Since the Ming Dynasty has always had strict restrictions on the number of tribute teams, Ye He's tribute mission was maintained at a total of less than fifty people, which included not only tribute envoys and accompanying guards, but also Ye He Gege who came with him. Meng Guzhezhe.
However, when the mission left the port of Tianjin and headed for the capital, its number soared to nearly three hundred. Of course, Ye He himself did not have the ability to make a big difference, so what he had was more than two hundred Jinghua Trading Company cavalry.
This cavalry team was originally supposed to escort a batch of shipping equipment from Shandong to Tianjin Port, but after arriving at Tianjin Port, they were temporarily assigned the task of escorting Ye He's delegation to Beijing.
The Ye He mission itself did not have such a reputation. The reason why it was able to enjoy such treatment was entirely because of the Ye He Gegemeng Gu Zhezhe who accompanied it.
Of course, Meng Guzhezhe's face does not come from herself, but from Jinghua's boss, Gao Pragmatic, the Minister of Household Affairs of the Ming Dynasty. After all, Ambassador Ye Hegong said that this Meng Guzhe Gege did not come to the capital to see the prosperity of the Ming Dynasty. She came to the capital as Ye He's "sincerity" to "serve Situ's side".
After all, she is also the princess of the Ye He tribe, the most powerful Jurchen tribe at present. Of course, Sun Weifeng would not understand "Serving Situ Zhibi" as being a maid for the master, so she must be a wife.
This "Mrs. Ru" is not Sun Weifeng's deliberate honorific. Although Mrs. Ru is also a concubine, usually only concubines with a higher status can be called Mrs. Ru.
Of course, there is a more basic premise before this, that is, the man's social status must be higher. Not to mention ordinary peddlers and lackeys cannot afford to take concubines. Even if they do take concubines, their concubines are not as good as ladies.
What Sun Weifeng cares about is only one aspect of Meng Guzhezhe's future status. What makes him dare not underestimate the neglect is actually still Gao Pragmatic himself - he has not taken concubines yet. Once Meng Guzhezhe can really enter the Gao family's backyard, then what will happen to him? But the only one besides Madam.
Considering that his wife is far away in southern Xinjiang and rarely comes back, Meng Guzhezhe may have a great chance of being favored exclusively.
This is very unusual. Although Sun Weifeng was a close confidant and was highly used, he never changed his surname no matter how reused he was. No matter how close he was... he might not be able to kiss the person next to him.
After all, Sun Weifeng felt that he was not an irreplaceable figure in the eyes of the master. This was incomparable with the position of the master in the eyes of the emperor.
Therefore, he not only made an accommodation and no longer searched Meng Guzhezhe's room, but only searched the rooms of the rest of the mission, he also used the temporary full power of the port director to inspect a group of cavalry who were supposed to leave their posts at Tianjin Port and return to Shandong. A new mission was temporarily assigned, and Ye He's delegation suddenly became extremely impressive.
The war horses of the Gao family cavalry are all carefully selected and provided by Tumote. They are not only strong and agile, but also maintain the usual advantages of Mongolian horses such as strong endurance and easy feeding. They are enough to make people jealous no matter where they are placed.
No, Sorguo and his son were discussing the excellence of the Gao family's cavalry.
Sorguo said with emotion: "I think that my Su Wan ancestor was so noble, but now I can only survive between Ye He and Wula. The situation is even worse now. Ye He relies on the mountain of Grand Master Gao, and I, Su After finishing this film, I’m afraid I won’t have another chance to hold an arrow alone.”
Influenced by Mongolia, the Jurchens called important border ministers of the Ming Dynasty Taishi. Although Gao Jingshi had already resigned as governor of Liao, the Jurchens were not only afraid of his majesty, but it was not only the top three, Ye He, Hada, and Jianzhou, but also the remaining ministries who did not dare to be disrespectful to him.
The young man looked at the Gao family cavalry around him, swallowed unconsciously, and said with greedy eyes: "Ye He used to dominate Manchuria with his cavalry, but he didn't expect that Gao Taishi's cavalry was so elite. Don't say it. Ye He, I think even Chahar Khan’s elite cavalry may not be able to defeat them."
Sorguo smiled bitterly and said: "The equestrian skills of Chahar Khan's elite cavalry are not necessarily weaker than theirs, but when it comes to weapons and equipment, they are really far behind. It's a pity that I, Su Wan, don't have the famous King Wanyan Zongbi of the Jin Kingdom under his command." The Guaizima and the Iron Buddha... Alas!"
It turns out that Thor Guo is indeed an unusual identity, and it is not nonsense for Meng Gu Zhezhe to call him Baylor. This person is the Jurchen Su Wanbu Arrow Master. The Zhenger Ba Jing is called Su Wan Baylor, and his ancestor is said to be Wanyan Zongbi, the famous king of the Jin Kingdom - he has a more famous name in Han records, called Jin Wushu.
