A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Emperor Yuan Cong

Chapter 701 The deal in Cangshan and Erhai

"Really good tea."

Wu Huaiyu sipped tea leisurely, not in a hurry.

Changsun Wuji didn't show any urgency, "I heard that this box of tea was produced in Yinsheng Village in Ailao Mountain. It was originally the Heizui tribe. Their tribe had a tradition of growing tea and making tea. This box of tea was produced in a village." A 500-year-old ancient tea tree can be called the king of tea."

Huaiyu chuckled,

The ancient tea trees in Yunnan are different from the tea trees grown in tea gardens in the south. The tea gardens in the south are pruned almost every year to make them easier to pick and have more buds. However, many of the tea trees grown by the barbarians in Yunnan are wild and indeed There are some cultivated ones, but the unique climate makes the tea trees there really look like wild tea.
It is indeed not unusual to grow for 200 or [-] years. This kind of tea tree is not harvested from young buds.

"I heard that the Mengshe tribe has become more and more powerful in recent years, conquering many tribes in the southeast, such as the gold-toothed tribe, the silver-toothed tribe, the black-toothed tribe, the embroidered feet, the embroidered face, the black beak tribe, the bird barbarians, and the Barbarians, etc., these were collectively called barbarians and hybrids by the Tang people in Yizhou."

To the west of the Ailao Mountain, that is, to the west of the Yuanjiang River, there are more barbarian tribes, and they are more primitive and backward. The Wuman are also the ancestors of the Yi people in later generations, and the Heman are the ancestors of the Hani people. They have black teeth, gold teeth, silver teeth, embroidered feet, and black faces. The Zui and other tribes are the ancestors of the Dai ethnic group, and Wangman is the ancestor of the Wa ethnic group.
Of course, these barbarian tribes today are still very different from those of later generations, and it took more than a thousand years of continuous integration and evolution to form.

Relatively speaking, the strength of the Mengshe barbarians was too much for these miscellaneous barbarians. The Mengshe barbarians crossed Weishan Mountain and entered the Ailao Mountains, Yuanjiang River, and Amo River areas to the southeast. Many miscellaneous barbarians were conquered by them.

Yinshengzhai was probably located in Jingdong in later generations. This is the Chuanhe River in the upper reaches of the Amo River. The lower reaches of the Chuan River merged with the Bianjiang River and the Amo River to form the Lixian River. The lower reaches were the Heihe River in Jiaozhou, and finally merged into the Red River in Jiaozhou and went to the sea.

Therefore, the location of Yinshengzhai is very important. It is an important passage. Downstream, it not only connects with the barbarians, but also leads to Jiaozhou, to the west is the Lancang River Basin, and to the southwest is Piao State and so on.

"Meng Shezhao has always wanted to return to his hometown," Changsun Wuji said.

The Mengshe Man's braided head and left fold are the same as those of the Turks, but different from many native barbarians in Yunnan. Therefore, many people in the Tang Dynasty now feel that the Dian people are brothers to the Huns in the past.

The Shelong clan was a subordinate of the original Ailao royal family. They were a typical horse-riding people, very tough, and their customs were even similar to those of the Turks. Therefore, people in the Tang Dynasty believed that they were also a different species of the Huns.

However, the Shelong people claim to be the origin of Yongchang sand pots and do not admit that they are related to the Huns.

The Shelong tribe was originally a branch of the Ailao royal family. The current leader, Longjiadu, failed in the struggle among the Ailao tribe in Yongchang in his early years. In order to avoid the pursuit of Miruihu, the leader of the Ailao tribe in Yongchang, he had to take his newborn son Duluo with him. That is, Xinuluo led his tribe across the Lancang River and fled over the mountains to the inland area of ​​Weishan Bazi, south of the Erhai Lake.
After more than ten years of hard work and hardship, Longjia was supported by many Ailao people here. The fleeing tribe became increasingly powerful, so he named the tribe after his ancestor Mengshe and established himself as an imperial edict.

Meng Shezhao and Meng Xizhao lived together in Weishan Bazi. The two tribes formed a good alliance, developed back to back, and each expanded outward.
The biggest hope of Longjiadu, the leader of the Mengshe tribe, is actually to cross the Lancang River one day, return to his hometown in Yongchang, and compete for the position of leader of the Ailao tribe.

