Strange Tales from the Northern Qi Dynasty

Chapter 265 Miracle!! Auspicious sign!!
Jundushan Great Wall.

Although the cold winter has passed, the New Year has not yet arrived, and the grassland is not green. The grass is sparse, and there is mud and weeds everywhere.

A cold wind blew, and a red sunset glow appeared on the horizon.

The cold city wall surrounded the low hill. The tiles on the wall were broken, and the huge cracks and wounds were exposed.

The gate of the city tower was open, and many armored soldiers stood on it, holding bows and crossbows, patrolling back and forth.

The soldiers surrounded the city gate on both sides.

The captives lowered their heads. Some were tied up, while others had only their weapons and armor taken away. They walked into the city gate with their heads lowered and faces full of despair.

The line was so long that you couldn't see the end of it.

After the captives, there were many other things, war horses, cattle, sheep, and carts of food.

These grains are all refined grains, and are usually fed to war horses. War horses are different from ordinary horses, and cannot be fed only weeds. Sometimes, what war horses eat may be better than what knights eat.
The goods have been transported for three days, but they have not yet been completed.

On a high slope not far away, Gao Changgong looked at the last batch of captives being brought in, finally took off the mask and smiled.

Under the sunset, the general stood on his horse with a smile on his face. His armor was stained with blood and had many wounds, but his handsome and flawless face made him look like a painting.

Yao Xiong beside him stared at him blankly, completely stunned.

Not only Yao Xiong, but also the junior officers and the guards were all stunned at this moment.

"The courage of Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, the appearance of Pan An"

Someone sighed.

Yao Xiong also gave his own evaluation, "It's fierce and damn good looking."

Gao Changgong looked at Yao Xiong with a serious expression, "Thank you, General Yao."

"Oh, your Majesty, there is no need to do this. Just call me by my given name. Why do you have to do this?"

"I charged in too fast. If General Yao hadn't been there to hold the formation together, I would have been the first to be dispersed."

Yao Xiong also scratched his head at this moment, "Haha, no problem, come to think of it, I also took the credit from the king"

"That man is not an ordinary person either. General Yao helped me capture him. How can I use the word 'rob'?"

Yao Xiong became even happier and laughed out loud.

"I think the King is much more powerful than the violent old man!!"

At this moment, a group of knights appeared in the distance, galloping towards here quickly, waving a large flag. Seeing the large flag, Yao Xiong shrank his body, "The one who is asking for punishment is here!"

Bao Xian led more than a hundred riders and hurried here, riding non-stop all the way to Gao Changgong and others.

The old man's face was livid and his eyes were sharp. As soon as he arrived, he looked in Yao Xiong's direction.

Gao Changgong hurriedly led everyone to dismount and meet Bao Xian.

Bao Xian looked at the people in front of him and was silent for a moment. "The king is really brave."

"We defeated a large force with a small number of people and gained so much. From the fourth year of Tianbao to now, we have never had such a great victory."

"I just don't know how many casualties there are?"

"Two hundred and seventy-three knights were killed, more than three hundred were wounded, nine hundred and thirty-five followers were killed, more than two thousand were wounded."

Bao Xian nodded, "Not bad."

"Old General, I did not follow your orders and sent troops on my own. This is not because I look down on you, but because I feel that I cannot hold back the enemy with my own ability, so I chose a simpler method and attacked first."

Bao Xian slowly looked into the distance. The black smoke over there had not yet subsided, and a black column rising into the sky could still be seen.

"Simple."

Bao Xian nodded, "I said before that the fighting style that suits you best is the best fighting style. If Your Majesty thinks this method is the simplest and most useful, then it is the best one."

"But why doesn't the king continue to attack?"

"Ah? Are you going to attack again?"

"The Khan of the East has been killed, and the Great Khan of the Turks has not yet arrived. The tribes in the east are loose and have no leadership. Now is the best time to seize the opportunity to wipe out their tribes."

Gao Changgong reacted, "Yes!!"

"Yao Xiong stays."

"what?"

Yao Xiong looked at Bao Xian in astonishment, his face full of disbelief, "Why?"

"What are you talking about? I heard from someone that Lanling Wang broke through the enemy's formation and killed the generals for the commander, and you only went up to behead him after he had already knocked the commander off his horse. How can you take credit for the credit?!"

