Chinese New Year

Chapter 7: Yin Jie Youth (Additional chapter 13 for the leader, Qing Shan)

(The top guy on the list gave 3 leaders a reward. I am so annoyed. I have to show my appreciation. I will add one more chapter today and 2 more chapters tomorrow.)
"Hey, Sima Liu hasn't left yet?" Mi Huang walked out of Pan Garden and saw Liu Qia from afar, wondering.

"I'm waiting to return with the inspector." Liu Qia said with a smile.

Mi Huang also smiled and said, "Let's go."

Behind him were more than a dozen followers, all of whom were low-level officials in the Sikong Shogunate. They were all smart people, and naturally knew that Liu Qia had something to discuss with the governor, so they subconsciously slowed down their pace and fell behind.

"Have you been watching the troops just now?" Mi Huang asked, looking at the soldiers who were withdrawing to the camp.

"I took a quick look." Liu Qia said.

"how?"

"We brought all of this with us. What do you think?"

Mi Huang shook his head and smiled bitterly, then asked again, "It's been a while since the training, but there's no improvement?"

Liu Qia sighed and said, "The foundation is too poor, how much can be improved? If I have to say, only the team led by the team leader Yang Bao looks good and has some form. With more polishing, they may be of great use in the future."

"Yang Bao..." Mi Huang muttered twice, and said, "It's late today. I'll come and see what Yang Bao is like in a few days."

"Leaving Beijing again?" Liu Qia was secretly pleased that his evil plan had succeeded, so he immediately started the next step.

"Yes, I am very busy." Mi Huang said with a wry smile, "I will go to some neighboring counties to recruit talented people for the Minister of Works."

Liu Qia was a little jealous.

Mi Huang's family background was not high, but he was a native of Sikongfeng State, which made up for the shortcomings of his origin.

He is also a native of the East China Sea, but he has no background. If he had not entered the palace very early, he would not be comparable to Mi Huang.

Comparing people to each other is so irritating.

"The governor leaves the capital every few days. What should we do with Pan Yuan?" Liu Qia pretended to hesitate.

"What should I do?" Mi Huang was stunned, but he quickly reacted and said, "Actually, I really don't want to be the leader of this camp, but there is no other way. I can only do it part-time. Before I left, Sikong told me that everything in Pan Garden will be decided by the princess. If the princess wants to find someone to manage this camp, then let her do it. I will have less worries."

"This..." Liu Qia was shocked and said, "I'm afraid it's inappropriate. The servants around the princess are good at managing the fields and goods, but they are not good at managing soldiers, right?"

Mi Huang nodded and said, "That's exactly what happened. I am still the leader of the group. Let the leaders of each group decide on their own military affairs. I will step down when I find a suitable candidate."

"Military affairs cannot be neglected for a moment." Liu Qia shook his head and said, "When the governor is away, it is best to have someone take over."

"Oh?" Mi Huang glanced at Liu Qia, and had some guesses in his mind, so he asked, "What good plan does Sima Liu have?"

Liu Qia knew he was being a little hasty, but he still said, "Perhaps we could appoint a supervisor to be in charge of military discipline and training. That way, when the supervisor is away, the soldiers won't neglect their skills."

"Haha." Mi Huang smiled and said, "Sima Liu, I'll tell you the truth. You and I know what this army looks like, and so does Sikong. He has long given up hope on these people, and now he didn't send them home, purely out of face and not wanting to make things look bad. Du Bo, haha, the old are old, the young are young, even if they train till the end of time, what can they look like?"

"You are wrong, Governor." Liu Qia said, "You are not unaware of the situation in Luoyang. The central army is ambiguous and is just watching from the sidelines. The Qi Wang Jiong is very powerful, and only the Changsha Wang can compete with him. The Minister of Works has no troops and no power. At this moment, even if there are only one or two hundred soldiers who can fight, they are very important to the Minister of Works."

Mi Huang stopped walking after hearing this, and after a moment's silence, he slowly nodded and said, "What you said makes sense."

Then he seemed to have suddenly thought of something and asked, "Among the forty guards around Sikong before, there was a man named Shao Xun, who was extremely brave and skilled. You and I have seen him before. How does he lead the troops?"

Liu Qia suddenly frowned and said, "I vaguely heard that he has adopted many sons and secretly married young men. I wonder what he wants to do?"

"Is this really true?" Mi Huang was a little surprised.

"It's just a rumor, I don't know if it's true." Liu Qia said expressionlessly.

Mi Huang looked at him suspiciously, thought for a moment, and said, "Forget it, I don't have time to check. Let the princess know about this, and we'll deal with it when we get back."

Liu Qia's heart skipped a beat. If the matter was reported to the princess, it would become complicated. But he had no choice but to nod in agreement.

"Have you learned any news during your stay in Beijing these few days?" Mi Huang continued to move forward and asked casually.

"Beijing..." Liu Qia's face was filled with sorrow and even a bit of fear. He said, "I'm afraid they're going to take action."

Mi Huang's heart skipped a beat and he almost stumbled.

******
After entering the twelfth lunar month, the Chinese New Year is not far away.

But there is no New Year atmosphere in Luoyang, not at all.

The nobles in the city finally couldn't sit still. When they couldn't or didn't want to leave Luoyang, sending their families out of the city in advance seemed to be a good choice.

The days in Panyuan were still as plain as water, with nothing much to say. But this so-called plainness was especially precious in the tense times.

Every day is precious and there is no excuse to waste it.

This month it was Shao Xun's team's turn to guard the interior of the house, mainly the backyard.

They replaced the old soldiers who were once described by Mi Huang as only "rough police and petty thieves" - real old soldiers, generally over 60 years old.

Fifty young men, armed with weapons, followed the procedures and were assigned to various locations.

