Spring and Autumn I Am King

PS: 5,000-word chapters, one chapter tops two chapters, two more tomorrow...

The morning is cold and wet, with a hint of wetness, indicating that the rainy season is approaching. www.geiliwx.com

At the end of May, the summer rain continued to fall, and all kinds of news came out one after another like white mushrooms after the rain, and spread to Zhao Wuxi in Linqiu, which made people a little overwhelmed.

The first thing I got was a silk silk from Taoqiu of the State of Cao. The teeny seal characters on it were written by Cao Boyang himself. The content was to invite Zhao Wuxi to attend his thirty-sixth birthday banquet. It also contained some words from Zigong. .

Zhao Wuxi knew that as early as "Poetry. Xiaoya", there was a record of the saying "Geng Wu on auspicious days, that is, send me a horse", reflecting that Wu is opposite to a horse. In the Spring and Autumn Period, there were already twelve zodiac signs, so naturally the saying of the year of life came into being.

Zigong explained in his letter: "Sikou should know that there are twelve months in a year. Zi is a rat; Ugly is an ox; Yin is a tiger; Mao is a rabbit; Chen is a worm; Si is a chicken; , horse; Wei, sheep; Shen, monkey; You, rooster; Xu, dog; Hai, pig. Throughout the year, Cao Guo received a lot of tax revenue for his extravagant business. Cao Bo was delighted. This year, he decided to expand and strengthen the venue, making it a 'big arena' that had never existed in the world. To celebrate Benming's birthday."

The extravagant business under the name of Wu Xie has achieved very good results in the past year. It is said that in the extravagant place in Taoyi now, its advocacy and dancing skills are all playing yu and drums, as well as playing the piano and building, fighting **** and lackeys. Six Bo cuju people, only for the Bode scholar and the people of the country to have fun.

On the days of racing cars, horse races, corner arrivals, and the rudimentary Cuju League, the nearby streets and alleys are often crowded with cars and people rubbing shoulders. Sweaty. The merchants such as Ru Zigong who set up the industry are "very rich and real. The family is rich and the ambition is high."

After describing these grand occasions, Zigong wrote: "If Si Kou is free, he can come to Taoqiu to observe and inspect our performance. On the other hand, it can also make Cao Boyu proud and work in Taoqiu in the future. Hehuozhu can also get some convenience, this is a ruthless request, Duanmu will give him another word."

Cao Bo's invitation, Zigong's remonstrance can not be ignored. Taoyi is in the world. The place where businessmen gather is very important in the strategy of no-shirts. In addition to the source of information, there is also a terminal for the sale of paper, porcelain, and other specialty products in Sanyi, and it is also a big market for purchasing scarce raw materials, which can be said to hold the economic lifeline of the unsympathetic forces.

Of course, if that's the case, he wouldn't leave rashly under the delicate situation in Lu.

But at the same time, Zigong reported something: "The extravagant business has also attracted countless foreign nobles to come and spend, and Ci also made a lot of friends because of the convenience of their positions. Among them, there are several Wu people who have no intention of being drunk when they are drunk. There's a piece of news..."

...

The second thing Zigong told Wu Xie made up his mind. Anyway, it was only two hundred li from Sanyi to Taoqiu, and it took only five or six days to go back and forth. So Wu Xie called Zhang Mengtan, who was in charge of Yuncheng, to Linqiu, on the one hand, handed over his political affairs, and on the other hand explained the matter.

It turned out that by next month, the emerging strong state of the south, the state of Wu, will send an envoy to the north again, and the ultimate goal is to go to the state of Jin to recruit. During the period, he will pass through Song, Tao, and Wei three kingdoms, just in time for Cao Bo's birthday banquet. Therefore, the pedestrians of Wu State will stay in Taoqiu for some time.

Zigong had already sent someone into the Wu border to verify the authenticity of this matter, and he had also inquired about the identity of the pedestrian. When the name was presented to Wu Xie's desk, Wu Xie felt unexpected, but reasonable.

