The location of Xiaoguan in the Qin Dynasty was different from that of later generations. It was not in Chaona, but north of Huanyi, on the open platform on the east bank of the Huanjiang River. This military border town at the northernmost tip of the North was built to prevent barbarians from invading the invaders.
The city wall was built extremely thickly and looked like a solid earthen fence.
This is the north gate of Guanzhong. Entering the pass passes through Huanjiang, Nihe, and Jinghe to Xianyang. It leads to the north and throats Guanzhong, which is actually the danger to the north.
Last month, the newly appointed Northland County Lieutenant Heif made a special inspection here. Although the season of "sending warmth" has passed, it is still indispensable to kill sheep and give wine to the county soldiers to encourage them for their hard work in guarding the border for the country.
.
After the county lieutenant left, Xiaoguan became deserted again.
February passed by in a blink of an eye, and in the late lunar month of the twenty-eighth year of Qin Shihuang (the third month of the lunar calendar), the sound of whips was loud, the carriages and horses rumbled, and a huge team of carriages and horses came from the south. Each carriage was drawn by oxen.
The goods on it are packed full of bundles: there are bolts of silk cloth and brown sugar just shipped from Nanjun.
On each cart sat a skilled charioteer, and walking beside the cart were well-armed guards, mostly evil young men from the North, as well as a few Rong warrior riders who were clearing the way.
This was the caravan of the Wushi Luo family. U Thiyan personally led the caravan. However, unlike usual trips to the fortress, there was a commoner man in his car. He was eight feet tall, fair-skinned, dignified in appearance, elegant in conversation, and smiling.
It sounds very gentle.
Wu Shiyan said, this is the accountant arranged by the government to settle accounts, and everyone can call him Mr. Chen.
Mr. Chen is Chen Ping, and he has some calculations about his mission: "I heard that during the reign of King Yan Zhao, there was a wise general Qin Kai in the Yan State. He deliberately held the East Hu hostage as a hostage. The East Hu believed in it, so Qin Kai borrowed it.
He grasped Donghu's customs, customs and military geography. After returning to Yan State, King Yan Zhao took Qin Kai as his general and led an army to attack Donghu and defeated it. Donghu was more than a thousand miles away, and Yan State had the land of Liaodong..."
"Now that the emperor wants to have something to do in the northern border, the county captain is a senior official and should not be touched lightly. I will go out with the merchants to investigate the Xiongnu's true and false situation. I may not be able to achieve the same achievements as Qin Kai!"
Although Chen Ping cherished his life, he also felt that when he was young, he needed some adventures. Heifu was originally a small official. Didn't he make a name for himself by going to an enemy camp to fake a surrender?
With such a plan, Chen Ping also put aside the love between his children. He followed Dayu's example and never entered the house three times. He didn't even return home, and didn't care about his wife and children. After accompanying Heihu to inspect Xiaoguan, he went directly to the house.
When I arrived in Wushi County, I learned about the situation outside the Great Wall from Wushi Yan day and night, and even taught myself a northern dialect that could be mistaken for the real thing.
The group rested for a night at Xiaoguan. The next day, after the customs officer inspected the goods, they were allowed to leave the fortress.
Chen Ping and Heifu had only visited Xiaoguan once last month, but their footprints were limited to the inside of the pass. The world outside the pass was still blank to him. When he came to the northern border outside the Great Wall for the first time, he couldn't help but be a little curious and looked around.
He could clearly feel that after leaving the pass, the surrounding scenery had changed significantly. Farming and animal husbandry coexisted in the pass. From time to time, he could see some farmland, gurgling water flowing in the loess ravines, peach blossoms blooming on the mountains, and the sky was scorching. The road
The vegetation on the side is also growing extremely vigorously. The green leaves and long branches of willows stretch out to the road from time to time...
It's different outside the pass. There are no graceful willows on the roadside, large areas of exposed loess on the mountains, and the grass is sparse, not as lush as inside the pass.
Wu Shiyan explained the reason: "Within the Great Wall, it rains ten times a year. Outside the Great Wall, it rains three to five times a year."
The Great Wall of Qin was built right on this watershed, encircling the great pasture.
