I, Liu Bian, Sanxing Han Dynasty

Chapter 357 First Snow (two in one)
During the reign of Emperor Guangwu, many of the original levels of concubines in the Han family were deleted. In the end, only the four levels of nobles, beauties, palace maids, and concubines were retained under the queen, and the treatment was completely incomparable with before.

In the former Han Dynasty, concubines with a certain status had corresponding titles and salaries. But now, only the nobles have seals and salaries. From the beauty down, there is no monthly salary, only annual rewards as annual salary.

From this point of view, when Emperor Huan and Emperor Xian frantically expanded their harem and acquired thousands of women without paying their wages, it was essentially the same as relying on imperial power to engage in prostitution for free.

Then there is the cost of food and clothing for such a large group of people, especially clothes. Serving the emperor requires a lot of silk and silk, and all the money spent is the people's fat and the people's anointing.

Therefore, it is no wonder that a large number of Qingliu couldn't stand it anymore and repeatedly advised and hoped to release the Cainv who had not been hired or favored.

But when Liu Bian arrived, no one mentioned this issue at all.

On the contrary, the expansion of the harem became the hope of all the ministers. Even Cai Yong and Dong Cheng, whose daughters were nobles in the palace, could not speak out against it.

After some careful selection by the two queen mothers and Liu Bian's intervention, Liu Bian's harem was enriched by ten more prostitutes. All of these prostitutes came from official families. The lowest-status Donghai Mi clan also had a Mi Zhu in the family. Official, the future is bright.

Among these ten women, only one was promoted as soon as she entered the palace. Yuan Xin, the daughter of Yuan Shu, was named a beauty as soon as she entered the palace.

The place where they lived was no longer the middle palace where the three nobles lived, but the Yeting where the concubines were supposed to live.

When it got darker, Liu Bian came back to his senses and glanced out the window, only to see the snow getting heavier and heavier.

Because there was no strong wind, the windows in the palace were open. Cai Yanan was lying on a fixed lounge chair, holding a book in her hands, but her eyes were not on the book at all, and she was fascinated by the snowflakes falling outside the window. .

As for Liu Bian's "discovery" of the correlation between a woman's difficulty in giving birth and her age based on the data collected by Hongdu Menxue, it is considered an episode.

At the end of October, the first snow of winter fell in Luoyang.

"You should go and talk to Wan Nian yourself about this..." Cai Yan paused and then asked, "Do you still remember how old Wan Nian is now?"

Seeing Liu Bian getting away from the paperwork, Cai Yan, who had already taken a nap in the meantime, suddenly said: "Ten thousand years passed before it snowed today."

Liu Bian is no exception.

In the palace where Cai Yan was, Liu Bian was accompanying him.

Since the weather got cold, Cai Yan has gradually become much lazier.

"More than a few days? My concubine Wannian said that she hasn't seen her imperial brother for more than ten days at least." Cai Yan said with a smile.

At this time of year, it’s snowing too much, which is not a good thing!

Not to mention anything else, in the medical department of Hongdu School, under the leadership of Hua Tuo, a lot of manpower and material resources have been invested in issues related to pregnant women and babies in the past few months.

Liu Bian is not idle either. Now is the time to summarize the results of the previous calculation. He held the official document in his hand, feeling very happy because of the result. After a while, he got tired of looking and unconsciously turned his eyes to the person on the recliner.

After resting for a while, Liu Bian turned his attention back to the official document.

"Did she say anything? Speaking of which, I haven't seen her for several days." Liu Bian said casually.

The stove in the temple is not too strong, but it is enough to separate the inside of the temple and the outside world into two worlds.

Of course Liu Bian remembered it and immediately replied: "It should be fifteen!"

But Liu Bian's current thoughts are not on the new maidens. Cai Yan and Tang Wan, who were pregnant one after another, have shown their pregnancy early this morning. The palace from the two empress dowagers onwards treat them like "they are afraid of melting if they are held in their mouths" , hold it in your hand for fear of breaking."

He looked at Cai Yan and immediately understood the meaning of her words. Xiao Wannian, who used to run behind him, had reached the age of marriage.

Especially since there were precedents in the past where the late emperor's son died in infancy, many people were worried about an accident.

Liu Bian did not realize that it had been so long. He explained: "I have been busy with the planning recently. When the planning is over, I will have more free time."

Although Liu Bian felt that fifteen was still too young.

These days, it is not too uncommon for aristocratic girls to remarry until they are fifteen or sixteen. As for men, there are also some who are after twenty, but common people generally marry early.