"Wu State's pedestrians happen to belong to the Qu family, that is, the descendants of his son Hu Yong who left behind when Qu Wuchen went south to Wu State..."

Back then, Qu Wu, who ran away for Xia Ji, killed his clan because he resented the Chu state and ordered Yin and the Sima clan. So he asked the Marquis of Jin to envoy to Wu, and the Marquis of Jin allowed him. So Qu Wu took the way of Ju State and went to Wu land, which was still regarded as a barbarian in the Central Plains at that time, and persuaded Wu Wang Shoumeng, who had cut off his tattoos, to join the Ji Zhouzong League of Jin State.

Qu Wu also taught the Wu people to form formations and chariot warfare in a disorderly battle, so that they would become stronger and attack the flanks of Chu. Before he left, he hired a famous swordsmith to cast the sword Shaoyu, and he also left his eldest son Qu Huyong in Wu State. Eighty years have passed since the descendants of the Qu family have been the pedestrians who communicated with the Central Plains for generations.

Speaking of which, the Qu family has a very good relationship with Zhao Wuxi, who is called Bo Mi, and Wu Xie, who affectionately calls her Wei, and Xing Ao, a young man who works at Taoqiu Zigong, are all Qu Wu. Later generations, when they were taken south by their father, they just wanted to go to Wu State to defect to their relatives. After the sister and brother were rescued by Wu Xie, Bo Mi was already equivalent to his concubine's room, and the sword Shaolong was also kept by Wu Xie before Xing Ao became an adult, and it was hanging on his waist at this time.

Saving Wei and Xing Ao was an unexpected move. Wu Xie didn't think about repaying it at the time, but who knew that there was an opportunity in front of him. Therefore, after learning this news, Zhao Wuxi inevitably moved some thoughts. Perhaps, it was time to use this sword that had not been stained with blood for a long time in exchange for some substantial benefits.

In the Spring and Autumn Period, people were finally blood relatives and clans, not to mention that the blood relationship between the two sides had not passed five generations, so the distance was not too far. If Xing Ao and Na Qu's pedestrians can meet two clan branches in the north and south, this is the beauty of adults, and it will definitely become a beautiful talk among the nobles.

But this is just a means for Zhao Wuxi to establish a relationship with the Qu family of Wu Guo.

At the beginning of time-travel, Wu Xie was a little disdainful of the material bronze, but he gradually understood the reason why people in this era called it "dollars", because before iron smelting matured, it really had no suitable substitute!

Wu Xie is very eager for bronze and its raw materials, not only because the iron smelting technology is not good enough, and he cannot make high-quality iron weapons. Military armament is linked to the quantity of bronze. There is another reason. He has been forced to do nothing by the extremely backward monetary system of the State of Lu, so he had to advance the coinage plan that was too early.

This matter starts with the sale of paper and porcelain. The cost of mulberry paper has been reduced to the same level as that of bamboo slips, but the price can be several times more expensive than hemp paper and bamboo slips, but outsiders do not know the mystery, and feel that It's a huge bargain.

When two kinds of paper, one high and one low, began to be sold in Lucheng, and the first batch of money and silk was received, Zhao Wuxi was greatly disappointed with the currency and commodity economy of Lu.

At that time, Ji Qiao calculated an account for him: "The copper shells in the state of Lu have different quality levels according to different casting locations, but the average weight is about half a tael. The general bamboo slips are one copper shell and two volumes, and are sent on paper. Originally, one copper shell was exchanged for ten, the inferior hemp paper was 20 copper shells, and the price of mulberry paper was one copper shell and two!"

Jin State has a casted copper empty head cloth. Shoulders and feet cloth, etc., but the state of Lu is known as the state of etiquette, but it still retains the shell coins system of the ancient times! Although it has gradually become a cast copper shell since Duke Xi of Lu, it still lags behind. So even if you harvest 10,000 copper shells and copper-clad shells. Looking at Beqiu who were standing together, he didn't feel like making a fortune without a shirt, he just felt funny.

