Northern Dynasties Imperial Industry

Hanling Mountain is located to the south of Yecheng. In the old years, Emperor Shenwu Gao Huan once defeated the Erzhu family's coalition army of 200,000 here, thus establishing the Gao family's hegemony.

Today's Hanling Mountain is naturally no longer as majestic as the Iron Horse. Instead, it is replaced by continuous farmland below the slopes. At the same time, many Yedu people are doing gardening here. When you are tired of the hustle and bustle of people in the capital, it is quite relaxing to stay in the countryside for a while.

In a garden located on the north side of Hanling Hillside, there is an endless stream of cars and horses coming and going today, making this small manor very lively.

In the manor, Wang Songnian sat in the guest seat next to the master, while his son Wang Shao stood beside the table, looking at the relatives, friends and guests sitting around in the courtyard, holding a wine glass and saying with emotion: "I suffered in the past, although it was hard. , but thinking about all the relatives and friends running to rescue and encourage each other, I also hope that we can see each other again, but those who died on the same day will no longer have such an opportunity, which makes people cry..."

After everyone present heard this, they couldn't help but sigh for a while, especially those who had blood ties and deep feelings with the murdered people, they couldn't help but cover their faces and shed tears.

However, after witnessing the harsh punishment that Wang Songnian and several others suffered for being accused of defaming history, no one dared to directly provoke or question this topic, and could only talk about other things to vent their dissatisfaction.

But some people still feel dissatisfied and have the courage to continue to express their opinions on this.

There was a young man in the banquet who was about 20 years old. At that time, everyone looked depressed, so he couldn't help but said coldly: "How can the history of people's governance be the voice of one generation? If you don't say anything in this world, there will be ridicule in future generations." Yes! What the princes and others did before was upright in history and filial in love, but this behavior is unacceptable in this world. What kind of world is this?"

"The slave is drunk and must not talk nonsense!"

The owner of this manor, the descendant of the former Qin Prime Minister Wang Meng, Beihai Wang Xi heard the young man's angry words, raised his finger and pointed at him and said with a frown.

The young man's name was Lu Sidao, also known as Shi Nu, and he was born in the Lu family of Fanyang. He was also a disciple of Hebei's great talent and Hejian Xing Zicai. With this background and his own intelligence and studiousness, of course he was somewhat arrogant about his talent.

When he heard the scolding of his master Wang Xi, Lu Sidao first bowed and apologized to him, and then couldn't help but said in a deep voice: "It is indeed disrespectful for a boy to speak evil words and disturb the master. But what Wei Shu did Seeing its use, is it because the talent of history is unparalleled? It is just because of the cleverness and softness that the emperor can control it calmly, so it is used to write history. But the unchangeable sentence reads, once the heavenly favors change, Wei Shou will personally change it in the future..."

These words startled everyone present. It was already exciting to criticize the entire Northern Qi world, but now it was even more related to God's will. Even if this kid dared to say it, no one dared to listen anymore.

Fortunately, most of the people gathered in this manor today are dissatisfied with Wei Shou and other scholars and the current political situation, and they are all inextricably related to each other. If one person is unlucky, the others will also be unlucky. It is inevitable that they will be implicated. So even though this young man Lu Sidao spoke very wildly and was even a little rebellious, everyone just scolded him not to cause trouble again with his nonsense.

Although Lu Sidao was a little arrogant, he was not stupid. After hearing everyone's scolding, he sat in silence and stopped talking nonsense.

At this time, the servant came to report that a bookseller named Li had posted a message outside the manor asking for an audience. After hearing this, Wang Songnian said that he had invited the bookseller here, and ordered his son Wang Shao to come with the Wang family. The servant went to introduce Li Licheng into the manor.

"This Li was a native of Luoxia since the Yun Dynasty, and later lived in Mianbei with his family. It happened that Li Boshan of the Western Dynasty came to rule Mianbei, and rewarded industry and commerce, so he made a career out of it. After Jiangling was destroyed, many books were released into the market , he also took the opportunity to collect many treasures, because Westerners did not attach importance to the scholarship of classics, so he took the risk and went north to Yedu..."

