Liangzhou, Minqin County, Xiabaima Village, a grand wedding is being held.
The bride is the second lady, who is as beautiful as a flower.
She was sitting in a carriage drawn by two tall horses. The carriage was filled with colorful brocade and fine snow-white cotton, which were all her dowry.
The body is covered with pearls and emeralds. From a distance, the jewels are so bright that they are blinding.
"Second Sister Wang, what is this on your head? It's so beautiful!"
A group of children chased the carriage and laughed while running. Fortunately, the motorcade sending the bride away did not move very fast, and the children could still keep up with it after running.
Mrs. Wang proudly touched the big golden hairpin on her head. It was engraved with dragons and phoenixes circling, supplemented by birds, beasts and strange trees, making it glittering and translucent.
It was made of gold, pearls, and precious stones. It weighed no more than a kilogram. When she put it on her head, Mrs. Wang felt her neck was about to break.
But this painful torture is sweet at the same time. Even if we don’t talk about craftsmanship, this is more than a pound of gold, pearls, and gems!
Well, actually some of it is gold-plated brass.
But it is still extremely precious. The market price is at least several thousand guan. Ordinary people will not be able to save so much money in their lifetime.
She is getting married today, so no matter how uncomfortable she is, she still has to wear it on her head to show off.
"This! It was Jin Buyao, the eldest brother of the Zhang family, who was rewarded by the king after he defeated the Nanjun army in the royal city!"
Mrs. Wang waited for a long time, and finally waited until someone asked about the huge golden steps on her head. She immediately shouted out with the loudest voice, as if she was afraid that others would not know.
The eldest brother of the Zhang family is Zhang Xiaobiao, the eldest son of the Zhang family of Xiabaima Village, and the second lady Wang is the daughter of the villager's father-in-law, a strong man named Wang.
Zhang Xiaobiao made great contributions in the Battle of Baiyanchi and the Siege of Xiazhou. Especially in the Siege of Xiazhou, Zhang Xiaobiao squatted on Lu Gong's car. In four months, he shot and killed more than a hundred soldiers with his divine arm bow. people.
After the war, he was considered the first meritorious service among all the united archers. According to the new system of the Liang Kingdom, he was awarded the fifth rank of honorary policy and was awarded the honorary officer of the 47th rank, Zhongyilang of the ninth rank.
Zuo Yu was actually awarded the title of first general of the third capital of the seventh battalion of Linwei, the second team leader, and was awarded the title of brave and efficient archer. He was ordered to stay in the forbidden palace of the guards.
"Second Sister Wang is lying. How can Jin Bu Yao be so big? The one on my mother's head is Jin Bu Yao, which is only this big."
A little girl who was slightly older, maybe seven or eight years old, was a little dissatisfied. She made a normal golden step, trying to prove that Mrs. Wang was lying.
Girls generally mature earlier than boys. While the boys are still shouting and looking at the bride, the little girl is already feeling a little sour in her heart.
Mrs. Wang shook her head proudly, but she forgot about the weight of the golden step on her head and almost twisted her neck. She suddenly felt unhappy and snorted lightly.
"Your mother's Golden Bu Yao was made by the blacksmith of the Wenbu family at the entrance of the village. My Jin Bu Yao was a reward from the King.
It used to be... well, it was used by a noble person anyway. This is the real Jin Bu Yao. Do you think anyone can have it? "
As she said that, Mrs. Wang remembered that she was getting married today and she should be happy, so she put on a fake smile on her face, paired with a arrogant expression and a little bit of contempt in her eyes, which made her look as hateful as possible.
The little girl was new to the world, so she could not withstand this blow. For a moment, the acid flowed out, and she almost drowned in the sense of grievance. Finally, after she could no longer hold back, the little girl burst into tears.
"My mother's Jin Bu Yao was not made by Wen Bu's blacksmith. It was made by Dafu Jinbao Shop in Liangzhou City. When I get married in the future, I will have a Jin Bu Yao like this."
"Then you don't have it now!" Mrs. Wang's second wife added another blow at the right time.
"Whoa!"
When the little girl heard this, she collapsed instantly. The bride stopped looking and ran home screaming and wailing.
When she was young, she secretly swore in her heart that she would marry a hero like the eldest brother of the Zhang family in the future, and he would also earn her such a Jin Bu Yao.
But the little girl didn't know that the difficulty was really not that high.
Because the golden step on the head of Lady Wang was pulled directly from the head of the mother of Li Yiyin, the Jiedu Commander of the Dingnan Army.