Yao Xiong's face turned red, "I"

Gao Changgong hurriedly explained: "Old General, that's not the case. The situation was critical at the time and we didn't have time to think about it. We fell off our horses at the same time. If it weren't for Yao Changying, we wouldn't know the outcome."

Bao Xian nodded, "This fellow has always been like this, I hope Your Majesty does not find it strange."

Yao Xiong wanted to say something but stopped himself. All he could do was watch Lanling Wang lead the cavalrymen to gallop away, his face full of frustration.

"You have done a lot of good things. Let others take some back. Don't be greedy."

"Come back with me."

Bao Xian waved his hand, and Yao Xiong followed him dejectedly.

Bao Xian then said unhappily: "How can a commander be so impulsive? So reckless? How many times have I told you so?"

"You really can't blame me this time. Lanling Wang may look amiable, but when he fights, he is much more violent than me!!"

"You didn't see him. I couldn't catch up with him. He didn't care about his own formation or the enemy's position. He just rushed in and beat whoever he caught. He had no military tactics and no scruples. Let alone the Turks, even if I met such a person, I would be stunned!"

"When he fights, he is very much like his relatives, fighting with a deadly style. When he charges like this, I become the rear guard, gathering the knights all the time, fearing that they will be scattered. I also have to defend him on both sides, fearing that he will die in the front."

Yao Xiong started complaining immediately.

Bao Xian scolded again: "Without your consent, can he charge into the battle?"

"But we won. Why should we be scolded for winning?"

"You are the commander-in-chief, stationed at the border. Nearly one million people in the state are under your protection. War is not for showing off your bravery or competing with each other. It is for protecting the country and the people."

"It's fine if you win, but what if you lose? The enemy will march straight in, and the entire Youzhou will be plundered by the enemy. With more than 100,000 cavalrymen, I'm afraid there will be no grass left, and only ruins everywhere."

"If it was a deputy general or a vanguard, that would be fine, but the main general has to consider defeat before he can consider victory."

Listening to Bao Xian's words, Yao Xiong became more and more irritated. He finally couldn't bear it anymore and stopped his horse.

"Why didn't you tell Prince Lanling about this just now?"

Bao Xian also reined in his horse and turned to look at Yao Xiong, who was full of anger. Yao Xiong asked, "Lanling Wang is also the commander of Youzhou. This is also Youzhou, his defense zone. Why don't you tell him these things? Why do you always stare at me and scold me?"

Bao Xian smiled, not caring about Yao Xiong's anger at all, "Because he is a prince, who are you?"

"I am Yao Xiong!!"

"He is a vassal king. Da Qi belongs to him. Even if he fails, there are people who protect him. No one dares to embarrass him. Even if he loses Youzhou, he can return to Yecheng and continue to be a vassal king. What about you?"

"Without his background or his talent, you don't think about improving yourself, but you become complacent after gaining some military merits? And you still want to compare yourself with him?"

Yao Xiong's eyes flushed, "You just look down on me!"

"It's not just him. There are many generals in the army, both Han and Xianbei. Why don't they listen to you and reprimand them?!"

Bao Xian said, "Look down on you?"

"Then you should find a way to make me value you."

"What do you have that I value?!"

Looking at the angry Yao Xiong, Bao Xian smiled and said, "How about this, you get ready, I will review this battle with you tonight. If you can convince me once that you can resist my 100,000-man army by yourself, I will value you this time."

"it is good!"

Yao Xiong rode away angrily on his horse.

The officer looked at Yao Xiong going away, and secretly glanced at Bao Xian, "Old General. After all, General Yao is General Wei's confidant, you..." Bao Xian narrowed his eyes and whispered, "Many years ago, I was the same age as him. At that time, the generals around me were all from the Xianbei and Qihu in the surrounding areas, and no one paid attention to me."

"The more this happens, the more you have to give so that others won't look down on you."

Wuchuan.

The carriage was shaking and the knights in front and behind hung their heads. Even for them, their bodies were a little exhausted after traveling for such a long time.

The villages and towns on both sides are extremely dense.

Many villages and towns are almost connected together, bustling with people, and large tracts of arable land are filled with farmers working hard.

The road protection forest planted some time ago has grown quite tall at this moment. It is not a towering tree, but it is lush and green. There are villages hidden among the green trees on both sides, and smoke from cooking slowly rises.

