White-robed Minister

Chapter 270, Chapter 0268: [Stone Drum Script]

Soldiers receive their rations and pay on the ten-day maintenance day at the end of each month.

The payday has not yet arrived.

Ouyang Bian, however, went to the capital first.

Ouyang Bian, a big fan of Xu Lai, is now not only married, but also has a two-and-a-half-year-old son.

Ouyang Bian did not bring his wife and children, but only two servants.

"How is Master Ouyang's health?" Xu Lai asked.

Ouyang Bian sighed, "During the rainy seasons of spring and autumn, my father suffers from severe pain all over his body. His legs and knees are thin and weak, making walking extremely difficult. He was very excited when he saw the oracle bone inscriptions, but unfortunately, he was too ill to go."

This is because the muscles in my calves have atrophied.

There may also be severe rheumatism, which causes unbearable pain whenever it's rainy or cloudy.

It seems like his days are numbered.

Cai Kang, who previously supported Xu Lai's development of the Hehuang region, has also been in poor health since his retirement. He fell ill this winter and has been bedridden for nearly a month.

Ouyang Bian instructed his attendant to open the wooden box: "This contains a thousand volumes of inscriptions on metal and stone, collected by my father."

Xu Lai initially thought it was a copy, so he picked up a few and flipped through them. He exclaimed in astonishment, "The original rubbing?"

Ouyang Bian nodded: "My father said he no longer has the energy. Since Brother Xingzhi can decipher oracle bone script, he is the most suitable owner of these rubbings of inscriptions on metal and stone."

Ouyang Xiu used all his money to buy books, and by the time he retired, he had a collection of tens of thousands of volumes.

Of these more than a thousand rubbings of inscriptions on metal and stone, only a few were purchased; most were made by himself.

Ouyang Xiu had a friend named Liu Chang, who collected many bronze and stone artifacts. Ouyang Xiu acquired quite a few from Liu Chang's collection.

These original rubbings are extremely valuable.

Xu Lai did not refuse directly, but said, "Return it to its rightful owner in three years."

Ouyang Bian understood Xu Lai's meaning; he intended to study the text before returning it. He rummaged through the box and pulled out a paper bag, opening it and saying, "Rubbings of the Stone Drum Inscriptions. 465 characters are identifiable by stroke; my father only recognizes half of them. My father said that since Brother Xingzhi can decipher oracle bone script, he can naturally recognize these Stone Drum Inscriptions as well."

Xu Lai examined the rubbing carefully and found that many characters were extremely unclear: "Was this rubbing made in the last few decades?"

Ouyang Bian nodded and said, "More than ten years ago, my father asked a friend to bring this from Fengxiang."

Those stone drums are now housed in the Confucius Temple in Fengxiang Prefecture, and were not transported to the Imperial Academy in the capital until the reign of Emperor Huizong of Song. Then they were looted by the Jin army.

A few years ago, when Su Shi was an official in Fengxiang Prefecture, he made a special trip to visit the Stone Drums and wrote a poem saying that he only recognized one or two tenths of them.

When Xu Lai was a graduate student, he bought a book called "Annotations on the Stone Drum Inscriptions" (written by Mr. Wu Yueshi in 2025). It contained the latest research results on the Stone Drum Inscriptions, with scholars from all over the world having deciphered a total of 706 characters.

Many of the inscriptions on the Stone Drums were reconstructed from Song Dynasty rubbings using double-line tracing.

Very few characters in Ouyang Xiu's rubbing can be restored using the double-line method. This is because he made the rubbing too late, and the Stone Drums have been severely weathered. At least an early Song Dynasty rubbing would be needed.

Rubbings from the Tang Dynasty and early Song Dynasty may have been collected by private individuals at that time, but it is impossible to know exactly who was collecting them. Perhaps their ancestors collected them and kept them in a library, without their descendants knowing.

"How many can you recognize, Brother Xingzhi?" Ouyang Bian asked.

Xu Lai said, "Come with me to the study."

Ouyang Bian immediately instructed two servants to move the wooden box into Xu Lai's study.

Seeing Xu Lai sit down, Ouyang Bian quickly poured water and personally ground ink for Xu Lai.

Current research on the Stone Drum Inscriptions is still in its very early stages. They are generally considered to be artifacts from the Western Zhou Dynasty, and no numbers have been assigned to the stone drums.

While Ouyang Bian was grinding ink, Xu Lai was examining one of the rubbings.

Xu Lai took out a stack of oiled paper from the bookshelf. After Ouyang Bian finished grinding the ink, he laid it on the rubbing and carefully traced the characters with both outlines. Then he slowly filled in the outlines to restore the complete characters.

If you really can't figure it out, you can only leave it blank for now.

