Chapter 1195 New Way

Chapter 1195 New Way

Chapter 1195 New Way

The snow fell all night, making the window frames rustle.

After the weather cleared up, the snow stopped for a while.

Guo Jing put on his fur coat and walked out of the yard.

This courtyard was built on the mountainside, with a large flat land in front of it, all planted with turnips.

"Father, are you going to the county today?" The eldest son Guo Pei came over and bowed.

Behind him followed several oxcarts loaded with freshly picked turnips, ready to be used to feed the livestock.

"I'm not going. That Shao guy doesn't like me anyway." Guo Jing said irritably.

He was originally the county magistrate of Loufan County.

It had been here when the county was founded (it was then under the jurisdiction of Kelan County), and it had been traveling around the countryside, getting to know everyone there, whether they were registered common people or tribal clans in the mountains, and having some connections with them.

Later, the county magistrate was promoted and the county magistrate returned home to work, so the court transferred a new county magistrate and appointed Guo Jing as the county magistrate.

The new county magistrate was Shao Yi, the son of Shao Xu, the Inspector of the Imperial Capital. He was from the Shao family of Weijun, a legitimate Hebei gentry family.

A few years ago, when the emperor rose to power, the Shao family of Weijun went to the emperor's house to seek kinship despite being mocked by the scholars, but it seemed that they were rejected. But I also heard vaguely that the emperor verbally acknowledged this family's kinship, and I don't know whether it was true or not. Anyway, Shao Yi vaguely mentioned this matter.

Unfortunately, due to his personality, Guo Jing slightly offended the new county magistrate. Considering that he had no real power as a county magistrate, this made him even more unlucky, so he simply stayed away from government affairs and focused more on running the family business. Before this, he had already handed over these matters to his eldest son Guo Pei, and devoted himself to his official position.

"Since Grandpa is not going to the front, why don't you accompany me to visit the ancient springs?" Guo Pei said.

"Is it about the emperor's stay?" Guo Jing asked.

"Yes and no." Guo Pei said with a smile: "The old Xianbei in Guquan said that he hasn't seen my grandfather for almost a year, and he wants you to go for a drink. If you don't go, I won't sell you wool."

"Haha." Guo Jing laughed and said, "Then let's go. We have been brothers for many years."

The "Old Xianbei" are different from the Tuoba Xianbei. In fact, there are some Xianbei people in Taiyuan, Kelan, Xinxing and Yanmen. The scale is not large, and the total number is not large, but the history is very long, which can be traced back to Budugen, the grandson of Tan Shihuai. At that time, there were no Duan, Murong, Tuoba, Yuwen and other clans at all.

The "Old Xianbei" changed their Chinese surname to "Bu" and lived between Taiyuan and Loufan. In their early years, they alternated between Liu Kun and Liu Cong, wavering.

The Loufan Guo family did not run much of the farmland, but they invested a lot of energy in business, with wool being their top priority.

The father and son quickly gathered a hundred or so farmhands, pulled dozens of carts, and headed east.

The turnips are to be sent to Jinyang.

This is one of the few fresh vegetables in winter. It can be eaten by horses and humans.

The emperor was about to arrive in Jinyang, and the governor Shao Jie ordered all counties to send a thousand carts of turnips as tribute. As a wealthy family in Loufan, Guo was naturally named and could not escape.

"It snowed early this year, and it seems to be colder than last year." Guo Jing jumped off the ox cart and walked on the road covered with a thin layer of snow, saying, "In a few days, I don't think the turnips will grow. They might even freeze to death. You'd better be careful."

"Well, I'm paying attention." Guo Peiyi got out of the car and walked with his father.

The breath of the farmhands of the Guo family turned into mist, the instruments on their waists jingled, and their shoes and boots creaked in the snow.

Judging from their attire, they were a mix of Hu and Han people. Many of them had just escaped from the mountains, and they didn’t want to work for the nobles of the tribe anymore. They didn’t have enough food or clothes, so they decided to work for the landlords outside the mountains, where their lives would be much better.

The so-called landlords and powerful people outside the mountains were not necessarily all Han people. In fact, there were quite a few Hu people as well.

Many of them were tribal leaders five years ago, but they were quick-witted and registered their household registration in the county, occupied a part of the plain in the river valley, and then built houses, engaging in half-animal husbandry and half-farming.

When Guo Jing was chatting with his colleagues in the county, some people said that the tribes in Loufan County were actually disintegrating bit by bit, because some tribal leaders rarely went to the mountain pastures.

They don't like living in tents, and prefer to live in wooden houses or even brick houses.

If there were not so few mountain basins and river valleys, and farming alone could not support so many people, they would have wanted to gather all the people together and make farming their profession. It would be easier to manage and they wouldn't have to run around and work so hard.

Things are changing.

"Grandpa, this year we suffered a hailstorm, and the cattle and sheep of the tribes suffered heavy losses. I'm afraid there won't be that much wool left." Guo Pei tightened his fur coat and said, "It's getting colder every year. Will the price of wool increase significantly?"

"It's inevitable." Guo Jing said, "Do you think the cotton clothes worn by Henan people are warm?"

"Honestly, it's a little warm, but not warm enough," Guo Pei said. "As for keeping warm, there is nothing warmer than fur coats."

Guo Jing laughed and said, "Yes. Cotton-padded clothes have been around since the Han Dynasty. They are just some scraps of silk thread stuffed between two layers of cloth. They can keep you warm, but that's all. When the coldest weather comes, you'll still be shivering."

