Chapter five hundred and ninety-eight in the palace (1)
The Monthly Order in the Book of Rites says: Heavy snow falls on the eleventh day of the lunar month. The heavier the snow is, the more abundant the snow will be.
Qingyang sat in front of the wooden lattice window, looking at the fine snow falling in the courtyard of Changxin Palace. For most of the day, there was no trace of snow falling out. He sighed tiredly and silently wrote a poem on rice paper: "I am surprised."
The quilt pillow is cold, the window is bright again, the snow is heavy in the night, and I hear the sound of folding bamboo..." I crumpled the rice paper into a ball again, thinking to myself that the fine and broken snow looked nothing like this, it really didn't fit the scene of this poem.
"What are you thinking, empress?" A beautiful lady came in and saw Qingyang sitting in front of the window, with a frown on her flawless face, so she came over and asked.
"I was thinking that at this time of year, every household in Shu capital is curing bacon, right?" Qingyang raised his arm as white as snow, held his pink and soft chin, looked back at the palace, and said.
"There is also a saying in Jinling City of 'pickling vegetables in light snow and pickling meat in heavy snow'. Before the slave family entered the palace, when this solar term came, every household in the neighborhood was busy pickling salty goods, adding large amounts of salt with star anise and cinnamon.
Stir-fry the peppercorns, caramel sugar, etc. in a pot until they are cool. Apply them to the inside and outside of the fish, meat or chickens and rub them repeatedly until the color of the meat turns from fresh to dark. Put them in a vat, press them with stones, take them out after half a month, and cook them.
After being braised and pickled for another ten days, it can be hung under a sunny eaves to dry, waiting for the arrival of the new year..."
The concubine was looking forward to recalling her life before entering the palace. Suddenly, she didn't want to say this in front of the imperial concubine who was far away from her homeland, so she changed the subject and asked,
"In the past two days, there have been tangerines and snow oranges brought to the palace as tribute, and by the way, there are also red cane from Xuzhou. Is the slave going to get some for the queen?"
"Are red canes also grown in Xuzhou?" Qingyang asked doubtfully.
She had been studying since she was a child, and was familiar with the customs of various places. She knew that sugar cane was grown in southern Zhejiang, Lingnan, and Nanzhao. During the previous dynasty, sugar cane was used to extract sugar on a large scale in these places. However, she had never heard of Xu.
There were sugarcane cultivation in the state, and tribute came to the palace.
Since he had nothing to do, Qingyang asked the female palace to bring some of the orange, red, and red sugarcane tribute from Jiangzhou County, and sent someone to Chongfu Temple to invite Yun Puzi into the palace to play chess with her.
Yun Puzi was white-haired, but very energetic. He came into the palace to say hello, and then he sat down in the warm pavilion at the east end of the main hall and laid out the chessboard.
Looking at the white porcelain fruit plate with seasonal oranges, oranges, sugar cane and other fruits, Yun Puzi smiled and said: "During the heavy snow season, it is better to take supplements to nourish the body. As the saying goes, 'If you supplement with heavy snow, you can kill tigers in the coming year'..."
"Why do I want to kill a tiger?" Qingyang smiled and asked Yun Puzi to eat as he pleased.
"Red cane is a good thing. Your Majesty gave some to Guanli as a tribute from Xuzhou, but unfortunately the old Taoist's teeth shook and he couldn't chew it." Yun Puzi looked at the fruit plate where the waitress had torn open the bast.
, cut the sugar cane into thin branches and said with emotion.
"I didn't know that sugar cane was grown in Xuzhou before?" Qingyang asked curiously.
"Xuzhou did not grow these things in the past, and there were very few of them. However, in recent years, Marquis Qianyang promoted sugarcane and cotton cultivation in Xuzhou, and traveled with merchant ships to the capital. However, Xuzhou red sugarcane also became famous in Jinling City, not as good as
The cloth in Qianyang is a bit weaker." Yun Puzi told Qingyang about the customs outside the palace confinement.
Qingyang looked longingly at the sky outside the wall of Gaogaoyuan. No matter how noble her status was, she was still a caged bird who was not allowed to roam the long streets, and her life was boring.
"Mother Concubine," a young child stumbled under the careful escort of several eunuchs and maidens.
