Chapter 638 Return of the Envoy
At the time of Su Jinhuang in Henan, Yu Mi crossed the Yellow River from Fangtou to the south and arrived in Puyang, where he stayed overnight in the countryside.
Going south with him were Guangping Yousui and a Liangjun student named Zhanping of Shaoxun.
The three of them each brought more than ten followers, all equipped with bows and horses.
There were even seven or eight Hu Qi with tall noses and deep eyes in the team, which looked quite scary and made people wonder if they were Huns bandits who went south to spy.
However, people from Dongyan County and Xuting Longxiang Mansion came to take a look, and then nothing more happened. Apparently there was no problem.
The farmer who stayed with them harvested several bolts of silk, so he killed a sheep that was going to be sold in the winter and entertained everyone.
Yu Mi sat in the yard enjoying the shade, looking at the steaming clay pot, and asked: "How long is the Zhang family?"
"Fifty-six." The old man held the The wooden spoon, while stirring this earthen pot, took care of several other earthen pots.
"How many years have you been in this village?" Yu Mi asked.
"Two years."
Yu Mian calculated that it was almost the time after the construction of Fangtou City was completed. He suddenly felt that once the city was built, the western half of Puyang was as stable as a mountain, and the Huns no longer dared to go south to plunder wantonly. .
“People from Puyang?”
“People from Xingyang. There was trouble with the Huns over there, so they came here.”
Yu Mi was a little curious and asked: " Are there still people with single families in Xingyang?"
The old man trembled when he heard this and said, "There are only a few."
"Don't worry, Mr. Zang." Yu Miao said with a smile. "Just asking casually, I won't sue the official."
Hearing the word " sue the official," the old man suddenly became hardened and said, "I'm not afraid that Dongyan County will lose our registration. Report to the official."
"That's it." Yu Mi laughed and said, "I don't think the wealthy people in Xingyang would dare to reach out to the Liang Kingdom."
He knew very well that this old man's family. He was definitely an escaped slave from a certain manor, Wubao. He didn't want to continue being a banker, so he ran to Dongyan County, Puyang County, Liang State next door.
Liang Gong has a long-term policy of recruiting and resettling refugees. No matter where they come from, they will all be given land and houses, and the people will be organized into households.
In addition, the "Hun thieves" in Xingyang should also be true. After all, half of Ji County is still in the hands of the Huns, and thieves sneak over from time to time to spy on the military situation. When the number of people increased, they would burn, kill, and loot. The work was similar to that of the capture army. The only difference was that one was capturing people while the other was purely killing.
In such a context, it is very dangerous for a single family to survive alone, and it must rely on collective strength to survive, so this family must be a banker of a wealthy family.
Yu Mian was a little curious. If he continued like this, would more Zhuangke slaves escape?
"Officer, the mutton is ready." After a while, the old man filled a wooden bowl with some mutton and handed it to Yu Mian respectfully.
Yu Mi took it and took two bites. He thought it tasted good and was immediately amazed.
He stayed in Shangdang for a long time and felt that the Jie people had really blinded so many good cattle and sheep in vain. He couldn't take care of them and made them taste terrible. It was worse than the rural village where he stayed.
The old man’s son brought a big bamboo gong filled with baked Hu cakes.
“You’re not going to eat up all the food stored in your family, are you?” Yu Mi picked up a Hu cake and asked with a smile.
"Mr. Chen has not collected taxes in Puyang for the past two years, and he still has food to eat." The old man said with a smile.
"Now it is Duke Liang, not Duke Chen. The five counties of Puyang are also part of the Liang Kingdom." Yu Mian corrected.
The old man was stunned.
No wonder the officials mentioned "Liang Guo" just now. It turns out that they are already from Liang? Are the people in Xingyang County next door still from Jin? Are Liang people from Jin? He couldn't figure it out.
“This cake is good. Did you eat it in oil?” Yu Miao found that the cake he ate was fried in oil and was light green in color. Ordinary followers and soldiers did not eat it.
"Yes." The old man replied.
“Grown at home?” Yu Mi asked.
“I harvested the water chestnuts at home.” The old man said: “There is an oilman from Xuchang in the village who opened a shop and specialized in pressing oil. Just exchange the water chestnuts with him for oil.”
< br>"Have you ever eaten alfalfa oil before?"
