A thousand-year-old family that began with the Battle of Makino

Chapter 265 Breakthrough, "Desert Oasis"

When Liu Xiu arrived at the ferry on the south bank of the Yellow River, it was reported that Liu Lin, the son of King Zhao Mu of the old Han Dynasty, supported a man named Wang Lang to proclaim himself emperor in Handan, and another clan of the old Han Dynasty in Hebei, Liu Jie, the son of King Guangyang, also He raised troops to respond to Liu Lin.

Except for the vast territory west of the Taihang Mountains belonging to the Bai Kingdom, the entire Hebei Province was in chaos.

Wang Lang's tribe, Heishan army, Bronze horse tribe, Youlai tribe, etc., but Liu Xiu only carried more than twenty cavalry and a Xingda Sima Yin that Liu Xuan gave to him.

Just when he was at a loss, news came from Henan that Luoyang had been defeated by Wang Kuang and the defender Bai Xuan had died in battle.

He immediately knew this was his chance.

So he immediately wrote to Wang Chang who was in the army, asking him to let him represent the Han Dynasty and be responsible for escorting Bai Xuan's coffin to the Bai Kingdom.

Because his brother Liu Yan had a good relationship with Wang Chang, and because they fought side by side in the Battle of Kunyang, Wang Chang had a very good attitude towards Liu Xiu and regarded him as a comrade.

Therefore, Liu Xiu's request was quickly succeeded by Wang Chang.

September
Liu Xiu took more than twenty riders to the ferry on the south bank of the Yellow River north of Luoyang and met up with the convoy escorting Bai Xuan's coffin.

On the other side of this ferry is Hanoi County.

Since Liu Xiu has the highest official position and the highest reputation in the team, he is the leader of the entire team.

"Da Sima!" The guard looked at the seal Liu Xiu presented and said respectfully.

Liu Xiu nodded: "Everything remains as usual, don't worry about me."

Then he saluted Bai Xuan's hearse.

This move made Bai Xuan's bodyguard, who was wearing mourning clothes, look at Liu Xiu much softer.

The coffin boarded the big ship sent from the Bai Kingdom. When the ship docked, a team of 500 elite cavalry took over the escort of the hearse. Bai Xuan's personal guards relaxed at a speed visible to the naked eye, no longer as if they were in an enemy position. The feeling of environment.

Except for the two dozen cavalrymen led by Liu Xiu, the rest of the Green Forest Army's guards had to return the same way.

Liu Xiu carefully looked at these five hundred horses, the enthusiasm in his eyes was beyond words.

"Bai Guo and Bai He have met Liu Da Sima. Thank you very much for escorting the body of my clan uncle back to his hometown!"

The cavalryman leading the team clasped his fists at Liu Xiu and thanked him.

"It's okay. Duke Xuan and I have a history. This is common sense."

Bai He cupped his fists and bowed again: "Please come with us."

"nature."

Five hundred cavalry escorted the hearse slowly toward the northeast.

Everything is measured in every movement, movement, and movement. This is an elite soldier, especially the armor and stomach of the cavalry. Even the generals behind Liu Xiu were jealous.

After five days of journey, the convoy successfully arrived at Chaoge.

From a distance, Liu Xiu saw the huge welcoming crowd. In the middle was an old man standing in milky white Confucian clothes. Except for him, everyone around him was wearing mourning clothes.

As the hearse approached, the sounds of sobbing became more and more clear. Among them was an old woman, several middle-aged men and women, and several young men and women who cried the most sadly. It can be said that everyone who saw it was sad and everyone who heard it shed tears.

But even so, these people did not jump past the old man and rush towards the coffin.

Liu Xiu had some guesses in his mind.

"The Great Sima of the Han Dynasty, Wu Xinhou Liu Xiu was ordered by the Emperor of the Han Dynasty to escort Bai Xuangong's coffin to Chaoge!"

Although the old man is old, he is full of energy and does not feel decayed at all. Especially the divine seal between his eyebrows, coupled with the neatly combed silver hair and beard, he looks like a god, making people awe at the first sight. .

