The author said: This is a section that explains the historical background. This is essential for the book to slowly describe an imaginary dynasty. The author won't have any perfunctory words.
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On the map, Gyeongju originally borders the Kinki region where the capital Luoyang is located, but the dividing line is the Qinling Mountains. The difficulty of traveling is not inferior to the Shu Road, and it has been regarded as a daunting road by business travelers since ancient times. Therefore, Qiu Yizhi and his party took a long detour to the south, turned into Linzhou, and then entered Kinki via Tongguan.
Linzhou, like Gyeongju, faces Youyan Road across the Yellow River. However, Linju does not have a ferry crossing the Yellow River like Anha Town, so it is a little more deserted than Gyeongju. There are few large market towns along the official road, and there are only sorghum fields as far as the eye can see.
It was July, and the fields of sorghum had already formed ears, and the millet grains were plump, like strings of pearls, bending the tall sorghum stalks. This year's monsoon is strong, and the early winds send large rain clouds and abundant rain all the way across the towering Taihang Mountains. Next to the Henan Road, which is so drought-filled that people die of hunger, is the Guannai Road, where the harvest is abundant.
China has a vast territory, from the extremely cold Saibei mountains to the hot Lingnan rainforest, from the humid East China Sea coast to the dry Loess Plateau. Either there is waterlogging here or there is drought, there is either a high yield here or a poor harvest there, not here. Wealth is poverty on the other side. There are many small countries in the Western Regions and Southern Barbarians that have been tortured by disasters and have been destroyed. Only the Chinese history has continued for thousands of years without interruption.
Zhongli Kuang once said to several disciples: China is based on agriculture and has extremely detailed climate records. In the past two thousand years, there have been only more than sixty years with good weather and no disasters in the country. Among them, there have been prosperous times. There are troubled times again. Although there have been warnings throughout the dynasties that "it is difficult to start a business, it is even harder to keep it", but as long as the emperor works hard and civil and military officials work together, it will not be difficult to create a new generation of governance. To say that it is difficult, the only difficulty lies in the eight words "a foolish king harms the country, a wise man and a martial artist". Nowadays, the emperor ignores government affairs, the court is dominated by mediocre people, and corrupt officials are everywhere in the state. Fortunately, the scale of Taizu's entrepreneurial business was still there, and the Xianzong Reform eliminated some shortcomings. There are also some loyal ministers and good generals in the current dynasty who are struggling to support them. Otherwise, we would have entered troubled times. . Maybe the Tianzun Rebellion has spread all the way from Henan, and even Tongguan, the throat of the capital, is in danger.
Tongguan is about five hundred miles away from Anhe Town. If Qiu Yi had ridden his own horse, he would have arrived in just half a day, but the carriage he accompanied could not move as quickly, so it took him five days to reach Tongguan.
Tongguan is the east gate of Luoyang and is the only way for officials, candidates and merchants from Youyan, Henan, Shandong, Huguang, Jiangnan, Lingnan and other provinces to enter Beijing. Since Shanxi, Bashu, and Yunnan-Guizhou roads were west of Luoyang, they took Dashan Pass to Beijing. Therefore, in troubled times, Tongguan is a battleground for military strategists. It is often surrounded by corpses and has no reputation; but in times of governance, it is bustling with traffic and business travelers.
Although the Han Dynasty was constantly troubled by internal and external troubles, after all, peace had been restored for two hundred years. A huge trading city had slowly formed outside Tongguan, filled with furs and ginseng from the north, seafood and aquatic products from the east, silk tea from the south, and occasionally some Turkic and Bohai merchants driving camel caravans brought rare foreign goods. In short, as long as you are willing to spend money, there is nothing you cannot buy here.
Zhou Cijing, a big businessman, would certainly not miss such a geomantic treasure. A few years ago, he spent a huge amount of money to choose a geomantic treasure, and built a restaurant on the north side of Tongguan Gate that was two or three times larger than the Qinggui Building in Anhe Town. Close the building.
