Chapter 148 The New Year Begins

However, at this time, there are still more than four months away from the "April next year" mentioned by Qiao Yan.

At least before the arrival of April in the second year of Guangxi, Bingzhou would first face not the battle against Xiliang, but the New Year.

Since Emperor Xiaowu adopted the Taichu calendar as the standard Chinese calendar, the annual festival was changed from the winter solstice to the first day of the first lunar month.

When the day of the second year of Guangxi arrived, Qiao Yan looked out from the window of the small building where she lived in the provincial government. The sky in Jinyang City had just brightened, but she could already hear a boiling atmosphere.

She simply changed into some inconspicuous clothes and went downstairs to the street.

This was the sixth Spring Festival she had experienced since she came to the late Han Dynasty, but she was still not used to celebrating the New Year without the sound of firecrackers.

But if gunpowder had been promoted at that time, if she wanted to pacify the surrounding area, she could not only rely on the advantage of cavalry, but also had to worry about more problems. So she felt that the current situation was not bad.

Although there is no noise of artillery fire, there are other ways to make up for the festive atmosphere.

According to the rules of the Han Dynasty, on the same day, all places would hold the Nuo ceremony to exorcise evil spirits, and Bingzhou was no exception.

There were a total of 120 teenagers aged 11 or 12, who were now shouting and fighting ghosts in the streets under the leadership of Fang Xiangshi.

The captured "ghost" is just a human figure made of straw and mulberry paper, held up on the front row of supports. It will now be taken all the way from Jinyang to Xihe County until it is thrown into the river.

This means that all the evil spirits in Bingzhou within a year were driven into the river and expelled.

Perhaps because of Qiao Yan's military intimidation, this elder who exercised the power of "Fang Xiangshi" in Bingzhou also came to the Bingzhou provincial capital to inquire whether it was possible.

Qiao Yan did not intercept this behavior.

When new immigrants arrived in Bingzhou this year and a ceremony was needed to herald the new year, this etiquette, which had been prescribed since the Zhou Li period, was necessary.

Exorcising evil spirits and driving away epidemics is also an action to stabilize people's hearts at a time when major epidemics are often rampant.

She just made two requests.

First, the Bingzhou provincial government originally chose the Fen River as the place to dump the ghosts. But with her rule, the situation in Xihe County and Shang County became relatively stable. It would be better to choose the Yellow River as the river, which would be more in line with the Central Plains' understanding of offering sacrifices to the river god.

However, this means that the walking distance required to complete the "New Year's Eve Chase" activity will become longer.

In order to prevent any accidents from happening to the young people who were carrying out the team's mission, Qiao Yan simply changed the New Year's Eve trip to the first day of the first lunar month.

Secondly, the top thirty of the 120 young men in the team will be given places to students from Leping Academy, and the remaining ninety places will not be restricted by gender.

In this way, if the Fang Xiangshi worship could no longer be used by her one day, she could turn it into a student activity.

Qiao Yan watched the group of young men go away, and casually bought a peach wood sign from a street vendor. Seeing that the vendor seemed to recognize her, she handed him the money while making a gesture to him not to make a sound.

The front of the peach wood plaque has the same pattern as the ones painted on the doors of every household, a tiger, while the back depicts the two door gods, Shentu and Yulei.

Qiao Yan couldn't help but think about the door gods of the Tang Dynasty. I don’t know if there is any hope that one day Shen Tu’s position will be replaced by Dian Wei. Just thinking about it, I think this scene will be quite interesting.

As the paper industry is not well developed nowadays, there is naturally no such thing as posting couplets during the Spring Festival. In Bingzhou, people still hang reeds on the doors.

One theory is that Shentu and Yulei were using reed ropes to catch ghosts, another theory is that the word "jiao" in "weijiao" means the alternation of the old and the new.

When Qiao Yan returned from his stroll on the street, this item had already been hung in front of the provincial government gate.

But now there seems to be something strange...

Because Qiao Yan was planning to give out New Year's red envelopes, she called back all the people working in Bingzhou Prefecture.

But at this moment, these people were still holding a piece of dyed yam cake in their hands, which really added a funny atmosphere to this group of civil officials and generals sitting in a row and eating snacks.

"...Who can give me an explanation?" Qiao Yan asked, looking around.

Xi Zhicai took the lead and replied, "My Lord, this is what we think. The first batch of one million dan of grain accumulated in Leping was obtained by planting yam. Although it has now returned to being mainly millet and wheat, it is still necessary to commemorate it. Why not follow the custom of eating yam cake on the first day of the first lunar month for officials who do not suffer from wind diseases caused by this food, to show their remembrance of the bitter past and the sweet future."

