lady, please calm down

Chapter 350 Seeing each other off ten miles apart

Night, the end of Youshi.

At this time of year in mid-November, Hebei North Road has already entered the harsh winter.

But so far this year, the river has not even frozen. The children are happy that they don't have to suffer from the severe cold, but some experienced farmers are worried.
  If it is a mild winter, people will indeed feel more comfortable. However, according to previous experience, a mild winter also means that the probability of pests and diseases outbreaks in the next spring will increase significantly.

Rather than suffering in winter, they prefer colder weather.

Along the Beiliu River, the scene is still lively.

In order to earn this food, many people come from dozens of miles away. With such a long distance, it is unrealistic to go back and forth every day to work.

As a result, many villages set up contiguous thatched huts outside the construction site for temporary shelter.

After nightfall, the continuous river flowing north of the star-lit fire pile winds its way north and south, like a fire dragon crawling on the earth, which is spectacular.

Du Zhaoqing and Chen Chu sat on a gentle slope, looking far into the distance, and saw that at the end of the winding sparks was a silent night. The depth of the night that was so thick that it could not be dissolved was where Du Zhaoqing was going to go tomorrow. ahead.

Du Zhaoqing, who was originally quite apprehensive about this trip, now felt as calm as water, and even felt firmer than he had in more than ten years.

Just listen to him whisper: "Your Majesty, I originally had a lot of complaints, but now they have disappeared. Now that I am gone, I will do my best to fight for another three to five years of peace for our court."

These words were spoken sincerely, and at the same time they also implicitly expressed great expectations. The so-called "fighting for three to five years" for peace was because he hoped that the King of Chu could turn Hebei Road into the scene in front of him.

After all, he is an elite official. Du Zhaoqing's foresight and grassroots organization ability in villages represent a strong mobilization ability.

In the past, whenever there was a border trouble, the scattered people would only be regarded as a burden by the officers and soldiers.

For example, during the Dingwei Rebellion in the Zhou Dynasty, so what if there were more than a million people in the city of Tokyo? After the city was destroyed, they were not just a bunch of lambs to be slaughtered.

But if tens of thousands of people are organized like the Beiliu River dredging, and every village is a fort, and everyone is a soldier, how many barbarians can fight a war of attrition against the Han people with a huge population base?

But if you want to mobilize the people, you first need to organize, and secondly, you need to benefit the people. In a small way, it means providing meals and distributing food during the dredging project.

Speaking more broadly, in order to mobilize people to defend their land, we must first give them land to defend!

If you spend your whole life working as cattle and horses for the squire, without a roof over your body or a place to stand, who would be willing to risk your life to fight against the aliens when they come? After all, the good land belongs to the landlord.

Only when the people have land, the words "responsibility for guarding the land" have something to do with them.

Du Zhaoqing probably understood the reason why the King of Chu and the squire were fighting to the death recently.
  Here, Chen Chu smiled and suddenly said: "Don't say it as if you want to die heroically. Although there are no beautiful women to give to the Jin Kingdom, I have prepared three thousand jars of Huaibei liquor for you. The Jin Kingdom In the bitter cold, alcoholism is common among the nobles. With this good wine, maybe they won't make things more difficult for you."

"Hey, I hope so"

Du Zhaoqing sighed.

Seeing that he had a pessimistic attitude towards this mission, Chen Chu revealed some information, "Don't worry too much, Shangshu Du. I have already made arrangements for the Jin Kingdom. If there are any problems, you can discuss them with Mr. Li of the Tea and Wine Department." "

"Oh?" Du Zhaoqing looked back. Not far away, Li Hedou, the head of the Tea and Wine Department, and Cai Kun, the representative of Huaibei Commercial Affairs, were sitting by the fire and talking. If they felt something, they looked up and smiled and cupped their hands.

Du Zhaoqing returned the greeting with his hands raised, turned to look at Chen Chu and said, "I understand."

He was the strangest of the two people in the mission. Cai Kun, the commercial representative, was unknown, but he was the elder brother of Cai Shi, the famous concubine of the King of Chu, so it was hard for others to ask too much about him.

The origin of Li Hedou is even more mysterious. His resume before he became the head of the Tea and Wine Department of the Ministry of Revenue was completely blank, and even his place of origin was unknown.

Du Zhaoqing's inherent political sensitivity made him realize that this person might be King Chu's long-hidden secret son, and he should not be taken lightly.

Now that he had received the disguised recognition from King Chu, Du Zhaoqing couldn't help but feel relieved. Then he cupped his hands, stood up and said, "King Chu, please sit down and I'll go down and walk around."

