Neon Clothes and Iron Clothes

Chapter 520: The Land of Abundance
Acton opened his mouth, but he still didn't speak in the end. He subconsciously stroked the leopard skin bow bag on his waist with his right hand. He would do this every time he was bored. Wang Pu saw it and knew that his friend was thinking again. home, sighed and said: "We are now the master's personal army, our identities are quite different, and this is not Liaodong Baekje, so there are some things that we can't say. For example, you just compared the master to Liu Bei, but Liu Bei became the master later. Emperor, if others listen to it, they will think that the master has treasonous intentions, and if he leaks it to us unintentionally, it will cause death!"

"Well! I understand!" Acton nodded in a low voice: "It's really troublesome here, the people from Liaodong are better, they don't have so many ghosts!"

"I don't know where the people are, but the place we're going to is a good place!" Wang Pu said with a smile, "Since ancient times, Shu has been called the Land of Abundance!"

"Land of Abundance? Just these mountains that can't be seen at a glance?" Acton laughed: "And it's stuffy and hot, making people want to peel off a layer of skin."

"I heard from the guide that it would be good to climb over this mountain! Don't you like the clothes made of Shu brocade the most? That stuff is made here!"

No matter how much Acton doubted what his classmate said, the facts in front of him gradually proved that Wang Pu was not lying.After five days of rugged mountain roads, a wide and fertile field gradually appeared in front of their eyes.When the sun rose, the birds that had been silent all night began to chirp and scurry up and down.

Although there are still thin clouds floating on the sky, and the field is still misty, but deep in the dawn, a bright red morning glow suddenly blooms.It is like the brocade flying out of the weaver girl's loom, constantly emerging and piling up, throwing the bright brilliance to the sky, to the earth, to the towns and villages full of smoke.Then, the luxuriant groves, the fields full of ears of corn, the battlements on the top of the city, and the tiled roofs on the ridges all shone with colorful halos.There was something refreshing and refreshing in the cool morning air.

On the wharf of the river bend beside the road, there are all kinds of boats parked, including a small sampan with one pole and one oar, a fast boat with two oars, and a magnificent cruise ship with double eaves. They are all tidy and elegant, the hull is painted with colorful patterns, and the windows are also inlaid with li shells, and various decorations are displayed in the cabin.

There are men and many young women who steer the poles and row the oars.Their hair buns are combed smoothly, their faces are thinly covered with powder, pearls are inserted on their sideburns, and there are shining bracelets on their snow-white wrists. They stand gracefully on the bow of the boat.Whenever merchants came ashore, they greeted them in the local dialect. Although neither Acton nor Wang Pu could understand what they were saying, they still felt that they couldn't speak well.

"These women are so white! They are also small, and they are like children compared to the women in our village!" Acton couldn't take his eyes off the boat girls: "Wang Pu, you can understand what they are saying ?"

"I don't understand! It must be soliciting business?" Wang Pu guessed.

"Soliciting business? Soliciting business? I see that their boats are empty, as if there is nothing there?" Acton looked at the boats at the pier suspiciously. He could still clearly see that there were no goods for sale on the ship except people and decorations.

"Then I don't know!" Wang Pu shook his head: "But look at those people who boarded the boat, all of them are smiling happily, and they will not be forced to go up!"

"That's true!" Acton said with a sudden smile, "Wang Pu, you are right. After crossing this mountain, the Shu land is a good place. It is much better than our side. There are villages next to each other. They are all farmland, mulberry forests, orchards, and the people here are also neatly dressed, talking and laughing. Unlike my hometown, where one village is hundreds of miles away from the other, only large areas can be seen The wild forests, swamps, wilderness, even if there are fields, the crops are not as good as here, no wonder this is called the land of abundance!"

"Yes!" Wang Pu said with a smile: "My lord came to be an official in Sichuan this time, and we can also get a little bit of money along with it!"

