Datang New Order

The Hangwo Shilie branch is one of the two great clans of the Pinbu. Since the formation of the Pinbu, it has been the right-hand man governing Lai Shilie's family and has firmly occupied the position of the Great Elder of the Pinbu.Different from the selection of other elders in the tribe, the Great Elder is always from Hangwo Shilie's family, just like Qi Jin is always inherited by Julai Shilie's family.The Great Elder of the Pinbu of this generation is called Wan Blind, and he has a very important voice in the Pinbu.Since Cheng Jin's sudden illness and death, the influence of Wan's blindness on the entire tribe has become even more significant.

It has been several years since they entered Liucheng, and the nobles of the Pinbu occupied the original houses of the big families in the city, and lived a prosperous and settled life.Wan Blindness is no exception. He chose a three-entry compound for his family. The front yard receives foreign guests and handles tribal official affairs. There are knives, guns, bows, axes and other weapons, and stone locks and other objects are placed here and there beside the shelves.When he is free, the old man will juggle with knives and guns, lift stone locks, and recall his bravery in the past.

The middle courtyard is the place where the elderly meet secret guests, meet with confidantes, and deal with important private affairs. Now they are completely blind and drinking tea in the tea room in the left wing of the middle courtyard.Tasting tea is a habit developed after going blind and entering Liucheng. In the past, on the grassland, drinking tea was just to refresh the teeth and greasy behavior. It was purely a necessity of life, just like eating meat to fill the stomach.Wan Blind never thought that there would be so many Taoisms in drinking tea, and according to the Southerners, the word "pin" should be more appropriate.

Blind Wan sits on a log bed, and sometimes crosses his hanging legs unconsciously. He always feels comfortable sitting on the felt blanket, but since he heard that "sitting on the bed" is Datang The customs of the nobles, if you are completely blind, try to adapt to this sitting method, so as not to be despised by the thin man in front of you.

The thin man's name was Cui Cheng, and he was a Han businessman he met after entering Liucheng after being blind.According to Cui Cheng's self-report, he is a child of the Cui family in Qinghe, who came from a noble family with five surnames and Qiwang in the Central Plains. However, now that the war is raging and the Cui family's family is in decline, he has no choice but to embark on the road of business.Wan Blind doesn't know what "five surnames and seven wangs" are. He only knows that Cui Cheng owns a lot of sea boats, and every year he escorts the boats across the sea from the south, and goes upstream from the mouth of Bailangshui to Liucheng.

In the past few years, Cui Cheng has brought a large amount of urgently needed materials, such as salt, tea, white porcelain, silk cloth, etc., in exchange for the fur and various mountain goods that the product department has accumulated in its hands.Of course, every time Cui Cheng came to Liucheng, he would visit Blindness and give him some good things used by Han people in the south, such as the big wooden box he was playing with now.

Cui Cheng opened the box, took out items one by one, and placed them in front of Wan Blind one by one.

"I told my lord last time that I brought all of them with me when I went north this time. There are 24 pieces in total. If you want to enjoy tea, you must have all of them..."

"This is a wind stove, used to make a fire and make tea... Charcoal, used to crush charcoal... Fire clip, put charcoal into the furnace..."

"The golden cauldron is used to make tea soup... Well, this is the pear wood bed, and someone will put the tea bowl on it after a while... Luo who sifts tea, and He who stores tea..."

"Yu Ze, for dividing tea into the kettle...Yu Fang, for storing water..."

"This time, what I brought to my lord is the Maojian from Qingliang Mountain near Lin'an, Yuhang County. One or two Maojian can be exchanged for five sheep... The water in the jade square comes from Hutu, and it is the first grade of water used in tea... "

Blind, his eyes widened and he stared intently at Cui Chengxing's method of cooking tea like flowing water, seeing his dancing charcoal burning stove, roasting and grinding tea, adding water and adjusting salt lightly and smoothly, listening to his detailed explanation " The first boil, the second boil, and the third boil, and how to control the heat, and finally see him divide the tea soup into celadon tea bowls like dancing flowers and butterflies... Everything is so cloudy and misty, but it is extremely fresh. …,

Carefully picking up a teacup, following Cui Cheng's example, he took a deep breath, smelling the fragrance, and couldn't help feeling slightly drunk.The green soup is lined with green thin porcelain, and there is nothing in the teacup.According to Cui Cheng's instructions, Wan Blind absorbed the water with the tip of his tongue, and after sipping a cup of tea, he felt the aftertaste was endless and his teeth were fragrant.

Looking at the exquisite tea sets in front of him, Wan Wan blindly asked: "I don't know how much this set of tea sets will cost? How can I get them?"

Cui Cheng frowned, and said displeasedly: "Why is your lord so out of touch? In these years, your lord has taken good care of me, so how dare you say 'in exchange for'. Could it be that your lord has never regarded me as a friend?"

Wan Blindness hurriedly said: "Don't be weird, brother, it's a friend of course! Just look at the tea set, it must be very expensive..."

Cui Cheng said sternly: "Since my lord regards XX as a friend, have you ever heard that friends give gifts in exchange for things? Don't mention this again, otherwise XX will never dare to visit again next time."

Wan Blind was happy in his heart, and after a few good words of persuasion, the two of them sipped tea and chatted, unaware that it was evening.When Cui Cheng said goodbye and left, Wan Blind couldn't put it down and played with the dazzling array of tea sets in front of him, admiring in his heart.

