After leaving Xinye City and traveling ten miles north, you will find the newly built Xinye City. The new city is located on the bank of Baihe River, with a newly built wharf and convenient transportation.
Seeing that the roads around the city are neat and flat, Wang Ruohai said: "This city is much better than Xinye City! The roads are wide and flat, and the surrounding canals have weirs. We have put in the effort!"
Wang Xiaolie said: "Of course we can't be careless when building a new city. This spring, thousands of people from surrounding states and counties were summoned to work here."
Several people talked and went straight into the city.
The military camps were not inside the city, but were distributed around it, surrounding the city. Moreover, each military camp also has city walls. Xinye is actually a main city in the middle, surrounded by several military cities, forming a complete defense system.
With this city here, the safety of surrounding Dengzhou, Tangzhou and Xiangyang Prefecture can be guaranteed. If we don't attack here, we can't attack those places with confidence. Otherwise, if you send troops from the new field, you can attack the enemy's flank.
Wang Xiaolie's main idea was that the army should not mix with the people. If you want to build a large army, just build a new city. The defensive function of the city is actually incidental.
When we entered the city, we saw that the streets were extremely smooth, straight and straight, facing south and north. The main road is paved with stone slabs with shallow grids to increase friction. The houses and shops next to it are all made of blue bricks, and the layout blends into one.
Looking around, Lu Qing couldn't help but praise: "It took a lot of effort to build it! Such a neat town is rare in the world!"
Wang Xiaolie smiled and said: "This is a painting on white paper. Of course, we must try our best to make it beautiful. This city is different from other places. The houses starting from the city gate are all owned by shops and houses in the city. There are no private houses. For the purpose of building In the new city, a brick and tile yard was specially built. After the city was built, the brick and tile yard could still burn bricks for the surrounding people, and nothing was wasted."
Wang Ruohai and Lu Qing praised repeatedly and followed Wang Xiaolie into the Yamen.
The guests and hosts were seated separately. Invited tea. Wang Xiaolie said: "You two have come a long way, and I didn't catch the wind for you in Xiangyang. I will hold a wine feast tonight to catch the wind and wash away the dust for you. The two generals training here are mainly Niu Gao and Shao Ling. I'll call them later. Come here and meet the two of you.”
Wang Ruohai thanked Lu Qing and sat down to chat.
When he came to this world, Xinye City was the first city built by Wang Xiaolie according to his own wishes, with special care. Manpower is the work of the people, and it only costs money to provide food and drink. The brick and tile yard, stone yard, lumber yard, etc. are all newly built, with the addition of Wang Xiaolie's past life experience. With the experience of building Xinye City, it will be much easier to build a city in the future.
Not long after, Niu Gao and Shao Ling arrived and came forward to greet him.
After the two sat down, Wang Ruohai said: "Looking at the appearance here, the system is going to be big. I wonder how many troops have been recruited so far?"
Wang Xiaolie said: "Since the construction of Xinye City, more than 6,000 new soldiers have been recruited from the surrounding state armies. However, due to the short time, less than 1,000 people have been recruited into the army. The others are still in the new barracks. Wait a few more days.”
Wang Ruohai glanced at Lu Qing and nodded silently. The six thousand new soldiers, plus Wang Xiaolie's original three thousand troops, amounted to nearly ten thousand people. Ten thousand soldiers and horses is not a big number. Some of the grass-headed kings around them easily have tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of soldiers. But the carefully selected and rigorously trained 10,000 people are different. Such an army has no rival around. It seemed that the two of them still underestimated Wang Xiaolie.
Lu Qing said: "As Zhizhi said, there are tens of thousands of people around Xinye City. It is not easy to supply them with food and grass."
Wang Xiaoxing said: "Yes, people eat horse chews, which is not a small amount. We killed Wang Jun, Yang Jin and others, and to be honest, we seized some money. In the past few months, we bought grain from Hubei Road and bought cattle. All kinds of things are almost spent. Now I just have to wait for the summer grain harvest to take a break. If the summer grain harvest is not good, it will make me suffer!"
Wang Ruohai said: "Looking at the seedlings in the ground, they are growing well. I think it will be a good harvest year."
"If you farm, you will have to rely on the sky to eat. Although the people try their best, it still depends on whether God will reward them with a bowl of rice. How can you say for sure." Wang Xiaolie has been worried about this, hoping that the weather will be smooth, and he must not go out of his way. funnel.
