Chapter 329 New Year
In the first year of Chengtian, in the spring of the first month, Yecheng.
As the Chinese New Year approaches, Yecheng is filled with a Chinese New Year atmosphere. As the situation stabilized and the surrounding wars ended one after another, General Chongtian of the Taishan Army ordered that this year be a good year, and everyone should rejoice together.
Then the whole city became lively.
The last year has been an upheaval for many people. In particular, the Guizhou leaders living in Hebei experienced wars, conquests, and fled their hometowns, but later returned to their hometowns because of the policies of the Taishan Army. So no matter whether you have money or not, you all want to be happy at the end of this year and hope to be more stable in the coming year.
As for the Taishan Army, after nearly a year of fighting, they finally have a good situation. There are already Mount Tai, Laiwu Valley, Dongping Kingdom, Heji area, and the old Wei Kingdom in Hebei. It can be said that this result is very good.
Now, as the Han army in Henan left Hebei, Lu Zhi's Hebei army had to abandon Handan because of the heavy losses suffered by the Qingzhou Yellow Turban and the Eastern Expeditionary Army, and ran all the way to Youzhou with thousands of defeated soldiers.
After the Han army in Hebei withdrew from Jizhou, the situation in Jizhou became increasingly chaotic. After more than a year of war, order in Hebei has collapsed, and gangs of bandits and hunters are running rampant everywhere. Those with some strength built forts in the countryside, and the refugees gathered in groups to beg for food.
Therefore, at this time, the areas in Yecheng and the upper reaches of Zhangshui controlled by the Taishan Army became a rare place of peace in this chaotic land.
Since Yecheng was regarded as the main base area in the future by Zhang Chong, he has been committed to transforming the rural structure at this time. On the one hand, they divided fields and households and broke up clan relationships; on the other hand, they also tried to change the folk structure of this world, which is called changing customs.
This behavior was also regarded by many local rural scholars as a Legalist method, repeating the mistakes of the Qin Dynasty.
The reason why Zhang Chong went to great lengths to divide land and households at the grassroots level was a reorganization of the economic structure. However, the folk custom structure spread in the countryside matched the past economic structure of tenant farmers or serfs. It was a powerful force. transformation of them.
In this case, it is necessary for the Taishan Army to change its customs under the rule. Among them, the Chinese New Year is regarded as an important transformation activity and is highly regarded by the Taishan Army and Civil Affairs Department.
The people below were all in high spirits, but Zhang Chong was more sober than them. Customs cannot be uprooted, only the branches can be changed. Because time has given these customs great resilience, even if there are powerful external reforms, it will be difficult to completely cut them off from the past.
Therefore, changing customs will be a long-term task. If it is only temporary, it is just another so-called New Life Movement.
Naturally, these lower-class people don’t know when Chinese New Year begins and why they celebrate the New Year. Even if they ask those who have read poetry and books, they will get nothing except telling them some things.
But not everything needs to be investigated. Anyway, for them, it is enough to have a specific festival at a time for them to revel.
These simple and unliterary Guizhou leaders may not know that the truth about Chinese New Year is that simple.
The word Nian was passed down after the Zhou Dynasty. It was first called Zai in Tang and Yu, which means carrying. In the summer period, it is changed to Sui. Sui is originally an axe-like cutting tool and is used to harvest crops. At that time, crops ripened once a year. After the crops were harvested, people would sacrifice animals to the gods, and "Sui" became the name for sacrifices.
This annual harvest festival is the earliest Chinese New Year. Later, in the Shang Dynasty, the year was called "Sacrifice". By the Zhou Dynasty, the harvest cycle was officially called a year.
For people in a farming civilization, a good harvest is the most important event. This means that they will not die of hunger in the coming year and can survive, so celebrating the New Year has become the most joyful thing for the ancestors.
In the past, the beginning of November was celebrated as the New Year. Later, during the reign of Emperor Wu, the first month was officially regarded as the beginning of the year, and it has continued ever since.
Since the origin of the Chinese New Year is the harvest festival. Sacrifice to the gods has naturally become the most important activity and theme during the New Year.
According to previous years, on this day, the human emperor, who is the son of heaven, that is, Liu Hong, should go to the eastern suburbs to welcome Qi. This is his obligation as an emperor.
