Chapter 75: In the past, I went, willow Yiyi; now I come to think, Yu Xue Fei Fei (Part 2)
The southwest is mountainous.
In autumn, the yellow and green mountains overlap and extend into the distance under the bright sunshine. Occasionally walking through the mountain road makes people feel relaxed and happy. Compared with the barren northwest, the southwest is bright and colorful, but the entire traffic
, even more underdeveloped than the barren mountains in the northwest.
Among the mountains and rivers, there are occasional villages in twos and threes. It seems that there are primitive dense forests, and the rugged paths are hidden in the weeds, earth and rocks. Only a few developed places have post stations. The horse teams responsible for transportation pass through these villages every year.
The rugged road passes through the mountains where ethnic minorities live, connecting trade between the Central Plains and the wastelands of the southwest. It is the original Tea Horse Road.
This is the hometown where the Southwest Yi people have lived for generations.
The so-called Southwest Yi people called themselves the "Ni" people, and they were pronounced Yi in ancient Chinese. Later generations changed their name to the Yi people because of the derogatory connotation of barbarians. Of course, at this time in the Wu Dynasty, for these people living in the southwest,
The people in the mountains are generally called Southwest Yi. They are tall, with tall noses and deep eyes, bronze complexions, and strong personalities. They are the descendants of the ancient Di and Qiang who migrated south. In each village, strict laws are still enforced at this time.
In the slavery system, fights often broke out between each other, and it was not uncommon for a large village to annex a small village.
During the two hundred years of the Wu Dynasty, trade routes were opened here, and trade with Dali continued to compete for the ownership of the Yi people in Liangshan. Two hundred years of mutual trade allowed some Han people and ethnic minorities to enter this area, and several places were opened for Han people to live or live here.
It is a small mixed town, and some felons are sent to these dangerous mountains.
When the year of Jinghan passed and the year of Jianshuo, several disputes broke out here, and a black flag quietly entered this place in the process. In the third and fourth years of Jianshuo, there were Bulay, Hedeng, and others in Liangshan one after another.
Three small counties in Jishan declared uprisings - all announced unilaterally by the county magistrates, and then the army gradually entered and suppressed the resistance.
Most of these soldiers who were withdrawn from the northwest were dusty, their clothing was shabby, and they were emaciated from the thousands of miles of forced march. At first, the nearby prefect organized a certain army to try to annihilate it, and then... there was no more.
.
More troops came one after another, and more problems naturally followed. Friction with the surrounding Ni people, several wars, difficulties in maintaining trade routes and construction...
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The wind suddenly blew up, and she woke up from her sleep. There was a faint light outside the window, and the outline of the leaves swayed slightly in the wind. It was already early morning.
The sound of cockcrow came from far away.
Someone was already walking around in the yard. She sat up, put on her clothes, took a deep breath, and collected her confused thoughts. She recalled last night's dream, which vaguely happened in the past few years.
Perhaps it was because the news coming from outside these days shocked the mountain and touched her a little.
This year, a woman named Su Tan'er was thirty-four years old. Due to the lack of resources, the outside world viewed women as being beautiful because of their wealth, but her figure was obviously thin, so she was probably not a beauty. In Hedeng County
In the past five years, Su Tan'er has given people a decisive and sharp impression. She has a face with oval seeds and candid eyes. She is accustomed to wearing black dresses. Even in strong winds and heavy rains, she can still carry her skirts on rugged mountain roads and in the mud.
Two years after running away, the war situation in the northwest came to an end, and the news of Ning Yi's death came. She became an out-and-out black widow. She seemed indifferent to everything around her, but was resolute and would never change the rules she had set. During this period
, even the most "orthodox" rebel officials around them did not dare to send troops to Liangshan. The two sides maintained secret confrontations, economic games and blockades, just like the Cold War.
She has maintained this image.
I got up and got dressed. People outside were getting louder. It seemed that they were already busy. It was the older children who were urged to get up for morning exercises. There were also voices saying hello. Juan'er, who had just returned not long ago, brought the basin.
