Lan Ruochan

Chapter 2 Wedges
Blue waves, green waves, ten thousand springs,
Skip the flowing water below to meet the sky.

At the foot of the pole, looking at the autumn sunshine,
Shedding mud tires in the world.

——Ying Liu

Chen Xi slowly opened her winking eyes, her slender and thick golden eyelashes stretched all over the sky, she just looked at the willow bank of the Slender West Lake from the crevices of her lightly opened eyelids, and her expression was restrained.He hurriedly covered his face with a piece of cloud, and buried it in the lake again, probably planning to repair some makeup.

The emerald green willows by the lake are charming and lively, rich in color yet glamorous, enveloping a long pool of lake water, how can Feng Yun not be envious of that indifferent and proud style?
In the past, Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty visited the south of the Yangtze River six times, and all of them lingered here.

And those wealthy businessmen with hundreds of thousands of dollars in their pockets are also flocking to this place,
The elegant scholars who rode down to Yangzhou on a crane never spared the compliments.

Trace back twenty Jiazi since the Qing Dynasty,

This place is still called Guangling, and the water is still the same as the ancient Hangou, but the only thing that has not changed is the intoxicating style of this lake.

A ray of autumn wind blows,
A bunch of willow twigs fell off together, and the willow leaves fluttered and danced with the wind.

Of course the autumn wind blows the willow branches,
But sandwiched in the Xiaofeng, there is a sword wind that is more gentle than the autumn wind.

The boy here is dressed in white,
Stretch your arms like flapping wings,
Move like a crane dancing,
splash Yaoguang,
Painting landscapes.

in the mist,

The reflection of light and shadow on the lake,

Looking from a distance, it is just like weaving a dream.

When the sword energy suddenly subsided, the sword light suddenly disappeared and hid in the scabbard on the young man's back, but the sword's sound was still like a dragon's chant, and there were endless aftershocks.

Huh?
At this time, there was a soft cry from the opposite bank, and a girl in green clothes turned out from the shade of willows.

In the hazy morning light, it looks like an elf floating out of the willow forest, graceful at five feet, taking all the beauty of the lake for a moment.

The breath between heaven and earth also stopped, and the wind gradually stopped.

The girl took off the bamboo hat on her head, threw it into the water, her figure moved slightly, and she spread her wings like a kite, making a graceful arc in the air.

Where the toes landed, it happened to be on the thrown bamboo hat.

Then the flying swallow flew back, but after two ups and downs, it almost crossed the lake.

The surrounding willow branches hang their heads still, and the bamboo hat in the lake only spits out a few silent ripples. In this picturesque wind and smoke, only the girl rabbit rises and falls, dragging an afterimage across the water and sky space between.

The young man in white seemed to be fascinated. He saw that the green shadow landed a few feet away from the shore, but he still stood there dumbfounded.

He only heard the girl yell softly, "Idiot! Pick me up!"

Immediately, a long rainbow broke out of the sky, and the early autumn Chaoyang, who had just made up his makeup and tried to appear again, closed his eyes sadly.

The boy immediately understood.

While he was in a hurry, his figure was a little clumsy, but his forward speed was still extremely fast.

I saw him rising from the shore with both feet, the long sword behind his back whistling out of the box, under the sword of the girl, his figure turned around lightly, and fell to the shore again.

With this help, the girl flipped over the boy's head lightly, but she didn't draw the sword, and drew a sword flower in the air, covering the boy's moving path.

If he was forced by this sword, the boy in white could only fall into the lake in embarrassment.

He couldn't help being stunned at this moment, he raised his head to look, and saw the turned-up robes dyed with gold trim in the sunlight, fluttering like a phoenix's tail.

In the lazy halo of yellow light, the other party's facial expression could not be seen at all.

But he didn't read a trace of murderous intent from the wind of the sword, so he had a plan in his mind, and he was not in a hurry to dodge, he raised the sword in his hand above his head, and slashed straight at the palace with his backhand, piercing through the air with a fierce roar, with overwhelming aura .

This time the strain is only in the blink of an eye.

On the contrary, the girl was floating in the air at this time and couldn't help but use her strength, so she had to swing her sword to strike each other, turning her body backwards, out of the way of the landing place by the lake.

The two swords gnawed, and there was a muffled clang, like a dragon chant and a phoenix chirping, or a tiger's claw brushing against an eagle's beak, it was not like the usual chirping sound made when metal and iron strike each other.