Since Wang Songnian wanted to introduce Li Licheng to his relatives and friends, he naturally had to inquire carefully about his origins. Although these were all Li Licheng's words, at least they made sense logically. Literature and education flourished in the Southern Dynasties, but academics were not valued in the Western Wei Dynasty. Even if his words were concealed, what big conspiracy could a city bookseller hatch?

Hearing Wang Songnian talk about Li Boshan in the Western Dynasty, everyone suddenly became interested in talking again. For other people, Li Boshan and his related stories are distant stories of emperors and generals competing for hegemony, but for them, this is the story of promising children from relatives working hard in foreign lands, and every little detail is taken care of. It's enough to make people comment for a long time.

While the bookseller was entering the village, everyone was talking about things related to Li Boshan. In addition to his various majestic deeds, it also involved his relatives and friends in the east who were affected by him. personnel.

"How are Brother Manrong and others these days? Has Brother Songnian been there to express his condolences? It's such a pity for Yanzhou. He has quite a lot of talent and ambition, but the result is that the year has never been a holiday..."

Someone in the banquet asked Wang Songnian again, and Wang Songnian also responded with emotion.

At this time, Li Licheng had been led to the gathering in the manor, but everyone at the banquet was in a lively conversation at the moment, and they did not bother to greet him, a small bookseller. Instead, he stood quietly aside, listening to everyone talking about what was going on here. Personnel, it took me a while to understand what they were saying.

Li Tai rose to fame in the Western Wei Dynasty and led an army to attack Jinyang, which caused an uproar in the Eastern Wei Dynasty. Therefore, his relatives and family members who stayed in Guandong were led to Jinyang for custody.

Later, his family took advantage of the chaos to leave Jinyang and went to Guanzhong. Although there was no time to pursue the case at that time, the Northern Qi court expanded the scope of the attack and removed all other Li clan members in Longxi from official imprisonment and banned them from serving in official positions. Li Qianzhi and others who left with Li Pei and others all returned to live in Yedu Township.

Not long ago, Li Qianzhi's brother Li Zazhi passed away due to illness, which cast another layer of gloom over the family whose future was already uncertain.

Many of the people present were relatives of the Li family in Longxi. For example, Wang Songnian's cousin was Li Qianzhi's wife, and the young fanatic Lu Sidao was also Li Qianzhi's son-in-law. When talking about all the misfortunes their family had suffered recently, they couldn't help but sigh. If they had known this, Li Qian and his family might as well have gone directly to Guanzhong with Li Pei and his party.

Now Li Boshan is becoming more and more powerful in Shannan. Even the people in Hebei know that Guanxi Yuwen Black Otter can't steal chickens and lose rice. He tried to punish Li Boshan but failed, and was counterattacked by him. Moreover, Li Boshan even attacked Jiangling in one go and conquered the south. With most of Liang's best personnel under his command, his power suddenly expanded.

Talking about these things, the young man Lu Sidao became energetic again and couldn't help but say: "There are many discussions about several virtuous people nowadays, and many of them praise Yang Zunyan and Li Boshan as the East and West! But from what I see, although Yang Zunyan is also favored by the present, But compared to Li Boshan, he is really inferior! It's a pity that Li Boshan was born too late, and the Wei family's fate was already under the control of the soldiers, so he had no choice but to commit himself to the Black Otter sect. If he had come out at that time, it would have been difficult for him to become famous!"

It is human nature for young people to respect their more capable peers and look down upon the old guys. Compared with Lu Sidao's previous arrogant speech with his head in his hands, this statement is already relatively low-key. After everyone present heard this, they all looked thoughtful.

Ever since the Six Towns Mutiny, their Kanto clan has been in an embarrassing situation. Er Zhurong's Heyin Incident directly slaughtered the members of their families like pigs and dogs. Although Li Yu and other family representatives assisted Emperor Xiaozhuang in counter-killing Er Zhurong, their dignity and power were trampled on and deprived of. After all, it is difficult to recover.

In the Eastern Wei and Northern Qi Dynasties, although there was no lack of positive response from the Guandong family since the period of Gao Huanxin's capital building, the role of the Guandong family in the Gao family's hegemony was always superficial, and it was difficult to access the core power, and they were always suppressed by the Xianbei warriors. One end.

