Chinese New Year

Chapter 638 Returning Envoy
When the millet and wheat in Henan were golden, Yu Mie crossed the Yellow River from Fangtou to Puyang and stayed in the countryside overnight.

Also traveling south with him were Yousui from Guangping and a student of Shao Xun named Zhanping from Liang County.

Each of the three men brought more than ten followers, equipped with bows and horses.

There were even seven or eight Hu cavalrymen with high noses and deep eyes in the team. They looked quite scary and made people wonder if they were Xiongnu bandits who came south to spy.

However, people from Dongyan County and Zaoting Longxiang Prefecture came to take a look and then there was no further news, so it was obvious that there was no problem.

The farmer who stayed with them collected several rolls of silk, so he killed a sheep that was to be sold in winter and used it to entertain everyone.

Yu Mie sat in the yard to enjoy the cool air, looking at the pottery jar bubbling with steam, and asked, "How is the longevity of the Zhang family?"

"Fifty-six." The old man held a wooden spoon and stirred the clay pot while taking care of the other pots.

"How many years have you been in this village?" Yu Mie asked.

"Two years."

Yu Mie calculated that it was almost the same time as the construction of Fangtou City was completed. He felt that once this city was built, the western half of Puyang would be as stable as a mountain, and the Huns would no longer dare to go south to plunder at will.

"From Puyang?"

"I'm from Xingyang. There was a riot over there with the Xiongnu bandits, so I ran over here."

Yu Mie was somewhat curious and asked, "Are there still people living in independent households in Xingyang?"

The old man shuddered when he heard this and said, "Yes, but a little."

"Don't worry, old man." Yu Mie smiled and said, "I'm just asking casually. I won't report it to the authorities."

Hearing the words "sue the officials", the old man suddenly became tough and said, "Dongyan County has given us a permanent residence, I am not afraid of suing the officials."

"So that's how it is." Yu Mie laughed and said, "I guess the nobles of Xingyang wouldn't dare to extend their influence to Liang State."

He knew very well that this old man and his family were definitely escaped slaves from a manor or fortress. They did not want to continue being farmhands, so they ran to Dongyan County, Puyang County, Liang State, next door.

Duke Liang had a long-term policy of gathering and resettling refugees. No matter where you came from, you would be granted land and houses, and all of them would be registered as citizens.

In addition, the "Xiongnu bandits" in Xingyang should also be true. After all, half of Ji County was still in the hands of the Xiongnu, and bandits would sneak over from time to time to spy on military intelligence. When there were more people, they would burn, kill, and loot. Their work was similar to that of capturing soldiers alive, except that one was to capture people, and the other was to kill them purely.

In such a background, it was very dangerous to live alone and one had to rely on the collective strength to survive, so this family must be farmhands of some powerful family.

Yu Mie was a little curious. If this continued, would more farmhands and slaves escape?

"Sir, the mutton is ready." After a moment, the old man put some mutton in a wooden bowl and handed it to Yu Mie respectfully.

Yu Mie took it, took two bites, found it tasted good, and immediately praised it.

He stayed in Shangdang for a long time and felt that the Jie people had wasted so many good cattle and sheep. He didn't know how to take care of them and made them taste terrible. It would be better for him to stay in this rural village where he was staying.

The old man's son brought a large bamboo gong filled with baked Hu cakes.

"Is it possible that they will eat up all the food in your home?" Yu Mie asked with a smile, picking up a Hu pancake.

"Mr. Chen has not collected taxes in Puyang in the past two years, so there is still food." The old man said with a smile.

"Now he is Duke of Liang, not Duke of Chen. The five counties of Puyang are also the territory of Liang State." Yu Mie corrected.

The old man was stunned.

No wonder the official mentioned "Liang State" just now. They are Liang people? Are the people of Xingyang County next door Jin people? Are Liang people Jin people? He couldn't figure it out.

"This cake is good. Is it fried in reed oil?" Yu Mie discovered that the cake he was eating was fried in reed oil and was light green in color. The cakes that ordinary followers and guards ate were not fried.

"Yes." replied the old man.

"Grown by yourself?" Yu Mie asked.

"I harvested the seeds myself." The old man said, "There is an oilman from Xuchang in the village who opened a shop specializing in oil pressing. I can exchange the seeds for oil with him."

"Have you ever eaten Renyou before?"

