Chapter 804 Only King Liang can save you
Chapter 804 Only King Liang can save you
As the sky began to brighten, a creaking sound began to be heard in the yard.
The old man wiped his sweat while pushing the millstone hard to grind the newly harvested wheat into flour.
There was a group of people waiting in the yard, making a lot of noise.
"It's better to go to Liu Buda and buy an old horse. It's cheaper." Someone squatted on the ground and said loudly.
The old man smiled and said nothing.
How many years has Zhongshan been hit by the disaster? The clothes worn by the children at home are still taken from the dead. Where can we get money, food, cloth and silk to buy horses?
If you have that surplus grain, you might as well save it and plant less grain next year and more acres of sesame so you can make clothes with linen.
The old woman opened the door of the chicken coop and drove out seven or eight roosters and hens with a few "cock-a-doodle-doo" sounds.
The rooster immediately jumped onto the half-broken tree trunk in the yard, holding its head high and chest puffed out, looking very majestic.
The hen spotted a centipede and immediately surrounded it, even flapping her wings to fight for it.
The old woman crawled out of the chicken coop full of chicken feathers and feces, holding a few eggs in her hand, and walked carefully to the west room.
There is a granary made of bamboo in the house. It was originally empty, but now there is some food in it.
The old woman placed the eggs in their familiar place and covered them with wheat.
After thinking about it, he felt that it was not right. So he took a jar, put some wheat in it, and then put eggs in one by one. After a few days, he sold the jar of wheat and eggs together and exchanged them for some daily necessities.
The old man's son carried a rake and after saying hello to everyone, he prepared to go out.
I had soup noodles in the morning, with a lot of soup and not much noodles. Not long after I finished eating, I felt a little hungry.
Hunger is something engraved in the bones of the people of Hebei, especially those who experienced the three-year flood, who have extremely deep memories.
After the wheat harvest in May, the family finally had some food. But since we had never grown wheat before, the yield was not high, so we had to hurry up and plant some grains, which should be planted by mid-June at the latest, and we could harvest them by the end of September.
At that time, perhaps we could open our stomachs a little and eat a few more bites, provided that the government stopped collecting grain.
Next to the farmyard, Su Shuyan had just gotten up.
This is a courtyard with several entrances and exits. Because it is quite large, several families live in it. It is said that they all fled back from other places after the flood receded. They can barely be considered a clan and they all live together.
But now they were all driven out, and the house was "borrowed" by Su Shuyan, the Chief Protector of the Barbarians, and his entourage.
"It's like a long drought finally ends in a downpour." One of the attendants, who was a scholar, said with emotion, "Last year, I accompanied the king to Hebei to provide disaster relief. The land was devastated. After more than half a year of peace, the lady has actually recovered a lot of her vitality."
Hearing them say this, Su Shuyan was actually quite moved and said with a smile, "When I was young, I was herding in Guangning. Because it hadn't rained for a long time, the sky was full of sand and the grass was sparse. Wherever the sheep passed, there was no grass and it was extremely desolate. But after a rain in June, the mountains and fields turned green. I don't know where those grasses came from. In this chaotic world, the people are almost the same as the weeds. They are ordinary people. In fact, there is no need to treat them too well. As long as we don't over-exploit them and don't cause disasters one after another, they will recover slowly."
As soon as these words were spoken, the accompanying clerks all looked at Su Shuyan with surprise.
I didn't expect that this Hu chieftain was not only literate, but also able to say such profound words.
Su Shuyan laughed when he saw them like that.
He is not good at writing and cannot express himself in a very beautiful way, but he understands the basic principles.
During drought in Guangning, the river dried up and people and livestock had difficulty getting drinking water, so they dug wells. Later, there was no water in the wells, so they had to go south to plunder.
The current situation in Hebei is that the grain harvest was very average last season. There is some water in the wells, but it is still incomparable to the situation before the drought.
As for restoring the dried-up rivers and lakes, that will take more than a year's work.
"What the Chief Secretary said makes sense. But if the King of Liang hadn't provided disaster relief, we wouldn't be seeing the situation we have today." An attendant from Hebei said, "Without disaster relief, refugees were everywhere, attacking and killing county officials, dragging in the people who could have barely held on, causing great damage. Three years have passed since the disaster relief, and although Henan is full of complaints, Hebei has retained more vitality and recovered faster."
"That's right." Su Shuyan was stunned for a moment, then immediately nodded in agreement with what they said.
These people were all his subordinates, but after all, he was a Wuhuan, and being an official in the Han area would more or less lead to strange looks.