"Yes. It tastes bad and no one likes it." The old man shook his head and said: "It can only be used to light lamps. Women sometimes use it to light lamps." "Put your hair together."
Yu Mian was stunned for a moment, then nodded.
Although Yu Mi and his brother Yu Zhi were both descendants of Yu Gun's first wife, Xun, they acted like young masters when they made friends with scholars in Xuchang, but he was not actually born into a wealthy family.
When he was young, he followed his father to build a dock in the Linlu Mountain of Jijun and farm for himself. His father (Yu Gun) set an example and insisted on cultivating the fields and eating the same food as Bao Hu, so Yu Mi and his brothers did not live a good life.
It is common to see mediocre meals and coarse linen clothes, and there are many calluses on my hands, which are traces left by farming.
However, a scholar is a scholar. After returning to Xuchang, his father continued to live in seclusion. They were unwilling to waste time, so they took advantage of the family's strength and entered official careers. They did not want to be the "second generation in seclusion".
Yu Mi also planted perilla and perilla, and the oil extracted from the oil was indeed not delicious - not to mention that poor people eat everything. Unless they are about to starve to death, they really don't want to try some things.
When he was in Xuchang, he heard that Liang Gong brought a group of Shaofu craftsmen from Luoyang to promote the method of extracting and filtering palace oil. Now that several years have passed, it seems that many craftsman apprentices have been trained, and they have gradually spread to Xuchang and Luoyang.
This is a good thing!
There is obviously a good way to extract oil, but it has to be hidden in the palace and in the manor of a wealthy family. It is really meaningless if it is not promoted. As a result, he did not even have oil to eat in Linlu Mountain.
Well, what Yu Mi said was a bit betrayal, but who made their brothers have such a hard time when they were young? He first built a fortress in Yushan, and then went to Jijun to farm. He was really displaced.
Following his father who liked to live in seclusion, he did not enjoy the blessings of a wealthy family, but suffered the hardships of war. Now he has returned to the Yu family and became a noble son, but the experiences he had experienced before he was twenty years old may never be forgotten until his death.
After serving the cakes, the old man's son took his wife to a corner of the courtyard and began to take care of the livestock.
Three sheep, plus a small calf, are all the possessions.
Yu Mi looked at it, a little surprised, and asked: "How many cattle are there in Puyang? Although Yuzhou has been in peace for several years, there is a serious shortage of farming cattle. Several families often share one, but Zhang Weng only raises one. Simple."
The old man looked back and said sheepishly: "I still have to find someone to train me. I can't help it now. This cow is cheap. I bought it from a foreigner and it was very thin. It took a long time to get over it. It's cheap, just a few bags of grain. "What kind of barbarian is selling cattle?"
The old man glanced at the few knights from the Shangdang sitting at the door and whispered: "They are just that kind of people."
Yu Mian understood. He smiled and said: "They must be barbarians who came south from Youzhou."
This makes sense.
I heard that when Liang Gong went south, he brought with him 20,000 people from Duanmobo of Xianbei, 5,000 people from Sushuyan from Wuhuan, and more than 10,000 people from Jie.
These tens of thousands of barbarians have a large number of cattle, sheep and horses. Calculating the number, the total number of large and small miscellaneous animals may not be less than 500,000.
When going south, the strong ones followed Liang Gong first, while the old and weak ones walked a little slower, grazing as they went.
Fortunately, it was almost summer, the grass was growing well, and there were large open spaces in Hebei. Under the coordination of the government, it was not a big problem to nibble on the owned and unowned grassland, and no one would come to cause trouble—— Grass is also a resource.
But for such a long journey, walking is a little bit hasty, and it is inevitable for livestock to lose a lot of fat.
What to do? It can only be sold at a low price. It is always good to exchange for some food and daily necessities.
The old man said that it was really cheap to exchange a few bags of grain for a calf. Find someone to train it well, and it will come in handy when you grow up, and you will definitely be able to harvest more food.
In addition, Yu Miao was keenly aware that so many livestock poured into Liang State, allowing the people who had been stable for several years to buy them at very cheap prices. This actually greatly improved Liang State's agriculture.
From now on, these ten counties will become richer and richer, their household registrations will gradually increase, and Liang Gong 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 hit the road again and arrived in Bianliang on the last day of July.
