Chapter 261 The Cocktail Party Begins
Just take a look at Ni Heng's Fu on the Parrot to understand his writing habits.
Uncommon characters such as 蓐翮巇觜坻矧歔牖 appear frequently between the lines of his writings, which fully demonstrates the fact that his writing is too high-brow to be understood by the general public. 1
So the question is, if Yuan Xi was born in an ordinary family, would he still be able to recognize these words?
Now is not the time for everyone to have a Xinhua Dictionary.
Hearing Guo Jia's question "You recognize them all?", Yuan Xi's heart skipped a beat, fearing that he would show any abnormality in his expression.
Obviously, Guo Jia was not much older than him, but because of Tian Feng's reminder, Yuan Xi felt a bit of awe towards Guo Jia.
He suddenly had an idea and replied, "There are indeed many characters that I have not learned. This is why I am upset that I cannot fully understand what he said, and even more upset that I cannot write as well as he does."
Although he didn't know that his "father" whom Guo Jia had confiscated was once given the title of genius by Qiao Yan and was pushed to his current position, he intuitively felt that this was not a good word for him.
No matter whether he was moved by the experience of the parrot in the article, or felt uneasy because he related to his own experience, or because there was a gap in the comparison, as long as there is a reasonable explanation, it will be fine.
Guo Jia didn't intend to embarrass him here, and just said: "Okay, I'll explain it to you on the way out of the city."
Yuan Xi actually didn't want to review the poem again, but he had given Guo Jia the reason for not reading it through, so he had no choice but to listen to it again.
In his heart, he couldn't help but scold Ni Heng who wrote this article.
Why would he, a good scholar from Qingzhou, go to Chang'an and write such a poem, which not only mocked Yecheng, but also brought great pressure to the second son of the Qingzhou governor?
Fortunately, after they got out of the city, Yuan Xi's situation became much better.
Guo Jia said that he wanted to let him see the posts in various places in Chang'an City. He actually took Yuan Xi to visit many places on the pretext that the Chief Secretary would replace the Grand Marshal to inspect various places.
For Mr. Yuan, the only difficult thing was that he had to walk for a long time.
Compared to the test of one's inner heart, this can only be regarded as a test of one's physical strength.
Happiness is revealed by comparison.
While staying in Meiwu at night, he heard some good news from Guo Jia.
Why did Guo Jia replace Qiao Yan to inspect the area, and why did he postpone his plan for two days?
It’s still Yuan Shao’s fault for being so unconventional.
He actually let Ju Shou and Gao Gan attack Runan through the private troops of Chenliu Gao family, and successfully caught Yuan Shu off guard.
Yuan Shu was seriously injured and sent Yuan Yao to Chang'an to seek help and medical treatment. This forced Qiao Yan to pay attention to the war situation in the east to ensure that there would be no interference in the exchange of interests at the wine party in Chang'an.
"But there's no need to worry," Guo Jia slowly handed the barbecue in his hand to Yuan Xi, and said, "Judging from the recent fighting between the two parties, Jizhou is still peaceful for the time being, and it won't affect your family. But I still want to suggest that you persuade your father to bring your family to Chang'an as soon as possible, which is better than going through the chaos and war in the future and causing any problems."
Yuan Xi had just received the news that his father's military expedition was successful, and his thoughts flew to the east. Suddenly, he heard Guo Jia saying something about persuading his father to bring his family to Chang'an. He almost didn't react to who the father he was talking about was.
Fortunately, thanks to the rote memorization in the past three days, he quickly pulled himself back from the brink of exposing his identity. He replied, "I will persuade my father."
Guo Jia didn't seem to realize how deceptive his words were. After all, it was difficult to discern emotions in the night light.
In the following day, perhaps because they had become familiar with each other and were of the same age, the sense of intimidation Yuan Xi felt from Guo Jia inevitably weakened a little.
Yuan Xi guessed that this might be because Guo Jia was already certain that he was just an ordinary person.
He was relieved that he had finally gotten away with it.
On his way back to Chang'an, he even tried a mule cart in the fields.
During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, mules were only owned by the nobility. The most precious ones were called white mules. Even though people knew how mules were produced during the Qin and Han Dynasties, they were not widely used.
So when Yuan Xi suddenly saw such a thing in Guanzhong, he couldn't help but be a little surprised.