The young man knew that the other party must also be holding a very hard sword, and his figure was slightly fixed, so he hurriedly checked whether his favorite sword was damaged.

The green-clothed girl giggled, "Sure enough, it's a good sword! Brother Qing, can you borrow the sword to see?"

The young man has an innate sensitivity to swords, and with just a tap of his two fingers, he has already sensed that there is no serious problem from the buzzing of the sword.

Hearing the girl's call at this moment, he looked up curiously, "You? Senior Sister?"

The girl raised her eyebrows lightly, and looked at the young man surnamed Qing, "My master is your master's senior brother, should you call me senior sister? It's really a wooden fish brain, senior sister's six-dragon Yutian style, how is it used?"

That round of rising red sun had been hit one after another, so at this moment, they could only hide in the distance, secretly watching the pair of children from the rivers and lakes.

The gentle eyes fell on the girl's side face, dyed her eyebrows and hair tips golden, and pulled out the exaggerated light arcs from the already green and upturned eyelashes.

Under the eyelashes is a pair of typical phoenix eyes, the corners of which are slightly curved upwards, and the big and bright pupils reflect the divine golden aura in the morning sun.

Probably because of the thick eyelashes, or because the pupils are large and clear, the eyelids are full and playful, perfectly hiding the only defect of the phoenix eyes.

No matter who these eyes are looking at, his gaze and his mind will hardly spread beyond this eye-catching look.

She couldn't even pay attention to her delicate nose, playful lips, and soft and delicate neck and cheeks.

Since even Chaoyang was obsessed with seeing Chaoyang, and he hadn't pulled his whole body out of the water and sky for a long time, the young man couldn't help himself.

It wasn't until he felt light in his hand that the long sword, which was as inseparable as a hand and foot, was gently grabbed by the other party, did he smile awkwardly.

Chixia skillfully concealed the embarrassment on his face, but there was no way to hide the unnaturalness in his voice,
"Oh, that. Riding on six dragons to control the sky, isn't this the idiom of the Qian hexagram? It's somewhat appropriate to fly in the air and walk against the light."

"Hey? This is the basic routine of our sect's 'Gan Lei Three Falls'. Didn't Master teach you? What about 'Xun Lan Wu Qi'? How many times have you learned?"

The young man scratched his head and murmured, "I, I haven't learned it before. I also don't have a master. Although Uncle Chen taught me how to learn swords, he only called me uncle, and he firmly refused to let me become a teacher."

"That's strange, so what have you learned?"

"Uncle Chen only taught me some principles of swordsmanship and some basic movements, and then he only explained the Book of Changes to me so that I could comprehend it by myself. Uncle Chen also said that my father's swordsmanship was exquisite in the past. The path of enlightenment was pointed out to me, but he dared not teach me on behalf of my father."

The girl snorted and said disdainfully, "Old Antique! Forget it, your father is also my senior uncle, so I am your senior sister no matter what."

Although Uncle Chen never told him about the past of our sect, there are some fellow sects.

However, the young man devoted himself to comprehending the way of swordsmanship. Although he had never practiced moves, he had a profound understanding of swordsmanship. Therefore, when he received the sword from the girl in green, he no longer had any doubts about her, and hurriedly bowed respectfully, "Qingyun has met senior sister." !"

The girl smiled triumphantly, and waved her hands carelessly, "Forget it, seeing you are so cute, I don't care about you. My name is Hu Caiting. By the way, junior brother, your sword... Huh?"

At this moment, the girl was playing with the sword she had taken from Qingyun.

It was a broad-edged iron sword with an ancient style and engraved with cloud patterns.

It is neither the narrow and straight horizontal blade that is customary in the contemporary northern Xianbei, nor the double iron ridge popular in the Southern Song and Qi Dynasties.

Hu Caiting carefully identified the three obscure insect and bird seal characters etched on the bottom of the sword body, "Could it be..."

"Oh, Senior Sister, this sword is called 'Ganchangduan'. It is said that it is the sword of Ganjiang, a master swordsmith in the Warring States Period. It is a relic of my father."

Hu Caiting saw that this junior brother has no city wealth, so he honestly revealed the bottom of his own treasure, he was also angry and happy.

Seemingly out of an instruction to come and not to be indecent, she also pulled out the dagger at her waist helplessly.

The dagger was only a foot long, and its style seemed much more fashionable than that of the broadsword.

The blade has sharp ridges and has been tempered very carefully.

The patterns made by thousands of times of hammering are neatly stacked together to reflect the charming and unique scales. From a distance, it seems to be covered with a thin pink halo.

