Chapter 1083 Fish Belly

Chapter 1083 Fish Belly

Chapter 1083 Fish Belly
The ship had a deep draft and had difficulty sailing on the river.

The scenery on both sides of the river is beautiful, with green pines and cypresses and towering mountains.

From time to time, one can see rising mist, but one cannot tell whether it is clouds or smoke produced by slash-and-burn farming in the fields.

The trackers shouted rhythmic slogans, hesitated with each step, and walked with difficulty on the river beach.

In the distance beyond the beach are mountains, on which an amazing road has been opened up.

Some sections of the road are considered hillsides, and they can be turned into roads after simple repairs.

Some sections of the road need to be excavated and widened, which requires a lot of work.

Some sections are extremely dangerous, they are completely plank roads, and it is scary to walk on them.

Among all the official post roads in the north, only Guanjuejin (Queshu Valley) has a section of wooden plank road, which shows the geographical differences between the north and the south.

"Zongru is fascinated by what he sees." Xi Gu walked up to the bow, stroked his beard and smiled.

"Master Xi." Guanqiu Lu turned around and bowed.

"Alas, I am only ten years older than you, so you and I can just call each other by our courtesy names. The Guanqiu family of Hedong is also a famous and prominent family." Xi Gu hurriedly stopped him and said with a smile.

Guanqiu Lu secretly thought that the Guanqiu family of Hedong had long since disappeared. He grew up in the south of the Yangtze River, so he couldn't be considered to be from a prominent family.

Xi Gu was appointed the magistrate of Xiangyang, and his status was quite different from that of Guanqiu Lu. However, Xi Gu's family background was higher than that of the criminal family like Guanqiu Lu, and he was also a prominent family in Jingzhou and well-known locally, so the two of them had relatively equal status when interacting with each other.

"Yanwen, I just saw some troops marching on the opposite mountain road. Is there any obstacle?" Guanqiu Lu pointed to Jiangbei and asked.

"It's okay." Xi Gu said confidently, "I have found someone in advance. At this moment, people's minds are changing, so it's okay. A few soldiers and horses, maybe the county soldiers are just transferred. Speaking of which, this road was built by Liu Xuande in the past. Bei went to Jiangling first, and then rushed to Fucheng. Zhang led tens of thousands of infantry and cavalry to join the meeting, and they took this mountain road in the north, also known as the Jiang Road."

Guanqiu Lu nodded slowly and asked, "Just now I heard the boatman mention that this place is called Shimen Mountain or Shimen Beach?"

"That's right." Xi Gu said, "After the Battle of Yiling, Liu Bei was defeated and fled west through this gate. The Wu soldiers chased him very closely, and Liu Bei burned his baggage and cut off the road. At that time, Sun Huan was the vanguard of Lu Xun. He risked his life to cut off the upper Kui Road and cut off the main path. Liu Bei had to climb over the mountains and cross the dangerous places to escape."

Burning the baggage could cut off the road, forcing the Wu people to climb over rocks and go around like special forces to cut off Liu Bei's retreat. This shows how dangerous the road in the gorge was.

In such a rugged and narrow terrain, there are certainly not many places to set up camp and station troops. If they want to gather together to avoid being defeated one by one, then there are even fewer places to choose from. No wonder Liu Bei suffered a great loss in Yiling.

If Daliang wanted to capture these counties, the best route would still be the Yangtze River. However, the Gorge Road was not impossible to pass. Compared with the Qin and Han dynasties, Liu Bei rebuilt the road. After the Jin Dynasty unified the Three Kingdoms, it was renovated again. Compared with hundreds of years ago, the Gorge Road was much easier to pass, at least it could be used by a 10,000-man army.

"Thank you, Yanwen, for clearing up my doubts." Guanqiu Lu bowed and said, "After this trip, I have more confidence in persuading Zong Kuang."

After that, he pointed to the soldiers in Jiangbei who were wearing rough linen clothes of various colors and said with a smile: "If they don't even have military uniforms, what kind of soldiers are they? With these resources, it's better to surrender early."

Xi Gu smiled awkwardly after hearing this.

They were just peasants who were conscripted temporarily, not even soldiers, so where did they get their uniforms from? Having clothes to wear is good enough, but wouldn't you be even more surprised when you see the barbarians with bare breasts and ghost-face tattoos?
The boat was sailing quietly.

The sound of the horn echoed through the mountain gorges, startling the monkeys and making them cry out incessantly, like frightened birds.