If it wasn't for Zhao Wushen's suffering from the lack of bronze in the treasury, and Zigong, who was familiar with the economy, not around, maybe he would have asked the craftsman workshop to separate a group of craftsmen who attacked gold to cast copper coins. Let them sweep the country of Lu.

The yuan, half liang, and five baht coins chosen by the economy of later generations are all enough to eliminate the backward copper shells and shells of Lu State. In the following two thousand years, coinage was a huge power to accumulate wealth, and it was also the best means to grasp the lifeline of a country's economy. Compared with it, papermaking and porcelain firing were all petty troubles...

What is even more gratifying is that, after all, coinage is a new thing that has just appeared in less than five hundred years. The rulers of this era did not know enough about coinage, so they did not legislate to manage the phenomenon of private coinage. As long as there were hands and copper materials, they could set up their own workshops to coin them. Since then, the wealth has been rolling in.

However, Wu Xian was unable to do what he wanted. He lacked enough copper materials on hand. Sanyi did not produce copper and tin, and there were very few in the entire Central Plains. What's more, the great uncle Sun of the State of Lu, as well as the noble merchants of Jin, Lu, and Cao all attached great importance to this kind of armament material and were reluctant to sell it easily.

So Wu Xie could only stare at Chu and Wu, the two big copper-producing countries. Although Chu was rich in copper, it was too far away. Wu State and Lu are adjacent to each other in the Huaibei area, not to mention that the political system of Wu State is relatively primitive, if it can connect with the lord of the lord. No problem smuggling some copper and tin with fine craftsmanship!

So he made a decision to go to Taoqiu to meet with Wu envoys and attend Cao Bo's birthday banquet by the way.

After listening to Wu Xie's reason, Zhang Mengtan also agreed very much and thought it was worth a visit. He promised that when Wu Xie was not around, he would coordinate the military and political affairs of Sanyi to guard against attacks by thieves.

At this time, Wu Xie just wanted to go and come back quickly, but he didn't expect that there were two other important matters waiting for him to solve in Taoqiu...

...

Poems say, in May, the katydid moves its shares, and in June, the pheasant vibrates.

The suburb of Xinjiang in Jin State. Xiaoyi Chengxiang, which was very lively in the past because Zhao Wuxi was in power for a year, seems to have fallen silent. When evening falls, only grasshoppers can be heard resounding through the grass, and in the dead of night, even courting pheasants can be heard fluttering their feathers and pecking their wings.

In the winter of the previous year, when the news that Zhao Wuxi was expelled for the manslaughter of Fan's heirs and grandsons came out, there was an uproar in the township.

At that time, Yang Tongrong and others said indignantly: "The Fan family is ashamed that his grandson was killed, and we are also ashamed that the lord has been expelled! The monarch humiliated the death of his ministers, and the whole town became up and down. Loving the gentleman is like loving one's own parents. , The son wants to take revenge for his parents, and the servant wants to take revenge on the master. If the master has a call, is there anyone who dares not do his best?"

As a result, half of the young and strong children in this town brought their own clothes, bows, arrows, and weapons. They said goodbye to Kun's father and wife. Under the leadership of Cheng Tuan, Ji Qiao, Yang Tongrong and others, they went to Song and Lu to seek refuge in exile in batches. The lord Zhao Wuxi.

When they left the house, the people of the country and the countryside did not send their sons and nephews to recruit, but encouraged each other. Fathers encouraged their sons, brothers encouraged their younger brothers, and women encouraged their husbands. , even if he died in a foreign country, it is worth it! If the gentleman does not return, he will not come back!"

This posture is quite similar to the exile of Jin Chong'er, and the Hu brothers, Zhao Shuai, and Wei Wuzi swear to death.

The men left with the thought of "repaying the gentleman's kindness", and Chengxiang suddenly became a daughter's township. Even the well-guarded porcelain kilns in the past are half empty, and only some young Lu potters and Xia Gong potters have learned the work of half-lag porcelain, maintaining the output of "finished porcelain", but they are already declining.

