Chapter 169: What the Master Likes
This letter is very similar to the one Xi Zhicai sent to Yingchuan three years ago.
The tone of their words was exactly the same.
but--
Considering how busy Qiao Yan is with the annexation of Liangzhou, it seems unnecessary for her to write such a letter just to show off.
Guo Jia pondered the meaning of this and said, "I think the letter was written at the banquet in order to make some people think that she was very satisfied with the reception."
Wouldn’t Qiao Yan know that there is no night market custom in Liangzhou nowadays? Of course not.
With the power she held, it was easy to guess that if she went straight into Guzang, the local nobles would treat her with all kinds of hospitality in order to please her.
The surprise of seeing the delicious wine and fat lamb in this letter seemed a bit deliberate.
Instead, it seems to remind people of another letter.
The meaning is self-evident.
Xi Zhicai thought about it and said, "You should temporarily hand over the tasks on your hands to Governor Cui. It would be best if you could assign more tasks to him. When he is really too busy to handle the tasks, you can invite his son who can handle small sticks but run away when big sticks are thrown to Bingzhou. You can take your men to Liangzhou."
Cui Lie was originally assigned by Liu Hong to Bingzhou to "teach" Qiao Yan, and to vacate the position of one of the three highest officials in the court. However, less than two years after arriving in Bingzhou, he was transferred from being a governor to a prefect because Qiao Yan took the position of governor of Bingzhou.
If I must say, this prefect doesn't have much real power.
Fortunately, Cui Lie's personality was not one that would care about such things, otherwise he would have been dismissed from his position by Qiao Yan long ago. How could he be like he is now, eating and drinking happily in Bingzhou? Even the death of Liu Hong and the birth of an emperor to each other did not affect him at all.
Putting him here would undoubtedly be beneficial to Qiao Yan.
Cui Lie was not only a minister appointed by the previous emperor, but also a famous scholar in Hebei.
Putting such a person in the position of prefect is a manifestation of his attitude.
Compared with Han Fu, who was deprived of his military power, it can be said that Qiao Yan was asked to manage his image.
What he meant was that Cui Lie and Han Fu were both sent to Jizhou by the previous emperor, and now one is still serving as a prefect, while the other has become a prisoner. The former has never complained about Qiao Yan, so it can be seen that the main problem lies with Han Fu, not Qiao Yan.
But now that there is a real shortage of civil officials, Cui Lie cannot just be a symbol, he must be put to use.
After comparing the experience of the few people who followed Qiao Yan to Liangzhou and eating and drinking with her, and his own situation of secretly opening Songling wine and indulging himself here, Xi Zhicai felt even more that he must not let Cui Lie live so comfortably!
Even though he told Guo Jia that it was just two states, when he was guarding the rear and taking over Cheng Yu's responsibilities completely, he really felt a headache.
This was even after Lu Yuan and Qin Yu had already shared a considerable portion of the work with him.
Now in this letter from Qiao Yan, she was asking someone to cooperate with her to exploit the nobles in Liangzhou, especially those in Wuwei County. Since Jia Xu, the local old fox, had already gone to Chang'an as an undercover, she still had to send another person.
Xun You, who is already in Liang Province, is good at military strategy, so it would be better to let Guo Jia go on this matter.
Cui Lie and Zhang Liao, one a civil official and one a military official, are just the right people to take over Guo Jia's current affairs.
But Cui Lie was not that brave, and it would be bad if he showed weakness in front of the Xianbei. On the contrary, his second son, Cui Jun, or Cui Zhouping, was a real figure, so it was a good opportunity to see if he could be recruited to Bingzhou.
Cui Jun was selected as a filial and honest official at an early age and was promoted in the officialdom, but with Dong Zhuo's chaotic rule and two emperors in power, he was not given any assignments. In Xi Zhicai's opinion, this person might have been waiting and waiting, so he temporarily returned to Anping, where the Cui family of Boling lived, and did not serve under Yuan Shao.
So instead of continuing to be idle, he might as well come and help his father.
How is this not a reflection of the Han people’s filial piety?
After Xi Zhicai finished his calculations, he turned to Guo Jia and asked, "I remember you mentioned last month that Wen Ruo had the idea of becoming an official. Does he have any new news?"
Given his friendship with Guo Jia and Xun Yu, it made no difference who Xun Yu sent the letter to. However, after Qiao Yan went to war in Liang Province, Xi Zhicai had no free time, so Xun Yu's letter was delivered directly to Guo Jia last month.
The letter vaguely revealed his intention to leave Yingchuan.
This is not surprising.
After all, Xun Yu was evaluated by He Yong as a person with the talent to assist the king. With his current age and knowledge, he should have found a place to realize his ambitions long ago. However, he was delayed first because of the Party and Factions Persecution caused by the success of the eunuchs and then because of Dong Zhuo's usurpation of power.