When Tuli arrived, Wan Blind was not willing to replace the tea leaves in the cauldron, and the water continued for several times, but it was no longer the Hutu spring water brought by Cui Cheng in Yufang. The water was too little, and Wan Blind was the same I can't bear to use it.

Tuli couldn't get used to sitting on the small log bed, so he hooked the bed apart with his feet, sat down on the thick felt blanket, took the celadon teacup handed over by the blind man, and drank it down with his neck raised. It's like drinking alcohol.

Wan Blind cursed contemptuously, stepped on the felt blanket again with his crossed feet, although it was not very comfortable, he felt that he was suddenly more elegant, his face was like a spring breeze, and he said with a smile: "This tea soup tastes good. Very good, Mr. Dalang, eat more." As he spoke, he filled up the teacup and handed it over.

Tuli was not surprised by the grand elder's vassalism of the Han people these years, he took the teacup but did not move, pondered for a moment, and said, "I plan to set off in three days, to Yuguan."

Wan Blindness asked: "In such a hurry? The warriors have only come back for a few days after their hard work in the east, and they haven't had a good rest yet... Seeing that there are not many days left before the sun is warm, why don't you take a rest in the city to recharge your batteries? Going south to Yuguan, the chances of winning are even greater.”

As for who will inherit the tribal position, Wan Blindness still favors Dalang Jun Tuli on the bright side, but there is one thing about Tuli that makes Wan Blind dissatisfied, that is, his insistence on the nomadic customs of the Khitan people.Whether it is Sarah or Ousi, or Shilu who is now serving as Yu Yue, the successive rulers of Khitan have been working hard to make changes, learning from the Han people in the south, learning to build cities, smelting iron, and farming, and unremittingly expanding in force , Gradually made the Khitan stand out among the various ethnic groups in the grassland, becoming the leading Hu ethnic group outside the customs.Learning from the Han people has become a vague consensus among the top officials of the Khitan ministries. Among the pin ministries, the Great Elder Wan Blindness is the most radical.

But Tuli is different. After Lao Tengjin fell ill, Tuli's military achievements became higher and higher, and his influence in the tribe became greater and greater. However, his opposition to Sinicization and his insistence on old Khitan customs gradually emerged.Wan Blind was keenly aware of the change in Tuli, which happened because of the departure of Xiaolang Junwuli.Originally, according to the ancient tradition of the Khitan people, the seat of the tribal Qijin should be elected by the tribal elders among the descendants of Lai Shilie based on merit and ability. The son of the mother, the blood of the Shulu family flows on his body.The root of this reason comes from the Han people's concept of "going out of the family".

Wan Blind can understand the anger in Tuli's heart, but he thinks Tuli's anger is suspected of one-sided expansion.Especially in the past few years of occupying Liucheng, Wan Blind felt the broadness and spirit of Han culture, and was deeply fascinated by it.Since the Han people were able to occupy the prosperous Central Plains for thousands of years, it shows that the Han people's set of things must have merits, why should they be completely denied? …,

Therefore, although Wan Blind thought that Tuli was a suitable successor for the next Pinbu Qijin, he was a little worried about officially granting him this status, and delayed the convening of the tribal elder meeting for various reasons.He hopes that before Tuli ascends to the position of jinjin, he can make efforts to change Tuli's concept, so as to ensure the correctness and continuity of the future development direction of the product department.

Tuli could somewhat guess Wan Blind's intentions. He had great respect for the Great Elder, and he had tried his best to get along well with the Great Elder before, but now that he had the power of victory in the Eastern Expedition and had his cards in his cards, he decided not to endure it any longer.

"Abo of the Shulu family has been urging me these days, asking me to tear open from the direction of Yuguan as soon as possible and break through the defense line of Lu Longjun's pass... This is not only Abo's meaning, but also Helu and Abaoji of Yelu's family. What they mean, I think, also represents the meaning of being greater than Yue..." Although Tuli's words were an explanation for his hastily going south to Yuguan, another layer of meaning contained in it was already very clear——Die Those big figures in the assassination department have reached a consensus to support Tuli to become the head of the product department.What Tuli didn't say was that he also exchanged a large piece of land east of Yan County for the support of the Wukai tribe, but he had reservations about whether his approach was correct, so he didn't mention it.

Blind Wan was silent for a while, and said: "I'm old, and I can't ride a horse anymore. In the coldest days of winter in the past few years, my waist and legs will hurt, the pain is very severe..."

Tuli tilted his head and thought for a while, then slowly said: "Hangwo Shilie's family can stay in Liucheng, and Liucheng will be the fiefdom of Hangwo Shilie's family from now on."

Blind Wan nodded and took a long breath of relief: "I can start preparations immediately, and hold a tribal elders meeting within ten days."

Tuli shook his head: "No, the elders' meeting will be held after I come back from Yuguan. I need to take down Yuguan and explain to Abo and the others... Besides, there is Wuli. If his matter is not resolved, the elders' meeting will be ignored. Even though it was held, I couldn’t sleep well.”

After drinking two cups of tea and a few short words, the two reached an agreement.The Great Elder Wan Blindness can continue to promote Sinicization in Hangwo Shilie's family, and even generously allocated Liucheng to Wan Blindness for profit.Wan Blind agreed to let Tuli become Qijin immediately, but in order to be more justified, Tuli took the initiative to postpone the date.