Come in. Su Tan'er smiled: "You don't have to do this."
"It's just convenient." Juaner said.
The three personal maids at the beginning were trained to handle the business at hand, and later they became effective right-hand men. After Ning Yi took over the Secret Investigation Department, their involvement was too wide. Tan'er hopes that Xing'er and Juan'er can also
Although being accepted as a concubine by Ning Yi was a way for a wealthy family to win over people's hearts, Xing'er and Juan'er were not completely unsympathetic towards Ning Yi, but Ning Yi did not agree with it. Later, there were too many things going on, and the matter was delayed.
Come down.
During the three-year war in Xiaocanghe, Xing'er gradually fell in love with a Black Flag Army officer and finally came together. Juan'er remained silent. For the next two years, Ning Yi lived in seclusion. Because Wanyan Xiyin did not
After giving up the search for Ning Yi, Jin State spies and Black Flag counterintelligence personnel had several encounters within Liangshan. Tan'er and others could not easily go to meet Ning Yi. During this period, Ning Yi was accompanied by Ben'er.
It's Juan'er who takes care of daily life and handles various contact details. Although they don't talk too much about personal matters, they generally understand each other.
The family was originally just a merchant in Jiangning. After getting married, they just wanted to live a stable life. Unexpectedly, they were involved in a war. Looking back, it has been ten years. In the first half of these ten years, Su Tan'er
Watching Ning Yi work and worrying about him, Su Tan'er sat in charge of He Deng for the second half of the period, watching with trepidation as the three counties gradually stabilized and developed amidst the ups and downs. Occasionally, she would dream about it at midnight, and she would think about what it would have been like back then.
Before she rebelled or interfered with the affairs of the world, she might have been able to accompany her husband and live peacefully in the best years - she was also a woman, and she would also miss her own man.
I want to be able to hold his body and sleep at night...
But she never said it once.
Over the years, she has also seen people who died and suffered in the war. Faced with the fear of the war, they fled with their families and were in panic all day long... Those brave people bravely rushed forward in the face of the enemy and transformed into
Zuo's body lying in a pool of blood... And when she first came here, there was a lack of supplies. She only accompanied Hongti, Xigua and others to eat chaffy vegetables... By herself, she might be able to live in fear for the rest of her life. However,
For these things, we can only keep looking...
The autumn day is getting deeper, and the morning breeze brings a bit of coolness when I go out. Their family lives in the small courtyard. Hong Xi walked out of the door, probably not far outside the courtyard. Xiao Chan was helping to make breakfast in the kitchen. Yuan Baoer's classmate
She was probably still sleeping in, but her daughter, five-year-old Ning Ke, had already gotten up and was now enthusiastically going in and out of the kitchen, helping to pass firewood and get things. Yunzhu followed her to guard against her running around and falling.
Seeing Tan'er coming out of the room, Xiao Ningke said "Ah", then ran to find a basin, went to the water tank in the kitchen and started scooping water with difficulty, Yunzhu followed behind in distress: "What are you doing...
"
"Auntie, get up and wash your face."
A ladle of water poured into the basin with a splash. Yunzhu squatted beside him and looked back at Tan'er with some distress. Tan'er hurried over: "Xiao Ke is really sensible, but the aunt has already washed her face..."
"Ah? I've washed it..." Ning Ke stood there holding a ladle in both hands, blinking at her.
"Yeah, but I want a glass of warm water to brush my teeth."
"oh!"
The little girl nodded quickly, and then Yunzhu and others looked at her in panic when she touched the pot of boiling water next to her.
There are several children in the family with different personalities, but Jin'er is the most innocent, lovable and unique child. She is enthusiastic about everything and has been restless since she can remember. She will help people get water when they are thirsty.
When she saw someone was hungry and wanted to share half of her rice, and a bird fell from its nest, she would jump around anxiously under the tree. Even if the snail crawled forward, she couldn't help but want to help. Because
Jin'er was extremely worried about this matter and said that she would be a maid in the future. Everyone joked that maybe Jin'er was like this when she was a child, but Jin'er would probably deny it with a look of disgust after thinking about it for a while.