"Du Shangshu takes care of himself"

Du Zhaoqing guessed that the King of Chu might have something to say to Li Hedou and Cai Kun, so he left on purpose to avoid suspicion.

Sure enough, not long after Du Zhaoqing left, Li Ke and Cai Kun sat over.

Chen Chuxian looked at Cai Kun and said with a smile: "Second brother is going to the Kingdom of Jin for the first time, are you nervous?"

Cai Kun immediately stood up and said respectfully: "Go back to King Chu"

"Hey, my family, who is a king or not? Second brother, sit down and talk."

Chen Chu waved his hand. Such a close attitude made Cai Kun couldn't help but smile. After sitting down again, he said: "It's nothing to be nervous about. I am a business representative and I just go to discuss business."

Last month, Cai Kunchu, who was serving as a bureau officer in Caizhou, was really confused when he received an order from the court to join the mission.

After being transferred to Beijing, Chen Chu had already gone to Hebei Road. It was his sister Cai Hua who explained the reason to him. This time Cai Kun had two tasks. One was to find middle- and lower-class Han and Khitan officers in the Kingdom of Jin to cooperate and establish a woolen army. Acquisition of firms.

When he first heard about this, Cai Kun said in confusion: "Although the barbarians are accustomed to using wool to make clothes, the clothes are rough and scratchy and smelly. We Han people have never liked them, so why buy wool?"

Cai Hua also knew little about how to use wool, so she could only repeat Chen Chu's words, "Chang Gui, a cobbler from the Caizhou Academy of Sciences, and others have developed methods to soften wool and remove odors, and have produced knitted fabrics in small batches. The woolen clothes, and a kind of warm and light fabric called woolen. For some reason, your brother-in-law likes the wool so much that he said that in the future, he will equip all army officers with woolen coats and sergeants with marching woolen blankets."

"The whole army? How much does this cost!" Cai Kun was quite shocked at the time.

Speaking of this, Cai Hua's understanding became much deeper, and she couldn't help but smile and said: "He just wants to make money for the middle and lower-level Han and Liao officers who organize the purchase of wool!"

"Oh? Hua'er, please explain it more clearly." Nowadays, Cai Kun is not the most core person around Chen Chu, but he also knows that his brother-in-law has never intended to be a dog for the Kingdom of Jin. He knows that sooner or later he will fall out, and he still wants to trade with the other party. Cai Kun didn't understand asking officers to make money.

Cai Hua said: "Wool is almost worthless in their Golden Kingdom. When we buy wool, we give an income to the middle- and lower-level officers. And our family is the only one in the world that masters the art of softening wool, so they can only follow us. make money"

Cai Kun probably understood what he understood, and asked again: "The Jin Kingdom has become very powerful in recent years. Just by destroying the Liao Dynasty and conquering the Zhou Dynasty, they gained a lot of wealth. Do their officers still lack this much money?"

"You don't know this. Nowadays, the nobles of the Jin Kingdom are extremely poor and have hordes of slaves, but the life of the middle and lower-level officers is not easy. Especially for the Han army, the military salary is only [-]% of the Jin people, and every battle is followed by disasters. The plundered goods can only be collected by the Jin people."

"Hua'er, how did you learn about these things?"

"Don't worry about it. In short, this is a big matter, and the second brother needs to deal with it seriously. The other thing is to find partners in the local area to act as agents for the soaps, sugar, spirits and other products we produce. The agents are also only Look for them among the middle and lower-level officers of Han and Liao Dynasties. But the agency requires a lot of money, and the second brother can let more than a dozen or even dozens of them jointly win the right to act as agents."

"How can a bunch of middle- and lower-level officers guard this wealth!"

Cai Kun blurted out, and then reacted suddenly.

Several flagship products produced in Huaibei have made a lot of money for agents all over Zhou Qi. These people are all descendants of the local wealthy families.

After all, ordinary people can't keep such wealth.

But Cai Hua made it clear that she wanted to support middle- and lower-level military officers to work together as agents. Naturally, ordinary people would not dare to covet their wealth, but what about the upper echelons of the Jin Kingdom?

Once the upper echelons of the Jin Kingdom are interested in this trade line, will the officers be willing to hand it over?

"Wonderful!" Without waiting for Cai Hua to speak clearly, Cai Kun slapped his thigh and said: "If there are Jin nobles fighting for it, there will definitely be discord with the middle and lower Han and Liao officers! If the Jin people hold back and don't fight, those officers will They need to sell wool to us, and they need to make money from Huaibei products from us. In order to keep this money, Jin Qi will be in trouble in the future, and they may not be of the same mind as the Jin people."

