Han Zuo Gaomen

Chapter 18

A large amount of goods could not be carried, and after further streamlining, there was still a large team of nearly a thousand people when they officially set out on the road.

From Wuxing to Jiankang, the most convenient way is by water, through Wujun to the north to Jingkou, and then along the Yangtze River to the west, it can be reached in a few days.But right now, Jiangbei militiamen continue to march across the river, and this road is not safe.

The more convenient land route is along Taihu Lake via Yixing, passing Maoshan and then entering Danyang.Compared with Jingkou, which is full of refugees, this route is the old route in Wudi, so it is naturally much safer.

But the problem is that Yixing Zhou clan and Wu Xing Shen clan have old grudges, and at the beginning of the year, Shen Chong killed all members of Zhou clan's Xian clan, and the blood feud between the two sides is even deeper.At present, the Yixing Zhou family is taking advantage of the chaos to prosper. Zhou Jian, a member of the Zhou clan, killed the Yixing prefect long ago, and took over the soldiers of the county and county according to Yangxian. This way is no longer possible.

In the end, Shen Zhezi and the others chose the route to Jiankang. It was Yu Yi who proposed to enter Jinling via Wu County, and then go overland from Jinling to avoid the Yangtze River and directly enter Jiankang.

Sima Gu Yang, who had been kept in the army by Shen Chong, set off with the team this time. His future was uncertain earlier. This person responded passively in the army and concealed his intention to leave.But as soon as the situation became clear, the depression disappeared, and the whole person looked different.

From Gu Yang's inconsistent performance, Shen Zhezi has a better understanding of the background of Wujun scholars, no wonder he was evaluated by his father as a Chinese pattern accessory.Once in power, having such a person attached to him can add more prestige and momentum.But don't want them to share weal and woe and share weal and woe.

As soon as the team entered Wujun territory, they encountered twists and turns and were attacked by Wujun villagers.The two sides fought a fierce battle, but in the end, the Shen family's trilogy was the better one, killing nearly a hundred people on the other side and defeating it.

Shen Zhezi was closely guarded by a group of Longxi soldiers led by soldier Liu Meng, and he never even saw the tragic battle on the battlefield.After the battle was over, he asked the clan uncle Shen Ling who commanded the soldiers to clean the battlefield to find out the reason for the attack.

The hundreds of people who came to attack them were all Zhang's private soldiers, but Lu, the wife of Zhang Mao, the former prefect of Wu Xing who was killed by his father, summoned the old troops to avenge her husband.

Yu Yi was also very annoyed when encountering such a thing.Regardless of the old grievances between the two parties, now that he has joined forces with the Shen family, the other party even blatantly attacked them, clearly out of shame for him.Therefore, while the team was being repaired, Yu Yi wrote a few letters and asked Gu Yang to go ahead and send them to the major families in Wu County.

Based on Yu Yi's original official position and prestige, it is naturally difficult to get into the eyes of these noble families in Wu County.But right now, Yu Yi has great achievements and great reputations, and he entered the camp alone to persuade Shen Chong to surrender. The combination of the two makes people dare not underestimate it.Coupled with Gu Yang's deliberate exaggeration, all the aristocratic families in Wu County expressed their opinions one after another, sending their disciples to meet the guards.

With Yu Yi coming out to communicate with Gu Yang back and forth, Shen Zhezi was happy to be at leisure.This trip was more leisurely than the last trip to Kuaiji. Shen Zhezi rode in a stable and comfortable ox cart, surrounded by several beautiful maidservants to take care of daily necessities, so he didn't feel tired.

The bullock cart that Shen Zhezi was riding in was huge, with loose leaves on all sides. When the weather was clear and the sun was bright, it could be flattened to become a mobile viewing platform.Along the way, he also appreciates the scenery of Wudi 700 years ago, which is very different from that of later generations.

It's just that as far as he can see, there is not much of the peaceful rural scenery he imagined.The most you can see is a large manor surrounded by high walls and covering a vast area.In addition, there are many mountains, forests, wastelands, rivers, canals and swamps, and there are not many people.

Of course, the so-called low population does not mean that it is desolate, but that there are not many self-cultivated villages run by small households.Especially in the open and flat terrain, rich lakes and fertile soil, there are almost no traces of small farmers, and they are completely divided and occupied by large clan manors.

The famous scholars in the Eastern Jin Dynasty were romantic, and the gentry inherited from each other, from the central Taiwan province to the fields and countryside, and it was consistent.A poor family would rather be a wealthy family than a good citizen.Attached to a rich family, they are only exploited by one family, but if they want to be naturalized independently, they have to bear the taxes and corvees levied by the imperial court, in the middle are exploited by officials at all levels, and are squeezed and excluded by the wealthy families in the village.

Shen Zhezi felt the helplessness of this era more and more deeply from what he saw.This dynasty, in which the king and the powerful belonged to the world, is like a hobbled giant covered in tumors. No matter how gorgeous the appearance is, it cannot conceal the deformity inside.Even if there is an occasional powerful official who grows up and abolishes and establishes arrogance, it is just a bigger disease and cannot change the essence.

When the group arrived at Wu County, the seat of Wu County, the size of the team had expanded to nearly 3000 people, most of whom were children or private soldiers sent by the nobles of Wu County to join in the fun.After arriving in Wu County, the momentum reached its peak.For example, Gu Lu's Gaomen sent all their clan members to welcome them.

