Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 530 Hexi Anecdote
"Ah~~~~"

In July, when the melodious shouts were blown around by the strong wind from the northwest, the scorching sun in the sky burned the entire Gobi Desert.

Under the scorching sun, Jiayuguan, which stands in the northwest, is covered in bronze. Between the Western Regions and the Hexi Corridor, it presents a majestic, majestic, iron-walled and bronze-passed aura.

Jiayuguan, as the first pass in the northwest of the Ming Dynasty, is famous for its dangerous terrain and majestic magnificence.

In Jiayuguan, the inner and outer walls of the inner city are intertwined, and the watchtowers and turrets lean against each other. A shiny black cannon is parked on the bridleway, leaning against the crenel of the female wall, aiming towards the northwest, as if it has been waiting for a gunner to fire. Chance.

It's just a juncture, from here to the west, thousands of miles of yellow sand and no human habitation, it seems that only the ruins of the Great Wall of the Han Dynasty that look like floating dragons can be seen.

The beacon towers of the Great Wall of the Han Dynasty are still on the yellow sand, and fragments of walls and ruins are looming in the wind and sand, just like a historical picture scroll that condenses the vicissitudes of the frontier fortress. occupied.

It’s just a juncture, from here to the east, the Qilian Mountains stretching for thousands of miles, accompanied by the strong wind from the northwest, passing over the cultural elegance of the Han family for more than [-] years, blowing over the cities and taking away pieces of land. In the end, only the whistling wind was left behind by the smoke from cooking.

It is just a juncture, which separates the Western Regions and Hexi, protects the people of Hexi from the invasion of the Northwest enemy, and also separates the history that countless people yearn for.

The yellow sand wears the golden armor in a hundred battles, and if it does not break Loulan, it will never be returned...

This kind of spirit cannot be separated by city gates, and what can stop it is only the ruler's weighing the pros and cons.

Blue sky, white clouds, Gobi, snow peaks... These natural landscapes condense into a kind of majestic atmosphere, rustic style and masculine feeling unique to the Hexi Corridor.

The desert, the lonely smoke, the camel bell...

The simple six words vividly show the magnificence of the barren outside the pass and the long history of the swan song.

Zhu Ciran is standing here, on the gate of Jiayuguan, with his hands wide open, and the shouts in his mouth seem to vent everything he has faced these days.

After a dozen or so breaths, Zhu Ciran let go of his hand as if discouraged, and his shouting also stopped on the Gobi Desert in front of Jiayuguan.

He stopped shouting, just quietly looked into the distance, looked at the northwest sky that was as clean as a piece of blue cloth without a trace of cloud, looked at the rolling Qilian Mountains, and remained silent for a long time.

The vermilion city tower still stands tall and erect, setting off the Qilian Snow Peak that is capped all year round.

Looking down from a height, the Great Wall is like a giant dragon flying in the vast expanse of sea, and a mirage may be visible on a sunny day.

Lowering his head, the melodious ringing of bells came from the camel caravan in the Gobi Desert below the city, which reminded Zhu Ciran of the Han and Tang caravans and travelers who passed by thousands of years ago.

"Your Highness, the wind is blowing, you should go back to the city..."

When Jin Yiwei's voice sounded, Zhu Ciran raised his head and looked to the northwest again: "We have traveled almost five thousand miles, but now we still have to be afraid of the invisible wind and sand?"

Five months of living in the wind, eating and sleeping in the open air, Zhu Ciran has grown up a lot due to the long-term riding, his body is thin but very well-proportioned, and the shadow of Zhu Youxiao can be vaguely seen in his facial features, but his face is not the same as his mother's. Yan similar.

Although it is not as amazing as Zhu Youjian and Zhu Ciran, but the wild temperament makes people can't help but praise.

Facing the yellow sand in the northwest, Zhu Ciran, dressed in coarse linen, whispered at the top of the city:

"Uncle showed me books about the Western Regions. Four hundred miles to the northwest from here is Guazhou in the heyday of the Tang Dynasty."

"Three hundred miles to the southwest from Guazhou, you will go west to Yangguan, where there are no old friends."

