Chapter 672: Wen Shijin
Chapter 672: Wen Shijin (Added a little more because the name cannot be changed)
The Luoyan Army was one of the first troops to be mobilized in the second batch of troops for the expedition, and before setting off, they paid a visit to the emperor as usual.
The two main officers were Su Shuyan and Duan Mobo.
Previously, they had moved to Leling and participated in the campaign against Qingzhou, but they did not achieve any merit. This time, they would go into battle again with 2,500 cavalrymen in the attack on Henei.
Su Shuyan's two sons are still in Youzhou, each leading a group of troops and becoming local tyrants in Huaihuang and Beikou towns.
As for Old Su, he took his family, servants, confidants, and some of his direct subordinates, totaling more than 5,000 people, to the south. Two months ago, for unknown reasons, Su Shuyan handed over all his people except his family and servants, and settled them in five counties: Junyi, Kaifeng, Yongqiu, Suiyang, and Weishi.
Shao Xun appointed him as the chief officer of the Protector of the Barbarians and concurrently the commander of the Luoyan Army.
The Protector of the Barbarians was a newly created position, led by Shao Xun himself, in charge of the unregistered Hu tribes and military towns in Hebei and Youzhou areas, and the Chief Clerk was one of his deputies.
"How about the house in Shangshanfang?" Shao Xun put down his brush, looked at Su Shuyan and asked.
"This house is magnificent and the only one I have ever seen. After living here for more than a month, I feel more and more ashamed." Su Shuyan was filled with gratitude and said, "How can I accept this house when I have not done anything good."
"What belongs to you is yours." Shao Xun said with a smile: "Is the money enough?"
"I still have some savings." Su Shuyan said.
"If we can't support so many people, we can just dismiss some of the servants and guests," Shao Xun said.
Su Shuyan was startled, and after a moment of hesitation, he said, "Let's just send some of them away when we get back."
"Report those who are dismissed directly to the Shangshu Ling, and I will have someone allocate a piece of land in Ruyin for them to farm and graze." Shao Xun said, "Being self-reliant is better than anything else, and I believe they will be happy with it."
"Yes, yes." Su Shuyan nodded repeatedly.
Duan Mobo watched from the side, cursing in his heart.
Su Shuyan only has 5,000 people, most of whom are not even regular tribal people, so they can be handed over just like that. This is nothing, but I still have more than 20,000 men and women under my command, so where do you put me?
But he was also quite envious of Su Shuyan.
The house covers a large area and is very beautiful.
When it was built, they dug the ground to make a pond, piled up the earth to form a hill, planted trees and mixed with flowers, so there are rockery and gardens.
In the construction of houses, windows, wall strips, lintels, railings and the like are all made of exquisite materials.
When the morning sun rises, it shines brightly on our door.
When the breeze blows, the forest sounds.
There was a garden in the inner city of Bianliang. Was it an ordinary residence? Duan Mobo knew with a little thought that this was a residence that the Duke of Liang had prepared to reward his meritorious officials.
Some people also say that it is prepared for high-ranking officials.
Sometimes officials such as the Three Dukes and Six Ministers, and the Ministers of the various departments came from other places, and they might not have houses to live in in Bianliang. At this time, there were preferential policies. The court provided different levels of houses for you to live in during your tenure, and took them away when you left office.
But no matter what, this house is worth a fortune.
No, if he got such a house, he would definitely tell his descendants before he died not to sell it to me!
Of course, he may not be able to control this matter. If his descendants do not hold high positions, can they keep the houses in Jishan and Shangshan? If a high-ranking official comes to buy, can you really refuse to sell?
"If there's nothing else, let's go north to Fangtou." Shao Xun said, "Stay here for now and don't waste time fighting."
"As ordered."
Shao Xun glanced at Duan Mobo again, said nothing, and waved his hand to let the two leave.
Su Shuyan had been blinded by wealth and was willing to hand over thousands of people and automatically disband the small force he led south. His exemplary role was very significant.
Besides, he also has united front value.
His two sons, Su Zhongyi and Su Zhongshun, were stationed in Youzhou as generals. It was said that they had fought against the Yuwen Xianbei who had come south to plunder since the beginning of spring. If he gave them wealth and honor, they would be reassured.
As for Duan Mobo, he has a large number of subordinates and a complete tribal structure, so it is normal that he can't figure it out for a while.
But when you come to the colorful world of Central Plains, it is unlikely that you can maintain the tribal model forever.
