Chapter 824 Five Years Later (Thirteen) Jiang Yijun
The 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month is the Little New Year.
Annam (present-day Vietnam), Champa, winter rains fall incessantly.
In Champa, thousands of miles away from Chang'an, in a house described by the local dark-skinned, thin, and short indigenous people as a fine house inhabited by the Upper Tang people, Jiang Yiyun and Bi Qionglan sat facing each other at a table by the window on the second floor.
In reality, this so-called good house was just a one- or two-story wooden building, built by craftsmen and officials from the Ministry of Works who came from Chang'an.
There's no shortage of good timber in the mountains around Champa; there are plenty of large beams that would take two people to encircle.
Jiang Yiyun and Bi Qionglan were unaware of the uproar their memorial to Chang'an had stirred up in the imperial court months earlier.
"The climate here is just too perfect for farming. Look, it's almost the end of December and it's only been raining a little bit."
As she spoke, Bi Qionglan reached out the window to catch the rain falling from the sky.
The slightly cool raindrops fell onto her palm. Bi Qionglan looked out the window at the greenery that was so different from Chang'an. On this festive day, she still felt a little homesick.
Jiang Yiyun pushed the cake plate on the table toward Bi Qionglan, "Grandma Bi, I know you miss home."
Here, have a taste. This was made by a junior apprentice trained by the master chef at Xiang Gui Ji in Chang'an. In the entire city of Champa, you could only find a dish like this here.
I only got this because I have some connections with Commander Xue, and I asked him to bring a pastry chef along if he could.
Now that pastry chef has entered the palace of the King of Annam, who knows when we'll be able to enjoy such a treat again.
After offering this advice, Jiang Yijun reached out and took some cakes from the plate and started eating.
Bi Qionglan is an adult; she was just acting on impulse.
She smiled at Jiang Yijun and said, "Okay, I'm benefiting from your help."
I bet if it weren't for the Lunar New Year's Eve, you wouldn't have been willing to take this plate out, would you?
After exchanging a few more jokes, Bi Qionglan looked at the rain, which had subsided, and turned to Jiang Yijun, asking, "I wonder if our memorial has reached Chang'an yet?"
Did the sage know this?
What would those officials in the imperial court think?
Are you supporting our proposal? Or are you opposing it?
After taking a sip of tea, Jiang Yiyun looked at Bi Qionglan, who seemed a little worried, and replied decisively, "Grandma Bi, is there any need to say more?"
Putting aside the fact that the sage is one of our own, how could those high-ranking officials in the court, wearing purple and red robes, possibly oppose him?
"Grandma Bi," Jiang Yijun stood up and went to the window, pointing to the area south of the wooden building, "These experimental plots of land were built by you and me."
Over the past two years, winter has turned to spring, and three harvests have been achieved in a year. We have led them in hard work, and you can't imagine how well we've done.
Food is the most important thing for people. If people can eat their fill, how can the world be unstable?
Turning around, Jiang Yiyun sat down with a smile to comfort the anxious Bi Qionglan: "Grandma Bi, don't worry."
For the past year or so, have you considered those merchants who came with the fleet to be just businessmen?
Jiang Yijun shook her head and continued confidently, "There are quite a few family members and servants of those high-ranking officials in purple and red robes. They only believe what their own people say."
With such vast tracts of farmland available for cultivation and food production in Champa alone, the unexplored mineral resources, the unique timber, the rare treasures, and the many wild-growing herbs, who wouldn't be tempted?
Not to mention the port.
Grandma Bi, you must have only stayed in the city during your rest time and never gone to the port, right?
Do you know what they use as currency there?
Bi Qionglan was genuinely unaware of this. Although she had been sent to farm thousands of miles away, Bi Qionglan remained a female official of the Ministry of Agriculture. These officials of the Tang Dynasty still followed the rules of Chang'an and had a day off every ten days.
Whenever she had a day off, Bi Qionglan would at most wander around Champa. People who had seen Chang'an would not take Champa, which was just a small city with only one main street, seriously.
Therefore, Bi Qionglan mostly stayed at her residence, as she genuinely had no idea what the situation was like in Zhancheng Port.
"Porcelain, silk, and medicine."
Of course, gold and silver were also major forms of currency.
However, the locals and merchants from Tianzhu (present-day India) and Dashi (present-day Arabia) still preferred our porcelain.
Those people must have made a fortune.
When the banquet starts later, Grandma Bi, you'd better take a good look at them. They only know how to flatter and fawn over us.
Moreover, their information channels might be even faster than ours, the official ones. Perhaps before our memorials have even been presented to the Emperor, they've already received the news.
If they were quick, they should have already sent people by boat south.
Before Bi Qionglan could discuss what Jiang Yijun had said with her, a knocking sound came from the door.
"Mother, General Qian has sent soldiers to pick us up."
Thus, Bi Qionglan and Jiang Yijun stopped talking, checked each other to make sure their official robes were secure, and then went down the wooden building together.
Besides Bi Qionglan's eldest son, who had always been by her side, waiting on the first floor were also one of Jiang Yijun's deputy female officials.
All four were wearing standard official robes, though there were some differences in color and details due to their different ranks.
Among the four, the highest-ranking was naturally Jiang Yijun, who was wearing a fifth-rank scarlet official robe. She looked at the gifts that the female official behind her had already prepared before stepping forward to greet the soldiers waiting outside the door.
Their destination was the most magnificent building in Champa at that time: the royal palace of the King of Annam in Champa.
As for why he attended the banquet?
The first reason is naturally because the King of Annam submitted to Emperor Wu of Tang four years ago, paying tribute and silver.
Secondly, in recent years, there have been far too many Tang Dynasty people coming to Annam, especially to Champa, because of the port of Champa.
Not to mention the multi-storied ships equipped with cannons, which were absolute overlords at sea.
Moreover, the Imperial Guards and Royal Guards that were subsequently dispatched were ready to fight upon landing, and their Tang swords had killed quite a few people.
Therefore, even if it wasn't a subtle influence, just to curry favor with the Tang people, the Annamite royal palace held a banquet on the Little New Year festival to entertain the prominent Tang people in Champa.
Although Bi Qionglan and Jiang Yijun were both female officials, one knew how to farm and the other could make fertilizer to increase grain production, making them more important than the officials sent by the Court of State Ceremonial.
That's why General Qian, the Tang garrison commander in Champa, specifically dispatched two teams of soldiers to protect the two of them during their journey.
Of course, in addition to the officials of the Tang Dynasty, those Tang people who followed the officials, whether they were large merchants or small merchant guilds consisting of a dozen or so companies, were also invited.
This banquet was truly fascinating, because Champa thought that since they had invited the Tang people, they might as well invite them all, so Indians, Arabs, and Zhenla people also came.
Most surprisingly, there were also several merchants from Silla and Japan mixed in with them.
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