In the whole dagger, there are only two gold inscriptions engraved on the boring side, which is the only design element that can reflect a sense of age.

Hu Caiting explained seriously, "Your 'Gan Chang Duan' and my 'Qu Jian' sword actually have a long history.

At that time, the swordsmithing skills of the Yue people were the most outstanding in the world, and the generals from the Zhou Dynasty and Ou Yezi from the Yue people worshiped Mr. Mo Da, the number one swordsmith in the country of Yue.

Later, they fell in love with the teacher's daughter at the same time - Junior Sister Mo Xie.

The two didn't want to hurt the friendship of the same family because of this, and they agreed to forge a sword to determine the winner, and the loser gave up chasing the junior sister.

Your 'Gan Tasting Break' is the finished work of the general; and what Ou Yezi forged is the 'District' in my hand.

It is said that at that time Ou Yezi was too focused on casting the sword and expended a lot of effort. When the sword was completed, he vomited blood and fainted.

Because the sword was sacrificed with painstaking efforts when it was released, the sword will faintly glow with blood under strong light.

But because the blood color is too thin, it seems to be the color of peach blossom.

The number of swords has changed its owner. Men think it is unmanly, while women avoid the reputation of drinking blood.

Therefore, such a rare treasure has been hidden in the dowry box, and no one has used it, so its name is unknown. "

"So miraculous? It sounds like this 'District' sword is even more subtle and mysterious."

The green-shirted girl rolled her eyes at the young man, "It doesn't really matter whether a sword is good or bad. The referee for this competition is Mo Xie, and she chose the sword in your hand. That's why she became a general and settled here with the famous sword beauty. The sword-making technique was also passed on to the Central Plains."

"Live here?"

"Yes, this is the boundary of the ancient Han Kingdom, and the generals are the Han King's family."

Qingyun took his own sword, and responded casually, "It's a great merit to pass on the sword-making technique internally. It's also thanks to that girl Mo Xie."

The girl snorted, her eyes flickering coldly, "Good thing? During the Yin and Shang Dynasties, this place was originally the territory of the Yue people, and there was the Fang Kingdom of the Kuang family.

With the expansion of power in the Central Plains, the Yin people repeatedly attacked Huaiyue and Yangyue, and Kuang State was also annihilated by the King of Yin.

After King Zhou destroyed Yin, he enfeoffed this place to the clan of Ji and established Han Kingdom.

At first, the Zhou people feared that there were many local Yue people who were good at making swords, and they were a bit caring about policies and taxes.

But since Gan Jiang stole the Yue people's sword making skills, the Zhou people also began to use force to wipe out the descendants of Kuang Guo.

All Yue people, those who hid iron objects privately, were killed, and those who did not follow the conscripts were expelled.

Because of this, I don't know how many people of Kuang nationality were buried indiscriminately, so they got the name of Guangling. "

These histories have never been valued by the masters of the Central Plains, so Qingyun naturally has no way of knowing.

At this time, he was listening to it, and the narrator had such a soft and delicate voice, so he didn't interrupt, and didn't even think about why the content of the conversation between the two suddenly jumped into such a heavy historical topic.

Hu Caiting's eyes were fixed on the distance, as if trying to recall the stories repeatedly told by the elders of the tribe when he was young, "However, the Yue people are tough, and they did not give in because of it.

The Yue people who survived by luck gathered together, elected the leader to call himself King Guang, and launched a mad revenge on the King Han's family.

The Han clan was assassinated frequently, almost extinct, and finally forced to negotiate peace with the Yue people.

The Han people promised to pass on the Zhou people's irrigation technology to the Yue people and help them move south to Lingnan.Because the two great kingdoms of the Yue people, Da Yue and Da Luo, were successively captured by Chu, the Kuang people had no choice but to face the reality and accept the conditions.

After the peace talks, although the Han Kingdom gained a little respite, its national strength was greatly damaged, and it was reduced to an insignificant small force between Wu and Chu.

However, the name of King Guangling of Guangling came about because of this, and it was passed down among the Yangyue clans who were unwilling to leave their homeland.

At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Jiang family, one of the twelve survivors of the Panhu family, the ancestor of the Yue people, succeeded the last king of Guang.

It's just that as Sun Quan educated the barbarians and the policy of attracting Yue to the people gradually became effective, more and more Yue people gave up their obsession.

The so-called King Guang's reputation has gradually become a legend.

