Chapter 70 Living in Peace and Happiness
Leping is not easy?
Not to mention Zhang Niujiao, who had just led his brothers down the mountain carrying mulberry branches, and cast a dazed and confused look at Cui Lie. Even outside Leping, the many celebrities who received Xi Zhicai's daily letters would probably roll their eyes at him if they heard what Cui Lie said at this moment.
Look at that guy Xi Zhicai!
After his own county marquis was confined to Leping, he also had less work to do that required him to come up with ideas.
Thus, as Leping continued to develop at a slow but steady pace, his letters were filled with a sense of freedom and health.
He Yong was almost envious to death.
But He Boqiu also knew that he was now the chairman of the Three Dukes' Palace and was in the vortex of Luoyang, so it was obviously impossible for him to take a step back.
In October of the second year of Zhongping, Sikong Yang Ci passed away. Like Qiao Xuan's funeral the previous year, he was sent back to Hongnong for burial with the Northern Army escorting the funeral procession and the corpse being carried on a chariot.
In the same month, Guanglu Dafu Xu Xiang was promoted to Sikong, replacing the position left by Yang Ci.
Guanglu Xun Ding Gong served as Si Tu and became Cui Lie's successor.
In November of the second year of Zhongping, General Zhang Wen defeated Beigong Boyu in Meiyang, achieving some initial success in the Han army's fight against the Liangzhou rebels. However, Dong Zhuo and Zhou Shen, who were responsible for pursuing the Ling Qiang, were unable to further consolidate the results.
In the third year of Zhongping, Zhao Ci of Jiangxia rebelled, and Qin Jie, the prefect of Nanyang who had made great contributions in the Yellow Turban Rebellion, was killed. In October of the third year of Zhongping, the Wuling barbarians rebelled, and in December, the Xianbei invaded Youzhou, and the sounds of unrest in all directions became more and more frequent.
But what is the emperor of this dynasty doing?
Zhang Wen returned to the court and was appointed as the Grand Marshal, leaving the position of General of Chariots and Cavalry vacant. Liu Hong finally had the opportunity to push the eunuch Zhao Zhong to the position of a powerful official and appointed him to the position of General of Chariots and Cavalry.
Former Grand Commandant Zhang Yan could clearly see the emperor's weighing of pros and cons in the court that day, but he could not see that he would end up being imprisoned and executed for the slander of officials. In Liu Hong's view, he became a raging fire that could be extinguished.
Si Tu Ding Kong, Si Kong Xu Xiang, and Tai Wei Zhang Wen were all shocked. During the meeting in the Three Dukes' Office, the issue of killing the eunuchs was even brought to the table without any cover-up.
But at this time, Liu Hong had just experienced how little benefit these eunuchs, who could only rely on themselves to survive, could bring him after letting them take power. How could he allow such a notorious voice to achieve substantial results at this time?
He Yong could only write in a letter to his friend, recording what he saw:
[Strange things happen frequently, there are many strange things.]
The people of Luoyang have two heads and four arms, and they live together at both ends.
When I passed Huailing in autumn, I saw thousands of sparrows crying sadly and then fighting and killing each other. 1
Why? Why?
Fortunately, there is a general amnesty, so the disaster may be avoided. 】
What He Yong wanted to say was obviously not the last sentence, something like fortunately there is a decree of amnesty that can calm the evil behind these strange things, but he is a scholar in the torrent, and if he says everything in such a situation, it will not do any good except that he will follow in Zhang Yan's footsteps.
So he only writes about weird things.
In comparison, Xi Zhicai's life is too comfortable.
In the winter of the second year of Zhongping, in order to prevent the yam harvested in Leping from being improperly preserved, Qiao Yan hired county residents to make yam powder during this off-season, and sent it to Jinyang for sale. He also enclosed a few cans of the powder in a letter to He Yong.
It is said that because of his previous friendship with Hua Tuo, Qiao Yan wrote a letter to ask what medicine should be added to the yam powder, and finally the contents of this jar became what was in it.
[Dioscorea, ginseng and Atractylodes macrocephala are used together to treat weak spleen and stomach. Nian Boqiu is busy with many things, his mood is not smooth and he has no appetite, so I sent this medicine to him for a try. 】
The letter delivering the medicine finally lacked the usual teasing tone.
But it would be better if Xi Zhicai had not mentioned it in the letter. The yam in Leping grows better than the ordinary yam in the mountains because of the proper cultivation method, and it is expected to have better medicinal effects as well.
It was because this guy didn't want to praise the medicinal effects at all, but instead started talking about the delicacies derived from yam.
What the words mean is that if you don't want to eat, you need to whet your appetite. I'm eating quite well now. I'll share the recipe with you, or you can try it too.
For example, the yam and pork ribs soup that Qiao Yan had given Xi Zhicai when he had a cold.
