Strange Tales from the Northern Qi Dynasty

Chapter 263 A Dream Back to the Pre-Qin Dynasty
February, the first year of Tiantong (564).

Youzhou, Yuyang County, Wanghaitai.

On the endless sea, the big ship slowly approached.

The soldiers on the dock shouted, and someone quickly walked up to the platform and raised the command flag.

There are many large ships docked at the pier.

There are many buildings outside, with people coming and going, and merchants gathering, it is really noisy.

There were laborers pushing carts loaded with goods, walking back and forth.

The ship slowly docked at the shore. Some sailors shouted and some soldiers raised wooden steps, forming a simple aisle with wooden planks on both sides.

Then two scholars were seen leading the way out of the ship. Both of them were dressed quite warmly, followed by armored soldiers. They strode off the ship, and the soldiers on both sides hurriedly bowed to greet them.

An official led a group of people to pay a visit. The official walked hurriedly and quickly came in front of the two men and bowed to them.

"Raja."

"Duke Di."

The two people who arrived were Wang Xi and Di Xian'an.

Neither of them looked very energetic. After all, they had just experienced a long voyage. Xian'an, in particular, looked particularly shabby, with messy and tangled beard, completely different from his previous appearance.

Wang Xi looked at the official in front of him and was about to speak, but he was stunned again.

The official in front of him was tall, energetic, and handsome. He did not look like an ordinary person. Wang Xi always felt that this person looked particularly familiar.

"You are."

"I am the Minister of Finance of the General Wei's Mansion, and I have come here specially to greet you two gentlemen."

Wang Xi asked suspiciously, "Have we met before?"

The official looked up and chuckled, "Yes, I have seen it."

"My Lord, my name is Cui Zhan. I used to be a eunuch and served under Lord Yang."

"Oh!! I remember now! Yang Yin's confidant!"

Wang Xi suddenly realized, but then felt a little embarrassed.

He smiled and said, "Long time no see, how are you, Mr. Cui?"

Cui Zhan said calmly: "Thanks to the second lord, I am still safe."

When Wang Xi heard this, the atmosphere became even more awkward. Xian'an asked, "Why is Mr. Cui at the frontier?"

Cui Zhan said, "After Lord Yang was murdered, I was dismissed from office and became a commoner. I returned to my hometown. It happened that General Wei was at the border preparing to bring order to the country. Sima Cui under his command wrote to persuade me to go there, so I went there. General Wei did not regard me as a humble man and promoted me to a high position. Now I am doing some small things within my ability to repay General Wei's kindness."

Neither Wang Xi nor Xian'an said anything.

Seeing that the atmosphere was somewhat tense, Cui Zhan said with a smile: "Please don't blame me, I am not good at speaking. Please come with me."

He invited the two men to get on the carriage and pass by on the official road.

The bustling scene of people coming and going on both sides gradually broke the previous awkward atmosphere.

"How could this place be so prosperous?"

"This is the largest seaport in the North. Every forty days or so, a fleet of merchant ships arrives from the south. Ordinary small merchant ships also come here all the time, all of which come to the North to trade."

"There are many benefits for new construction in the north. Grain and cloth ships are exempt from vehicle and vessel taxes. City taxes are also collected based on profits, and are unified in all regions."

Xian'an shook his head, "It's too difficult to implement."

Cui Zhan nodded, "Yes, you see, those are the results of the implementation being too difficult."

Cui Zhan pulled open the curtain and pointed into the distance.

Xian'an looked into the distance and saw many flagpoles with human heads on them, watching the people passing by.

Xian'an was not afraid either. He stroked his beard with a smile and said, "As expected, to govern the world, you still need sharp swords and fast horses. Just sitting in the government office, without a sharp sword, and talking big, you can't govern well."

Xian'an seemed to be referring to something else.

Wang Xi chuckled.

Cui Zhan seemed to have not heard anything. He continued, "After these goods dock, they will be sent to Qiushui Wharf, transferred to water boats, and sent all the way to Yandu. From there, they will be sent to various places."

