Chapter 891 Stopped

Chapter 891 Stopped

Chapter 891 Stopped

The twelfth lunar month has arrived. When Zhang Shuo is not on duty, he sometimes visits relatives and friends, such as Wang Bing who came from Bianliang.

He was actually a little confused. Master Shao sometimes suppressed the gentry, and sometimes treated them very well. He was both beating and pulling.

After thinking about it more carefully, I understood.

If he hadn't learned martial arts, he would never have been able to achieve a basic understanding of literature and art.

The first ten or so classes of military students were either refugees or war orphans. Who among them had the ability to read and write?
If you can't read and write official documents and use calculators to do calculations, you can't be an official.

However, Master Shao did not give Wang Bing any benefits, probably because they had a conflict in the past.

"Pingyang is cold and freezing, it's really hard." Wang Bing sighed and asked, "Chuhou, why don't you want to buy property in Luyang? The king said that there are countless people who buy property outside Liang State, just in the 20 counties of Liang State. Look at Jiyin, east of Jiyang, where forts are connected and manors are facing each other. When scholars gather together, it is like a grand event."

Zhang Shuo waved his hand and said, "The king has given me enough rewards."

He pointed to a carriage following behind him and said, "On Laba Festival, the whole army gathered and ate red bean porridge. They ate and took things. There were fifty rolls of silk, ten pieces of sand fox skin, ten Buyeo pearls, ten pieces of gold and silver, twenty pieces of celadon, and a fruit horse. It was so small that I don't know if it can be sold."

Wang Bing looked at it and said with a smile: "Rewards are only temporary, but property is a long-term benefit."

"There are rewards for the leading actress." Zhang Shuo said.

Wang Bing stopped talking.

He knew that King Liang particularly liked to convene military academies for banquets, and then take the opportunity to distribute rewards, including money, goods, and beauties.

"Chuhou, I will go to Mianbei after the New Year." The two slowed down their pace and strolled on the repaired post road. Wang Bing looked at the vast snowfield and said, "King Liang has almost forgotten me. If I don't fight for it, regardless of what happens to my clan, my own family will be in trouble."

"What are you going to do in Mianbei?" Zhang Shuo asked.

"Wang Dun and Wang Chuzhong are dead..." said Wang Bing.

"Oh? Really?" Zhang Shuo asked in surprise. He didn't know the news.

"Of course it's true." Wang Bing sighed, "Tao Kan has been promoted to the governor of Jingzhou."

"Where's Xun Song?"

"He is in charge of the military affairs of Yuzhou and Jiangbei." Wang Bing said, "In fact, he is in charge of Anfeng and Yiyang counties."

"Where is Ji Zhan going?"

"He's dead too." Wang Bing said, "Chu Hou, you don't know anything about what's going on outside."

Zhang Shuo felt a little embarrassed, but that was all. He was indeed not as well-informed as the Wang family of Donghai.

"What position did the king give you?" he asked.

"The Water Officer of the Mianyang North Shogunate is just a figurehead, just like Guanqiu Zongru." Wang Bing said, "I went there mainly to investigate the scenery of Jingzhou for the king, and to lay a foreground for the northern nobles to move south in the future to build houses and establish businesses. Someone from the Wei family will go with me. They have a fief in Jiangxia, so maybe we should try to contact them."

"If the king changes the dynasty, the fiefs of the previous dynasty will not count, right?" Zhang Shuo asked.

“Although it cannot be counted, it is not impossible to designate it as the Wei family manor,” said Wang Bing.

"That's right." Zhang Shuo smiled and said, "So, if you want to buy a manor, you still have to go to the south. The king promised you wealth and honor. We clearly agreed on it during the discussion in Jinyang, but why did you go back on your word?"

Wang Bing was speechless.

Jinyang Lundao promised you wealth and honor. It is normal for the nobles in the world to be dissatisfied.

When Wang Bing came from Bianliang, he heard that a noble family in Ruyin County had secretly contacted Anfeng, but Ji Zhan was dead, so they were unable to respond for a while, and then the secret was leaked...

They had no choice but to pack up their belongings, take their families and a few followers, and flee south in a hurry before the main army came to encircle them. They were then settled in Jiangzhou.