"Hehe, the prince said, this is to cultivate comprador."

Cai Kun's thoughts changed, and Chen Chu and Li Ke were already talking about other things.

The conversation he had with his sister half a month ago was still vivid in his mind. Cai Kun also heard Cai Hua say that the Jin Kingdom now has [-] troops, but the real Jurchens are less than [-]. The rest are northern Han'er, Khitan, and Bohai people
  The information on the composition of the military personnel was classified, but Cai Hua knew it very well. Cai Kun guessed that there must be spies from his brother-in-law within the Kingdom of Jin, and the officials of the Kingdom of Jin that the spies had access to were of high rank.

While he was thinking about it, he heard Li Ke say in a low voice: "My boss, do you want me to contact the Taojun Emperor of Zhou who is imprisoned in Five Kingdoms City through 'Emei Peak'?"

Perhaps he had no intention of carrying Cai Kun on his back. Chen Chu thought for a moment and replied: "It depends on the situation. Safety comes first. If there is a chance, I will meet him. If there is no chance, forget it. Anyway, there is no rush."

Cai Kun was shocked when he heard this. The Emperor Taojun of Zhou who was imprisoned in Five Kingdoms City was not the one who was kidnapped by Jin in Ding Wei's disaster! The father of Chai Chong, the current emperor of the Southern Dynasties!
  This person has symbolic significance to the Zhou State. Chai Chong has no heir. If his brother-in-law can bring the Daojun Emperor to the Qi State, the Zhou State will be embarrassed.

My brother-in-law, just after stabilizing the Qi State, he has already begun plotting against the Jin Kingdom, and even has the intention of plotting against the Zhou Kingdom. What a huge ambition!

At the same time, Cai Kun was also slightly excited!

If his brother-in-law doesn't tell these things behind his back, does that mean he is qualified to enter the inner circle?

At first, he learned that it was Cai Hua who recommended him to join the mission. His wife You Shi, who had followed him to Beijing, even complained privately with tears in her eyes, "Hua'er arranged for his eldest brother to be promoted to Tangzhou, and you just became an unworthy official." As a promoted bureau officer, it would be nice for you to be sent as an envoy to the Kingdom of Jin now. The Jin people are all barbarians who drink blood and kill without batting an eye. If my husband is evil, how can I and my children survive?"

But at this time, Cai Kun understood that although this trip was slightly dangerous, it was the ladder to heaven handed to him by his sister.

If this mission is done well, he will become Yuan Zhang’s confidant in the future!

My sister is still facing him
  The three of them started talking in low voices, and not long after, they saw a graceful figure slowly walking down the slope with a maid.

The pro-military guard who was on guard down the slope did not stop anyone coming, and the three people on the slope stopped talking one after another.

Shaoqing saw the young lady of Chen Jingyan's family approaching with a big cloak in her arms.

Chen Chu smiled and stood up to greet him.
  "How come my uncle doesn't know how to take care of his body? It's winter now and he's still wearing such thin clothes. What can I do if he gets frostbite? When the princess finds out in the future, she should say that I didn't take good care of my uncle."

"Haha, it's okay. Even if she gets frostbite, I won't tell her." In the night wind, the two men's whispered conversation could be heard.

Li Ke looked at Cai Kun meaningfully.

Two ordinary sentences contained a huge amount of information. Not to mention the intimate tone between the two of them as a couple, Chen Xiaoniang's words, "When the princess knows about it in the future, it should be said that I didn't take good care of my uncle." It seems to represent the relationship between the two. The matters during this period have been approved by the princess.
  The King of Chu has no relatives, and the princess is the head of the back house. If she agrees, good things may happen between the two of them.

It goes without saying that Li Ke, who was in the military command, was loyal to the King of Chu, but it was an irrefutable fact that he came from a position promoted by Cai Hua.

Cai Kun suddenly remembered that his sister had recently recommended his cousin Cai Si to come to Fucheng with the army, and then recommended him to join the mission, and he suddenly understood.

Chen Jingyan's family is an orthodox and famous family with countless talents. When Chen Xiaoniang enters the palace and the Chen family gets married, the Yingchuan Chen family will definitely occupy an important position in the Huaibei family.

Hua'er is planning the layout in advance to prevent his Yingchuan Chen family from becoming dominant!
  In late November, [-] people gathered and it took more than [-] days to open the Beiliu River, which had been blocked for many years.

