Northern Dynasties

Although the troops of the Western Wei Dynasty on the north bank of the Han River withdrew, Fancheng had been lost and recovered.Except for the departure of nearly ten thousand soldiers and civilians stationed in Fancheng, everything seemed to be back to normal.

But what happened is destined to leave traces, no matter how much the appearance is repaired and concealed, it will never become the same as before.Some seemingly small cracks may have spread extremely deep inside.

King Yueyang has been very busy these days. Although he was forced to bow his head and admit his mistakes to the Western Wei people, his face was quite hurt, but in essence he still suffered on behalf of others.Especially when the imperial court has sent troops to Huaibei, it is inappropriate to start a war on two fronts, which makes King Yueyang's behavior even more tinged with humiliation.

Although the governor Jianghan's Xiangdong King sent his staff to ask about the battle, he did not blame Yueyang King for this, but gave Yueyang a little praise for his wise retreat of the enemy.Of course, King Yueyang didn't take this verbal award seriously, but he was very happy that the King of Xiangdong had nothing to do with him.

In addition, this battle also greatly improved Yueyang King's situation in Xiangyang, and his control over the entire Yongfu was greatly improved.

Before the two parties fought, King Yueyang concentrated the soldiers and materials of the counties and counties in Xiangyang on the grounds of preparing for the war, so that the scattered personnel forces could be gathered in his own hands, and his strength and confidence increased.

Liu Fanggui, an old official of the state government, defected to the enemy, which also gave King Yueyang a reason to purge the officials of the state government. He dealt with many subordinates who were closely related to Liu Fanggui, and instead arranged his servants of the palace to serve in the state government.In today's Yongzhou prefecture, there is no other voice that can question and oppose his decision.

King Yueyang has been in the country for more than a year, and he has also made various efforts during this period. In the end, he still had to rely on a foreign invasion to finally gain a firm foothold in Xiangyang and possess the energy to compete with the local powerful families in Xiangyang.

Of course, the situation is not all good.The hostility that the Jingzhaodu family showed towards him during the battle also made King Yueyang more vigilant.

However, he did not directly turn against the Du family. Jingzhao Du family, as one of the big clans who migrated to the south, has been based in the Xiangyang area for many years, and has had considerable power and influence in the upper reaches of the Han River since his father's generation.King Yueyang was not sure that he would be able to wipe out Du's family in one go. Once he survived the snake, the northwestern area of ​​Yongzhou would be disturbed.

The Du family also knew that they were wrong. On the one hand, they took the initiative to apologize to King Yueyang and admit their mistakes. On the other hand, they sent members of the clan to Jiangling, hoping that the King of Eastern Xiang would speak out to protect them.After all, the King of Xiangdong is not only the elder of the clan, but also has the power to supervise the military affairs of Yongzhou. He is the superior of King Yueyang.

King Yueyang has also been dealing with this matter during this time, not just Jingzhao Du's family, he also hopes to use this to make the clansmen of the Wei family, Liu family and other big clans who stay in the village show their obedience to him, and establish a solidarity with each other. master-slave relationship.

However, this matter is obviously not easy. In addition to the fact that these big clans have a large number of ethnic groups in Xiangyang and are deeply rooted, it is also because the representatives of their respective families, such as Wei Can and Liu Zhongli, have deep friendship with the current prince. They, the sons of the former prince, became estranged.

On this day, King Yueyang went to visit an elder of the Wei clan in the suburb of Webster's Bieye, hoping that he would be able to take up the post of Sima in the state capital after Liu Fanggui surrendered to the enemy. , lack of energy, just refused to serve in the state capital.

King Yueyang returned to the mansion exhausted physically and mentally, and soon he heard that Cai Dabao and his party who had been envoys to Mianbei had returned, so he cheered up and summoned Cai Dabao into the mansion.

"Cai Canjun, please excuse me, it must be hard work, drink a cup of hot pepper tea to warm up your stomach first!"

When Cai Dabao entered the hall, Yueyang King quickly said with a smile, and personally cooked a cup of tea with ginger, cinnamon and pepper powder, and passed it to Cai Dabao.

Cai Dabao quickly thanked the king, then held the cup in both hands and began to sip slowly, but the stomach-warming tea he was used to drinking today made him thoughtful.

"Cai Canjun is going to Rangcheng, how did the Governor Li welcome him? Is the gift in return suitable for him?"

King Yueyang looked at Cai Dabao and asked with a smile. He was very curious about Li Tai's reaction after seeing the gift, so he almost asked if he had blinded the North Prisoner's dog's eyes?

Cai Dabao was a little distracted, and he realized it after a while, put down his cup hastily, and then told the king about the process of this mission, and presented Li Tai's reply letter to King Yueyang.

King Yueyang was not in a hurry to read the reply letter, but listened to Cai Dabao's narration with great interest, and Cai Dabao also understood what the king really cared about, and focused on the reaction of Li Tai and his subordinates after seeing the return gift.