The old man returned the greeting slightly, and his behavior made people feel like he was bathing in the spring breeze: "Old man Bai Guan, thank you Liu Sima for escorting my son home. Everyone in my Bai family will remember it in their hearts. From now on, Liu Sima will be my distinguished guest of the Bai Kingdom. Please!"

"Mr. Bai is polite, please help yourself."

Liu Xiu didn't say much because it was obviously not the right time, and Bai Guan looked at the coffin and was not in the mood to communicate with Liu Xiu.

Liu Xiu took his brothers and stepped aside.

After thanking Liu Xiu, the men who cried the most sadly among the Bai family immediately threw themselves under the hearse and knelt down, crying loudly.

After a while, officials specially arranged by Duke Bai received Liu Xiu, and through questioning, the identities of these people became clear.

In the words of the Baiguo officials who were slightly touched
Except for Bai Gongguan, whose identity is already known, the middle-aged men and young men who were kneeling under the hearse and crying incessantly were Bai Xuan's sons and grandsons who had the divine mark on their eyebrows, and those who didn't were Bai Xuan's sons-in-law and grandsons. husband.

Among these people, Bai Xuan's sons and sons-in-law were either generals in the army or giants in the business world, as well as wives in schools and high-ranking officials in the Bai family. It can be said that most of the power of the Bai Kingdom is in their hands.

The old woman who was supported by several middle-aged women and almost fainted from crying was Bai Xuan's wife Zhang Yue. She was the legitimate daughter of the Zhang family of Bai Kingdom.

The middle-aged women supporting the old woman were Bai Xuan's daughters and daughters-in-law. They were all women from various wealthy families in Hebei. However, there were also a few commoner women, but they were all extremely talented and beautiful people.

For example, Liu Bai, the wife of Bai Xuan's second son, is a famous female concubine in Bai's academy. And standing next to Bai Guan, the nearest old man, who looked sad and was slightly younger than Bai Guan, was Bai Xuan's brother and the next successor of Bai Gong, Bai Shi.

The men next to him, old or middle-aged, are all descendants of the Bai family. They are all of the same generation as Bai Xuan. They are all heads of households in various places. They are usually scattered in various places. Now that Bai Xuan has passed away, he came back to attend the funeral. .

"Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!"

The long bronze bell rang six times.

"This is the death knell!" The official next to him explained when he saw Liu Xiu's confusion.

No wonder Liu Xiu hadn't heard of it. The outside world had long been indifferent to rituals. Especially for a powerful man like him who had lived in Nanyang for a long time, he had never heard of such a solemn ritual vessel.

"This bell is called "Bai Zi Zhong". It is said that it was given by King Ping when the Bai family was divided and founded the country. It has been hundreds of years ago. It is a great blessing to be able to hear the sound from hundreds of years ago!"

A young official in his twenties explained.

"The last time I heard this bell ringing was more than ten years ago. At that time, Duke Zhending passed away when he was only a few years old. However, I remember that it rang nine times."

After the bell rang, the hearse slowly entered Chaoge, and people from the Bai Kingdom who heard the death knell crowded both sides of the Chaoge Avenue and saw white flags held high with the inscription "The Crown Prince of the Bai Kingdom" written in large characters.

They understood that this was the prince's hearse. Although most people here had never seen Bai Xuan, they were still a little sad.

So in Liu Xiu's eyes, wherever the hearse passed, everyone bowed their heads and said nothing, and there was only the sound of horse hooves and the clash of soldiers' armor.

"This" Liu Xiu was shocked.

This is the result of the Bai Kingdom raising scholars and governing the Bai Kingdom for hundreds of years.

Bai Xuan's coffin stopped at the East Hall, which is the residence of the Crown Prince of Bai Kingdom.

The leader of the Bai Kingdom is Duke Bai, who is also the head of the Bai family. In the past, Duke Bai served in the court, but no one was in charge in the country.

At that time, all the affairs of the Bai Kingdom will be handed over to Prince Bai. If the Crown Prince and Duke Bai are both in Chang'an, then it will be left to the Duke's wife and Mrs. Jun to jointly supervise the Bai Kingdom.

Mrs. Gong is the wife of Duke Bai, and Mrs. Jun is the wife of Prince Bai.