There are many reasons why there is such a big momentum, but there is only one reason on the surface, that is, Yu Yi's forced landing of thousands of troops in danger alone is a feat worthy of being passed down for a while.Because the scholars in Wudi were too enthusiastic, the group had to stay in Wu County for many days and went to banquets.

Shen Zhezi also had to follow behind Yu Yi, telling Yu Yi's feat many times at the banquet every day.This is also part of the plan of the old father Shen Chong and Yu Yi, to create pressure from public opinion, force the court to recognize Yu Yi's meritorious service, and remove the suspicion of rebellion for the Shen family.

The campaign for many days has indeed pushed Yu Yi's personal reputation to an extreme, and Shen Chong, who is the villain of this legendary story, has also benefited a lot.Live up to kindness, be tolerant, and suddenly wake up, you have the style of a national scholar.

Although he also personally created momentum, Shen Zhezi really couldn't understand the paradoxical aesthetic interest of the people of the time.The two protagonists in this story, one who left his post without permission and the other who attempted rebellion, turned out to be high-spirited and noble scholars who can help those in need!
About an era, there is always its own unique label of the era.But after thousands of years of history, the elegance of the Eastern Jin Dynasty is undoubtedly the most out of date.

For example, Liu Kun, the famous general who defended Beidi and Bingzhou before, when Beidi fell to China and was in turmoil, Liu Kun was alone to defend the enclave. One can imagine the hardships.At that time, when people praised Liu Kun, the most talked about was not how he was struggling, how painstakingly dedicated, how hard to maintain, but the so-called blowing away the enemy.

It is true that this kind of story is elegant, resourceful, and legendary, but it must be called, and only in the present can people feel how chilling this atmosphere is.Seeing those guys talking happily, I wish I could replace it with my own body, as if Liu Kun's business in Beidi is just training the advocacy team every day, and doesn't care about other things.

After Shen Zhezi heard it several times at different banquets, he secretly decided in his heart that when he was able to take power in the future, which brain-dead bastard would talk about such things, let him go to the Northern Expedition with a beard to see if he could impress those barbarians Recover China.

Although he was indignant in his heart, he had to take advantage of this trend right now.Because only in this way can the legitimacy of this trip be obtained, and then legitimacy be obtained, and finally evolve into a conclusive fact.

After staying in Wu County for a few days, when they set off on the road again, the size of the team expanded a bit.The next stop is Jinling, where overseas Chinese gather.

Jinling belongs to Xuzhou, not far from Jingkou, which is known as Beifu.And Xuzhou is one of the candidate towns that Shen Zhezi expected to seek for his father, so he cheered up and wanted to carefully observe the customs and customs of this place.

But as soon as he entered the Jinling area, Shen Zhezi realized that he thought things a little too simply.

If Wu Jun is still a picture of a land of abundant farming and water, it is just lost to the wealthy clan's enclosure of land for self-fertilization.Then the vicinity of the Jinling Mausoleum can be called barren, with flooded gullies and overgrown weeds. It is often necessary to travel a long distance to see the traces of field reclamation.And most of these reclaimed wastelands are concentrated near the raised dock walls.

If it is said that the land reclamation is insufficient, it is because the time to cross to the south is too short, and it has not yet been fully developed.Then there were no large numbers of refugees living here without a fixed place, which made Shen Zhezi puzzled.

Shen Zhezi didn't know until he found an insider and inquired about it. Although there were many people traveling to Nandu, a considerable part of them had their own clans or were attached to the Dazong.The local government, either in order to prevent turmoil or out of their own interests, also encouraged those refugees who were accepted in large numbers or scattered by force to be taken as shade households.As for the remaining part, they were strictly restrained within the scope of the old Wu Juntun, and it was forbidden to wander around.

And the complexity of the clan power here is far beyond Shen Zhezi's imagination.Among them, there are the most overseas Chinese from Xu Yan, and sometimes there are as many as four or five surnames living in a dock wall.If an official here does not have the family background recognized by these overseas Chinese, it will definitely be called torture.It is a trivial matter to be expelled by the villagers, what's more, the camp was besieged by the expatriates and beaten to death!
Originally, in Shen Zhezi's impression, these overseas Chinese who left their hometowns should belong to the disadvantaged group, but only when they were on the scene, could they feel the fierce and violent atmosphere.Along the way, there were several vicious incidents of fighting to death in what he saw alone.There are even strongmen watching from the side of the road, and their intention to rob them is very obvious.

In the end, Shen Zhezi came to the conclusion that these overseas Chinese who left their hometowns were inherently pitiful, but there were also some persevering ones among them, and they should indeed be strictly guarded against, and they must not be allowed to go south and cause chaos in the Three Wus.And if you let daddy come to this kind of place, it's tantamount to roasting in the stove, and it's impossible to get any results.

To govern Qiaozhou with Wu people, unless they use iron and blood to completely destroy the clan power that they still maintain, and then use gentle restraints to completely break up the refugee organization and disperse it.Otherwise, those who grow up on this land can only be the Gaoping Xi family who rely on this self-respect but are struggling here, or the Beifu military group with many factions.

Before he has the strength to control the overall situation, building the freak of Beifu, a variant of the family, in advance will not only fail to fulfill Shen Zhezi's dream of the Northern Expedition, but will form a stronger restraint than the family.

(End of this chapter)