It would be wrong to wait any longer.
However, when Xi Zhicai asked about this matter, he was not expecting Xun Yu to come to work like Cui Jun, but was just a routine care for his good friend.
He knew very well that it was impossible for Xun Yu to come to Qiao Yan for the time being.
Considering the status of the Xun family of Yingchuan in the literati circle, sending Xun You to be a military advisor because of Xun Shuang was already a very unusual choice and a necessary expense for rescuing the emperor. However, it was absolutely impossible for them to send Xun Yu, who had more hope of taking charge of internal affairs in the family.
Unless Qiao Yan has already eliminated Dong Zhuo and is supporting Emperor Liu Xie.
Xi Zhicai, who knew Qiao Yan's ambitions, although wanted to push his boss for a promotion, knew that successfully rescuing Liu Xie was not as beneficial to Qiao Yan as the current situation where Dong Zhuo and Yuan Shao each held an emperor hostage.
Then I can only ask where Xun Yu is going first.
Guo Jia replied, "He has not decided yet. He can't go to Chang'an, but as for Yecheng... Liu Youzhou's trip to Liangzhou, Wen Ruo can see that it was Yuan Shao's people who pushed him, so he is even less likely to go. I heard from his letter that he wanted to travel around the states first, and he is currently in Xuzhou. I wrote back to remind him not to learn from Chen Yuanlong of Xia Pi who likes to eat sashimi, and there is no need to say anything else."
Chen Deng was not the only one in Xuzhou who liked to eat sashimi. Mi Zhu, who was also from Xuzhou, brought a portion of fresh sashimi when he came to give a gift to Qiao Yan last year.
But Mi Zhu brought sea fish, while Chen Deng liked to eat sashimi of river fish. As for the difference, Wu Pu, who was in Bingzhou, was specially invited by Qiao Yan to explain it. It was also published in the Leping Monthly this year and sent to Xun Yu by Guo Jia along with the letter.
Given Xun Yu's family background, he would not encounter any danger in Xuzhou. This is why Guo Jia said, "There is no need to say anything else."
However, if he had to say it, Xun Yu also mentioned in the letter that his neighbor in Xuzhou's temporary residence was Zhuge Xuan, the younger brother of the former Taishan County Magistrate and Liu Biao's old official. Zhuge Xuan resigned from his post and went to Xuzhou to take care of his brother Zhuge Gui's widow and young son, and became his companion.
Zhuge Gui died of illness last year, and Xun Yu didn't know what kind of person he was.
But his three sons, Zhuge Jin, Zhuge Liang and Zhuge Jun, all seemed quite intelligent, which made him happy and he praised them a lot. Especially Zhuge Liang, who ranked second, was very eloquent at a young age.
Guo Jia joked in his reply that if this was true, Wen Ruo might teach him a thing or two when he had nothing to do.
When he sent the Leping Monthly Report, he was not just reminding him to be careful about eating raw fish, but also sending a reading material to Xun Yu's neighbor.
However, there were quite a few students around ten years old in Leping Academy, so Guo Jia didn't pay much attention to it.
After handing over the matters in his hands to Cui Lie, in exchange for the other party's confused look as if he was forced to work overtime after being used to a leisurely life, Guo Jia led a team of people to Liangzhou.
He didn't go alone.
Because of the military farming project in the Lushui River Basin in Wuwei County of Liangzhou, he recruited several more officials from Qin Yu, and brought along Jia Xu's eldest son Jia Mu, as well as Bi Lan, who had reformed himself and failed during his time in Bingzhou, before leaving.
This was also what Qiao Yan meant in his last letter arriving in Bingzhou in August.
Although Xi Zhicai and Guo Jia had figured out the meaning of the riddle in the previous letter, as a superior, she still had to give accurate instructions.
The two letters arrived within a day of each other.
In the next letter, it was mentioned that Xi Zhicai and Guo Jia should decide on their own who would come to Liangzhou to assist, and the one who came must also bring strategies for dealing with the Wuwei nobles.
At the same time, Qiao Yan himself was not idle either.
As the representative of the Wuwei nobles to receive her, Yan Jun took her to various places in Wuwei County for more than half a month.
This undoubtedly played into Qiao Yan's hands.
When Guo Jia arrived in Guzang, Qiao Yan had already run back and forth to Xiutu Lake and had also demarcated the area to be used for military farming.
On the surface, the land that Qiao Yan is going to reclaim is all undeveloped wasteland within the river area.
These lands were abandoned due to the shortage of manpower in Wuwei County and did not conflict with the interests of local wealthy families.
But anyone who sees such a team of elite soldiers running around would probably find it difficult to remain calm.
If Qiao Yan had not made any demands on them, the wealthy families in Wuwei County would have even considered giving up some more land to avoid the disaster.
But if they said this, they would be at a disadvantage, so they simply gathered more manpower to guard the fort and coordinated with each other to keep watch.