This matter has caused you to do this! Why do you want to do this?

In the end, didn't he still go to Jiangnan? Most of his property was still in Ruyin, and he couldn't take it with him. It was a huge loss.

But this is what some powerful families think. They are not clear-headed and cannot swallow this humiliation.

"This is goodbye." When they reached the fork in the road, Zhang Shuo bowed to Wang Bing and said.

"Goodbye." Wang Bing returned the greeting and said, "The matter of buying property in Luyang is actually nothing. It will take many years for the king to conquer Jiangdong. The king will not blame me for buying property now. After conquering Jiangdong, the worst that can happen is that I will give it up."

Zhang Shuo smiled, turned and left.

Wang Bingze shook his head.

He didn't mean to harm Zhang Shuo, he just thought so.

After purchasing a property, you will have stable income in two to three years, and every extra year is profit.

The only downside is that when the land is expanded to Luyang in the future, these disciples of King Liang will have to taste the feeling of being cut off by the wealthy families of Liang State.

Maybe this will cause resentment.

However, Zhang Shuo may have seen this point, so he was too lazy to make any effort.

Among the warriors, there are more and more smart people.

Wang Bing couldn't help but think of Lu Chen whom he met a few days ago. He heard that he had tried his best to persuade the nobles of Youzhou to give up their private soldiers and serve as garrison troops. However, he was rejected by King Liang because there was not enough food and supplies.

In fact, Wang Bing felt that the King of Liang was not too averse to recruiting the powerful families' followers as palace soldiers.

After becoming a government soldier, will those soldiers really be on the same side with you? Not necessarily.

The "most extraordinary thing" that King Liang did was to slowly awaken the warriors.

In the past, "military strategist" was a derogatory term. Even if a scholar became a military strategist, he would be discriminated against.

Nowadays, "bingjiazi" still has a derogatory meaning, but not as exaggerated as before.

Wang Bing was a military strategist from a scholar family, and he knew all too well the changes. If he was the main branch of the Donghai Wang family, he would never join the Donghai Kingdom Army, as it would be too cheap.

The scholars have talked about the military strategists for three hundred years, and their spirits have been lowered to the dust. Even they themselves believe that the military strategists should be subordinate to the children of aristocratic families, because they are engaged in lowly military professions and do not deserve a higher status.

King Liang awakened them, and from then on, it was no longer possible for the scholars to order them around and drive them to do things for a small price.

******
After parting with Zhang Shuo, Wang Bing came to a manor backed by mountains and overlooking the plains.

This was a gathering of scholars from Xuzhou, and most of them were younger people. Wang Bing was considered one of the older ones among them, so as soon as he showed up, everyone greeted him.

Wang Bing first bowed to the host, then sat down and looked at the furnishings in the room. He thought to himself that the Mi family was worthy of following King Liang for so many years, as they were used to using appliances such as high-legged tables and Hu beds.

"What are we discussing today? Could it be medicinal herbs?" Wang Bing picked up the white jelly and raw dendrobium on the table, looked at them, and said with a smile, "When have we ever discussed these things?"

Mi Qu, the second son of Mi Huang, the commander of the Central Army, and the younger brother of Mi Zhi, the governor of the General's Office, said with a smile, "Hongli has a good eye, and this is it. Your Majesty thinks that the style of pure conversation is very good, but the things discussed are mostly empty and meaningless, and should be changed. Today, all the talented people in Xuzhou are here, and they are discussing the sale of medicinal materials."

"Where is this produced?" Wang Bing asked casually, "It should be south of the Huai River, right?"

"That's right." Mi Qu said, "The book 'Fengtu Diseases' has not been compiled yet, but some chapters have been circulated. Some people read it and broke out in a cold sweat. Nowadays, the price of medicine is rising every day. There are rich families who are willing to buy some to store or fumigate their homes even if no one in their family is sick."

It is not an exaggeration to say that I broke out in a cold sweat.

Since the end of the Han Dynasty, people have always found it difficult to escape the nightmare of epidemics.

As far back as the time, five of the Seven Sages of the Jian'an Period died in a great epidemic. What level of disaster was that? It is not an exaggeration to say that 10 or 20 million people died of the disease throughout the world.

