Standalone Northern and Southern Dynasties

Chapter 303 Printing
Houmo Chenchong was very curious. As they fled southward, they saw dilapidated towns and cities everywhere.

The prosperity of Longmen Ferry and the desolation along the way are completely two different worlds.

Dugu found a boatman as he wished and asked him to take everyone across the river.

Seeing that Dugu Ruyuan was well-spoken and handsome, the boatman reluctantly agreed to take them on board to cross the river.

Dugu Ruyuan quickly called the Hou Mochen brothers and took them on the ferry.

After getting on the boat, Dugu Ruyuan started chatting with the old boatman:
"Zhangjia, this Longmen Ferry is very busy. You must be making a lot of money these days, right?"

The boatman at the ferry grinned and said:

"It has only become lively in recent months. Troubled times are coming. If I make some more money, I will go to Xiazhou to retire."

These old boatmen have traveled far and wide, talked with all kinds of people, and have more experience than ordinary people. It is obvious that they also realize that troubled times are coming.

The atmosphere in the cabin was a bit dull. Hou Mo Chen Chong broke the dull atmosphere and asked:
"Is the father-in-law from Xiazhou?"

The old boatman shook his head and said:
"My family has lived in Bingzhou for generations, but now everyone in my family has gone to Xiazhou to make a living."

Now Hou Mochen Chong was confused. Bingzhou has always been a relatively prosperous place, while Xiazhou is relatively desolate in comparison.

It is common to flee famine from poor areas to rich areas, but I have never seen anyone flee from rich areas to poor areas.

The old boatman said:
"Isn't it because General Su came to Xiazhou? I met merchants coming and going at this ferry. Now only the five states and one county under General Su's rule are safe places."

After hearing the old boatman's words, Hou Mochen Chong felt a little more excited about Xiazhou.

Just at this moment, a shadow appeared beside the ferry. The old boatman hurriedly rowed to avoid it and was not hit by the big ship.

Houmo Chenchong then saw clearly that this was a ship loaded with thousands of hu of grain. If such a large ship collided with the small ferry, the ship would be destroyed and people on board would die.

The old boatman cursed softly and quickly rowed the ferry away from the thousand-hu ship. This large ship with a deep draft would form a whirlpool in the nearby waters, and once caught in it, the ship would be destroyed and people on board would die.

Hou Mo, Chen Chong and other people from the Six Towns who grew up on horseback lost their courage when they were on the water. They turned pale as they were almost hit by a big ship just now.

Looking at Dugu Ruyuan again, this Dugu Lang was still calm. Hou Mochen Chong lowered his head, thinking that his character was indeed not cultivated enough.

Dugu Ruyuan looked at the boat and asked the old boatman:
“Is this an official ship?”

The old boatman whispered:
"It's an official ship, but it's carrying smuggled goods."

Dugu Ruyuan immediately understood that this ship with a capacity of 1,000 hu must be an official ship used by the court to transport grain, but it was requisitioned by some important figures in Bingzhou to transport their own private goods.

This kind of thing is also a tacit understanding in the local area. When Wuchuan Town was in power, the town commander would also use the official post station to transport his private goods.

However, the officials of Bingzhou actually used large official ships to transport goods blatantly, which is enough to show the level of administration in the Wei Dynasty at that time.

Dugu Ruyuan asked curiously, "What kind of cargo is this?"

The old boatman said:
"Food."

Hou Mochen Chong frowned and asked:
"Where did all this food come from? Didn't they say that Bingzhou was out of food and couldn't even gather enough food and fodder to send to the army in Pingcheng?"

The old boatman shook his head and said:
"I don't know what the government says, but these days there are many ships carrying grain from this ferry to Xiazhou. Look, there is another one behind."

Dugu Ruyuan and Houmo Chenchong looked back and saw another boat, larger than the previous one, heading towards the ferry on the west bank of the Yellow River.

Dugu Ruyuan immediately asked, "Is General Su collecting grain in Xiazhou?"

The old boatman nodded and said:

"I heard from merchants from Xiazhou that General Su set up a camp in Xiazhou to settle the refugees from the six towns who came south. He not only allocated land to them, but also gave them food to survive the winter. He is really kind-hearted."

Hearing this, Dugu Ruyuan fell silent, while Houmo Chenchong asked excitedly:

"General Su is taking in the survivors of the Six Towns?"

The old boatman nodded and said:
"I heard that after the True King was defeated in Wuyuan, he used his last bit of magic power to part the water of the Yellow River, allowing the 100,000 survivors of the Six Towns who followed him to cross the Yellow River and come to Xiazhou."

Dugu Ruyuan frowned. They went south all the way and received some true and some false news. It was only when they arrived in Jinyang that they learned that Po Liu and Han Baling had been defeated.

However, no one expected that Po Liu Han Baling's followers would actually cross the Yellow River and go to Xiazhou to join Su Ze.

Come to think of it, with so many people, they would not be able to survive in the Six Towns, so they could only flee south.

But Dugu Ruyuan never expected that Su Ze would actually help the survivors of the Six Towns!

One hundred thousand refugees is a huge number. When Dugu Ruyuan was in Hengzhou, he felt the disgust of the people of the Six Towns towards them.

Dugu Ruyuan was also a little moved. As a person from the Six Towns, he always felt the discrimination from people in the Wei Dynasty. Dugu Ruyuan had interacted with so many people, but the only one who respected the people from the Six Towns was Su Ze.

This is also the reason why he decided to leave Hengzhou and go to the northwest.