But it's a pity that now Liu Hong can only go to the old east suburb altar in Chang'an. The six horses pulling the carriage can't even make up for the green horses, and then the three ministers and nine ministers can't count, so the field sacrifice ends miserably. Activity.
On the contrary, the imperial court in Luoyang to the east was full of people, and the officials of the prefects from all over the Kanto region also stood slowly and proudly. It was more dignified than the imperial court in the west.
Along with these officials, there were also princes and kings from various places. Because of the Han family system, the great dynasty is congratulated at the beginning of every year, and this is the Zhengdan dynasty.
At this time, the Han emperor would go to court early in the morning of the first lunar month to receive the congratulations of the civil and military officials. At the same time, the princes and officials from all over the country also received New Year banquets. A scene of joy.
This event must be held every year unless there is a serious disaster.
This year, whether it is the first year of Chengtian or the first year of the Republic, is the beginning of the renewal of everything and an important opportunity to unite their respective camps. Therefore, even though the times were difficult, both the Eastern and Western imperial courts held grand Zhengdan activities.
In previous years, an important program would be inserted into this event, which was the Bible debate. There have been traditional projects since the Guangwu period when the world was established.
Participants debated with each other about the classics. If someone did not understand the theory or practiced the scriptures well, his seat should be given up to a knowledgeable person. Legend has it that there was a man named Dai Ping who won more than fifty seats in a row by virtue of his profound attainments in Confucian classics and became famous in Kyoto.
But this literary event rarely disappeared this year.
Liu Hong from the west directly changed this project into a contest between Kansai warriors and a hand-to-hand fight. If Liu Hong was not allowed to bring soldiers into the ban, Liu Hong would even hold a martial arts fight.
Coincidentally, at the Luoyang court, the time for debate programs was also reduced, and they also added some martial arts events. It seems that even if the gentlemen of Kanto are unwilling to accept it, they still understand that an era for warriors has arrived.
In the role play in Luoyang, Li Dian from Jiyin successfully came out on top and won his glory.
After four years, this young hero finally reached his age as a warrior.
When Chang'an and Luoyang were offering sacrifices to heaven one after another and starting the Zhengdan Dynasty. Guangzong's New Year was very dull and tense. The most important thing is worshiping gods.
As an organization that started out as a religion, Taiping Dao is naturally very taboo about people offering sacrifices to other gods.
As for the Spring Festival, the most gods are worshiped here. The heaven, earth, mountains, rivers, sun, moon, stars, and even the door, stove, and household of the home must be sacrificed, not including some of the ancestors and wild temples of each local community. In short, whatever is sacrificed.
And because of the emergence of war, the people and leaders of Guizhou who suffered from the chaos have placed their hopes on these gods. Of course, this includes Huang Tian of Taiping Dao, but it also includes other gods. Some people even heard that Lord Taishan was also very spiritual, so they pulled him out to worship him.
Naturally, this is not allowed by Taiping Dao, so in other places Zhengdan is beaming with joy, but around Guangzong, people are checking who is worshiping the wild gods, and the atmosphere is depressing and a bit treacherous for a while.
In fact, one of the key reasons why Hebei Taiping Road was so tense was because there were far fewer Qu Shuai coming to see Guangzong this time than expected.
Except for some wiped out areas such as Yuzhou, Yanzhou and Jingzhou did not come to participate. Even some counties in Qingzhou did not come. Only Donglai, Qi and other places still sent congratulatory gifts.
This is not the saddest thing for Hebei. The saddest thing is that Taishan, not far away, only sent one envoy. It did not have the following identities. Instead, it came as an ally.
Hebei can only swallow this embarrassing situation. With their current strength, they cannot use force to make Taishan surrender.
It is this change that makes Taiping Road become more conservative and cannot tolerate any disobedience below. Therefore, Guizhou under their rule was not happy this year.
But none of the above are considered by the people in Yecheng area. They are using their rare tranquility to carefully prepare for this festival.
Like Guangzong's side, the Taishan Army actually has some complaints about the wild gods worshiped by Xiangyeli Society. But what they are smarter than Guangzong's side is that they know that no matter what they worship, the people are actually asking for it. personnel.
When there is no way to provide a stable environment for the people under the rule, strictly asking them not to do anything actually has little effect. Therefore, they do not intend to change customs directly from this area.