To Ouyang Bian's astonishment, Xu Lai translated each of the Stone Drum characters into regular script that everyone could recognize.

That's how it's done?

Ouyang Bian was very familiar with these rubbings. Take this rubbing in front of him, for example; his father, Ouyang Xiu, only recognized 23 characters. Xu Lai, however, directly wrote out 49 regular script characters, deciphering all the ones he could identify or restore.

After finishing the four rubbings, a maid's voice came from outside the study: "Husband, Young Master Ouyang, it's time for dinner."

Xu Lai pressed the paperweight down and invited Ouyang Bian to dinner.

Ouyang Bian looked at it carefully a few more times before following Xu Lai to the dining hall.

Since they were old friends from their youth, Xu Lai invited his wife, concubines, son, and niece to dine with Ouyang Bian.

I heard that Ouyang Bian has married and had children, so Pianpian invited his wife and children to come over as guests.

In the afternoon, Xu Lai continued to decipher the Stone Drum Inscriptions.

Of the rubbings by Ouyang Xiu, only 465 characters are legible, and Ouyang Xiu recognized half of them.

Xu Lai deciphered 471 characters in one go!

The extra six characters, with slightly blurred strokes visible on the rubbing, were reconstructed by Xu Lai using his memories from before his time travel.

There are still two or three hundred characters left; we can only wait for a clearer and more complete rubbing to appear.

After deciphering the code, Xu Lai assigned numbers to the rubbings.

There are ten stone drums in total, all of which contain poems in the style of the Book of Songs.

The first poem goes something like this: My hunting chariot is awesome, my horse is awesome. High-ranking officials set out on a hunt, a grand procession, banners fluttering. The buck, and so on. The doe, and so on. The wild boar, and so on. Bow drawn, arrow nocked, and hit the target with a single shot.

All ten poems record hunting activities and can be read together.

After Xu Lai finished numbering the inscriptions, he thought carefully and then wrote a letter to Ouyang Xiu. In the letter, he corrected Ouyang Xiu's view: "The Stone Drum Inscriptions are the script of the Qin state during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods. They are not ancient scripts of the Western Zhou Dynasty. This can be corroborated by comparing them with the inscriptions on Qin bronze vessels."

This overturns all previous characterizations of the Stone Drum Inscriptions since the Tang Dynasty.

The prevailing view is that the Stone Drums originated in the Western Zhou Dynasty. During the Warring States period, various states possessed Stone Drums, primarily used to praise the Zhou emperor and rulers. Qin Shi Huang's burning of books and burying of scholars destroyed all the Stone Drums, leaving only ten unearthed later.

Both Han Yu and Ouyang Xiu believed that the poems on these ten stone drums were in praise of the Zhou emperor (King Xuan of Zhou).

Xu Lai now claims that those poems are praising a certain ruler of the Qin state.

The next day, Xu Lai went to the editorial office of "Duosheng" with Ouyang Bian. He asked Wang Hou and others to make four copies of the deciphered Stone Drum Inscriptions.

One copy was sent to Ouyang Xiu. One copy was given to Ouyang Bian. One copy was kept by Xu Lai himself. One copy was taken for typesetting and printing.

The sixth issue of "Duosheng" will publish the first and second poems of the Stone Drum Inscriptions, and the corresponding rubbings will be engraved and printed.

After dealing with these matters, Xu Lai summoned Xie Liangzhuo's elder brother, Xie Liangbi.

After testing his knowledge, Xu Lai formally extended an invitation: "Would you be willing to become my trusted aide?"

Xie Liangbi was overjoyed: "That is indeed my wish, I dare not ask!"

Xu Lai instructed, "When you arrive at the Privy Council, first familiarize yourself with its affairs and officials. After you are familiar with these, then familiarize yourself with the national military system."

"Yes, sir," Xie Liangbi said with a deep bow.

The letter written to Ouyang Xiu was sent with the help of Ouyang Bian.

He also wrote a letter to his father, detailing how quickly and skillfully Xu Lai deciphered the Stone Drum Inscriptions: "Xu Xingzhi is a genius, not only proficient in poetry, prose, military affairs, and politics, but also a scholar of epigraphy."

In terms of ancient writing alone, Xu Lai's knowledge truly deserves the title of "a scholar of both heaven and man".

After the next issue of "Duo Sheng" is published, the content about the Stone Drum Inscriptions will definitely cause a sensation among scholars.

Xu Lai went to work as usual, now with an additional trusted aide, Xie Liangbi.

Cai Ting finally returned to Beijing.

The Privy Council now has all four leaders, whose official positions are in the following order: Wen Yanbo, Cai Ting, Wu Chong, and Xu Lai.

