Standalone Northern and Southern Dynasties

Chapter 45: Purple Dog Thief (Update )
This matter did not attract much attention from Su Ze. After all, everyone has his own secrets, and it is not strange to have dealings with monks.

By the time Su Ze returned home, it was already late. The village head had sounded the alarm and closed the gate of the neighborhood.

At the edge of the hunting grounds of the Qinghe Palace in the southern wilderness, Su Dao put on a dog skin and quickly found a gap to sneak into the hunting grounds.

The hunting ground was bustling with activity. The hunting ceremony would be held in less than twenty days. The servants of the Qinghe Palace were busy driving away the deer and preparing to release the wild animals. On the day of the hunting ceremony, the Qinghe Prince would also host a banquet for the guests in the hunting ground. A large number of craftsmen were already building stoves and setting up tents for the banquet.

This time, in order to hold a hunting event, Prince Qinghe opened all the treasuries in the palace. No one knew how much brocade and silk was used just for decoration. And these priceless Shu brocades were only used to decorate the tent for Prince Qinghe's banquet.

The entire hunting ground was like a huge construction site. Manager Lu's tent was in the corner of the hunting ground. His status in the Qinghe Palace was not high, so he was assigned a peripheral job to build fences and drive away the deer.

However, although it was a peripheral job, it was still obtained by Steward Lu by bribing the Wangfu Ling with a large sum of money. Those old stewards all knew the value of this job.

In Steward Lu's tent, a Yulin officer knelt in front of Steward Lu and said, "Uncle, this time the king is selecting the vanguard, you must help me!"

After saying this, the Imperial Guard officer quickly presented the gift. Steward Lu only glanced at it, quickly calculated the value of the gift, and immediately helped the Imperial Guard officer up and said:

"Nephew! Hurry up and get up. We are from the same country. How can your uncle not help you?"

While they were talking, Su Dao had already lurked outside Manager Lu's tent. He lay flat on his stomach against the tent, eavesdropping on the conversation inside.

If Su Ze was there at this time, he would recognize that the man who bribed Manager Lu was also a grassroots officer in the Yulin Army. He was a member of a branch of the Xianbei Lu family who had close contacts with the deceased Xi Ping. His name was Lu Zheng.

The surname Lu is also one of the Han surnames that was reformed by Emperor Xiaowen. The Xianbei surname is Bu Liugu, which is also one of the eight Xianbei tribes.

However, Lu Zheng's family was only a branch of the Eight Tribes, so it was not included in the four-class surnames and could only be regarded as a poor Xianbei family.

This time, the Qinghe Palace held a selection of talents to join the imperial court. The young men from noble families among the Yulin Guards were eager to try, believing that it was a chance to make great achievements for themselves.

The structure of the Northern Wei court was very peculiar. At the top were the royal family and princes and ministers with the surname Yuan. Below them were the direct descendants of the eight Xianbei surnames and the five Han surnames, which were the five surnames determined by Emperor Xiaowen.

When Emperor Xiaowen was alive, he forced the royal family and the high-ranking Xianbei families to intermarry with the high-ranking Han families. These high-ranking Xianbei families in the court became as highly sinicized as the royal Yuan family, and there was almost no trace of the Xianbei people left.

In the edicts of the Empress Dowager and the Emperor today, they all call themselves the Chinese, and regard the northern grassland peoples such as the Rouran and Gaoche as barbarians.

Below the top levels are the middle and lower-level positions in the court, all of which are occupied by Han Chinese families.

This situation was not something the Han people took the initiative to do, but happened naturally.

Since Emperor Xiaowen reformed the Han system, the operation of the court required many talents who were familiar with clerical work, and these talents could only be selected from Han families.

Those ordinary Xianbei nobles who followed Emperor Xiaowen to move the capital to Luoyang often had little cultural background and also did not have the opportunity to marry into Han families to change their family traditions.