"A hundred and fifty miles to the northwest from Yangguan is Yumenguan, where the spring breeze does not pass through Yumenguan."

Zhu Ciran looked at the Northwest Pass where there was only yellow sand, and told out the knowledge he had learned from books one by one, making people wonder whether he was recalling the Han and Tang Dynasties, or simply narrating.

"A large territory is both good and bad, but if it is not beneficial to the people, then no matter how large the territory is, it is useless."

"Uncle said that the rule of the monarchy will benefit the people, but if it benefits the people, we can ignore civil and military affairs."

"Liu Shun, do you think uncle is right..."

Zhu Ciran asked this Jinyiwei who had accompanied him for more than 4000 miles, and Liu Shun bowed back when he heard the words:

"This servant thinks that His Highness already has the answer in his heart."

Liu Shun's words made Zhu Ciran clenched his fist slightly, as if he had made some kind of decision.

"The homeland of the Han and Tang Dynasties, the Ming Dynasty must regain it!"

After saying this, Zhu Ciran turned around and walked down the city wall. The Jiayuguan general who was in charge of guarding Jiayuguan had been waiting for Zhu Ciran on the horse road. After all, he was the prince.

The ginseng escorted Zhu Ciran to go down the city, and walking on the sloped horse path, Zhu Ciran could also have a panoramic view of the situation in Jiayuguan City.

There are more than 3 people living in the well-planned Jiayuguan City. Together with the [-] people in Suzhou City, they are responsible for farming the fields between Jiayuguan and Suzhou. Of course, some of them choose to do business.

The streets paved with bricks and stones are neat and orderly, where merchants from Hami and merchants from the east intersect. Most of them are civilian merchants, and many state-owned commodities can only be purchased in imperial stores.

Most of the people in the city are dressed in the fields, and there are many men who hold hats, wear blue victoria, and have gray faces.

In the 15th year of Tianqi, Jiayuguan was a city of steel in the northwest.

The so-called "steel" not only reflects its appearance in front of foreign enemies, but also reflects its internal appearance.

Since the 12th year of Apocalypse, under the implementation of Zhu Youjian's "Apocalypse New Deal", Jingtieshan in the Qilian Mountains to the south of Jiayuguan has made Jiayuguan an industrial city standing in the Hexi Corridor.

Tens of thousands of tons of iron ore produced in Jingtieshan were artificially excavated, and the ore was transported by rail to the west of Jiayuguan City, 150 miles away, by mine trucks.

After being smelted in the Jiayuguan Chengxi Steel Plant, these iron ores were turned into rails, and were sent by horse-drawn carts to Longxi County, Gongchang Prefecture in the east, where they contributed to the construction of the Jingjia Railway.

It has been six years since the start of the Jingjia Railway. Although Daming has employed millions of workers, the construction of this railway is still far away.

When Zhu Ciran entered the border of Hexi, the Jingjia Railway had just arrived in Ningyuan County, which was still fifty miles away from Longxi County.

More than two months later, the Jingjia Railway has arrived in Longxi County, but it is still [-] miles away from Jiayuguan.

According to the time, it will take at least four years before the railway can be fully opened to traffic.

However, even if the railway is not connected, the benefits of industrialization have radiated from the capital to the distant Jiayuguan.

Among the more than 40 people in Suzhou Prefecture, nearly 2 people are engaged in mineral mining, and nearly [-] people are engaged in steelmaking.

More than 40 people, to put it bluntly, are [-] to [-] households, and the [-] men engaged in steel work are the backbone of [-] families.

Therefore, the relevant industrial positions in a mining area basically solve the food problem for one-third of the population in Suzhou.

In the past, it was absolutely impossible for a mining area to employ 3 people.

However, with the continuous investment in industrial steam engines and the continuous increase in gunpowder production, Daming's demand for steel continued to increase.

A Jingtieshan mining area is enough to employ [-] miners.

Zhu Ciran visited, and the wages of these miners were twenty Wen per day.

In a place like Hexi, where the average daily wage is only ten Wen, rice is only four Wen per catty, and mutton is only fifteen Wen per catty, the daily wage of twenty Wen can already feed a family of five. up.

Compared with the price, the seemingly small wages appear to be very abundant in the context of the fact that these workers used to be immigrants.

