Standalone Northern and Southern Dynasties

Chapter 3: Sitong City

At the same time, Su Ze walked past Longhua Temple. Although this Buddhist temple was not as grand as Yongning Temple, it also had a vaulted hall. Behind the temple were many pagodas. Although it was still early in the morning, the air was already filled with the smoke of incense and the sound of bells.

Longhua Temple is a temple built with donations from the Huben and Yulin soldiers, and can be regarded as the ancestral temple of the children of the imperial guards in Luoyang city.

The pagoda behind the temple enshrines the tablets of the imperial guards who died in battle, and the father of this body is among them.

The last time Su Ze took a day off, he was taken to Longhua Temple by his younger sister to pay homage to his father.

The Northern Wei imperial guards were an important part of the court's political power. Many of them were promoted from the Huben Yulin to important officials. Most of the high-ranking military officers were from the royal family. Therefore, although Longhua Temple was outside the city, it was very popular and had as many as 300 monks' quarters.

Behind the Longhua Temple was the imperial army dumping ground. The Longhua Temple was on the bank of the Luo River. Part of the grain transported to the capital from all over the empire was sent to this dumping ground as military pay for the imperial army.

The Luo River is surging. Now the Eastern Jin Dynasty has long since perished, and the Liu Song and Southern Qi dynasties that replaced the Eastern Jin Dynasty have both fallen. The swallows that once flew in front of Sima Hall have long since flown away to who knows where.

Su Ze didn't know what Sima Yi was planning when he swore by pointing to this river.

His stomach growled again, and Su Ze quickly walked across the yard and came to the market town of Sitong City.

Next to Sitong City is a magnificent wooden high-rise building. This is the Siyi Pavilion built by Emperor Xiaowen to entertain guests from all over the world after he moved the capital to Luoyang.

Su Ze took a glance and saw that in front of the Siyi Pavilion, the Yulin soldiers with crane feathers on their helmets were changing shifts. Su Ze heard from his comrades in the army that the Rouran prince Anagui was defeated in the Rouran civil strife and fled to the capital Luoyang to avoid disaster. It was said that the Rouran prince bribed the favored eunuch Changqiuqing Liu Teng of Empress Dowager Hu with a large sum of money, and was canonized as the King of Rouran by the Northern Wei Dynasty. He now lives in the Siyi Pavilion.

Empress Dowager Hu specially arranged for the Imperial Guards to guard the Siyi Pavilion. There were also rumors in Luoyang that the imperial court was preparing to send troops to support the Rouran King to return north and help him regain the position of Rouran Khan.

Naturally, these major events had nothing to do with Su Ze, a soldier of the Yulin Army. When he passed the Siyi Pavilion and entered the Sitong Market Gate, he heard bursts of hawking sounds.

Luoyang was the capital of the Northern Wei Dynasty. The mansions of high-ranking officials were lined up in the city, and any place could be a military base. It was naturally impossible for merchants to set up stalls and do business randomly.

The Northern Wei Dynasty inherited the Han system and set up special markets for trading in the city, allowing merchants only to open shops and set up stalls for trading in these markets.

There are four markets in Luoyang. The Sitong Market in the south of the city is next to the Siyi Pavilion. Originally, Emperor Xiaowen sympathized with the envoys from the four barbarians who came to pay tribute from the four barbarians and allowed them to sell the goods they brought with them in the Sitong Market.

Over time, when these foreign envoys came to pay homage to the Emperor of Wei, they would bring large quantities of goods to Luoyang to sell. There were even some foreign merchants who were not members of the delegation at all, but also sold goods in Sitong City.

Sitong City is the only market among the four major cities that specializes in selling "foreign goods", including Persian glass, Western wine, Gaochang BMWs, and Southern Liang documents. As long as you have money, you can buy goods from anywhere in Sitong City.

Su Ze touched the few Taihe Wuzhu in his pocket. Adding the money stored in the system, he couldn't afford to buy anything expensive.

