Chapter 147 Leping Monthly Report
Before Gai Xun even met Qiao Yan in person, he was already impressed by her skill of using the Southern Xiongnu tribesmen to guard the gate and deceive the enemy at the same time.
Although many Qiang people can be convinced by kindness and righteousness, to achieve what Qiao Yan has done, it is probably not enough to just be a governor of a place. One must also be in charge of the affairs of a state.
However, there were dozens of Qiang tribes in Liangzhou, including the Western Qiang alone, and the largest armed force in the territory was controlled by Ma Teng, Han Sui and others.
With this thought, which was hard to tell whether it was subtle or should be considered reverence, Gai Xun followed Fu Gan up the Ziwu Ridge.
As soon as he entered the mountains, he saw the Huns who lived in huts and enclosed land on the mountains for grazing and planting. Looking at them made him feel indescribable disillusionment.
As for the Hun characteristics in these people, judging from the state that Gai Xun could discern from afar just now, they have not diminished, but this way of life, or way of guarding the door, is truly amazing.
Gai Xun rode his horse and asked Fu Gan beside him, "Isn't Qiao Bingzhou afraid of raising a tiger to cause trouble?"
Fu Ganhui asked, "Has Governor Gai ever heard that our Lord has ever held back when he had to kill someone?"
It seems that this is not the case.
Gai Xun thought about the process of Qiao Yan's rise. If we only look at the actions against the Huns, the Xiutugu Hu among the Huns attacked Guyang County and committed a bloody massacre. Qiao Yan retaliated by killing them all and returning their heads.
It is said that the headless bodies of the three thousand Xiu Tugehu are still hanging on the Shoujiang City outside Yinshan Mountain. They were seen by the Qiang people who came out of Yinshan Mountain in the north, and the news was also passed on to Liangzhou.
This is obviously not an action that a ruler who simply pursues the principles of benevolence and righteousness and intends to influence these Hu people would take.
"According to the message conveyed by the Lord when he perfected the state's first merit system, as long as we are always stronger than those barbarians, it will be fine." Fu Gan added, "If we can turn these people into sharp blades, it can also protect the vitality of the state."
When Gai Xun saw Fu Gan say this, he greeted from a distance the person who looked most like the leader of the Southern Xiongnu team.
The man was holding the prey in his hand, looking very proud and powerful, but at this moment he suddenly restrained his arrogance and made a gesture of farewell to this side, which made Gai Xun laugh.
"He is a special case," Fu Gan was not overwhelmed by the situation in front of him, and said, "The Chanyu of the Southern Xiongnu was established by the previous General of the Central Army who protected the Xiongnu. Although the Southern Xiongnu was naturalized and submitted to the Han Dynasty, according to the rules of the Hu people competing for positions, his position was somewhat illegitimate. His brother Yu Fuluo once fought for the Han court in Youzhou and had already connected with some forces. Yu Fuluo's son inherited the Han surname Liu. He is now six or seven years old. It is expected that he will not have the opportunity to seize the inheritance. Rather than relying on the position of Chanyu of the Southern Xiongnu to fall on his head by chance, it is better to hope to work with you and get another fiefdom to develop your power."
"But don't worry, Governor Gai. Although you are young, you will never be deceived. You should consider whether to treat them as blades or as citizens. You have your own ideas."
"I'm not worried about that." Perhaps because they had already reached the border of Bingzhou, Gai Xun relaxed a little, and replied in a teasing tone: "Qiao Bingzhou's words are sharp and she speaks pearls. With the knowledge of the Xiongnu woman, no matter how well she knows how to write, she probably won't be moved by them."
These words made Fu Gan wonder for a moment whether they were a compliment or criticism.
However, it is not the first or second time that Gai Xun has made people feel helpless with his words. Judging from his attitude towards Bingzhou at this time, it is probably still positive.
Fu Gan then heard Gai Xun say, "I don't think I need to worry about you anymore. Your father gave you the courtesy name Yancai, which means you should be like a good tree. Now that you are following the governor of Bingzhou, you have fulfilled the name Yancai."
This is indeed what Fu Xie expects of Fu Gan.
However, after saying this, Gai Xun did not mention Fu Xie any more, but only turned to talk about the situation in Longxi and Jincheng before he left Hanyang County.
Although the title of General Front that Dong Zhuo appointed to Ma Teng and the title of General Left that Dong Zhuo appointed to Han Sui were higher in rank than Qiao Yan's original title of General Suppressing the Rebellion, in essence, they were only honors for themselves, and he could not enjoy the power to establish a government office just because of these two general positions.
But who are Ma Teng and Han Sui?
These two men had just done as they had said to Gai Xun back then: once they joined the enemy, there was no turning back.
Regardless of whether I can reply or not, I have already ignored some rules and acted very straightforwardly.