Although this restaurant is large, it is not the tallest building before Tongguan. He Jiugong led the team to walk around for a long time before moving into the restaurant. As soon as the group sat down in the restaurant, Zhao Chengxiao, who was rushing to Guangyang to deliver a letter, also found out the location of Yunguan Tower, and brought a letter from Youyan King Zheng Rong and another messenger to meet Qiu Yi.
Qiu Yizhi received the letter sent from his adoptive father thousands of miles away. He didn't even have time to eat, so he shut himself in his room and read it carefully. In this letter, several dry ink stains stuck the paper together, and it took Qiu Yizhichi a while to unfold it. It was obvious that he wrote it immediately, and before the ink was dry, he folded it, sealed it, and sent it here immediately. of.
At the beginning of the letter, he wrote: This Yuchi family is the descendant of Zhongliang. Zheng Rong tried to recruit him when he first conferred the title of Prince Youyan. However, Yuchi Chenghao, the head of the family at that time, was determined not to become an official, so he had to give up. Qiu Yizhi can sworn brothers with Yuchi Chenghao's son today, which can be regarded as fulfilling the original wish of his adoptive father. However, the sworn sworn relationship with Yuchi Lianghong was limited to Jianghu morality and had nothing to do with Zheng Rong, Zheng Xin and other three people, so they could not be called brothers. Zheng Rong also mentioned that today is the time when Prince Youyan's palace is employing people. As long as they are not treacherous and evil, it is not a bad thing if those strange people with unique skills can win over some.
In the past few days, Qiu Yizhi was actually afraid that his adoptive father would blame him for making his own decisions. Looking at it now, instead of blaming him, he actually expressed approval. Then he felt relieved and continued reading.
Since Qiu Yizhi left Guangyang, the Youyan Palace has taken a multi-pronged approach, mobilizing all forces and using various means to deal with the impeachment of all officials in the imperial court.
First, Zheng Rong wrote a defense memorial in his own hand, stamped it with a private seal, and sent it six hundred miles to express his feelings. In the name of brotherly correspondence, he bypassed the Sixth Ministry, Zhongshu Province and other institutions, and sent it directly to Emperor Zheng Yong to express his feelings. Secondly, they used the reputation of Zheng Xin and Zheng Miao's father-in-law Qin Guangyuan in the literary world to create public opinion and publicize King Youyan's historical achievements and virtues among the scholars, so that the censors could not speak irresponsibly and gossip without scruples. . Finally, he informed the loyal and shun king of the Bohai Sea, Dali Khan, and asked him to station troops at the border to demonstrate, thus letting the court understand that without Zheng Rong guarding the Han Dynasty, there would inevitably be another dispute in northern Xinjiang.
Through the above methods, the voices of impeachment in the DPRK and China have subsided a lot. The number of impeachment memorials published in the court newspaper attached to Zheng Rong's letter has been reduced by two-thirds than before, and the situation has greatly improved.
Qiu Yi felt very relieved when he saw it. He read further: after Zheng Rong wanted to enter Luoyang, he must first pay a visit to the old prime minister Yang Yuanzhi. After stating the purpose of his trip, everything could be done according to the old prime minister's arrangements. He also repeatedly told Qiu Yizhi that the situation has eased now, and he only needs to be cautious and meticulous in his actions, not vigorous and resolute. He must handle the matter carefully and carefully. Whether King Youyan and his family can keep the peace for several generations depends entirely on him.
After reading, Qiu Yizhi closed his eyes to sort out his thoughts, and read the letter again. Then he wrote a reply letter with wet ink. After drying the ink slightly, he sealed it himself and asked Zhao Chengxiao to come here. The messenger was sent back to Guangyang.
After finishing this important matter, Qiu Yizhi finally relaxed and asked the waiter of the restaurant to deliver the food to the room, and just drank and talked with Zhao Chengxiao.
According to Qiu Yizhi's calculations, it would take Zhao Chengxiao three days to get from Anhe Town to Guangyang, and at least four days to get from Guangyang to Tongguan. I don't know that Zhao Chengxiao only needed five and a half days to fight with him.
