Great Warriors of Sui and Tang Dynasties

Chapter 1116 Changan Cui Family
The maid brought a pot of spring water, put it away and stepped back.

Cui Junchuo opened the pot and sniffed the spring water in the pot. This water is the clear spring water that the government sent people to fetch from Zhongnan Mountain dozens of miles away every morning.

Dedicated to sencha.

Although nowadays the emperor loves to make tea, people in the world are gradually changing the way of drinking tea from sencha to brewing tea, but Cui Junchuo still likes to use the old method of sencha.

The small red clay charcoal stove has been fired, and various sencha seasonings such as ginger, onion, garlic, orange peel, green salt, etc. have also been prepared.

Take out a piece of good tuancha, put it on the fire with a tea tong and roast it slightly. After the tea is roasted, it will be shaped like the back of a frog, and then wrap it while it is hot to prevent the aroma from being lost.

After the tea is naturally cooled, it is put into a mortar and gently crushed into fine powder.

Cui Junchuo was not in a hurry, and enjoyed the process very much.

He also doesn't need tea servants and maidservants for Sencha, he does it all by himself.

Add silver frost charcoal to the small mud stove, put a silver pot on it, and pour fresh mountain spring water into it.

Cook slowly over low heat. When the water has bubbles like fish eyes and there is a slight sound, it is a boil. Cui Junchuo added appropriate amount of salt to the brine and removed the water floating on the surface like biotite. membrane.This is a very critical step, otherwise the taste will not be right when you drink it.

Then continue to heat and cook, until the edge of the water bubbles like a spring, this is the second boil.

First scoop out a spoonful of water from the silver pot, then stir the tea powder into the boiling water with a bamboo clip.

When it is boiled until the tea soup in the pot bubbles like waves and waves, this is the third boiling. Add the water scooped out at the second boiling point to stop the boiling and cultivate its flower, and then you can put in other ingredients.

When the water boils again, the tea soup is ready.

Tea should be drunk hot, especially the first bowl of tea soup is the best, it is not timeless, the later the worse.

Cui Junchuo did not like to be disturbed when drinking tea, this is the rule in the mansion, everyone knows that if he disturbs at this time, he will be punished.

Cui Junchuo's teacup is very beautiful, it is a delicate purple sand teacup. He doesn't like to drink tea with a white porcelain cup from Hebei Xing Cave Dwelling or a celadon cup from Jiangnan like those upstarts. They are for drinking, how can they drink tea? .

If you drink tea, you must have purple clay, which is the top grade.

He scooped out the first cup of tea, held the hot tea in his hand, and was just about to drink it while it was hot.

Then there was a knock on the door.

"Aron."

Cui Junchuo put down his teacup with an ugly expression on his face.

"What's the matter?"

"Ah Lang, something happened to Goro in Shengyefang. The mansion was confiscated and Goro was taken away."

Cui Junchuo frowned.

"What did he do? Which yamen took him away?"

"It seems that the steward of Wulang's family bought and sold prescriptions with a retired military soldier who was doing business in the West Market. People from Chang'an Mansion took Wulang away."

Cui Junchuo took a sip of hot tea.

"Small things, panic, what's the matter, take my post to the Chang'an government office and pass it to Changsun's government official to inquire about the situation, and then report after clarification."

Putting down the teacup, Cui Junchuo couldn't help thinking about the past.

At that time, it was the post-Three Kingdoms era, and the Northern Qi Dynasty and the Northern Zhou Dynasty were in conflict with the Southern Chen Dynasty.At that time, the Qinghe Cui family was well-known and the leader of the northern gentry.At that time, the grandfather of Yang Jian's wife Dugu, an important minister of the Northern Zhou Dynasty, was Cui Yanzhen, and his father was Cui Yanzhen's younger brother Cui Yanmu.

Dugu Xin, one of the Eight Pillars of the Western Wei Dynasty, was his cousin-in-law, and Yang Jian, the later prime minister of the Northern Zhou Dynasty, was his niece-in-law.

Based on this relationship, Cui Yanmu was the Duke of Dongjun in the Northern Zhou Dynasty. During the reign of Emperor Shizong of the Zhou Dynasty, he was appointed as the General of Hushi, the third division of Kaifu Yitong, the general manager of Anzhou, the military governor of Eleven Prefectures, and the governor of Anzhou. He was appointed as Yuzhengzhong doctor.

In the second year of the Elephant Emperor, Xuandi collapsed, Yang Jian became the prime minister, and the three parties raised troops. Cui Yanmu was the commander of the march. He led the troops to fight with Wang Yi, the governor of Xiangzhou. , guarding Jingzhou, and fighting for the destruction of Sima.