Because they are immigrants, they not only have jobs, but also the land cultivated during the three years of immigration.

Suzhou has a population of more than 30, and nearly [-] people have been continuously migrating since the seventh year of Tianqi.

After the first Northern Expedition, Zhu Youjian once came to Suzhou. At that time, the 10,000 people here had only [-]+ mu of arable land, and among the [-] people, most of them were Halal Mongolians.

But in the 15th year of Tianqi, when Zhu Ciran came to Suzhou, the area of ​​cultivated land in Suzhou had reached more than 320 million mu.

The people here, under the circumstances that the government is under the supervision of the imperial store and the army, have received roughly fair treatment. The cattle, draft horses and immigrant food promised by the government are all distributed in full.

Because of this, they were able to reclaim more than 300 million mu of arable land in just eight years, and all of them rely on the water from the Qilian Mountains to irrigate the fields.

The people in Suzhou basically have [-] to [-] mu of land per household, and those with a larger population can even reach more than [-] mu.

Although the yield per mu in Suzhou is only eight buckets of rice, with so many acres of fields, the lives of the people in Suzhou are much better than those in most northern regions.

"Go and do your work, I'll go shopping by myself."

After getting down from the top of the city, Zhu Ciran waved his hand to the general, signaling him not to follow, and then took Liu Shun to wander around Jiayuguan City.

Walking on the streets with the Northwest style, they can see many people from the Western Regions, Mongolians and Arabs wearing Hanfu.

Of course, the most eye-catching ones are the Tibetans who migrated from Uz-Tibet in recent years.

After these Tibetans were moved to Hexi, the Chief Secretary of Hexi did not require them to wear Hanfu.

It's just that 40 former Tibetan slaves suddenly became "human beings", which made them uncomfortable for a while.

In order to avoid life being affected, or being "punished" for disobedience, they honestly changed their family into Hanfu after earning wages in the "work for relief" project in Hexi.

It has been almost a year since they moved to Hexi, and many Tibetans can speak a few words of Chinese, especially the Tibetans who went to work in the mining area.

The reason why Zhu Ciran can distinguish them is because their skin color is very different from that of Hexi people.

The skin color of the plateau cannot be restored in a few months, so in terms of appearance, they are still quite obvious.

Walking on the street, Zhu Ciran looked around and saw some Tubo people sitting and talking at the stalls on the side of the road, and then chose a booth of Tubo people to sit down.

This Tubo man sells mutton noodles. Like other Han Chinese stalls, there is a wooden sign with the price written in simplified characters.

【Wuwen a bowl of mutton noodles】

The characters are all in simplified characters. Zhu Ciran looked at the stall owner. He can be sure that the stall owner is a Tubo immigrant, because the people of Ming Dynasty generally don’t write all simplified characters, but only write simplified characters when encountering particularly complicated characters. .

"Staller, I want two bowls of noodles!"

"it is good!"

Zhu Ciran yelled, and the Tubo man who was kneading the dough also responded with a grin.

The five cents a bowl of mutton noodles is still a bit expensive, but this is not the stall owner's problem, but the price is already like this, so there are not many people eating noodles at the stall.

Apart from Zhu Ciran and the others, there were only two Tibetans eating, probably from the same village as the stall owner.

"Here comes..."

In just 5 minutes, two bowls of face-sized mutton noodle soup were placed on the table with the not-so-fluent Daming Mandarin.

Zhu Ciran and Liu Shun took the chopsticks, but compared to Liu Shun's moving the chopsticks, Zhu Ciran chatted to the stall owner who was about to go back to sit at the noodle stall:

"Staller, I'm from Beizhili to make a living, can you tell me something about Jiayuguan City?"

"He's from Beizhili?!" Hearing the word "Beizhili", the stall owner's eyes lit up, and he took advantage of the opportunity to sit next to Zhu Ciran and the others.

After he sat down, Zhu Ciran looked at him.

Compared with the Han people, his nose is sharper and higher, his lips are thinner, and his face has less fat, which is a typical appearance of a Tibetan. This is why Zhu Ciran can recognize him as a Tibetan at a glance.