In addition to prohibiting some witches from using this to make money and kill themselves, the Taishan Army did not stop them from burning incense and buying silk and satin for clay sculptures.
Because sometimes, people really need some sustenance, otherwise it is easy to cause chaos. To this end, the Taishan Army also intentionally strengthened some good customs.
For example, there is a custom near Yecheng, which is to look at the ice on the trees in Zhengdan to predict the harvest in the coming year. If the snowflakes on the branches are round particles, it is a good omen for a good harvest; if they are flakes, there may be drought in the coming year.
Therefore, on the morning of Zhengdan, the people in Guizhou climbed up to see the ice trees. When they saw all the round and bright particles, they all cheered.
The Taishan Army spread the good news everywhere so that they would know that the coming year would be a good harvest.
In addition to these, the Taishan Army also intends to infiltrate some new things into the rule. Such as paper!
Paper has already existed in this world, but the technology was not good enough and the paper was fragile and fragile. Zhang Chong had improved these before when he was dormant in Mount Tai, and he already had a complete paper craft that could be used daily.
Later, when the Taishan Army captured Chaoge, in the Lacquer Garden to the north, the industry was improved with Lacquer Garden Bamboo, which improved the toughness of the paper. This type of paper is also called Lacquer Garden Paper.
Since then, almost all official documents within the Taishan Army have been made of lacquer paper.
In order to spread propaganda and paper to the people under the rule, the craftsman battalion of the Taishan Army specially made a batch of couplets. It's just two pieces of yellow paper with two promotional slogans written on them.
For example: "Men farm and women weave together, so you don't have to worry about eating and dressing."
These are the spoken words of the missionary department, which are specially used to educate the people in Guizhou. So these things are given to them for free.
But I don’t know how it was passed on. Passed on and on, these couplets became the yellow talisman of the Taishan Army. They also regard these as some kind of gods and place them at home for worship.
Obviously, even though there are couplets about the Taishan Army's will to reform, in the eyes of the Guizhou leaders in Lishe, they still have the same meaning as before.
Old concepts still dominate their thinking.
And it also made a big difference. That means they are creating gods.
The reason why the Guizhou leaders of Xiangyeli Society worship gods is to pray that the gods can bless them with a healthy and prosperous life. There is a strong utilitarianism behind it.
But now, the Taishan Army has come and helped these Guizhou leaders achieve a turnaround that had never happened in ten generations. They were assigned land and homesteads, began to be respected by others, and lived in an environment where there would be no systematic oppression of them.
This huge change in reality caused them to convert their prayers to gods into prayers to Zhang Chong. They regarded Zhang Chong as a god.
In the past they were cattle and horses, but now they have become humans. So during this Spring Festival, they are all grateful for Zhang Chong's kindness to them.
The most extreme gratitude is to transfer their piety to God to Zhang Chong, their savior, so they do not worship the God of Death, but the God of Living.
This change was naturally reported to Yecheng by the Taishan military officials at the grassroots level. After Zhang Chong learned the news, he thought for a long time and decided not to deal with it for the time being.
Because Zhang Chong understands that although from his emotional point of view, he does not want to be regarded as a god by the people, because it is equally easy to create gods and destroy gods since ancient times. But rationally speaking, this actually reflects the satisfaction of the people under the rule with the Taishan Army.
Because people's worship of God is their expectation for a better life. Now they worship Zhang Chong, undoubtedly because their lives have been greatly changed. And this also reflects their confidence in the Taishan Army.
After all, if they think that Zhang Chong and others cannot live in Yecheng, then these people's behavior of worshiping Zhang Chong will definitely be liquidated by those who return home later.
Therefore, in order not to dampen the enthusiasm of the people, Zhang Chong decided not to interfere too much in worshiping gods.
But for another thing, this is not the case.
That's gambling.
If worshiping gods still has a certain soothing effect on people's hearts, then gambling is a completely chronic habit.
Gambling was originally a recreational activity, but when combined with the inclination for leisure and indolence in human nature, it became a chronic habit that corrupted customs and production.
As a land of ancient Wei, Yecheng had a very strong gambling culture. For example, Liu Bang was fond of gambling back then, and he was good at cockfighting and dog fighting. In normal years, every family would gamble during the Chinese New Year.