So the two of them agreed to open a general's mansion in the county, and settled their subordinates there with titles such as the Chief Secretary of the General's Manor and the Clerk of the General's Manor.
Fortunately, Dong Zhuo knew that he could not give the position of the prefect of Jincheng County in Liangzhou and the prefect of Longxi County to this person, otherwise it would only encourage their arrogance.
But this alone was enough to make the western part of Liangzhou feel deeply frightened.
"Han Sui's general Cheng Gongying and Ma Teng's general Pang De are both excellent at commanding troops. They were each appointed as the chief secretary of the general's office. Liangzhou has always produced many capable and skilled warriors. Han Sui has a young general Yan Xing who is also extremely powerful. Ma Teng was originally a military general. His son Ma Chao, who is only fourteen years old, has already followed his father to conquer Xiliang."
When Gai Xun said this, he suddenly realized that if one had to count, Qiao Yan had experienced the Yellow Turban Rebellion when he was ten years old, and even Fu Gan had fought in Changsha with Fu Xie at that time.
In this way, Ma Chao’s age is not too young.
When they officially turned from Ziwuling Mountain into Shangjun, Gai Xun felt that his eyes were not enough.
Compared with Xiliang, where the climate and planting environment are much worse, Bingzhou under the rule of Marquis Qiao is truly a pleasing sight.
The land of Shangjun has been completely covered by winter snow. There are almost no traces of people walking through the fields, but the silence all around is clearly not a lifeless silence, but a kind of hope that new buds are sprouting under the ridges.
It was almost dusk at this time, so Gai Xun accompanied Fu Gan to Fushi, the capital of Shangjun, to stay for one night.
It was also here that he met Xun You.
It would have been unimaginable for a member of the Xun family of Yingchuan to serve Bingzhou before Gai Xun came to Bingzhou. But when he actually saw this talented and outstanding young man saluting him, he felt for no reason that it might not be strange for such a thing to happen in Bingzhou.
Gai Xun was indeed feeling a little tired from the long-term state of alert. Xun You's slightly slow greeting, coupled with the background sound of snow falling outside the house, made him want to find a place to sleep.
However, it was Jiang Jiong, who escorted him here, who was of the same age as Fu Gan and had met him several times in their early years, and they were now having a pleasant conversation.
When Jiang Jiong heard Fu Ganyu mention during the conversation that there was a place like Leping Academy under the rule of Bingzhou Mu, his eyes almost lit up.
Although he came from one of the four surnames in Hanyang, which would be known as the four surnames of Tianshui in the future, namely Jiang, Yan, Ren and Zhao, they were still local tyrants in the final analysis.
The extent to which people from Liangzhou were excluded by the central government can be seen from the treatment their predecessors received.
Take Sanming in Liangzhou as an example. Huangfu Gui, who was from Anding County, had a lot of military achievements but was only posthumously awarded the title of Grand Minister of Agriculture. Duan Xing, who was from Wuwei County, got the position of Grand Marshal by currying favor with eunuchs, otherwise he would not have been forced to commit suicide in prison because of the case of liquidating the eunuch Wang Fu. Zhang Huan, who was from Dunhuang County, directly immigrated to Huayin, Hongnong, in order to get a chance for promotion in the future. Even so, he failed to get a high position and resigned and returned home.
This is the most authentic Liangzhou.
Jiang Jiong was fully aware of the power that the local powerful families could exert in controlling an area if they continued to grow in strength, but he also clearly saw his own limits.
Being a military commander obviously has a limit.
Then, Leping Academy, a place that Fu Gan believed was a place that taught both civil and military education, as well as medicine, agriculture and engineering, would have a natural appeal to him.
Perhaps it has great appeal to the entire Liangzhou.
However, he is now holding the position of Gongcao of Hanyang County and is also responsible for sending Gai Xun to Qiao Yan. He can't just quit and go to school.
We’ll talk about it then.
He thought he would have trouble falling asleep because of thinking about this, but he fell asleep quickly, perhaps because the dinner that Xun treated them to was very delicious, or perhaps because he was as nervous as Gai Xun and it was time to relax, he fell asleep quickly.
By the time we left Shangjun Fushi on the first day, the snow outside had piled up quite thickly.
Xun You may seem mild-mannered, but he is absolutely flawless in doing things.
Long before they set out, he had already had the carriage prepared and had also prepared food and water in the carriage for use during the journey.
With the help of Jiang Jiong, Gai Xun boarded the carriage and continued to head east.
Before he could sit down, Jiang Jiong had already noticed something special in the carriage with his sharp eyes.
There is a bookshelf nailed to the side wall of the carriage, on which are placed several books for passing the time.
If the books were engraved on bamboo slips, they would take up at least half of the carriage, but now only these few books are enough.
This was a scene that Jiang Jiong had never seen before.