However, due to the Baizi Kingdom in the northeast blocking the road, the battle was unsuccessful. The Mengshe barbarians had no choice but to turn around and develop to the southwest, attacking the various barbarians in the Chuanjiang River Basin in the upper reaches of the Bianjiang River.

They now manage Yinsheng Village very firmly and have become the second base camp. The location here is good, with Weishan Bazi to the north and Erhai Lake to the north.To the east are Ailao Mountain and Yuanjiang River. Yuanjiang River not only connects to Kunming Dianchi Lake, but also directly connects to Jiaozhou.

The Lancang River to the west and the Nu River to the west are actually not far away.

Mengshe Zhao is not the strongest among the six imperial edicts. The strongest ones are actually Mengxunzhao and Yuexizhao. They have many people and a large area. However, although Mengshe is from outside, he can unite with the local Ailao people and then Coupled with some of the miscellaneous barbarians they conquered, they were the most sturdy and dared to fight.

Gao Shilian was in Yizhou and was also in charge of the Nanzhong area. Regarding the Liuzhao, he was interested in Nanzhao, the little overlord who could fight, and intended to support him as the Tang Dynasty's agent west of Ailao Mountain, especially the Erhai Liuzhao. , intending to let Nanzhao take action with other imperial edicts.

The imperial court was just sitting there reaping the benefits of being a fisherman,

Jiaozhou now mainly trades with Nanzhao, which makes the other five imperial edicts very sad, let alone the East and West Ercuan clan.

But Mengshe's edict was also powerful. He knew the court's intention and dared to obey it.

"This time the Yizhou Governor's Office mediated the war between Nanzhao and Baiziguo, but the war between the Erhai and Six Zhaos will only become more intense." Changsun Wuji took a sip of tea and made a more tempting proposal, " Su Lie Dingfang, the general of Zuowei Zhonglang, is Li Pushe's proud disciple and your senior brother. He is brave and capable of fighting. In the Northern Expedition, he became famous all over the world.

I think he is very suitable to be the governor of Yaozhou. "

The governor of Yaozhou was appointed in the fourth year of Wude. His jurisdiction was approximately northwest Yunnan, reaching Jinsha River in the north, Nujiang River in the west, Yuanjiang River and Ailao Mountain in the southeast, and Nanpanjiang River in Kunming in the east.

The Erhai Lake in Dali and the Dianchi Lake in Kunming are all included in it, and their jurisdiction is very large.

However, because the Nanzhong area has always been basically autonomous by the Cuan family and ruled by the Central Plains, even though the imperial court has now established the two governorates of Yaozhou and Rongzhou in northern Yunnan, which govern many states, most of them are actually The identity is Jisuzhou.

And it has always been managed by the Yizhou Dudu Mansion. Every year, the Dudu Mansion will send soldiers and officials to inspect the Nanzhong area. There are even some military fortresses built in Nanzhong, but basically up to now, there is no real effective rule.

Although the governor of Yaozhou is an official, he is by no means an easy job. Under the governor's office are all Jisizhou, a group of barbarian tribes.
But Wu Huaiyu was very moved by Changsun Wuji's proposal.

After all, the lower governor is the same as the governor of Shangzhou, which is a real third-grade official position. And as Changsun Wuji said, the imperial court has also attached great importance to Jiannan Road in recent years, especially the Nanzhong area. Actively intervene and continue to penetrate.

So if Su Lie were to be the current governor of Yaozhou, he would indeed be of great use. The more chaos and wars there, the more opportunities he would have for Su Lie, wouldn't he?
Su Lie is still a fifth-grade Zhonglang General. Although he no longer has to patrol the Sixth Street of Chang'an, he has changed to guarding the palace gates of the Imperial City.The matter of Hou Junji was not handled well last time, and Su Lie was still hidden by the emperor.

"Senior Brother Su is currently only a fifth-rank lieutenant general in the Zuo Weixun Mansion. I'm afraid he is not qualified to serve as the governor of Yaozhou." Huaiyu said.