As he sat down, Zhu Ciran also asked: "The stall owner's official words are very good, have you been to Suzhou for a long time?"

"What about me? I have been with Tianqi for 13 years, and I have been in Suzhou for two and a half years."

Perhaps because of Zhu Ciran's age and his thin body, the stall owner responded generously to his questions, and at the same time kept smiling to show his friendliness.

"Then how are you doing in Suzhou? If I come here, will I be bullied?"

Zhu Ciran understood his own strengths, and used his strengths to inquire about local news.

"No, no, no!" The stall owner hurriedly raised his hands and shook, and explained: "I have been here for two and a half years, and no one bullied me when I couldn't speak official Chinese at the beginning."

"You are a Han Chinese, and they will definitely not bully you, as long as you don't cross their pastures and fields."

As he said that, the stall owner also explained some local rules in Suzhou in detail, which are basically similar to those in Beizhili.

The bottom line of the people living here is their pasture and arable land, and they must be unhappy if outsiders come in and out at will.

Zhu Ciran had traveled to so many places and knew that this was the rule in all places in Daming, so he nodded to show that he understood, and continued to ask the stall owner for more detailed information.

Regarding his question, the stall owner only thought it was the uneasiness of the fleeing people, and tried his best to explain it to him.

Although Liu Shun, who was in his twenties next to him, aroused the vigilance of the stall owner, Zhu Ciran also used the lame excuse of being his cousin who was not good at words to fool him.

A clearer Suzhou appeared in Zhu Ciran's mind amidst the stall owner's puzzlement.

He didn't say the stall owner's previous name, he only said his Chinese name was Mu Shouzhong.

The reason for this name is because before he came to Hexi, the surname Mu was the only Chinese surname he had ever heard, and Shouzhong was because he wanted to express that he would repay Daming well.

From the information about Mu's surname, Zhu Ciran deduced that Mu Shouzhong was from Duogan and the eastern region of Uszang, and the facts were as he expected. Mu Shouzhong was from Leiwuqi City, a little chieftain on the road from Qamdo to Nagqu city.

Because he was a slave of the nobles of Leiwuqi City before coming to Hexi, and the arrival of the Ming army liberated them, so he wanted to be loyal to the Ming Dynasty, which is a very simple idea.

According to Mu Shouzhong, he met his current wife on the way to Hexi, and then married his wife after arriving in Suzhou.

The local government arranged an adobe house for them the next day, and sent them a farm ox and ten sheep as promised by the chief secretary, as well as a wooden sign for reclaiming the land and a food stamp of twenty shimimai.

After obtaining these, Mu Shouzhong and his wife reclaimed the land every day, while learning Mandarin at the same time.

In just one year, they cultivated two acres of land, and the ten sheep were also raised by them, and gave birth to fourteen lambs in the second year.

Since the couple didn't like herding, they sold the other rams to the Huangdian after keeping one breeding sheep, in exchange for one, two or three renminbi of silver.

Using the money and the sheep at home, Mu Shouzhong rented the current stall in Jiayuguan City, selling some mutton noodles for a living every day.

He did not specifically say how much silver he could earn, but Zhu Ciran could tell from his much fairer skin than other Tibetans that at least it was much more than what he could earn from farming.

In the subsequent chat, Mu Shouzhong also briefly talked about his own situation.

His family still lives in the adobe house allocated by the government, but he has reclaimed eight acres of land around the adobe house.

When farming is busy, he will collect the stalls and go home, and these fields are taken care of by his wife on weekdays.

He now has two children, both boys.

Regarding the current life, he also sighed that it was like living in a dream, and not only him, but also those Tibetans who were slaves thought so.

It is precisely because life is good that they are all afraid of returning to the days of being treated as slaves, so in Suzhou, they live extra carefully and try not to conflict with other people.

However, they were a little too careful.

"The people here are very nice. If you settle down here, you will definitely have a very happy life."

Mu Shouzhong comforted Zhu Ciran with a smile, and after Zhu Ciran nodded, his eyes were full of eagerness: "You are from Beizhili, have you seen Manjushri, Samantabhadra and Guanyin Bodhisattva?"

