Chapter 868 New atmosphere
Chapter 868 New atmosphere
On the first day of the first lunar month in the ninth year of the Shengui era (325), the Guangji Hall square in the Ningshuo Palace was crowded with people.
The officials were divided into civil and military officials, and Hu and Han officials. They entered the venue from the Duanmen Gate in turn, presented gift lists, and offered congratulatory speeches.
Wang Chang had to wait until the second half of the ceremony before he had the opportunity to enter the hall to offer his congratulations.
"Liu Zhao, the governor of Kelan, presented fifty fine horses, one hundred camels, and twenty catties of musk deer navels."
"Duan Yongzhong, Duke of Liaoxi, presented fifty fine horses, fifty jars of wax, and a hundred jars of honey."
"Duke Tuoba Shiyijian presented a pair of golden eagles, a hundred fine horses, two hundred pieces of sand fox skin, and five hundred pieces of horse crotch leather."
……
Before the lengthy ceremony ended, Shao Xun deliberately spoke a few more words to Wang Chang.
"How are the Dai Gong and Tai Madam?"
"Mr. Dai is healthy, Madam Tai is safe."
"But you live in Changchun Palace?"
"That's right." Wang Chang replied, "It's spring all year round in Changchun Palace, and there are endless vegetables. Lord Dai and Madam Tai are very happy."
Changchun Palace is the palace located at the junction of Dai and Yunzhong counties. It is of average size, and the currently built part is only slightly larger than the mansions of the local tyrants in the Central Plains.
"Okay." Shao Xun nodded with a smile: "How is the situation in the country?"
Talking about this, Wang Chang bowed again and said sincerely: "The general Duan Wenyang sent by the king is really brave. In the winter, the bandits heard that the army was retreating and sent troops to attack. General Duan led his troops to attack and defeated the bandits at Xuanhong Pond. When chasing them, he fought two generals alone and killed them all. The bandit army retreated."
Shao Xun knew about this and sighed, "Wen Yang is a truly brave general."
In the era of cold weapon warfare, the role of brave warriors in boosting morale cannot be underestimated.
One of the four great military feats is to break through an enemy's defenses: "To break through a stronghold before the arrows and stones have been fired, and thus defeat the enemy, is a great feat."
If the battle was normal, Duan Wenyang's troops might not be able to defeat Tuoba Xianbei, but with this person around, they were able to boost the morale of their own troops and suppress the morale of the enemy, leading to victory.
But it should also be noted that the Tuoba Xianbei did not suffer too much loss when they retreated, and their combat skills were superior to those of the Duanbu Xianbei.
"Helan Aitou is still a traitor, I will definitely defeat him." Shao Xun added: "With this victory, no one will dare to take it lightly before the end of spring. By then, I will send the Yicong Cavalry to the north for training, and let Helan Aitou also have a taste of what it feels like to be beaten and thrown into confusion."
"My country and its people all depend on Your Majesty." Wang Chang bowed.
"Go down and have a rest first. We will give you a banquet later." Shao Xun said.
"Yes." Wang Chang bowed and stepped back.
Wang Chang was the second to last. After him, there was another person named Liu Wuhuan, who was the nephew of Liu Lugu, the leader of the Dugu tribe, and the son of Liu Hu, the former leader of the Tiele Xiongnu.
Six or seven years ago, Liu Hu fought a great battle with Tuoba Yulu and was defeated miserably. He fled to the northwest of Yinshan.
After several years of recuperation, their strength had recovered. So they took advantage of the time when Helan Aitou and others went south to Shengle to raid Nuozhen Water Branch, Yixin Mountain and other places, but unfortunately they did not gain anything.
When Lady Wang, the wife of the Dai State heard about Liu Hu's affairs, she made a prompt decision and appointed him as the General of the Zhenjun Army.
Liu Hu did not refuse, but also took the opportunity to send an envoy south to Pingyang to pay tribute.
The gifts presented were not many, just a hundred camel humps, but the attitude was very good, which made Shao Xun very happy.
