Kingdom of Heaven and Han

Chapter 157 Tea Culture

Leaving Xinye City and heading north for ten miles, you will find the newly built Xinye City.The new city is located on the bank of the 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 more complete than Xinye City! The roads are wide and flat, and the surrounding rivers and canals have dikes, which have been worked hard!"

Wang Xiaolie said: "Of course the construction of a new city cannot be sloppy. This spring, thousands of people from the surrounding counties were called to work here."

While talking, several people went straight into the city.

The military camp is not in the city, but spread around, 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 the surrounding Dengzhou, Tangzhou and Xiangyang Prefectures can be guaranteed.If you don't break through here, you can't attack those places with confidence.Otherwise, if you send troops from Xinye, you can attack the enemy's back.

Wang Xiaolie's idea is mainly that the army should not be mixed with the common people.If you want to train a large army, you simply build a new city.The defensive function of the city is actually incidental.

After entering the city, you can see that the streets are extremely flat, horizontal and straight, with the south and the north facing each other.The main road is paved with stone slabs, and the stone slabs are also punched with shallow grids to increase friction.The houses and shops next to it are all made of blue bricks, and the layout is mixed into one.

Looking around, Lu Qing couldn't help but praised: "It took a lot of effort to make 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 gate of the city are all owned by the city. There are no private houses. In the new city, a brick and tile yard was specially built. After the city is built, the brick and tile yard can still burn bricks for the surrounding people, and it is not wasted."

Wang Ruohai and Lu Qing praised again and again, and followed Wang Xiaolie into the Yamen.

The host and guest are seated separately.Tea is invited.Wang Xiaolie said: "You two have come from a long way, and Xiangyang didn't welcome you. Tonight, I will hold a banquet to welcome you. The soldiers training here are mainly the two generals Niu Gao and Shao Ling. I will call them later. Come here and meet the two of you."

Wang Ruohai and Lu Qing thanked each other, and sat down to talk some gossip.

When he came to this world, Xinye City was the first city built by Wang Xiaolie according to his own wishes, with extra care.Manpower is the labor of the common people, and it only needs to provide food and drink, and it does not cost money.Yiying brick and tile yard, stone yard, wood yard, etc. are newly built, with Wang Xiaolie's previous experience added.With the experience of building Xinye City, it will be much easier to build the city in the future.

Not long after, Niu Gao and Shao Ling arrived and came forward to salute.

After the two sat down, Wang Ruohai said: "Looking at the appearance here, the system is going to be messed up. I don't know how many soldiers and horses have been recruited so far?"

Wang Xiaolie said: "Since the construction of Xinye City, more than [-] recruits have been recruited from the surrounding state army. However, due to the short time, only less than a thousand recruits have been recruited into the army. The rest are still in the recruit camp. Wait a few more days."

Wang Ruohai glanced at Lu Qing and nodded silently.Six thousand new recruits, plus Wang Xiaolie's original three thousand soldiers and horses, already nearly ten thousand.1 soldiers and horses are not a big number, and some grass-headed kings around have tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of soldiers at every turn.But the carefully selected and rigorously trained [-] people are different.Such an army has no opponent around.It seems that the two 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 Xiaolie said: "That's right, people eat horse chews, it's not a small amount. To tell the truth, some money was seized after killing Wang Jun, Yang Jin and others. In the past few months, they have bought grain from Hubei Road, and also bought cattle. All kinds of things are about to be spent. Now I just wait for the harvest of summer grain to slow down. If the harvest of summer grain is not good, it will make me miserable!"

Wang Ruohai said: "Looking at the seedlings in the field, they are growing well. I think it will be a good harvest year."

"Farming depends on the sky to eat. Although the people try their best, it depends on whether God will reward this bowl of rice, so there is no way to say for sure." Regarding this point, Wang Xiaolie was always in a state of turmoil, hoping that the weather will be smooth, and he must not go out. 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 obediently and wait until the grain was harvested before he could take any action.But the money is really not spent, and within a few months, it is almost spent.If it weren't for the new industries in Ruzhou that received a lot of money every month, the salaries of officers and soldiers would be a problem now.

Now Jingnan South and North Roads are relatively peaceful, and grain prices are not high, so you can buy grain and grass from there.And in order to reclaim the fields, Wang Xiaolie sent people to buy a large number of cattle from Jinghu.Most of them have been loaned out now, waiting to pay back the money after collecting the grain.All together, the pressure is very high.Originally, Wang Xiaolie still had many ways to make money, but because he had no capital, he had to stop.

Lu Qing said: "No matter how good a hero is, everything will be difficult without money. Especially in the military, money is indispensable for everything. It must be difficult for the system to recruit so many recruits at once. If you want me to say, it should be postponed for a while." , it's much easier."

Wang Xiaolie shook his head with a wry smile, but did not answer.

No matter how difficult it is, there is no reason to postpone the recruitment.what time is thisRecruiting a thousand more soldiers, or recruiting a thousand soldiers earlier, is likely to change the overall situation.It's nothing if you don't have money for a while, everyone has lived a hard life, and you will make up for them later.Moreover, Wang Xiaolie has no personal wealth, and all the money and food are used to support the army, so the pressure is relatively small.If, like everyone else, you keep most of your money, you can't support it now.

Looking at the night, Wang Xiao said: "The Houya has prepared a banquet for the two of you. Don't think it's too simple."

Wang Ruohai smiled and said, "Since it's time for you to spend 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 I want to eat. They are all pigs, sheep, chickens and ducks raised in the nearby army, and fish, shrimps, turtles and crabs caught in the river. It needs to be more delicate, with some taste."

While talking, he invited the two of them to the back office for a banquet.