Liu Bian explained: "A while ago, Huayuanhua studied women's childbirth and concluded that if a woman is too young, childbirth will be more risky. I have ordered people to spread this result to the people. Ten thousand years of There is no rush to get married, I already have someone in my mind, but whether it works or not depends on whether Wan Nian is willing or not."

When Cai Yan saw Liu Bian talking about giving birth to a child in a serious manner, even though she was about to become a mother, she was still a little shy, so she only replied: "I know that you remember the marriage that lasted ten thousand years, so I feel relieved."

Knowing that Liu Bian was willing to give Liu Shou the power to decide his marriage, Cai Yan was happy for Liu Shou from the bottom of his heart.

Later, the two chatted privately about the news that Cai's mother told Cai Yan when she visited her daughter in the palace two days ago.

Not only did the scholar-bureaucrats have friendships, but also their wives.

Like scholar-bureaucrats, wives also have their own social circles, although they are inevitably influenced by their husbands.

Although some of them are short-sighted, it cannot be said that there is no useful information for Liu Bian.

For example, Yang Biao's wife and Yuan Shu's sister Yuan Shi has been very close to Cai's mother in the past few months. It is not difficult to guess that she did this largely for Yuan Meiren in Yeting, hoping that Yuan Meiren could He was pulled by Cai Guiren in the palace.

Liu Bian told Cai Yan several stories he knew about Yuan Shu, including the incident of being manipulated by Yuan Wei with money, which made Cai Yan laugh for a while.

Liu Bian felt that instead of letting the harem devote all their energy to internal fighting, it would be better to find something for them to do.

Otherwise, there would be nothing else to do except fighting for favor and scheming with others every day, and it would be difficult not to fight within oneself.

That night, although Cai Yan wanted to drive Liu Bian to Dong Heng's palace on the grounds of physical inconvenience, Liu Bian did not leave.

A quiet night.

……

The next day, the snow was still falling in various sizes, almost non-stop.

On this day, Liu Bian followed Cai Yan's persuasion and came to Dong Heng's palace.

In Liu Bian's opinion, Dong Heng was much smarter than her father Dong Cheng, and he didn't know how the somewhat rough-and-tumble Dong Cheng gave birth to such a daughter.

Unlike Cai Yan yesterday, Dong Heng would be by his side to accompany Liu Bian while he was handling paperwork, his red sleeves adding fragrance.

Dong Heng behaved generously and decently in front of Liu Bian, but they were both nobles, but she was the only one who was not pregnant. Although she grew up in the border area and her temperament was tainted with some of the boldness of the border area, Liu Bian could still feel a slight unwillingness in her heart when he got along with her. At nightfall, Dong Heng lay next to Liu Bian's ear and said softly: "I still remember when I looked at that painting book. There is one picture that I haven't tried yet. Do you want to try it?"

When Liu Bian heard this, how could he be willing to admit defeat? He immediately stood up and took the initiative: "Please tell me carefully."

In the past six months, Dong Heng has been a lot more bold and unrestrained in the pleasures of the boudoir.

On the third day, Liu Bian woke up and found that the snow in Luoyang finally showed signs of stopping.

He stood in the palace, looked eastward, and wondered whether there would be such a heavy snowfall in the five states.

Huangfu Song still has to stay in Yanzhou to deal with the follow-up matters of the private army, and will not be able to return until next year. The envoys from the remaining four prefectures who have not been transferred to county officials have already left for Beijing one after another. Huang Wan and Yang Biao will be the last batch before the year.

And in the North, which usually snows early, I don’t know what the snow will be like this time.

There are more cotton seeds this year and the planting area is wider, but after all, it is not edible food. It will take more time for people to take the initiative to plant it.

A month or two ago, a large number of cotton-padded clothes were sent to You and Liangzhou to supply border guards. After all, the current cultivation of cotton is mainly led by the imperial court and imperial merchants. Under the premise that sufficient food output must be ensured, cotton production is ultimately insufficient.

If you want to imitate Zhu Yuanzhang and directly issue a decree to force the planting of cotton in a corresponding area according to the acres of land of each household, the first thing to do is to unconditionally deliver the seeds to the farmers and teach them how to grow them.

Liu Bian was so determined to rectify the officialdom. Isn't it useful at this time to reduce the middlemen to make profit differences?

With the seeds harvested this year, we may be able to try it in some areas next year.

Compared with hemp and mulberry, cotton is far ahead in thermal insulation effect.

But Liu Bian felt that he still had a long way to go before the common people would take the initiative to recognize that growing cotton for keeping warm was better than eating soybeans.

……

As Liu Bian guessed, the snow in Bingzhou fell harder and lasted longer.

It was freezing cold, Qiangqu Chanyu was wearing the cotton coat given to him by the emperor, and he didn't feel cold at all. While his body was warm, his heart was even hotter.

