Chapter 144 Mi Zhu Gives Gifts
In August of the first year of the Guangxi reign, all places temporarily stopped working and were busy with the harvest.
At the beginning of September, Mi Zhu made another trip to Bingzhou.
Or perhaps it should be said that he arrived in Bingzhou in early September, but he actually set off in late August.
This was also the time when Qiao Yan was honored as General of Cavalry by the courts of both the Eastern and Western Han dynasties.
If we say that during the campaign against Dong Zhuo, the provincial and local forces no longer dared to regard her as a sharp weapon of Emperor Ling of Han. After she successfully prevented Liu Bian from ascending the throne and denounced Dong Zhuo with a manifesto, and was able to gain enough benefits from both sides, they could only admit that this was indeed her personal strength.
Bingzhou, which was plagued by frequent internal strife among the barbarians, welcomed a master who could make Bingzhou famous throughout the world.
The reason why he is called the master rather than the governor is because Qiao Yan has not yet clearly allied himself to either Liu Xie or Liu Bian.
This particularly special state of independence is bound to make people feel frightened.
Fortunately, perhaps because her previous actions had not yet transcended the status of a Han minister, no one used this as an excuse to attack her.
On the contrary, in the past few years, when the name Qiao Yan was mentioned, some people described her as "the grandson of Qiao Gong". In the past two years, especially this year, the only description left is Qiao Yan, the governor of Bingzhou, general of the cavalry and marquis of Leping.
For this, Mi Zhu was very grateful that he chose to come to Leping in person because of his earlier interest in fishing rods and fishing cars.
The pulley assembly of the fishing cart was at best an applied development of mechanics. The subsequent agreement with Leping on the agency rights to trade soap with white crystal could only be said to have maintained the relationship between the two parties for a period of time. However, after Qiao Yan took a further step, the Mi family of Donghai, as a sufficiently successful wealthy merchant, had to show some sincerity in making a bet anyway.
Even though the Eastern Han and Western Han dynasties were divided by the central Bingyan, Yu and Jingzhou, the Han Dynasty was divided into two, and chaos was bound to occur as its power declined. Xuzhou, which was regarded as the ancestral foundation by the Mi family, was a flat and war-torn place, so they could only seek a retreat when they had no choice.
Just look at Xuzhou today and you will understand why Mi Zhu is so anxious.
The resurgence of the Yellow Turbans in Qingzhou and Xuzhou had shown signs before the death of Emperor Ling of Han. Now that Liu Bian has established his capital in Ye and Yuan Shao is the governor of Qingzhou, the Yellow Turbans in Qingzhou are frightened by the fact that Yuan Shao has quickly recruited people in Jizhou and Qingzhou, so they are spreading towards Xuzhou.
Tao Qian, the governor of Xuzhou, was indeed a character. He had participated in the campaign to conquer Liangzhou in the past, and this experience gave him a very courageous character.
The governor of Jingzhou, Liu Biao, dared to ride into Jingzhou alone, and Tao Qian dared to use Zang Ba and Sun Guan from Taishan who were exiled to the East China Sea to defeat the Yellow Turbans in Xuzhou in one battle, allowing their remnants to continue to flee to the border of Yanzhou.
But his bold use of people also made Mi Zhu panic.
Zuo Rong, who was also employed by Tao Qian, was a Buddhist believer. Because the unrest had just been quelled, he was still in charge of transporting military rations to Guangling, Xia Pi and Pengcheng. However, most of the rations offered by Guangling County were directly swallowed up by Zuo Rong, giving him the opportunity to build a Buddhist temple in Xia Pi and recruit Buddhist believers.
This seems to be another team of Tao Qian, but it makes people feel that there are many hidden dangers.
Yuan Shao, the governor of Qingzhou in the north, seemed to be the best solution given the proximity, but during the campaign against Dong Zhuo, he failed to show the qualities of a powerful leader who could convince Mi Zhu.
It would be better to continue betting on Qiao Yan!
However, to please people, you have to start with what they need.
Is Bingzhou short of food? From Mi Zhu's point of view, there is probably no shortage of them.
In the Thirteen States of the Han Dynasty, where the saying "a peck of rice is worth a thousand gold coins" was common, those who had food had money.
If they just take the money directly, it won't show their sincerity.
There is naturally no shortage of horses in a place like Bingzhou.
After excluding money, food, and horses, they had very few options.
After discussing with his father, Mi Zhu decided to give it away.
Of course, sending someone away does not mean sending someone from the Mi family as Qiao Yan’s property. But special talents.
The Mi family of Donghai had abundant assets, and according to the common practice of the powerful in the late Han Dynasty, they also had a considerable number of retainers.
Some of these retainers who took refuge in the Mi family had special skills and agreed to move to a more stable place to make a living, serving as a bridge for the Mi family to surrender to Qiao Yan.
This way of giving gifts is indeed more suitable than loading goods on large and small trucks.
The team traveling this way seemed to be just a small-scale business trip, rather than showing goodwill to Bingzhou from a distance when there was Tao Qian, the governor of Xuzhou.
Also, because of the image of Qiao Yan that she valued skills in front of Mi Zhu, and her actions such as moving the Luoyang Grand Historian to Leping, Mi Zhu also had a certain tendency when selecting people.
He needs to recruit more technical talents.
When Qiao Yan heard about Mi Zhu's visit, he was reading another letter.
The position of General of Cavalry has not yet demonstrated much of the legitimacy of the expedition to Xiliang, but the chain reaction it has brought is more than just the sincerity of the Mi family.
To go to a closer place, it is Hedong.
