rectify the administration of officials for him.

Li Heng's direct descendants are basically all people he brought over from Longyou Road. If he doesn't reorganize them now, in two years, his direct descendants will be integrated into the Guanlong dignitaries, and it will be difficult for him to discipline them at that time.

After arranging the court structure, Li Ying finally proposed to make Yang Yuhuan the queen and Zhang Mujin and others the imperial concubines.

The civil and military officials in the court basically got what they wanted, so naturally they would not object.

After the interests are divided, the next thing to do is military and political tasks.

Wei Jiansu said, "Your Majesty, although Shi Siming has taken Raoyang, he has not yet opened up Hebei and cannot form a line with An Lushan. In my opinion, it is better to persuade Shi Siming to surrender."

Li Ying nodded slightly, seemingly thinking about something.

Feng Changqing continued, "Shi Siming and An Lushan have a deep friendship, so they may not be willing to accept the court's surrender. Moreover, the rebels are at a disadvantage now. If we compromise at this time, we may end up nurturing a tiger to harm us."

Wei Jiansu said: "We should focus on stability."

Feng Changqing asked: "If we want to persuade Shi Siming to surrender, should we make him a king?"

Wei Jiansu said: "In extraordinary times, extraordinary things should be done. It is not a bad idea to make Shi Siming a king."

Feng Changqing said: "He was not punished for treason, but was instead made a king. If this were the case, wouldn't other military governors follow suit?"

Wei Jiansu said: "Not all people are evil and treacherous. How can those who are loyal to the Tang Dynasty rebel for the throne?"

Feng Changqing said: "Border wars are all caused by interests, and where there are interests, there will be people who will plot against them." Li Heng listened to the argument between the two and fell into deep thought.

Wei Jiansu wanted to surrender, not entirely for personal gain. He felt that the Tang Dynasty could not afford the consumption now. As long as peace could be maintained, some concessions would be acceptable. After all, surrenders had been sought many times in all dynasties.

Feng Changqing came from a military background. He believed in clear rewards and punishments and the eradication of evil. He would rather suffer great pain than compromise.

As for Li Ying, he was considering what kind of policy should be adopted towards Hebei.

In the early Tang Dynasty, the Liu Heita Rebellion broke out in Hebei.

Many people attribute Liu Heita's rebellion to Li Yuan's killing of Dou Jiande, and compare Liu Heita's rebellion to the Anshi Rebellion, in order to explain that the rebellion in Hebei was all due to Li Tang's insistence on the Guanzhong-based policy and its continuous blood sucking from Hebei.

But there is actually a difference.

The fundamental reason for Liu Heita's rebellion was that the ruling policies implemented by the Tang Dynasty in Hebei infringed the interests of the old bureaucratic class in Hebei.

In 621 AD, after Li Shimin defeated Dou Jiande, he released the captured Xia army soldiers back to their hometowns. Then Qi Shanxing, the left servant of the Xia Kingdom who escaped back, overwhelmed the remnants of Dou Jiande, emptied the treasury, dismissed his troops, and surrendered the whole country to the Tang Dynasty.

Therefore, the old bureaucratic group in Hebei region was not weakened by the war at all.

Li Yuan was very wary of this force, but he did not adopt a policy of appeasement. Instead, he chose to suppress it brutally. He first killed Dou Jiande, then sent a general from Guanzhong to garrison Hebei. At the same time, he selected new officials from all over the country to replace the old officials of the Xia Dynasty, taking a two-pronged approach of military and political measures.

The old officials of the Xia Dynasty were extremely dissatisfied because of this. Finally, Li Yuan summoned Dou Jiande's former subordinates to the capital, causing these frightened birds to rise up in resistance.

From this we can see that Liu Heita's rebellion had nothing to do with the Guanzhong-centric policy, and there was no bloodsucking from Hebei.

After Liu Heita's rebellion, the Tang Dynasty adopted a long-term appeasement policy towards the Hebei region and did not suck blood from it. It was not until the Wu Zetian period that the imperial court gradually became alienated from Hebei.

However, the Tang Dynasty's blood-sucking of Hebei was not because it adhered to the so-called Guanzhong-centric policy, but because the collapse of the equal-field system forced the court to suck blood, and Hebei was the best place to suck blood.

Hebei was the most populous place in the middle Tang Dynasty, with the clearest politics and the fewest clans, so it was the easiest place to suck blood from.

The reason why Hebei has the clearest politics and the fewest aristocratic families is that during the Wu Zetian period, the territory shrank and Hebei became the front line against the Turks. When the Turks invaded, they specifically killed wealthy landlords, physically eliminating the aristocratic landlords in Hebei and putting Hebei into a positive cycle.

As for other places in the Tang Dynasty, Guanzhong was a typical example, where the imperial power did not extend below the county level and the gentry controlled the entire area.

As the saying goes, county magistrates come and go, but Huang Silang is the permanent master. It is impossible to collect taxes from them even if you kneel down.

Therefore, the bloodsucking of Hebei does start from Wu Zetian, but it is nonsense to say that Wu Zetian insisted on the Guanzhong-centric policy. Wu Zetian killed more Guanlong nobles than Hebei people. She only killed Guanzhong nobles and could not collect taxes from Guanzhong.

After Li Heng thought about this clearly, he knew how to deal with Hebei.

First of all, it is not advisable to appease An Lushan and Shi Siming. If we surrender them, the next Liu Heita will appear in Hebei, and the disaster of the feudal lords will not be solved.

Secondly, after clearing out the rebel forces, the people of Hebei should be treated leniently to reassure the people.

Finally, Hebei is actually just the place where conflicts in the Tang Dynasty are most concentrated. Pacificating Hebei cannot truly solve the fundamental problems of the Tang Dynasty. To solve the fundamental problems, there is still a long way to go.

(End of this chapter)