The ribs at that time were lamb ribs. After all, in Bingzhou, the animal husbandry industry to the north was well developed, and eating lamb was a normal thing.
But this time the ribs were pork chops.
Castration of pigs has been practiced since the Shang and Zhou dynasties. Otherwise, there would not be the saying "boar's teeth are auspicious" as mentioned in the "Book of Changes". In fact, the taste of pork today is pretty good.
However, pigs were one of the imperial sacrifices during the Han Dynasty. Due to food shortages and difficulty in raising them domestically, their prices were relatively higher than other meats.
But Qiao Yan was the Marquis of Leping, so he could still afford it.
In addition, she was under house arrest. According to Xi Zhicai, because she attached great importance to the people's livelihood in Leping, she simply took out the "Book of Si Sheng" compiled in the Western Han Dynasty, and found an entry in it that said "break it into gourds, and the white skin inside is used to feed pigs to make them fat." After building a pigpen in Leping, she first had the pigs slaughtered, and then fed them with gourds.
It was probably based on the agricultural books of the time to raise pigs scientifically.
Therefore, in the winter of the third year of Zhongping, Leping had the authentic yam and pork ribs soup.
With this kind of properly raised and delicious pork, Xi Zhicai's healthy and gourmet life has been unstoppable.
For two consecutive months, He Yong almost tore up the letters when he saw that they were written by Xi Zhicai.
What should I write first about this crap? Leping Hou used rock sugar to enhance the color and cooked Dongpo pork. Although Xi Zhicai didn't know why this dish was called Dongpo pork, it didn't stop him from thinking that this thing was like amber in color and melted in the mouth. It was truly a triple enjoyment of color, aroma and taste.
Then he said that Leping pork has very little peculiar smell and is particularly fat. After the spring begins, you can go on an outing to the county, set up a grill and roast ribs, drinking the mellow spring wine as a side dish, which is truly a pleasure.
He Yong stared at the letter and felt a deep feeling.
Saying a few nice words to a person who deserves a beating will not change his nature. Sooner or later, he will write something that makes people want to break up with him.
However, He Yong just couldn't do that.
Who makes Xi Zhicai's words so important?
Qiao Yan was indeed confined to Leping, but she went to the provincial capital every ten days, and did not reduce her contact with other places in Bingzhou.
Although in the second year, Cui Lie, the Bingzhou governor, used the excuse of wanting to discuss the writing of Dongguan Hanji with Cai Yong to change Qiao Yan's original visit to seek enlightenment into Cui Lie himself coming to the door, which slightly reduced Qiao Yan's going out, but she had established herself in Bingzhou since the seizure of power and the suppression of the locust plague in the second year of Zhongping, so she had a way to listen to the voices of the entire Bingzhou when she lived in Leping.
For example, Yanmen prefect Guo Wei, joined hands with Bingzhou Wu Meng official Zhang Liao, and gained the upper hand in the battle with Kuitou in Yanmen Yunzhong area. This made the Xianbei invaders choose Youzhou as a breakthrough point instead of raiding Youzhou and Bingzhou.
However, Xi Zhicai also mentioned in the letter that Kuitou's younger brother Budugen is ambitious and has the qualities of a leader. There will definitely be a war on the border, and I don't know what the situation will be like. 】
Of course, he didn't complain to He Yong.
He then asked if you could consider talking to His Majesty and ask us to lift the house arrest of Marquis Leping as soon as possible. We in Leping will have enough food and warm clothes, and the entire Shangdang area will have a warlike spirit after our basic needs are met.
In addition to the Black Mountain bandits who had previously surrendered to Leping, many refugees arrived in Leping from Changzhi due to the locust plague in the Central Plains, forming a team ready to guard Yanmen at any time.
This sentence made He Yong have some other thoughts in his mind.
If Xi Zhicai revealed this information in the letter during a relatively peaceful period, He Yong would definitely report it to him and suppress her possession of private soldiers.
But things are different now.
When rebellions broke out, many local officials died. Having a strong enough armed force was especially necessary to protect oneself in the local area.
At a time when the eunuchs' power in the capital was growing, whether Qiao Yan, who had actual combat capabilities outside the capital, could serve as a force that could be won over became something He Yong had to evaluate in his mind.
She did have some friendship with Bi Lan. Even the keel carriages that were built in large numbers in Leping were Bi Lan's masterpiece. However, he was a little different from Zhao Zhong, Zhang Rang and others. At least he did not interfere in the affairs of the court. Now he was just continuing to supervise the construction of the Yutang Palace.
So what about Qiao Yan himself?
Because of Zhang Yi, Yuan Benchu had some complaints about her, but ever since she was granted a title of nobility for her merits in the Yellow Turban Rebellion, she has had a reputation that is completely different from that of ordinary juniors. The political views she expressed in her theory of feudal governors made people feel that they were fair, appropriate, and quite far-sighted.
After Xu Zijiang, a famous scholar, praised her, it can be said that she had a friendship with the scholar.
As long as this introduction is there, there is the possibility of discussing winning over.
Allowing her to develop a potential military force now is actually not a bad thing.
Especially after he mentioned that Xi Zhicai could serve as a bridge of communication, everyone at the meeting in the Three Dukes' Mansion tacitly agreed to this idea.
The potential shown by Leping is not only in this aspect. Zhang Liao had first called it by this name to the bandits, and Qiao Yan had actually named it by this name.
Leping Hou paper.
From the initial mulberry clothing to the research on mulberry paper, great progress has been made in the past two years due to the increasing maturity of papermaking technology.
He Yong didn't know that in the warehouse in Leping, a considerable amount of mulberry paper stored in a moisture-proof manner had accumulated, which was even enough to support the enlightenment education in Leping County. After all, Qiao Yan only asked Xi Zhicai to show off his papermaking achievements by writing a letter.
Then, he said that the production cost was not low and that it could only be supplied to friends in small quantities.
What was supplied was not just paper. Instead, a handwritten copy of one of the volumes of Dongguan Hanji compiled by Cai Yong was sent to He Yong, and he was asked whether he felt there was anything in it that needed to be corrected.
He Yong was not a fool. How could he not see that this was an attempt to extract historical materials or people from him? But as he touched the paper which was much less susceptible to damage than before, and thought that the words of the scholar could surely be further conveyed to the surrounding areas in this way, He Yong could only hold his nose and attach a batch of bamboo slips in his reply.
The subtext is probably: I have brought you what you want, so please send me more paper.
Qiao Yan knew very well that he had to maintain good relations with these scholars at this time. After all, their verbal criticism was enough to shake a person's reputation. Therefore, he did not play any roundabout ways with them and immediately let He Yong receive a batch of usable Leping Marquis paper half a month later.
Of course, before this, a larger amount of paper had already been delivered to Liu Hong.
In her memorial to Liu Hong, Qiao Yan wrote that she had been studying hard since she shut herself in to reflect on her mistakes. Due to the heavy workload, she thought of improving paper, and now she has made this new paper using mulberry bark and other materials.
However, the cost of some parts of this paper has not been reduced. Unlike Cai Hou paper, which is low-cost, it cannot be produced on a large scale. It can only be supplied to the palace first, and a batch is also sent to people with whom it has connections in Luoyang. Once a way is found to reduce the cost, the secret recipe for papermaking will be presented to the palace.
Not to mention that Liu Hong did not have the extra idea of sending people to Leping to verify at this time. Even if he really wanted to do such a thing, Leping could have countermeasures. This emperor, who was famous for his personal enjoyment, did not delve into the matter.
In short, although the reputation of Leping Hou paper had spread, it was mostly known only among the scholar and bureaucratic classes.
But this was enough for He Yong and others to raise Qiao Yan's rank to a higher level.
Because of the Taihang Mountains, they had no way of knowing what kind of developments Leping had made during this period of time that were unknown to outsiders. However, it was almost an inherent perception that Qiao Yeshu would become a great man after lying dormant for two years.
Of course, another person who is also famous is probably Xi Zhicai, the title of "Leping Food Connoisseur".
In the letter to He Yong, he would consult with Qiao Yan to some extent and write something else in order to seek to improve Leping's political status. However, in the letter to his friends in Yingchuan, he did not have to have these concerns.
This is purely a long-term program, and it can be named Leping on the Tip of the Tongue.
As for the strategy of relying on the mountain to make a living, Qiao Yan made full use of it when he was confined to Leping.
As Xi Zhicai said in his letter, it is not only the meat of pigs that is delicious, but all the rare and precious trees in the mountains have their own uses.
For example, a plant called Quercus ovata is not uncommon in the Taihang Mountains. It is a typical wood used to make charcoal, but they recently discovered that because its species contains substances similar to those in corn, it can also be used to make wine, and the wine produced has the aroma of mountain wood.
Another example is the wild grapes in the mountains, which are called Ge Rui in the Book of Songs. Xi Zhicai thought that since peas can be used to make wine, then wild grapes can be used too. As a result, he actually mixed a taste that was both sweet and sour, and he also mentioned it in the letter he sent.
He wrote at the end of the letter:
[Mix rice with lard, add bean paste, a plate of wild vegetables, a cup of pork rib soup, a pot of sake, sit and watch the mountain flowers, look back at the child in the yard holding a windmill, the windmill is made of Leping Hou paper, look back at the mountain fields, the yam is ripe again, but I am full today, so I will make cakes to eat tomorrow. 】
If calculated by lunar age, Guo Jia, who had just turned 18, slammed the table and stood up, facing Xun Yu's gaze, and shouted: "Xi Zhicai has gone too far, I will go to Leping to settle the score with him!"
As for whether to settle the account or to see what it is like there...
Wait till the time comes!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
