Chinese New Year

Chapter 620 Solicitation
Amidst the heavy snow, a group of knights stopped far away.

The leader was about forty years old, his face was covered with rough marks of weathering. Looking at the manor several miles away, he was a little hesitant to move forward.

They had been here a few months ago, and they didn't feel scared at all then. After all, Wang Jun was a toothless tiger, so what could he do to them?
But it's different now.

Jicheng had a new tiger. This tiger was in his prime, ambitious, and energetic, but much more dangerous than Wang Jun.

Perhaps sensing its owner's uneasiness, the horse kept snorting and digging the snow with its hooves.

After a while, several riders came running out of the vast snowfield and stopped more than ten steps away.

"Zhiyou." The man dismounted and shouted.

The forty-year-old man also dismounted, forced a smile, and said, "Liu Fudu."

"Just call me Liu Da." Liu Da said with a smile, "Why, your manor is just in front, why are you hesitating to move forward?"

"I'm afraid Mr. Chen will kill me." Zhi You said very bluntly.

He and Liu Da had only met a few times.

At that time, Liu Da was still under Shi Le's command. Following Shi Le's order, he sneaked into Youzhou to recruit the scattered Jie tribes. However, due to various reasons, he failed and the matter was put on hold.

When the old story was brought up again, Liu Da changed his object of loyalty to Shao Xun, a rapidly rising figure in the past decade, which made him feel very emotional.

As a tribe ranked high in Youzhou, Zhiyou also fought several battles for Wang Jun. After Wang Jun was imprisoned, he went south to Jizhou on the principle of taking money to do things, fought the last battle, and then returned to the pastureland of Guangning County.

During this period, some people from Dai County Tuoba Xianbei came to win him over. He was somewhat tempted and discussed with them for a long time, but he didn't expect that the matter was not kept secret and it was leaked.

Mr. Chen sent Liu Da to persuade him to surrender. He was a little scared, but after thinking it over, he decided to come and take a look.

By the way, the manor Liu Da mentioned is his family’s. It is not far to the north of Jicheng, but it is empty now.

Mr. Chen is waiting for him there. Should he go or not?
"Mr. Chen has always kept his word and never goes back on his word to enrich himself. If you follow me, nothing will happen. Zhi Xiong is already an official under Mr. Chen." Liu Da advised.

Zhiyou was still very hesitant.

Even though his surname is Zhi, there are many Jie people with the surname Zhi. As long as they are descendants of the Great Yuezhi, they may have the surname Zhi.

Who is Zhi Xiong? He is probably from the Great Yuezhi, but Zhi You doesn't know him.

Jie was an artificial tribe, once called "Za Hu" - correspondingly, the five tribes of the Xiongnu were called "Zheng Hu" during the Han and Wei dynasties.

In other words, as long as they are not one of the five Xiongnu tribes, they can be called "mixed Hu", which are generally divided into two types: "Hu outside the Great Wall" and "Hu in the Western Regions".

The Jie people were mostly from the Western Regions. The word "Jie" originally meant "warriors" (Chakirs) in the Western Regions. After being conquered by the Xiongnu, they became slaves, and they have remained so until today.

It's very complicated here.

There are descendants of the Great Yuezhi, descendants of the Kangju people who were captured by the Xiongnu, and descendants of other small countries or tribes in the Western Regions. In short, any place that was conquered or plundered by the Xiongnu may be their hometown.

Therefore, the Jie people were not united internally, let alone these unfamiliar tribes that had been separated for many years.

They have only two things in common.

One of them has a high nose, deep eyes, and curly beard.

The second commonality...

Zhiyou finally made a decision. Since he was already here, he might as well go. The worst that could happen was that he would die.

A group of dozens of riders soon arrived outside the manor. After negotiating with the soldiers, the followers stayed outside while several leaders took off their weapons and, led by Liu Da, went inside.

Before entering the manor, Zhiyou turned his head and looked at a cemetery in the distance.

That was the cemetery of his family members, and many generations were buried there.

The Jie people had the custom of cremation - after Shi Le founded the country, he ordered that "(the people of the country, i.e. the Jie people) should be cremated and buried like their own people."

If it is a noble person, they would like to bury him/her secretly after cremation, and then have a virtual burial in public so that people don’t know the real location of the grave.

But the cemetery of Zhiyou’s family is real, and the traditional stone coffins in his hometown are used inside, which can be regarded as a model of the fusion of Hu and Han cultures.

He felt relieved as the cemetery had not been destroyed and followed Liu Da into the cemetery.

Everything in the manor remains the same.

The most conspicuous building in the courtyard is "Ting Liao".

Zhi You paused here, silently looking at the torch disk that was several meters high - the reason why it was called "Ting Liao" was that it was a name specially found in the "Book of Songs" in order to adapt to the Central Plains culture.