Different from Acton and Wang Pu's excitement, Wang Wenzuo's mind was much more complicated at this time. The more prosperous and prosperous the scene in front of him, the more worried he was about the future war.Before crossing, he set off from Chengdu and went to Jiuzhaigou by car. He was very impressed that within two hours after leaving Chengdu, the landform outside the window changed from the densely populated western Sichuan Plain to rugged mountains. Get off the car and eat After lunch, in the afternoon, the windows turned into desolate and cold alpine meadows and plateaus, and the rapid changes in the terrain were staggering.At that time, his speed was only about [-] kilometers per hour. In other words, if the countless Qianghu tribes living in the plateau and mountains traveled [-] kilometers a day, it would take only six or seven days to kill all the way to Chengdu. (Interested friends can use Baidu Maps to look at the ancient city of Songpan, Jinchuan, and Jinchuan. These places are actually very close to Chengdu. Once they fall into the hands of plateau tribes, not only the road from Sichuan to Gansu will be cut off, but the entire Sichuan There is no danger to defend the basin at all, so we can only engage in the defense of Chengdu) and where there is no sign of preparations for war as far as the eye can see here?I was actually the last line of defense in Songzhou, and if I retreated, I would have to defend Chengdu City.

"Send the order, speed up!" Wang Wenzuo said in a deep voice: "The sooner you arrive in Chengdu, the sooner you see the envoy Wang, the sooner you will understand the situation in Songzhou, and you will have a head start!"

Chengdu, Jiannan Zhidu Yingtian disposes of military and horse economic strategy and envoys.

Li Jin is 67 years old this year. When he was demoted from Chang'an to Chengdu as an official eight years ago, he already knew that his good luck in this life had been exhausted.He had long seen that although the newly enthroned emperor had a benevolent and magnanimous appearance on the surface, he was completely on the opposite side of the same coin as the late emperor's self-confidence and magnanimity.Many of the heroes who followed the late emperor had served the enemy, but the late emperor treated each other with sincerity. The day before yesterday he fought to the death on the battlefield. When being reported to accept bribes, the first emperor did not punish him, but asked himself whether he had treated the other party so poorly that the other party was short of money and therefore accepted bribes. He immediately gave a large amount of money and told him that if he was short of money, he could ask himself for it, and he did not need to ask for bribes. Stigma Festival; even Hou Junji and Zhang Liang, who have more tangible evidence of rebellion, did not remove their portraits from Lingyan Pavilion.I am an old man left behind by the late emperor, with a friendly personality and a character of wanting to be a good old man in everything, and I will never win the favor of today.

In the second year of Xianqing (657), he offended the emperor just because he said a few more words about the construction of Luoyang Palace City, and was ordered to "dismiss his post and wait for investigation", and finally he was dismissed and returned to his hometown.Although it was used again a few years later, Li Jin knew in his heart that it was simply because the imperial court couldn't find an experienced old bureaucrat to bear the bad reputation of squeezing local wealth, so he was allowed to take the blame.As long as the court finds someone who can replace him one day, he will let himself go home.

Fortunately, the blood in Li Jin's chest has already been cold at this time, and he has developed a character of optimism.However, he has not lost the instinct to protect himself. Like most old bureaucrats who are sliding down the slope of status and power, he often has a sense of isolation and guard against his colleagues in the officialdom and people from Chang'an and Luoyang. Psychology, like an old cat that moves slowly but still feels clear, is always on guard against grimaces and calculations of the same kind.

"Mr. Li!" A scribe came in and said, "Wang Wenzuo, the Governor of the Governor's Mansion of Songzhou, has arrived, and I'm asking to see him outside the mansion!"

"Wang Wenzuo is here? It's so fast!" Li Jin was taken aback: "How many people does he have with him?"

"Only a hundred people!"

"More than a hundred people? Isn't that too small? Does he have any troops outside the city?"

"I've never heard of it, probably not!"

"This is a little troublesome!" Li Jin sighed: "Please let him in! Be respectful, don't be rude when you go!"

As soon as the clerk left, Li Jin moved his obese body, got off the Luo bed with some effort, and came to the front steps of the house. This was the greatest courtesy his status could allow.Although he has regressed step by step in his official career in the past few years, he is quite skilled in the way of Yi Ya, so he inevitably ate too much, and he became what he is now. Looking at his bulging belly like a ball, it turned out that His courage can't help but disappear.

"I will see Li Shijun!" Wang Wenzuo lowered his knees and worshiped.

"I've heard of your reputation before, it's really amazing!" Li Jin stretched out his hand and said, "Come, come in and talk!"

Wang Wenzuo entered the door, and sat down with Li Jin as guest and host. Li Jin coughed: "Did you bring troops here?"