"I've eaten it. It tastes terrible and nobody likes it." The old man shook his head and said, "It can only be used to light lamps, or for women to use to comb their hair."

Yu Mie was stunned for a moment, then nodded.

Although Yu Mie and his brother Yu Xun - both sons of Yu Gun's first wife, Xun - acted like young masters when they made friends with scholars in Xuchang, they were not actually born into a wealthy family.

When he was young, he followed his father to build a hut in the Linlu Mountain of Ji County and cultivated the land. His father (Yu Gun) set an example by cultivating the land himself and eating the same food as the other residents, so Yu Mie and his brothers did not have a good life.

Simple meals and coarse linen clothes are commonplace, and there are many calluses on the hands, which are the marks left by farming.

However, scholars are scholars. After returning to Xuchang, their father continued to live in seclusion. They were unwilling to waste time, so they took advantage of the family's support and entered the officialdom. They no longer wanted to be the "second generation of seclusion."

Yu Mie also planted purple basil and white basil, but the oil extracted from them was indeed not tasty - not to mention that poor people eat everything, there are some things that they really don't want to try unless they are almost starving to death.

When he was in Xuchang, he heard that Lord Liang had brought a group of Shaofu craftsmen from Luoyang to promote the method of squeezing and filtering the palace oil. Now, several years have passed, and it seems that many craftsmen apprentices have been trained, and gradually spread outward with Xuchang and Luoyang as the center.

This is a good thing!
There was obviously a good way to extract oil, but it had to be hidden in the palace and in the manors of the noble families. It was really meaningless if it was not promoted. It caused him to have no oil to eat when he was in Linlu Mountain.

Well, Yu Mie's words betrayed him a bit, but who made them brothers suffer so much when they were young? First they built a fort in Yushan, and then fled to Ji County to farm. They were really displaced.

Following his father who liked to live in seclusion, he never enjoyed the blessings of a noble family, but suffered the hardships of war. Now he has returned to the Yu family and become a nobleman, but he may never forget the experiences before the age of 20 until his death.

After the old man’s son served the Hu pancakes, he took his wife to a corner of the yard and began to take care of the livestock.

Three sheep and a small calf were all his belongings.

Yu Mie looked at it and was a little surprised. He asked, "There are so many cows in Puyang? Although Yuzhou has been peaceful for several years, oxen are in short supply. Often several families share one cow. But Zhang Weng has one. It's not easy."

The old man looked back and said embarrassedly, "We have to find someone to train it. It's useless now. This cow is cheap. We bought it from a Hu person. It was skinny when we first bought it. It took a long time to raise it. It's cheap too. A few bags of grains will be enough." "What kind of Hu person is selling a cow?" Yu Mie asked.

The old man glanced at the knights from Shangdang sitting at the door and whispered, "He is just that kind of person."

Yu Mie understood and said with a smile: "They must be the Hu people who came south from Youzhou."

Now it makes sense.

I heard that when Duke Liang went south, he brought 20,000 Xianbei people including Duan Mobo, 5,000 Wuhuan people including Su Shuyan, and more than 10,000 Jie people.

These tens of thousands of Hu people have a large number of cattle, sheep and horses. If you count the numbers, the total number of livestock, big and small, is probably no less than 500,000.

When they went south, the strong and fit followed Mr. Liang first, while the old and weak walked a little slower, herding as they went.

Fortunately, it was almost summer and the grass was growing well. There were also large tracts of vacant land in Hebei. With the coordination of the government, it was not a big problem to nibble on the grasslands with or without owners, and no one would cause trouble - grass is also a resource.

But after such a long journey, they walked a little too fast, so it was inevitable that the livestock would lose a lot of weight.

What should I do? I can only sell it at a low price and exchange it for some food and daily necessities.

The old man said that exchanging a few bags of grain for a calf was a real bargain. Find someone to train it well, and it will be useful when it grows up, and it will surely produce more grain.

In addition, Yu Mie keenly realized that the influx of so many livestock into Liang State allowed the people, who had enjoyed stability for several years, to buy them at very cheap prices, which actually greatly improved Liang State's agriculture.

From now on, these ten counties will become richer and richer, the population will gradually increase, and Lord Liang will become more and more confident in front of the scholars.

What is this? This is the foundation!

******
After resting for a night in Dongyan, a group of dozens of riders set out again and arrived in Bianliang on the last day of July.