During the reign of Emperor Xiaowen, they could also enter the officialdom through the imperial guard system of Yulin Huben and the system of Langwei.

After Emperor Xuanwu ascended the throne, this emperor who fully implemented his father's policy of sinicization never held a single hunting event and rarely promoted officials from among military men.

The middle and low-level positions in the imperial court were quickly occupied by the middle and lower class Han families, cutting off the upward path for the humble Xianbei people.

In the imperial guard system of Yulin Huben, Xianbei commoners like Xi Ping and Lu Zheng occupied grassroots military positions.

When the imperial guards were first established, they only recruited the Xianbei people who followed Emperor Xiaowen to establish independence in Luoyang.

It was not until Emperor Xiaowen carried out drastic Sinicization reforms that the imperial guards were allowed to recruit Han people.

Therefore, the Xianbei people in the imperial army were very powerful and often bullied the lower-class Han military households such as Su Ze and Wang Hui. A clearly hierarchical system was formed, where your identity determined your ceiling, and people at every level were dissatisfied.

In just twenty years, the whole of Luoyang was in turmoil and the conflicts among different classes had become irreconcilable. This was probably something that Emperor Xiaowen, who was promoting Sinicization reforms, had not expected.

Steward Lu accepted the gift and said, "Before we go into the selection process, I will ask someone to bring you a letter to tell you the location of the deer herd."

Lu Zheng was overjoyed when he heard this. His uncle was responsible for setting up fences and driving away the deer.

King Qinghe's hunting ground covers a huge area, and searching for deer here is like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Therefore, the position of Manager Lu becomes particularly important. As long as he reveals the location of the deer herd, he can gain an advantage in hunting.

Lu Zheng thanked him profusely and left. After waiting for a while, a Han Chinese soldier came with gifts.

"Manager Lu, this Buddha statue was brought from the Buddha Kingdom by Master Bodhiruci. I heard that you are a devout believer in Buddhism, so I will give this Buddha statue to you, the destined person."

Looking at the lifelike gilded Buddha statue in the box, Manager Lu couldn't take his eyes off it.

Master Bodhiruci was a master invited by the previous Emperor Xuanwu from India to translate Buddhist scriptures. This master brought as many as ten thousand volumes of Sanskrit scriptures to Luoyang.

The imperial court attached great importance to his translation of Buddhist scriptures and allocated more than 1000 monks and Confucian scholars who were well versed in Buddhism to serve as translation assistants.

The translation site was set up in the Taiji Hall in the imperial palace. On the first day of the translation, Emperor Xuanwu personally came to the translation site and took the dictation. From the second day onwards, monks such as Sengbian took over the dictation work.

Bodhiruci is still preaching to Empress Dowager Hu in the imperial palace. He has thousands of disciples and is a big figure in the Buddhist community.

Manager Lu saw the value of this Buddha statue at a glance.

Manager Lu immediately said, "The king is holding a selection of forwards to select elite troops. A talent like Captain Wang will definitely be favored by the king."

"The day before the selection of forwards, I will send someone to tell Captain Wang the location of the deer herd."

Wang Hui left with satisfaction. After Wang Hui left, Manager Lu touched the Buddha statue again, with a greedy smile in his eyes.

Su Dao, who was hiding outside the tent, witnessed wave after wave of people coming to visit Manager Lu, and the other party also made the same promise.

In the second half of the night, the visitors finally stopped, and Manager Lu fell asleep hugging the Buddha statue.

Su Dao made a gap in the corner of the tent and slipped in flexibly.

[The dog thief Su Taotao overheard the conversation between Manager Lu and the visitor, "Tent Secret Conversation Record 1".]

[The dog thief Su Taotao overheard the conversation between Manager Lu and the visitor, "Secret Conversation Record in the Tent 2".]

. . . .

【The dog thief Su stole the gift. 】

【The dog thief Su stole the second gift.】

【The dog thief Sudao stole the golden Buddha. 】

(End of this chapter)