This situation continued until more than half a year ago, when the suzerain of the Zhao clan suddenly ordered that Chengxiang be transferred to be the raising town of his young daughter Ji Ying. And the female town owner, who was wearing a red hood and fur coat and arrived in a four-wheeled Chinese car, was the same as when Zhao Wuxi arrived at the beginning of the year, injecting new vitality into the quiet Chengxiang.

The Yi Temple has been renovated. The cold stone table in the small courtyard and the green vegetable garden are still there. The kitchen is still fragrant every day. . The people who live in it are also different people. After Wu Xie, Jun and Nv Ji Ying became the master of this place.

She brought many people from the lower palace to serve. Among them, the most trusted one was Bo Mi, who was very loving before leaving, and even let the gentleman take a bath.

Bo Mi was the daughter of the former Xing clan who lost her father, and a small servant of the Cheng clan. A personal maid who has a skin-to-skin relationship with Wu-shirt, she also has a name called "Wei".

But since Zhao Wuxi went south, this private name has been buried deeply and replaced by the more formal "Bo Mi". This is what Ji Ying asked her to change, which means that she admits that she is from the surname of the Chu family. There is also the once lost status of aristocratic women.

But Bo Mi didn't feel the slightest complacent. Her status became high, but she still walked with her head down. At this time, she was holding a stack of mulberry paper that had just been sent from Xibi in Lu State, and entered the room with only her feet on. Standing beside the lady.

Bo Mi lost the appearance of duckweed and weak willow in the past, and became a little more aristocratic under Ji Ying's **. She always wears spotless white dark clothes, and the simple cloth on her head is black. The girls don't know why she wears this mourning dress. Only Bo Mi knew why she wore it like this. Because gentlemen like this dress.

Unlike Bo Mi's white and low-key look, Ji Ying was still dressed in red makeup, sitting on the couch, holding a rabbit pen in his thin hand, and pondering on a piece of hemp paper.

"Is this the mulberry paper?" She was delighted after receiving the latest batch of paper made by Linqiu.

"Wei, a total of four or five hundred sheets were sent, and there may be more in the future."

"Wu Xie was very ingenious when he was in Jin, and from time to time he made things that made people's eyes shine. Whoever wants to go abroad is still like this."

Ji Ying has a wooden ruler in his hand to correct the font and line order. The surface of the wooden ruler is cut with a knife to cut straight and even scales and then painted. It can be used as a simple unit of measurement, and can also be used as a tool for aligning fonts and paperweights.

The quality of mulberry paper is much better than that of hemp paper. Ji Ying was tiring for a while, so he took over and dipped his pen and ink and began to draw porcelain models and glazes. She writes gracefully and gracefully, her posture is light, and there is not a trace of chaos, and her demeanor is graceful. Elegant and natural.

After Ji Ying began to preside over the finished porcelain, the porcelain kiln, which had gradually declined since leaving Zhao Wuxi's guidance, began to recover.

Because of the soil quality problem, the finished porcelain is mainly "white porcelain". White porcelain is not the first creation. It was produced in small quantities as early as when the kiln was first built. When making, it is only necessary to pay attention to the interference of iron in the glaze color, and the product will change from celadon to white porcelain.

Ji Ying actually didn't understand firing, but she knew what kind of product she wanted to see, so the white porcelain became more and more delicate in shape and exquisite in decoration. They are gray-white in color, fine in texture, and blue-gray in glaze color, like ice and jade, and are very popular among women.

And it is the "black porcelain" of Zhendi that appeared recently.

Similar to making white porcelain, as long as the iron content in the enamel is increased, black porcelain is fired. Perhaps it was contaminated with the chilling atmosphere of the military soldiers.

In this regard, Ji Ying commented: "I see those black porcelain, there are patterns, but as a man, his heart is really stupid, how can it be compared to the delicate mind of the daughter's family? So Zhendi black porcelain is better than the new color. The white porcelain of the ground is better than the unique shape, and each has its own strengths.”

She reviewed the model drawn on the paper and handed it over to Bo Mi. She asked her to take it to the workshop and asked the craftsman to make it according to the shape on it.

