History of Women in the Wei Dynasty

In the newly renovated temple grounds, a square altar is placed in the center. The sacrificial animals in front of the altar include a white calf, a yellow colt, and a white sheep. The female shaman walks from the east of the emperor to the square altar and then shakes a drum. The emperor, empress, concubines, and civil and military officials follow the drumbeats and bow to the west in order.

The drums continued to beat, and seven carefully selected young members of the imperial clan each took a cup of wine, facing west, and poured the wine onto the wooden pillars erected on the square altar as a sacrifice to the ancestral spirit. The act of offering wine to the ancestral spirit was repeated seven times, and after each pouring of wine, all those participating in the sacrifice bowed and paid their respects.

Wei Yao was the only female official in the outer court. Her position was not simply a display of the glory of sycophants. Since she took over the command of Wang Xian's secret guards, she learned that many Xianbei military officials were secretly contacting each other and spreading rumors that they missed the old capital Pingcheng and that Pingcheng was the only suitable place for Xianbei people to live.

Grand Tutor Yuan Xiang had been accepting bribes from the garrison commanders of the Six Garrisons. It is conceivable that the instigator behind these rumors must be Yuan Xiang, the Prince of Beihai!
The timing of Wei Yao's succession to Wang Xian coincided with the time when those military officials were preparing to submit a collective memorial. Once the memorial was submitted to the Secretariat, it would inevitably be obtained by the Chamberlain Yuan Hui first, who would then try to gain merit in this matter and win the emperor's favor.

How could Wei Yao possibly allow Yuan Hui to make a contribution?

Rumors deliberately spread by treacherous officials are very difficult to suppress; to kill a snake, you must strike its vital spot!
So she offered a plan to the emperor: the first step was to order four imperial clan ministers—Grand Tutor Yuan Xie, General of Chariots and Cavalry Yuan Yu, Grand Commandant Yuan Yong, and Secretary Yuan Cheng—to secretly act, causing the military officials who were forming cliques to become suspicious of each other and delaying the plans of those treacherous ministers.

Next is today's sacrificial ceremony... Emperor Xiaowen had already tried to abolish the old Xianbei sacrificial rites before moving the capital and replace them with Han sacrificial rites. Among the military officials who were encouraged by Yuan Xiang, some of them did not strongly resent the various reforms of the Han system. When they saw that the sacrificial rites had been restored to the old system, they went further and spread rumors that moving the capital would be unfavorable.

When the new year comes, a year will have passed since the traitor Yuan Xi's affair, and that will be the day of Yuan Xiang's death! Once Yuan Xiang is dead, the remaining rebellious officials who disregard the law and are arrogant and unrepentant can be eliminated as well!
Thump thump thump, bang bang bang...

The witch's drumming sounded sometimes crisp and sometimes muffled, and the snowflakes fell even more densely, as if heaven and earth were composing a mysterious melody for the drumbeats.

Among the seven sons of the imperial family who were serving wine, Xi Jiao was pouring wine for the fourth time onto the pillar that symbolized the ancestral deity when a series of images suddenly flashed through his mind.

First, at the racecourse of "Youmei Garden" in Pingcheng, he picked up a string of ordinary grass beads from the ground among many handkerchiefs and put it on his wrist. The blushing Wei Yao was pushed in front of him by many young girls. The more the people around her made a fuss, the lower her face became.

Before he could even process this scene, it was replaced by the next, a scene that flowed like water, forming a moving story. He seemed to be riding his horse anxiously, then stopped outside Yongning Temple in Pingcheng, waiting impatiently. In the direction he longed to see, he saw Wei Yao, who was about the same age as he was now. She was thin and haggard, and just as he had seen her in the crowd, she had seen him at once too. For some reason, he turned his head away, preferring to weep pathetically rather than greet her.