"Where does your father live?" Shao Xun asked casually while looking at a line of words on the gift list.
"Beyond the Gaoque Pass."
Shao Xun put down the gift list, which contained many seeds from the Western Regions. He was very happy and said, "Since your father has surrendered, I will not say much. If we go to attack Shengle someday, you can go with me and I will reward you generously."
Upon hearing this, Liu Wuhuan bowed and said, "My father has been waiting for this day, and vowed to avenge what happened back then."
Shao Xun smiled.
Your father was defeated by Tuoba Yulu back then, and your uncle even married Yulu's daughter. Tuoba Shiyijian is Yulu's eldest son. I really don't know what revenge he is seeking.
"There will be a banquet in the corridor today, and there will be rewards when the banquet ends. Don't forget to receive them." Shao Xun waved his hand, stood up and left.
******
It is said that the banquet was given in the corridor, but that was for low-ranking officials. Those with higher status actually had the banquet in the side hall.
Wang Chang and others were foreign guests and high-ranking officials, so they were allowed to enter the banquet.
Inside the palace, all unnecessary furnishings had been removed, leaving the room completely empty.
The ground was covered with a "mat" woven from bamboo strips, and on top of the "mat" was a "mat" woven from cattails, with a food table placed on the mat.
The food was quite rich, with wine, meat and milk.
Wang Chang knelt down and looked around. There was only one person he recognized: Dong Wu, the county magistrate of Anyi.
Of course, Dong Wu’s identity is not that simple.
He was originally just a village chief. After many expeditions and his merits, he was promoted to county lieutenant. However, he could not attend the banquet just because of his position as county lieutenant. In fact, he was the representative of the tens of thousands of Ba people in Hedong, which was the reason why he was able to enter the banquet.
"General Dong, how are you?" Wang Chang looked at Dong Wu and saluted with a smile. "Oh? It's Lord Wang." Dong Wu was holding a piece of pickled meat and said, "Have you met King Liang?"
Xian is a pickled food, which was originally processed from fish and later developed into meat. Meat is pickled and brewed together with rice and salt to ferment, and the rice is used to cultivate lactic acid bacteria.
"Yes." Wang Chang said.
"Do you want to go to the meeting in Jinyang in May?" Dong Wu asked.
"Meeting in Jinyang?" Wang Chang was a little confused and didn't know.
Dong Wu smiled proudly and said, "In April or May, I will go to Jinyang with King Liang to discuss the general situation of the world."
"This..." Wang Chang was puzzled. What the hell could a rough guy like Dong Wu do to discuss this? He didn't have the ability to do so.
"Many people went there," Dong Wu said proudly, "including officers and junior officers of the imperial army, lieutenants of the military garrison, and even generals of the imperial guards."
"Imperial Guards?" Wang Chang was stunned.
"Well, it's the Silver Spear, Black Jade and other troops." Dong Wu said, "Anyway, many people will go. I know how much I am capable of, so I won't make a fool of myself. I will just cheer for King Liang."
Wang Chang praised: "General Dong is truly a loyal minister."
"The King of Liang once said that he wished for 'both the barbarians and the Chinese to live in peace.'" Dong Wu's face straightened and he said, "If he keeps pursuing this goal, I will protect him."
Seeing that Wang Chang did not respond, Dong Wu pointed to a dish that the palace servant was serving and said, "The King of Liang treats all people as his own children, regardless of whether they are Hu or Han. This dish is called 'Hu Pao Rou'. Your Excellency should be familiar with it, right?"
Just then, a palace servant brought the food to the two of them. Wang Chang smiled bitterly and said, "This is a Wuhuan delicacy. How could you not know about it?"
"Pao" means roasting meat, or burning something with wrapping.
When the Donghu people first roasted meat, they would throw the meat, skin and hair together, directly into the fire, making it burnt and smell bad.
The Hu people had a low level of civilization, but they also knew that the food was too unpalatable, so they thought of a workaround. They covered the meat with mud and threw it into the fire or dug a fire pit in the ground to roast it. This way it tasted much better.
