Chapter 192 I can’t stand the enemy
Chapter 192 I can’t stand the enemy
On October 16th of the first year of Yongjia, Shao Xun saw the Green Willow Garden from afar.
Each expedition lasted about half a year. If he could not make some money and solve the problem of military pay next year or the year after, he really did not want to go.
Le Lanji is decorating the room.
She is nearly seven months pregnant and her belly is bulging. She should have a good rest.
But because the baby was about to be born, her mood became even happier, and her face was filled with a happy smile every day.
"Your Excellency occasionally stays overnight in the study, so the bed here should be replaced." Le sat on the Hu bed, stroked her belly with both hands, and said softly.
"Yes." The servants responded in unison.
It is said that there are more and more servants in Green Willow Garden.
In the past, more than half of the people were from the Chengdu Palace, and this time many people came from Nanyang. They were all people around Lan Ji during her girlhood, which made her very happy.
In fact, a set of new beds has already been made and is placed in the yard. It can be moved in and assembled soon and used at night.
Fu Qian of the Later Han Dynasty once said: "A bed of three feet and five inches is called a tada board, a bed for sitting alone is called a ping, and a bed of eight feet is called a bed."
Beds and couches are sometimes referred to together, because "bed means to load, so it can be loaded with things". In terms of shape, the main difference between beds for sitting and lying down is size.
The bed is not high whether you are sitting or lying down, usually "six inches high", which is a little more than 14 centimeters.
Shao Xun was not used to this, so he specially ordered someone to make a higher bed to suit his preferences.
When guests came to visit his house, they usually did not kneel or sit, but used a Hu bed.
They don't eat at low tables, but at a proper high table.
This is his stubbornness as a modern man.
After sitting for a while, Lan Ji, with the help of her maid, looked at a set of curtains.
The curtains were sent from Nanyang. They were made of Boshan brocade and had five-colored tassels, making them extremely gorgeous.
This is the kind of brocade curtain that Lan Ji used when she was a child.
From now on, she will sleep in each other's arms under this brocade tent. Whenever she thinks of this, her face turns red and she is filled with infinite joy.
Poor General Shao, when he was a soldier, he either slept on a straw mat or slept in a haystack with his clothes on. After he became successful, he also slept in a coarse cloth tent.
Now, his quality of life has been comprehensively improved thanks to these rich ladies, and they are all things he has never seen before.
"Madam, these pearl curtains..." a maid came over and asked.
Lan Ji was originally very happy, but when she heard the word "Madam", her face became a little sad, and she said, "You guys take care of the layout."
After saying that, he left the study and came to the courtyard.
The female musicians diagonally opposite have already left.
They originally came from various counties across the country and came to Luojing as corvée labor.
Since the Han Dynasty, except for the elegant dances which still used sons of good families (sons of officials with the title of Fifth Great Officer or officials with a rank of Six Hundred Stone or above), the rest were all "lowly slaves of the state" - especially during the Three Kingdoms period.
In this dynasty, female musicians from all over the country took turns to serve corvée in Beijing as "lowly slaves", which was not necessarily a bad thing for them. Because in the local prefectures and counties, their lives were even worse, and they were often used by officials to entertain guests because of their talent and beauty.
The female musicians who had escaped were given as wives to soldiers who had made outstanding contributions, which was a great relief for them.
Of course, everyone has different ideas and cannot be generalized.
Some female musicians may not necessarily like a life of poverty and would rather continue to mingle among dignitaries because they have become accustomed to such a life, even as slaves.
******
In the afternoon, Shao Xun returned to Green Willow Garden.
As soon as he entered the room, he held Le in his arms and gently stroked her belly.
All the servants lowered their heads and dared not look any longer.
After the two entered the inner room, Shao Xun carefully helped Lan Ji sit down, leaned on her belly and listened for a while, then smiled and said, "I haven't seen my son for half a year, I miss him very much."
"How do you know it's a son?" Lan Ji asked, gently stroking Shao Xun's face.
"My seed, how could you not know it?" Shao Xun stood up and said.
Lan Ji's face turned red again, and she was also a little happy.
Shao Xun quickly took off a wooden box from his waist, placed it on the table and opened it.
Le took a glance and was delighted.
Shao Xun took out a pair of pearl earrings - piercing the ears and putting pearls in them is called "珰", which was originally done by barbarians... Nowadays, Chinese people imitate this practice.
At this time, eight out of ten earrings were pearl earrings, which were very popular.