Bo Mi looked sideways, but saw that on the mulberry paper, a beautiful elf slowly jumped out of the pen. It was elegant and unique, white like a lotus flower, and it was incomparably beautiful. I don't know what it will look like when it is actually fired. I am afraid that the craftsmen will be amazed for a while when the kiln is opened.

At this moment, Ji Ying said to her, "The latest batch of white porcelain produced will be shipped to Taoqiu. I want you to go there in person."

Ji Ying had learned from the letter that Wu Xie was going to Taoqiu, and the letter also mentioned the matter of the descendants of the Qu family. Although Wu Xie did not say it explicitly, the smart Ji Ying had considered that this meeting with the Qu family would be a good idea. Whether it can achieve satisfactory results, perhaps it can be moved by Bo Mi and the other brothers and sisters with "family affection", so they condemn her to go.

Bo Mi naturally knew what she was going for, and she was surprised and scared at the same time: "My concubine..."

Ji Ying did not allow her to say: "Wu Xie has been away for a year and a half, and I don't know when I will return. I didn't let you go because of the endless wars in Pushang. But now the situation in Lu has been stable, and I have been in the military all the year round. , life must be rough and casual, and he has to be taken care of by his side, so I want you to go!"

The voice turned into a tone of command, and Bo Mi could only bow her head and bow down, daring to say no more.

She doesn't know what the previous gentleman was like, but now Ji Ying is luxurious and mature. In the past year or so, she has undergone a transformation, from a budding flower to a first-blooming flower. There is no tolerance in her words. Doubtful order.

But in fact, what Ji Ying was thinking about was that she wished she could get rid of her identity as the daughter of the Zhao family and go to Taoqiu in person to meet Zhao Wuxi...

...

Yanling Town of Wu State is located in the south of the Dajiang River and north of Zhenze. When King Wu Shoumeng died, he wanted to pass it on to his youngest son Jizha. However, Ji Zha did not want to be the king, so he learned the stories of Taibo and Cao Gongzi, and went to Yanling to avoid giving up the throne. King Xu Ji of Wu then sealed Ji Zha in Yanling, and the name was Yanling Jizi.

Ji Zha is now the most senior, age, and knowledgeable person in the Wu nationality, and he is also the most familiar with the rituals and music of the northern summers. Therefore, the Wu envoy who went north to Taoqiu stopped here to ask him some etiquette questions.

At this time, an elderly doctor with white hair and drooping sideburns was sitting in a thatched pavilion by the water with a sword in his hands, and in front of him was the splendid Zhenze of soup.

On his right side sat a middle-aged man led by Gao Guanbo, dressed as a Chinese doctor. Although he was a pedestrian of Wu State's high status, he was respectful to the old man. On the left is a young man in green clothes wearing a cloth crown. He listened the most seriously, and his eyes were full of curiosity about the northern summers. Although he was dressed as a scholar from the Central Plains, the looming tattoo under his neck exposed him. It is the indigenous Wu people.

On the other hand, the big man with a stout body and a short sword on his waist has completely broken hair and tattoos. He looked at the scenery of Zhenze impatiently, his eyes on the swimming fish that jumped up from time to time - the tattooed face on his cheek It is a pair of blue and black Pisces patterns.

His father, Zhuan Zhu, was here to learn how to cook fish...

Just at this moment, the white-haired old man suddenly stopped talking freely, raised his head and recited a poem and burst into tears~www.wuxiahere.com~ The three people who were sitting with him were shocked. The boy from Wu even approached and asked with concern.

"Ji Zi, I don't know why?"

Ji Zha wiped away the old tears, flicked the long sword "zheng" and sighed: "The old man's heart hurts a little, it must be Yan Pingzhong's death, and there is one less confidant in the world..."

So, just when Wu Xie and Bo Mi, who were in the two places, were about to set off, a funeral from Qi country shocked the world in just a few days, and their trip had to be delayed for a few days. (To be continued.)

PS: Thanks to book friends Xunlang, Jiutian Yanyu, czdxh042408, chaotic otaku LYP, Wuchen & Gongzi Xiaobai for the reward! Thank you for your monthly pass!

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