During this process, the Kanto clan was also actively trying to reverse the situation. For example, when Gao Cheng came to Yedu to assist the government, the Guandong aristocratic clans such as Cui Xian and Cui Jishu of the Boling Cui clan worked hard for him.

Although Gao Cheng died in a dramatic and careless manner, the investment of the Kanto family was not in vain. Their biggest advantage is their large number of people. After Gao Cheng died, Gao Yang came up again. After Gao Yang came to power, his latent confidant Yang Min and others were naturally reused.

The leader of Qi, Gao Yang, has been fighting abroad all year round, so he naturally needs to rely on his confidants for government affairs in the country. As Gao Longzhi and other old ministers died or were executed one after another, Yang Min gradually emerged as a mainstay in the court. It can be said that the government affairs of the entire court were decided by one person. Ever since the Six Towns mutiny and the townspeople came to power, no one in power from a prominent family is more capable than Yang Min.

As for Li Boshan, who emerged in the Western Wei Dynasty, it was a different situation. Although he is a junior, his rise has been extremely rapid. His surprise attack on Jinyang and several defeats of Heyang were astonishing. Especially when he defeated many noble generals of Jinyang one after another, these Guandong clans felt that A sense of exhilaration and pride that is comparable to honor is also one of the few sources of confidence for them when facing Jinyang Xungui.

Therefore, even though Li Boshan's achievements were all in the Western Wei Dynasty, and the Western Wei Dynasty was much poorer and weaker than the Northern Qi Dynasty, when people in Hebei talked about him, they couldn't help but look down upon him and regarded him as a representative of the famous families in the world, along with Yang Min, the prime minister of the dynasty. figure. Of course, in the eyes of some young people such as Lu Sidao, Li Boshan's achievements were even better than Yang Min.

Li Licheng stood aside and listened to these relatives and friends in Hebei talking about their views and evaluations of King Taiyuan, and he felt very different in his heart.

Although he knew in his heart that the current Taiyuan King's achievements and structure were far beyond the ability of people outside of these positions to appreciate, it was quite interesting to hear the discussions of these people who had little knowledge and serious attitude.

Everyone chatted for a while, and then turned their attention to Li Licheng. When Wang Songnian stood up and introduced to everyone, Li Licheng also stepped in and greeted everyone present. At the same time, he couldn't help but feel a little disappointed and curious. There were more than a dozen people present, but his brother was not among them.

Because of Wang Songnian's introduction, everyone present was relatively polite to Li Licheng, but of course they were more interested in the books he could provide.

Li Licheng no longer wasted time building relationships, and directly listed all the books he owned and the books he brought today. Everyone was passing around the book list and looking at the books, everyone was full of surprise and curiosity.

During the Eastern Wei Dynasty, before Hou Jing's rebellion, the relations with Nanliang were relatively harmonious, and there was no lack of cultural exchanges between them. However, both sides have different cultural preferences, and each has its own scriptures and principles that they are unwilling to spread.

What Li Licheng has brought to Hebei now are representative and essential volumes selected from the Jiangling collection after the pacification of Jiangling. Often these Hebei aristocratic families have heard of their names but have not seen their writings. Unexpectedly, they can be found at this time. I was pleasantly surprised to see the entire volume from Li Licheng, a small bookseller.

Among these people, some are simply curious and eager for knowledge, while others have more ideas.

Wang Songnian, for example, was still worried about the inaccurate historical narration in "Book of Wei". At this time, he wanted to use the historical materials that Li Licheng could provide to invite some like-minded people to privately compile a book to resolve doubts in addition to "Book of Wei", so as to avoid Thousands of years later, "Book of Wei" has become an isolated history, even more irrefutable.

This proposal was naturally recognized and echoed by some people present. Although under the harsh punishment, they could no longer express their doubts and denials of "Book of Wei" through normal channels, they were not willing to admit the "Book of Wei" written by Wei Shou. History books are facts and truth, and at least some paper evidence should be left behind for later generations to cite and reverse the case.

Li Licheng listened to the discussions of these people, and his understanding of Beiqi's personnel was deepening. At least in terms of literature and history, people in the Northern Qi Dynasty are divided today. One faction is naturally the powerful historians represented by Wei Shou. The other faction may not be called a faction. It is mainly composed of Wang Songnian and others who slander history and some who are not very successful. flow.