"Yaozhou Governor's Mansion is not inland, it is already a very far away border area. Although it was established four years ago in Wude, it has never been truly established. Now that the conflict in the south-central region is intensifying, it is a good time for the imperial court to intervene. , what we need most is someone like General Su who is brave, resourceful and capable of fighting,"

"It's really difficult for ordinary people to do this,"

Changsun Wuji's words were obvious. As long as they supported him, Su Lie was followed by Li Jing, Wu Huaiyu, Changsun Wuji, and Yizhou's Gao Shilian. How could he be afraid that Su Lie wouldn't be able to push him forward?
Although the governor of Yaozhou was from the third rank, he was quite special. Generally, the emperor would not be willing to arrange for a truly meritorious confidant to go there.

Of course, if they want Changsun Wuji and others to use their personal connections and resources to promote Su Lie, there must be conditions in exchange.

This condition is obviously that people on Wu Huaiyu's side support Gao Shilian's return to the court and his restoration as prime minister.

"Gao Gong has been in Yizhou for a few years. I heard that water conservancy projects have been under construction. How is the project?" "It has been repaired," Changsun Wuji said.

Huaiyu nodded.

"To be honest, I want my uncle to return to Chang'an,"

Changsun Wuji no longer hides and tucks in. He has a comprehensive plan to govern Shu with meritorious service, recall him to the court, and arrange his positions. He will first be appointed Minister of the Ministry of Personnel.

Let Dai Zhou, the current Minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, be the Minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs. Anyway, he is also a prime minister involved in political affairs and is also a regular in the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

As for Tang Jian, the current Minister of Civil Affairs, he must give up his position.

Changsun Wuji also arranged a position for Tang Jian, and went to Yizhou to take over as the governor of Yizhou and the governor of Yizhou. As the minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, he did not have the title of prime minister anyway, so he would not treat him badly when he went to preside over the governor's office of Yizhou. .

After Gao Shilian came back, he would first serve as Minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs. After he was stable, he would be recommended back to the Political Hall as prime minister.

"I need your support, Erlang,"

"I heard that Your Majesty seemed to have planned to summon Duke Gao to return to the court after the new year," Huaiyu asked.

"There is such a rumor, so we need to work harder, because we are afraid that this matter will drag on and get lost." Changsun Wuji did not hide anything from Huaiyu, and said bluntly, "No one from our family is in the political hall. , it will get worse over time.”

Wu Huaiyu understood,
Although Changsun Wuji's sister is the queen and his nephew is the prince, he has been sitting on the bench for several years, and it is true that many rumors can no longer be suppressed.

Changsun Wuji is not the kind of person who wants nothing. He is still in his early thirties, which is when his desire for power is very strong.
Wu Huaiyu and Changsun Wuji have not had much conflict in the past few years. Perhaps Changsun Wuji has been idle in the past few years, while Huaiyu is often away from home, and the two families are married, so they are good allies.
After drinking a pot of tea,

The two finally reached a deal,
Changsun Wuji recommended Su Lie to be the governor and governor of Yaozhou. Wu Huaiyu also hoped to give Su Dingfang another fourth-grade Donggong position led by Zuo Siyu of the East Palace.

Check the school first, then go back and take charge.

Wu Huaiyu hoped to arrange this as the leader of the East Palace as much as possible. He had introduced Su Lie to the prince early, and the prince also valued him, so he took this opportunity to arrange for Su Lie to be a guard leader of the Brigade Ben Army, so that the emperor could no longer I despise Su Lie because he was born in Hebei, and he will be the prince's man in the future.

In return,

Wu Huaiyu would help recall Gao Shilian to the court and restore him to the prime minister. He would even have to talk to Wei Zheng, Wang Gui, Wen Yanbo, and Fang Xuanling. In short, he would have to help facilitate this matter.

The two drank tea instead of wine and raised glasses to make an agreement.

"I heard that Erlang's family has grown a lot of cotton this year and has made a good profit. Can you give me some cotton seeds so that I can plant some next year? The corn seeds you gave me earlier are really good. I will grow more cotton with you next year. Wrong," Changsun Wuji was in a good mood and laughed.