"These large merchant ships were organized by a minister in the palace, and they brought together many nobles, officials, and wealthy families. You don't know how powerful these people are. They were even able to convince the Queen Mother's family to participate in this business. In the past few months, all kinds of food and cloth have been transported here continuously. They also took the initiative to mine various mines here."

Cui Zhan shook his head. "As expected of a man with sharp swords and fast horses, this way of making money is not simple. The war horses, furs, herbs, copper and iron from the north are brought to the south and sold for huge profits. Then the profits are used to continue to trade for war horses, copper and iron in the north. They don't even have any costs. All they need are fast horses and sharp swords. They are rich as hell."

"Neither the King of Pengcheng nor the King of Zhao could suppress them. The King of Pengcheng previously sent people to investigate thoroughly, but none of the people he sent came back alive."

Cui Zhan slowly looked at Xian'an, "What do you think?"

"If you ask me, the best at doing this kind of thing are those who come from big families like Cui Jun. They are the best at seizing business opportunities. The nobles are all a bunch of reckless people. How can they make decisions on such big things? At most, they are pushed to the top and think they have earned a lot. In fact, people with a background like Jun take the most. Most of the people around King Pengcheng are from such backgrounds. How can they investigate it thoroughly?"

The two looked at each other again, neither speaking.

Cui Zhan was the first to give up staring at her. He slowly looked into the distance and said, "We should get on the boat and cross Qiushui to Yan."

Cui Zhan came here not just to greet the two people, he came to receive the goods. When they arrived at Qiu Shui Wharf, the ships here had already started to set off. Large ships were sailing on the water, carrying full of supplies, one after another. There were also many small boats on both sides, flying various flags. Xian'an had never seen so many merchants.

They boarded the ship again and headed for Yandu.

Water transportation is much faster than land transportation, and its transportation capacity is also stronger. If these things are to be transported by horse-drawn carriages, it will take a long time and require more carriages.

The three of them stood at the bow, looking at the countless ships in front of them. Wang Xi and Xian'an were speechless for a moment.

Xian'an suddenly asked, "Does this count as having an affair with the southerner?"

Cui Zhan nodded, "Okay, we will sell important strategic materials to those merchants, most of whom will be sold to the South Country."

Xian'an didn't expect the other party's answer to be so straightforward, and he didn't know how to respond.

Wang Xi finally stopped being silent. He said, "General Wei has no other choice. He can only survive the winter by killing the wealthy families. If we want to resettle many civilians, accept the dead, reclaim farmland, and mine, we need food, a lot of food. Sometimes, in order to accomplish great things, we have to do things we don't want to do. It was the same when we assisted Emperor Xiao Zhao."

"I really admire Mr. Yang."

Cui Zhan didn't say anything.

Xian'an was silent for a moment, then said with emotion: "When Yang Gong was still alive, I didn't think he was anything special. Only after he passed away did I realize how important he was."

"When he was governing the government, although the local areas were corrupt, the government was still able to function. On the surface, it was not as bad as it seemed. There were evil people, but there were also many good local officials, good shepherds, good county magistrates, and there were many talented people in the government."

"After he passed away, the scholars all curled up, as if they had completely given up."

He said helplessly: "The current government is the best proof. I have observed that there are still wise men in the government, but they are all members of the royal family. There are no longer as many important and good officials from other families as there were during the time of Lord Yang."

Cui Zhan's expression eased a lot. "In fact, when Emperor Xiao Zhao was still alive, the situation in Da Qi had also shown signs of improvement. They opened up settlements in various places to solve the food shortage, and promoted many people. It was mainly after the Emperor Retired ascended the throne that people were really at a loss."

"The Emperor has failed Emperor Xiao Zhao!"

Xian'an's face turned grim when he heard about the emperor. He said, "At the beginning, Emperor Xiao Zhao had many confidants around him and the support of foreign generals. He could have forced the prince to take the throne. But he didn't want to cause another bloodbath, so he let the emperor inherit the throne. But what did he do after he took the throne?"

"If I had known this would happen, I would have convinced Gao Guiyan to support the crown prince even if I died!"

When it comes to the issues of Gao Yan and Yang Yin, Cui Zhan and Wang Xixian'an become somewhat tense.

But when it comes to Gao Zhan, the three people's opinions begin to be surprisingly consistent.