"The next official received a letter from the Holy Master when he was visiting relatives in his hometown! Then he rushed to Luoyang to face the Holy Spirit. Only then did he learn that he was appointed as the governor of the Songzhou Governor's Mansion, and then he entered Sichuan directly from Jianmen. There was no time to deploy troops! "Wang Wenzuo sighed: "However, I have also prayed to the Holy One to adjust two thousand operas from Liaodong, and to recruit one thousand Xuanrun crossbowmen and one thousand Danyang knife players, but these soldiers and horses are still on the way, let alone It will be here in two months!"

"Xuanrun crossbowman and sword player? Yes, yes! Dudu Wang is indeed an old soldier, it is indeed appropriate!" Hearing this, Li Jin showed a relieved smile: "Although it will take two months, but it will always be It’s better than nothing! As long as I can survive this autumn, I’ll be fine!”

Wang Wenzuo couldn't hear what he said, so he hurriedly asked, "What does your envoy mean—?"

"That's what happened!" Li Jin coughed twice, and explained: "This Songzhou Governor's Mansion was built in the second year of Zhenguan (628), under the jurisdiction of Gu, Yi, Cuo, Kuo, Lin, Ya, Cong, Ke, Yuan, Feng, Yan, Nuo, E, Peng, Gui, Gai, Zhi, Si, Wei, Yu, Zhang, Youtai, Qiao, Xu, etc. There are a total of 25 Jiji states. Wang Dudu should also know that these so-called In fact, Jimi Prefecture is very different from the states and counties in the interior. They were originally Dengzhi, Tuyuhun, Di, Bailan, Dangxiang and other Qianghu tribes. In the early years of Zhenguan, the Tang Dynasty was prosperous, and these Qianghu tribes followed one after another. However, from the eighth year of Zhenguan, the situation began to change. The Tubo people became more and more powerful and began to expand southward. The momentum of the Qiang and Hu tribes has never changed!"

"Then my Tang Dynasty didn't think of a way to check and balance?"

"Yes!" Li Jin sighed: "There have been several confrontations, but nothing has been obtained. The main method is to move the Qiang and Hu tribes to the interior!"

Wang Wenzuo nodded, but did not speak.As Li Jin said, although in the Battle of Songpan in the tenth year of Zhenguan, the Tang army was defeated first and then won, and won.But this victory was not decisive. Both Tang and Tubo realized at that time that the enemy in front of them was not easy to deal with, and peace was a more beneficial choice for both sides.So not long after, Tang Taizong adopted a distant clan as an adopted daughter and married Songtsen Gampo, the king of Tubo at that time, and the relationship between the two empires entered a short honeymoon period.

During Emperor Taizong's lifetime, Tubo was active on the stage of history as a vassal of the Tang Dynasty. Not only did it send envoys to present gifts many times, but it also sent troops to assist the Tang army in military operations in the Western Regions and even India.And Tubo also gained considerable benefits from this alliance. They introduced advanced production technology and culture from the Tang Empire, strengthened their own centralization, established a unique military and political system, and completed the transition from a tribal alliance to a feudal system. Transformation of military empire.When Emperor Taizong died and Emperor Gaozong came to the throne, the Tubo people actually no longer recognized themselves as subjects of the Tang Dynasty, but they still retained the original nephew-uncle relationship.

With the growth of Tubo's strength and Tang's control of the Western Regions, Qinghai and other places, subtle changes have taken place in the relationship between the two powers. Although there has been no direct military conflict for a long time, Tubo's military But the actions became more and more aggressive: Tubo did not listen to Tang Gaozong's edict, and destroyed Tuyuhun in the second year of Longshuo (663), and controlled the Hehuang area of ​​Qinghai.In the second year of Longshuo (662), Tubo united with the Western Turkic Gongyue Department to attack Kucha, Shule the next year, and Khotan, which was pro-Tang, in the second year of Linde (665).The Western Turkic successor Khan Ashina Buzhen, who was sealed by the Tang Dynasty, falsely accused Su Haizheng, the governor of Anxi, of rebellion against the Khan Ashinamishe, who died in the past, and Mishe was killed.The Turks renounced the Tang Dynasty, and in the second year of Qianfeng (667), Ashina Duzhi and Li Zhegen led the Western Turkic Nushibi Department to belong to Tubo, and Tubo temporarily controlled the Wakhan Corridor.

If the military actions of the Tibetans in the Western Regions and Qinghai were devouring, then their actions in northwestern Sichuan were encroaching.

(End of this chapter)