Shao Xun checked it carefully and was quite satisfied.

Not to mention their fighting ability, in terms of obedience, this group of teenagers are really good.

He has dealt with all the troublemakers who dared to say strange things, and they are now very honest.

Even the young men who had never been beaten had seen the heroic figure of the team leader easily defeating the brave warriors of the neighboring team on the training ground. It seemed that there was no opponent for the whole team of more than 400 people...

What else can I say! If you don't want to be whipped, just obey the military order strictly. On the fifteenth day of the twelfth lunar month, several ox carts drove into Pan Garden.

The princess, who had not been seen for a long time, was making tea in the backyard and entertaining them.

There is a line in Zuo Si's Poem of a Lovely Daughter, "only for the sake of making tea, boasting and standing on the tripod", which describes the situation of the upper scholar-official class making tea at that time.

There were two female relatives coming, both from the Hedong Pei family. One was the daughter of the deceased cousin Pei Zan, and the princess's niece, and the other was the princess's sister and the wife of Bian Xu.

The three women drank tea and enjoyed the snow, and they were quite happy. As they chatted, they talked about their niece's marriage.

"Nu Nu is fourteen years old, right? She can get married in a year or so." Concubine Pei looked at her niece carefully and said with a smile, "She is so beautiful, but I don't know which son has such luck."

It would have been better if she hadn't said this, but as soon as she said it, her niece lowered her head and remained silent.

Pei Wan, Bian Xu's wife, explained softly, "Sister, you don't know, but the clan has decided to marry Nunu off."

"How do you marry?" Concubine Pei asked in surprise.

"As the current situation is chaotic, it would be better to choose a commander of a fortress to form a marriage alliance with and have him as your support," Pei Wan said.

Concubine Pei frowned.

In fact, this matter is not incomprehensible.

A strong fort commander could easily raise a team of several thousand people. If he took the opportunity to absorb the refugees, he could have tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of people.

We really can't look at it with an old perspective.

If the country is peaceful and the people are safe, the commander of the fortress is just a dog, easy to kill, and not worthy of the old nobles' attention. But what time is it now? The Sima family is killing each other, fighting wars one after another, the country is in turmoil, refugees are rising up, and the Hu people are still ready to move. It's like the end of the world!

In such a situation, the value of the fort commander is greatly improved, and he can even save lives at critical moments.

"Nu Nu, what do you think? If you don't want to, let your aunt speak for you." In fact, Concubine Pei also thought that this was a good choice, but she still wanted to hear her niece's opinion.

If they really didn't want to, she didn't mind arguing with her cousins ​​and persuading them to give up the idea.

She had already sacrificed once for the Pei family and married into the Donghai Palace, and she didn't want to see her niece suffer the same fate.

Upon hearing this, Nunu suddenly raised his head, looking quite interested.

In her girlish fantasy, of course, it would be best to choose a handsome and elegant young man from a noble family. After marriage, she can play the piano and dance, and her husband can write poems. In their spare time, they can go outings together and meet friends.

This is probably her most beautiful fantasy, not marrying a vulgar guy.

But - after a while of thinking, his eyes dimmed again.

She had lived a life of luxury since childhood, received the best education, and grew up without any illness or disaster under great care. She was much luckier than most people.

She couldn't be so selfish. If her family needed her, even if it meant marrying a Hun, she had no right to refuse.

"No... no need..." Nunu shed tears and said, "There's nothing wrong with a handsome man. My family will always choose a handsome man from a well-known family for me..."

Concubine Pei sighed inaudibly, and it was unclear whether it was for her niece or for herself.

The general trend was like this, sweeping everyone under the carpet. Even the aristocratic families were somewhat helpless.

Pei Wan also looked a little sad.

Who hasn’t had a sensual fantasy during their teenage years? Who hasn’t had someone they secretly like? But so what?

The current situation is such that if we want to support the family's prosperity, everyone has to pay and make sacrifices.

The situation in Luoyang can no longer be described as undercurrents; it can be said to be on the verge of breaking out.

Some people who got wind of the situation even fled with their families.

For example, Gu Rong, Zhang Han and others often talked about Jiangdong cuisine, and they wanted to return home.

For example, Yu Gun of Yingchuan fled into the mountains with his wife and children to avoid disaster some time ago.

In the outside world, Sima Yong, King of Hejian (Governor of Guanzhong), Sima Ying, King of Chengdu (Governor of Jizhou), Sima Xin, King of Xinye (Governor of Jingzhou), Sima Hu, King of Fanyang (Governor of Yuzhou) and others submitted petitions requesting the dismissal of Sima Jiong.

They did not just submit a memorial and engage in a verbal battle, but launched serious threats of military intimidation.

Among them, the most active one was Hejian King Sima Yong. He sent Li Han as the commander-in-chief and led 20,000 vanguards from Chang'an to Luoyang. He himself recruited soldiers in Guanzhong on a large scale, with a total of more than 100,000 people as reserve.

Yecheng also recruited soldiers on a large scale, even recruiting Xiongnu, Jie, and Xianbei soldiers to help in the war, and continued to put pressure on Luoyang.

Under such circumstances, the Imperial Guards did not seem to dare to openly support Sima Jue. They chose to sit on the sidelines and not get involved, just to see the outcome.

Luoyang is likely to face a large-scale conflict.

If foreign troops come again, no one knows what will happen.

Suddenly, a command was heard in the snow, attracting the attention of the three people.

Concubine Pei took a look and found that it was the soldiers guarding the backyard who were changing shifts.

She suddenly remembered something, so she called the servant and gave him some instructions.

The servant left quickly.

Concubine Pei collected her thoughts and continued chatting with her sister and niece.

(End of this chapter)