Qiao Yan had no objection to the idea proposed by Xi Zhicai and others.

This can be considered a team building activity that traces back to its roots.

However, during the Spring Festival, it is always necessary for the governor and the lord to tell some jokes to liven up the atmosphere.

Qiao Yan asked with interest, "Do you think life in Leping is hard?"

“…No!” Xi Zhicai immediately denied.

Guo Jia was pleased to hear this. If Xi Zhicai hadn't written about lard rice, pork rib soup, and watching the mountain flowers and looking at the mountain fields, he wouldn't have been attracted here. Now, isn't that a contradiction?

What made him almost laugh out loud was that Qiao Yan cut half of the pepper and cypress wine that Xi Zhicai had been drinking during the New Year and replaced it with sweet wine, and he was strictly prohibited from drinking strong liquor at this time.

But if Qiao Yan were to say it, it was quite common to take advantage of the situation like this.

According to historical records, Xi Zhicai should have died in 196, which is only six years ago. And because of the lack of historical data, it is impossible to judge whether he died because of his love of drinking, a circulating disease, or because of physical problems. Although Hua Tuo was invited by her to treat Xi Zhicai's body before, there are still some hidden dangers.

There was another person who was even past the age recorded in history, and that was Ma Lun. His work in astronomical calendar calculations was indeed exhausting, and he could only take care of himself through dietary supplements.

This made Qiao Yan, as he looked at the scene before him, inevitably consider the idea of ​​inviting Hua Tuo back to settle directly in Bingzhou.

For a doctor, saving more people and seeing more medical records is his lifelong pursuit.

And now, she may have the capital to invite Hua Tuo.

She was thinking about this in her mind, and without delay, she stuffed the red envelopes and new year wishes for everyone in her hand into paper bags and distributed them one by one.

The red envelopes do not contain real coins, but coins cast in the shape of coins, but are more like lucky money to be worn and appreciated, which is in line with today's customs.

The only difference is that the copper and iron used to make this thing were replaced with pure gold.

Cheng Yu accepted this very well, after all, he was a ruthless character who regarded Qiao Yan as the sun in his dreams.

But when Jia Xu received the paper package, his expression froze for a moment.

The governor is a high-ranking official and can be considered an elder, so it makes sense for Qiao Yan to give him lucky money at his age.

But when he turned around, he saw that Jia Mu also received a red envelope of New Year's money, which was... not right.

But he has always been steady and would not tell anyone about such strange ideas.

If some people knew about his depression, they would probably think that he was ungrateful for what he had.

For example, Qu Yi.

After General Han Fu of Du Liao was captured, imprisoned and stripped of his military power by Qiao Yan on the grounds of deserting his post, Qu Yi originally thought that his good days had finally come.

Now that he had lost his boss, he had almost repaid the favor he owed Han Fu, so it would be natural for him to become the subordinate of the next boss.

Qiao Yan's next mission is to conquer Xiliang, and he happens to be of use.

As a result, while Han Fu was spending the Spring Festival in the Bingzhou prison, Qu Yi was still holding a sinecure in the Du Liao General's camp.

Although Qiao Yan had a batch of pork and mutton sent to military camps throughout Bingzhou as a reward for the troops during the New Year, and he also expressed his appreciation for Qu Yi, what Qu Yi wanted was the lucky money as a symbol of his membership in the army, not a compliment.

Just when he was thinking this, Qiao Yan assigned him a special task.

Go to Yecheng.

These were two teams that she sent out at the same time.

Some of them went all the way to Chang'an to present the New Year's gift to Emperor Liu Xie of Han as a Han minister.

Of course, Qiao Yan also said in the memorial presented to Liu Xie that Your Majesty is now under the control of the bandits. If we offer tribute in the form of cattle, sheep, horses, millet, wheat, sorghum and other items, it will inevitably harm us and aid the enemy. We can only use utensils, furniture, wine and other items to show Your Majesty Bingzhou's loyalty to the emperor.

Whether Liu Xie could accept her kindness was another matter, but Dong Zhuo might be so angry that he would die from this shoddy tribute.

The other route goes to Yecheng.

The position of General of the Cavalry given to Qiao Yan by the Yecheng court was a remote honor and not a decree granted by her herself, which meant that she did not actually need to observe the etiquette of a subject to Liu Bian.

So her reason was to express her condolences to the eldest prince left behind by the late emperor and to see if he was settling down in Yecheng.

Compared with the New Year gift given to Liu Xie, the one given to Liu Bian seemed more like a face-saving project, but if you really look into it, it seems that you can't find too many faults with her.

What she sent was the academic notes she made when she was studying Shangshu with Lu Zhi, as well as her reading notes in her spare time in Bingzhou.