Shiping, entered the court by imperial edict, was granted the title of general manager of Xiangzhou, the military affairs of the six states, the governor of Xiangzhou, and the general of the city, with two thousand households.

At that time, his father was famous in the court and the public, and Cui Junchuo also became a soldier of the prime minister's mansion and joined the army.

Yang Jian destroyed Zhou Lisui, and his reign title was Kaihuang. In this year, his father died of illness. Cui Junchuo succeeded him as Duke of Dongjun and became the official of Prince Yang Yong's East Palace.

Cui Junchuo was heavily relied on by Prince Yang Yong in the East Palace, but it was a pity that Yang Yong was abolished in the end, and Yang Guang succeeded in seizing the heir. Cui Junchuo, who was originally the uncle of Empress Dugu, was implicated in this. The female relatives did not enter the court.

That time was a great blow to the Qinghe Cui family, and it could even be said to be another heavy blow to the Cui family since the Northern Wei Dynasty when Cui Hao was exterminated from the nine clans for revising the national history.

Fortunately, at that time, Cui Junchuo had a daughter who was favored by Yang Guang in the palace, so the Cui family's children had to return to the Central Plains, and the female relatives also returned home.

But this time the blow was still great. Not only did Cui Junchuo lose the title of Duke of Dongjun and the official position in the court, even the children of the family were not allowed to serve as guards in the palace for a while, and only less than one tenth of the family property was returned in the end.

It was also from that time that Cui Junchuo became low-key.

He finally understood that the name of the leader of the northern gentry, the head of five surnames and seven families, was actually vulnerable to the emperor.

If the emperor really wants to do something, he can directly uproot the entire Cui family.

The emperor of the Northern Wei Dynasty destroyed the nine clans of the Cui family, and Yang Guang in the Sui Dynasty almost destroyed the Cui family.

After this incident, Cui kept a low profile.

It is also this low-key that allowed the Cui family to escape catastrophe repeatedly during the turmoil at the end of the Sui Dynasty. Especially after the founding of the Great Qin Dynasty, the old gentry and old nobles were dissatisfied with the new dynasty and secretly conspired against the new dynasty. Cui Junchuo never joined them. Even if he initially admitted the old jue and later took it away, he didn't have any dissatisfaction or complaints.

As a result, the entire Wang family in Taiyuan was almost wiped out, leaving only Wang Tong and Wang Gui, the Zheng family in Xingyang, the Cui family in Boling, the Lu family in Fanyang, the Li family in Longxi, and the Li family in Zhaojun, etc. The big gentry were all punished and attacked, and many of the big families were exiled, but Cui Junchuo's family was never implicated.

So what if there is no title, what if there is no official position?
Cui Junchuo could see very clearly that the old and new dynasties alternated, and it was normal for one court to be a gentleman and one to be a courtier.As long as Mrs. Cui does not stand in the way, with the family reputation and wealth accumulated by Mrs. Cui for thousands of years, as well as her family education, there is always a great chance to make a comeback.

Isn't the imperial court conducting major imperial examinations now?
Cui Junchuo thought this was an opportunity, so he let the children of the family study and prepare for the exam with peace of mind.

Of course, he also supports the offshoot of the clan like Cui Shanfu who can go out to be an official, because after all, there are people in the court who are good at doing things.And it would be better for a bastard like Cui Cong, who is more peripheral, to go out to manage the family property.

After all, studying and preparing for exams also costs money, and it is not enough to rely on the production of land. What's more, the imperial court always restricts the land and the officials all pay for food. The huge expenses of the clan still need the support of business operations.As a rule, the children of the offshoots have to pay tribute to the clan every year when they run the property, and the clan takes a proportional percentage. For a patriarch like Cui Junchuo, this has been a rule for thousands of years, and it is a matter of course.Since you are a member of the Cui clan, you have to contribute.

Those who study will become officials in the future and have to take care of their clansmen.

Those who do not study and do business must support the family with money.

The Qinghe Cui Clan now has eight major branches, which have opened branches and leaves for thousands of years. Isn't this how they have come step by step.

Cui Shanfu is Cui Junchuo's nephew. Cui Shanfu's father is the son of Cui Junchuo's father and a concubine, and his status is humble.Therefore, Cui Shanfu's status in the Cui clan is not high, even if he is now a meritorious Cao in Chang'an County and joins the army, it will not change much.

As for Cui Cong, he is actually Cui Shanfu's brother, but Cui Cong's mother is a slave in the mansion, and her status is even lower. Can become a steward of the foreign government and run restaurants outside.

The restaurant run by Cui Cong is not bad, and he can pay a lot of tribute to the clan every year.

The knock on the door sounded again.

Cui Junchuo looked down at the teacup, the tea was already cold, wasting a good pot of tea.

(End of this chapter)