Different from Liaodong in spring, Liaodong in autumn is much more beautiful.
From Suizhong to the north, there are fields on both sides of the road. When the wind blows, the ears of millet are blown by the wind. There are also large areas of wheat fields, with the wind blowing the waves of wheat.
People were working in the fields, and men were the main workers. Some had sickles, and some used the army's long knives if they didn't have sickles. The young women, eight out of ten with big bellies, were also doing binding work and other tasks within their power. The children followed behind, dragging bamboo baskets and picking up the grain scattered on the ground. From time to time, they would drive away the birds that had also had a good harvest.
If there are older children, the father of the family may be a soldier, an archer or a logistics soldier, and he will make slingshots for the children after getting scrap bow strings. The child was also capable. He picked up pebbles from the ground, closed one eye, and took a few breaths. But as soon as he let go, an unlucky bird in the distance flipped over and could no longer fly.
Immediately afterwards, the children hurriedly ran over to pick them up. With so many people gathering, several children, with the envious eyes of other children, ran to the river to pluck and wash them, and then picked up some firewood and roasted the meat. Everyone's mouth was full of black food, so they went back to work and continued to look for opportunities to hunt birds for meat.
No one paid attention to them. It was good to find meat for themselves. There was no animal protection law, otherwise the first person to die would be the general. These children are still young, the older ones are only five or six years old. They can work, but they are not very old. It doesn't matter if they pick up some scattered millet, hunt a bird and eat a few bites of meat, as long as they don't cause trouble.
The older ones, the seven, eight or nine-year-old children are different. They are all gritting their teeth and working. Almost everyone has a full workload...
A convoy of tens of thousands of people and thousands of carriages slowly went north, passed Linyu, passed Suizhong, and headed straight for Tuhe City.
The curtain of a carriage in the middle of the queue opened, revealing a cute little girl with big, watery eyes and an endearing appearance. She was lying on the car window, her big eyes full of novelty.
The journey north took several months and passed through several states. The farmers on the roadside looked at them carefully, and some even hid far away, not daring to approach them at all.
But it was different here. It was suppressed all the way. The soldiers dressed as ordinary soldiers were chatting happily. It seemed that some of them knew the people on the roadside and shouted hello. There were even children who were not afraid of people at all and ran over to follow the team asking questions. Of course, there are only a few people on the roadside, and most of them are working hard in the fields further away. They only glance at it from a distance and continue working as if they haven't seen it.
And the biggest difference is that most people in other places have good food, but the people here are more energetic and must eat much better.
She knew that all this was done by a man named Wang Yan. He was born in Qianshou, entered the Yellow Turban Rebellion, gathered the remnants of Beitu in Zhuo County, and began to develop and grow in Anci. After that, he swept through the people of Yuyang, Youbeiping, and Liaoxi counties, killing officials and powerful people, and plundering grain, grass, and treasures. , heading north to Liaodong. In the Battle of Changli, 20,000 Wuhuan troops were defeated, and in the Battle of Dingding in Liaodong, they were fought thousands of miles away and defeated more than 50,000 Wuhan Allied Forces in Liaodong.
He was proficient in making things, and his white glaze was sought after by wealthy families. He also improved Caihou paper, overcoming the shortcomings of Caihou paper, making it easier to run calligraphy and replacing bamboo slips. He also had the so-called printing technique, which is to print words on white paper and compile them into books. . The text contained in one book is ten times that of bamboo slips.
She even heard that he had great ambitions and wanted to take advantage of white paper printing to develop culture and education. Therefore, the Zhen family was sent to Wu to look for Cai Yong, hoping to welcome Cai Yong to the north and take Cai Yong's daughter. However, Cai Yong's daughter was married to the Wei family. The visitor was very polite, but said that if the general had orders, anyone who interfered would be killed.