After being introduced to the Han area, this dish underwent new changes due to the integration of the Hu and Han cultures: take a one-year-old lamb, kill it, cut the meat into thin slices, add seasonings such as fermented black beans, ginger, onions, pepper, salt, etc., stuff them into a clean sheep's stomach, sew it up, and then put it in a fire pit on the ground, cover it with ashes, and then put firewood on it - the method of making beggar's chicken is very similar.
"The fact that Hu Pao meat can be served in the elegant hall of Ningshuo Palace shows that the King of Liang is open-minded and has no pedantic views." Dong Wu asked, "Will the Emperor of Jin eat Hu Pao meat?"
Wang Chang wanted to say that the Jin emperor had eaten Hu Bing to death, and maybe he had really eaten Hu Pao Rou, but he didn't want to spoil Dong Wu's fun, so he just said, "Indeed."
Sitting on Wang Chang's right was the leader of the Hedong Jie people, Shi Fuhou. Hearing this, he said sinisterly, "The King of Liang not only likes Wuhuan Hupao meat, but also likes Wuhuan ladies."
Wang Chang's face changed when he heard this. Who is this young fool?
Seeing Wang Chang's unhappy face, Shi Fuhou sneered and said, "It seems that everyone knows about the affairs of the wife of the King of Dai."
"Oh? You've been to Pingcheng too?" Wang Chang asked, "Why haven't I seen you there?"
"He's leaving with the grain. The Lord is too arrogant, so naturally he wouldn't recognize a small figure like me." said Marquis Shifu.
"Shi Fuhou, I scolded you before, you are stupid but you don't even know it." Dong Wu said angrily, "Was King Liang good to you, or was Liu Cong good to you back then? You can just laugh secretly because you have a hero like King Liang. If it were someone else, you would have been killed long ago."
Shi Fuhou was speechless, so he just turned his head away and said, "Your Dong family has the surname of Hedong County, but my Hou family has nothing. I think King Liang is similar to Liu Cong."
Wang Chang then realized that he was resentful because he did not get any benefits.
"If you have the guts, then rebel." Dong Wu sneered, "When the army comes to attack, I will volunteer to be the vanguard and slaughter all of your family members, young and old, and see if you can still be stubborn."
Wang Chang lowered his head and drank, thinking silently.
It seems that even if King Liang’s reputation among the Hu people in the Central Plains is not good, it is not bad either.
He personally recorded the chiefs and nobles into the county surnames, tied the nobles tightly, and actually gave them official positions. Dong Wu became the county lieutenant of Anyi, the first county in Hedong. In Kelan, there were also Jie people with the surname Liu and Xiongnu people with the surname Qiao who served as officials.
He promoted marriages between the Hu and Han peoples to deepen their relationship, so that they could be in each other and finally share wealth and help each other.
By teaching them farming, the tribe stopped migrating and gradually became semi-stable. Their lives became better than before, and the chiefs and nobles who benefited from it naturally praised them highly.
If we look into his approach, Wang Chang would like to call it "the way of the king" rather than "the way of tyranny."
The hegemonic way only involves military conquest, while the kingly way adds gentle persuasion to that.
After Wang Chang came to Pingyang, he heard that people from Fengyi often led their tribes across the river to the east to seek refuge with King Liang - most of them were Di, Qiang and Xianbei.
King Liang is really good at winning people's hearts. The end result is that more and more people stand on his side, causing the enemy to be defeated without being defeated.
"General Dong." Wang Chang picked up the wine jar and said, "The discussion in Jinyang is a big event. I will ask Dai Gong to send someone to the south to listen. We may meet again then. Let's have a drink first."
After that, drink it all in one gulp.
Dong Wu smiled and also picked up the wine bottle and drank it all.
Shi Fuhou lowered his head and said nothing, just focusing on eating the food. It was obvious that he was not happy.
Wang Chang looked inside the hall again. It was filled with distinguished guests, all drinking to their heart's content.
These people once belonged to different factions, and many of them might have fought each other, but now they are sitting together, drinking and eating meat. This is a new phenomenon.
(End of this chapter)