When he was at home, several slaves, called "shiliao", lived in a small room inside the courtyard building all year round, and were responsible for lighting the sacred fire.

At this time, the sacred fire had been extinguished, and they were getting further and further away from the God Hu Tian, ​​how sad - in fact, this was the second point in common between him and Liu Da, they both believed in the God Hu Tian (Zoroastrianism, also known as Fire Worship).

Zhiyou sighed and continued to move forward.

When they arrived at a magnificent hall, Zhiyou was stunned. It turned out that there were so many people here. And not all of them were Jie people, there were also Wuhuan, Xiongnu, and Xianbei.

They bowed down at the steps and saluted to Mr. Chen together.

"What are you standing there for? Bow down." Liu Da reminded, then bowed down to the ground.

Zhi You was dumbfounded. I just came to see him. I didn't say I wanted to join Lord Chen. But when everyone else prostrated themselves on the ground, he and several of his followers were still standing. It was really too eye-catching. After some hesitation, he and his followers prostrated themselves on the ground together.

"Everyone, get up." Mr. Chen said majestically while sitting on the Hu bed.

A large group of people stood up and entered the hall, standing on the left and right.

Zhi You stood beside Liu Da and looked up intently.

This one look immediately impressed me.

It turned out that Mr. Chen was not the pale and weak scholar, but a very strong and sturdy man.

His face had a resolute expression and a natural sense of majesty, and his hands were extremely rough, and one could tell at first glance that he had been wielding swords and guns and shooting bows and arrows for years.

Zhiyou praised repeatedly in his heart, and his resistance was much less.

There was also a tall and cool lady sitting next to Mr. Chen.

Zhi You also looks very friendly, for the simple reason that he looks like a descendant of Kangju and Yuezhi.

She wore a gold-thread acacia hat on her head, which was obviously made of Persian brocade. Since ancient times, there have been wild silkworms in Persia and the Punjab region of India. The silk was relatively coarse and the craftsmanship was relatively backward, so the texture of Persian brocade was not as good as the Central Plains brocade.

Zhiyou became even more excited when he saw the golden-threaded acacia hat.

It is recorded in the scriptures of Hu Tianshen that Xerxes, the king of the Achaemenid Dynasty of Persia, gave his people a crown woven with gold. From then on, this kind of headgear became popular and spread everywhere.

This woman who is favored by Lord Chen is wearing this hat, isn't she one of us? Thinking of this, Zhi You has made a decision: rather than joining Tuoba Xianbei, it is better to join Lord Chen.

There are several thousand Jie families in Guangning and Shanggu, and more than ten thousand Jie people in Dai County. If we can lure them all over to join Chen Gong, perhaps we can open up a new path.

"Those who can come here today will be rewarded. I will not hesitate to give official titles to those who make military achievements in the future." Mr. Chen spoke again.

The woman with the acacia hat was afraid that no one would understand, so she repeated it in Jie language - Jie language is a language that is a mixture of words from other ethnic groups and originated from the East Iranian language branch.

"The Duan tribe is not unfamiliar to you." Lord Chen said, "I have summoned them many times, but no one came. They are seeking death. After the beginning of the new year, I will definitely launch an expedition. At that time, all tribes must send troops to follow me. Do you have any objections?"

"We will follow Mr. Chen's orders." Everyone responded.

Zhi You pretended to respond, but he was a little confused: Did these people come in advance? Did they know what was going on beforehand?
Liu Da turned his head and glanced at him, then whispered, "I'll tell you later."

Zhiyou nodded slightly.

In fact, he was no longer opposed to joining Mr. Chen.

Tuoba Xianbei kept trying to win him over and extend their influence into Youzhou. He was originally hesitant, but now he feels that he was crazy to surrender to Tuoba.

Not only was he poor, but he also didn't feel any sense of intimacy.

Moreover, Chen Gong seemed to be in great need of cavalry, while Tuoba was almost entirely cavalry, with few infantry. From a business perspective, he should also know who was more suitable to join and who could fetch a higher price.

Mr. Chen was speaking again, but Zhiyou didn't listen carefully, thinking about his own things silently.

After a moment, Liu Da pulled him and said, "It's time to go to the banquet."

Zhiyou hummed and followed him silently.

******
In the empty hall, Shao Xun personally peeled a pomegranate taken out of the ice cellar and gave it to Liu Ye to eat.

Liu Yena took it happily.

Shao Xun gently touched her face and whispered, "Liu Ling doesn't even dare to mention the Heavenly Master Dao in front of me, so you should stop talking about Zoroastrianism in the future."

Liu Ye was stunned for a moment, then agreed without hesitation.

Seeing her like that, Shao Xun suddenly felt a little heavy.