He glanced at the people in front of him and said without hesitation: "I know how you scolded me behind my back, scolding me for being a kowtow and a khan of the Han people, not a khan of the Huns..."

"Today, open your eyes and look at the grain behind me... tell me, am I wrong? Without me, how many of your people would freeze to death this winter?"

"But today, you come to me to beg me, and you don't even want to meet me respectfully and call me Chanyu sincerely!"

In the midst of his impassioned speech, as if to prove Qiang Qu's words, snowflakes began to fall again in the gloomy sky.

The experienced Huns immediately thought of the white disaster they had experienced. If there was only the previous heavy snow, the food here in Qiangqu would be the icing on the cake for them. But if there is another heavy snow of this scale...

Snow covers the grassland, and the sheep have nowhere to graze...

Considering such a cruel scene, a Huns leader immediately took out the knife in his waist and cut his face. Regardless of the blood flowing out, he showed his oath and determination with the highest etiquette among the Huns - " I am willing to die for Shanyu!"

……

Not far from the court of Shan Yu, Cao Cao and Geng Zhi, the general of Liao Dynasty, watched this scene from a distance.

Cao Cao stretched out his palm and let the snowflakes fall on his palm and melt quickly.

He took his hand back and said: "This Qiangqu is lucky. With this snow coming again, it will be much easier for him to win back the hearts of his people."

Seeing that Cao Cao was confident, Geng Zhi asked, "If you let Qiang Canal establish its prestige, isn't Mengde afraid of the consequences?"

"It is so difficult to merge with the state, and it will be even more difficult outside the wall. When the ice and snow melt, the Xianbei people will never remain indifferent if they still have the strength to join the invaders." Cao Cao looked at Geng Zhi, holding back more words in his heart - not to mention Qiang Qu's move was to take advantage of the Han family's influence. Are his thousand fine cavalry stationed next to the royal court just a decoration?
After thinking about it, Cao Cao added: "Qiangqu Shanyu's heart is towards the Han Dynasty. If he had great ambitions, he would have taken action in the early years when everything was in chaos. Why is he still here today?"

"A wise man will make mistakes after thinking a lot, but Meng De should not be careless." Geng Zhi emphasized.

"The general is right," Cao Cao replied. He thought, if Geng Zhi is like this, what else can he explain?

General Du Liao was the superior official who made the Xiongnu Zhonglang General, but Cao Cao actually did not see it that way.

Although Geng Zhi was dissatisfied with Cao Cao's attitude, he had to admit that the military vision of the man in front of him was indeed better than his own. He also knew that this was a man who was in the heart of the emperor and was named a prince based on his military exploits.

What makes Geng Zhi most helpless is that Niu Fu and other soldiers under his command are more friendly to Cao Cao.

Therefore, he could only suppress his dissatisfaction deep in his heart and occasionally stab Cao Cao verbally.

……

The Huns scattered in Bingzhou were able to get help in exchange for their loyalty in the face of the snowstorm, but further north, beyond the Great Wall, it was a different story.

A black line suddenly appeared in the white snow. At the front were the strongest cattle in the tribe. Only they could clear the way through the snow.

On the grassland, heavy snow itself means huge risks, and the fact that you are easily disoriented can be fatal.

But if a tribe can migrate in heavy snow, then there must be something more terrifying behind them.

Tuoba Pigu was indeed afraid. Only after he truly took over the tribe from his grandfather did he truly understand the various problems that his grandfather and father faced.

The tribes in the west moved eastward many times, occupying their pastures, but they could not be defeated again and again. Now, two consecutive heavy snowfalls that were enough to block the road made Tuoba Pigu understand that he must move his tribe to a place far away from the western tribes.

Otherwise, his Tuoba tribe will become lambs to be slaughtered in the eyes of the hungry and impatient western tribes.

Tuoba Pi walks alone at the front of the tribe. The organizational structure of the Xianbei people is still relatively primitive. As a tribal leader, especially in the current situation of repeated defeats, he must use various methods to show his majesty and ability.

Suddenly, Tuoba Pigu noticed some small black spots appearing in front of him, and immediately sent people to check and express his goodwill. It was a snowy and icy day, and no one wanted to fight.

Not long after, Tuoba Pigu saw a group of people approaching him in the distance, and one of them, a slightly shorter figure, caught his special attention.

"Brother, are you going to lead the Tuoba tribe to defect to the Wuluhui tribe?"

Due to the frost on his face, Tuoba Pigu didn't recognize the person at first. When the voice came out, long-lost memories came to mind. The person who came was none other than his good brother Tuoba Liwei. Now Mr. Dou of the Luhui Department Bin's son-in-law.

(End of this chapter)