Cai Yong kicked him out of the house, but the visitor did not use force. He came again for the second time and still told Wang Yan's ambition to build a library. He worshiped Cai Yong as his leader, taught and educated people, and promoted literature and education. However, Cai Yong also refused, saying that he would not serve as an official with the Han thieves.
When he came again three times, Zhen Sheng, the wife of Zhen, came in person with a letter. Cai Yong was overjoyed when he saw it. Zhen Sheng also talked about Wang Yan's aspirations, saying that he was far-sighted and ambitious, and also talked about the shortcomings of the Han Dynasty, and even said, "China." , is the China of the vast majority of the people, the Han Dynasty’s immorality has failed the people, and the people have the final say.” This is actually a saying that has caused misfortune for thousands of years. Although Cai Yong was pleased with the new book, he thought about it for a long time and still didn't want to go.
On that day, two hundred yellow scarves entered Cai Yong's temporary residence, tied up his family and left the city. After three days, Cai Yong's huge collection of books was also transported out of the city by horse-drawn carriage, and the team gathered together and headed north.
Why does she know so well? Because she is Cai Yan!
She watched as the army pretending to be a rioter entered the house in an orderly manner. Without saying a word, they directly tied up her father and then asked her, her sister and a group of female relatives to get into the car. My father only took the Jiaowei Qin with him and nothing else. Later, the soldiers searched their house from inside to outside and took away everything they could, so they had to come to Liaodong.
Looking at the scene outside the carriage, Cai Yan couldn't help but wonder what kind of person she would be...
In this day and age, women have no choice. Even if Cai Yong had no children and had to give his daughter a little more care, he would always marry someone who should marry. Now it is Wang Yan, a big warlord who controls one side, shamelessly sending 3,000 soldiers south. He has no choice but to agree. So although Cai Yan must be very resistant in her heart, it's useless. Unless she commits suicide, she can't decide her own choice.
She would not even dare to commit suicide. No matter whether she has the courage or not, she must always think about Cai Yong. If she commits suicide and offends Wang Yan, then Cai Yong will definitely not survive.
So she had no choice but to hope that Wang Yan would be a man who would suit her needs, so what else could she do...
No one cares about the little daughter's thoughts. The motorcade kept going straight towards Tuhe River. In this process, the refugees and the Yellow Turban defeated troops who came with them were also taken over by civilian officials and marching Sima. They were already familiar with this and had a very mature standard process for each to perform their duties.
Until they arrived at Tuhe, there were fewer and fewer people in the team. In the end, only the soldier who acted as the driver and Zhen Sheng and other people were left. This time Zhen Sheng went to do it in person, so he naturally wanted to come with him and work. If you do it right, you have to let the leader know...
At the gate of Tuhe City, Cai Yan was asked to get out of the carriage. She took her sister and followed a group of female relatives. As her father walked forward, she finally saw the man who had tied their family here forcefully.
Looking from a distance, he is smiling, giving people a gentle and generous feeling. He was wearing a dark blue silk gown loosely, with a white jade hairpin in his hair, and he didn't even have a sword. He just stood there naturally, giving people a lazy and casual sense of intimacy.
He is not tall, nor strong, nor has he the power of a general. It is easy for people to doubt whether this person is the fierce general who used to besiege Lingzhi City by one person and three people. But the strange thing is that just standing there, he has an unshakable self-confidence.
His deep eyes seemed to penetrate the world. Even though he has grown a short beard, you can still see that he is young and unsuitable for his temperament. It feels strange when I look at it, and there is a sense of fragmentation. Strong yet weak, calm yet frivolous, what a strange person.
Ah, Cai Yan, who was peeking with his big eyes blinking, saw Wang Yan glance over at him, and quickly lowered his head, his little heart pounding...
With a smile, Wang Yan pretended to take two steps, bowed his hands, and said: "Wang Yan pays homage to Mr. Cai. Mr. Cai has great righteousness and has come north to the bitter cold land of Liaodong. I can't thank you enough. Mr. Cai is coming from a long distance now, and it's hard work. , I have prepared a separate courtyard, let’s have a good rest today, and we will welcome you with a grand feast tomorrow.”
