In front of the gate of the Junwei Mansion, Heifu got off Yin Tong's car and said goodbye to him. Gong Ao quickly came over with a cloth umbrella to cover him from the falling snowflakes in the sky.
Heifu and his staff entered the mansion, but did not go to see his wife immediately. Instead, he asked Chen Ping, who was staying in Yiqu City, to come over and asked him in detail about the establishment of a county in Yuzhang. Gong Ao also pricked up his ears.
Chen Ping knew that Hei Fu had always been concerned about his old ministry in Yuzhang, and he had inquired about it these days, so he reported to him: "This matter was proposed by the Prime Minister, the imperial censor, and Tingwei, to Nanjun, Jiujiang, and Kuaiji."
The three counties are so vast that it is difficult to control them all in one county. It would be better to add new counties to control them..."
Chen Ping said that the most active promoter of this matter was the prefect of Jiujiang County. The Qin Dynasty stipulated that the prefect must visit the county every year to encourage farmers, and within three years, he must inspect every county under his rule.
This is a hardship for the Jiujiang County Sheriff. His jurisdiction, Shouchun County, is on the Huaihe River, but the southernmost Shanggan County is north of Wuling. It takes three or four months to go back and forth, and he almost contracted the disease in the south of the Yangtze River.
He died of illness on the road. After returning to Shouchun, the county governor learned from the pain and reported his true experience to Qin Shihuang, saying that Jiujiang County must be divided into two parts, otherwise he would not be able to control it at all!
Therefore, this year's branch counties were created. In addition to Yuzhang County being separated from Jiujiang County, with Nanchang City as its seat and governing seven counties, Hengshan County was also separated from Nan County, and Zhang County was separated from Kuaiji County.
"Where is the seat of Hengshan County and how many counties does it govern?"
Heifu has no interests in Zhangjun and Kuaiji. He is very familiar with Yuzhang County and has already expected to establish a separate county. So his only concern is that his hometown Anlu is not excluded from Nanjun, right?
"The seat of Hengshan County is Zhu County."
Chen Pingdao: "The area under its jurisdiction is the Hubei and other places that the county captain and General Li You captured a few years ago. Anlu still belongs to Nanjun."
Heifu now knew that Zhu County was the place where he had witnessed the battle between Qin and Chu boat divisions on the Yangtze River, and Hubei was the Wuhan of later generations. This area was first managed by Nanjun, and now it was re-established as a county.
It’s funny to think about it. When Qin unified China, the reason why thirty-six counties were established was not because of anything else, but because Qin Shihuang, instigated by the Yin and Yang family of Yan Qi, wanted to make up the "six-six number" of good fortune. After all,
He has already stipulated: "The number is based on six, the talisman and the dharma crown are all six inches, and the carriage is six feet, the steps are six feet, and the horse is six horses..." It would not be surprising to add thirty-six counties.
This kind of number of counties is of course inconvenient to manage in some places, so today's divided counties are created.
Heifu maliciously speculated: "Your Majesty probably saw that the expansion of the territory was imminent, and he couldn't get all the thirty-six counties together, so he simply separated a few counties, and once he conquered Shuofang, Hexi, and even Baiyue in the south of Lingnan.
Later, we will gather together forty-two counties and forty-eight counties will come out?"
Anyway, for the superstitious obsessive-compulsive disorder of Qin Shihuang, the final number of counties in Qin must be a multiple of six.
He no longer cared about this matter, but asked Chen Ping to find out the origins and origins of the county chiefs of Hengshan and Yuzhang, so that they might have to deal with them in the future.
In this way, the reason why Yin Tong suddenly became close to Heifu was found. Most of the county captains in Yuzhang were Heifu's old subordinates. In Yin Tong's view, he had become closer to Heifu, and when he got to the place, he was able to govern.
The resistance can also be smaller.
"Of course Yin Tong has to please the county captain!"
When Gong Ao heard that Yin Tong was going to Yuzhang to become an official, he said straightforwardly: "Which county in Yuzhang does not have a township party subordinate to a county captain? To put it bluntly, the newly established Yuzhang County is just like a county captain.
Just like the backyard of your home! How can you go to the backyard of your master’s house without saying hello first?”
As soon as he said this, Chen Ping immediately glanced at Hei Fu.
But Hei Fu frowned and looked at the servants around him. They were all members of his family. He waved them away and left only Chen Ping and Gong Ao. He lowered his voice and scolded Gong Ao under the porch:
"What nonsense! Don't mention anything like this again!"