Walking in, he called out in a sweet voice, and saluted Yun Puzi seriously, "Pu'er has met Taoist Master Yun..."
"Old Taoist Yun has met the eldest prince." Yun Puzi returned the courtesy seriously.
Qingyang took the child into his arms and asked him to sit on his knees and play with two snow oranges. He signaled to the eunuchs that the palace maid stood on the corridor and asked Yun Puzi: "The wedding of Marquis Qianyang is coming.
, according to you, what kind of congratulatory gift should be sent from Changxin Palace?"
"The wedding of Marquis Qianyang did not cause any commotion in Jinling. It seems to be an ordinary and common thing. Your Majesty and the Queen Mother will be rewarded. I heard that Zhang Ping, the chamberlain supervisor, is preparing for the wedding these days.
It's a headache to raise the gift list. As for other rewards, Concubine Han and Marquis Qianyang are cousins, so the reward will definitely not be light. The empress will give a gift to Empress Huang, which is considered a courtesy..." Yun Puzi said
.
"The Marquis of Guizhou Yang married Wang Wenqian's daughter, or was it the matchmaker whom King Shou personally arranged for? Taoist Master Yun, how do you view this matter?" Qingyang asked.
"Although Wang Wenqian is an adviser to King Xin, King Xin is actually the vassal king of Da Chu, and Marquis of Guizhou Yang and King Shou are also princes granted by Da Chu," Yun Puzi said, "I'm just speculating on people's hearts.
There are really not many loyal ministers and good sons in the civil and military affairs of the Manchu Dynasty, but as long as the imperial army is strong and the country is in trouble, regardless of the people's hearts, everyone will be a loyal minister and good son of Chu."
"good!"
Hearing Yang Yuanpu's cheers from the door, Qingyang and Yun Puzi were startled. They turned around and didn't know how long Yang Yuanpu had been here. There were all the waiters in front of the corridor, and none of the palace maids made any sound to remind them.
they.
"Yun Puzi is talking nonsense, please forgive me!" Yun Puzi knelt down in front of Yang Yuanpu and kowtowed to apologize.
What he just said doesn't sound problematic, but when he said these words to Princess Qingyang, at a time when political affairs were forbidden to be discussed in the harem, his crime was to deceive the palace.
"Yundao Changpingshen," Yang Yuanpu motioned Yun Puzi to stand up quietly. He sat on the soft couch opposite Qingyang. Seeing that there was no stone left on the chessboard, he asked with a smile, "Not a stone has been dropped yet.
ah?"
Qingyang suppressed the chill in his heart and restrained himself from looking at the palace envoys who were waiting outside the corridor just now. Who were the eunuchs? He smiled sweetly and said: "I heard everyone in the palace talking about the Marquis of Qianyang in the past few days.
Regarding the marriage, I thought that the Marquis of Guizhou Yang was a great Chu State and had made great contributions to Your Majesty. The Changxin Palace would have to provide a reward at least, so as not to chill the hearts of the meritorious officials - Your Majesty, do you think this is the case?
reason?"
Yun Puzi glanced at Chen Ruyi and Anji Xiang, who were walking in with Yang Yuanpu, and thought that the Jinyun Division was forced to disband, and these two people returned to serve Emperor Yanyou, but their skills did not fall.
He actually neglected to notice that there were so many people in Changxin Palace who were secretly bribed by these two people, so much so that when he was talking to Princess Qingyang, he didn't know how long Emperor Yanyou had been eavesdropping outside.
Thinking of this, Yun Puzi also felt a chill running up from his tailbone.
"The Marquis of Qianyang has indeed made great contributions to me. I'm still having a headache these days because of the reward. My beloved concubine also checked the details for me..." Yang Yuanpu stretched his body, pulled his eldest son over and sat down in front of his knees, and said.
"I have no clue, so I called Old Yun into the palace to inquire." Qingyang said with a smile.
"Then Taoist Master Yun came to check the details for me," Yang Yuanpu said.
"Old Taoist Yun only talks nonsense. Your Majesty, please forgive me." Yun Puzi did not dare to say anything more. He did not dare to stand up and continued to kneel on the ground.
"You said, 'As long as the imperial army is strong, everyone will be a loyal minister and a good son.' I have also been deeply aware of this recently.
