Late Tang Dynasty Floating Life

Chapter 905 The Temple and the Road (Monthly Ticket Plus 33)

Panting, Song Le climbed to the top of the pagoda, overlooking the vast land.

Broad and majestic roads stretch far to the south.

There are sparse villages on both sides of the road. It was already evening, and every household smoked from cooking.The farmers sat around in the yard, carrying rice bowls, talking and laughing loudly while eating a not-so-rich dinner.

Life in the country is so unpretentious.In troubled times, with frequent wars, it would be nice to be able to eat, and no one would think too much about it.

The road is the so-called first-class national road connecting Mengzhou and Huaizhou.

In the past year, Heyang has been peaceful as a whole.Just a while ago, I was a little nervous. There were several small-scale fights in Wanshan Town. After more than a thousand Ze people were beheaded, they retreated in a hurry, not daring to go south.

It seems a bit slow to build a new road of fifty miles in one year, but considering the high specification of this post road, it is not too slow.

The monks in the temple have already started evening classes.Song Le watched quietly, feeling refreshed.

The name of the temple is "Yuhua".It is said that when the Buddha became a Buddha, he sat under a bodhi tree, meditating and observing his original mind.Clouds of flowers appeared in the sky, and a rain of mandala flowers began to fall. This is the auspicious sign, hence the name.

Yuhua Temple is an official temple, that is, the Heyang shogunate paid for the construction.

Guochao prefers to build official temples.

In the first year of Emperor Gaozong's Qianfeng reign (666), he issued an edict to build Jingxing temples in all states across the country.

In the first year of Wuzhou Tianshou (690), Dayun Temple was widely built in various places.

In the first year of Zhongzong Shenlong (705), the two capitals were ordered to build Zhongxing Temple, which was renamed Longxing Temple in three years.

In the 26th year of Kaiyuan (738), Emperor Xuanzong ordered all states in the world to build Kaiyuan Temple.

The spring of the mages has come.

At this time, the feudal towns are divided and the world is broken, so naturally we can't afford such a thing.

There used to be Yuhua Temple in Huaizhou, which was destroyed by war.Song Le ordered the allocation of money to repair this temple outside the city, which can be regarded as a reconstruction.

Official temples, or imperial temples, undertake a variety of special functions.For example, receiving visiting monks from abroad, undertaking national taboos and incense sticks, etc.The monks and officials in charge of a state's monk administration generally also live in the official temple, which is his office, and sometimes the official temple also undertakes the function of accommodation for some officials.

During important festivals, the official temple will also hold activities to have fun with the people.When there is a disaster, the official temple prays for the people, and at the same time gives porridge to relieve the disaster.

Song Le is not too interested in the theory of gods and ghosts.But he also knew that the temple was essential, a symbol of normal, peaceful life.

Heyang used to be a piece of white land with few people.After years of hard work, as if the dry and cracked land was irrigated by rain, the population gradually increased, and the lives of the people were getting better every day. Therefore, he readily approved the reconstruction of Yuhua Temple and appointed Huaizhou Sengzheng manages the state's monk administration.

After getting off the pagoda, Song Le politely declined Seng Zheng's invitation, and rode his horse on the grass on both sides of the national road.

Next to the national highway is Qinshui, and Song Le stopped in a garden beside the river.

The so-called Yuangong refers to the official village with a mill, usually a water-driven mill.

In the Guo Dynasty, most of the mills used to grind noodles for the common people were operated by government villages or temples, except for small stone mills in the private sector.

The production team—no, the donkeys in Guanzhuang don’t rest, and the sun is about to set, and they are still pulling the mill.In the water mill next door, the sound of water is rumbling, and the mills keep grinding wheat into flour and putting them into bags.

Hydraulic machinery cannot be used on a large scale because it greatly affects agricultural production.The imperial court repeatedly removed the mills on the Guanzhong River in order to release water for the people to irrigate the farmland.

"Has this garden been repaired for several years?" Song Le asked.

There was a member of the Yuanfang envoy in Yuangong, who heard the words and said: "Back to Song Shuai, Dashun was completed at the end of the fifth year, and Huaizhou had just been conquered for a few months at that time."

"Three and a half years. The old man has been in Heyang for several years." Song Le said with emotion: "Is there no one to cultivate the fields in Guanzhuang?"

"There is indeed a shortage of people. Only a hundred hectares of [-] hectares of land have been planted, and less than [-] hu grains and beans have been harvested in two years." The envoy of Yuanfang replied: "However, the shogunate judge Zhang said that two thousand people from Wei will come soon. It may be possible to reclaim some more farmland when sowing."

The two thousand Wei people are actually the two thousand Wei Bo masters who were captured in Pingyin.These people are not counted as Jin soldiers, so it is naturally impossible to release them.Shao Shude ordered them to be sent to the official village in Huaizhou to plant land and raise sheep.

"Wei people are also suffering. After working in the official village for three years, let them be registered. You record the date of their visit, and after the three-year period expires, submit the roster to me." Song Le ordered.

"Of order." Yuanfang envoy replied.