The one on top was particularly thin, so he took it down.
But when he held it in his hand, he found that it was not a book, but a large piece of paper placed there in a folded state.
There are four big characters at the beginning of the volume: Leping Monthly.
The monthly report sounded very much like the monthly report submitted by subordinates to their superiors, but after reading a few lines, Jiang Jiong realized that this was obviously not what he understood.
This is more like a miscellany of practical information from various disciplines.
Coincidentally, this monthly report was born in this month.
Earlier, Cai Zhaoji had done the Bingzhou propaganda "homework", which also gave Qiao Yan some inspiration.
At a time when her current territory and military strength were not enough to support her innovation in printing, it was indeed feasible for the Leping Monthly Report to be completed by the middle school students of Leping Academy by hand-copying.
If this monthly report could be published as Qiao Yan hoped, it must include six subjects: literature, medicine, agronomy, astronomy and calendar, miscellaneous talks, and geography. This would also allow the students of Leping to consolidate and increase their knowledge through the act of writing this handwritten tabloid.
To the outside world, it gradually became a habit within Bingzhou.
Even if at the beginning, this thing can only be used as a reading material for the powerful families in the state and literate people.
Whether it was the literate people trying to get a glimpse into the thoughts of her as the ruler, or them spreading the knowledge in the monthly report to the villagers in order to show their ability to understand it, for Qiao Yan, the result was only beneficial and had no harm.
The organizer of this monthly report is——
"Cai Zhaoji..." Jiang Jiong looked at the name in the "Editor" column of the monthly report and wrote it down first.
Zhao Ji did not let down the honor of Qiao Yan's permission to maintain the authorship of this monthly newspaper. In this November issue of the first year of Guangxi in Leping Monthly, which is also the first newspaper of Leping Monthly, she filled the six major sections with good content.
When Jiang Jiong read the monthly report at this time, he first saw the contents on the first page.
An astronomical observatory was newly built in Leping. Representatives of students from Leping Academy interviewed Liu Yuanzhuo, the proposer of the Qianxiang calendar.
In addition to introducing the theory and observation progress of the Qianxiang calendar, the "author" also mentioned that Emperor Ling of Han once supported Ma Lun and others in their work to improve the calendar, and expressed his remembrance of the former emperor, which fully demonstrated what is politically correct and of good origin.
Jiang Jiong, a native of Liangzhou, could not quite understand the intention of these sentences. He just stared at the picture of the armillary sphere beside him in fascination. But if Qiao Yan were to comment, it would be found that Zhao Ji's political awareness had really been nurtured during these years by her side.
It's only fitting that this be on page one!
In the literature section on the first page, Cai Zhaoji started to take advantage of her father without hesitation.
Is life in Leping comfortable? Are you tired of writing "Dongguan Hanji"? Then let me write another article titled "Cai Yong's Occasional Thoughts on Living in Bingzhou"!
Just like Cai Yong, a literary giant who could write thousands of words for an inscription, he wrote an article to calm the situation and show that we in Leping are very friendly to scholars. There is absolutely no pressure at all. This is also to show an attitude to Bingzhou.
According to Xi Zhicai, it would actually be fine for him to write this thing, as he had used it to fool his friends more than once or twice. However, as preparations for the battle of Liangzhou were imminent, only Cai Yong could be idle, and Xi Zhicai did not have the extra time.
On the third and fourth pages, Cai Zhaoji did not strictly follow the boundary definitions of the six major plates, but chose to write about medicine and geography together.
Earlier, after Qiao Yan returned from a visit to Nishui in Beidi County, he mentioned to her that the water quality upstream of Nishui was harmful to drinking, which was caused by the soil environment upstream.
Zhao Ji thought of this appropriate matter, so she directly asked Fu Shou and Wu Pu to complete this topic.
These two pages explain how many similar situations there are in Bingzhou, what kind of water is more suitable for drinking, and how to treat several diseases caused by drinking raw water. They are all explained in a way that is as understandable as possible.
Some of these things have been recorded in the teaching books compiled by Wu Pu during his medical courses in Leping, but some still need to be supplemented and recorded in combination with the actual situation and symptoms of Bingzhou, such as "stone in the abdomen".
The agronomy on page 5 is not about popularizing the unique farming methods within Bingzhou.
If she really wrote that, especially if she wrote out the formula for the fertilizer she currently sold in dosages, then the advantage she gained from exchanging agricultural books would be gone.
So in this part, Cai Zhaoji used the method of interviewing Liu Yuanzhuo in the previous interview and interviewed several old farmers whose per-acre yields were particularly high this year. She also wrote down their hometowns and names, and combined them with the tips for caring for farmland wildlife mentioned above.
Regarding recording place of origin and name, Guo Jia gave some relevant suggestions.