King Qin Guang, the lord of the first hall of Yama of the ten halls revered by people today, is the incarnation of the last King Guang of Jiang family. "

Hearing this, Qingyun couldn't help but slapped his thigh, "Oh, it turns out that Master Qin Guang has such a history, and this is the first time I've heard of it." After a pause, he asked hesitantly, "But Why is Senior Sister so familiar with these histories?"

Hu Caiting felt a little out of control, and the topic went too far.

But when she saw Qingyun's sincerity in asking, with a pitiful look of asking for the truth, she also answered seriously, "The Yue people respect the Panhu family as their ancestors, and my surname is one of the twelve direct descendants of the Panhu family.

People in the Central Plains now sometimes write this surname as Pu, which is based on the meaning of the word.

Our ancestors continued to move south due to the expansion of the Central Plains people, from Huaiyang to Bashu and Lingnan.

The ancestors of our family could not adapt to the miasma of snakes and insects in Lingnan, so like most Yue people, they went to sea to find another world. "

The word "sea" had an unparalleled deterrent effect on the people of that era.

That represents an unconquerable force, a world where the gods, beasts and immortals are hidden.

Qingyun couldn't help but exclaimed, "Senior Sister Hu came here by boat from overseas?"

The Hucai Pavilion swayed its head lightly, letting the gentle breeze comb its teeth, and talked eloquently,

"That's not true. The ancestors of the Yue people were really good at sailing.

Going back from the sea to the north, you reach the corner of the North Sea, the land of Korea mentioned in the "Shan Hai Jing".After the fall of Yin, Jizi Kingdom ruled.

Jizi's Yin and Shang fiefs were originally adjacent to Han, so he collectively referred to the locations of some of the surrounding tribes as Han, in nostalgia for his hometown.

With the Han River as the boundary, the left side of the river is Jizi Kingdom, and the right side of the river is the land of Sanhan.

The country of Panhu, originally named Daluo, was attacked by the Shang and Zhou dynasties and scattered across the barbarians.

Although my people moved far away to Bianhan, they did not forget their original aspirations, and the area under their jurisdiction was still called Panluo Kingdom.

(The author's case: "Hanshu" is halfway country, transliteration is also)
Later, the Central Plains returned to the Han, and the Han army fought to the edge of the Han River, changing the Han River to the Han River, and San Han had contacts with the Central Plains again.

As a result, some tribesmen moved to Yandi to do some herbal fur business.

My parents were born in Guannei and moved to Luojing with Wei Dunan.

Going south this time, I have revisited my ancestors' homeland again. "

Hearing the girl chattering all over the world, Qing Yun felt disappointed and said bitterly, "Senior Sister is very knowledgeable. It's not like I lived in seclusion here with my uncle since I was a child, and I didn't know there was such a world outside."

Hu Caiting shook his head slightly, with a little elder-like love in his eyes, "It's not that I have extensive knowledge. It's just that these stories have been passed down from generation to generation in our clan to express our longing for the homeland. However, to celebrate Junior Brother, a man of seven feet tall, should go out and venture into the world."

The boy's face turned red when he heard the words, and he hesitated for a while, "I, I promised Uncle Chen. Without his permission, I can't travel far, especially..."

"Especially what?"

"Especially in the north. As long as you learn the sword from him, you will never be able to set foot in Wei soil in this life."

Cai Ting snorted impatiently, "This is the promise made by that pedantic uncle. At this time and at that time, the uncle himself is already on his way to the north. If you want to go to the north to see, you might as well go with me. Past."

"How is it possible? Uncle Chen said that he would never go to the north again. Besides, he was still teaching me how to learn swords this morning." The boy's eyeballs almost popped out of their sockets, and his face was written incredible.

"Then why don't you go and see for yourself?" When he said these words, Hu Caiting had a playful face, and his eyebrows were curved in perfect arcs, dancing gracefully, as if driving the willows all over the sky to move with the wind, and thousands of miles of wind and smoke .

Everything in the world seems to gradually fade away with the wind and smoke, and escape into the emptiness, leaving only a few simple strokes, a few spots of vermilion, a touching touch, printed on the smooth jade-like goose egg, and branded in the heart of the ignorant young man here.

Some women really can't laugh.

smile,
or pour a city,
Or pour a country.

or when so,

Unknowingly stirred up the world.

"""""Knock on the blackboard time"""""

According to the setting of this article, the two swords Ganchangduan and Qucheng were cast in the Spring and Autumn Period, so could these two swords be iron swords?

The traditional western view of history holds that ancient China entered the Iron Age about 1000 years later than the Near East.