After saying this, he left behind the confused Gong Ao and went straight to the inner courtyard to see his wife.
Gong Ao knew he had made a mistake, but when he saw Chen Ping smiling but not smiling, he thought he was gloating about his misfortune, so he became angry and was about to wave his sleeves away, but Chen Ping held him back and whispered:
"Brother Gong's words, Ping Shen takes it for granted. Yuzhang is indeed the backyard of the county captain!"
…
Gong Ao looked at Chen Ping strangely. As the heads of Heifu's civil and military staff, the two had never been on good terms. This was the first time that Chen Ping recognized Gong Ao. Is the sun rising in the west today?
But Chen Ping was a smart man, so he stopped talking about it and didn't talk about it any further. However, he was already thinking about it in his heart...
"I am a poor martial artist from Benyang. Fortunately, I was appreciated by the county captain and allowed me to be his guest. Only in this way can I have the opportunity to show off my talents and knowledge. It is a kindness to me as a confidant."
He silently walked into the house separated by a wall and watched his wife, dressed thickly, holding her son in the warm kang room, humming Wei's ballads. Chen Ping showed a smile and went to the study without disturbing her.
"The county captain gave me two hundred stones of rice, meat for food, and a carriage for transportation. My wife eats Jiarou and lives in Guangsha, with ice in summer and a kang in winter. It is not unreasonable."
"Therefore, those who are people's personal ministers must not fail to seek for the master!"
As a Wei person, Chen Ping had a habit of keeping guests in the Wei area. He had Lord Xinling far away and Zhang Er nearby. Therefore, the people of Wei relatively recognized the relationship between the ruler and his disciples, and the idea of loyalty to the emperor and patriotism was rare.
He is now Shi, Heifu's chief of staff, rather than an official Qin official, so Chen Ping knows who he is working for.
"Feng Xuan once said to Lord Mengchang that a cunning rabbit has three burrows before he can sleep soundly. How many burrows does the county captain have now?"
Although Heifu asked all the clerks to learn how to use abacus, Chen Ping still kept some abacus at home, and now he placed them one by one on the table.
"Jane is in the emperor's heart, and this is the cave."
"Being married to the Ye family, all counties in Nanjun have former officials of Shi Teng's disciples, and these are the two caves."
"Three thousand members of the township party are now divided into seven counties in Yuzhang. They are either captains, prime ministers, or minor officials. They are intertwined and have the same voice and spirit. These are the three caves!"
With these three caves, we can ensure that Heifu can get along well in the court and everywhere. With these guarantees, Heifu's sugar cane and brown sugar industries can make millions a year, but no one dares to covet them.
They are the followers of the left and right aides.
Therefore, Chen Ping felt that it was a good thing for Yin Tong to go to Yuzhang to become a county captain. This person was not very good at military affairs, so he could be a county guard. As a county captain, he would have to rely heavily on the history and county captains.
During his term of office, it is enough to ensure the smooth preservation of Heifu's "cave".
"This step by step, is it unintentional or intentional?"
Seeing that Heifu's three caves were complete, Chen Ping was a little surprised. As a staff member, he could only do the work of checking and filling in the gaps. He couldn't even learn from Feng Chen and open a new cave for the master?
After a long time, Chen Ping put down his fourth calculation chip on the table and smiled.
"Who said a cunning rabbit can only have three burrows?"
"The emperor wants to open the frontier fortress, and it is the time when the husband uses force. Beidi County might as well be used as the fourth cave of the county captain!"
…
Heifu didn't know what Xiao Jiujiu Chen Ping was doing. When he walked into the warm room, he found Ye Zijin doing something he had seen countless times in his previous life:
Knit a sweater!
Ye Zijin was naturally delighted to learn that her husband had returned, but at eight months pregnant, she was already very inconvenient, so she was unable to greet him at the door.
After waiting for a while, when she saw that he didn't come back, she couldn't keep her hands free. She couldn't sit in front of the machine, so she picked up a ball of wool on the table and two slender copper needles, and sat under the window to knit.
stand up.
There is falling white snow outside, and the warm candlelight shines on her shoulders. The comfortable and quiet beauty of motherhood cannot be described in words...
Hei Fu looked at it for a long time, then coughed slightly and walked in. The husband and wife's farewell was far better than the wedding. After some tenderness, Hei Fu pointed at the sweater and asked, "Why did you suddenly knit this thing?"
However, Mrs. Ye talked about a seemingly unrelated matter: "When did my husband meet my concubine for the first time?"