Shao Xun was in the south of the city inspecting the training of the soldiers in the Yinqiang camp. After hearing the news, he immediately invited Yu Mi and others over.
After a while, Liu Ye was called over again.
Liu Yena had a big belly, and his eye circles turned red as soon as he saw those Jie people.
The leader was a heroic young man. When he saw Liu Ye, he knelt down and cried, "Auntie."
Liu Ye, who kept wiping his tears, quickly brought his nephew to He stood up with help, looked at it carefully, and 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, forgetting to salute Shao Xun. .
Yu Mi coughed, and then he suddenly understood and saluted quickly.
Shao Xun returned the favor.
He heard Liu Yena say that his brother Liu Runzhong's wife died young, and her children were brought up by her. When I saw it at this time, I had a plan in my mind.
However, he still encouraged Yu Mian first and said: "Yuandu, it's not easy to join the party for several months, isn't it?"
"It's difficult to walk on the road." Yu Mian sighed: "Hiding and hiding has been delayed for a lot of time. It's okay with Shangdang. If you hide in the tribe and don't show up, there will be no serious problems."
Shao Xun groaned and understood.
For several months, no one reported anything, which shows that the Xiongnu's control over the Shangdang ministries was very loose. There may be officials such as military supervisors in the tribe, but they have not been able to open up the situation.
"What did Liu Runzhong say?" Shao Xun glanced at the young man named Liu Zhao and asked.
"General Liu has made up his mind, but he still needs to wait for the opportunity." Yu Mi replied.
"What time?"
"After the war in Hebei, Liu Yao retreated to Tunhuguan (county), and withdrew the four guards of the Yewang's East Palace to the north, and his headquarters troops and horses Zhao Gu's troops, with a total of 15,000 cavalry, are farming and herding in the Huguan and Shangdang areas. "Yu Mi said: "But General Liu's troops are in the Xuansi and Gaodu areas, mixed with several Wuhuan tribes. Thousands of Zhao Gu's troops also retreated here to camp in the mountain valleys. They were worried that Liu Yao would send troops south to attack Zhao Gu's troops. Liu Ya was still in Hanoi and wanted to return to the army. There is nowhere to go.”
In fact, Shangdang in the Jin Dynasty was relatively large, including the two prefecture-level cities of Jincheng and Changzhi in later generations.
Topographically speaking, these are actually two basins. It is normal to divide them into two basins. Not only was this the case in later generations, but after the end of the Southern and Northern Dynasties, it was divided into Zezhou (Jincheng) and Lu during the Sui and Tang Dynasties. Prefecture (Changzhi).
The two basins are separated by mountains and connected by Guancheng and Yi Road. The Jincheng Basin is connected to Hanoi and Jijun through Taihangxing and Baixing.
Liu Yaotun was in the Changzhi Basin, Liu Runzhong was in the Jincheng Basin, and to the south of the Jincheng Basin was Han Anxi General Liu Ya.
After many contacts, Shao Xun felt that Liu Runzhong should be relatively indecisive and would only take refuge when the situation was clear and the danger was minimal. But the question is, if it really comes to that, how valuable is your refuge?
"Where did Zhao Gu go?" Shao Xun asked.
"We have gone to Guanzhong." Yu Mi replied: "There are still more than 4,000 people in Hanoi, the Xuans have 3,000 soldiers, and Huguan has 5,000 soldiers. The rest of them are taken away by him, and they go He arrived in Chang'an. I heard that Liu Cong gave him a batch of money, food and equipment, and allowed him to recruit tens of thousands of troops in Guanzhong.
After finishing speaking, he looked at Liu Zhao and asked, "What is the young man doing here?"
Liu Zhao was a little nervous, and Liu Ye gave him an encouraging look.
Liu Zhao composed himself and said, "My father sent me to come to Liang Gong for training."
This was vague, but it actually meant being a hostage.
Shao Xun nodded and said, "Okay, can you be proficient in writing and calligraphy?"
"Learned."
"Become a shogunate in the shogunate first and get some experience."
"Follow your orders."
"Liu Runzhong's side——" Shao Xun paused for a moment and said: "Since he is not very courageous, let's be patient and wait a moment. I will not worry about it until I finish taking care of Qingzhou's affairs."
(End of this chapter)