Li Yiyin's father is Li Renfu. His real name is Tuoba Sijing, and he has two brothers named Tuoba Sizhong and Tuoba Sigong.
This Jin Bu Yao was rewarded by Zhu Quanzhong, the Taizu of Zhu Liang, when Li Renfu succeeded to the throne and was the envoy of the Dingnan Army. It was kept by the court of the Later Liang Dynasty.
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When I walked down to the entrance of Baima Village, I saw Zhang Xiaobiao, the eldest brother of the Zhang family, coming back to welcome his bride. There was a sudden burst of joy, and among the cheering crowd, a group of people stood out.
What's weird, these people are actually wearing armor, one pair of cotton armor, seven pairs of iron armor, and more than twenty pairs of chain mail and leather armor.
Looking at Zhang Xiaobiao who was welcoming the bride, he was not wearing a bright red official uniform, but a bright red cotton armor.
The men from the Wang family in Shangbaima Village who saw off the bride were also wearing Qing Yishui's iron armor and leather armor.
Those who knew about it knew that this was a ceremony to welcome and send off a bride, but those who didn't knew thought that the two villages were going to fight.
This is also the most peculiar scenery in the countryside of Liang Kingdom today. When getting married, in addition to showing off dowries, etc., they also show off their military force.
When a girl from a family gets married, there are no relatives and friends to wear a few sets of armor to send her off, then it must be that the family has no strength and capable people. If the girl gets married and is bullied, no one can care about her.
The same goes for the bride-to-be. Your family doesn't even have a few soldiers who can fight, which means that your family must be bullied in the village, and the men in the family are incompetent.
In today's Liang Kingdom, soldiers with their own armor and stomach have almost become the same existence as luxury cars for weddings in later generations, and they are the best expression of strength.
In Shangxiabaima Village alone, there are just over 200 households with four sets of cotton armor, more than 20 sets of iron armor, and 40 or 50 other sets of chain armor and leather armor.
These are all their own equipment, all given by Zhang Zhao after their military exploits.
The armored stomach is the guarantee of combat effectiveness. It can be said that if an enemy attacks at this moment, Shangxiabaima Village will immediately form a team of seventy or eighty armored soldiers.
Among them were seven or eight sharpshooters, a dozen light-armored knights, and hundreds more Yi Cong Xiaoqi and Unity Archers who could ride horses and shoot arrows.
Because almost everyone from teenagers to forty-five-year-old men can ride horses and shoot arrows.
Such a village, let alone ordinary enemies, is a regular Khitan army. Without hundreds of thousands of people, there is no way to pass Shangxiabaima Village.
Of course, so many soldiers are not always in the village, and it is also because Minqin County, where Shangxiabaima Village is located, is a land in the capital that defends Liangzhou. Especially after several capable men were born in a row, they had such tyrannical force. It's not available elsewhere.
But it can also be seen that Zhang Zhao, the basic military force of Hexi Liang Kingdom, has become very reliable. What Zhang Zhao lacks now is not warriors, but money and food to support the war.
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The elder man of the Zhang family is actually not very satisfied with his daughter-in-law.
Because at that time, as the fire chief of the Tiaodang soldiers, he led people to rush into the shield formation of the Dingnan Army and when he created a gap, his general promised to marry his daughter to his son.
And because of their great achievements in Baiyanchi, the general was promoted two levels in a row, and the original place became the battalion command of the Datong Army.
However, the Wang family's strong man's contribution in Baiyanchi was not as great as that of Zhang Xiaobiao. He was only promoted from fire chief to team deputy. No matter how he looked at it, his future was not as good as that of a dignified battalion commander.
However, the Zhang family's son couldn't defeat his son Zhang Xiaobiao. This strong man from the Wang family was not called the father-in-law of the villagers for nothing.
Zhang Xiaobiao had a crush on Mrs. Wang when he first fell in love when he was twelve or thirteen years old. Five years passed by and now he was able to marry his sweetheart, not to mention the daughter of the battalion commander, even the daughter of the town commander.
The strong man of the Wang family also knew that Dalang of the Zhang family was a little reluctant to get married to his family, so he not only asked his sons and nephews to go out to see the bride in armor, but also invited his nephew Wang Jiulang back from Liangzhou.
Wang Jiulang was different from the others. He did not wear a armor, but a green shirt with a crotch cut off, and only a simple green futou on his head.
Only a jade pendant looming around his waist showed his extraordinary status.
This jade pendant is a symbol of the officials of the Liang Kingdom. Khotan is rich in jade, and the Liang Kingdom has a close relationship with the Khotan Golden Kingdom. Therefore, in the Liang Kingdom, jade pendants with specific shapes and patterns have become symbols of middle- and high-level officials.