"I feel sorry for you, please get up. I forgive you, but I don't have many people around me who can talk to me. Please get up and talk to me." Yang Yuanpu said.
"Thank you, Your Majesty." Seeing that Yang Yuanpu's face remained as usual, Yun Puzi kowtowed, got up from the cold brick floor, and sat down on the embroidered pier handed over by Chen Ruyi.
"Recently, Shuzhou sent a letter saying that 40,000 elite soldiers of the Huaixi Forbidden Army should be stationed in Lujiang. If we cannot make a hasty decision, we will not be able to use them. We asked to move some of the troops to Suizhou to get a glimpse of the Huaihe River from between Tongbai Mountain and Huaiyang Mountain.
Zhou," Yang Yuanpu said, "Taoist Master Yun, please analyze it for me. Should the imperial court approve the memorial? How will the officials in the imperial court view this memorial from Shuzhou?"
As the war situation stabilized, the state soldiers from various places who reinforced King Qin returned to various places one after another. However, the Zuo Longque Army and Zuo Wuwei Army commanded by Li Zhigao in Shuzhou still had 40,000 elite troops.
The Shuzhou letter mentioned by Yang Yuanpu is naturally Li Zhigao's memorial.
In terms of military efficiency, the Lujiang defense line east of Shuzhou is less than a hundred miles long. Unless a large-scale offensive is organized against Chaozhou soon and attempts to capture the entire territory of Chaozhou again, otherwise, it will just be a confrontation between the defense lines, which will not be effective at all.
There is no role for so many elite soldiers and horses.
Tangyi soldiers only used more than 20,000 elite soldiers to effectively support a more than 200-mile-long defense line east of Chaohu Lake.
Now that the war situation has stabilized, as a pursuing general of the Forbidden Army, Li Zhigao is unwilling to appear weaker than Han Qian, right?
In terms of the rational allocation of the Forbidden Army, part of the Huaixi Forbidden Army was moved to Suizhou in the northwest corner of Jingxiang. From the gap between Tongbai Mountain and Huaiyang Mountain, one could peer into Guangzhou and Huozhou in the north, and open a new battlefield from the northwest flank.
Containing and attacking the Shouzhou Army can not only relieve the pressure on the Shouzhou Army on the southern front, but can also effectively suppress and weaken the Shouzhou Army's strength.
From a military strategic perspective alone, Li Zhigao's proposal couldn't be more correct.
It's just that ordinary people don't know how complicated the internal situation in Da Chu is at this time. How could Yun Puzi not be aware of it?
As a part of Jingxiang, Suizhou is located in the northwest hinterland of Jingxiang. I am afraid that the Zheng family has long regarded it as something that cannot be touched by others, right?
Li Zhigao's petition, Zheng Yu, Zheng Chang, and Zheng Hui, who were Deng Xiang's defense envoy and commander of Youlongque Army, were the first to jump out and resolutely oppose it, right?
In addition, Li Zhigao's suggestion was very selfish, and Yun Puzi believed that Yang Yuanpu could understand it at this time.
Li Zhigao's selfishness, or the selfishness of the Wanhonglou group of forces behind Li Zhigao, is also very simple. The reality is that Shuzhou alone is not enough to become their base for cultivating tens of thousands of elites.
At present, the main generals of the Zuo Wuwei Army and the Zuo Longque Army have all been won over by Li Zhigao. It can be said that they are all from the late Honglou lineage, but the following generals come from the various military camps under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of War.
At this time, Shen Yang was on the one hand to control the size of the private troops under the generals, and on the other hand, he was working hard to regularize the appointment and selection of captains and captains in each camp, so that more civilian generals could serve as their responsibilities.
They also made every effort to reduce the land rent and taxes borne by the military households to ensure that the Chu court had control over the grassroots generals.
At this time, the Ministry of War arranged in an orderly manner for the soldiers of the military government to enter the various ministries' forbidden troops to guard the garrison. If Li Zhigao and other generals did not want to cause a mutiny, they could not obstruct it.
If Li Zhigao wanted to imitate Tangyi, in addition to improving the combat effectiveness of the generals as much as possible, making them more professional and easier to recruit, it would be equivalent to implementing a quasi-recruitment system. If they did not directly control several wealthy prefectures and counties, where would they raise additional troops?