During the millennium between 2500 and 1500 BC, meteorite daggers appeared in the Near East.In the mainstream view in the West, this cannot be regarded as evidence of mastering the ability to smelt iron, so it cannot be regarded as a sign of entering the Iron Age.There are also similar meteorite artifacts in China, but the age is slightly later.

In the millennium between 1500 and 500 BC, dozens of crude iron objects have been unearthed in the Near East.According to the archaeological achievements of our country in recent years, cast iron bars from 1500 BC (the site of Mogou in Lintan, Gansu Province) and carbon steel swords from the Spring and Autumn Period have also been discovered.There are even iron swords inlaid with iron jade (SMX Western Zhou State Tomb).In fact, the technical level is at least not lower than that of the Near East, but the number of found pieces is relatively small.In "Ancient and Modern Sword Records", it is recorded that Zhou swords were cast, including both copper swords and iron swords.In Western studies, because they do not have a decent written history, so they also reject all written history, most of these artifacts are not mentioned.However, since the late Spring and Autumn Period, China has already had iron weapons forged, which is a fact corroborated by real objects.As for written records, there are even more.In the late Zhou Dynasty, all the countries set up salt and iron officials. Qi Guanzi's "Salt and Iron Theory" is the earliest treatise on economic warfare.The Eastern Han Dynasty classic "Wuyue Spring and Autumn Annals" states: Generals make swords and pick iron essence from five mountains. "Jueyue Shu" says: Ou Yezi and Gan Jiang chiseled Mount Ci, vented its stream, and took Tie Ying as three iron swords.The first is Longyuan, the second is Tai'a, and the third is Gongbu.It can be seen that this article sets the work of the two as an iron sword, which does not destroy the framework of history.

Let’s go back to the history of iron development as defined by the West. After 500 BC, it is considered by “mainstream” academics to be the Late Iron Age in the Near East, and China has also begun to enter the period of the Iron Age.The Chinese army still used a large number of bronze weapons in the early Han Dynasty, which was also cited by Western scholars as evidence of the late development of Chinese iron casting technology.

In fact, there are several important reasons for this:
First, as we all know, during the Qin Shihuang period, there was a nationwide crackdown on the smelting industry. Private smelting was expressly banned, and even metal products were uniformly confiscated and destroyed.

Second, China's bronze smelting technology is very, very mature. Depending on the ratio of copper and tin, bronze can have different characteristics.The hardness of bronze used for weapons is no less than that of early carbon steel, and the heavy copper sword body is easier to break through the mainstream wooden and bamboo shields at that time.The bronzes of the Zhou Dynasty can be inlaid with jade, gold, and iron to make very complex shapes, far exceeding the complexity of Near Eastern bronzes.The casting of large vessels such as tripods will not produce structural cracks.It can be said that the casting level of Chinese bronze wares at that time represented the highest level of ancient bronze wares in the world.Taking sword casting as an example, the Yuewang Goujian sword with a chrome protective layer is the undisputed king of bronze weapons. Iron and steel swords from all over the world at the same time cannot win in terms of hardness and corrosion resistance.As I write this, I know that there will be many "scholars" who will question the feasibility of ancient chrome plating.The so-called archaeology, the real thing is big, the existing cultural relics are not enough to prove everything?

Third, in terms of technology, the supply chain of the foundry industry was planned by the state at that time. The supply of raw materials, artisan reserves, and corresponding government departments have all become mature systems, with a large scale of production capacity.The entire industrial chain was built around bronze before the Han Dynasty.Armament is one of the country's major expenditures, and expensive technology is not necessarily suitable for popularization.

Fourth, the Kingdom of Xitai, a large ironware country in the Near East, which is now Turkey, had a population of less than 300 million at that time, and its royal power was not as centralized as in ancient China.To fight against Egypt, the strength of the whole country is no more than ten thousand.The population of the core area of ​​the Zhou Dynasty was close to 3000 million, and the population of the Western Han Dynasty exceeded 6000 million.China's army was in the millions at the time, and 40 people could be killed in a local war in Changping of the Warring States Period.Under such a volume, the official will definitely use more mature and cost-effective technologies, and there will be a lag effect on the replacement of new technologies, which is also very easy to understand.

To sum up, according to archaeological findings, the time when Chinese ironware appeared and the complexity of shape technology is not inferior to that of the Near East.The time of full popularization, especially the late militarization time, is only due to the lack of incentives to fully replace mature and cheap technologies.

(End of this chapter)