Xianbei people and Han people look similar. Some have fled their tribes in the past year. The counties of Liang State have treated these people as refugees, registered them, and distributed land. Wait a few more years and see how many people you have left.
Using people to exchange for wealth and honor was a way out that Shao Xun provided them. This door was always open, and when they figured it out, they would have wealth and honor.
******
In late August, some military reports came from various places.
Wang Dun attacked Yiyang, but was defeated by Le Kai and retreated back to Sui State.
Tao Kan, the prefect of Xiangyang, took advantage of the situation and attacked Xinye, but failed.
Zu Ti attacked Xia Pi again but failed.
General Wuya Yang Quan led the Yang family army and the surrendered soldiers from Qingzhou to attack and capture a city of the Wu people located on the north bank of the Huai River.
Refugees from Qingzhou looted everywhere in Xuzhou, so the governor Mi Huang sent troops to suppress them.
Civil unrest broke out one after another in Hebei, and Li Chong suppressed it everywhere like playing whack-a-mole, until batches of relief grain were transported to Anyang, Yecheng, Qinghe and other places, and the situation gradually improved.
More and more refugees were moving south from Hebei to Puyang, Dongping, Jibei and other places. The government provided disaster relief while following orders to resettle the victims in the sparsely populated Jibei. Those who did not have enough land and food were selected and sent back to Hebei to be resettled in the nearly empty county of Dunqiu - the southern part of Wei County was also sparsely populated, so some could be resettled.
The most important military reports still come from Heyang.
The Huns besieged Wen County for more than half a month but failed.
In a daze, some people attacked the northern city of Heyang, but to no avail.
Seeing this, Shao Xun felt that the Huns really wanted to consume their manpower, because siege was not their forte, and forcing it would only damage their morale.
He now felt that perhaps Wang Que'er could handle this war directly. Whether or not to send out the follow-up troops was actually of little significance.
Should he save this food? He hesitated for a moment, but finally decided not to do so.
There is no need. Most of Ji County is still in the hands of the enemy. Hanoi and Shangdang are not so easy to take either. We must be fully prepared.
After reviewing many memorials - Wang Yan and Yu Chen had helped him filter out the unimportant memorials - he came to Lichun Terrace to rest.
A light breeze blows, and the pearl curtain rustles softly.
Among the green trees and red flowers, the sound of women's laughter could be heard.
Shao Xun stood in the courtyard, listened carefully, and found that he had touched upon his own blind spot in knowledge: they were reciting poems and exchanging them for fun. But he did not feel embarrassed, so he lifted the bead curtain and walked along the corridor for a while, and a faint fragrance came from the wind.
He subconsciously looked up and saw that the fragrance came from the courtyard in front. He also knew why there was a fragrance.
After passing through a small clump of bamboo, I ran into a young girl.
Shao Xun stretched out his hand, held her firmly in his arms, looked down at her, and smiled: "Xuanzhu, why are you so happy?"
Guanqiu giggled, buried her face in his arms, and then put her arms around his waist.
Women are different after having sex.
As Yu Wenjun's cousin, Guanqiu had never dared to be so bold before.
After Yu Wenjun gave birth to a son, Shao Xun was no longer polite and began to enjoy her group of close friends.
He had slept with Guanqiu twice, and the girl was so tender that you could squeeze water out of her.
The pink butterflies also gave him a wonderful feeling that was different from before.
"Greetings, sir." The young ladies came over together to pay their respects.
"Husband." Yu Wenjun walked over, slightly hesitant.
Guanqiu gently broke free from the embrace and moved aside.
Yu Wenjun hugged Shao Xun tightly.
Shao Xun stretched out his left hand and embraced Guanqiu as well.
The little girl just looked a little disappointed, but then she started smiling again.
"Please sit down for a while." Shao Xun said, pointing to the table and bed placed under the shade of the trees beside the bamboo forest.
The three of them walked over together.
Xun, Yin, and Xiao Yu also came over quickly and sat around.
"Speaking of which, the construction of Lichun Terrace was still thanks to Xuanzhu." Shao Xun pointed to the rafters and beams of the courtyard and said, "This agarwood was bought by Zongru (Guanqiu Lu), it is really too extravagant."
Guanqiu's elder brother Guanqiu Lu secretly took on a nominal position as a Jincao official in the General's Mansion. His actual work remained the same as before, doing business between Jiangdong and Yuzhou.