According to what he saw and heard in Chang'an and what he had come into direct contact with in the past few days, the Marquis of Leping took a pragmatic approach.
Just as the new road in Chang'an looks simple but is actually durable, the farmland reclamation and water conservancy projects around Chang'an are also quite stable. I don't know why such mules were used to pull carts.
For mules to reproduce, it is only in extremely rare cases, which is undoubtedly a waste of resources.
This is what Yuan Xi thought and asked this question.
Guo Jia's eyes flashed with a hint of amusement, but he did not show any hidden calculation in his reply. He just asked seriously: "Do you know the difference between a mule born from a mare and a donkey and a mule born from a female donkey and a male horse?"
This is not a secret nowadays, but it is not the scope of knowledge that Yuan Xi wants to be exposed to, so he could only shake his head.
Guo Jia replied: "The mule born from a female horse and a male donkey is called a horse mule. It inherits the mother's relatively docile and easy to tame characteristics. It is superior to the mule born from a female donkey and a male horse in terms of load-bearing capacity and herding effect."
When he said this, he pointed to the donkey driving the cart and said, "This is a mule."
"But..." Yuan Xi asked hesitantly, "Since it is to be born by a mare, why not let the mare give birth to a horse?"
Guo Jia shook his head and said, "Let me ask you, how much food does a horse need to eat in a day when carrying a heavy load?"
Although Yuan Xi had never personally participated in the battle, he had some understanding of such issues so that he could help his father when necessary.
He thought for a moment and replied, "If we only count the concentrate and not the grass, it's 40 kilograms."
Guo Jia smiled, "Then do you know how much a donkey needs to eat in a day of carrying loads?"
Yuan Xi didn't even know the difference between a donkey mule and a horse mule, so how could he know the answer?
Guo Jia had no intention of embarrassing him, and replied directly, "The fine feed provided only requires ten kilograms."
Not counting the rest of the fodder that the soldiers need to carry, the amount is only a quarter of that of the war horses.
"The saved food can be used to recruit more civilians for the real battle." Guo Jia said in a serious tone: "Don't underestimate these numbers. They are enough to form a decisive advantage on the battlefield. Moreover, mules are hardworking and slow, but they have strong endurance. They are particularly good at transporting goods across mountains. Otherwise, how do you think we won Hanzhong so quickly?"
Yuan Xi thought about what Guo Jia said and it seemed to be true.
However, he was completely unaware that if the improvement was made directly on the means of transportation, the resulting advantages would be sufficient to allow for direct use of manpower for transportation without having to consider the difficult production of mules. He also had no idea how many years it would take for a mule to grow from being able to carry farm loads to being able to carry military supplies.
He just thought that the calculus strength of their Jizhou side was weaker than that of Bingzhou, and the number of times they sent out troops was far less than that of Qiao Yan, so if they came to such a conclusion, there would be no problem.
After weighing the pros and cons in his mind, he asked the last question for him, "But in this case, these mounts used for transportation cannot reproduce to get the next generation, so as to expand the scale, right?"
Guo Jia shook his head. "You are still limited to the number. Even if these mounts are horses instead of mules, it will take one or two years to breed the next generation, and it will take another time for the next generation to grow up. But mules are less likely to get sick, and the labor time is as long as 20 years. Do you really have to expand this scale?"
He then asked, "Or do you think that twenty years is not enough time for the Chang'an court to recover the east and unify the country?"
Yuan Xi's current identity is Yuan Feng's son, not Yuan Shao's son, so his reply naturally needs to stand on the standpoint of the Chang'an court.
He could only look forward to the Chang'an court winning and capturing Jizhou.
Twenty years... The world certainly won’t be divided for that long.
Yuan Xi was completely fooled and fell into this trap. He planned to talk about this matter with his father after returning to Yecheng.
He was immersed in his own thoughts when he suddenly heard Guo Jia shouting, "Watch out ahead!"
Yuan Xi quickly withdrew his thoughts and refocused his attention on what was in front of him.
Previously, in order to let him experience the effect of a mule pulling a cart, Guo Jia handed the reins to Yuan Xi.
However, in his sudden distraction, he did not notice that they were getting closer and closer to Chang'an.
Because of their patrol route, they were returning from the north of Chang'an at this time, and they joined a team of mules pulling carts.
It was not known if it was because the mules on both sides were not of the same breed, but even though Yuan Xi was pulling the reins with all his might, the mule cart they were riding in still ran straight into one of the cars without stopping, and a car accident was about to happen!