"Well, the Westerners established their country because they were poor and weak, less knowledgeable, and even less material resources. Governor Li Dadu is already one of them with good knowledge. He was lucky enough to enter the prison court. I thought that the gifts I gave were received there. I am grateful for my kindness, and I have no way to repay it, so I reluctantly gave it away. But in fact, it is unnecessary, what he cherishes is just ordinary to me. The reward is doubled, and it is not to show off to him, just to tell him that these vulgar things are ordinary to me , there is no need to send it like this again.”

Listening to Cai Dabao's description of how Li Tai and others made a fuss, King Yueyang only felt refreshed, and even his mood, which had become depressed and bad because of hitting a wall, improved.

Although he didn't say anything, in his heart he was quite unhappy with Li Tai, a general of the Western Dynasty who was younger than him. He failed to defeat the opponent on the battlefield, and being able to overwhelm the opponent in other places is also a kind of victory. .

"Governor Li Dadu is also ashamed that he is short of material resources. It is rude to say that the gift cannot be liked by others, but he has benefited a lot from the king for nothing, and he feels even more ashamed. I dare not expose my ugliness anymore. I can only gift my family with sincerity. I built a few items from the village to thank the king."

Seeing that the king was in a good mood, Cai Dabao continued to repeat what Li Tai had said.

"The captives are exhausted!"

Hearing these obviously weak words, King Yueyang couldn't help but smile again. Obviously, what he said before was not to show off and was not true. The purpose of sending envoys to the north was to show off his wealth to Li Tai. It was difficult, but hearing the other party bow his head and admit defeat also made him extremely happy.

Although he felt a little out of control, King Yueyang still smiled for a long time before restraining his smile, and said again: "Although the soil and objects are not precious, they are always thoughtful, and they are presented for a little while."

Hearing this, the servants went out again, and brought up the things that Cai Dabao had sent to the palace before.

Compared with the previous gift-giving battle, this time it is much more low-key. There is only a cage with a height of half a person. Inside are wooden boxes of different sizes wrapped in brocade cloth. The packaging is quite delicate. The number is relatively poor, which shows that Li Tai has completely given up the idea of ​​fighting for wealth with King Yueyang.

Cai Dabao stepped forward, personally took out these gift boxes one by one, and presented them to King Yueyang's desk one by one.

In the first gift box is a half-palm-sized object shaped like fat jade and fragrant. It feels smooth but not hard, and it doesn't look like any jade jewelry. King Yueyang feels like Some kind of food, but he didn't dare to taste it rashly, he just looked at Cai Dabao and asked, "What is this?"

"According to Li, this thing is called chalcedony ointment, which is prepared by a secret method. It works like face cream, hand cream, and fragrant bath beans..."

While Cai Dabao was introducing, he concealed the usage with his bare hands.But King Yueyang saw the novelty, so he sent someone to bring water in a copper basin, tried it himself, looked at the refreshing palm, smelled the fragrance from his hand, and couldn't help laughing: "Interesting and interesting, this Mrs. Li is worthy of it." If it weren't for the rich and noble family in the north, how could the family have such exquisite thoughts."

Although I found it interesting, it wasn't surprising. After all, there were bath beans and other similar daily necessities. As a royal nobleman, King Yueyang used ingenious and rare daily necessities.

The following gifts are also related to daily life and food, or some exotic spices, or some exquisite utensils.

King Yueyang admired it with great interest, and commented casually on his lips, but he couldn't help but feel a little apprehensive in his heart. Just looking at the things sent by the other party, it can be seen that Li Boshan is poor, but the quality of life seems to be better than him Slightly higher.And although he is rich, he doesn't know how to enjoy life better than the other party, and many daily necessities sent by him are unheard of by him.

This feeling of discomfort reached its peak when he saw the last item presented by Cai Dabao. King Yueyang looked at the small, regular-shaped particles that were as white as ice and snow in the porcelain jar, and did not ask any questions. He stared straight at Cai Dabao.

Cai Dabao looked at the items in the jar, couldn't help swallowing, and then said to King Yueyang: "This thing is called frosting sugar by the Li family, but after I tried it, it was just stone honey."

"Stone honey? How could stone honey be so crystal clear?"

King Yueyang widened his eyes and shook his head when he heard the words, he didn't want to believe it at all, first asked someone to fill out some granules for the servants to try, after a while, he didn't see any abnormality, but his face had endless aftertaste, King Yueyang finally endured I couldn't help twisting out some of it and throwing it into my mouth to taste, my brows and eyes immediately stretched out after tasting it.

"Li Dadu supervised the subordinate officials to tell the king that if all the things here are suitable for use, he can send them in again. Other types are limited due to the limitation of work and materials. But if the king needs stone honey and frosting sugar Yes, Governor Li can send ten stones first..."

Seeing King Yueyang's intoxicated expression carefully savoring, Cai Dabao spoke again.

"Ten, ten stones? Did he really say that? Cai Canjun heard right?"

After King Yueyang heard this, his expression changed immediately, and he hurriedly asked.

Only then did Cai Dabao point to Li Tai's reply letter: "Even if the lower officials got it wrong, there should be something in the letter, and your majesty can read it to confirm it."

After being reminded by Cai Dabao, King Yueyang remembered it, hurriedly grabbed the letter and tore it open to read it carefully. After a while, his face became ecstatic: "Where is ten stone enough? I want more!"