His subordinates may not necessarily respect him much, and may even ridicule or even curse him in private.
He is destined not to achieve much in his lifetime, and his son's generation is probably not going to achieve much either. Perhaps only his grandchildren can truly integrate into the group of Han scholars and no longer be regarded as aliens by them - if his grandson can still become an official.
"Let's go after breakfast. Send someone to inform the Xianbei envoy." Su Shuyan ordered.
After saying that, he sat down on a wooden stake and prepared to eat.
Speaking of the many giant trees that have rushed down from the Taihang Mountains, they have been used on a small scale since last year. There has not been any major movement this year, but after the summer sowing is over, some people should go out to collect, process, resell and transport them in exchange for food and cloth to subsidize their families.
God brought disaster to the people of Hebei, but at least he gave them some gold: millions of large trees.
The attendants quickly brought up breakfast - actually it was just dry food that was roasted over a fire.
Of course, Su Shuyan and the accompanying officials could also eat something hot.
Someone collected some yellowish or even black flour from the people's homes and steamed him fresh bread, which tasted much better than the coarse and hard dry food.
There are already farmers outside the compound carrying farm tools, preparing for summer sowing.
In the farmyards around us, people were busy in the vegetable patches, weeding out the overgrown weeds.
This job is not easy, but the farmers have satisfied smiles on their faces - in the past two years, even if you wanted to weed, there was nowhere to weed, because there was yellow mud everywhere.
Su Shuyan finished his meal quickly and asked everyone to set off.
Before leaving, he seemed to hear something and turned his head to look.
Under the eaves, a nest of baby swallows chirped and opened their mouths wide, asking their mother to feed them insects.
He seemed to be struck by something and stood there for a long time. During the great disaster two years ago, countless houses collapsed. I wonder what the swallows felt when they returned home.
All things have souls. Perhaps, all living things in Hebei are slowly recovering.
I wonder if they still remember the man who went to Hebei twice and led them out of difficulties.
Su Shuyan thought of the Wang family of Wuhuan again.
It is better to surrender. King Liang treats everyone as human, regardless of whether they are Hu or Han.
******
The grassland in late summer is magnificent.
Above the uneven mountains, there are waves of pine trees.
The foot of the mountain is full of wild flowers, competing for beauty.
Foxes and rabbits roam in the bushes, and colorful wild fruits can be seen everywhere.
The winding river stretched into the distance. On both sides of the river, the grass grew as high as half a person, and cattle, sheep, horses and camels roamed among them, devouring the food they depended on for survival and constantly reproducing.
Further away in the mountains and dense forests, there are faint sounds of tigers howling and wolves making noises. That is where men in autumn demonstrate their courage and archery skills.
"I miss it so much!" Su Shuyan rode his horse up the high slope, looking at the familiar scene, his thoughts drifting far away.
A magnificent carriage came from afar.
The knights rode out on their horses, roaring and rushing.
They did not draw their weapons and were very friendly. There were many carriages following behind them, which seemed to be carrying welcome gifts?
Su Shuyan didn't know how Yu Mie's reception was. Was the standard of reception as grand as that of Wang and Shi Yijian's mother and son?
He rode his horse down the hill, then dismounted, straightened his robes with his followers, and waited quietly.
Soon, the carriage approached.
Wang got off the carriage holding a child in her arms and said, "I am bringing the Crown Prince of Dai to meet the envoy of a great country."
"Greetings to Chief Secretary Su." There were dozens of people following behind Wang's mother and son, led by Wang Feng, and they all bowed down.
"Please stand up, Princess. All the leaders of the tribe, please stand up." Su Shuyan first looked at Wang, then at the baby in her arms, and finally at the group of leaders of the tribe - haha, there were quite a few familiar faces.
After everyone stood up, they also looked at Su Shuyan.
As one of the once powerful leaders of the Guangning Wuhuan, Su Shuyan gradually distanced himself from grassland affairs after becoming Wang Jun's son-in-law. He devoted more energy to the Central Plains and even migrated many tribal people to Shanggu, Fanyang and Yan State.
But his legend is still circulating in Guangning, and there are people he is familiar with. Although these people defeated his son, Su Zhongyi, the general of Huaihuang Town, last year, to be honest, they did not kill him, but simply drove him into Shanggu.
"Master Su." Wang Feng stepped forward and said with a smile, "We hunted together in the past, and the past memories are still vivid. I didn't expect that we would be separated for so many years. It's really a pity. I thought we would never meet again in this life, but I didn't expect it. Haha! I have prepared some good wine, so you can talk about your farewell."