The sorrow had barely begun to dissipate from his heart when the memory of that scene vanished, like snowflakes leaving the sky, completely replaced by an even more painful one. First, Wei Yao was performing a wedding ceremony with a man whose face was blurred, and he was leaving alone not far away. Then, a carriage in front of him struck someone, and in the blood, the one who had been knocked down and was lifeless was none other than Wei Yao!
Boom boom, thump thump... The drumbeats changed, they sped up!
Like the other six sons of the imperial clan, Xi Jiao continued to pour wine towards the pillar of the ancestral temple. The moment the wine droplets flew out and hit the snowflakes, all the strange memories that suddenly appeared in his mind, the strange dreams he had before, and his special attachment to Wei Yao all disappeared without a trace.

Boom boom, thump thump... The witch continued to beat the drum.

Yuan Mao was positioned almost at the very back, separated by layers of officials, making it difficult for him to see the altar clearly. He simply stopped looking and gradually drifted off into a daze amidst the drumbeats and the dazzling snowflakes. Suddenly, a jumble of images rushed into his mind.

In the scene, he is getting married to a woman whose face is obscured and whose head is covered in flowers. Although her face is obscured, it is clear that she is not his beloved Yaoyao!
Before he could figure it out, the scene changed. He seemed to be riding a horse at full speed, looking like he was frantically trying to avoid someone. Then several arrows shot from behind him. He was hit by two arrows in the back and fell to the side of the road. How cowardly! He died with his eyes wide open in despair! Strangely, his soul floated out of his body and went in one direction. In that direction... Wei Yao appeared. She was floating just like him.

An indescribable grief, like a sharp arrow, was about to pierce Yuan Mao's heart when two snowflakes drifted into his eyes, sending a chill down his spine. In that instant, all the strange scenes, the wedding woman from his previous bizarre dreams, vanished. As Yuan Mao bowed again, his upper body tilted slightly to the side, revealing a glimpse of her slender figure. How he missed her! He missed her when he couldn't see her, and he missed her even when he could.

When one is in love with someone, one extends that love to everything connected to them. Yuan Mao knew that after the sacrificial ceremony, his wife would have to return to the Menxia Province, so he went to visit his father-in-law and brought him a cartload of good charcoal.

South of Luoyang.

Yingzhou, the northernmost part of Xiao Liang's territory, borders Wei. Wang Mao, the governor of Yingzhou, has been working in the county office here for more than two months because of the defection of the Panhu barbarians to Liang.

Cao Jingzong's trained soldiers brought the latest news that Lü Sengzhen was safe and that the barbarians were still attacking Huyang County. Wang Mao finally felt relieved and, as usual, allowed himself a moment of leisure. He disguised himself as a commoner and went out of the county office to stroll around the surrounding markets, taking the opportunity to investigate the people's conditions.

"Winter vegetables are so expensive?" He feigned surprise when he heard that a bolt of cloth could not be exchanged for many vegetables, but in reality, no one understood better than him why vegetables were so expensive.

Sure enough, following Wang Mao's lead, the vegetable farmer went from cursing heaven, earth, and the Wei people to cursing the local landlords!
“Those heartless people say that the mountain belongs to the imperial court and they won’t let us go into the mountain to dig radish roots. But who doesn’t know that they want to take all the food in the mountain? We commoners can only sneak into the mountain at night and only if we are lucky can we dig up some radish roots.”

A woman with bloody scratches on her face next to him sneered.

Wang Mao knew that these bloodstains were caused by scratching his face because he couldn't stand the itching after getting frostbite.

The woman said, "Don't fall for his tricks. My basket of radish roots is cheap, but you have to buy the whole basket."

Wang Mao moved over and asked with interest, "Oh, why are you willing to sell the same radish root at such a low price?"

The man from before scoffed and returned, "Because there's not much of it, can't you see? There's a trick to how she arranged the radish roots in that basket. It looks messy and full, but there's a big hole in the middle." After saying that, he gestured a circle with his hands.

Wang Mao chuckled and said to the woman, "Indeed, you didn't fill the radish root container properly."

The woman got angry: "Nonsense! Look again, is it full or not?"

As soon as she finished speaking, everything went black for Wang Mao. Without even feeling pain, his head was severed and rolled into the vegetable basket, filling the hole in the middle of the vegetables. (End of Chapter)