"I don't dare to accept the courtesy of the Marquis of Liao. I have no great righteousness. You came here by force, so why bother to show off?" Lao Cai blew his beard and glared, expressing his strong dissatisfaction.
Cai Yong is twenty-two years old this year. Although his white hair hangs down from his lower back, he still wears his hair tied on top of his head. His whole body is meticulous and he maintains the style of a scholar-bureaucrat. He is a bit chubby due to his old age, and he has a somewhat graceful air. And his appearance is different from ordinary people, whether he is ugly or not, handsome or not, this difference can be easily remembered by people. It's still a bit funny with the way he's showing off his temper now.
Wang Yan smiled and waved his hands, suppressing what Zhen Sheng wanted to say next to him.
Although everyone knows it in their hearts, it is still very important to show the appearance and express the attitude. Therefore, the normal procedure at this time would be for Zhen Sheng to plead guilty, saying that he secretly used force to kidnap Cai Yong's family to Liaodong. As a leader, Wang Yan, if he criticizes a few words in a decent manner, saying that he doesn't know, and then pretends to apologize, apologize, and say nice things to Cai Yong, he will be fooled and get over it.
However, General Wang dared to act boldly and disdained this kind of face-saving effort of talking nonsense even though he knew it well. He would definitely not have mentioned this matter before greeting him. If Lao Cai didn't say anything and would be offended, it would be over. Now that Lao Cai has made it clear, it must not be useless, let alone unnecessary.
The general smiled and said: "Mr. Cai thinks that I am a thief. He has invited me three times and refused, so he came up with this strategy. Meng Guang should tell the Duke about my ambitions, and he should also tell the Duke in a new book, saying all his good words, and what can be done." If not, how could you come here?"
"What you did is not the behavior of a heroic man. I have heard your name all the way, but now that I have seen it, it is exaggerated."
The reputation Cai Yong mentioned was actually operated by the Zhen family. Otherwise, with the traffic and communication conditions at this time, who would know who you are if you are ten miles away. Besides, no matter what happens to Wang Yan, except those top people, who cares about that. How powerful Wang Yan is, what does it have to do with others?
This famous operation is the specialty of wealthy families. If not for that, the previous Yellow Turbans would have gone to the ravines to become bandits, so how could they possibly know who Wang Yan was.
Zhen's business went everywhere and told people about the words of the King of Liaodong, why he ordered one man from the branch city to fight three peerless generals alone, treated the people generously, had superb medical skills, made white glazed glaze, and all these other things, which were not true anyway, so they were false. To say that what really happened is an exaggeration. The more widely it spreads, the more divine it is, the better.
"Those who are burdened by fame, no matter how resounding their reputations are, are just mediocre people. Only the one who laughs to the end will be the winner. If you die in the early stages, your ambition will be hard to achieve. What's the use of being a heroic man?" Mr. Cai, I don’t know what I will do after death. What does my reputation have to do with me? Now I know that Mr. Xugong from Liaodong is here to help. Mr., I can’t do it unless I come.”
When you bully others, you say them in a righteous and awe-inspiring way, so shameless...
Cai Yong laughed angrily: "When I came here, you kidnapped me by force. My four daughters were promised to the Wei family in Hedong. How could you do such a thing? You were relying on the military's strength. I really couldn't resist. I have no choice but to come here, don’t even think about me working with you!”
"Don't say angry words, Mr. Cai. Now that you are here, how can you do it? How can you make the decision?"
Wang Yan laughed and said, "The Duke has a great reputation and is a great Confucian in the world. Tomorrow Meng Guang will spread the word that Duke Cai is settled in Liaodong. Scholars from all over the world must come here to study with the Duke. Will the Duke preach? And I want to promote culture and education and broaden the people's wisdom. It is not up to the public to teach young children enlightenment. For such a big thing, how can the public accidentally launch a cultural education to enlighten the people's wisdom because of personal grudges?"