"He favors a butt-selling villain. He employs everyone promoted by that villain. Even idiots like Gao Anagong can be promoted. On the contrary, he doesn't care about any truly talented people!!"

"Yes, the enemy general came to attack, and the first thing he thought of was how to use the enemy general to kill his own general!!"

"When he was in Jinyang, he saw the enemy in the distance and his thought was to run! Run??"

"Let alone Emperor Xiao Zhao, even if the Prince of Jinan was there, he wouldn't run away!!" "He abandoned the city and ran away, leaving his own generals to fight to the death while he took the opportunity to escape. Is this something a king can do?!"

The three of them immediately found a common topic and started criticizing the emperor, not caring at all whether such behavior was inappropriate or not.

After talking it out, the gap between them was reduced a lot, and the previous unpleasantness was put aside. Several people had a lot to talk about.

The three men disembarked from the boat.

Soldiers had already been guarding here, and some had started to move supplies. Cui Zhan was also responsible for recording, etc., so he could not accompany the two of them for the time being. He asked someone to take the two of them to rest in Yandu City for a while.

Wang Xi and Xian'an sat in the carriage, looking at the scenery on both sides.

On both sides of the flat official road, there are endless stretches of farmland.

The people working on the farmland were extremely busy, some were deep plowing, and some were weeding.

Looking at it this way, we can see that in the distance, there are densely packed farmers, young and old, male and female, and children running along the ridges of the fields.

Wang Xi walked for at least an hour. The farmland and farmers on both sides never stopped appearing. They were always there and almost became a fixed landscape.

Wang Xi's eyes and mouth grew bigger and bigger, and he looked into the distance in disbelief.

"Where do all these farmers in Youzhou come from?"

Places like Yecheng and Cheng'an, the capitals of the Qing Dynasty, were also considered to be populous towns. A city could easily have over 100,000 people, and a county could have over a million people, which was already very impressive. It was hard to say whether a state here could have a million people, but how could there be so many farmers? ?

The person in charge of taking them to Yandu was a young clerk who was very serious and had a strange accent.

He replied solemnly: "My lords, Youzhou has always had many people."

"There are many people in Youzhou?"

Wang Xi was stunned for a moment, then nodded. "In the border area, there are many people, but compared with the Central Plains, they are still a minority. So many farmers? Just now, there were nearly 10,000 people, right? How many people are there here?"

The clerk replied, "I am only responsible for running errands for Cui Gong and recording his affairs. I have no idea about the local situation."

Wang Xi said, "Are you from the Cui family?"

"No, I'm from Jinhe."

"Then how do you talk to Cui Zhan?"

"Your Excellency may not know that Mr. Cui is working in the General's Office. The clerks in the General's Office are directly dispatched, not conscripted by the General."

Wang Xi was very surprised, "What about your salary?"

"It was given by the General's Mansion."

Wang Xi looked at Xian'an who was standing aside. Xian'an was also shocked. "Where did you work before?"

"I was born in a humble family. My father was a slave and suffered from hunger and cold. The general conquered Jinhe and saved my grandfather and elder brother. One of my brothers joined the army, and I went to the academy. Later, I passed the examination and became an official in Beishuo County. After doing some work, I was recommended and entered the general's mansion. Now I work with Cui Shucheng."

Wang Xi did not ask any more questions, but just continued to look at the farmland on both sides.

Xian'an slowly said, "The dead and the hidden."

"There are many dead people all over the country, and those wealthy families have countless hidden people. General Wei should have settled them all down and distributed farmland to them, which led to this situation."

Wang Xi suddenly felt very sad.

"Da Qi's land is the most fertile, and its manpower is the most abundant."

At the beginning of its founding, Northern Qi far outnumbered the other two countries in terms of population, and its grain production was even more so. However, as time went on, Northern Qi's advantage became lower and lower. On the contrary, the population of the Pseudo-Zhou began to increase continuously, and the gap in national strength became smaller and smaller.

The population of the Great Qi Dynasty decreased, either because too many people died, or because they ran away or were hidden. As a result, the population of the Northern Qi Dynasty remained a secret for a long time and could not be found out at all. The government used the population data of the previous dynasty and used this data to collect taxes, which was absurd. It was not until the Pseudo-Zhou Dynasty conquered the Pseudo-Qi Dynasty and forcibly conducted a thorough investigation that the mystery was solved.

