Chapter 1168 Going to the funeral

Chapter 1168 Going to the funeral
"Traveling by boat is so fast. I'm back home in just over a month." At the end of April, in a manor outside Jiyin City, Bian Tao, wearing a mourning hat, looked at the densely packed ships on the Bian River with some surprise.

Younger brother Bian Mao stood beside the stable, looking carefully at a horse inside.

"These should be Gaoping Prefecture soldiers and Zuo Feilong Guards." Bian Tao kept talking, "This bunch of killers even brought back the bronze bell. How do we divide it? Did they privately build a coin casting furnace?"

Bian Mao took a few steps closer, and the horse licked him affectionately.

"Many people from the Zuo Feilong Guard should have been appointed as officials. After they returned, the Gaoping nobles suffered, just like the Jiang family on the other side of the river..." Bian Tao was halfway through his speech when he realized that his brother ignored him. He was immediately displeased and turned around to look at Bian Mao and said, "Fifth brother, did you hear what I said?"

"I heard it." Bian Mao said, "Most of the Jiang family in Kaocheng have moved away a long time ago, and it will be a matter of time for the Jiang family in Jiyin. The land will be measured soon. They only moved here in the Yongjia period. If they don't sell the land and houses now, they won't be able to sell them at a high price."

After saying that, he patted the horse's neck gently and said, "Look, brother, this horse is so docile and tall."

Bian Tao was speechless.

This is how my fifth brother has lived his life. He doesn’t like studying, making friends, being an official, or managing a business…

Until one day he saw the fine horses brought by the Western Region Hu merchants in Luoyang and liked them very much, so he asked someone to use his connections and used both soft and hard tactics to buy an uncastrated stallion. Then, like a possessed person, he found all the mares he could find in the manor and mated them with the stallions one by one.

Not only did he do the mating, he also took a stack of papers to record and made a family tree for the stallion's "harem" and descendants, just like a pastoral supervisor, doing his job conscientiously.

Sometimes he would get up in the middle of the night and feed the stallion with salt water and bean feed himself, without asking the servants to do it.

Two years ago, he actually went to Guangcheng Park and begged the officials in charge of the animal husbandry to ask for the secrets of horse breeding. After returning, he became like a madman, carefully observing and recording.

Bian Tao had read the "family tree", which was a more detailed record, even including the habits, temperament, and specialties of each horse.

Of course, flaws are also documented.

At that time, my father had not passed away yet, so he asked my fifth brother, "Guangchengyuan has been breeding horses for many years, but has not yet been able to breed a particularly satisfactory horse. Can you do it by yourself?"
The fifth brother's answer was speechless. He believed that horse breeding required a bit of luck, and he was lucky, so he would definitely be able to breed good horses.

My father didn't speak for a long time. Finally, he smiled, patted my fifth brother on the shoulder, and said, "My family is quite wealthy. What's wrong with supporting you for the rest of your life?"

His father passed away years ago, and Bian Tao inherited the family business.

He didn't say much to his younger brother, who was almost twice his age. His father said he would raise him for his whole life, so as the eldest brother, he should raise him for his whole life to preserve the brotherhood.

It’s a pity that he was also a minor official: Sima, the Duzhi Duwei of Bianliang.

Now he has to resign with great difficulty. I feel discouraged just thinking about it - well, it seems a bit unfilial to think so.

Bian Tao shook his head irritably, walked to the stable, and watched with his arms folded.

The papers on which Bian Mao recorded have been bound into a book with a cover called "Horse Racing Classics".

Bian Tao wanted to laugh when he saw this, so he asked, "How is your health, 'General'?"

When the word "general" was mentioned, Bian Mao's eyes lit up and he said, "I had a poor appetite a few days ago, but now I feel better again."

After saying that, he actually wanted to take Bian Tao to see the horse - "General" was the horse that Bian Mao bought from a Hu merchant, and he named it himself because the horse was tall and majestic.

Bian Tao didn't want to go to the smelly "General's Mansion", so he quickly got rid of Bian Mao's hand, pointed at the horse in front of him, and asked, "How about this horse?"

Bian Mao was even happier when he heard this, and said, "Brother, the general and his twelfth wife had a good relationship before, but their sons were not very tall when they grew up. This horse was born to the general's seventh son, and it is the tallest among all the sons, almost the same size as the general."

"Oh?" Bian Tao was a little surprised.

After listening to his fifth brother's chatter for a long time, he also learned something about horse breeding.

The mares that mate with the Western Region horses are all dwarf horses trafficked from the northern grasslands. This kind of horse is very common in the Central Plains and is even more numerous on the grasslands.

If we can breed a tall and strong horse with the blood of prairie horses, the significance cannot be underestimated.

Of course, it's too early to be happy now. He heard that Guangchengyuan once bred many tall horses, but in the next generation, they degenerated into dwarfs, as if the thing (gene) that made the horses grow taller had disappeared and could not be passed on.

This requires a lot of luck!

The sound of horse hooves could be heard in the distance.

The two brothers stopped talking immediately. Bian Mao was obsessed with raising horses, but he knew the importance of raising horses. He immediately put on his mourning hat and went into the thatched cottage with his brother.

The second, third and fourth sons of the Bian family were discussing whether there were any beauties in Li Cheng's harem and whether they would be rewarded. When they talked about something happy, their eyebrows were dancing with joy, and the whole family was filled with laughter.