"Merchants selling wild silkworm cocoons in Jingzhou and Huainan have made a fortune." Guo Pei said, "In the past two years, Henan people who buy winter clothes have mostly used silk from wild silkworm cocoons and stuffed it into linen to make cotton clothes."

"Those are the common people who have a little money." Guo Jing said, "If you just look at the officials more, you will know what kind of winter clothes they wear." Guo Pei nodded slowly.

There is no secret, everyone has eyes. Low-level officials and soldiers wear cotton clothes to keep warm, but middle and high-level officials and children of scholars with relatively wealthy families wear fur coats, because they are the best for keeping warm and can also protect against strong cold winds.

Moreover, thinner fur coats can be worn in spring and autumn.

The emperor always gives fur clothing to his subjects in autumn. What do you think?
But fur coats have a disadvantage: they are expensive!
The better the fur, the more expensive it is, especially fox fur and mink fur, which are incredibly expensive.

Last year, Wang Bing, the internal historian of Wuyuan, asked the Kujiesha tribes for hundreds of local specialty sand fox skins, which were loaded onto trucks and sent to Luoyang to be presented to the emperor. Lieutenant Sima Mao Bao personally led 200 soldiers to escort the transportation, and stayed overnight in Loufan County, where the guards were strict and no one was allowed to approach.

Therefore, ordinary people should just take a break. Even the Hu people who have more livestock do not have a sheepskin coat, let alone the Han people.

"So..." Guo Jing sighed, "The common people should think about things like blankets. Those poor shepherds managed to survive the winter by wearing a dirty blanket, didn't they?"

"Grandpa, felt carpets are indeed easy to sell, but what about sweaters? Didn't Lord Shao ask all counties to find craftsmen who can weave woolen cloth? How about this?" Guo Pei asked.

"I don't know either." Guo Jing sighed and said, "I asked around in the county, and there really aren't any people weaving woolen cloth in the various tribes. They can only make felt blankets. The machines used to weave mulberry and linen can't weave wool. I've tried, but it doesn't work."

The felt carpets and felt cloths widely used by the Hu people were not woven, but made by beating and rolling wool, and were very rough.

But wool should be spun into thread and then woven into cloth like silk, and it would never be beaten or rolled as roughly as the Huns and Xianbei people did.

However, it is not easy to find machines and craftsmen for weaving wool these days. Taiyuan County has been searching for several years without any clues.

This thing will most likely have to be found in the northwest. It is said that the imperial court has sent people to Shazhou and Dunhuang to look for it. I don't know if they have found it.

"If we can really find a wool spinning machine, the lives of these Hu people will be much better." Guo Jing pointed to the surrounding mountains and said, "By then, sheep will be raised everywhere in the mountains. Whoever's sheep produce more wool will be snatched up, just like horses are snatched up for breeding."

Guo Pei couldn't help laughing and said, "The emperor really found a way for these barbarians to make money. This is good, they can just sell wool in peace, why would they rebel?"

"Yes." Guo Jing said, "These barbarians cannot escape the emperor's control. They are manipulated into all kinds of ways."

"But then again, Grandpa, is this woolen cloth warm to wear?" Guo Pei asked.

"It should be very warm." Guo Jing thought for a moment and said, "Aren't felt blankets very warm? The army has bought a lot of them and distributed them to each camp. At least they are much warmer than linen and silk."

The father and son walked and talked as they went.

As he walked, with sweat forming on his forehead, Gu Quan finally arrived.

"You go to Jinyang by yourself. Your father will wait for you here in Lao Xianbei for a few days." Guo Jing waved his hand and said.

"Okay." Guo Pei bowed, then continued his journey eastward with the farmhands and ox carts.

On October 16, Jinyang City was already in sight.

At this time, the vanguard Shooting Eagle Camp had reached Shiling Pass and the emperor was about to arrive.

Guo Pei breathed a sigh of relief, fortunately she did not miss the deadline.

After personally leading people into the city to negotiate, Guo Pei was ordered to deliver the dozens of carts of turnips and straw he brought to the parade ground in the east of the city.

This is the largest training ground in Jinyang. Every autumn and winter, guards from various military offices gather here for extensive training.

But this year the location has been changed. It is said that the unified military exercise will be held in Changshan County. There is food to eat there, and the Jinyang warehouses have been emptied.

There were already people in the parade ground. Guo Pei asked around and learned that they were the guards who had followed the King of Qin back to Jinyang earlier. There were a total of 1,200 people - 200 guards from the King of Qin's palace, about 500 soldiers from the Cavalry Guard palace, and 500 light cavalry from the Yuwen clan.

After hearing this, Guo Pei thought to himself: The King of Qin will never be able to inherit the throne.

Although the King of Chu had only 200 soldiers, 100 of them were armored cavalry.

The King of Yan had thousands of soldiers, most of whom had even fought in battles, and each of them rode two horses.

The King of Chu and the King of Yan should be ranked before the King of Qin. As for who of them can come first, Guo Pei naturally prefers the King of Yan.

The Guo family of Taiyuan naturally supported the Prince of Yan.

On October 19th, after purchasing some ironware and porcelain, Guo Pei left Jinyang with his ox cart and farmhands and returned to Loufan.

On the day he left, there were sounds of horseback riding near Jinyang, and the cavalry and horses had not yet finished the whole day.

In the evening, amid the wave of cavalry heading south, a small team went upstream and entered the city before the city gates were closed.

That was the team led by Shao Yan, King of Han. They had just finished checking the fields and military records of the three military headquarters in Yangping, Dunqiu and Jijun, and were ordered to report to Jinyang.

(End of this chapter)