This year is a bumper year.
Heavy grain filled the barns of every farmer in Bianliang.
Cui Youyu, the Grand Chancellor of the State of Jin, dug and dredged the long-abandoned ancient Grand Canal Honggou.
The Honggou Canal starts from Xingyang, north of Zhengzhou, passes through Zhengzhou, connects to the Tongji River of the Yellow River, passes through Bianjing, and then enters the Sui River.
The fertile river water irrigated the soil along the way, washed away and diluted the saline-alkali land that was not conducive to farming, and turned countless "bad fields" into "good land" with fertile soil.
Although due to the short time, the effect is not particularly obvious.
But farmers around Bian Jing have already happily experienced the joy of a good harvest.
Merchant ships could sail directly from Bianjing to Zhengzhou upstream, and then change course to the Yellow River from Xingyang, or directly enter the hinterland of Jin through Qinshui.
They could also go south via the Sui River to reach the wealthy State of Song, from where they could transport gorgeous silk and cheap grain.
The docks of Bianjing became increasingly lively, with the docked ships and porters coming and going carrying goods, creating a busy scene.
More and more shops appeared on the streets, displaying a wide variety of fresh goods from both the north and the south.
Not far from the pier is a military camp.
Several women and old men were wiping their tears as they stood at the gate of the military camp, bidding farewell to their family members who were about to go off to the battlefield.
A woman in her 50s tightly grasped her son's hand and cried bitterly. Finally, she gritted her teeth and said, "You can't come back."
Don't come back from the battlefield without a title.
Even though she was reluctant to leave her son.
But her family had fled from other places and migrated to Bian Jing after many hardships, but her husband died early on the way to escape.
There are sick parents and four or five hungry children in the family.
Although he was granted the native place of Jin, the 30 mu of land he was allocated was far from enough to make a living.
Now I can only rely on this only adult son.
Only if he was awarded a title and land on the battlefield could his family hope to survive.
Her son comforted her, "Don't worry, mother. I will definitely earn a high-ranking title when I return. You and sister will have to work harder for a while, raising my brothers and sisters, and wait for me to return home."
The mother stuffed the winter clothes in her arms into his hands, then let go with a sob.
Adjacent to this camp is a guard camp.
The atmosphere here is much more relaxed and lively.
There were mostly young teenagers in the camp, and their parents were stuffing food and winter clothes into their hands and nagging them about trivial matters.
The army was about to go to war, but these young men were only serving a one-month shift and did not have to go with the army.
Therefore, although the family members looked concerned, they were not as sad as the neighbors next door.
According to the latest decree of the State of Jin, as long as one settles in the State of Jin, any family with men between the ages of fifteen and fifty-five must send a male aged fifteen or above to participate in a one-month military service every year, which is called "gengyi".
Men who were doing conscription did not have to leave home too far. They only had to serve in the county where their household registration was located. There were special people to organize them. They would practice military exercises for half a month and participate in the construction of city defenses and infrastructure in the county for half a month.
At this moment, two young men from the same hometown were walking towards the barracks of the guard camp, holding the clothes given by their parents.
"Brother, look, it's so lively over there, with people crying all the time." The younger man said to his brother from the same hometown.
The older man replied, "The army is about to go to war. Once on the battlefield, who knows how many people will come back? This is truly a separation of life and death. Naturally, we will cry."
"A real man should make achievements. If he can chop off a few heads on the battlefield and come back with a title, his whole family will share the glory. Isn't that great? I hope I don't have to serve in this kind of military service every day. I just want to be drafted into the army one day and fight on the battlefield with real swords and guns."
"Don't underestimate the night watch. This half-month drill every year is the key to saving your life in the future. The battlefield is not as simple as you think." The older man looked at the military camp next door and comforted his young and energetic fellow countryman.
"What I fear most is a rookie like you rashly going to the battlefield. When the drums are beating and there are cries of killing everywhere, new recruits who have never been trained will be so frightened that they can't move their hands and feet, and will lose their lives in an instant." He is older and has seen countless tragedies of people who went to the battlefield and never returned home. He is not so optimistic about the war. "Haven't you heard what the head of the village preaches every day? This Gengyi is to give young men of Jin the opportunity to get familiar with the training of soldiers every year. When we really have to go to the battlefield, fewer people will die."
The young man was stunned for a moment, and his fearless heart seemed to touch a little bit of the smoke of the battlefield which was not far away from him.
After the autumn harvest.
Mo Qiaosheng, the left minister of Jin State, led an army of 30,000 and invaded the neighboring Song State in one fell swoop.
Nine cities including Lankao, Waihuang and Minquan were captured in succession.
The army advanced with great force all the way and approached Suiyang, the capital of the State of Song.
Duke Xiang of Song, the king of Song, was panicked and moved the capital from Suiyang to Pengcheng, far away from Jin, with his concubines and all the civil and military officials in the court.
At the same time, he sent urgent letters to the neighboring states of Wei and Lu for help.
The king of Lu ignored it.
Duke Heng of Wei, Yao Hong, was not vague. He immediately sent General Yuan Wu to lead tens of thousands of naval forces up the Ji River, intending to save Song from crisis by attacking Jin.
It’s not that Yao Hong had much affection for the State of Song, but he saw the situation very clearly and he could no longer tolerate the State of Jin to continue to grow stronger.
The State of Song was located between the State of Jin and the State of Wei.
If the State of Song was defeated by Cheng Qianyu, the Marquis of Jinyue, then their State of Wei would become the next obstacle on the road to Jin's power and would be eliminated sooner or later.
The Wei navy sailed to Huangchi, north of Bianjing.
There they were intercepted by Yu Dunsu, the Right Minister of Jin State, who had been waiting for a long time. The Wei army was defeated and returned in defeat.