Shao Xun was inspecting the training of the Silver Spear Camp soldiers in the south of the city. Upon hearing the news, he immediately invited Yu Mie and others over.

After a moment, Liu Ye was called over as well.

Liu Ye's eyes turned red as she saw those Jie people with a big belly.

The leader was a heroic young man. When he saw Liu Ye, he knelt down and cried, "Auntie."

Liu Ye also kept wiping away tears, and hurriedly helped his nephew up. After taking a closer look, he said, "I haven't seen you for three years, and you have grown up again."

The young man stood up and stood respectfully beside Liu Ye, even forgetting to salute Shao Xun.

Yu Mie coughed, and then he suddenly realized what was going on and quickly bowed.

Shao Xun returned the greeting.

He heard from Liu Ye that his elder brother Liu Runzhong's wife died young and that she had raised his children. Seeing this, he had an idea in mind.

However, he still encouraged Yu Mie first, saying, "Yuan Du, it must be difficult to be away from Shangdang for several months, right?"

"The road is difficult to travel." Yu Mie sighed, "Hiding and hiding has delayed us for a long time. Shangdang is not bad. If we hide in the tribe and don't show up, there will be no big problem."

Shao Xun hummed and understood.

For several months, no one reported the matter, which showed that the Xiongnu's control over the Shangdang tribes was very loose. There might be officials such as military supervisors in the tribes, but they were unable to change the situation.

"What does Liu Runzhong say?" Shao Xun looked at the young man named Liu Zhao and asked.

"General Liu has made up his mind, but he still needs to wait for the right time," Yu Mie replied.

"What time?"

"After the war in Hebei ended, Liu Yao retreated to Huguan (county) and withdrew the four guards of the Eastern Palace of Yewang to the north, along with his own troops and Zhao Gu's troops, a total of 15,000 infantry and cavalry, to farm and graze in the Huguan and Shangdang areas." Yu Mie said: "But General Liu's troops were in the area of ​​Xunshi and Gaodu, mixed with several Wuhuan tribes. Zhao Gu's troops of several thousand people also retreated here and cultivated land in the valleys between the mountains. They were worried that Liu Yao would send troops south and attack Zhao Gu's troops. In addition, Liu Ya of Henei was still there, so even if they wanted to return to the right path, they had nowhere to go."

In fact, Shangdang in the Jin Dynasty was relatively large, roughly including the two prefecture-level cities of Jincheng and Changzhi in later generations.

From a topographical point of view, these are actually two basins, and it is normal to divide them into two places. This is not only the case in later generations. After the end of the Southern and Northern Dynasties, it was divided into Zezhou (Jincheng) and Luzhou (Changzhi) during the Sui and Tang Dynasties.

The two basins were separated by mountains and connected by pass cities and post roads, while the Jincheng Basin was connected to Henei and Jijun through Taihangxing and Baixing.

Liu Yao was stationed in the Changzhi Basin, Liu Runzhong was in the Jincheng Basin, and south of the Jincheng Basin was Han Anxi General Liu Ya.

After many contacts, Shao Xun felt that Liu Runzhong was a rather indecisive person, and would not surrender until the situation was clear and the danger was small. But the question was, if it really came to that, how much value would your surrender have?
"Where is Zhao Gu?" Shao Xun asked.

"They have gone to Guanzhong." Yu Mie replied, "There are still more than 4,000 of them in Henei, 3,000 in Xunshi, and 5,000 in Huguan. The rest were taken away by him and went to Chang'an. I heard that Liu Cong gave them a batch of money, food and equipment, and allowed them to recruit 10,000 soldiers in Guanzhong."

"The Huns have really lost their resolve and are moving all their belongings to Guanzhong," Shao Xun said.

After saying that, he looked at Liu Zhao again and asked, "What are you doing here, young man?"

Liu Zhao was a little nervous, and Liu Ye looked at him encouragingly.

Liu Zhao calmed down and said, "My father sent me to Liang Gong to gain experience."

This statement is vague, but it actually means being a proton.

Shao Xun nodded and said, "Okay, can you read and write?"

"Learned."

"Become a servant in the shogunate first and gain some experience."

"As ordered."

"As for Liu Runzhong..." Shao Xun paused and said, "Since he is not very courageous, just be patient and wait for a while. I will deal with the matter of Qingzhou later."

(End of this chapter)