Xian'an didn't care about Wang Xi's sadness at the moment. He continued, "Also, although there are many people in the Central Plains, they don't have farmland themselves. There is no supervision for spring sowing. It all depends on individuals. Did you notice just now? Every hundred steps, you can see officials standing by, holding documents. If I'm not mistaken, these are the field officials in charge of agricultural affairs in the countryside. They have long been in name only in the Central Plains, but they can be truly employed here."

"The General's Office organized a large number of farmers to reclaim land with the help of government funds, and rationally utilized oxen, farmland, and grain seeds."

Xian'an looked at Wang Xi, "Shulang, do you feel that the North is a little different?"

Isn’t this nonsense? ?
Wang Xi was about to speak, but suddenly realized that the other party had something else in mind. He thought about it seriously and asked, "What do you mean?"

"The Central Plains is too lazy, the government does nothing, all it does is plunder, leaving farmland barren and civilians dead and injured. The government here is too active, even more active than during the reign of Emperor Wenxiang and the previous dynasty. The staff is too solid and too complete. It's a bit like ancient times."

Listening to Xian'an's words, Wang Xi looked outside suspiciously again.

This time, he finally knew where that sense of disobedience came from.

The square farmlands were planned in a very neat and orderly manner. Every few hundred steps, one could see a farm official standing there solemnly, dressed simply with a serious expression. The common people in the distance were also well-behaved, devoting themselves to their work. They were extremely busy. Except for the half-grown children, no one was idle. A group of young men gathered by the road, holding long sticks and walking back in a line, as if they had just finished an exercise.

Every mile along the official road, there would be a postman leading postmen to patrol the roadside.

He looked at the clerk sitting in front of him. The guy was dressed in black and sat upright with a serious and solemn look on his face.

Wang Xi reacted suddenly and looked at the other person dimly.

"You're just short of combing your tiara to one side."

The clerk obviously did not understand what the other party meant and did not answer.

Xian'an laughed at this moment, "Do you understand?"

Wang Xi nodded. "I wouldn't have reacted if you hadn't said it. That's true."

Wang Xi pointed at the young men holding sticks in the distance and asked, "Young men, those civilians are required to participate in the drills on time. The strong ones among them will be selected to serve as soldiers. The rest will protect themselves on weekdays. If a major war occurs, they will be selected to serve as civilians and follow in the battle, right?"

The clerk nodded heavily, "That's right."

"How did you know?"

"Oh, I've read some books and I know that the military households here have titles!"

“No title”

"Oh? If a soldier here makes great achievements, his family will receive various preferential treatments? The more people he kills, the more farmland he will be granted?"

"Yes."

"Your general has set a great ambition to capture Chang'an."

The carriage finally arrived at the gate of Yandu City.

Yandu is not in Yanzhou, but in Youzhou.

Youzhou is not even within the jurisdiction of General Wei's governorship, but it obeys the orders of General Wei's Mansion.

The officials at the city gate checked their whereabouts and verified them one by one before allowing them to enter the city.

After entering the city, they headed straight for the government office.

The one who came to greet them was the chief officer of Youzhou. His surname was Lu and his name was Lu Mingzhi. He was the son of Jingrong, the former governor of Youzhou.

Lu Mingzhi reported his name to Wang Xi and others, and then talked about the affairs of Youzhou.

The current governor of Youzhou is the newly appointed wise prince of the royal family, Prince Lanling, Gao Changgong.

He spontaneously wrote a letter to the emperor, requesting to be appointed as the governor of the northern border. The court then arranged for him to serve as the governor of Youzhou and manage border affairs.

As a member of the royal family, he could bypass the restrictions of seniority. After all, he had served as the governor of Sizhou in the past, so there was nothing wrong with him and he could take office directly.

But at this moment, King Lanling did not come to meet them.

When Wang Xi asked where the governor was.

Lu Mingzhi quickly replied: "The governor led his men to the north to build the Great Wall."

"Oh"

(End of this chapter)