Chinese New Year

Chapter 621 First Month
"…The former General Shen, when he abdicated, made great contributions. When he was in power, he changed the customs and made the people happy. Although he died, his legacy is still alive."

"...Jun was born into a famous family and held the position of prefect. I treated him as a loyal and devoted friend, but Jun responded by rebelling against me; I granted him the authority to command the emperor, but Jun used it to usurp power."

"… He has disregarded the court's kindness and has not thought of his ancestors' virtue. The whole world is shocked, and all quarters are in a state of shock. I dare not be partial in matters of punishment and reward. If we deal with the matter on a case-by-case basis, we cannot escape the extreme law. It is appropriate to order the generals and subordinates of Youzhou to punish Jun and report this to the emperor."

Liu Bai read the imperial edict in a rhythmic manner, and Shao Xun and a group of Youzhou officials immediately bowed and received the edict.

They were receiving the imperial edict in the courtyard. Wang Jun was detained in the bedroom, not far away, and heard almost everything.

He was silent for a long time at first, and just when everyone thought he had accepted his fate, Wang Jun started cursing.

"Zao Song, divorce my daughter." Wang Jun shouted, "You even betrayed me, who dares to employ you? Who can employ you? Haha, you are so short-sighted. Without me, would you be as rich as you are now? Would so many people give you gifts? Stupid!"

Zao Song listened to his father-in-law yelling calmly, without a trace of strangeness on his face.

In this world, everything is just for yourself.

I married your daughter for my own sake. After all, she is the daughter of Wang from Taiyuan. You want a divorce? I couldn't ask for more. I was just thinking of cutting off all ties with you.

"Zhu Shuo, aren't you afraid of being slaughtered like a fat sheep?" Wang Jun continued to scold: "You have so much money in your family, can you protect it? Shao the thief can kill you with just one word, and then all your wealth will be accepted by Shao the thief. Without me, who will give you the opportunity to make money? Stupid!"

Zhu Shuo had a nonchalant expression.

It is true that I cannot keep all my wealth. But Youzhou is about to collapse. If I act slowly, all my wealth will be gone, and my wife and daughter will become someone else's playthings. I can still tell which is more important, so I don't need Peng Zu to remind me.

Now, if you donate most of your savings, you can still become a rich man, and your family will be safe and sound. What more can you ask for? To put it bluntly, in such a chaotic world, you have to spend money to buy peace. As for who to buy it from, you have to choose carefully, anyway, it’s not you, Wang Pengzu.

"You Tong, someone reported that you were secretly in contact with Shi Le and had an affair with Yecheng. I thought you had followed me for many years and would not do this. But you are such a ruthless person. I hate you so much!"

You Tong's face was full of anger and he muttered a few words, seeming to be very dissatisfied with Wang Jun's insults to him.

"Shao Xun, you've done a lot of ugly things. Empress Hui, um..." Wang Jun's mouth was blocked just before he finished scolding.

Angel Liu Bai was a little embarrassed, and he bowed and said, "Let Mr. Chen know that before I left the capital, the emperor remembered the merits of Wang Shen, and Xu Jun committed suicide. The crime was limited to himself and no one else was involved."

Zao Song, Zhu Shuo, You Tong and others woke up as if from a dream and said goodbye one after another.

Shao Xun hesitated for a while and said, "Okay."

Liu Bai bowed and went to the inn.

Shao Xun stood in the courtyard for a while and said, "Let's do it."

"My lord, I..." Liu Ling was eager to try.

Shao Xun waved his hand and said, "Let Wang Pengzu commit suicide. If he doesn't want to, help him. Afterwards, hang his head on the city gate for ten days. After ten days, if his family is willing to collect the body, let them collect it themselves and don't stop them."

"Yes." Liu Ling agreed excitedly.

After Shao Xun left, Liu Ling trotted into the bedroom, sat in front of Wang Jun, and laughed: "Wang Jun, if you know what's best for you, hang yourself on the beam. If you don't, I'll help you."

Wang Jun glared at him and sat on the couch without moving.

Liu Ling laughed, stood up and came behind Wang Jun.

Wang Jun seemed to have a premonition of something and began to tremble all over.

Liu Ling's strong arms had clamped Wang Jun's neck and squeezed hard, causing Wang Jun's eyeballs to bulge out.