"Don't worry, I won't take advantage of you. I'll give you a few silk shops and weaving workshops in exchange." Changsun Wuji was very sincere and was willing to offer some high-end silk fabric workshops and even provide some high-level craftsmen and slaves.
The silk fabrics of the Tang Dynasty are rich in types, with 35 major categories and [-] sub-categories. The commonly mentioned silk fabrics, silk, satin, cotton yarn, silk velvet crepe, etc. are mainly divided by the combination of warp and weft and the shape of satin.

Each type is often divided into different types: plain and flower. The plain is also divided into different types of training, bleaching and dyeing. It is further divided into three grades: fine, medium and coarse, and each grade is further divided into three grades.

For example, tapestry is known as the sage of weaving. Every inch of tapestry is gold. Its appearance looks like carved silk, so it is also called carved silk. The craftsmanship is complicated and the process is time-consuming. It is really more expensive than gold.

Another example is embroidery, gold weaving, etc., which are very high-tech and extremely valuable works of art.
A Kesi robe requires at least nearly [-] working hours for high-level and outstanding workers. It takes a year to carve a Kesi robe.

The official Weaving and Dyeing Department of the Tang Dynasty had 25 departments, each with its own division of labor. Ten were responsible for weaving silk, including silk, silk, silk, brocade, etc., and five were responsible for weaving ribbons and tassels. , make four threads, string nets, etc., and make six dyeings, green, crimson, yellow, white, soap and purple.

There are many types of silk fabrics, and even within the same category, there are many subdivided products, such as damask, square pattern damask is produced in Daoxian and Huaierzhou in Henan, chicken-foot damask and double-silk damask are produced in Yuzhou, and mirror flower damask is produced in Yanzhou. There is Xianwen Ling in Qingzhou,

There are other kinds of Chonglian Ling, Shuibo Ling, Wu Ling, Ai Pu Ling and so on.

The silk that can be used as money now is actually a very common plain raw silk fabric, also called plain silk. It is relatively cheap, but it still costs [-] yuan a piece now.

As for the high-end ones, they cost thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars per horse, and there are even more expensive ones.

This is not something that ordinary housewives or even ordinary workshops can weave. All of them can only be made by very professional workshops and very skilled senior weavers. The technology here is far more sophisticated than the cotton weaving that Wu Huaiyu is doing now. many.

As the uncle of the state, even if Changsun Wuji has been sitting on the bench for several years, his background is not comparable to that of Wu Huaiyu. His family is in the silk weaving industry, which is very impressive.

There are not only many weaving mills and looms, but also many weavers, especially high-end weaving mills. He is now willing to use several high-end weaving mills to exchange cotton spinning technology with Wu Huaiyu.
Wu Huaiyu had no reason to refuse.

The official robes of officials in the Tang Dynasty were all made of damask. In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, official robes still had patches, and the animal patterns on them were usually made using three techniques: brocade, embroidery, and tapestry. A patch is also very valuable.

The Wu family has also entered the textile industry before, but it mainly produced ordinary silk and satin, without such advanced technology. Now Changsun Wuji is rare and generous, and he is actually willing to take up high-end silk weaving workshops such as tapestry and brocade, and even bring craftsmen and weavers with him. deliver,
It is said that the cotton spinning technology of the Wu family is replaced. In fact, the cotton spinning technology of the Wu family is not advanced, that is, some machines have been improved. It is obvious that Changsun Wuji is giving Wu Huaiyu a big gift.

There is a cotton silk workshop, a cotton damask workshop, a brocade weaving workshop, a tapestry workshop, and an embroidery workshop, with many workers,

Wu Huaiyu was surprised by Changsun Wuji's generosity.
"I asked my family to build a complete cotton spinning workshop for my uncle Guo's family, with a one-stop service for ginning, spinning, weaving, printing and dyeing. All the machines are included. I also helped train a group of skilled workers and send out more skills. Instructing my uncle's farm to grow cotton,"

"Then let me plant [-] acres of cotton next year," Changsun Wuji said with a wave of his hand, as easily as an ordinary person would plant an acre of sweet potatoes next year.

The farmland of this uncle's family is much larger than that of Wu Huaiyu, one hundred thousand acres, and it is indeed drizzle.

(End of this chapter)