"Everything is on the right track, and I feel relieved to see it." Song Le said with great comfort, "I will stay in the garden tonight, and I will take a good look at Guanzhuang tomorrow."

The envoy of Yuanfang immediately sent people down to clean up the house.

A caravan stopped outside Gaotou Post, one mile away from Yuangong.

After the national road was built to Huaizhou, the business of the post station became more and more prosperous.The post will be ushered in and sent off, and I am very busy.He used to wield an epee to kill people, but now his main job is to kill sheep, and his efficiency seems to be quite high.

There is wine in the station, which is brewed by the general at home.There are also two poems hanging outside the wine cellar: "Don't worry about the guests and there will be no supplies, and the family will brew fragrant wild vegetables in spring."

The name of the wine is "Wild Vegetable Spring", and the taste is mediocre, but it was sold out quickly, so that the businessmen who entered the door were very disappointed.

"It's fine if you don't have any wine. When you arrive in Huaizhou tomorrow, you can open it and drink it." Kang Bingao ordered: "Take care of the dozen or so sheep. Watch them in shifts tonight, and don't make mistakes."

The entourage responded loudly, and quickly arranged a shift.

Kang Bingao looks quite old, in his 30s, with a typical Sogdian face, with curly beard, high nose, deep eyes and green eyes.

He is Kang Fujin's nephew, and it is said that his younger sister Kang works as a maid in the Xia Palace, but he does not want to talk about it.

The post general looked at the dozen sheep and was amazed.

He is handling a goat.The sheep was dead long ago, and the sharp iron hook penetrated into the sheep's neck and hung on a wooden pole.The postman carefully scraped the meat membrane between the sheepskin and the body with a sharp knife, making a rustling sound.While scraping, he looked back at the new sheep, looking very curious.

"Big-eating sheep, sent from Lingzhou." Kang Bingao briefly explained: "Heyang Ranch wants to breed fine-wool sheep, so they like to use this kind of big-eating sheep for breeding."

The population of Dashi big-tailed Hu sheep has now expanded to more than a thousand in Lingzhou.Shao Shude ordered that [-] sheep be sent to various pastures to breed with local sheep and breed new sheep breeds.

For example, Lingzhou uses Dashi ram as the male parent, and a large number of local Hexi ewes as the female parent for breeding.

In the same state, Dashi sheep are bred with Shayuan sheep, and in Heyang, Dashi sheep are bred with Hedong sheep.

"So that's how it is." The postman suddenly realized, and said: "In the first month, Paozhe came to drink with me, wearing a woolen sweater, it was really warm. The wool seemed soft to me, and this big-eating Huyang looked even better. "

"The wool used in that woolen sweater should be from Dongzhang sheep. I have heard about the new sheep bred in Wangwu." Kang Bingao said: "There are tens of thousands of Dongzhang sheep now, but King Xia was not satisfied and wanted better wool. These big-eating sheep came over and bred with Dongzhang sheep and Hedong sheep respectively to see if they could produce better fine-wool sheep."

"If this can be done, His Highness will do a great job." The post general sighed: "Since ancient times, I have never heard of someone wanting to breed sheep. This is the first time that King Xia has experienced it."

"Your words are wrong. How did the Shayuan sheep come here? This is a new sheep that only appeared in the Kingdom, and it's just used for meat." A clerk came from outside the station and said loudly.

The post general looked embarrassed, and cursed in a low voice: "You are as big as a crow, and you cry when you are hungry and cold. I won't serve you for a while."

Kang Bingao laughed, shook his head and left.

It can be seen that King Xia has a high prestige in Wu Fu's heart.Every year, there are warriors who reach a certain age and retire in their forties.Some people went home with the last severance reward, some ran a post station, and some went to local villages as small officials—the latter two were especially common in Meng, Huai, Luo, Ru, and Zheng five prefectures. After all, they were sparsely populated and easy to arrange.

The sun in the western sky has completely set, but there are still cars and horses passing by on the national highway.Judging from the direction they were traveling, it seemed that they were headed towards Mengzhou.Is this withdrawing troops from Heyang and heading south to Luoyang?He is a little strange.

Alas, don't let Jin soldiers go south to fight.It's a pity that Heyang had such a good situation as it is now, and it would be a pity if it was destroyed by those gangsters.

But this new post road is really well built, and Kang Bingao appreciates it more and more.

Wide, flat, and slightly curved, don't worry too much about rainy days.This society has already connected Mengzhou and Huaizhou. If there are no accidents, they will recruit conscripts after May and continue to build northward. By the end of this year, they should be able to reach Wanshan Town, which is one of the important stations of the Tianxiong Army. .It may even be built to Taihang Xingkou, ten miles north of Wanshan Town. After all, the terrain is flat, and there is no need to dig mountains and walls.

I heard that the southern city of Heyang is also recruiting conscripts, and they plan to go south for thirty miles to Luoyang.

This section is a bit more difficult, but it takes about a year, and it is almost enough.The total distance from Luoyang to Taihang Xingkou is more than 100 miles, and it is very suitable to use the so-called first-class national highway to connect them together.

Merchants like to build roads.The more they cultivate, the easier it is for them to do business.

(End of this chapter)