The woman's eyes were now full of him, making him feel a little breathless.

"Forget it, do whatever you want." Shao Xun sighed.

In fact, Zoroastrianism cannot compete with Buddhism and Taoism, and without human intervention, it will also decline.

Its most prosperous period should be during the Southern and Northern Dynasties.

Empress Dowager Hu of the Northern Wei Dynasty once visited Mount Songshan, and hundreds of people including her wives, nine concubines, princesses and others followed her to the top of the mountain. She abolished all obscene sacrifices, but the Hu gods were not included in the list.

In the last years of the Northern Qi emperor Gao Wei, he offered sacrifices to ghosts that were not his own, and even encouraged himself to serve the Hu gods.

The Northern Zhou Dynasty wanted to attract the Western Regions, and there was also a system of worshipping the Hu Tian, ​​in which the emperor personally attended, and the rituals were in accordance with the customs of the barbarians.

The Northern Wei, Western Wei, Northern Qi, and Northern Zhou dynasties all recruited a large number of Jie people from the Western Regions to the Central Plains to serve as soldiers and fight in the wars. They did not care about their reputation and the emperor and empress dowager personally worshipped the Hu gods. Even when eliminating obscene sacrifices, they gave the Hu gods a break.

But this was also its last glory.

This religion eventually declined, both in the East and the West.

Liu Yena put down the pomegranate, sat in Shao Xun's arms, and whispered, "I'll listen to you."

Shao Xun didn't know what to say.

You're so nice to me that I feel embarrassed to play with Cui.

Since he moved into Wang Jun's house, he really hadn't touched Cui for more than ten days. Strangely, Cui didn't leave, and stayed in the house awkwardly, obviously with some ulterior motive.

If he stayed there any longer, Shao Xun felt that his innocence would be ruined.

Up to now, he has only been touched by two women, one is Jing and the other is Cui.

Jing had been severely punished by him several times.

It seemed that Cui also wanted to be punished.

"Are we going to go to war after the New Year?" Liu Ye asked, hugging Shao Xun's neck.

"Yes." Shao Xun said, "Before I even arrived in Youzhou, Duan Mobo took his people and fled to Beiping. I tried to persuade him to surrender, but he was suspicious. It seems that we still have to fight him."

"The Duan tribe is quite capable in fighting. Shi Le was afraid of them before." Liu Ye was a little worried.

"Don't worry, I have a way to deal with the Duan tribe." Shao Xun comforted the woman and said, "One hundred thousand people are confined to Beiping. To the east is Liaoxi County occupied by Murong Xianbei, to the north is Yuwen Xianbei, to the west is me, and to the south is the Silver Spear Army. In such a dangerous situation, what room does the Duan tribe have to struggle? Cavalry is a detachable force, but now the Duan tribe lacks room for detours. No matter how he harasses, I don't care. I will go straight to the pasture and raid his lair. Let's see if he can hide here and there!"

"These tribes are really unlucky to meet you." Liu Yena was relieved and said with a smile.

"You can't say that. I gave them a chance to make progress." Shao Xun shook his head and said, "If the Duan tribe surrenders now, what will happen if I appoint a few generals? Now that money and food are scarce, I don't want to fight, and I can't mobilize many people."

"I heard that there are still more than 10,000 Jie people in Dai County. If they are willing to surrender, I will not hesitate to give them official titles. If they are unwilling or unable, you can find a way to send some reliable people west to lure their tribesmen to surrender and incorporate them into the tribe." Shao Xun said as he hugged the woman on his lap.

Liu Ye nodded.

The man has been behaving very well recently. He knows that she doesn't like slutty girls, so he accompanies her every day.

At night, the two of them covered themselves with the same quilt and slept in each other's arms. That bitch Cui must have been mad to death, so now she agrees to whatever the man says.

Besides, what if she got pregnant? She had to think about the future.

"I hope Commander Duan will be more sensible." Shao Xun finally sighed.

As a ruler, how could he possibly want to see his cavalry unit become the only one in power?

Whether it is the Jie people, the Xianbei, or any other tribe, it is best for them to check and balance each other.

If the Duan tribe of the Xianbei could preserve a large amount of strength and surrender, they would be able to suppress the Jie people.

Shao Xun was holding the Jie woman in his arms, and was already thinking about how to cross the river and destroy the bridge in the future.

On December 30th, the last day before the New Year, the angel and the prince's (Sima Quan) servant Liu Bai (son of Situ Liu Tun) arrived in Jicheng.

He brought two edicts.

One of them was to dismiss the General Zhenjun's office and appoint Shao Xun as the governor of Yanzhou, and the other was to order the death of Wang Jun.

Lao Wang’s life has entered the countdown.

(End of this chapter)