After killing Wang Jun and Yang Jin, Wang Xiaolie did seize a lot of money. Without this money, even if Wang Xiaolie occupied several states, he could only lie down and wait until the grain was harvested before he could take action. However, the money is really not spent, and it is almost spent in a few months. If the newly built industries in Ruzhou hadn't collected a lot of money every month, the salary of officers and soldiers would now be a problem.
Nowadays, Jinghu North and South Road is relatively peaceful, and the price of grain is not high. You can buy grain and grass from there. In order to open up fields, Wang Xiaolie sent people to buy a large number of cattle from Jinghu. Now most of them have taken out loans and are waiting to pay back the money after collecting the grain. It's very stressful to get everything back together. Originally, Wang Xiaolie had many ways to make money, but because he had no capital, he could only stop.
Lu Qing said: "No matter how heroic a man is, it will be difficult to do anything without money. Especially in the military, everything is indispensable for money. It will be difficult for the system to recruit so many new soldiers at once. If you ask me, I should wait for a while. , it’s much easier.”
Wang Xiaolie smiled bitterly and shook his head, but did not answer.
No matter how difficult it is, there is no reason to postpone recruiting troops. When was this? Recruiting a thousand more soldiers, or recruiting a thousand soldiers earlier, is likely to change the overall situation. It doesn't matter if you don't have money for a while. Everyone has to live a hard life, and we will make up for it later. Moreover, Wang Xiaolie had no private wealth and used all the money and food to support the army, so the pressure was relatively small. If, like others, you keep most of the money for yourself, you won’t be able to support it now.
Looking at the night sky, Wang Xiaoxing said: "The back office has prepared a banquet for the two of you. Don't be too shabby."
Wang Ruohai smiled and said: "Since now is the time for you to use money, you might as well save it and eat whatever you want."
Wang Xiaolie said: "In this place in Xinye, there are no exquisite delicacies that you want to eat right now. They are pigs, sheep, chickens and ducks raised by the nearby army, and fish, shrimps, turtles and crabs caught in the river. The cook cooked them, and we came to drink. It's nothing more than cooking It has to be more refined and have some flavor."
While talking, he invited the two of them to the back office for a banquet.
While walking on the road, Niu Gao whispered: "Zhizhou, can I drink alcohol today?"
Wang Xiaolie said with a smile: "It's natural that you have to drink to support two officials. By the way, have you arranged someone in the army to take care of things for you?"
Niu Gao nodded repeatedly: "The arrangements have been made long ago, Zhizhou doesn't need to worry! I and Shao Tongzhi have been leading troops for a long time, and there will be no mistakes!"
Wang Xiaolie said: "Just be careful. The most important thing in the army is to be cautious! One oversight can lead to big trouble!"
Niu Gao said yes. Several people were talking as they arrived at the back office.
Wang Xiaolie put a lot of thought into the construction of the newly built Houya. There are various flowers and trees on the east side of the yard, with a pavilion in the middle. On the east side is a small pool with fish and turtles in it, surrounded by verandas. Although it is not as exquisite as the gardens of later generations, it has a unique flavor.
By this time the weather had warmed up, and the banquet was held in the pavilion in the courtyard.
Wang Xiaolie invited Wang Ruohai and Lu Qing to sit down, and ordered someone to take the tea sent by the Xinyang Army two days ago and brew a pot.
Said: "A few days ago, some thieves broke through the Xinyang Army and killed the defender Zhao Shihui. I sent people to recover it, and I will take care of it for the time being. The Xinyang Army has a superior geographical location and produces good tea. It's just a group tea, so it doesn't show where it is. To improve the flavor of tea, I thought of a new method. Although the tea produced by this method is loose tea, it has a refreshing fragrance and a sweet aftertaste. Today I will brew a pot and let you two have a taste."
After hearing this, Wang Ruohai and Lu Qing looked at the newly brewed Maojian tea. The tea leaves inside were tender and small, and the color of the tea was slightly yellow. Unlike ordering tea, the tea soup is clear and translucent.
Wang Ruohai picked up the tea cup and took a sip. He shook his head slightly, smiled and said nothing.