After being noisy like this for a while, I washed up and left the yard. The sky was already spitting out light, and the yellow ginkgo trees were swaying in the morning breeze. Not far away was Sister Hongti, who was watching a group of children doing morning exercises. The children were big and small.
Dozens of people ran along the lookout at the foot of the mountain in front of them. Their own Ning Xi, Ning Ji and others were also among them, while the younger Ning He was jumping around doing simple stretches.
In the quiet morning light, Hedeng County, which is located in the mountains, has woken up. There are layers of houses scattered on the hillside, among the trees, and by the streams. Due to the participation of soldiers, the scale of the morning exercises appears to be huge on the side of the foothills.
, from time to time, generous singing sounds came.
Among the three counties of Buley, Hedeng, and Jishan, Hedeng is the administrative center. Along the foothills, several core components of Black Flag—or Ning Yi’s forces—are gathered here, responsible for the strategic level.
The General Staff Department is responsible for coordinating the overall situation and evolved from Zhuji. The General Political Department is responsible for internal ideological issues. The General Intelligence Department is responsible for external intelligence, infiltration, and delivery of various messages. On the other side, there is the Commerce Department.
The Engineering Department, plus the Military Department, which is independent of Bligh, are currently the six most important departments that make up Black Flag.
Of course, the alliance of the three counties of Bulay, Deng, and Jishan is not the current overall appearance of the Black Banner Army. Outside of the three counties, the real place where the Black Banner garrisoned troops was the Dayang Department at the junction of Tubo and Dali.
, this tribe had an old relationship with Ba Dao Liu Dabiao in the early years. The place where they lived guarded an iron mine, and they maintained sporadic trade with the outside world for many years. In these years, the Dayang tribe had a sparse population and was often suppressed by other Tubo tribes.
The flag was lowered to the south, and a large number of veterans and elites were absorbed together. The elite soldiers who had undergone ideological transformation were hoarded here. On the one hand, they deterred Dali. On the other hand, they also had several encounters with the Tubo tribe and the remnants of Guo Yaoshi's resentful army who had taken refuge with the Tubo king.
friction.
The three counties of Bu, He and Ji are located. On the one hand, it is to separate the troops who surrendered after the Xiaocang River battle so that they will not have an impact on the Black Flag Army before they receive sufficient ideological transformation. On the other hand, along the river,
The built Jishan County was located at the trading hub between Dali and the Wu Dynasty. Buley stationed a large number of troops, trained, and ascended as the political center, and Jishan was the commercial hub.
Dali is a relatively docile and loyal country. It has always been close to the Wu Dynasty. It is extremely disgusted with regicide and rebellion like Black Flag. They are unwilling to do business with Black Flag. However, when Black Flag infiltrated Dali, the first people to attack were some of the nobles of Dali.
Classes, or various sectarian forces, copycats, and horse bandits, the resources used for trading are iron cannons, firearms and other items.
Merchants pursue profits and do whatever they can. In fact, the three counties of Dayang, Buheji are in the midst of a shortage of resources. These merchants taught by Ning Yi are crazy and sell everything. At this time, Dali's political power is weak and he is in power.
The Duan family was actually no match for the powerful relatives of the Gao family. Black Flag found the weak relatives of the Duan family or the scum of the Gao family and signed various paper contracts first. When trade began, the royal family discovered that
After being furious, the Black Flag envoy no longer paid attention to the imperial power.
"We only recognize the contract."
"Either come as promised, or die together."
Naturally, Dali would not accept the threat, but at this time Black Flag was also struggling on the edge of a knife. The elite Baizhan troops who had just withdrawn from the Xiaocanghe front line broke into Dali. At the same time, the operational troops that had infiltrated into Dali City launched an attack. They were caught off guard.
, captured seven descendants of the Duan family and the Gao family clan, and lobbying in all aspects has already begun.