After all, he was able to come up with the idea of rehearsing shadow puppet shows to boost team morale during the selection period for General Du Liao two years ago, so he does have some say in creating this sense of honor.
This also affected the gossip on Page Six.
The reason why miscellaneous talks are called miscellaneous talks is that they are indeed all light-hearted topics.
They all talked about anecdotes and interesting stories from the countryside, such as the story of how Guo Linzong commented on Jia Zihou and Jia Zihou turned over a new leaf.
However, the place names in the story are familiar to people in Bingzhou, but there are three or two stories in the story itself that make people feel that "if all this can be recorded in the monthly report, then so can I."
But it is precisely this kind of self-willed approach that confuses people about the selection criteria, preventing some people from building momentum for themselves, while at the same time making people more willing to do things that may allow them to leave their names in the history books.
Jiang Jiong also didn't understand the meaning of this, but he had vaguely understood how Fu Gan had grown to become what he saw now.
It is precisely because he is in such an enterprising and positive environment.
Jiang Jiong couldn't help but be stunned for a moment, and then he saw the Leping Monthly Report in his hand being taken away by Gai Xun.
"I want to..." I want to watch it again.
Gai Xun did not feel awkward at all about snatching things from the younger generation, and replied calmly: "Look at something else first."
Jiang Jiong's performance was enough to prove that this was an excellent read, so naturally he should be allowed to kill some time on the road.
But before he could read two lines, he suddenly felt the earth shaking.
Gai Xun's face changed, and he immediately put down the Leping Monthly Report, opened the carriage window and looked out.
Although this sound was somewhat different from what he had heard in the past, it could only be the sound made by the large group of cavalry taking action at this moment.
Because of the natural migration of large numbers of cattle, sheep and horses, it is impossible to form such an orderly movement.
The carriage they were riding in had already entered Xihe County from Shangjun. Even though he knew that a part of the Southern Xiongnu tribe had been assigned to farm the land by Qiao Yan, the governor of Bingzhou, it was hard not to have a bad premonition because of a little stereotype.
But when Gai Xun looked out of the car window, what he saw was probably a scene that he would never forget for the rest of his life.
In Xihe County, a plain without many mountains and hills, a wave of snow came from far away. Mixed in with this earth-shaking sound, there seems to be a sense of flow like a real wave.
That was the broken snow splashed up by a large number of cavalrymen galloping past!
They exploded into clusters of flying dust in the air, fell to the ground and rose again, rose and fell again, mixed and intertwined like clouds on the ground and waves on the plateau, full of dynamic movements that make people's vision flip over and over again.
And in Gai Xun's view, what was particularly special about this team was that the horses ridden by the armored cavalry were also heavily armored.
I don't know if it was because of the weight of the iron armor that when they were running on the snowy plains, the sound of horses' hooves could be heard as if iron tools were hitting the ground.
Under the sunlight, these thousands of pieces of armor glowed with alternating silver and black light. The horses' natural colors were covered by the armor, also reflecting a dazzling color. The snow where the horses' hooves passed seemed to have turned into an ocean in the sunlight.
All these colors, bright or dark, are reduced to one white word on the snow field.
Only one of them is red.
It’s the leader!
This bright red color reached Gai Xun in a short moment, and he could clearly judge without the other party introducing himself.
This could only be Leping Hou Qiao Yan!
Gai Xun couldn't help but be shocked.
When he got out of the car, he felt a murderous aura coming towards him.
He saw the young governor who was not wearing armor. After exchanging glances with Fu Gan, he looked at his face and said, "I originally brought the cavalry to try out the effect of horseshoes. I didn't expect to meet Governor Gai on the road. It's a blessing to be out today!"
As she spoke of horseshoes, Gai Xun paid attention to the clattering sound of the horse she was riding under his feet.
This sound suddenly made him realize that what made these cavalrymen move differently from usual was not the snow on the ground or the heavier loads on the horses, but because there was obviously something else under the soles of these horses' feet.
These things...if they can increase the cavalry's load-bearing capacity and mobility, they will definitely be of great benefit to the battle in Liangzhou!
So even though Gai Xun had not yet learned the secret of the horseshoe and had not yet spoken a few words to Qiao Yan, when he saw her spirited face, he blurted out a sentence without thinking: "When will Qiao Bingzhou prepare to conquer Liangzhou?"
Everything he had seen since entering Bingzhou had left him no longer in doubt that Qiao Yan did have the ability to quell the rebellion in Liangzhou.
He even has the ability to shoot straight into Liangzhou like a sharp arrow!
It was precisely because of this hope that when he asked this question, his tone became a little hurried.
But if Qiao Yan minded him asking this question, there would be no need to invite him from Liangzhou specially.
She pointed her whip to the west and gave a decisive answer to Gai Xun:
“Next April!”
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