Even many years later, when the civilians who participated in this battle recalled this incident, the first thing they felt was "warmth", warm winter, warm food, and warm hearts.

The project did not stop there. On the first day of the twelfth lunar month, the villagers moved to the Yongliu River and began dredging the ditches connecting villages and towns for irrigation.

On the second day of the twelfth lunar month, Wen San and his fellow villagers drove a cart outside Fucheng to collect the food they had received from their work.

When he entered the city, he saw a notice posted outside the city gate by the new magistrate Cai.

People who were literate said that there were only two words written on it, one was that the land could not be resold, the other was that the rent could not be increased, and those found guilty of either of the two would be punished by beheading.

Wen San doesn’t quite understand the first one, but he agrees with the second one!
  But some thoughtful wealthy households couldn't help but be disappointed after reading the first article. No matter how the fields were distributed to the people, they had ways to gather the fields back into their own hands.

It's nothing more than the same tricks, including gambling, blackmail, and releasing seals.
  But the first article clearly states that if any official conducts the formalities for the sale of land for others, he will be executed immediately!
  This immediately blocked the road to annexation. When wealthy households took over their land, the cooperation of officials was indispensable. Only after the land was witnessed by a public servant and registered with the government, and the name of the land was changed, was the land legally considered to have changed hands.

In this process, the signature of the official is naturally required.

But once the order comes out, who dares to help wealthy households buy land, and who dares to sign the land purchase deed?

The king of Chu did not punish the buyer and seller, but put the butcher's knife on the neck of the cooperative official. This move was really vicious. No matter how greedy the official was, he would not dare to kill him openly!

At Shenshi, Wen San loaded up the food, and the fellow villagers left the city happily.

Firstly, the food they deserve is not short of a cent, and secondly, the decree prohibiting rent increases also makes people happy.

However, when they passed by the military camp in the east of the city, they saw many people surrounding the gate of the military camp, and some old men were still quietly wiping tears.

Now that he has been working side by side with the soldiers of King Chu's army for nearly a month, Wen San no longer has any fear of the soldiers, and even feels a faint affinity towards them.

The soldiers of the Huaibei Army often carry some rare snacks on their bodies, such as fruit candies and rice cakes. If a child has a sweet mouth, he can always coax some food from the pockets of these soldiers.

Wen San was surprised, so he stepped forward to inquire about it, but he got a piece of news that made him feel at the bottom of his mood.

"The Huaibei Army is about to return south. Once they leave, the days we finally had some hope for may be gone again."

When Wen San heard this, he immediately lost his composure and hurried to the Beiliuhe construction site with the grain truck.

Zhang Wuluan, who lives in the same village, has performed outstandingly recently and has unknowingly become the backbone of everyone.

Wen San knew that even Brother Zhang Wu couldn't do anything about such a big thing, but he still couldn't help but want the other party to think about it.

Because Wen San and the old man wiping tears outside the military camp had the same idea. Once the Huaibei Army leaves, will we have to go back to our previous lives?
  After being a human being once, no one wants to be a cow or a horse again.
  Hurrying slowly, Wen San rushed back to the construction site in the evening of Youshi. As soon as he mentioned the matter, the construction site immediately exploded.

However, Zhang Wuluan had already received some news in advance. In the past few days, officers of the Guangjie Army had met with him several times and invited him to serve as the new local army general. He accidentally said that the Huai Army was about to return south and that the Guangjie Army was stationed there. message left.

With the comfort of him, Lu Shou, and the reserve officers from neighboring villages who had also received invitations from the Guangjie Army, everyone gradually calmed down.

However, after dinner, the entire Yongliuhe construction site was no longer the bustling, laughing scene of the past.

When they heard that the Zhenhuai Army was leaving, everyone felt a little empty in their hearts. They were a little worried and confused about the future, and also a little embarrassed to say it out loud.
  This was unimaginable before.

After dinner, the villagers subconsciously gathered in front of Zhang Wuluan's thatched hut. They wanted to say something, but they didn't know where to start.

Finally, Uncle Wen En, the elder of the village, sighed in a low voice, "Old man, I have lived for sixty years, and I have never seen or heard of a soldier like King Chu. Hey, they are leaving tomorrow, so we have a chance to say thank you in person. nothing."

Widow Wei, who loved to join in the fun, did not dare to get too close to the men for fear of being scolded by the elders, so she leaned against a tree from a distance and listened to their conversation.

After hearing what Uncle Wen En said, Widow Wei immediately shouted: "Uncle Wen! Why don't you have a chance? Your Majesty won't leave until tomorrow. We'll go there overnight and we can still give you a gift tomorrow."