Lu Qing picked up the tea and drank it in one gulp. Putting down the teacup, he said: "Zhizhi, let me tell you the truth, don't blame me. The newly made tea tastes really weak! When you drink it in your mouth, there is no taste at all. And there is no camellia when brewing, so it can't be with you. Fighting over tea.”
As he spoke, he shook his head.
The tea was picked a little late this year, so it was not good tea. Moreover, Wang Xiaolie just followed the instructions and hastily taught the tea-making masters once. How could they master the skills all at once? This year's tea is still drinkable, but it's not good tea.
Wang Xiaolie understood in his heart. But he just wants to promote this kind of tea. As long as it is promoted, over time, someone will naturally sum up a lot of truths. From brewing to drinking, various cultures are explained clearly. Even like in the previous life, I even found a young lady to put on ancient costumes and pretend to tell others that this was a tea ceremony.
This is true of many things in the world. What about tea ceremony, chess ceremony, calligraphy ceremony, and piano ceremony? The forms are cumbersome and they tell others that this is culture. What does this have to do with culture? It's just a trick played by businessmen who are arty. Moreover, many of these various Taoisms were learned from Japan and other countries, and they created a set of etiquette to tell others that this is traditional culture.
The most typical example that Wang Xiaolie remembers is that the country is governed by the wise. I don’t know when experts across the country have been advocating it, and there are places working hard to promote it. And it has a name, which is Chinese tradition.
When foreigners study Chinese history, one well-known direction is that in Chinese history, imperial power did not extend to counties, and the country was governed by rural gentry. Is this really the case? In peacetime, most of the time, most of the places in China, where is this true? As a unified country, when did the so-called county magistrate who destroyed the family and the governor who exterminated the family have the final say? The squires only have the final say when it is inconvenient for the government to govern, or in some specific places, as a supplement to the government.
After seeing the local government’s promotion of rural governance, I got an intuitive impression. This is not Chinese tradition. To be more precise, it should be learned from the tradition of rural sages represented by the United States. Such an incident suddenly changed completely due to the fact that in Chinese history, country gentry ruled the country and rural sages were traditional, and some scholars advocated it clearly or pretending to do so.
Of course, the rule of the country by rural virtues was not really promoted in the end. But as for the reason for the failure, the summary is that Chinese tradition is no longer suitable for the current era, and we cannot ignore the past, and so on. But no one really said that it was not a Chinese tradition. Similarly, there is a large amount of this kind of traditional culture that was learned from foreign countries by people who were either deceived or half-informed. Then there is a group of advocates, shaking their heads and wagging their ears, looking for historical evidence and talking about the brilliance of Chinese culture.
First of all, we must understand that most of these traditions and cultures have formed habits due to geographical limitations, insufficient technology, political restrictions, religious beliefs, and other reasons. This represents history and the people's yearning or helplessness. Future generations should understand why the ancients formed these habits, and whether to use them or not depends on their own needs.
This is culture, and that is culture. This is not allowed to be touched, and that is not allowed to be changed. The literati who advocate this are rotten. Culture should be developed naturally by the people. Finally, through the sublimation of literati, it was recognized by the broad masses of the people.
Songs express aspirations, and poetry was originally sung naturally by working people. Finally, through the continuous development of literati, it finally matures. When it loses its vitality, words, dramas, etc. will naturally appear.
Literati should be deeply rooted in the people and know their moods, their joys and sorrows, their helplessness and yearning, in order to maintain their vitality. If you just bury your head in the pile of old papers or turn your head outward, you will lose your vitality and become sour.
In this sense, culture should not be traditional. Instead, we should draw nutrients from tradition and express our own era in order to be full of vitality. Traditional culture should exist in history.
As for the other kind, I watched some Western scenes in foreign countries. If you go back to your own country and say that you are backward, it will not work. If there is no collective spirit, no culture, no unity, then it has nothing to do with the literati.
Wang Xiaolie understands that the tea being roasted now has various shortcomings. But as long as you persist and develop yourself, fried green tea will eventually become popular. And someone will sum up the theory, and naturally a new tea culture will come out. If you develop some fermented tea yourself, there will also be people who will talk about the benefits of fermented tea. Naturally, there is no need to worry at all.
The word culture should be very solemn, representing the spiritual outlook of the people of a country. It's just that in previous lives, Chinese culture was too weak when facing the West, and in many cases it lost its true colors.