Oops!
Yuan Xi didn't have time to think about it. He saw that there were a lot of bottles and jars on the mule cart in front. If he really hit it and broke it, he might get hurt. When Guo Jia pulled him, he also jumped down from the side of the cart.
Fortunately, the mule was not moving very fast and there happened to be a haystack next to the ridge of the field, so they did not get hurt when jumping off the mule.
Almost the next moment after Yuan Xi jumped off the car, the two mule carts rear-ended each other.
The mule pulling the cart was originally only four or five years old, at most old enough to be used for farm work. It was overloaded for pulling such a heavy object. After being hit, it broke free from the reins in fright and ran away.
So after that loud crash, both carts overturned on the spot.
Their car was relatively good; all the jars on the other car were smashed to pieces on the ground.
As soon as Yuan Xi stood up, he was hit in the face by the strong smell of alcohol.
The strong smell of the liquor almost made him drunk.
Guo Jia reached out his hand to support him, but just as he supported him, he pushed him out after seeing the situation clearly.
Ever since Yuan Xi met Guo Jia, he had only seen him relaxed and at ease. He had never seen him behave so out of control.
After pushing him away, the young man went straight to the broken wine jars and stopped in front of a few of them. He beat his chest and stamped his feet in frustration, muttering, "My medicine! Why did I have to break these jars?"
Yuan Xi looked intently at the broken pieces of wine jars and the remaining liquid, and saw that this thing was no different from ordinary wine. Even if there was any difference, it was just -
At the bottom of the broken wine jar, there were still some garlic crumbs left.
This doesn't seem to have anything to do with drugs.
However, when he asked this question, Guo Jia rolled his eyes at him and said, "What do you know? When garlic is prepared with a special method and soaked in wine, after a period of time, a layer of liquid will appear on the top that is separate from the wine. This thing can be used to treat diseases such as coughs and diarrhea, and its efficacy is even better than that of expensive medicines."2
Guo Jia sighed heavily, looked at the mule cart teams that had restored order, and then looked at Yuan Xi, the guy who had caused the trouble, and said, "Forget it, what's the point of telling you this now? We have to start all over again anyway."
"What's left is just a little bit of wine residue. The only useful layer on top is gone."
Guo Jia rummaged through several broken jars but couldn't find what he needed. The gloom on his face grew darker.
"Forget it, I won't look for it anymore. Come with me and change cars to go back to Chang'an."
Yuan Xi listened helplessly to Guo Jia muttering about the preciousness of this thing all the way. It seemed that because he was the one who handed over the control of the mule cart to Yuan Xi, and as the Chief Clerk of the Grand Marshal's Mansion, it was not easy for him to lose his temper with Yuan Xi, so he suppressed his anger.
The modern name for intestinal diarrhea is dysentery, and Yuan Xi knew a little about it.
This disease is not uncommon among the common people, and it often occurs during major epidemics. If there is really a method to easily alleviate it, it may indeed be called a treasure.
Now he has broken several jars into pieces.
I don't know if this will expose my identity.
He followed Guo Jia back to Chang'an in fear, and was then thrown back to Tian Feng, from whom he learned the existence of allicin.
Tian Feng said, "To be honest, I don't know how this thing is made. It only appeared after Mr. Yuan Hua arrived in Leping. According to the results of their tests, it can cure not only coughs and diarrhea, but also brain fever and diphtheria. It was published in the Leping Monthly. But I didn't know until today that this thing was actually stored in wine."
Seeing that Yuan Xi was still in a state of panic, Tian Feng comforted him, "Don't worry so much. This can be considered a disaster as well as a blessing. When you find a way to return to Yecheng, tell Yu Minggong about this. There are many famous doctors in Jizhou, and they will be able to get a result from the experiment."
"I will buy two bottles of finished garlic extract for you to take back for comparison. I won't be afraid that the people of Jizhou will find out whether it is good or bad after eating it."
Yuan Xi felt relieved when he heard Tian Feng speak so confidently.
But compared to him, Guo Jia was probably the more relaxed one.
He watched the doctor bandage his sprained foot and apply medicine to the barely visible scratch on his hand. He turned to Qiao Yan and said, "My Lord, I have fulfilled your mission."
Guo Jia was not a good actor, but fortunately, he had to express this mixture of true and false in a way that Yuan Xi could not tell the difference, so it was not as difficult as he had imagined.