This is a farewell proposition, and Heifu will certainly not forget it: "On the Shangsi Festival of the 23rd year, the Liushui Pavilion by the riverside."
"wrong."
There was a hint of cunning in Ye Zijin's eyes: "Before this, my husband met my concubine once!"
Heifu thought for a while and then remembered that before the two officially met, he and the doctor Chen Wujiu went to look for bandage materials. In the weaving room of Jiangling City, they happened to meet a group of wives and daughters of county officials who came to "persuade silkworms".
Jin is also among them.
If I remember correctly, at that time she was wearing a dark blue dress that was in line with the March color etiquette. She had thin shoulders and looked frail. Her hair was hanging down her shoulders because she had not yet grown hair. She was struggling to hold a bamboo plaque filled with mulberry leaves.
Follow your stepmother into the silkworm room.
Who could have imagined that that girl would later become his wife and now she would soon be a mother?
Ye Zijin said: "According to the custom, everyone from the queen and concubines to the wives and daughters of the county guards have to go to the local silkworm room to personally pick mulberry, raise silkworms, and weave silk. This is the gift of encouraging silkworms."
In the Qin Dynasty, in order to show that they attached great importance to farming, the emperor, prefects and magistrates would go to the fields and touch the plow handles in person, which was called "persuading farmers". Their female relatives could not be idle either, raising silkworms in March.
At the critical moment, you should also come out and do these "women's skills" yourself to show your attitude of encouraging sericulture.
"But in the bitter cold of the north, there are very few silkworms and not even much hemp. Therefore, the ritual of persuading silkworms is just a party game for noble ladies and has little effect on persuading the local people."
Heifu understood: "So you want to change this rule?"
Ye nodded: "Of course, the year before last, when we were debating whether to promote sweaters in the court, didn't Tingwei say something like this? Make laws according to the times, and make rituals according to the circumstances. Laws and regulations should be made according to their own needs. Clothes and equipment should be made according to their own needs.
It is used, so it should be made according to the customs. In Beidi County, the sericulture can be retained. Just replace the sericulture with wool, and the effect will be the same!"
"Didn't my dear friend say that in the future Beidi County will raise more Qiang sheep, cut more wool, spin and weave cloth, and make it available to the world? It is not enough for the government and weaving studios to do this, the people also need to persuade
, this matter should start from the officials and women."
Even at home, these women who had no worries about food and clothing were encouraged to learn to weave and sew clothes. These were all part of the "women's work". The clothes and silk fabrics woven would be sent to the local top wives to compete with each other.
"The county governor's wife is old, so she entrusted this matter to me. I will take advantage of this winter to learn. When the next summer comes, I can take the county officials' wives and daughters to the newly built weaving room to spin woolen cloth..."
She took Hei Fu's hand, put it on her belly, and said with a smile: "You can also knit a warm piece of clothing for our child to keep out the cold."
They were also knitting sweaters, but Ye Jin used cashmere that was ten times more valuable than ordinary wool. The knitted clothes were delicate, soft, small and cute, and were not comparable to those fat and bulky sweaters worn by soldiers.
"Madam, you are really thoughtful. If you can do this, wool spinning will definitely flourish in Beidi County!"
Hei Fu sighed, although she was reluctant to leave him when he left, and even wrote a poem about her love for her, but she did not shed tears all the time, but played the role of the wife of the county lieutenant. This was her choice.
A woman...
But thinking about the scene in the not-too-distant future, in the streets and alleys of Yiqu City, where a group of women chatted and knitted sweaters by the well after dinner, Heifu couldn't help but laugh.
"Why does your beloved laugh?"
Heifu quickly changed the subject: "I remembered that when we were outside the Great Wall, the first batch of sweaters knitted by Wu Shiyan this year were sent to the military camp along with the food, and they were distributed to the lieutenants of the army to keep out the cold. Afterwards, I told Wu Shiyan that it could be
Give the sweaters from Beidi County a special name, such as Lu Zhijin and Shu Zhijin, to distinguish them from the sweaters produced in Longxi, Shangjun, and Daibei..."
All places have used local customary names to refer to silk fabrics from different origins, which is a bit like the brands of later generations, although people in this era did not have brand awareness.
"Wu Shiyan was deeply impressed by what he said, so he asked me to give him his name."
"What name did my beloved give Wushi's sweater?" Ye Zijin asked.
"I wrote it to him right then and there."
Heifu suppressed his laughter, leaned close to his wife's ear, and said those three words one by one:
