Chapter 306: Noodles with Soy Sauce
It is said that Emperor Zhao set out on his journey westward on the fifth day of January. Although he was traveling along what was probably the most accessible road in ancient China, and although there were military stations along the way due to the confrontation across the Yellow River, and although a small half of the accompanying troops were cavalry, he still did not arrive in Chang'an until after the Lantern Festival, and then he sat in Chang'an waiting for news from all sides.
Among them, the Jurchens' responses were concentrated in the second half of January, while the Xixia people made a nearly helpless decision as a small country at the end of January.
By the time Xixia Prime Minister Xue Yuanli and Goryeo envoy Zheng Zhichang arrived in Chang'an, it was already mid-February. Once the Xixia envoys arrived here, they just hurriedly handed over the gifts and were soon idle.
Of course, there is no restriction on their basic personal freedom within the city.
Xue Yuanli went to ask for an audience several times and questioned relevant officials several times, but the information he got was either that Emperor Zhao went for a walk outside the city, or that the emperor went to the Prince of Yan'an's mansion to visit his son-in-law and daughter-in-law, or that he went to visit some famous places of interest.
The Xixia people were not anxious about this but happy instead.
The reason is very simple. The Zhao Song officials are so leisurely and the atmosphere in Chang'an is so casual. This further proves that the actions of the Zhao Song officials this time are likely to be a war blackmail, and the imagined Three Kingdoms war will not happen at all.
In fact, as the Xixia people continued to explore the city, more and more information verified Xue Yuanli's guess.
For example, not only did the Song reinforcements stop moving after entering Weinan, but even Wu Jie retreated slightly to Fangzhou after recaptured the Bao'an Army on the front line. Han Shizhong and Hu Yin also returned to Chang'an one after another... Seeing this, even the Jurchens seemed to be cursing and hesitating, wondering whether to withdraw from the Hezhong Prefecture area. Naturally, the Xixia people felt relieved.
Not only that, Xue Yuanli also found a very convincing reason to further verify that the Zhao Song government had no intention of provoking a war at this time. That was that the young Zhao Song emperor finally had a legitimate child nearly three years after the death of his only heir. Everyone in Chang'an knew that Concubine Wu and Concubine Pan, who were far away in Tokyo, had given birth to two sons for the Zhao Song emperor respectively.
The prince whose nickname was Yuan Zuo was the son of Concubine Wu, born on the third day of the second month; the prince whose nickname was De Zuo was the son of Concubine Pan, born on the seventh day of the second month.
In other words, it was probably the news of the birth of these two princes that stopped the Emperor of Zhao Song from provoking a war... After all, everyone knows that this emperor had given birth to a bunch of daughters before, and the only son had not been raised yet, so when he entered the Pass, he might not have dared to think that they were all sons. And since he had given birth to sons, given the extremely low survival rate of babies in those days and the experience of the previous heir to the throne, he would naturally have concerns from all sides.
Isn't it said that this emperor is also a Buddhist? Isn't he afraid of retribution?
"Is this the Changling Mausoleum?"
On February 19, the weather was clear. Thirty-five miles north of Chang'an City, on the north bank of the Wei River, Zhao Jiu was standing in front of two huge hills, deep in thought. "The one on the west is the tomb of Emperor Gaozu of Han, and the one on the east is the tomb of Empress Lü?"
"yes."
When the emperor went out, Yuwen Xu Zhong, who was a prime minister, had to stay in Chang'an. Han Shizhong was naturally the head of the civil and military entourage. However, Han Shizhong could not understand all this. The person who spoke was Hu Yin, the transport envoy of the five routes in Guanxi.
"What are those buildings in the middle?" Zhao Jiu was still curious.
"He was buried with the hero."
"oh?"
"From the westernmost end of the mausoleum, 14 miles east to the Jing River, all of them are the tombs of the founding heroes of the Former Han Dynasty." Hu Yin answered slowly with a blank expression. "Xiao He, Cao Shen, Zhou Bo, Zhou Yafu, Wang Ling, Ji Xin, Zhang Er, Tian Ran, Tian Sheng, etc. are all there..."
"No Zhang Liang?" Han Shizhong, who had been reading for a few days, suddenly interrupted and asked curiously.
"No." Hu Yin answered seriously. "Not only is there no Zhang Liang, but there is also no Chen Ping, no Zhu Lu, and even less Han Xin!"
Han Shizhong obviously didn't understand Hu Yin's joke, so he continued to ask: "Why not? Zhang Liang has made such a great contribution..."
"Nine out of ten, it was stolen!" Emperor Zhao, who was watching the situation at Changling with his hands behind his back, seemed to be unable to bear seeing his beloved general and relative being teased, and immediately interrupted. "What else could it be? The Green Forest and Red Eyebrows must not recognize the Han Dynasty's meritorious officials, just like the Jin army and the Heluo bandits and military thieves in the early years of Jianyan did not recognize the imperial tombs of our dynasty. Of course, they would search through them, take the pearls and jade, and scatter the bones... There are only so many of the tombs left in the dozens of miles of burial tombs, which shows that most of them were stolen and leveled."
Hu Yin nodded and said, "I think so too. For example, although there are many opinions about Zhang Liang's burial place, it is clear that Xiao He was buried in Changling. There are also various rumors about other places, which shows that many meritorious officials should be buried here. However, during the Red Eyebrows and Green Forest Incident, even Empress Lü's body was dug up. I am afraid that the bones of most meritorious officials were scattered."
At this point, Hu Yin paused for a moment, and finally revealed a mocking expression: "Even if Han Xin had ended up like him, he would have large tombs and burial mounds in various places. Isn't that ridiculous?"
All the ministers who accompanied him, whether they were not well educated like Han Shizhong, Wang De, and Li Shifu, or military generals with some knowledge like Yue Fei, Qu Duan, Liu Qi, Yang Yi Zhong, and Liu Yan, sighed.
"Do I have a mausoleum?" Zhao Jiu glanced at the group of people, feeling complicated and suddenly remembered something.
"No..." Hu Yin answered seriously. "But the Emperor Taishang Daojun had one, which was built several decades before the Jingkang period. It is in Luoyang, but there is nothing there, so it has not been dug up."
Han Shizhong and the others were fine with what he said, but several accompanying civil servants couldn't help feeling embarrassed... because Hu Mingzhong almost asked Emperor Zhao to rob the tomb of the retired emperor. Anyway, judging from the current situation, the Emperor Taishang Daojun would most likely pass away in Shaolin Temple, and there might even be a pagoda for free.
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