Today, Mrs. Le wore her hair in a double-ring bun, which matched with the pair of pearl earrings, and they complemented each other and looked very bright.
She took a quick look at the other jewelry, which were actually not as good as the ones she had used before, but she still happily asked someone to keep them as a treasure.
Nowadays, many people take medicine, but not many are willing to take the trouble to find gifts for women.
"Lu Zidao and others will be here soon. Come with me to meet them." Shao Xun took Lan Ji's hand and said softly.
"Yeah." Le replied obediently.
Shao Xun then continued to care about the fetus until Tang Jian came to report: Hou Xiang Lu Zhi and the generals from Hebei had arrived.
Then he straightened his robe and took Le out.
"Greetings, Your Excellency." Lu Zhi, Wang Chan, Hao Chang, Lou Bao and Lou Quan all bowed and saluted.
"No need to be so polite." Shao Xun returned the greeting and said, "We are all family, come and sit over here."
Le Lanji was not feeling well, so she just bowed slightly as a return gesture.
Her eyes were somewhat downcast, her face was somewhat red, and she seemed to be embarrassed to look at the people in front of her. At the same time, she was a little panicked, and subconsciously turned her head away. When she saw Shao Xun's figure, her heart fell back into her stomach.
Lu Zhi and others raised their heads.
He was fine, and after paying his respects to Le, he went to sit in the pavilion beside the pond. Wang Chan and the others looked at the high bulging belly of the Concubine Taidi with complicated expressions.
In Hebei, they and Shi Chao boasted that the Crown Prince's wife had a posthumous child, and used this as a banner to cause chaos. At the time, they did not think there was anything wrong with it, it was just a means to rally people's hearts.
But when they actually saw that the Crown Prince's wife was pregnant, everyone looked unnatural. After a hasty bow, they walked towards the pavilion dejectedly.
"My lord, the governor of Luyang has surrendered." Lu Zhi's laughter could be heard from the pavilion.
"Oh? What methods did Zidao use?" Shao Xun asked with interest.
"First, I will order them to conscript able-bodied men, provide them with money and food, and form a marquisate army of a thousand men," said Lu Zhi.
"Haha." Shao Xun laughed.
This move is a bit cruel.
According to the regulations, all marquisates, regardless of size, were required to have an army of 1,000 men.
The problem is, what year is this? In today's world, how can Luyang County afford this kind of money? Looking around the world, even the duchies don't have enough soldiers, let alone the marquisates. Are you kidding me?
But Lu Zhi's request was completely fine from a legal perspective and he was right.
"Secondly, Generals Wang and Hao came to Luyang with more than a thousand soldiers. When the county magistrate saw them, he pretended to be sick." Lu Zhi continued: "Now he is no longer in charge, and the county magistrate's superiors and officials all obey your orders."
"Good." Shao Xun said happily, "The Prime Minister's move is indeed extraordinary. I thought it would take several months of persuasion and hard work, but I didn't expect it to be accomplished so quickly."
"This is all thanks to your might." Lu Zhi said with a smile, "Without the great victories in Luoyang, Yuzhou, and Hebei, it wouldn't be that easy."
"Zi Dao, you are too modest. The credit is yours, so it is yours." Shao Xun waved his hand.
Lu Zhi did not argue. At this time, Wang Chan and others had already taken their seats, so he said, "I was in Luyang and received a letter from you, the Lord, and I already knew about the prophecy."
Wang Chan and others sat up straight subconsciously.
Shao Xun also put away his smile and listened quietly.
It is not clear what other talents Lu Zhi has, but he is really good at packaging his character.
Shao Xun had some understanding of who King Sima Ying of Chengdu was, but Lu Zhi packaged him as a wise king who had a very good reputation in Hebei and received the support of most of the gentry.
Later, when Sima Ying became the crown prince, he became arrogant and refused to listen to advice. Eventually, his personality collapsed and his true colors were revealed, which disappointed everyone. Even so, there are still people in Hebei who are causing chaos under the banner of Sima Ying.
In fact, the entire period of the late Western Jin Dynasty and the early Sixteen Kingdoms in history can be regarded as a contest between the Sima Ying faction and the Sima Yue faction in a broad sense.
Weren’t Liu Yuan and Liu Cong, father and son, appointed officials by Sima Ying?
When Yecheng was about to fall, Liu Yuan even brought 20,000 people to support it, but it was too late, and he was finally persuaded by his subordinates to retreat.