He opened the map and looked for the moving question mark while walking towards the stall near the entrance of the market.

All I saw was an old man sitting cross-legged behind a clay stove, sticking dough into the deep wall of the stove. These were huge naan breads.

Lamb skewers are hung in the clay oven, with the skewers interspersed with peeled willow twigs. The bread and meat are arranged crosswise, and the naan bread is also permeated with the sizzling aroma of oil.

Su Ze couldn't help but salivate. This should be the Hu Bing stall at the entrance of Sitong City that his younger sister mentioned.

Su Ze walked forward and asked:

"Father, how much are these naan bread and meat skewers?"

The old man hurriedly said, "Sir, these naan bread and meat skewers are each one penny." The old man spoke in a clumsy and unfamiliar Luoyang accent, but his appearance and dress were not like those of a Han Chinese. He did not tie his hair into a bun like the common people of Luoyang, but had a braided hairstyle similar to the "dreadlocks" of later generations.

Seeing the old man fiddling with the naan bread, Su Ze casually started a conversation:

"Father, you are not from Luoyang?"

The old man wiped his hands and said:

"How could I be so lucky to be born in the capital of gods? I am from Beixiurong."

Hearing Bei Xiurong, Su Ze looked at his appearance and asked:

"My father-in-law is a Qihu?"

Now it was the turn of the old man who was baking naan to be surprised. The so-called Qihu were a nomadic people living in the Beixiurong area in northern Shanxi. The royal family and senior nobles of the Northern Wei Dynasty were Xianbei people, and they also employed Han nobles to govern the country. However, after the Five Barbarians Invasion of China, the north was full of various ethnic minorities.

The Qihu tribe was not a large tribe, and the old man had never even met other tribesmen in the sacred city of Luoyang. But he did not expect that this young man actually knew about the Qihu tribe.

"Have you been to Beixiurong?"

Su Ze shook his head and smiled, "I just heard that your Qihu chieftain, General Erzhu, is brave and good at fighting."

The old man immediately said proudly: "Our General Erzhu is indeed a good warrior. I followed General Erzhu to pay homage to the emperor last time. The general saw that I was old, so he allowed me to stay in Luoyang for retirement and even issued a wooden contract for me to trade."

Su Ze was secretly alert. Although the old man selling Hubing couldn't even speak Luoyang dialect fluently, his speech was clear and organized, and he didn't look like an ordinary vendor at all.

Considering the future ambitions of the Khitan leader Erzhu Rong, perhaps this old man was the secret spy left in Luoyang by the Khitan leader Erzhu Rong.

The Khitan leader the old man mentioned was Erzhu Rong, the great general who would later become a world-famous figure.

The Qihu people at that time were just a minority tribe in the northern border that no one cared about within the Northern Wei territory. However, in the future, Erzhu Rong would march into Luoyang and launch the Heyin Incident, becoming the most powerful minister of the Northern Wei.

In the military field, this great General Tianzhu has made great achievements. He has many talented people, strong generals and fierce generals under his command!

According to Mentor Su Ze, if Erzhu Rong had not died young, with his presence to suppress the world, many heroes of the Northern Qi, Western Wei, and even Sui and Tang dynasties would not have had the opportunity to step onto the stage of history.

Su Ze opened the map. The old man had been sitting behind the clay stove making pancakes while they were chatting. He didn't move at all. It seemed that he was not the moving question mark that appeared on the map.

At this moment, Su Ze heard a loud shout:
"This is a top-notch Huaishuo horse. Those who are not good at judging horses should not ask!"

Su Ze raised his head and saw a young man with a Han Chinese hat and hair standing upright, but wearing Hu people's left-fronted clothes, walking out of Sitong City leading a few horses.

Su Ze's eyes lit up. This young man was about the same age as him. He had a high nose bridge and long eyebrows. Although he was wearing ordinary riding clothes, he had an outstanding and dignified appearance.

Is this the task I'm looking for?

(End of this chapter)