Wen Yanbo was not only the head of the Privy Council, but he also had the most confidants in his subordinate departments. In institutions such as the Tongjinsi and Jinzouyuan, the officials were mostly under Wen Yanbo's control.

Wu Chong ranked third, but he also had quite a few close confidants.

Next was Cai Ting, who joined the Privy Council relatively late and had been transferred to Hedong for almost a year.

Xu Lai was only close to Wang Cun; he had no other confidants.

"Was something held you up?" Xu Lai asked Cai Ting.

Cai Ting reminded him, "Battle report."

Xu Lai immediately smiled.

He was working in the Privy Council, so of course he received the battle reports from the front.

However, Cai Ting trained troops in Hedong and developed a set of tactics that combined cold and hot weapons. After making peace with the Liao Dynasty, this tactic could only be used against the Western Xia.

Unfortunately, the emperor transferred Lü Gongbi to manage Hedong, which made it highly likely that the emperor would no longer actively fight against the Western Xia.

After receiving the transfer order, Cai Ting did not immediately return to the capital. Instead, he mobilized troops to attack the Western Xia fortress. He wanted to take advantage of the momentum from the war against Liao and make good use of his troops to fight a few battles before he left.

The Song army in Hedong not only captured two Western Xia fortresses, but also continued to build fortresses further ahead.

The Shengluo Village (Tongqin Village), which Cai Ting ordered to be built, was practically right in front of the Western Xia's Divine Valiant Army. The straight-line distance was less than a hundred li.

Xu Lai then asked, "What is the actual situation in Hedong?"

Cai Ting explained in detail: "I have used up most of the money and grain, and it will be difficult to send troops out again in a short time. The people's strength is quite exhausted. However, after I reorganized the army in Hedong, I won a series of victories against the Liao and Western Xia. Now, all the military generals are eager to fight. Even some civil officials are thinking about fighting and making meritorious contributions."

Cai Ting specifically mentioned the phrase "the people's strength is quite insufficient," indicating that the continuous fighting in Hedong had led to the excessive conscription of laborers, which had already had a significant impact.

It disrupted agricultural production!

However, the civil and military officials in Hedong were inspired by the victory to have a renewed desire for war.

Lu Gongbi, a man who didn't want to fight, was perfectly suited to be sent to manage Hedong. The only question was whether he could suppress the generals' desire for war.

Cai Ting continued, "Not only in Hedong, but also the border generals in Shaanxi are eager for war. They don't care whether they have enough money and food; they only know that they are very capable of fighting now, while the Western Xia is short of soldiers and food and is unable to fight."

"What about those tribes on the Western Xia border?" Xu Lai asked again.

Cai Ting said, "He's indecisive and wavering."

The Song Dynasty is now clearly in a superior position. Western Xia is not only weakened, but it has also intensified its exploitation of its border tribes. Logically, those border tribes of Western Xia should be flocking to the Song Dynasty.

However, the Song Dynasty had made too many foolish mistakes and acted in absurd ways, causing many tributary tribes to hesitate.

"We could secretly send people to contact those tribes," Xu Lai suggested.

Cai Ting said, "The powerful tribes mainly live in the mountains, and we have already occupied most of them. Outside the continuous mountain ranges, the majority are Tanguts, and it is difficult to win them over. But we can indeed make contact with them secretly. The weaker Tangut tribes are currently living in dire straits."

Xu Lai then inquired about the implementation of the Green Sprouts Law and the Baojia Law in Hedong.

Cai Ting's answer surprised Xu Lai somewhat.

These new laws were surprisingly well implemented in the east of the river, and were especially popular among the border state troops.

"What about the sitting position method?" Xu Lai asked.

Cai Ting said, "The 'sitting in the granary' system was first implemented in Hedong last year, and the soldiers in the border areas benefited from it, so they are not too opposed to it at present."

As mentioned before, all of Wang Anshi's new laws were adopted and widely promoted by Wang Anshi only after officials had achieved success with them.

We shouldn't dismiss the new law as entirely worthless.

The same applies to the sitting position method.

If this policy can be strictly enforced in certain units, even if the soldiers' rations are bought back at a low price, the soldiers would be willing to accept it even if it's like they're being charged a handling fee.

Especially for troops that are frequently engaged in combat, the convenience that the sitting method brings to soldiers far outweighs their losses!

The real problem with the "sitting and holding" method is its widespread adoption without regard to practical realities.

Wang Anshi often listened to the opinions of frontline generals, which led to some very absurd and erroneous judgments.

He believed that the "sitting-in-the-warehouse" method, which was extremely effective on the front lines, could be implemented in Kaifeng without any problems. Even if there were issues, they would only be temporary and could be resolved by strengthening supervision.

Since that's the case, Xu Lai can help supervise him and see what kind of result he can get.

The day for distributing rations and pay is fast approaching.