Occasionally, you would see a shepherd driving his sheep passing by from the other side, standing in the woods, curiously watching the passing carriages.

In the distance, several small canals ran along the side of the road. The water level was very low, and young children were running back and forth in the canals with bare legs.

Cui Zhan looked to both sides through the car window, his mouth curled up, and the smile could not be hidden at all.

Wang Xi and Xian'an opened their eyes wide, extremely frightened at this moment.

Where does this take us?

Is this still Wuchuan? ?
Both of them had been to the border many times. When talking about the border, what impressed them most were the desolate and sparse grasslands, the dilapidated city beside the earthen mounds, the civilians who set up tents outside the city walls to survive, the gray dirt roads, the piles of corpses, and the groups of beasts that could not be distinguished whether they were wolves or dogs.

Youzhou and Yanzhou opened their eyes, but the situation on the border simply scared them silly.

They had clearly come here with Gao Yan in the first year of Qianming.

At that time, the frontier was still the frontier they remembered, gray and desolate.

But what's going on now?
The green grasslands, the clusters of trees, the villages hidden among them, the herdsmen, the children, the canals
How did these things that are incompatible with the border appear here? ?

Looking at their astonished eyes, Cui Zhan couldn't help laughing.

"Don't be surprised, both of you."

"When my general first arrived, he sent people to level temples everywhere, so that many tenants could leave and monks could leave the secular world. The construction of many pagodas was forced to stop."

"At that time, there was a famous monk who cursed my brother before he died: he said that there would be constant white disasters on the border, and that the mandrills and demons would be frozen to death."

"It's strange, since that year, the snow on the border has been getting heavier, but the duration is getting shorter and shorter. Hahaha, the heavy snow is not a bad thing. This year, it snowed for half a month. Although it was heavy, the arable land became fertile because of it. Especially after the snow melted, canals can be built everywhere!!"

"From Yongfeng to Huaihuang, the weather has started to warm up rapidly. The previously barren and sparse grassland has now become like a fairyland!"

"I can only say that destiny is here!!!"

Cui Zhan became a little excited when he spoke of this.

He has always been a calm person, but even someone with his personality became fanatical at this moment, and the corners of his mouth could not be closed.

The main thing is that what happened on the border in the past few years can be called a major metaphysical event.

Since the Wei and Jin Dynasties, white disasters on the border have become more frequent and serious. In fact, heavy snow in winter is not a bad thing. Both herdsmen and farmers know this. However, if it snows for too long, for several months in a row, it can easily destroy a city. People on the border call it "white disaster."

But when Liu Taozi arrived at the frontier and started to take care of things, the heavy snow that used to last for four months miraculously began to subside.

It snowed for three months in the first year of Qianming, and for one and a half months in the first year of Heqing. In the second year of Heqing, it snowed sometimes and sometimes not. Although it was still heavy snow, it suddenly changed from a disaster to a blessing that protected farmland and pastures.
The climate in the dry and desolate border area has warmed up significantly. The sparse and desolate land has been covered with green, and the water flow has become abundant and moist.

This trend is still strengthening.

Not to mention the common people at the bottom of society, even scholars like Cui Zhan were so trembling that they were speechless when they realized this situation.

Is there really a God helping the evil???
Xian'an listened to the other party's explanation, his whole body stiffened for a long time, and then he slowly said: "Most of the northern regions are warming up."

Cui Zhan shook his head and said excitedly: "This is where the problem lies!"

"You don't know, this white disaster is almost bounded by the Great Wall. Outside the Great Wall, there is a white disaster, but inside the Great Wall, it is like this. Do you think this is destiny?!"

Xian'an's eyes widened and he could no longer utter a word.

The same is true for Wang Xi.

Those who do great things are always accompanied by auspicious signs, but the two of them have actually seen a lot of these so-called auspicious signs. When they were building momentum for Emperor Xiaozhao, all kinds of auspicious signs appeared, but they knew best what they really were like.

But now, this auspicious sign cannot be created even if we want to! !

What the hell!!

It was always bitter and cold in the past, but things started to get better when Liu Taozi came. However, the places outside the Great Wall that did not belong to him were still the same as before. What the hell is this? ?

The two of them said nothing and just followed Cui Zhan towards Wuchuan City.