"Can you deceive me to this extent?"
"Mr. Cai is wrong. I am not deceiving him. He is the one expected by all the people. He is destined to teach you this important task."
As he spoke, Wang Yan spread his hands with a smile and placed them by his side, and the guards at the rear gently brought a long item to him. After receiving it in his hand, Wang Yan opened the fan and showed it to Cai Yong, "Look, Mr. Cai, this fan with bamboo bone paper can be used to fan the wind, and it can also be used by literati to be elegant. I got it by chance during the summer heat." It was made and completed recently. This fan is the first folding fan in the world.
I have always heard that Cai Gong is good at calligraphy. The surface of this fan is plain white, and it is fitting that Cai Gong embellishes it. This fan will definitely be famous in history. Now I give this fan to you as a greeting gift. I hope you will accept it with your smile. "
"Humph." Lao Cai snorted coldly, took the fan in his hand, fiddled with it and walked towards the city, looking a bit arrogant.
Wang Yan wasn't upset at all. It was indeed too much to forcefully bring someone here and expect them to look good. Besides, he not only kidnapped Cai Yan, but also forcibly married Cai Yan, causing Cai Yong to lose his justice to the Wei family and ruining Lao Cai's reputation. It's strange to be happy. For his father-in-law, no matter how awesome General Wang is, he still has to give him some good looks.
He looked at Cai Yan with a smile: "You are eleven today, and you will not be able to get married until you are eighteen under my rule, and you have to wait for seven years. From now on, if you need anything, you can come to me."
"What about me?" Nine-year-old Cai Li seemed to be more active and seemed a bit ignorant.
Wang Yan laughed and rubbed her head: "You will stay for nine years."
After saying that, he raised his eyebrows at Cai Yan, and then waved his hand to greet everyone into the city.
To ogle a minor is to some extent a sin. No matter how good-looking Cai Yan is, he is just a good-looking little kid. Although the situation is different at this time, the development status is not much different.
That's just teasing and teasing, just for fun.
Of course, there is certainly no shortage of women. Although there is no direct daughter of a wealthy family to marry, the Zhen family, including the already engaged woman, has sent women over. According to his rules, there are dozens of beautiful eighteen-year-old girls in Yishui. Except for leaving two familiar women to take care of daily life, the remaining women were all given to the soldiers.
This kind of thing is the same in ancient and modern times. The strength is in place, and there are plenty of people to send it to the top...
Cai Yong came here with a lot of things, of course the most important thing was books. Lao Cai has a lot of books. To describe Lao Cai's knowledge as "a rich man with five carts of books" is somewhat insulting, because he has hundreds of carts of books alone. There are also a lot of messy antique toys and dozens of cars.
Wang Yan looked down on the playthings. Most of them were things from two hundred years ago, that is, before Emperor Wu, until the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. They were brought up by tomb robbers for money. They could not live on the ground, so they naturally ate underground.
Lao Cao is not the original author of tomb robbing. What he originated is a large-scale, organized, and highly professional tomb robbing activity, which cannot be regarded as tomb robbing. After all, he is an official to a certain extent, but what is different from modern times is that Lao Cao did not research the evidence, but dug it out in exchange for money to fund military expenditures.
As for Cai Yong's collection of books, Wang Yan took a fancy to them and took them directly to the library to stock up. Since the preparation for the construction of the library pavilion, the book garden has not been expanded. Just waiting to slowly reprint books, and when the library is built, it will be filled to the top.
Anyway, Cai Yong is the librarian of the Collection Pavilion, and it doesn't matter where the books are placed.
The house he prepared for Cai Yong's family is also excellent. It is almost the same as three yards of the yard. It has floor heating and large floor-to-ceiling windows. It is fully equipped with all the needs of life. It is no different from what Wang Yan himself uses. What, it can be called the highest courtesy.