Considering the world's recognition of Bingzhou Mu's cultural level, this gift is a sincere greeting from the late emperor's trusted minister to the prince.

But Liu Bian probably wouldn't feel very happy.

It was for this reason that Qiao Yan sent out Qu Yi, a tough guy, to showcase the current style of Bingzhou.

If anything, there was another purpose for sending Qu Yi on this diplomatic mission.

"There is an achievement for persuading Lu Bu to join Dong Zhuo. Is there an achievement for persuading Qu Yi to join Yuan Shao?" Qiao Yan asked the system.

Anyway, everyone has laid their cards on the table now, and there is theoretically nothing wrong with her showing her intention to take advantage of the situation.

Qu Yi's ability to lead troops is not inferior to Lu Bu's, the only difference is in personal fighting power.

Dong Zhuo and Yuan Shao were both powerful figures in the late Han Dynasty, so it's okay to compare them.

Then shouldn't it be possible to draw a comparison between Lu Bu's betrayal of Ding Yuan and his defection to Dong Zhuo and Qu Yi's betrayal of Han Fu and his defection to Yuan Shao?

Since there were no clear regulations for the achievements built into the system, Qiao Yan had no choice but to resort to some blind luck.

Qu Yi now wanted to become an official under the governor of a province. After Qiao Yan formed the heavy cavalry, he became even more greedy. How could he be persuaded by Yuan Shao to join the army when the court in Yecheng had developed to its current stage? He was exactly the right candidate to be the envoy.

[I can’t tell you that.] 】

"That means there is." Based on his interactions with the system over the past few years, Qiao Yan quickly understood the subtext of its words.

This was apparently the first good news she received in the new year.

The system is completely messed up by the host's magical operation.

But just as it was about to emphasize again that it was a counselor system, not a lord system, it heard Qiao Yan's tone suddenly soften a bit and said to it: "System, Happy New Year."

If it weren't for its help, Qiao Yan would never have been able to achieve such rapid progress.

This expression of gratitude, given the stable life of the people of Bingzhou, seems even more sincere and heartfelt.

The system was stuck for a while before it slowly squeezed out a sentence, [Host, Happy New Year. 】

This atmosphere of bidding farewell to the old and welcoming the new seems to have turned over a new leaf for all the twists and turns of the past year.

Whether it was the death of Emperor Ling of Han last year, Dong Zhuo's chaos in Luoyang, or the relocation of the people, none of them had much to do with Bingzhou's continued sailing.

However, before the first month of the year was over, the envoy who went to Chang'an to present New Year gifts to Liu Xie returned with bad news for Qiao Yan.

Dong Zhuo did have a few days of peace in Chang'an, and even deliberately gathered his followers to reduce external looting.

This is the self-discipline that allows him to keep a clear head in adverse situations.

But Dong Zhuo doesn't look like Qiao Yan after all.

Even if Duan Wei was a good general who was capable of both farming and fighting, farming in Huayin would take more than half a year to take effect. He did not have so much grain on hand, and Liu Xie, the "central government", did not receive much annual tribute from all over the country to fill the inventory.

What should I do if I can’t feed the soldiers under my command?

It is not enough to rely on the help from "loyal ministers of the Han Dynasty" like Qiao Yan out of conscience.

Yuan Shao and others even hoped that he could not afford to support him.

Not to mention Ma Teng, Han Sui and others, the people of Xiliang had to rely on internal looting to fatten up the powerful people among them.

Dong Zhuo thought about it and decided to mint coins!

This is something that someone like him, who doesn't have much economic sense, can do.

He now has the emperor in his hands, which is equivalent to having a national treasury. If he has no money, he can produce and sell it by himself!

However, he fled from Luoyang to Chang'an in a hurry, and his priority was to protect people rather than things. Chang'an had once experienced the looting of the Red Eyebrow Army, and there was not much copper left. The basic raw materials were not enough to make a proper Wuzhu coin.

During the Huan and Ling periods, a type of five-zhu coin that was commonly seen among the people was called "Duiwen" and "綖环". It was split into two halves and was given to Dong Zhuo as a reference.

The basic need of wanting to have enough food made Dong Zhuo choose not to listen to the ideas of Yu Lu Zhi and others on this matter, but to proceed with his actions stubbornly.

This is the situation of the three coins in Qiao Yan's hand.

The coins that were supposed to weigh five baht were reduced to less than two baht, and the round outlines did not have a uniform style.

The two characters "Wu Zhu" written in small seal script on the coins set by Emperor Xiaowu in the past have also disappeared completely on these three coins.

This is Dong Zhuo Xiaoqian!