"When men talk, women should stop interrupting!"

Wen San turned around and scolded, but then turned to look at Uncle Wen, "Uncle, what Widow Wei said is not bad. How about we go over tonight and give it away tomorrow morning?"

Uncle Wen pondered for a moment, then looked at Zhang Wuluan and said, "Wuluan, you have served in the army. If we go over and give him a gift, wouldn't it be against the rules?"

"That's not true. Uncle Wen is old. We have to go to Fucheng for twenty or thirty miles, so you might as well rest here. Lu Shou, Wen San, and I will go there tonight."

As soon as Zhang Wuluan finished speaking, Uncle Wen shook his head, but before he could speak, Widow Wei shouted again: "How can that be done! It's you, and my family also wants to thank the prince in person!"

While she was talking, Zhang Wuluan's mother-in-law, Chunni, was also standing in the distance looking at her husband eagerly, which meant that she also wanted to go there in person.

Zhang Wuluan thought for a while and simply said: "That's fine! Let's take a rest! Get up at midnight and give away whatever you want!"

"Okay!"

Widow Wei laughed and turned around to greet her children, but she saw Chunni silently walking towards the stove and starting to light a fire.

"From the Zhang family, everyone has already eaten, why are we lighting a fire again?" Widow Wei asked curiously.

Chun Ni raised her slightly rough face and said sheepishly: "The army is returning south. It's hard to eat and sleep well on the way. King Chu doesn't look as old as my natal brother. I feel sad when I think of it and prepare to steam it." A pot of jujube steamed buns will be used as dry food for them on the road."

"What a great idea! Count me in, I'll bake them big cakes!"

Widow Wei was so excited about this idea that she could repay a favor and shouted to her daughter: "Girl, come and help me make the dough! Let's bake pancakes as dry food for the army!"

Her voice instantly woke up the dull night.

Starting from the stove in Beiwan Village, the stoves in the neighboring villages on the left and right gradually lit up, and then continued to spread in the distance.

For a time, the midwinter night was filled with all kinds of noodle fragrances
  The third day of the twelfth lunar month.

At Mao hour, the sky is filled with stars.

In order to avoid tediousness, Chen Chu did not allow Cai Si, who is now the magistrate of Cai County in Fucheng, to perform welcome and farewell ceremonies.

And they deliberately chose this dark hour to break camp and set off.

At two o'clock in the morning, after the whole army was assembled, the camp gate was opened wide.

Chen Chu and his eldest son rode out together.

But under the quiet starlight, there were so many people standing on both sides of the road that it was impossible to see beyond.

Even in the mild winter, the morning is still chilly.

Some people in thin clothes had their hair and eyebrows covered with morning frost and dew, and their faces were blue from the cold but they refused to leave.

At first glance, it turned out that he was rushing here in the middle of the night.

Each of them held steamed buns, pancakes, and chicken eggs in their hands, and looked eagerly at Chen Chu and his eldest son who were the first to leave the camp.

"I'll send you my fellow countrymen who have something to do." Chen Chu opened his mouth, but his voice trembled.

"Your Majesty, brothers, these are steamed buns that were steamed overnight in our village. Your Majesty asked everyone to take them with you on the road to satisfy your hunger. We have traveled thousands of miles, and I hope your Majesty will come back when you have time."

An old man was holding a bowl of chicken eggs. Before he finished speaking, he was already in tears.

As soon as he started, people on both sides swarmed in, and the spacious official road was immediately blocked.

"This is the jujube bun steamed by my mother-in-law. You must try it, brother!"

"General, General, my family has stayed up all night, and I have to bring all the baked pancakes with me."

"Oh! Your Majesty, let me accept it quickly! Stop giving in."

At the back of the queue, Ayu, who had not yet left the camp, stood on the shaft of the carriage, staring at Chen Chu who was surrounded by the people at the front and unable to move forward. Her legs were shaking with excitement and her skirt was slightly wet.
  When Chen Chu turned around, he saw that the Huai suppressing army had lost its marching formation. Both sides were pushing and giving way, and the soldiers and civilians were mixed together, making it difficult to distinguish each other.

Under the dim starlight, on the official road from Yingmen to the south, people stretch for ten miles.
  The eldest son was riding on the horse, looking around and around. When he turned around, he had a naive smile on his face, but his face was covered with tears. He wiped it randomly on his face, turned to Chen Chu and said, "Brother Chu, Our life is worth it!"

(End of this chapter)