Wuchuan is currently under expansion. You can see that the city walls on both sides have been dismantled. It is currently under expansion, and densely packed laborers are working hard.

Looking at the number of laborers building the city, they are really becoming more and more similar.

When they arrived at the city gate, there was already someone waiting for them with a smile.

That person was Zu Ting.

Several people got off the carriage. Zu Ting was not a shy person and greeted them warmly.

Although Zu Ting had a bad reputation, he was born into a prominent family and had a lot of experience. He was acquainted with many old ministers, so Wang Xi and Xian'an did not look down on him.

Cui Zhan couldn't help but ask, "Grandfather, is the auspicious sign more obvious this year?"

Cui Zhan left Wuchuan before the heavy snow stopped. Zu Ting looked at him, smiled and nodded.

Zu Ting knew that things would turn around when they reached their extremes. It had been extremely cold at the border for hundreds of years, and it was getting colder and colder. Many counties and garrisons had become empty spaces. Now it was time for a rebound. As for the difference between the inside and outside of the Great Wall, the current Great Wall was a relic of the previous dynasty, and its location was determined by the local climate and environment when it was built. However, in the eyes of most people, this matter was a matter of destiny, so Zu Ting did not show off.

What's more, destiny is already here.

"My Lord, Lord Di, the Lord is not in the city at the moment, otherwise he would have come to greet you personally. He values ​​you two very much, so he specially sent me to greet you two."

Zu Ting led the two of them inside.

The symmetrical buildings in the city were particularly grim, and the roads formed a tic-tac-toe shape. Pedestrians along the road walked hurriedly, with firm faces and no smiles on their faces.

Wang Xi was not surprised now.

Very reasonable.

They arrived at the government office, which was also under expansion. Zu Ting asked Cui Zhan to find Lu Qubing to report the situation, while he took them to the villa to rest.

It was a simple banquet to entertain them.

Xian'an looked at the sumptuous meal in front of him and said with a smile, "Fortunately, General Wei did not prohibit officials from holding banquets."

Zu Ting understood the meaning of his words and said seriously: "In troubled times, the law should be enforced severely."

He sat in the upper seat with a serious look on his face. The usual fawning look on his face was no longer seen, and his whole temperament did not have the slightest bit of vulgarity or meanness.

He was like a sharp sword drawn from its sheath.

He stared at the two people in front of him with a sharp gaze.

"In various parts of the Central Plains, the governance is lax and the orders are not sent to the countryside, which makes the people live in poverty. Nowadays, the laws and regulations in the border areas are probably much stricter, which is completely different from the Central Plains. The people are driven frequently and are mostly exhausted, but at least, under such circumstances, many people can survive."

"In recent days, many famous scholars have talked to me about this matter. They all cited examples from the past, saying that the way to govern the country is to make it easy for the people to feel at ease, and to not frequently use corvée labor so that the people can cultivate themselves and rest. They all made sense."

"If the country had just been unified, they wouldn't have to ask me. I would have submitted a petition myself, and then assumed the title of Prime Minister, stayed at home and enjoyed wine, not fought wars, not built anything, and let the people live as they wish, waiting for the people's strength to recover."

As Zu Ting was speaking, he suddenly waved his sleeves, changed the subject, and said solemnly:
"But the current situation is not like that."

"Natural disasters, man-made disasters, Zhou, Chen, Turks, there are still some fools in the temple. Local administration is in chaos, the powerful are rampant, the nobles ignore the law, the soldiers have no military discipline, the farmers have no land to cultivate, the merchants dare not go to the market, the craftsmen cannot get paid, the mothers dare not give birth, and the fathers dare not die first."

"Since ancient times, the whole world has never been in such a mess."

"I have learned from history and I believe that if we want to save the country and save the country from disasters, we must imitate the ancient system."

"Farming and fighting."

"Law and Code."

"What do you two think?"

ps: From the end of the sixth century to the beginning of the tenth century, it was the era of unification during the Sui and Tang dynasties (589-907 AD). China’s climate became warmer in the middle of the seventh century. In the winters of 650, 669, and 678 AD, there was no snow or ice in the capital Chang’an. ——— A Preliminary Study on Climate Change in China over the Past Five Thousand Years, by Zhu Kezhen
(End of this chapter)