Shi Le and Ji Sang were men of Sima Ying's former general Gong Shifan, and they made their first fortune by gathering the remnant soldiers of Gong Shifan.
Simply put, Liu Yuan was assigned the official position given by Sima Ying, and commanded the Xiongnu tribes in this name.
Shi Le and others were assigned Sima Ying's troops and started to stir up trouble.
Shao Xun got Sima Ying's wife, which was not a loss. He was able to have his first child by borrowing a chicken to lay eggs.
Everyone, human or ghost, was showing off, except Sima Ying's entire family, which was tragic.
"Many people believe in prophecies, but there are also many who think they are nonsense." Lu Zhi said, "From the perspective of the emperor, whether to believe or not depends on the overall situation. When the emperor needs you to serve him, even if you believe it deeply in your heart, you have to endure it. Only after you have overcome the current difficulties will you have the opportunity to settle the score. The Grand Tutor may also believe it, but he can't do anything to you for the time being."
"As for Wang Yan." Lu Zhi pondered for a moment and said, "This man is very fond of talking about metaphysics, and perhaps he believes in it the most. But he has no great ambitions, and he just goes with the flow and takes advantage. He has no determination to burn his boats for what he wants. When he heard the boy's song, his first reaction was not to make things difficult for you, but to be on good terms with you."
When Shao Xun heard this, he praised: "Zi Dao really sees through Wang Yan."
Wang Yan was a typical politician, but definitely not a statesman.
He is a good speaker with a good vision. He started preparing for war very early and made far-reaching plans. But he has a fatal weakness, which is what Lu Zhi said, that he does not have a clear goal, and he does not have the courage to risk everything for this goal.
Wang Yan just wanted to play within the rules and get along with everyone. He couldn't get out of this circle and became path-dependent.
"Except for these three, the other prefects may pose a threat, but they are not serious." Lu Zhi said, "So you don't need to do anything, just wait."
"What are you waiting for?" Shao Xun asked deliberately.
"Wait for news from all sides before taking any action." Lu Zhi said as a matter of course.
Shao Xun smiled and said, "Listening to Zidao's words is like seeing the sun after the clouds have been cleared, and my mind is suddenly enlightened."
Lu Zhi was not a time traveler, so of course he could not have imagined that after waiting for another half a year, Wang Mi would have fought his way all the way to the capital.
Shao Xun was not very clear about other historical details, but he knew this matter.
Who the hell cares about prophecies then? The Taibai Star Spirit is what everyone needs, and it'd better be true.
"By the way, Zidao just mentioned that the Grand Tutor would believe this rumor. Could it be that the Grand Tutor didn't do this?" Shao Xun asked.
Lu Zhi stroked his beard and said thoughtfully, "According to what you said, Liu Han's Grand Herald Fan Long sincerely wanted to recruit him. After thinking about it, I think it is very likely that he did it. If the Grand Tutor wants to cause trouble for you, he doesn't have to use such means."
Shao Xun nodded slightly, then asked, "What do the last two lines of this rumor mean, 'The Luo River stops flowing, and the Immortal will appear'? How could the Luo River stop flowing?"
"There was a severe drought in Guanzhong, leaving thousands of miles of barren land. There was a severe drought in Bingzhou, and the Fen River stopped flowing. Didn't that happen in the past few years?" Lu Zhi said, "The sky has big signs but cannot express them, so it uses wind and clouds to indicate abnormalities. The signs of severe drought are actually warnings from heaven, and what's so strange about the Luo River stopping flowing? If it stops flowing this year, it will stop flowing next year. If it stops flowing next year, it will stop flowing the year after that. As long as it stops flowing one year, this prophecy will come true."
After saying that, Lu Zhi looked at Shao Xun carefully and asked, "Your Excellency, do you really not know?"
"Know what?" Shao Xun was puzzled.
Lu Zhi, Wang Chan and others looked at each other, all of them were a little confused.
After a while, Lu Zhi asked, "Since you don't know, why do you put so much effort into Guangchengze?"
Shao Xun was stunned. Lu Zhi, you didn't believe it too, did you? Didn't you say it was a man-made rumor?
Seeing that Shao Xun did not look fake, Lu Zhi put away his doubts and said, "Your Excellency would be better off going to Luyang in person. I have been running around for many days and I feel that there are a few things that are more urgent..."
Having said that, let me tell you one by one.
Shao Xun nodded repeatedly.
Several people ate and chatted until the evening, when they dispersed.
(End of this chapter)