******
On the fifth day of March, just as Shao Xun issued a series of official appointment and dismissal orders, Guanqiu Lu, Xi Gu and his entourage finally arrived outside Yufu County, also known as "Yufu" County, near Fengjie, Chongqing today.

The county is adjacent to the river in the southwest and has a high terrain, making it "dazzling at a glance".

There is a mountain road behind the county that leads directly to the inland mountainous hinterland. There are many barbarians in the hinterland, but few Han people. In fact, if you travel west by land from Jiangling, you will basically pass through mountainous areas where barbarian tribes live. Even the registered population in the county is not necessarily Han people, but mostly Hanized barbarians.

The development and assimilation of the southern region is a long and arduous task.

Yufu County is very small. After the boat docked at Jiangpu, a group of laborers soon came, speaking a language that no one could understand and shouting something.

Soon, a group of people came up from the shore, holding their scabbards and smashing and beating the people to disperse. Then they came to the Jiangpu Wharf, bowed to Guanqiu Lu, and said, "Uncle, has everything been peaceful along the way?"

Guanqiu Lu glanced back and said nothing.

The person in front of him was Guanqiu Yin, the son of Guanqiu Ao, the governor of Yizhou and the military supervisor of Badong. According to the family seniority, he was a cousin of Guanqiu Lu, so he should call him "uncle".

However, deliberately calling someone in a familiar way is an attitude, or it can be called a hint, those who understand will understand.

"Don't worry, uncle. They are all my family's followers and guests." Guanqiu Yin understood Guanqiu Lu's hesitation and explained.

Guanqiu Lu then breathed a sigh of relief, and then introduced Xi Gu in a low voice.

After greeting each other, the group went ashore and the surrounding people dispersed.

The servants and guests of Guanqiu's family assisted the boatman and the more than 20 soldiers who came with the ship to load the various goods on their shoulders and on horses.

Guanqiu Yin smiled when he saw it and said, "Uncle, you are so polite. This ship of pottery, porcelain, and ornaments are worth a lot of money in Badong. In this poor and remote place, the people still farm by slash-and-burn, and the families can only give some oranges as a return gift."

Guanqiu Lu laughed out loud after hearing this and began to understand the character of his nephew: he should be quite humorous in daily life.

"The emperor loves to eat tangerines, so it would be the right thing for my nephew to give him this as a gift," he said.

"Really?" Guanqiu Yin seemed to be surprised and shouted, "My father always said that I have a mild temper and am not cut out for great things. I am still a commoner. Maybe I can become an official?"

The Orange Official was set up in the Former Han Dynasty. There was no such official in Badong County, but there was one in Ba County (now Yuzhong District, Chongqing), which was responsible for the official orange and lychee orchards. When the orange and lychee orchards were ripe at the summer solstice, the two thousand stone officials would set up a kitchen and order the scholars and officials to gather under the trees to eat.

The lychees that Yang Guifei, the heroine of later generations, ate were produced in Chongqing, and there was a special post road in the Tang Dynasty, commonly known as the "Lychee Road". However, the official lychee gardens gradually declined during the Later Han Dynasty, and at this time, they were extremely withered, not entirely because of war, but because of the arrival of the Little Ice Age, when the temperature dropped sharply and it was difficult for the lychees to grow.

The government-run lychee orchards may have to wait until the next warm climate period, such as the Sui and Tang dynasties, for their government-run lychee orchards to flourish again.

Guanqiu Lu knew that his nephew was joking when he said Ju Guan, but - it might not be impossible.

Seeing how enthusiastically the emperor was in business, would he really not re-appoint an official in charge of orange orchards? Even if he wasn't called by that name, it was very likely that he would hold a title in the Shaofu and be in charge of orange orchards.

"Since my dear nephew has such ambition, I will certainly recommend you to the emperor." Guanqiu Lu followed with a joke. When he saw that the goods were almost loaded, he got on the ox cart, and the group headed towards the county town in a mighty manner.

To be honest, it was still quite eye-catching, but it was not a big problem. First, people didn't know who was coming, and they just thought it was a merchant doing business with the Guanqiu family. Second, Guanqiu Ao was a governor and a military governor, so it was not a big deal.

The mountain road was rugged and the ox cart moved very slowly.

Guanqiu Lu and Guanqiu Yin, uncle and nephew, rode in the same carriage, talking quietly as they went.

Xi Gu sat on the rear ox cart, carefully observing the customs of the people of Badong.

This is a really small place, and a poor place too.

Outside the county town are mountains. The people burn the wasteland to make fields and use slash-and-burn farming methods. It is very primitive and backward.

