Han Dang is stronger

Chapter 503
Xiang Kang, who has always liked hypocrisy and hypocrisy, is really good at deceiving people's hearts. After Dingtao ascended the throne, Xiang Kang led the Han civil and military forces and just returned to the territory of Sanchuan County, and was immediately warmly welcomed by the people of Sanchuan. The common people and gentry were crowded with people. Wherever Xiang Kang traveled in the emperor's chariot, there were loud voices calling for His Majesty on the ground and saluting everywhere. His support and respect for Xiang Kang was beyond words.

Of course, the people in Sanchuan of the Han Dynasty were not blind. It was the advanced farm tools and farming techniques vigorously promoted by the Han court that blinded the people's discerning eyes. Civilian officials of the army couldn’t wait to start promoting advanced agricultural tools in the areas controlled by the Han army. Farm tools were also successfully used on a large scale during last year's spring plowing. The Daitian method was also widely adopted by the people in Guanzhong who were the first to taste the sweetness. They sowed countless seeds into the fields that would have been fallow for a year or even two years. .

The result of trying the method of substituting fields, of course, made the people of Guanzhong ecstatic again, allowing them to reap the grain that can only be obtained in a good harvest year on the land that should have been fallow. The joy I had already enjoyed the year before last was that I generally harvested about half an hour more grain per mu of land. In many places where the land was particularly fertile, thanks to the intensive cultivation of advanced farm tools, the harvest was nearly double the usual grain!

In the farming era, of course, nothing could make the people more happy and excited than a bumper harvest. In addition, the officials of the Han army explained that these advanced farm tools and farming techniques were invented by Xiang Kang himself, and they had escaped the flames of war. Naturally, the people in the disaster-stricken Han area were even more grateful to Xiang Kang, worshiped and loved him, and of course they were more willing to support Xiang Kang as emperor so that Xiang Kang could bring them a better and happy life.

Xiang Kang, who is good at acting, has also lived up to the expectations of the people. Every time he goes to a place, he has to take time to meet the representatives of the people. The ability of the performance, successfully coaxed countless poor people who could barely fill their stomachs to be grateful, believing that they had met a wise emperor who was rare in a thousand years, and completely forgot that Xiang Kang was actually the spokesperson of the landlord class, entrenched The biggest exploiters at the top of the food chain.

The people of Sanchuan who have just tasted the sweetness are still like this, of course, let alone the people of Guanzhong who have been pleasantly surprised for two consecutive years. Xiang Kang's chariot walked for ten days, and then finally returned to Xianyang. Before Xiang Kang could take a breath, he was immediately submerged in the great enthusiasm of hundreds of thousands of Xianyang people. I didn't have to get out until it was completely dark.

After finally returning to Xianyang Palace and being reunited with the Yu family sisters and other beautiful concubines, the exhausted Xiang Kang originally thought he could breathe a sigh of relief, but Xiang Kang soon found out that he was completely wrong. During the day, he has to deal with the mountains of official documents and books that he can't finish reading, and at night, he has to appease the wives who get together less and leave more. The busyness is far higher than that of the military campaign.

In the end, with the full assistance of Zhou Zeng, Li Shiqi, Zhang Liang and others, after finally straightening out the order of the operation of the Han court, Xiang Kang got some rest Time, but even so, there are still endless documents and affairs to be dealt with every day, which makes Xiang Kang lament more than once, "If I knew that being the emperor is so tiring, I shouldn't have fought the world in the first place."

No matter how much you lament, it's useless. The guns I made an appointment with have to be finished even with tears in my eyes. As the duty of a ruler, Xiang Kang can only bite the bullet and continue to be the emperor. He tries his best every day Restoring people's livelihood and economy, encouraging population growth, punishing corruption and clearing up officials, resting with the people and lightening taxes, never daring to spoil the prodigal like Qin II, only caring about enjoying life and not caring about the life and death of the people.

Time flies like an arrow, in the busy time, nearly half a year has passed without knowing it, and in a blink of an eye, it was the autumn harvest time of that year. As a result, when the people in Guanzhong were gearing up to harvest the autumn grain, Lou Jing, who volunteered to be an envoy to the Huns, suddenly returned to Xianyang. Xiang Kang also summoned him immediately and asked him about the situation of the mission.

"Your Majesty, the current Xiongnu Shanyu Modun is definitely not an easy character to deal with. Fortunately, he is not from the Central Plains. If he is from the Central Plains and took part in the Central Plains War with his army, then he must be a king of Western Chu. A more dangerous and terrifying enemy."