He added: "But this is not the case everywhere in Saibei. Where the river passes, there are also many pastures with rich water and grass, such as the Hetao and the Helan Mountain area. The same is true for Huamachi, which we must pass through when doing business!"
The yellow sand and wild grass are endless, with no mountains or huge chasms to block them. They have been walking on this wild plain for seven or eight days. The caravan was entangled in heat and thirst before they saw a person like U Thiyan said.
, a small lake with rich water and grass.
As soon as he saw the lake, an evil young man who was out of the fortress for the first time cheered and ran over to fetch water, intending to take a swig, but no one else would listen to him.
As a result, he took a cup of lake water and drank it into his mouth, then spat it out with a loud sound and cursed: "It's a shame to die, why is this water so salty and bitter!"
"This is Huamachi, also known as Salt Lake. How can it not be salty?"
The merchants laughed loudly, and Chen Ping also took a ladle to the water and took a spoonful to taste. It was indeed salty and astringent...
What they arrived at was just a small lake, and they walked for another day before reaching the real "Hua Ma Pond".
Chen Ping stood in the carriage and was surprised to find that a huge silver mirror suddenly appeared in front of him. It was tens of miles wide. Under the sunlight, the water surface was crystal clear and white. There were green grass and wild flowers around the pond, some of which were naked.
The upper-body Rong man was using tools to pry pieces of white solid matter by the dry lake...
Wu Shiyan introduced him: "There are more than 20 large and small lakes in this area, most of which are salt lakes. Salt can be produced all year round, especially the Huama Pond in front of us, which produces large salt grains, green color and mellow taste.
It lasts for a long time, so it is called 'green salt'."
Chen Ping wrote it down silently and asked: "Then why is it called Huamachi?"
"This is a local legend among the Yanyan Rong people."
Wu Shiyan said: "It is said that this large pool was originally fresh water. Hundreds of years ago, when Yan Yanrong had just migrated here, a flower horse fell from the sky and galloped into the pool. A year later, the water in the pool became bitter and salty, naturally forming salt.
, for thousands of years, it has been inexhaustible and inexhaustible. The Rong people called this large salt pond Huamachi, and the city built by the pond was called Huamachi City..."
After saying that, following the direction of his finger, Chen Ping saw a simple small town, which was Huamachi City.
Huamachi is the main source of salt in Beidi County, and the Wushi brothers attach great importance to it. Although this place is outside the Great Wall, they obtained the power to mine and sell it by bribing Jun Yan Yan. Even the city has a dedicated residence for Wushi merchants.
's house.
During the two days he stayed in Huamachi, Chen Ping witnessed the hospitality of the Rong people. The local rulers and chiefs relied on Wuzhi to transport goods from the Central Plains. There was an endless stream of visitors who came to visit, all with arms folded and bowing to Wuzhi.
Yan bowed deeply, and U Thi Yan also changed his modesty at home and accepted it calmly...
The next night, Jun Yanyan held a special banquet for Wu Shiyan, and Chen Ping pretended to be his entourage and sat beside him.
Jun Yanyan sat high on the table. He was in his forties or fifties, with gray hair, but his physique was still strong. His mustache was oiled and shined like real gold.
Wu Shiyan was proficient in the language of the Rong people outside the Great Wall. Chen Ping did not understand what he said to Jun Yanjun, so he used a knife to cut the delicious Yanchitan mutton in front of him while looking at the hall.
Rong customs are very different from those in the Central Plains. Although Huamachi City is called a city, the buildings in the city are not decent. This "palace" of Rongjun is only a deep wooden dining room. The walls made of rough wood are four feet high, and the roof is
A large curtain made of dozens of felt cloths can be hung up to block the sudden wind and rain, and when lowered it can welcome the endless sky.
The elders in the room, holding horn cups, passed the exquisite lacquer and pottery brought by Wu Shiyan from the mainland to each other, talked loudly, and raised their thumbs from time to time. These things were something they would never be able to make.
At this time, Wu Shiyan also ended the conversation with Jun Yanjun and whispered to Chen Ping: "Jun Yanyan asked me why I came so early this year."
"In previous years, when leaving the fortress, we would first go to Helan, then go to Huamachi City, and then go east to Shangjun, but this time it is different. We have to make a big circle!"