When he saw his elder brother giving him a look, he immediately put on a sad expression.

"Uncle! Uncle!" The visitor started crying as soon as he got off his horse.

The Bian brothers were stunned and left the hut one after another, only to see a man crying loudly, unable to control his grief.

Bian Tao went forward to ask and found out that the man's name was "Bian Xu", the second son of Bian Xu, the Minister of the Left of Jin.

Bian Tao's grandfather was named Bian Jun, the fourth in his generation. Bian Jun's eldest brother was named Bian Cui, who had a son named Bian Xu.

So Bian Dun and Bian Xu were cousins, and Bian Tao and Bian Xu were "second cousins", but they were not usually called that because it was too distant. Basically, they were still called "cousins", and only after they were five generations apart were they called clan brothers. Bian Tao was a little suspicious of this person's identity because he had never met Bian Xu, who was born in Jiangnan. However, when the other party showed him a handwritten letter from Bian Tao, he immediately believed it and invited him into his thatched cottage.

Bian Mao slipped out quietly again.

He's not stupid, he knows what's going to be discussed next, and he doesn't want to hear it.

However, he also knew that it was not easy to run and maintain a family. His brother used to be such a free and easy person, but now he has to run around for the family business, which is something he would never do before.

His brother said he would support him for the rest of his life and let him do what he likes with peace of mind, and he was very grateful.

He didn't like taking medicine, drinking, or discussing philosophy, as he thought it was a waste of time.

In his opinion, the most meaningful and exciting thing is to quietly write the "Horse Classic" and breed a peerless famous horse in his life.

He knew that this hobby was peculiar and very expensive.

Putting aside other things, a month before my father died, he bought ten mares from Guangchengyuan, spending a total of 600,000 yuan. Is this something an ordinary family can afford?

After spending this money, there is no guarantee of any results, and a normal mare does not cost so much. Only the good horses bred by Guangchengyuan are expensive - in fact, they are not considered good horses, and Guangchengyuan will not sell the real good horses to the outside.

Of course, it’s not that there is no income.

Somehow, King Xu of Zhao heard about his story, sent someone to send 200,000 coins over, and mentioned it to the emperor.

The emperor was very happy and ordered Guangcheng Garden and Zuoguo Garden to select twenty good horses each as gifts, saying that this was what a son of a noble family should do.

Perhaps this is one of the reasons why his brother supported him to continue breeding horses.

Bian Mao agreed very much with what the emperor said.

Ordinary people do not have the ability to do such a thing which is extremely costly and may not even yield results. Even if they do, they cannot guarantee the results as they may be snatched away by others. This can only be the extravagant hobby of the children of powerful and influential families.

He was lucky to be born into a wealthy family like the Bian family in Jiyin. He had no worries about food and clothing throughout his life, was not bullied by others, and could concentrate on his research.

After staying in the stable for a while and washing the general carefully, Bian Maocai leisurely returned to the thatched cottage.

It's already late spring.

The Jiangjiawu Fort on the other side of the Bian River was deserted. A group of people holding swords and bows were walking back and forth in the fields outside the fort, pointing and talking.

If nothing unexpected happens, these people are all sons of the Zuo Jinwu Guard, who came to see their newly purchased land.

Some other people secretly pushed down the wall of Jiang's fortress and took the bricks home to repair their houses or build a sheep shed or pigpen.

A good dock will disappear soon. Bricks, wooden beams, door panels, windows and the like are all useful and will slowly be dismantled.

The fate of the Jiang family's fortress, just like the fortresses and manors of other families in the past twenty years, slowly disappeared and was forgotten.

When Bian Mao was young, he was urged by his father to read many history books. He knew that whenever there was a war, village forts would spring up like bamboo shoots after rain. Once the enemy attacked, they would hide in the forts. For this reason, a word was created, called "Jianbi Qingye" - the fort is the fort.

During the Jin Dynasty, the number of forts increased greatly and was extremely astonishing.

Since the current emperor came to power, this phenomenon seems to have been curbed and then gradually decreased.

When Daliang was founded, countless forts were abandoned, and the trend was increasing. Land measurement should be a major reason for this.

If you want to know the results of land conservation, just look at the number of abandoned forts in the countryside.

The world is changing little by little...

"I will go to Luoyang in the next few days. My mother has a letter to give to Concubine Pei." Bian Xu's voice rang out at the entrance of the thatched cottage: "I will mourn for my uncle after returning from Luoyang."

"Does uncle know?" Bian Tao asked softly.

Bian Xu was silent for a moment, then said, "My father knew about this, and he scolded me for being disloyal and kicked me out of the house."

For some reason, Bian Mao suddenly wanted to laugh.

Wangzhi’s uncle (Bian Xu) is really interesting. He doesn’t know how to make good use of his relationship with Concubine Pei, but is so hesitant.

But maybe he was wrong.

Wangzhi's uncle was loyal to the Sima family, but he probably couldn't control what happened to his children and grandchildren, nor did he want to do that, especially after the demise of Li Cheng. After his father's death, his brother (Bian Tao) almost immediately wrote to Jiangnan, but Bian Xu only came now. If you say that there was no impact from the pacification of Shu, no one would believe it.

Anyway, Bian Xu had a very good reason to go north. Is there anything wrong with going to the funeral? As for what else he did during the funeral, it is unknown to outsiders.

"Yingzhi, I'll go now." Bian Xu took a step back, bowed and said.

(End of this chapter)