But this year is different. Regarding gambling, Zhang Chongming's administration has taken a heavy blow. Gambling is not in line with production activities, and once the amount is too large, someone will inevitably commit a crime, which will pose an important threat to regional stability.
For example, if you win money, you will definitely eat and drink, and waste your enjoyment; if you lose money, you will either sell your children or rob and steal, which will definitely harm the local folk customs.
So even though gambling was popular among the people, Zhang Chong decided to vigorously crack down on it.
In addition to increasing publicity in various cities and towns to point out the dangers of gambling, all first-time offenders who are caught will be sentenced to fifteen days in prison. Those who commit the crime again will be punished on the third day of the third month of the city. If you are stubborn again, you will be beaten for half a year.
However, Zhang Chong also knows that a ban can only act as a blocker, and a ban also needs to play a guiding role.
Since the Spring Festival gambling is over because the busy farming season is over, there is a lot of leisure time. Then let the people get busy.
After Guo Huai, a traveler in Anpingli, Wucheng, learned about the spirit above, he personally organized the people in the area to cut firewood. Not only did he replenish every household's winter firewood this year, but he also sold the excess to Wucheng. The city subsidized the cost of the social opera.
There is also Zhao Gang, the field guard soldier from Linzhang Township, Yecheng, who came out of the Hengxing Team. He practiced Sanjiu in winter and Sanfu in summer. He led the field guards to organize young men to practice five soldiers to improve their tactical abilities.
The propaganda team trained in Yecheng performed dramas in one township after another. In short, since the people liked what they heard and heard, it was also beneficial to their production and life.
Of course, even this can only make people who don't like gambling stop gambling, but it is useless for those who gamble excessively. Therefore, investigation teams were organized in each township. Anyone who caught a gambler would hold a meeting of the Quanli Society to build up social pressure, and then send them to Yecheng to build fortifications.
I believe that by doing this, we will be able to kill the gambling culture in Yecheng and prepare the culture for the coming spring plowing.
It was also in this atmosphere of joy and prohibition that Shangji officials and a group of entourage from Mount Tai, Laiwu, Dongping State, Heji area, Puyang and other places also entered Yecheng one after another.
One of the young men named Xu Sheng also followed Taishan's planning group to Yecheng.
Xu Sheng was from Langyaju County and was one of the candidates recommended by the local Taishan military officials to join the Yecheng Military Academy.
At this time, the Taishan area expanded rapidly under the development of Duman and Yang Mao. Even in a very restrained situation, they expanded their power to the Langya area in Xuzhou, and either suppressed or contained the Langya thieves in this area.
After knowing that the Taishan bandits were coming, Zang Ba, the former tycoon here, decisively gave up Langya and went south to Xuzhou to join the Han army.
And this Xu Sheng was a junior among the Langya thieves. His superior thought that this person had great potential, so he promoted him to the Military Academy in Yecheng.
The military preparation school in Yecheng was formerly Zhang Chong's military school, and it had been training middle and low-level military officials before. This time taking root in Yecheng, Zhang Chong ordered each base area to select those with potential and meritorious service to enter the military preparation school for further study.
On the one hand, this is to improve the combat readiness capabilities of each base area. On the other hand, it is also to improve the connection between the central government and various localities and reduce the tendency of separation.
Each base area is different in terms of distance, and the departure time is also different. The first one to set off was the Shangji Mission from the Langya area.
In addition to low-level military officials such as Xu Sheng who were admitted, there were also some high-level officials who came just to meet Qu Shuai Zhang Chong.
After a year of hard work, the Taishan Army has grown into a powerful group, and some systems are gradually being established. The arrival of officials from various places is not only to explain the construction results of the base area, but also to listen to Qu Shuai's instructions for the coming year.
Of course, because the base areas are not connected together now, and there are many anti-Taishan Army forces in the middle, there is definitely a certain risk in passing through these areas.
But this risk must be taken.
Xu Sheng didn't understand this. He just took the recommendation letter and the talisman given by his boss and found the senior who greeted him. After gathering twenty people, the senior led them to the current location of the Military Academy.
A group of dock walls located on the bank of Zhang River, directly south of Yecheng.
(End of chapter)