Wang Feng was very young, not much older than Wang. Because his parents died early, he inherited the great business at a young age.
However, although their family called themselves "Wang of Guangning", they had moved there since they took over Dai County - Dai County was also a large settlement of Wuhuan, and there were also Jie people, Xianbei people, Xiongnu people, and Han people. It was a place where Hu and Han people lived together, with more Hu people and fewer Han people.
Wuhuan had long been in contact with the Han area, so they had tribes, but no strict tribal organization. People like Su Shuyan and Wang Feng were more like family leaders than tribal leaders.
Traditional tribes are often composed of multiple clans, and people often call the tribe after the clan in power.
For example, the Hedouling tribe had dozens of clans, and the Hedouling clan was just one of them. However, because they had been in power for several generations in a row and "were the leaders of the tribe for generations", over time they were called the Hedouling tribe.
But in theory, all clans within the Hedouling tribe are equal, and the tribal leaders can be elected and replaced. In theory, the leader of the tribal alliance, Tuoba, has no right to appoint the leaders of the Hedouling tribe.
The Wuhuan people engaged in half farming and half pastoralism in Guangning and Daijun and rarely migrated. The powerful clans began to send retainers and confidants to manage other clans. The characteristics of centralization were quite obvious, especially for some settled farming Wuhuan clans.
Some of the nobles of Tuoba Xianbei naturally saw the benefits of centralization and were very envious. This was one of the reasons why they stood on the side of the New Party - I don't like you to elect tribal leaders yourself, I like to appoint them directly.
The Wuhuan in Guangning and Dai counties were under the jurisdiction of the Dai State, but the Dai State did not appoint the positions of prefect or county magistrate here. They liked to appoint various generals from local big families or leaders of big tribes. This was a typical tradition of integrated military and civilian control.
Wang Feng is now in charge of Dai County. Of course, he also has a great influence in the Guangning Wuhuan group, especially after the fall of Guangning last year.
"General Wang, do you know that Tuoba Yihuai has contacted the King of Liang and is willing to take Shi Yijian as a hostage and live in Pingyang?" Su Shuyan looked at Wang Feng, who still had a somewhat dignified expression on his face, and immediately smiled and said, "I also heard a piece of news on the way that Shi Ben clan has turned to Tuoba Yihuai."
"What? Why would Shi Ben choose Yihuai?" Wang Feng asked in surprise.
The Shiben clan was also a fairly large tribe, and they grazed their livestock in the Ruyuan area, not far from Guangning and Daijun.
The Shiben clan later changed its name to the Han surname Feng. The mother of Tuoba Yiyi and Tuoba Yilu, Concubine Feng, was from this tribe.
Many years ago, when Consort Feng passed away, Tuoba Yiyi held a funeral for his mother. The Jin court sent officials to attend the funeral, and princes and governors from border areas also sent people to attend. All the tribes on the grassland were present, and there were 200,000 people from far and near who attended the funeral.
The Feng tribe was also a tribe under the jurisdiction of the former Eastern Lords, and its strength should not be underestimated. The rulers of the Tuoba Xianbei lived in the west, but they all liked to choose wives and concubines from the east, most likely to maintain national unity in this way.
"The Feng tribe has surrendered to Yihuai, so how can the Dugu tribe turn to you? The Lan tribe will most likely follow the crowd and surrender to Yihuai." Su Shuyan shook his head and said, "As for the lords in the west, do you think they look up to you as a newcomer?"
This is a deadpan joke.
Wang of Guangning is clearly a member of the New Party, but because she married her woman to the leader of the Old Party, she is now forced to stand on the side of the Old Party.
From this perspective, it turns out that my grandma doesn't love me and my uncle doesn't care about me.
Tuoba Yihuai will naturally be contacted by his staunch old party member Helan Aitou. What about you, Wang family of Guangning?
The New Party is now leaning towards Madam Qi and her son, so how can they help you? It's good enough to guard Dai County and Guangning, but it's hard to say what the final outcome will be.
Anyway, Madam Qi wanted to kill Shi Yijian. As for Yihuai, he was a "friendly and respectful brother" and would not kill his brother, so he was only willing to send his brother to the State of Jin as a hostage.
It is hard to say whether he will consider his brother's situation if he seizes the throne in the future and becomes hostile to the State of Jin.
"Only King Liang can save you." Su Shuyan looked at Wang Feng, then at Wang's mother and son, and said in a low voice.
(End of this chapter)