Wang Jiulang was an outlier in Shangxia Baima Village. He was originally similar to Zhang Xiaobiao and the others. When he was a teenager, he still rode horses, shot arrows, and got into fights. He couldn't read a single Chinese character.
However, in the four or five years since Zhang Zhao reopened Liangzhou Prefectural School, Wang Jiulang, who had only begun to read and write at the age of thirteen, had made rapid progress and quickly passed the literacy barrier.
As of now, he has just passed King Zhang's imperial examination to take the Mingshu examination.
In addition, his teacher was originally from the Suiye Guo family, so after the midterm examination, he was directly transferred to Qionglin Academy by Guo Tiance, the bachelor of Qionglin Academy, as a marching bachelor, responsible for the statistics and allocation of grain and grass.
He is the kind of close official who can meet with King Zhang every day, so in Shangxiabaima Village, he is the only person who can be compared with Zhang Xiaobiao who can stay in the Imperial Palace.
At this moment, these high-end people also took off their armor and stomach, and began to gather around and talk loudly, but their topics were a bit high-end, and the surrounding villagers could not understand them.
But in order to show that they are also in this circle, most people are confused about various official positions and trends, and they don't know where Jin, Shu, and Khitan are, but they still nod in a pretentious manner.
Fortunately, it didn't take long before the topic finally came to something that everyone could understand, that is, the king was probably going to send troops.
As soon as they heard this, the crowd started to get excited. It would be great to send troops! Only by sending troops can you make a fortune, go home and marry a beautiful wife!
When talking about this, Wang Jiulang instantly became the centerpiece, because he is the one who knows the king's thoughts best here. Wang Jiulang lowered his voice and said somewhat mysteriously.
"It is very likely that a certain person will join the army in Gaochang with the Ministry of Rites in the near future. Your Majesty intends to order us to be sent as envoys to the Gaochang Uighurs."
Everyone's hearts moved when they heard this. Zhang Xiaobiao also heard about the recent turmoil and said directly immediately.
"If Jiulang goes to Gaochang, don't give a good look to the fake Khans of the Pugu family. It's best to make them crazy and provoke us. Then we'll beat the hell out of them."
For Zhang Xiaobiao and the soldiers in Shangxiabaima Village, the Gaochang Uighurs are real soft persimmons!
Now around Liangzhou, only the Khitan, Jin and Gaochang Uighurs are left.
The Khitan is far away and is not easy to fight. Guanzhong of Jin has been penetrated very hard by the king, so it should not be difficult to fight.
Even if there is a fight, it will definitely be based on Xiongwu Town in Qinzhou and Dingbian Town in Qingzhou.
The only option was to fight the Gaochang Uighurs, which was rich in oil and water but not very effective in combat. One bite would fill their mouths with meat, so what they were thinking about was when to fight the Gaochang Uighurs.
Wang Jiulang chuckled and said, "Don't worry. The king sent Wu to join the army to teach Jie Lipijia of Gaochang Uighur to remove the title of Heavenly King."
Zhang Xiaobiao became angry at once, "What? How dare the pseudo-Khan from Gaochang Uighur call himself the King of Heaven? This is outrageous!"
Their ancestors were the rebels of Great Liang, how dare their descendants be so arrogant? "
A group of people immediately started to curse. In their eyes, how could the Gaochang Uighurs with only tens of thousands of cavalry be called the king of heaven?
"But, what if Jielipika agrees to remove the title of Heavenly King?"
As the father, Da Lang of the Zhang family also joined the discussion and asked worriedly.
Wang Jiulang sneered, with a sinister look on his face.
"Wu Canjun has received a hint from the king, and we have also discussed it. If Jielipijia is willing to give up the title of Heavenly King, then we will ask him to send his prince to Liangzhou as a hostage and immediately convert to the Buddha. If he is willing to do this .”
Having said this, Wang Jiulang clenched his fist with one hand and knocked on the table.
"Then we ask Jielibijia to marry the princess to the king as a concubine, and use Yinzhou as the dowry!"
After everyone heard this, they were immediately overjoyed. Zhang Xiaobiao clapped his hands and was also happy.
"Well then, the Gaochang Uighurs will definitely not agree."
Ruren was the lowest-ranking concubine in Zhang Zhao's harem. As a Uighur princess of Gaochang, she naturally refused to abuse herself in this way.
As for using Yinzhou as a dowry, I will not agree to it.
As long as they don't agree, there will be excuses and reasons for sending troops.