This was the first sentence that Lou Jing reported to Xiang Kang, and after listening to Lou Jing's careful introduction, Xiang Kang, who had a poor history, was dumbfounded to know that he had met the Huns who shot his own father to death with Ming Dy The famous hero, only then did he know that Maodun took advantage of the opportunity of the Central Plains Anti-Qin War and the Chu-Han War in full swing, not only annexed dozens of nomadic tribes, but also wiped out Donghu, the long-time enemy of the Xiongnu, and expanded the territory Thousands of miles away, a grassland regime with a thriving national power has been established, with more than 30 soldiers under its command. The overall strength not only has an overwhelming advantage over the Han's northern frontier army, but is also enough to fight head-on with the main force of the Han army.

Fortunately, the Xiongnu army is not without weaknesses. Lou Jing quickly presented several weapons commonly used by the Xiongnu army that he brought back from the grassland at the risk of his life. There are four types of weapons, one is the bow and arrow with obvious rough workmanship, the bronze arrowhead with wooden bow body, the second is the copper knife with wooden handle with backward technology, the third is the copper spear with wooden handle that is only a little over seven feet (about 1.5 meters) in length, and finally One is a bronze peck similar to Ge, and its usage is similar to that of an axe.

After carefully reading the customary weapons of the Huns army, Xiang Kang just made some calculations, and quickly asked Lou Jing: "Two questions, first, are there any iron weapons in the Huns army? Second, have you used our cavalry? brought his saber to the steppe?"

"Reporting to Your Majesty, the Xiongnu army has iron weapons. But the number is very small. Basically, only generals and nobles can equip them." Lou Jing immediately replied: "As for the saber, don't worry, your majesty. Before setting off from Mayi to go north , I have already changed all the servants of my servants to bronze weapons, and even the servants themselves only wear bronze long swords on purpose, and absolutely did not reveal the secret of our cavalry sabers."

"Thank you for being careful." Xiang Kang breathed a sigh of relief, then immediately gritted his teeth and said, "The iron trade in northern Xinjiang must be blocked, and the Xiongnu army must not be equipped with a large number of iron weapons, otherwise our troubles will definitely be even greater."

"Don't worry, Your Majesty, Lord Guangwu immediately took this into consideration when I returned to Yanmen." Lou Jing comforted, "He immediately ordered the banning of the iron trade in northern Xinjiang, and even issued a strict order to sell iron to the Xiongnu." Anyone under three catties will be fined, and those over three catties will be executed. In addition, Lord Guangwu also asks His Majesty to issue an edict to Zang Tu, King of Yan, to prohibit the sale of ironware to the Xiongnu in the land of Yan."

Xiang Kang nodded and said, "I will send Zang Tu an edict tomorrow, telling him to follow Guangwu Lord's example."

It was only after this decision was made that Xiang Kang asked Lou Jing about seeking peace with Maodun, and Lou Jing said with a wry smile: "Your Majesty, forgive me for not reaching an agreement. I have exhausted all my efforts After finally seeing Maodun, the barbarian not only wanted us to return all the land seized by Zhao Guo and Tyrant Qin, but also asked us to donate all the city land in the four counties of Jiuyuan, Yunzhong, Daijun, and Yanmen. On the issue of the border market, the Modun barbarians want us to sell them salt, silk, and ironware at low prices, and they also want us to pay him a large sum of money and food every year. None of the conditions proposed are acceptable to us, and there is no Any good faith."

"It doesn't matter." The question was asked casually at the end, and Xiang Kang was of course very open-minded about this point, and said: "It was originally a group of prairie wolves who could never get enough to feed, no matter how much we give them, when they should bite us I still won’t be merciful, if you can’t reach an agreement, let’s take it slowly and see who can survive.”

Lou Jing nodded quickly, and then said: "Your Majesty, when I went north to the grassland this time, and went deep into the barbarian tribes to find out the enemy's situation, I accidentally heard an important news, that is, there is a not weak Yuezhi Kingdom to the west of the Xiongnu. Not only did he often fight the Huns, but he almost killed Modun who was sent by the old Shanyu as a hostage at that time. He had a deep hatred with the barbarians of Modun. Your Majesty knew that you like to make fuss about this, so I tried to find out about it. The news of the Yuezhi Kingdom is not small."