"The north wind makes it cool, and the rain and snow make it foggy." This is the unique desolation of the Spring and Autumn Period. History books say that one day, a tailed falcon fell from this desolate ancient sky and fell heavily in the courtyard of Chen State.
A long arrow was inserted into its body. Judging from the wound, the raptor was injured for a long time and flew with the arrow until it was exhausted and fell into the yard.
At that time, the king of Chen State was very curious about this: Where did this raptor come from, and who shot this arrow?
So the minister reminded the king that Confucius, the great sage of the world, was in the city now. Why not ask him for advice? Lord Chen Guoguo nodded repeatedly and hurriedly asked someone to invite him.
Confucius, the editor of the book, took the cold falcon and the life-threatening arrow and looked at them carefully. The arrow shaft is more than a foot long; the cyan arrowhead has a texture like wood and is as hard as iron...
He told the king of the state of Chen that this was a "shaft arrow stone" - a long arrow made of shackle wood and an arrowhead made of blue obsidian.
Confucius told him that this thing came from the north. Among the cold mountains and frozen waters in the north, there thrives an ancient nation named "Sushen". Where do they live? According to the record: "There are mountains in the wilderness, called Buxian, and there is the country of the Sushen family."
When Shun, the ancestor of the king of Chen, came to the world, they traveled across mountains and rivers to come for pilgrimage. In the next thousand years, Su Shen came several times, and each time his tribute was a shackle stone.
After King Wu established the Zhou Dynasty, he divided the world into feudal lords. Hu Gongman, a descendant of Shun, married Taiji, the eldest sister of King Wu, and was allocated a piece of land on the southern edge of the Central Plains to establish the State of Chen. King Wu gave beautiful jade to the princes with the same surname; the tributes sent by the barbarians from all directions were given to the princes with different surnames. And what was given to Chen Guo happened to be the arrow that Su Shen paid tribute to.
So Confucius told the king of Chen that if he sent people to look for it in the ancestral temple, they might still be able to find it. Chen Ren rummaged around in the ancestral temple and found a gold box. He opened the lid and saw a stone arrow engraved with "Su Shen's Tribute Arrow".
In this way, Su Shen appeared in the records of the Central Plains people. From then on, the Central Plains people knew that there was a group of arrow-making and archery people living in the bitter cold land in the north. They were called "Sushen" in ancient times; "Woju" in the Qin Dynasty; "Yilou" in the Han and Jin Dynasties; "Wuji" in the Southern and Northern Dynasties; "Mohe" in the Sui and Tang Dynasties; and "Jurchen" in the Liao and Song Dynasties.
They should be considered the same ethnic group, but not entirely, because they are constantly incorporating new bloodlines. They once went all the way south, destroyed the Liao Dynasty and swallowed up the Song Dynasty, and established the Jin Kingdom in the Central Plains. There are too many stories about them in it: Jin Wushu, Nianhan, Hamichi, and the golden marble that was knocked off the horse by the young general Yue Yun.
When Mongolia emerged in the desert, the Jin Kingdom and the Southern Song Dynasty perished one after another. Most Jurchens have already assimilated into China. Only the Jurchens who stayed in the white mountains and black waters still carried their ancestral arrows, and they were still a pile of scattered sand in the dense forest that blocked the sky and the sun.
If you could have set foot in this forest at that time, you might have seen a group of Kun-headed Jurchens, armed with long arrows and big bows, carefully approaching the beasts and birds lurking in the grass in the forest.
There are ten of them, arranged in groups of two, forming the character "凵". Two groups of people form the "丨" on the left: the upper group is called the left waist end, and the lower group is called the left waist shoulder; the ones on the right are naturally the right waist end and right waist shoulder; the "one" in the middle, It's called Waidi, and it's the remaining group.
The word "凵" is like a bag, opening in the direction they are going, trying to put the fox and rabbit into the bag. When enough foxes and rabbits were put into the pockets, the two Jurchens at the bottom of the siege began to shoot the surrounded prey with bows and arrows.
At this time, the people on the left, right and shoulders did not take action, but were careful to prevent the prey from escaping from their direction. When the hunting was over, the ten men dispersed their formation and gathered the prey.
This is the hunting method that the Jurchens have been accustomed to for thousands of years. It always ensures that hunters can kill a lot more game than they would if they were hunting alone.
In fact, this hunting method is similar to the so-called "encirclement of three and missing of one" in the Central Plains military books, except that human opponents are smarter, so the missing party can be really missing, while hunting may not be - this Sooner or later, Yiheng will have to close his pocket.
Among these ten Jurchen hunters, one is special. He's usually the strongest and calmest. In addition to the bow and arrow dagger that everyone has, he always carries an extra bunch of arrows on his body than others.
Before the hunt, each Jurchen would take an arrow from his quiver, put it into a bundle, and hand it to the temporarily elected leader.