Mules are certainly good things, but to make them replace horses to the extent that he told Yu Yuanxi about, even Qiao Yan, who had tried it in Leping six or seven years ago, could not do it, let alone someone who came up with the idea on impulse.
Allicin is also a good thing. However, if you only know that it can be extracted by soaking in wine, then you are really naive. Even if you have the finished product in hand as a reference, it is not easy to get out of the misconception.
These are the two traps that Guo Jia carefully selected for Yecheng.
Two traps that look delicious but only waste your money!
Qiao Yan smiled back, "Now, we can hold this wine discussion party with peace of mind."
At the end of May, the wind was blowing in Chang'an.
A line of attendants took down all the calligraphy, paintings and manuscripts at the end of the new road, indicating that the ten-day submission campaign had come to an end.
These works will be sent to the court for selection, and the final winning works will be exhibited and displayed to the public.
After no objections were raised within three days, the result was finalized and the corresponding reward was given as Qiao Yan had promised before.
People who stopped here to watch couldn't help but whisper about the possible consequences.
As expected, the first person to be named in the manuscript was Wang Can.
As the first person to submit a work, he not only prompted others to submit their works enthusiastically, but also caused them considerable psychological pressure.
Until the end, no one emerged to surpass him.
If Qiao Yan were to judge, it would be correct to say that writing is moving because of emotion. Those who wrote full volumes of articles in response to the times were not like Wang Can, who had details and true feelings in every word and sentence.
Ni Heng also stands out among them, but this is probably because -
Two days ago, when he went out, he was beaten with a sack on his head.
Fortunately, the security situation on the streets of Chang'an was good enough, and the beating was immediately discovered. Although the patrolling Jinwu Guards failed to catch the perpetrators, at least Ni Heng did not face any personal safety problems.
Everyone can guess why he was beaten: this parrot poem was so offensive.
But Ni Heng didn't care about it at all.
According to what he said to Yang Xiu, it was able to mobilize everyone's emotions, which shows that his short fu was successful.
Yang Xiu was at a loss whether to laugh or cry about this, and could only ask people to pay more attention to Ni Heng's safety.
There are many excellent articles written below the level of Wang Can and Ni Heng, but perhaps due to time constraints, there are not many that are distinctive.
It’s hard to say who the third person is.
As for the calligraphy and painting group, in addition to Zhang Chang's Chang'an Fu, which is undoubtedly in the top three, there is a rare and eye-catching painting.
The picture is extremely simple, with only an arm wearing leather armor and a black dog, but the picture is vivid and jumps off the paper, and is definitely not an ordinary work.
The only thing written here is "Anonymous", which seems to indicate that he has no intention of revealing his identity to the people of Chang'an at this time.
However, it doesn’t matter if you don’t know his name at this time. If you are really selected, you will still have to face the questioning during the public announcement stage.
Before the result is announced, the more important thing for people in Chang'an City is the wine discussion party!
The young men of the aristocratic families who had been eagerly awaiting this wine discussion were extremely surprised to learn that the meeting was actually held on the rammed earth platform outside the Lingtai.
The wooden stakes on it were completely removed when the new emperor ascended the throne, which made it convenient for them to sit here.
What surprised them even more was that when they sat down, two rows of people came with wine jars and wine bowls and placed them in front of each of them.
Everyone was confused and puzzled.
Logically speaking, the purpose of this wine discussion meeting is to ban and limit alcohol, but now the wine is taken out first. What's the logic behind this?
So when the Grand Marshal Qiao Yan walked over and took the seat at the head of the table, someone immediately asked this question.
"Isn't Da Sima planning to welcome us?"
The man laughed out loud halfway through his words.
If this is true, then the idea of limiting alcohol consumption would probably be just empty talk.
Qiao Yan raised his eyes to look at the person who was speaking, and raised his hand to fill the bowl in front of him with wine.
She smiled and said, "Why not?"
Before she finished her words, everyone saw her raise her hand to take the fire lighter handed to her by the person next to her and put it next to the wine bowl.
The next moment, a cluster of flames suddenly burst out from the bowl in front of her!
But she seemed to ignore the flames and just raised the wine bowl on the table.
Also raised that ball of fire!
The high platform fell into silence for a moment, and she said in a loud voice: "I would like to use this wine to welcome you all!"
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