Just as he said to Cai Yong, with Lao Cai joining, he didn't have to do anything at all. As long as he knew Lao Cai was here, a large number of traveling scholars would naturally come south. Moreover, he wanted to build a library, and even ordered Zhen Sheng to join ten permanent attendants to empty the Han Dynasty's library, and he was also collecting books from wealthy families. It can almost be said that it encompasses all the books in the world.
Such an open library is no exaggeration to be compared to the ocean of knowledge in this world. It is extremely attractive to people who are obsessed with learning in this era.
With more cultural people coming, there will naturally be cultural exchanges, and there will naturally be intellectual debates and school disputes, and the literary world will be full of controversy again. This is another huge attraction for scholars from other places.
On the other hand, the art of papermaking and printing is not so easy to crack. Although the time for specializing with a goal will definitely be greatly shortened, it cannot be achieved in a short time. Even if it succeeds, there is no way to compare with Wang Yan in terms of quality.
Therefore, for a long time, if Wang Yan did not disclose the techniques of papermaking and printing, then he would have mastered the lifeblood of culture, that is, publishing and distribution.
When the cultural struggle in Liaodong began, the cultural advancement began. Everyone has a good reputation, and who doesn’t want his ideas, doctrines, and thoughts to be widely disseminated and passed down to future generations? And the only one who can do this is Liaodong. This is the cultural field that has mastered the Han Dynasty. It goes without saying how great this benefit is.
And with so many cultural people coming to Liaodong, you don’t think they can leave, right?
At the end of the Han Dynasty, when the struggle for hegemony began, peace was rare everywhere. Liaodong was considered a paradise and had a cultural atmosphere. They were willing to leave? It is conceivable that many people will even bring their families here for peace in troubled times.
Even if you still have to leave, then if General Wang comes forward to brainwash you, and deceives you about the justice of your family and country, you will probably stay and work together to achieve great things.
If he still wants to leave, then Wang Yan certainly can't stop him. It doesn't matter if so many people leave. It definitely can't be killed. At this time, you have to ask for some virtuous names. If no one comes to vote in the future, that wouldn't be very bad. You can't always kidnap people.
And when these intellectuals were engaged in learning in Liaodong, it would definitely cost money. Celebrities are definitely not short of money, but how many are famous and how many are from wealthy families, and the majority are from poor and declining families. They cannot afford the expenses. After all, Wang Yan does not have wealthy families or rich families here to invest in advance. of trading.
Therefore, these people are the best teachers. It is most suitable for them to enlighten children and teach advanced knowledge. All he paid was a little money, food, and the treasures of his study.
Another point is that ancient cultural people paid attention to general knowledge. Being able to wield a sword and be able to fight in a duel are the most basic qualities. In addition, quite a few of them know medical skills, understand celestial phenomena, understand Yi Xue, know geography, and the art of creation, etc., and they all have more or less unique skills. This is a tradition that has been passed down by hundreds of schools of thought.
With people like them, as long as Wang Yan shows that he pays attention to these things, gives institutional support, and binds these things to national plans and personal futures, these people will naturally pay attention to them, and they will naturally specialize and start to summarize, and then start to summarize. Realize the self-change and cultural innovation that Wang Yan would like to see without his interference. Along the existing lines, a different set of things has been developed.
All the above are the benefits brought by Cai Yong, a great scholar in this world. Although it could have been accomplished without Cai Yong, more time was wasted.
It was a good thing that only Lao Cai was unhappy and everyone else was happy...
Cai Yong's family has finally settled down here. Zhen Sheng is not yet in operation, and winter is coming again. If any scholars want to come south, it will have to be next year.
Therefore, Cai Yong and his family were all idle. Lao Cai continued to behave as usual, occasionally playing the piano, writing large characters on the paper sent by Wang Yan, or reading unread bamboo slips taken from the library. From time to time, he traveled around the city and outside, and even took the sergeant to other counties to see the real situation under Wang Yan's rule.