Xiang Kang, who likes to sow dissension, was overjoyed when he heard it, and quickly asked the guards to pick up the rough map of the Western Regions, and asked Lou Jing to point to the map to introduce the general situation of Yuezhi Kingdom. Lou Jing first pointed out that they are also nomads The main activities of the Yuezhi Kingdom are in the Qilian Mountains and the Hexi Corridor, and there is a long road connection with Guanzhong. He also introduced that the Xiongnu Lao Shanyu preferred the youngest son, and deliberately sent his eldest son, Maodun, to the Yuezhi as a hostage, and then deliberately sent troops to attack Yuezhi. Shi, wanted to force King Yuezhi to kill Maodun, but it was a pity that Maodun was alert, received the news first and fled back to the Huns, and then killed his biological father and established himself as Shanyu. He had the idea of ​​sending troops to attack the Yuezhi.

After listening to Lou Jing's introduction, Xiang Kang didn't even blink his eyelids, and immediately said: "Immediately find an envoy who is familiar with the situation of Yuezhi Country, and ask him to contact and form an alliance with Yuezhi Country. We must win over Yuezhi Country. Let them join forces with us against the Huns."

After Zhou Zeng, Zhang Liang and Chen Ping who were nearby agreed, Chen Ping planned to ask Lou Jing about the internal situation of the Xiongnu. Lou Jing, who had worked hard to understand the domestic situation of the Huns, immediately replied that there were right and left virtuous kings in the Huns. Manage the eastern and western lands for the Xiongnu Shanyu respectively, and set up the left and right Guli, the left and right generals, the left and right captains, and the left and right big households, etc., and implement militarized management of the nomadic tribes on the Xiongnu land. Together as an army, young and strong men go to battle, while women, old and weak, are responsible for logistics support.

Hearing Lou Jing finished speaking, Chen Ping soon had an idea in his mind, and hurriedly said to Xiang Kang: "Your Majesty, the right and left wise kings of the Huns and barbarians can use them. We just need to get in touch with them directly, or bribe them with money." The beautiful woman, or perhaps the one who is on the throne, is sure to have the hope of instigating rebellion and creating chaos within the Huns, and once the Huns are in chaos, our chance will come."

Xiang Kang nodded and said, "I'll leave this matter to you and Lou Jing. Lou Jing, although you didn't succeed in your mission this time, you also found out a lot of important internal situations of the Xiongnu for us. The credit is undeniable." Xiao, I will now designate you as a Dianke, and in the future I will try my best to collect as much information as possible about the Huns and the barbarians in the Western Regions, so that I, the prime minister, and the others can know everything about the barbarians like the back of our hands."

Lou Jing was overjoyed when he heard that, and hurriedly thanked Xiang Kang. Xiang Kang waved his hand, and then said with a smile: "The mountains are high and the roads are far away, and the roads are blocked. We have to wait for these things again. If it doesn't take a year or a half, it will definitely be difficult to see results." .Fortunately, I am still young, and I have plenty of time to wait."

The road is too far away, and Xiang Kang and others are indeed involved in the important event of contacting the Yue clan to attack the Xiongnu. Fortunately, the good news of the autumn harvest does not need to wait for a long time. Not only are there not many floods and droughts on the land, Guanzhong, Hanzhong, Bashu, Sanchuan and Hedong once again ushered in a good year of harvest. In addition, Taiyuan, Yingchuan, Nanyang and various counties in the middle reaches of the Yellow River have also received good harvests. In the new year, Xiang Kang was overjoyed, and immediately decided to exempt several disaster-stricken counties from taxes, money and food, so as to further buy people's hearts and give these disaster-stricken areas time to recover.

Of course, there were also things that made Xiang Kang angry. During this period, the local officials of the Han court, in addition to constantly reporting various illegal acts of princes and kings with different surnames such as Zang Tu and Zhao Xie, went to Xianyang to hold a ceremony to celebrate the harvest. Ji also presented to Xiang Kang the ten Linjiang Secret Reports, which not only listed Yingbo's crimes of arrogance and disrespect, but also secretly reported that Yingbo was in Jiangling and Changsha to mow soldiers and horses, store grass and store grain, There seems to be a possibility of treason.

No matter how filthy the history is, he knows what kind of guy Yingbo is, and he feels that the evidence in his hand can justify Yingbo's crime. Xiang Kang, who has already given birth to two more sons, just calculated for a while, and soon made up his mind. After making up his mind, he told Xu Ji, "Go and invite the two prime ministers, Taiwei Zhou, and Zhang Fengchang immediately, and tell them that I have important matters to discuss with them."

(End of this chapter)