Now that he heard that Su Ze had gathered the survivors of the Six Towns, Dugu Ruyuan felt that he had made the right decision. Su Ze had gathered these people from the Six Towns not to be a bodhisattva, but to recruit soldiers from them.

His Dugu family has considerable prestige in the Six Garrisons. Relying on his previous relationship with Su Ze, he should be able to be granted a military post.

When he thought of this, Dugu Ruyuan felt that he had come to the right place.

Longmen Ferry is the narrowest place in this section of the Yellow River, and it only took half a day to reach the other side.

When we arrived at the ferry on the west bank, everything was different from the ferry on the Bingzhou side.

At the ferry, there were city officials wearing black clothes checking goods, and soldiers patrolling to maintain law and order.

The ferry has been renovated and the area for loading and unloading at the dock has been widened. The ferry that just docked at the dock is now boarding the boat and the porters are boarding the boat one by one and carrying the food out of the cabin.

Dugu Ruyuan also saw the goods shipped from Xiazhou to Bingzhou, which were linen, silk and cotton cloth that he had also seen in the north, in addition to horses, camels and other livestock.

Silk and linen were currencies in this era. According to the requirements of the Equal Field System, the government collected silk and linen from the people as taxes based on the number of people.

Of course, this is only a theoretical situation. In reality, during times of war, it was good enough for the people to be able to farm, and it was a luxury to collect hemp and weave cloth.

The fact that Xiazhou had so much silk, linen and cloth showed that the war in Guanzhong in the past two years did not affect the daily lives of the people in the five states and one county. It was still able to produce so much silk, linen and cloth, and even had enough capacity to export to Bingzhou in exchange for food.

After bidding farewell to the boatman and looking at the bustling dock, Dugu asked for the direction of Yongle City as he wished, and went there with the Hou Mochen brothers and his troops.
-
"Su Changshi."

When Wang Sizheng heard the hurried footsteps, he knew that Su Cho had returned. He stood up and saluted Su Cho, and sure enough, he saw Su Cho's red face.

Wang Sizheng wanted to laugh. These days, every time Su Cho went to the general's mansion, he came back looking angry.

Needless to say, I lost the argument with the mistress again.

After half a month of arguing, the rules on how to divide the public and private treasuries of the Shogun's office were finally about to be finalized.

Su Cho calmed down when he thought about how Princess Chenliu used all her dowry to subsidize the general's office to purchase grain from Bingzhou.

He asked Wang Sizheng:

"How is the preparation for Chongwen Pavilion going?"

Chongwen Pavilion is a library built by Su Ze using the books that Princess Chenliu brought as a dowry.

Private book collections flourished during the Northern Wei Dynasty. At that time, the Prince of Qinghe built a tall building in his mansion to store his books. It was also a common practice for the nobles in Luoyang to compete in wealth by collecting books.

It was not uncommon for Su Ze to build Chongwen Pavilion for a general from another garrison, as it was a manifestation of his emphasis on culture and education.

However, Su Ze’s Chongwen Pavilion is different from ordinary libraries.

He not only built the Chongwen Pavilion, but also recruited scribes to copy the books brought by Princess Chenliu, and at the same time opened the Chongwen Pavilion to readers from five states and one county to borrow.

This nature is completely different.

From the Han Dynasty to the Wei and Jin Dynasties, whether or not one had inherited knowledge from one's ancestors was the difference between aristocratic families and powerful families.

Only families with inherited academic knowledge can enter the central government and become a prominent family that prospers with the country.

The local nobles had no inherited knowledge, so even if they went to the capital or provincial capitals, they could not enter the circle of celebrities and were considered country bumpkins.

Family-inherited academic knowledge does not mean literacy, but that these families delve into certain Confucian classics, annotate certain books, and become the highest authority on this subject.

For example, the Yuan family of Runan, which had three officials in four generations in the Eastern Han Dynasty, relied on the two sets of family teachings, "Meng's Yi" and "Yi Nan Ji", to become the leader in the discipline of "The Book of Changes" and possess the highest right to interpret this classic, thus prospering.

Let’s talk about Empress Dowager Hu’s male favorite Zheng Yan. Although he seduced Empress Dowager Hu with his sex appeal, he was born into the Zheng family of Xingyang. He became a recognized expert on the Analects of Confucius in Luoyang thanks to his family’s handed down "Collected Commentaries on the Analects of Confucius", and was thus recruited by Emperor Xuanwu.

Princess Chenliu's dowry was selected from the Imperial College Library established by Emperor Xiaowen, which included various family books that Emperor Xiaowen had requested from various aristocratic families.

However, even Emperor Xiaowen was unable to open these books to ordinary readers, and these books could only be borrowed by officials with official status.

In addition to Confucian classics, Princess Chenliu also brought a large number of books on agricultural technology, water conservancy and hydrology, medical books, astronomy and etiquette, and music scores, many of which were collected by Emperor Xiaowen with great difficulty.

"Chief Secretary, I have also found a craftsman for the woodblock printing that the general mentioned, but the main problem is the ink."

Su Chao said seriously:
"What's the problem Mo?"

Wang Sizheng said:

"The ink is too light, and the ink dries too quickly. The printed words are not clear, and the copywriter needs to proofread and correct them."

"That would be much faster than hand copying, right?"

"It is indeed much faster. A book scribe can proofread a book in one day. The craftsmen are still adding pine soot and cowhide glue to the ink according to the general's method, but the proportions still need to be adjusted."

Su Chao felt mixed emotions.

(End of this chapter)