"Crack!" A sound like a broken neck bone was heard, and the expression on Liu Ling's face became more and more excited.

******
The New Year's Day of the tenth year of Yongjia (316) soon arrived.

Zao Song went to Wang Jun's residence early in the morning for a banquet.

Most of the guests were generals and officers of the shogunate, scholars from Youzhou, and chieftains of the Hu people. They started eating and drinking at noon and continued until the evening.

The next day, when he was resting at home, his wife Wang Shao was crying, which made him very upset.

"Does Mr. Chen keep his word?" Wang Shao shook Zao Song's shoulder and asked.

Zao Song was about to scold him, but thought better of it and said, "No one will help the prince at this time. Let him take some money for the journey and go south to seek refuge with Bian Zhiren."

Wang Jun had three daughters with his first wife, Wen.

The eldest daughter, Wang Shao (Zi Shaoying), married Zao Song.

The second daughter, Wang Li (Zi Shaorong), married the son of former Chief Justice Bian Jun.

The third daughter, Wang Ze (Zi Shaoyi), married Sun Hui, the youngest son of former General Pingnan, Sun Qi.

His second wife, Wei, had no children.

His third wife, Mrs. Hua, had two sons, both of whom were relatively young.

The eldest son, Wang Zhou (with the courtesy name Dao Shi), was only fourteen years old, and the second son, Wang Yi (with the courtesy name Dao Xian), was two or three years younger.

The fourth wife, Cui, had no children.

In short, Wang Jun had two legitimate sons, three legitimate daughters, five illegitimate sons, and two illegitimate daughters.

The elder among the concubine's sons unfortunately died of illness, and now the eldest among the sons is the eldest son, Wang Zhou.

The two concubines' daughters married Duan Wuwuchen and Su Shuyan respectively.

Duan Wuwuchen was the former Duke of Liaoxi County, and he is now dead, so it would be inappropriate for him to seek refuge with him.

Su Shuyan once defected to the Xiongnu. After Shi Le and Wang Jun were defeated one after another, he fled far away to the border of Guangning and Shanggu counties. He is currently waiting and watching, so it seems inappropriate for him to defect to him.

As for the Sun family of Le'an, they were implicated by Sun Xiu, a favorite of Sima Lun. Sun Hui was killed and Wang Ze also died of illness, leaving them with nowhere to go.

In this case, he had no choice but to go south to Jianye and seek refuge with the Bian family of Jiyin.

Wang Shao wiped away her tears after hearing what her husband said and asked, "Then - go south?" Zao Song said impatiently, "The sooner we leave, the better. If we leave later, something unexpected may happen."

After saying that, he turned around, looked at his wife seriously, and warned her: "You must not interfere in this matter. If I know that you are helping the prince with money--"

Wang Shao was furious and cursed: "Zao Taichan, when the King of Chengdu was defeated, you fled to my father in despair. At first you held a low position and were ridiculed by others. Who helped you at that time?"

Zaosong was speechless.

"Are you determined to join Shao Xun?" Wang Shao asked again, "Working for the enemy who killed my father?"

Zao Song took a deep breath and said, "Why don't you go out and take a look? Yesterday, my father-in-law's head was hung on the city gate. Many people in Jicheng didn't celebrate the New Year. They rushed over in a black mass, spitting and cursing. In this situation, what do you want me to do?"

"Besides, the prince still has a legal mother, Cui. If the legal mother doesn't care about him, why should you and I care?"

"If I intervene, I might be arrested by Mr. Chen. Who will support this family then? Have you ever thought about this?"

"The emperor only wants to punish my father-in-law. Lord Chen can agree or not. Sparing the prince's life is already a mercy beyond the law. What else do you want? If you continue to make trouble, none of your brothers and sisters will survive."

Wang Shao was stunned for a long time after hearing this, then he covered his face and cried: "My father has been in Youzhou for more than ten years, and when disaster struck, no one was willing to show his loyalty."

Zaosong glanced at his wife with disdain.

Not only is no one willing to be loyal to him, but everyone wishes he were dead. What a foolish woman.

He still remembered the scene this morning when he was hiding in the carriage and looking at Wang Jun's head from afar. To be honest, if there were no soldiers guarding it, someone would have taken the head off and chopped it with a knife or an axe to eat the meat.

The people of Youzhou really hate Wang Pengzu. At this critical moment, who dares to stand out? Even if Chen Gong doesn't punish you, you can't survive in Youzhou.