However, there is a temporary special position called Gongsun, which was set by Bai Gong. If Gongsun is appointed, then the two wives will not be in charge, but Gongsun will be in charge.

The highest administrative body of the Bai Kingdom is called Baifu. The front hall is called Chaotian Hall, which is the place where the great dynasty meets or discusses matters. The more than a thousand acres behind it are not all built in the palace style, but in the courtyard style, which belongs to Bai Gong. The residence is like the inner palace of Weiyang Palace.

With Chaotian Hall as the center, there is Bai Gong's Mansion in the back, and various government offices in the Bai Kingdom in front. The East Hall near Bai Gong's Mansion in the east is the East Hall, followed by the Crown Prince's Mansion, and the West Hall in the west, where the two ladies are in charge or in office. The temporary office location when Gongsun was in power.

Baifu is located to the north of Chaoge. To the east of Baifu is the Bai Academy, which occupies half of the northern city. To the west are various ceremonial places and clan mansions, such as the ancestral temple, the Temple of Heaven, the Gongzufu, the clan mansion, and the family law mansion. etc.

The entire north of Chaoge is almost a serious place except Bai's Academy, while to the south is a large residential area and commercial market, including an area where residential buildings and shops are mixed together.

There is an avenue paved with stone bricks that can accommodate eight carriages running in parallel, leading directly to Chaotian Hall.

However, although the Chaoge was grand and prosperous, it did not violate the etiquette at all. Even the palaces and multi-story wooden high-rise buildings were much lower than the emperor's expenses stipulated by the court.

This is very etiquette for the principality. After all, the Bai Dukedom is also a vassal state with the same etiquette system as the Liu family.

Bai Xuan's coffin stayed in the east hall for seven days, and then the Bai clan soldiers carried it back to the ancestral tomb in Taihang Mountain for burial.

The Bai family's ancestral tomb is in the area of ​​​​the Bai Mansion in ancient Taiyuan where all the family heads and the Bai family's sons are buried. After thousands of years, the tombs have occupied two or three hills and become a large tomb group.

The ancestral tomb is divided into the main tomb area and the sub-tomb area. The main tomb area mainly buries the family heads of the past dynasties, and the sub-tomb area mainly buries the deceased Bai family.

In order to protect the ancestral tomb, the Bai Kingdom specially set up a mausoleum-protecting village here. There are about thousands of villagers, including 500 tomb-protecting troops. Military duties are passed down from generation to generation.

The mountain people in the Taihang Mountains call this place Baitou Mountain and the village Bailing Village.

Because Bai Xuan was only the crown prince when he died, he was not qualified to be buried in the main tomb and could only be buried in the sub tomb. However, he was not the highest status in the sub tomb. There was another person with the same status as him, the son of Gu Bai Guoyi. Fair brother, Yi Shizi Bai Bo.

During these seven days, Liu Xiu and others continued to go out to explore the customs of the Bai Kingdom. They also asked Duke Bai for permission to visit the Bai Kingdom military camp under the leadership of the Bai Kingdom generals.

When traveling with his brothers inside and outside the city, Liu Xiu actually felt like he was in a prosperous age. Food prices were stable, people lived and worked in peace and contentment, and farmers from outside the city continued to come into the city to sell goods and buy things.

All the commotion outside seemed to have nothing to do with them.

If it weren't for the students from those universities debating the general trend of the world, he would have forgotten that he was in troubled times, and there was even a war in Henan.

"It's so comfortable!" Feng Yi, who was beside Liu Xiu, couldn't help but sigh as he looked at the bustling crowd on the road.

"This is all due to Duke Bai." The official who was leading them said with a smile.

"Did you know that in order to maintain this scene, most of the soldiers and horses of the Bai Kingdom have been deployed to the border, and the border guards far away in the northern part of the Great Wall are supported by our Bai Kingdom with food and money. If we hadn't supported them on behalf of the imperial court, they would have long ago The defense line could no longer be maintained, and the barbarian horseshoes from the north had already entered the Great Wall.

How could those heroes from Hebei compete for land so easily? This is why even if Henan is in chaos, the chaos in Hebei is limited and is maintained by the Bai Kingdom. "

"Bai Guo Daren." Liu Xiu sighed.

(End of this chapter)