Wu Shiyan explained to Chen Ping the geography outside the Great Wall. The place they were in now was actually a circle around the river. The river came out of the Jishi Mountain in the Qiangzhong and traveled northeast. After traveling for two thousand miles, it turned a corner.
Turn east. This east-west river is called "North River" by the Qin people. The North River runs for more than a thousand miles until it reaches Shangjun, the junction of Yunzhong, then turns another corner and flows south...
This was also the trade route used by Wushi merchants. It basically covered the entire "Henan area" and passed through Aries, Loufan, Linhu and other tribes that had surrendered to the Xiongnu. If there was a chance, they might also go to Hetao and the Xiongnu tribes.
Take a look at Manchester City, the capital city.
At this time, Jun Yanyan was shouting Wu Shiyan's name again, asking him to get up and drink another glass of wine.
Just as the atmosphere of the banquet was getting more and more lively, and even Jun Yanjun came down in person, swaying his body and dancing with the maidens, the door of the hall was pushed open heavily!
Chen Ping looked around and saw several Yanyan soldiers running in with frightened expressions. Behind them, followed closely were a few Hu men wearing felt hats and carrying bows and arrows on their backs...
Their leader strode into the hall. He was a tall man with a felt hat on his head, tan skin, and slender eyebrows. His long, low-hanging beard was interlocked with metal silver rings, and his long black hair was shiny and tied into countless braids.
, a silver bell hangs between it.
Jun Yanyan was very angry when his banquet was disturbed, but when he saw this person, he deflated like a pufferfish full of energy. Regardless of his own face, he rushed to the barbarian.
Kneel down on your knees and kiss the toes of his boots...
The people in the room were also frightened and did not dare to speak loudly.
"Who is this?"
Chen Ping asked Wu Shiyan in a low voice.
"It's the Xiongnu's Danghu." Wu Shiyanyi replied in a low voice. Danghu is the official name of the Xiongnu.
"What's he doing in Huamachi?"
"I'm here to collect the 'salt tax'."
Looking at Jun Yanrong who was trying hard to beg for mercy from the Huns, Wu Shiyan said with some sympathy: "In the eyes of the Huns, Jun Yanrong is just their salt slave!"
Chen Ping once heard Wu Shiyan say that the Xiongnu originally lived in Yinshan and Hetao. As they gradually became stronger, they annexed some surrounding tribes, but did not destroy them. Instead, they used the entire tribe as their own slaves to serve these tribes.
Provide local specialties.
Xuyan produces salt, so he is a salt slave; Loufan is good at shooting, so he is a bow slave; Linhu has a lot of wood, so he is a wood slave; Henan Baiyang tribe is good at raising sheep, so he is a sheep slave...
For these enslaved tribes, the Xiongnu basically asked for anything and took away whatever they wanted. The four tribes also resisted, but compared to the Xiongnu who had 100,000 string-controlling people, they were too weak and were massacred several times.
, and became honest.
"That's it! It seems that the people who lead the bow are not monolithic."
Looking at the few people in the hall who were angry and dare not say anything when they saw their monarch kneeling and licking the powerful Huns, Chen Ping immediately had an idea in his mind...
However, the Xiongnu leader also noticed Wushi Rong in the room and Chen Ping, who was dressed as a Central Plains man next to him. He ignored Jun Yan and walked up to Wu Shiyan, laughing and saying a few words.
Wushi Yanwei agreed.
After saying this, the Xiongnu leader walked straight to Jun Yanyan's seat, picked up the horn cup and drank a glass of wine, then hugged the two military girls and walked away...
"What did he say again?"
Chen Ping was very concerned.
Wu Shiyan said with a wry smile: "Dadanghu said that he didn't expect to see merchants from the Central Plains here. The son of Touman Chanyu, the horse on the grassland, Prince Maodun of the Kuantang clan, will soon be at the foot of Helan Mountain.
, to marry a beautiful Yan family. The prince must prepare gifts for his Yan family, and silk from the Central Plains is essential."
"He invited... no, he ordered us to go with him to Helan Mountain tomorrow to meet Prince Modun!"