Duke Xiang of Song had no choice but to compromise, cede land and pay compensation, and agree to cede the delta area where the Si River and the Ji River meet to the State of Jin.
Prince Ji Ang of Song State came to the border enduring the humiliation.
Facing him was a man in a wheelchair.
In his eyes, Zhou Zixi, who should have been a useless man long ago, was now sitting in the position of the envoy of the victorious country, looking at him coldly.
He was forced to retreat step by step by his disabled former classmate, and even handed over the cities of Dingtao, Caoxian, Waihuang, Lankao and others to the State of Jin, and had to agree to a series of unequal trade treaties.
Ji Ang gritted his teeth and signed his name on the humiliating contract.
He suppressed his anger and stared at the person opposite him, almost unable to control the trembling of his facial muscles.
Zhou Zixi calmly signed the contract with his elegant handwriting.
The prince of Song State gritted his teeth and whispered a few words, "I really regret it. I should have..."
Zhou Zixi remained unmoved. After signing, he raised his hand slightly, and his personal bodyguards pushed his wheelchair away. As they passed Ji Ang, he uttered a word indifferently.
"In the future, I'm afraid you will regret it even more."
When Cheng Qianye received the good news, she was sitting in Concubine Xu's palace, looking at a fair and tender little baby who was learning to walk wobbly in front of her.
She received a military report urgently delivered from the front line, unfolded it and couldn't help clapping and cheering.
The little kid was startled, his little feet slipped and he fell to the ground and rolled around.
Several palace maids rushed over and offered their hands to help.
"No help is allowed." Cheng Qianye pointed at the military newspaper in his hand, "Peng'er, come, stand up by yourself."
After Cheng Qianye said this, Concubine Xu retracted her hands that had been stretched out in the air, and stopped the maid beside her at the same time.
Concubine Xu's son, also Cheng Qianye's only son in public.
The name Cheng Qianye gave him was Cheng and Peng.
It means to have a bright future.
In addition, it also secretly expresses Cheng Qianye's homesickness as he is thousands of miles away from his hometown and unable to return.
This one-year-old boy has inherited the good looks of his parents and is no longer the wrinkled boy he was when he was born.
At this moment, he was wearing a short jacket with a red background and black edges. His fair and tender face was pouting. He wanted to cry but was a little afraid of this "father" whom he had just seen for a few days.
The pair of wet eyes looked around.
His mother just looked at him with encouragement and smiled, but did not pick him up like she did in the past.
The palace maids around him all lowered their heads and did not rush over to coax him as usual.
The "father" sitting in the front was spinning a shiny orange-yellow stone on his finger, tempting him to go to him.
"Come on, Peng'er, get up by yourself. As long as you come to my side, I'll give you this stone to play with."
Since no one was there to comfort him, the little boy felt there was no point in crying.
He quickly got up from his small body and walked towards the man who was said to be his father. He stretched out his chubby little hands to reach for the beautiful stone in the man's hand.
"Good, isn't this great?" Cheng Qianye rubbed the little boy's head and put the orange topaz into his palm. "Boys should be taught this way. If he falls down in the future, let him get up by himself."
Concubine Xu lowered her head slightly and bowed, "My husband, what you said is very true. I will listen to you."
She has fair skin, beautiful features, gentle manners, and speaks softly. She is a truly gentle woman.
Being with her made Cheng Qianye feel very relaxed.
When the capital was moved from Jiangcheng to Bianjing, Cheng Qianye wrote a letter to her mother, Madam Yang, asking her to dismiss the concubines in the harem and only bring Concubine Xu and her son over.
It was barely acceptable that Jin Yuehou had Yao Tianxiang and Concubine Xu by his side. She didn't want to delay the lives of those young women any longer.
…
Mo Qiaosheng won a great victory on the front line and gained new land.
Zhou Zixi made the most of the results of the war and signed a series of trade treaties with the wealthy Song State that were beneficial to Jin State.
Cui Youyu opened the canal and built a new city wall, and Bianliang looked more prosperous day by day.
On this day,
The sunlight is soft and bright,
Inside the Chaowu Palace, Cheng Qianye was looking at the blueprint on the table and listening to Cui Youyu's report on the next plan for the canal excavation.
"My lord, look, there is an old river channel called Honggou here. Although it is blocked, as long as it is dredged, renovated and rebuilt, the Bian River can be diverted from Bian Jing to flow southeast, pass through Chencheng, and flow into the Ying River, and the Ying River connects to the Huai River. In this way, we will connect the two major water systems of the Yellow River and the Huai River." Cui Youyu said excitedly, gesturing everything depicted on the drawing.
"At the same time, there is another Dan River that can become a branch of the Honggou, flowing from our Bianjing into the Song capital Pengcheng, and then into the Sishui River. There is also the Cen River, which branches out from the south of the Honggou to the southeast, passing through Qi County and into the Huaishui River." He looked up at his lord excitedly, hoping that he could understand the meaning of this matter as well as he did.
Cheng Qianye was delighted: "In this way, the Yellow River, Ji, Ru, Huai, and Si rivers will all be connected near our Bianjing."
She couldn't help but form a beautiful picture in her mind.
In the future, the docks of Bianjing will be filled with large cargo ships from all over the country, and merchants from all over the country will gather here to trade.
As a transportation hub connecting the north and the south, Bianjing became an extremely prosperous commercial center and metropolis.
At this moment, Yu Dunsu and Mo Qiaosheng came in together.
Kneel down and salute in front of Cheng Qianye.
Cheng Qianye looked up at them with a smile, but his heart suddenly skipped a beat.
What happened
Why are Xiao Mo and General Yu filled with such intense grief and indignation
Cheng Qianye had a strong bad feeling in his heart.
The author has something to say: I, I dare not speak.