The Jurchens called this bunch of arrows "Niulu", which means big arrows and symbolizes power, just like the seal of the Central Plains people and the great banner of the Mongolian Khan. Farther to the west, kings used scepters.
Since the ancient times when Su Shen paid tribute to Shun and King Wu of Zhou, arrows have been the Jurchens’ tokens and a symbol of authority; and the person holding the arrow is the one who controls destiny.
Ten hunters who hunt together and donate an arrow temporarily form a "niulu", which is an arrow. The leader who owns this bunch of arrows is called "Niulu Ezhen", which means the arrow owner.
No book seems to have explained the original use of this bunch of arrows. Perhaps this means that if the hunters' arrows are exhausted, this bunch of arrows is the last weapon, and the arrow owner has the right to distribute it to those most in need. Or the most skilled archer.
Of course, sometimes the Jurchens would organize large-scale hunting. At that time, each group was no longer just two hunters, but no matter how large the scale or the number of people, it was still a "凵" formation composed of five parts: the base, the left and right ends, and the shoulders.
The hunt always comes to an end, when the hunters return with a full load and return to their clans and villages from the forest and grassland. The bunch of arrows will be re-divided into ten arrows and returned to the hunters.
When the arrow is disbanded, the arrow owner ends his mission. When they go hunting next time, the Jurchens will form an arrow again and choose the arrow master.
However, as time has passed, the hunting of animals may not have decreased, but the number of wars to kill similar animals has increased. In this way, the arrows have less and less time to disband, and eventually they don't disband at all.
The Arrow Master, who was originally elected temporarily, became the permanent leader. He had the power that the clan leader and village chief did not have, so he became the real leader of the clan and village.
Hunters, or warriors, together with their families and servants, formed an arrow. In the continuous fighting, conquest and annexation, the number of warriors controlled by an arrow master continued to increase, and most of them exceeded the traditional ten people.
In a world where the weak and the strong prey on each other, arrow masters have learned to combine vertical and horizontal forces. When making an alliance, they exchanged long arrows with each other; when making an oath, they inserted the long arrow into the soil, otherwise they would break the arrow as an oath; when gathering men and horses, they passed the arrows to gather troops; even when buying and selling livestock, they had to carry arrows into the market. , as a token.
The arrow master gradually had his own stronghold, and the stronghold developed into a city. The former arrow master became the village master and the city master. When the city lord's force and prestige further improved, he became the king of the entire tribe.
The king of the tribe is called "Baylor" in Jurchen dialect. Sorguo is such a tribal king. He is Beile of the Suwan tribe, and his surname is Guarjia.
Unfortunately, although Su Wanbu was said to be a descendant of Jin Wushu, at this time it was just a small tribe, located between the Yehe and Wula tribes, and it was difficult to live in it horizontally or vertically.
Especially during the period when Hada was in decline and Ye He was on the rise, Su Wanbeile Guardja Sorgo was under increasing pressure.
Originally, Su Wanbu had pinned his hopes on the Ula tribe not to allow Ye He to annex Su Wan, and would definitely find ways to prevent Ye He from annexing Su Wan. This hope originally existed, especially when Ye He was invaded by Tumen. Ye He's power was strongly suppressed, and it was even possible that he could not protect himself.
Just as Su Wanbu took a breath, bad news arrived: with the help of Daming, Ye He took back Xicheng, which had been occupied by Tumen for some time. And the loss itself is not big. What's worse is that Ye He plans to marry his well-known Gegemeng Guzhezhe to Master Gao.
After learning the news, Sorguo finally gave up his fantasy and took his son to surrender to Ye He. Then he was entrusted with an important task by Ye He and led an envoy to pay tribute. But under the skin of this mission, their real purpose is to protect Meng Guzhezhe and ensure that she can be handed over to Master Gao safely.
Sorgo recalled the glory and splendor of his ancestors from time to time, but his son was obviously more willing to "look forward." The young man carefully observed the Gao family's cavalry for a while, shook his head and said, "I heard that Master Gao has one hundred thousand cavalry. Although these one hundred thousand cavalry cannot all be such elite cavalry, it is enough to show how powerful he is. Ah. Ma, Ye He needs the help of Master Gao, and I, Su Wan, have no other choice but to take refuge."
Sorguo sighed and asked softly, "Fei Yingdong, you are my bravest and smartest son. Su Wanbu's future depends on where you will take them..."
It turns out that this young man's name is Fei Yingdong, Gualjia Fei Yingdong.
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Thanks to book friends "Cao Mianzi", "July 13, 19", and "Ling Qi Zhao Bi Xin" for their monthly ticket support, thank you!
PS: The computer broke down last night. I temporarily explained the specific situation in the chapter review of the previous chapter last night. Anyway, I just fixed it this afternoon. Then I installed various custom applications, retrieved some lost data, maps, etc. The update must have been delayed, and I was seriously sleep deprived because of it. Now I have to take a nap quickly. This... is really force majeure, Wan Wang Haihan.