In addition, he also heard that the people of Youzhou praised Chen Gong for killing Wang Jun. At that time, some people even proposed to jointly petition Chen Gong to kill Zhu Shuo and Zao Song.

He was so scared that he went straight home, and he is still worried now.

At this time, you should do nothing, don't let people pay attention to you or think about you, otherwise you will die without knowing how you died.

Kill Wang Jun and win the hearts of the people.

Killing Zhu Shuo and Zao Song can also win the hearts of the people.

Do you think Mr. Chen will be tempted?

I'm really going to be killed by this woman!

Thinking of this, Zao Song's eyes flickered and a fierce look appeared on his face.

******
On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, the angel Liu Bai came to say goodbye, and Shao Xun personally hosted a banquet to entertain him.

After three rounds of drinking, Liu Bai suddenly asked, "When will you return to Beijing? The court is still waiting for you to prepare the ceremony."

The so-called ceremony is, of course, the ceremony of enthroning the general and Duke Liang.

Liu Bai was actually delivering a message for someone else, after all, there were too many people waiting.

"We'll return after we pacify the Duan tribe of Xianbei. If possible, we'll deal with the Wuhuan as well." Shao Xun did not hide it from him and said directly.

Youzhou is not big, with only seven counties and more than 30 counties.

Dai County had long been occupied by the Tuoba Xianbei, and Liaoxi was in the hands of the Murong Xianbei, so only five counties and kingdoms remained: Fanyang, Yan, Beiping, Guangning, and Shanggu.

I don’t know if I don’t come, but I will be shocked when I come.

Shao Xun now seriously suspected that there were more Hu people in Youzhou than Han people. After asking the local elders, he found that it had been like this since the Later Han Dynasty, but it was not so serious at that time.

During the Three Kingdoms period, the Wuhuan and Xianbei moved inland on a large scale and most of them were settled in Youzhou.

The land in Youzhou is naturally much more fertile than the grassland. Even if there is no farming, the same grazing can support several times more people per unit area of ​​grassland.

During the Jin Dynasty, Hu people continued to migrate in, and their numbers grew larger and larger, as if some disaster had occurred in other places and they could not survive. The Jin Dynasty happened to open its doors to accept them, so they all came to settle down. The Jie people in Daijun, Shanggu, and Guangping were not the same group as the Jie people in Shangdang. They migrated from the northern grasslands in the late Cao Wei period.

During the fifty years of the Jin Dynasty, no one knew how many Hu people there were because no one checked.

It was a pity that no one investigated this, because it meant that the imperial court's governance over the various Hu peoples was very lax, and it was basically a tributary rule. Even if a tribe migrated away and did not stay in the original pasture, the imperial court would not know about it until a long time later.

Shao Xun wanted to take charge.

The migration of the Hu people to the interior was a fait accompli. It was unrealistic to kill them all, and we did not have the strength to do so. After all, Liu Han was watching from the side.

Then we have to find a way to manage it.

The problem of the Hu people was the result of inaction during the Later Han, Cao Wei, and Jin dynasties, as well as appeasement for generations. It was a long-standing problem that was difficult to reverse, and it was not so easy to deal with.

Shao Xun could only take it step by step, first controlling the rule and then deepening his control step by step.

As far as Youzhou is concerned, the Duan tribe of the Xianbei was the first stumbling block, and the Wuhuan Su Shuyan who had already fled was the second.

"My Lord, are you going to send a large army to suppress us?" Liu Bai asked.

"We will use both suppression and appeasement." Shao Xun said, "No one from the Duan tribe has surrendered yet, but when the army approaches their pastures, some will be restless. Those who surrender first will be given official titles and rewards, and those who are slow will be killed, that's all."

Liu Bai sighed, "The best strategy is to use both suppression and appeasement. In the past, Wang Jun had the help of the Xianbei and was able to conquer Hebei. If you subdue the Hu people in Youyan, your strength will increase greatly, and you will have more confidence in the war against the Xiongnu."

"We're still missing Tuoba Xianbei." Shao Xun said with a smile.

Liu Bai was a little surprised: "What does this mean?"

"How did Tian Chou get to Chang'an in the past?" Shao Xun asked.

Liu Bai thought about it for a moment and suddenly realized.

(End of this chapter)