If the intentions of Wang Songnian and others are relatively pure, there are others whose intentions are more complicated.

For example, Wang Xi, the owner of the garden here, called Li Licheng to the table and said with a smile: "Li Jun traveled thousands of miles and took risks to import many classics and history books into our country. No matter what his original intention, this sentiment is It is really valuable. These classics are all written by ancient sages. It would be unfavorable to sell money and silk in the market. If they can be circulated in the world and educate people, the contribution they will make cannot be measured by money and silk. , The king values ​​academics and has high regard for noble people like Li Jun. I wonder if Li Jun is willing to join the government and serve the king? "

Li Licheng was stunned when he heard this, and his thoughts began to flow rapidly in his mind.

Gao Yan, the king of Changshan in the Northern Qi Dynasty, was the direct brother of Gao Yang, the ruler of Qi, and now served as a minister in the imperial court of the Northern Qi Dynasty. As for the Wang Xi in front of him, Li Licheng had heard these people talking about him and knew that he was serving as a friend of Changshan King and a confidant of Changshan King Gaoyan. It was probably similar to the relationship between the previous Qi leader Gao Yang and his confidant Yang Min.

Of course, Li Licheng also hoped to infiltrate the upper-level personnel of Northern Qi, but he did not expect that Wang Xi, a confidant of King Changshan, would directly solicit him to introduce him to the palace of Changshan King.

Although he also felt that he was personable and well-mannered, he was still a little far behind the King of Taiyuan's stunning style. Wang Xi wanted to recruit him when they first met him, probably not because of him. Besides, his most valuable thing was that he could provide these books.

After thinking about it in his mind, he quickly looked bewildered and surprised, rubbed his hands and lowered his head and said: "The common people, the common people are just some humble businessmen, how lucky are they to be so dignified and respected by the princes? Can I serve the famous king?"

Seeing how excited Wang Xi was, he said with a smile: "But if you have talents, why would you be stingy with a position? King Li of Shannan had not conquered Jiangling for a long time. Even if Jiangling scriptures were leaked, they would not be widespread in the world. Li Jun unexpectedly To be able to collect so many classics and send them north, you must have quite a lot of connections in Shannan. No matter what your character is outside or what your plans are for entering our country, as long as you can continue to import Jiangling classics, I will freely apply for a job for you in front of the king. "

After Li Licheng heard this, he also laughed, but instead of the slightly artificial excitement before, he was more understanding and calm.

He pointed to the scrolls that were still being circulated by everyone, and said with a smile to Wang Xi: "Those who know these scriptures will know they are treasures, and those who do not know them will see them as waste paper. I can't bear the scriptures to be covered with dust in Kansai, so I carry them away. Go north and invest in the wise. But I don’t know how much these scriptures are worth in the eyes of the king."

Wang Xi saw some changes in Li Licheng's demeanor and temperament, and a strange color flashed in his eyes. After thinking for a while, he said: "How rich can you be, Mr. Li?"

The slightly edgy conversation between the two quickly attracted the attention of others present, and they all turned their gazes over.

Wang Songnian, who introduced Li Licheng here, is also watching with great interest how Li Licheng responds to Wang Xi's scrutiny. It is definitely not ordinary people who can transport so many books over long distances nowadays, especially those whose families are academic and know the value of these books. People who are more able to realize that Li Licheng is not simple.

Nowadays, the three kingdoms stand in a powerful position, and the movement of people between the kingdoms is considered normal. These people are not involved in any court affairs and secrets, so in daily interpersonal interactions, there is no need to be wary of serious conflicts and interactions with all strangers.

Li Licheng knew what they were interested in, so there was nothing wrong with them having a relationship. If the other party really revealed any evil intentions and dangerous aura, it would not be too late to deal with it.

Wang Songnian introduced Li Licheng to these relatives and friends. In addition to sharing knowledge, he also hoped that everyone would look at what was wrong with this person and whether he should continue to associate with him.

But he didn't know that Li Licheng's identity, origin and purpose were beyond his imagination. If he got involved, he couldn't get rid of it easily, nor could it be easily solved.