Most of the fields were burned late last fall, and after a whole winter of clearing, they were planted with a variety of crops in the spring.

There are also people who burn the land in spring. Generally, they clear the trees first, then light a fire before the rain, use the ashes as fertilizer, and start planting after the rain stops.

But they did not know how to maintain the fields, and after several years of farming, the yield per mu dropped sharply, so they moved to the next field that had been burned down, which was a bit like nomadic farming.

This is Yaotian, it’s really backward.

The two armies are fighting here. It's okay in the short term, but in the long term it will be very difficult to raise food locally, and it will have to be transported from other places. Fortunately, there is the river!
Compared with the backwardness of agricultural farming, the ignorance of the people here is even worse.

Along the way, traces of witchcraft and ghost arts can be seen everywhere. People with cut hair and tattoos are everywhere, which does not look like the Han people.

This is the result of the education of the Qin, Han, Wei and Jin dynasties. I really don’t know what the situation was like during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.

The King of Chu's words "I am a barbarian" may not just be self-mockery. If the capital of Chu is like this, how is Bashu any different?

The convoy quickly entered the city and arrived in front of a house of medium size.

The small Yufu County was crowded with various government offices including the county government, the prefectural government, and the governor's office, making it quite a mess.

After the servant reported, the group was quickly led in.

Guanqiu Lu straightened his robe, hid a gift list in his sleeve, exchanged a glance with Xi Gu, and went in one after the other.

"Zongru." A dark-faced, bearded man came forward. He was totally different from the handsome pretty boy like Guanqiu Lu, which made people wonder whether they were relatives.

Of course, they often met when they were young. Before the war between Jin and Liang, Guanqiu Lu went to Jianye several times and saw him several times, so it was impossible for him to make a mistake.

"Zong Kuang." Guanqiu Lu stepped forward, took his hand, and said with a smile: "I didn't expect that after not seeing you for so many years, you have become a governor and a military governor."

"What do you mean by governor or governor?" Guanqiu Ao said with a wry smile, "Yizhou only has this one county. What's the difference between a governor and a governor?"

"You can't say that." Guanqiu Lu shook his head and said, "If I have the opportunity to return to Jianye to serve as an official, I will definitely be counted as a governor. This time, I brought--"

"Don't talk about this for now!" Guanqiu Ao said impatiently, "Brother, we have received accurate news that the Chengguo court has sent troops to Badong. There are no less than 10,000 naval and land soldiers, and they have conquered Nanpu (now Wanzhou, Chongqing). There is a lot of noise in the county, and many officials are not very obedient. They plan to abandon Badong and retreat eastward to Jianping (now Wushan, Chongqing) on ​​the grounds that there are not enough soldiers."

"We can't retreat!" Guanqiu Lu became anxious when he heard it and blurted out.

This was a bit beyond the line, but Guanqiu Ao didn't look weird at all. After calming down, he asked seriously, "Zongru, if reinforcements came, we wouldn't have to retreat. But now we have no troops..."

"Where are your soldiers?" asked Guanqiu Lu.

"There are only a thousand county soldiers." Guanqiu Ao said, "It's OK to suppress the local area, but it's incapable of resisting Chengguo. We need to summon the barbarian soldiers."

"Then call them together!" said Guanqiu Lu.

"The barbarians are indecisive and many of them are wavering. What can we do if we want to help them build a country?" Guanqiu Ao said.

"Zong Kuang, listen to me." Guanqiu Lu said, "I don't believe that the Great Jin has been established for decades without any prestige. How can the fake Jin compare with the Great Jin after only a few years of success? The barbarian chief is just greedy for money and goods. I just brought a ship of money and goods. Take it first and I will give it to you later. If it is really impossible to do anything, it's okay to escape, but as long as there is a slight chance, don't give up. If you defend Badong, the emperor will be very pleased and will surely reward you with countless official titles."

At this point, Guanqiu Lu emphasized his tone and said, "Badong is not just a county. With this place in hand, it will be very convenient to enter Shu in the future. This is not Badong, it is the entire Yizhou! Brother, you should think twice."

Guanqiuao was silent for a long time, then sighed, "Forget it. I'm going to be killed by you."

The words sounded a bit strange, but Guanqiu Lu was overjoyed, and finally he managed to persuade his cousin to stop.

If he ran away and Badong was lost, it would cost an unknown amount to take it back.

This is the gorge that is right on the top of Shu’s forehead!

(End of this chapter)