Cai Yan, on the other hand, took his younger sister Cai Li, playing around in and outside the city, in the fields, or reading freely. She was a gifted girl, very talented. She occasionally came to the library to pick up books, met Wang Yan, and would discuss knowledge, music, etc. with Wang Yan, so she was safe.
Lao Cai didn't want to see Wang Yan. Every time he saw him, he put on a stinky face, blew his beard and glared. Wang Yan is quite willing to tease Lao Cai, just for fun, but now he has no time to deal with Cai Yong, the future father-in-law and mascot, because it is the autumn harvest at this time.
This is a great autumn harvest.
Of course, with the current food production, it is definitely impossible to feed the people for a year. But compared with the situation last winter, when people had to eat two meals of porridge a day to survive, under the rule this year, people can eat thicker. The regular army is fully fed, relying on self-produced food supplies.
In addition, the breeding situation has also improved. The number of chickens, ducks, goose, cattle and sheep in several large farms has increased. Of course, it is still not enough to eat, or even inedible. Only Wang Yan has achieved the freedom to eat all kinds of meat. A few Supply the army with fuel and water.
Even the egg production is not very high. If we want to benefit the people, we still have to wait two years. At that time, chickens, ducks and geese will be sold to the people so that they can raise them at home.
But no matter what, Liaodong can be considered self-sufficient from today on.
Moreover, Wang Yan still did not stop the transaction of collecting grain from wealthy families, storing grain and filling it into the granary.
His salt field in Pingguo Nong has already produced output, and the most is coarse salt. Only a small amount of fine salt is sold to wealthy families in exchange for grain and coarse salt. In general, he used fine salt to supplement the salt used in Liaodong, so that the leeks no longer needed to be cut off by the wealthy families.
And the most important cotton has also been harvested. However, the output was not large. He only made two sets of cotton-padded jackets, trousers, cotton shoes and quilts for himself, and two sets of cotton-padded jackets, trousers, shoes and quilts for Lao Cai and his two daughters.
The rest were all made into cotton-padded clothes and shoes, and provided from top to bottom to the middle and high-level leadership of Liao Huaxiao Cavalry Guard. There would be no more.
However, more seeds were harvested this year, and there will definitely be more next year. In two or three years, we will basically be able to arm more than 30,000 regular soldiers, and the future is promising.
The economic activities under the open rule that Wang Yan was previously worried about also started to be implemented with the autumn harvest.
The land tax for the people under his rule was one out of ten. He produced banknotes and calculated and issued currency based on the statistics of total grain output and grain prices. Then according to the grain price he set, he used money to purchase grain from the people and stored it in the granary.
However, although the common people trusted the general, the fear of poverty and hunger was a lingering shadow, so few people sold food. But Wang Yan didn't care. The money was printed first, and it was the same for him to do business with wealthy families. Anyway, he has an exclusive deal here, so he doesn't have to worry about them not recognizing the money.
As for the people's food, it will definitely be sold next autumn. Let them hold the food in their hands to reassure them that they won't eat it. It was said that they were dead, just a little thicker than last year, and the rest were hoarded in the hope that if something big happened, they would be able to survive for a longer time.
This is a normal thing. It will be fine when the food is completely harvested.
The search for shipbuilders that Zhen Sheng was given earlier had already been brought over, and the design of the large ship going to sea had already begun. After the construction is completed and there are no problems with the inspection, it will probably take more than ten years to go out to sea to find improved seeds and return them.
The problem is not big, everything is going well, everything is prosperous, and the future is bright...
Thanks to the reading user (mg-101) for the reward of 100 coins for continued support.
I would like to express my daily gratitude to the good brothers who vote monthly for their support.
Thank you to all the brothers who recommended me for your support,
Thanks to the big brothers who read silently for their support.
(End of chapter)