After the establishment of the State of Liang, in order to curry favor with Shao Xun, Guanqiu Lu brought back a batch of agarwood from Jiangnan and sponsored the construction of the Liang Palace, which was eventually used in Lichuntai, a place for Shao Xun to rest after governing the country.
In the courtyard before him, which he often visited, the rafters and beams were all made of agarwood, with gilded animal heads on the ends of the rafters, the doors and windows were decorated with gold-carved objects, and colorful pearl curtains were hung - except for the agarwood, all other items were sponsored by Wang Jun.
This courtyard is not small, and Yu Wenjun often lives here. In addition to the external decorations, there are many items inside, which are also sponsored by Wang Jun - to be precise, they are Cui's property, temporarily kept by Shao Xun.
For example, Wang Jun spent a lot of money to get several sets of Shu brocade tents for hanging in winter, green oil tents for use in summer, as well as mirrors, spices and other items. Some of them were accepted by Shao Xun, and some were given as rewards to his generals.
In the Huangnu Palace, there were also golden bells taken down from the back house of the Youzhou Palace, which were hung intact in Bianliang. When the breeze blew, the bells kept ringing, which was very interesting.
Of course, Guanqiu Lu was not only good at flattery. In fact, he was a good businessman and had connections in Jiangdong. His trade routes were smooth, and his annual profit was no less than 60,000 pieces of silk.
Before Luoyang started minting copper coins, Shao Xun took out 100,000 strings of coins and handed them over to Guanqiu Lu, asking him to find a way to use them.
Shao Xun knew very well that metal currency with uniform specifications and good quality could obtain a certain degree of premium.
But don't expect to make much profit from this.
There was business these days, but the scale was modest. It was still another five or six hundred years before the first great commercial boom in Chinese history, and the profit margin had an upper limit - in the self-sufficient economic environment of the manor system, talking about business and finance was indeed a bit outrageous.
The trade route run by Guanqiu Lu was more of a way to support people than to make money, such as the people who followed the merchant fleet (inland ships) to assassinate the traitor.
However, the traitors traveled with the caravans and their range of activities was very limited, usually within the "city" of major towns.
It becomes a bit dangerous if you go out of the city and go to other areas.
It is easier to get lost or even leak secrets once you leave the city, so this is generally not done.
"My dear, my brother has agreed to what I mentioned last time. He said that he would recruit people from Jiangnan through our family to go to Qingzhou, but it would take time. He doesn't want to recruit unreliable people." Guanqiu said softly, "The situation is dangerous, and there are few people in the north who can walk on the rivers and seas as if they were on flat ground..."
"No hurry, he told me." Shao Xun pinched Guanqiu's face and said gently: "Naval warfare is the weak point of the North after all. If this is accomplished, the Confucian scholars will have made great contributions, and I will not hesitate to reward them with titles in the future."
Guanqiu was delighted when she heard this. At the same time, she stole a glance at Yu Wenjun from the corner of her eye, and only heaved a sigh of relief when she saw that she had no reaction.
Ever since she was pressed on the couch by Mr. Liang for the first time, for some reason, she felt that the relationship between her and her cousin had become a little subtle, and she couldn't help but want to get close to Mr. Liang.
In the past, when she saw Yu Wenjun and Liang Gong hugging and laughing, she would laugh along with them, but now she can hardly laugh anymore.
She had never thought that this day would come, and her mind was in a mess. The relationship she had with her cousin since childhood was gradually falling apart, and she subconsciously felt sad.
"The country is just established and there are so many things to do." Shao Xun waved his hand and asked Yin and Xun to come over to press his shoulders and head, while chatting with Yu Wenjun.
As we talked, we slowly fell asleep.
Yu Wenjun asked the four young sisters to leave, and then she rested her chin on her hand and looked at her husband quietly.
It would be nice if I could just stay at home and not go out and provoke others.
Of course, this is impossible.
Chen Kuang, the Imperial Court Minister, quietly came to the outside of the courtyard, holding a military newspaper in his hand.
Yu Wenjun hesitated for a moment and waved to let him in.
"Mingsir." Chen Kuang called softly.
Shao Xun opened his eyes a little and asked, "What's the matter?"
"Shi Hu has set out, marching westward in large numbers to besiege Wen County," Chen Kuang replied.
Shao Xun's eyes were fully opened, and he said, "The right camp is in Puyang, right? Tell them to cross the river. Also, inform the general's two military commanders to select capable assistants and follow me to Wenshijin. All state affairs are entrusted to the prime minister."
(End of this chapter)