Manjusri Bodhisattva, Samantabhadra Bodhisattva and Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva, these are the names Zhu Youxiao, Zhu Youjian and Sun Chuanting were called by the liberated slaves.

The reason why they called the three of them was because of different reasons.

In their view, the emperor has always been an incarnation of Manjushri, and all the monks have told them so.

As for Zhu Youjian’s title of Puxian Bodhisattva, some Tubo people living in the east of Hexi have seen the appearance of a train running, and the Han people said that these things were made by King Qi, so they think that King Qi must be Puxian Bodhisattva avatar.

Compared with Zhu Youjian, the last Sun Chuanting was able to get the title of the incarnation of Guanyin Bodhisattva because of his feat of liberating four 10,000+ slaves.

If Sun Chuanting hadn't liberated them, they would still be wearing chains, wearing tattered clothes, eating bran that the nobles don't eat, and carrying ox yokes to plow the fields for the nobles.

When talking about Sun Chuanting, Mu Shouzhong prayed for him, but Zhu Ciran looked at this scene and didn't know what to say.

Ask him if he has seen his father and his uncle...

"Of course I haven't seen it..." Zhu Ciran replied bravely, and when Mu Shouzhong heard this, the eagerness in Mu Shouzhong's eyes unavoidably diminished a bit.

He said dejectedly, "That's right, how can a mortal see a Bodhisattva?"

"That's...that's...hehe..." Zhu Ciran was very embarrassed, but Mu Shouzhong didn't let him go, but asked:
"I heard from the students of the official school that the three bodhisattvas all have the appearance of a bodhisattva, is that true?"

Mu Shouzhong's words were a bit awkward and his words were inappropriate, but Zhu Ciran thought about it after hearing the words.

He has never met Sun Chuanting, but he has seen his father and Uncle Qi Wang.

In his personal opinion, his father looks quite like the Buddha in the temple, but Uncle Qi looks like a dragon and a phoenix, with the appearance of the sun, and when he wears armor, he looks like a god descending to earth.

"Almost, I heard people in the capital say..."

After a few words of pretense, Zhu Ciran began to roughly describe the appearance of his father and Uncle Qi.

As for Zhu Youxiao's appearance, he skipped as much as possible, but for Zhu Youjian's appearance, he described it in great detail.

"People in Beijing say that King Qi has a fair and beautiful face, a tall stature of nearly five feet and nine inches, a bee waist and big eyes, an imposing manner that overwhelms the sky, and is fierce and powerful."

"But you don't have to be afraid. People in the capital say something funny about King Qi, they are open-minded, and they always care about the lives of the people."

"Not only the Han people, but even how you are doing, he will personally ask the people below."

"and also……"

Zhu Ciran chattered a lot, except for the words Mu Shouzhong couldn't understand, the other descriptions were exactly the same as the Bodhisattva in Mu Shouzhong's heart.

Especially when he heard that the Bodhisattva still cared about the lives of their slaves, and that he presided over the liberation of their slaves, Mu Shouzhong put his hands together and bowed in front of him again and again.

Seeing this, Zhu Ciran bowed his head and ate two big mouthfuls of noodles, and when he looked up again, Mu Shouzhong had already returned the gift to him contentedly:
"Thank you Brother Xiaomu for explaining my doubts. I will treat these two bowls of noodles as my invitation to you."

"That won't work! That won't work!" Zhu Ciran immediately panicked when he heard that no money was required.

Before he left Beijing, Zhu Youjian had confessed that he had to give money no matter whether the people took it or not, but if he didn't pay it once, he immediately asked Jin Yiwei to arrest him back to the capital.

Therefore, Zhu Ciran immediately took out a Tianqi Tongbao of ten cents from his bosom, and stuffed it into Mu Shouzhong's bosom unexpectedly, pulled Liu Shun and ran towards the street. Those who didn't know thought he ate it Overlord meal.

"You..." When Mu Shouzhong came to his senses, he saw nothing but Zhu Ciran's back.

Holding the Tianqi Tongbao in his hand, he showed a smile on his face, and bowed to the sky with his palms together:

"Bodhisattva for ten thousand years..."

　The afternoon update is estimated to be updated at 06:30
　　
　
(End of this chapter)