After Dong Zhuo fled to Chang'an with Liu Xie, his control over Hedong County was directly weakened. Less than half a year after taking office as Hedong Prefect Wang Yi, he was unable to prevent the Hedong aristocratic families from placing the salt lakes in Hedong under the control of Qiao Yan and transporting them to Bingzhou along the Fen River Valley.
Under the leadership of Wei Ji, the salt was used to make military rations and jerky in preparation for the subsequent attack on Liangzhou.
At least there is a reason that can be used to fool people on the surface.
As both courts are still trying to win Qiao Yan's support, they obviously will not criticize this move.
This kind of operation of not expressing an opinion but not refusing has a bottom line, but at least so far she can still benefit from it.
It also means that the scope of Bingzhou has been slightly expanded with this operation.
When Mi Zhu stepped into the reception hall of the provincial government, he found that Qiao Yan was in a good mood, which made him feel that he might have chosen a good time to come.
A smart businessman would not immediately reveal the purpose of seeking shelter, so he just said, "The Mi clan of the East Sea congratulates you, Your Majesty."
"The Han Dynasty has not yet been stabilized, and the barbarians are also in constant turmoil. What is there to be happy about?" Qiao Yan raised his eyes and looked at him and asked.
After Mi Zhu sat down, he replied, "Your Excellency has the prestige of Duan Jiming and the legacy of Huo Huqi. You have stored food for two years and marched out of Longxi and directly to Jincheng. You will surely wipe out the rebels. I congratulate you for earning the title of Huqi, congratulate you for Bingzhou's fruitful autumn harvest, and wish you victory in advance."
Seeing that Qiao Yan's expression did not change and he was still calm and composed, Mi Zhu couldn't help but have a better understanding of the governor's expressionless attitude, and he became more determined to choose Bingzhou as the Mi family's retreat route.
"Although Mi Zhu is a businessman, he also has a heart to serve the country and save the people in need. This time, he has selected some people from his retainers. I wonder if they can be of use to you, my lord."
Mi Zhu handed a stack of names to a servant beside him and asked him to deliver it to Qiao Yan.
Seeing Qiao Yan flipping through the mail, he explained, "The first few are experts in making chain mail. Their ancestors were engaged in the production of Guangwu's guard armor. The finished products they made are stronger and more protective than ordinary chain mail."
"The people in the middle are the woodworkers among the Mi family who are good at making ingenious things. One of them is very good at making mountain carts. However, he always likes to come up with some strange ideas. Recently, he wants to add a sail to the deer cart. I hope you can bear with me."
"The last batch was the Dingling people that Mi brought back from Zhangye during his business trips. After several generations of intermarriage with the Han people, they no longer have many Dingling tribal characteristics, but they still retain a few skills, one of which is repairing horse hooves. Since Marquis Qiao raises cavalry, I don't need to mention how much he values horse hooves, but these Zhangye Dingling people are indeed skilled in caring for and oiling horse hooves."
The three groups of people brought by Mi Zhu are truly more useful than the other.
He has done his best in pleasing others!
Chain mail needs no further explanation.
The armor manufacturing technology in border defense strongholds such as Bingzhou is generally acceptable, but no one would think that improving their own security is unnecessary, especially the security of generals.
The manufacturing process of real chain mail is extremely complicated and requires tailoring to the individual's needs, so what Qiao Yan previously called chain mail was at best a by-product of this armor-making process after it was introduced into the Central Plains.
But now they have to face the fierce soldiers from Liangzhou.
The soldiers from Liang Province, especially the Qiang people, fought very hard in the battle. She didn't want Zhao Yun, Lu Bu, Zhang Liao, Xu Huang and others to be consumed in the border war before they could play their role in the war in the Central Plains.
The armorer sent by Mi Zhu was just in time to make a chain mail that was more fitted and easier to move in during the winter.
The significance of the second item, mountain bike, goes without saying.
Even a skilled warrior like Duan Xing, who was good at killing the Qiang people in Liangzhou, could not avoid frequent small-scale mountain battles with the Qiedong Qiang, Lingling Qiang and others.
The deer cart that appeared in the late Western Han Dynasty was indeed an expert at mountain transportation.
As for the claim that it was propelled by sails, it does seem like nonsense now, as if the coastal sailing boats were casually applied to carts. However, more than two hundred years later, in the fifth century, such sailing carts really appeared and were recorded in European epics a thousand years later.
This may be a feasibility that can be tested before the battle of Liangzhou.
As for the Dingling people who are good at maintaining horse hooves and engaging in trimming and oiling, they can also be said to be the Tiele people of later generations, or a branch of the Uighurs.
What they do is not just to repair the horseshoe.
If Qiao Yan remembered correctly, horseshoes were invented in the West more than two hundred years ago and spread to Dunhuang and Zhangye along with the exchanges of nomadic peoples on the grasslands. According to the legend that was later spread in the area known as Ganzhou, there were too many sand and gravel in the vast Gobi Desert, which were very harmful to horse hooves, so people used wooden sticks with four holes to attach them to the horse hooves to provide protection.
Is it possible that these people had seen this ancient version of horseshoes before and were also professionals who tried their hand at horseshoeing as she did?
In the past, when Qiao Yan had not been able to completely bring Bingzhou under her rule and had not yet assembled a sufficiently formidable cavalry, if she had proposed horseshoes, the only result would have been to aid the enemy. But now, with a more complete talent pool and easier-to-execute ironwork manufacturing, this would be completely feasible!
Even if these people have never done this kind of work before, it is still easy to switch from trimming horseshoes to this profession.
Qiao Yan's eyes lit up.
If Mi Zhu hadn't been sitting in front of her, she would have almost wanted to slam the table to show her surprise at the gift he gave her.
God knows she had been planning to let Hua Tuo's disciple Wu Pu switch from studying humans to studying horses!
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