This also made Qiao Yan more certain that it would not be easy to get these people to hand over the caravan, or the personnel who were familiar with the terrain of the Western Regions.
She couldn't reveal her need for trade with the Western Regions in front of them first.
Giving these people bargaining chips would not be of any benefit to her in governing the four Hexi counties that occupied more than half of Liangzhou's area.
Since the current situation was not urgent, she might as well follow the procedures to complete the task of farming and pacifying the people.
Guo Jia was quite interesting. He came to Wuwei from Bingzhou and asked people to take two routes.
One way is to take a boat upstream from Shuofang County until you reach the Yanyin Ferry in Wuwei County, and then cross the Wushaoling Ridge to Guzang.
One route is to reach Xiutu Lake through the grassland outside the border between Shuofang County and Wuwei County, and then follow the Lu River.
He himself took the latter route, and asked Bi Lan and others to take the former route.
This is really a smart decision.
This move meant that Qiao Yan's control over Shuofang County was flawless. She could connect the four Hexi counties with Bingzhou through Shuofang County at any time, directly shortening the distance for Bingzhou to send troops to Wuwei. At the same time, it made it impossible to guess which path she would take.
Secondly——
Isn't this also a further deterrent to the Xianbei people on the grassland?
Guo Jia said: "Although the Xianbei dare not invade Bingzhou for the sake of interests and military deterrence, only when the power of the Lord becomes stronger can Bu Dugen become more cautious. If we always rely on surprise attacks on the Xianbei royal court, people will be scared away, so I asked him to escort me for a while."
It was called an escort, but in fact it was also to let Bu Dugen see the armed momentum of another Bingzhou army.
The news he heard from Guo Jia made Bu Dugen feel that instead of confronting this powerful governor of Bingzhou head head-on, he might as well continue to submit to her.
The brutal blow suffered by the Qiang people in Liangzhou and the execution of Han Sui, the rebel in Liangzhou, made Bu Dugen see more clearly the consequences of opposing Qiao Yan.
Anyway, he didn't suffer much loss in exchange for the supplies he offered in the form of cattle and sheep, and he even found a place for some of his tribesmen to spend the winter. He didn't have to repeat the winter invasion and looting that he had done in previous years.
To this end, he also cooperated with Guo Jia and drove this year's "balance payment" of cattle and sheep from Shuofang County all the way to Wuwei County, and only turned back when he reached the border of Wuwei County.
This scene undoubtedly gave a second round of shock to the Wuwei nobles and the local Lushui Qiang people.
When did the Xianbei people, who had attacked Jiuquan a few years ago, become like this!
This is like a cattle and sheep producer!
"That's the answer you gave." Qiao Yan admired Guo Jia's use of his opponent's strength, so he continued, "But fear alone and recognizing the gap in strength are not enough to achieve my current goal. I need them to work sincerely for me for at least two years to open up the Western Regions."
The military forces she has are limited and it is not suitable for them to be used in any venture that is too pioneering.
Guo Jia was also very clear about this. He had already considered this on the way to Liangzhou, so he replied without hesitation: "This will trouble you, my lord, to expose some weaknesses, which are in line with the weaknesses at this time."
Qiao Yan looked towards him, and seeing his determined expression, he couldn't help but smile and said, "Okay, I'll allow you to give it a try."
The arrival of Guo Jia, a subordinate of Qiao Yan, in Wuwei was no small matter for Wuwei.
Since this person is also responsible for supervising Qiao Yan's affairs against the Xianbei Hu people, it is self-evident that his status is not low.
That’s no small matter!
Yan Jun had already received a signal from Qiao Yan - things can be done more easily over a meal, so when Qiao Yan returned to Gaoping City to do some work, he specially invited Guo Jia to dinner.
What he didn't expect was that the fat sheep that he thought was cooked impeccably was met with particularly harsh comments from Guo Jia.
"It's not that I dislike you," the young man turned the wine pot in his hand, frowned and continued, "You know that when my prince was in Bingzhou, he named a kind of pork Dongpo Pork. Rock sugar, also known as rock honey, was added to the meat to remove the fishy smell and increase the freshness. The prince likes sweet food very much, and it has become a trend."
"As the saying goes, if the superior likes something, the subordinates will like it even more. You even made a mistake in thinking about what you like. No wonder the Lord only treats you with courtesy."
Yan Jun was shocked.
But if you think about it carefully, it makes sense. Qiao Yan obviously likes wine much more than roast lamb. Isn't it because of its sweet taste?
Maybe not because it’s more expensive.
Rock honey...
Only rock honey from Yizhou and Xirong, that is, Persia, can be classified as top grade.
Since Liu Yan became the governor of Yizhou, there has been little outflow of goods, especially honey which is only consumed by noble families.
So, he has to try to send a batch to Xirong?
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