Walking on the road, Niu Gao whispered: "Zhizhou, can I drink today?"

Wang Xiaolie said with a smile: "It's natural to drink to welcome the two officials. By the way, have you arranged someone in your army to manage affairs for you?"

Niu Gao nodded again and again: "It's been arranged long ago, don't worry about Zhizhou! Shao Tongzhi and I will lead the army for a long time, and there will be no mistakes!"

Wang Xiaolie said: "Just be careful. The most important thing to do in the military is to be cautious! One omission can cause serious trouble!"

Niu Gao said yes.While talking, several people arrived at the back office.

Wang Xiaolie put a lot of thought into the construction of the newly built Houya.On the east side of the yard are various flowers and trees, in the middle is a gazebo, on the east side is a small pool in which fish and turtles are raised, and there are verandahs all around.Although it is not as exquisite as the gardens of later generations, it has a unique flavor.

At this time, the weather was already hot, and the banquet was held in the pavilion in the courtyard.

Wang Xiaolie invited Wang Ruohai and Lu Qing to sit down, and ordered people to take the tea leaves 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 Shicheng. I sent people to recover it, and now 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 making group tea, so it doesn't show where it is. So I thought of a new method. Although the tea produced by this method is loose tea, it has a delicate fragrance, and the aftertaste is sweet and sweet. Bring a pot of brewing today, and the two of you will taste it.”

After hearing this, Wang Ruohai and Lu Qing looked at the newly brewed Maojian tea, the tea leaves were tender and small, and the color of the tea was slightly yellow.Different from ordering tea, the tea soup is clear and translucent, which is not a good look.

Picking up the teacup, Wang Ruohai took a sip.He shook his head slightly, smiled and said nothing.

Lu Qing picked up the tea and drank it down.Putting down the teacup, he said, "Zhizhi, to tell the truth, don't blame me. The taste of this newly made tea is really weak! It doesn't taste at all when I drink it in my mouth. And there is no camellia when brewing, so I can't drink it with you. Fight tea."

As he spoke, he shook his head.

This year, the tea was picked late, so it is not a good tea.Moreover, Wang Xiaolie just taught the tea masters according to the scriptures, how could they master the technique all at once?This year's tea is still drinkable, but it is 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, after a long time, someone will naturally sum up a bunch of truths.From brewing to drinking, all kinds of cultures are well-spoken.Even like in the previous life, I even found a young lady to put on an ancient costume and tell others that this is a tea ceremony.

This is true of many things in the world.What tea ceremony, chess, calligraphy, piano, the form is cumbersome, tell others that this is culture.What does this have to do with culture?It's just a trick done by the arty businessmen.Moreover, many of these various ways are learned from Japan and other countries, and they have created a set of etiquette to tell others that this is traditional culture.

One of the most typical examples that Wang Xiaolie remembers is the country's virtuous people governing the country.I don't know when, experts across the country are advocating, and some places are working hard to promote it.And there is a title, which is a Chinese tradition.

There is a well-known direction for foreigners to study Chinese history, that is, in Chinese history, the imperial power did not come down to the counties, and the country gentry ruled the country.In fact it is?In peaceful times, most of the time in China, most of the places, where is this so?As a unified country, the so-called county magistrate who destroyed the family, the governor who destroyed the family, when will it be the squire's turn to have the final say?The squires only act as a supplement to the government when it is inconvenient for the government to govern, or to have the final say in some specific places.

I have an intuitive impression after seeing the local government's promotion of the country's virtuous governance.This is not a Chinese tradition, more precisely, it should be the tradition of the rural sages represented by the United States.Such a thing, after Chinese history is that the gentry ruled the country, and the sages are the tradition, coupled with some scholars' advocacy of knowing or pretending to understand, suddenly changed completely.

Of course, the country's virtuous governance did not really promote in the end.But the reason for the failure is that the Chinese tradition is no longer suitable for the current era, and we can't stick to the ancients, and so on.But no one really said that it was not a Chinese tradition in the first place.Similar to this, there is a large amount of this kind of traditional culture, which is learned from foreign countries by people who are not educated, or are deceived or half-informed.Then there was a group of advocates, shaking their heads and ears, looking for historical evidence and talking about the splendor of Chinese culture.

First of all, we must understand that most of these traditions and cultures are due to geographical limitations, technical limitations, political constraints, religious beliefs, and other reasons that form habits.This represents history and the yearning or helplessness of the people.Future generations should understand why the ancients formed these habits, and whether to use them or not depends on their own needs.

This is also culture, and that is also culture. This is not allowed to be changed, and that is not allowed to be changed. Literati who advocate such things are sour.Culture should be developed and produced naturally by the people.Finally, through the sublimation of literati, it was recognized by the people.

Songs express aspirations, and poetry was originally chanted naturally by the working people.Finally, after the continuous development of literati, it finally matures.When it loses its vitality, there will naturally be lyrics and dramas.

Literati should be deeply rooted in the people, know the people's joys and sorrows, 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, it should absorb nutrients from tradition and express its own era in order to be full of vitality.Traditional culture should have existed 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 also backward, that’s okay. If you don’t have a collective spirit, if you don’t have a sauce-pot culture, if you don’t have unity, you won’t have anything to do with literati.

Wang Xiaolie understands that the tea that is fried now has various shortcomings.But as long as you persist, as long as you develop yourself, fried green tea will eventually become popular.And someone will sum up the theory, and naturally there will be a new tea culture.If you develop some fermented tea yourself, some people will also talk about the benefits of fermented tea.Naturally, there is nothing to worry about.

The word culture should be very solemn, representing the spiritual outlook of the people of a country.It's just that in the previous life, Chinese culture was too weak in the face of the West, and often lost its true colors.

(End of this chapter)