The stakes of the business are still secondary. However, Black Flag resisted the Jurchens and just retreated from the north. They refused to recognize the contract. If Black Flag were to die, then both jade and stone would be destroyed.
This agreement was finally negotiated with difficulty. Black Flag released the hostages intact, withdrew the troops, paid compensation for every casualty in Dali, apologized, and at the same time, no longer pursued its own personnel losses. In exchange for this,
After arriving in Dali, he turned a blind eye to Jishan's border trade, and at the same time acquiesced to the rule of only recognizing the contract.
With the first gap, although the next step is still difficult, there is always a way out. Although Dali has no intention of provoking these madmen from the north, it can block the people in the country and in principle does not allow them to continue with the black flag.
There is a lot of business going on, but how can a country that can have foreign relatives control the government have strong binding force on the local area?
Although Dali and the Wu Dynasty have always had border trade over the past two hundred years, the initiative in these trades has always been firmly in the hands of the Wu Dynasty. Even Dali's request to the Wu Dynasty to request the title of "King of Dali" was rejected.
The Wu Dynasty rejected it several times. Under such circumstances, there are too many monks and too little food, and border trade cannot satisfy everyone's interests, but who doesn't want to live a good life? Under Black Flag's lobbying, many people were actually moved.
While communicating with Dali, infiltration into the Wu Dynasty was also going on all the time. The Wu Dynasty people might rather starve to death than do business with Black Flag, but in the face of the powerful enemy Jurchen, who would not have a sense of worry?
The fall of the Central Plains has caused some armies to gain benefits in a huge crisis. These armies are of mixed quality, so that the firearms produced by the Prince's Mansion can only be provided to the Beiwei Army, Han Shizhong and other direct troops. Under such circumstances, with women
The firearms of the Black Flag Army, which Zhenren had worked for three years in Xiaocang River, were the most attractive things to them.
Since then, under the principle of black flag blockade, a large number of smuggling horse teams have appeared, and they have turned a blind eye. These teams brought the things designated by Jishan as agreed, and exchanged them for several iron cannons and ammunition.
After trekking all the way back to the location of the army, the army in principle only buys iron cannons without asking where they came from. How could they not secretly protect their own interests in practice?
This two-way trade was extremely difficult at the beginning. Many Black Flag elites died in it, just like those who died in the Dali operation. Black Flag could not take revenge. Even Su Tan'er could only go to the soul of the deceased.
In front of him, Shi knelt down and worshiped. In the past five years, Jishan gradually established the reputation of "contract above all else". In the past two years, it really gained a firm foothold, radiated its influence, and became a big figure with Qin Shaoqian.
Yang, the core stronghold of Lan Huandong, where Chen Fan is stationed, is responding from a distance.
In the five years that Su Tan'er has been sitting in and ascending, she has experienced more than just business problems. Although Ning Yi has solved many macro-level problems remotely, the detailed planning is enough to exhaust a person's energy.
Getting along with each other, the operation of the new department, dealings with the local people, negotiations with the Ni people, and various construction plans. In the past five years, Tan'er has never stopped with many people around her, and it has been more than three years since she has seen them.
than her husband.
The news about Tian Hu in the North came back a few days ago, causing a stir in Blai, Hedeng, Jishan and other places. Since Ning Yi's "suspected" death, Black Flag has been silent for two years. Although the ideological construction in the army has been
In progress, there are always a lot of people who are muttering in their hearts or holding back a sigh of relief. This time, Black Flag's attack easily defeated Tian Hu. Everyone was proud of it, and some people understood that Mr. Ning
Whether the news of his death is true or false may be on the verge of being revealed...
Tan'er naturally knows more.
She stood on the mountain and looked down, with a smile on her lips. It was a small city full of vitality, with golden leaves on various trees and birds singing in the sky.
When they met, she was eighteen years old. She thought she was mature and old at heart, so she treated him with a polite attitude. She never thought that so many things would happen later.
During the five years when He Deng worked hard, she never complained about anything. She just sighed slightly when she thought about it.