Zhao Chengxiao traveled non-stop for several days, traveling to and from Youyan Road in the pass. It was obvious that he did not have a full meal or a good night's sleep. Although the dishes served by Yunguan Tower are not perfunctory, they are not delicacies either. However, in Zhao Chengxiao's opinion, it was a rare delicacy. He was so busy using chopsticks that he forgot to put it in his throat. Hearing Qiu Yizhi's question, he quickly drank a large glass of wine to swallow the food in his mouth, and replied: "Your Highness... Oh, see you, young master." The military commander who came with me? He was responsible for delivering military intelligence reports to the court. He was too old to travel from Guangyang to Tongguan. I thought it was too slow to return the same way, so I asked him. Is there a path I can take?”
As he said that, Zhao Chengxiao took another meatball and stirred the meat residue in his mouth while continuing: "He said that if you go straight from Gyeongju, you can save a day's journey, but there are too many bandits cutting paths on both sides of the mountain road. , on weekdays, he would never dare to take this road without a dozen cavalrymen operating together. I told him not to be afraid. We were riding on horses specially approved by the prince. Can he catch up? He refused at first, but in the end he couldn't resist me, so he went straight south through the mountains after crossing the Yellow River. "
Qiu Yizhi poured wine for Zhao Chengxiao and asked, "Brother Zhao came so quickly. It must be because he didn't encounter bandits along the way, right?"
Zhao Chengxiao raised his glass and downed it in one gulp: "Never encountered them? Encountered them many times! I counted them at first, but then I lost count. I met at least twenty bandits. It's a pity that these gangs The human horse is so slow. Compared with the young master's bloody horse, it is no better than a stone on the roadside. I only need to pinch the horse's belly, and the group of people will be thrown away without even a hair. Didn’t even touch it.”
Hearing this, Qiu Yizhi fell into deep thought: Infantry against cavalry, both in terms of strategic roundabout speed and tactical power of charging into battle, are far inferior. Therefore, as powerful as the Youyan army, they have to face the Turkic tribes. Go on the defensive. However, the gap between different horse breeds is also very obvious - the Bohai horse has more carrying power but less endurance than the Turkic horse; the Central Plains horse is inferior in speed, carrying power and endurance; and the sweaty horse is superior to ordinary horses in all aspects Above - No wonder that after the main force of Piximi was annihilated in the Battle of Mantou Mountain, the adoptive father did not ask for anything, but brought back two thousand horses, including the bloody horse. If you are lucky enough to be able to reorganize the army in the future, you must try your best to get high-quality war horses from the grassland to enrich your army.
When Zhao Chengxiao saw that Qiu Yizhi was silent and refused to eat, he said: "Master, please have a meal too, but you don't want to compete with me for food because you see me eating rudely and presumptuously! When I was a bandit, I thought that there was no one in the village. He couldn't read, so he invited a fortune teller to go up the mountain to join him. But the fortune teller didn't even stay for ten days and insisted on going home. When I asked, I found out that he was going down the mountain because he couldn't bear it. We rough people devour our food like a wolf, no matter how much food we have, this gentleman can't take it from us. He is always hungry, so of course he can't stand it."
After hearing this, Qiu Yizhi picked out a piece of meat from a pile of greasy pork with chopsticks, put it into his mouth, chewed it and said, "Is there such a thing?"
"Of course, I, Zhao Heizi..." Zhao Chengxiao remembered that he was no longer the Zhao Heizi who was forced to go to Liangshan, and quickly changed his words, "Zhao Chengxiao can't lie to anyone! This scholar is very polite, and he can be relied upon to fight in the army. It's strength. If you can't eat or sleep, you'll wear yourself down. What's the point of talking about strategizing? "
Only then did Qiu Yizhi remember that Master Zhongli Kuang seemed to have a stomachache. When he got sick, he complained that he was angry with a few naughty disciples. In fact, it might be a chronic illness caused by his stomachache after being in the army for a long time. . Thinking of this, Qiu Yizhi quickly picked up a large piece of the belly of an unknown animal and swallowed it without chewing. (To be continued)