During the disaster, people were depressed and thought that they would have no tomorrow, so they might as well enjoy themselves while they could. During the Cao Wei period, the trend of idle talk was prevalent, and many topics were discussed about life.

On the one hand, scholars feared the epidemic, but on the other hand, they did not know how to get rid of it. However, after the collection and compilation of "Fengtu Diseases", many people read it and found that many times contracting the epidemic was actually their own fault!

For example, "Chuanshi" (tuberculosis), I've already told you the name, but you still go to the home of someone who died of the disease to pay your respects. The host family is also very generous, and they hold a grand ceremony with many guests, and the ceremony lasts for many days.

These are all man-made messes.

Of course, many people don’t understand, so the book describes the symptoms in detail in an easy-to-understand way, so you can compare them yourself.

"Are medicinal materials really in such short supply?" Wang Bing asked, putting down the Bletilla striata and Dendrobium officinale.

"The five military departments have been requisitioning and buying medicinal materials on a large scale and sending them to Jinyang for war preparations." Mi Qu said, "The counties are also collecting them. If this is the case, won't the price go up?"

"But this thing grows in the south," said Wang Bing.

"That's right." Mi Qu smiled and said, "We are discussing whether to set up a medicine garden when we go to Jiangdong in the future."

"Good idea." Wang Bing praised politely.

Unlike other people present, his focus was: Has Qingtan already started discussing the business direction after conquering Jiangdong?

It's not strange to talk about this, because they will go there in the future, so it's right to discuss the matter of going south in advance. But the problem is that the premise of discussing this is that they are willing to go south.

The prerequisite for being willing to move south is to be willing to give up - at least partially give up - the land and farmhands in the north.

Is this surrender?
Because there were four powerful families in Yecheng, one in Yanzhou, and one in Yuzhou who fled?

Since the land measurement many years ago, there has been a large-scale rebellion in Hebei, which was suppressed by Li Chong, Liu Ling and others.

There were constant disturbances in Runan.

Some people from Ruyin, Qiao, and Pei even surrendered their cities...

Today, are you finally scared?

The few months after the Jinyang Discussion should have been the final climax of the rebellion.

The next time there is a rebellion, perhaps we can only wait until the twenty counties outside Liang State start measuring the land. However, when that time comes, how many people will dare to rebel?
The young men in the room started discussing which medicinal herbs were more profitable and where to plant them. When they were talking, they even took out a map to show their ideas, and then asked each other if there were any relatives or friends serving as officials in Jiangdong. In short, they sounded very serious.

As Wang Bing listened, he couldn't help but join in, and even seriously considered doing some investigation while serving as an official in the Mianbei Shogunate, in order to prepare for the future relocation of his family business.

It was not until the lights came on that Wang Bing left the manor despite his host's attempts to keep him.

At that time, the sky was snowy and windy, and there were still groups of Hu people in the wilderness heading towards Pingyang.

Wang Bing walked alone in the wilderness, his eyes could hardly see the road ahead, just as his heart could not see clearly where the world was going.

It is really difficult to grasp the pulse of the times.

If you don't grasp it correctly, it will be crushed to pieces.

If you grasp it right, no hero in the world can compete with you.

Did King Liang make sure? Wang Bing didn't know.

However, when he was discussing the Dao in Jinyang, he had already expounded his ambitions and made it clear what kind of country he wanted to build.

Regardless of whether people agree or not, he gave his own plan. It is rare to achieve this, not to mention doing it under great resistance.

Wang Bing thought he could follow behind King Liang, walk around and have a look, and leave halfway if he didn't agree, just like he led his troops to leave Fan County and return to Donghai many years ago.

A few days later, the new year (the tenth year of the Divine Turtle, 326) arrived quietly.

It was also at this time that the star Betelgeux entered the Purple Palace, and the emperor Sima Chi avoided the palace, cut back on meals, and cried bitterly.

Since the time of Yao and Shun, everyone has relied on heaven to do things.

There is a popular saying that goes "When the Betelgeux appears, disaster will occur." The Purple Palace represents the imperial palace, which means getting rid of the old and bringing in the new.

The Tenth Year of the Divine Turtle may be an extremely critical year.

(End of this chapter)