Established a thousand-year family from the end of Qin Dynasty

Chapter 502 Journey to the West (Thirteen)

Two months later
Autumn of the eighth year of Duke Yan 280 (498)
Shanhaiguan

"Stop, who?"

The soldiers of Yan State in Shanhaiguan stopped Xu Xiake, but after seeing the token that Xu Xiake showed, they let him go.

Yuan Hong, the emperor of Wei State, notified Yan State in advance, told them that Xu Xiake would return to Yan State, and gave Yan State a token in advance, and Xu Xiake another token.

Shanhaiguan has strengthened its defense construction almost every year. Even in the 40 years of the black epidemic, Yan State only slowed down the construction speed, but did not completely stop the construction.

The State of Yan is very vigilant against the Central Plains, and is trying to do a good job in every aspect of protection.

Goguryeo is just a disease of ringworm and scabies. Slowly, slowly, bit by bit, it can always consume the opponent, but the Central Plains is a serious problem. If the Central Plains comes out with a monarch with too much ideals like Fu Jian, That would be a great battle.

The fortresses are densely packed, full of towering fortresses, and the foundations are getting deeper and deeper. Even if you dig down thirty feet, you can't dig the real bottom.

Even artificially transforming the terrain made Shanhaiguan form a steep slope with a large angle, making the attack very troublesome.

Among the lofty mountains of Yanshan, there are watchtowers everywhere, and countless "cableways" have been built to transmit information and food at high altitude.

Once a sentinel in the watchtower finds out that someone wants to learn from Deng Ai and do something like "smuggle across Yanshan and go straight to Liaodong", the sentinel in the watchtower can relay the alarm step by step through the cableway.

This method of intelligence is much better than the traditional beacon tower transmission in the Central Plains.

[advantage one
There is no smoke, and it will not arouse the enemy's alertness, so that the enemy does not know when he was discovered.

If it is the traditional wolf smoke transmission of information, it will let the marching enemy army know that they have been discovered by the sentinels of Yan State, so they are mentally prepared. 】

【Advantage [-]
It will not be affected by the weather, and it can transmit information even in thunderstorm weather, while the traditional beacon beacon cannot be used in thunderstorm weather. 】

【Advantage three
It can also pass food or even water along the way, so that the sentry can stay on the post for a long time without leaving, reducing various risks. 】

Not only that, Yan Guo deliberately destroyed some mountain roads in the eastern mountains of Yanshan Mountain and blocked them with huge stones.

Under the human-made transformation of the King Yan's family for hundreds of years, even the difficulty of the Shu Road is not worth mentioning here in Yanshan.

"Hey, hey, the danger is so high! The difficulty of the swallow road is so difficult that it is difficult to go to the blue sky!"

After lamenting that Shanhaiguan is the first pass in the world, Xu Xiake entered the territory of Yan State, first passing through the Yanshan Iron Mine, where the Southern Huns Shanyu was imprisoned, and it is still the largest iron mine in Yan State.

In order to transport the iron ore here to the port, the special craftsmen of Yan State had a fantastic idea and specially built a carriage track.

Wooden tracks are laid on the flat road to fix the wheels of the carriage, and different carriages can be connected together by iron cables, which greatly improves the transportation efficiency.

However, this kind of track is only suitable for short-distance flat terrain transportation, so currently only the Yanshan Iron Mine has a carriage track.

"It should have been newly built in the past few years. I haven't seen it in Yan before." Xu Xiake feels that his hometown has changed a bit.

As the saying goes, the authorities are obsessed and the bystanders are clear. People who have been living in the country of Yan can't feel how much the country has changed. It is nothing more than new things that are not much different from before every few years.

This is like, every time it is only 1% higher than the last time, it is natural that there is no improvement, because the improvement is too small, but if you leave the country of Yan and go back after more than 40 years, you will feel that the change is too great, because The reference for comparison is not last year, but decades ago.

Before the appearance of the rail carriage, the high-altitude track-cableway had already appeared in the country of Yan. Now it is nothing more than applying the cableway to the flat ground, so the people of the country of Yan can't feel any difference or major changes.

Before the appearance of flint, some people used gunpowder to set off fireworks. Before setting off fireworks, some people set off firecrackers. Before setting off firecrackers, some people used gunpowder as toys. Before using gunpowder as toys, some people used gunpowder to make To make elixirs, before using gunpowder to make elixirs, there were already people who made elixirs; before refining elixirs, people used fire to burn stoves; Fire has been discovered before.

The development of Yan’s civilization did not suddenly jump from the discovery of gunpowder to the use of gunpowder in combat, but developed step by step, making people at that time feel that there was not much change, only a little different from before, but the time span has been long After that, this change will be earth-shaking.

Following the national highway paved with volcanic cement, Xu Xiake headed southeast all the way and finally arrived at Yandu.

Because Yan State controls a large number of volcanic islands overseas, the volcanic ash resources are rich enough to use volcanic ash to make raw cement, and use the raw cement made from volcanic ash to pave roads.

The large amount of sulfur provided by volcanic islands is also an important factor in the development of gunpowder technology in Yan State.

It is not only the land that can be farmed that is valuable. Even an uninhabitable volcanic island is equally valuable and can provide a large amount of resources such as volcanic ash and sulfur.

When he returned to Yandu, he found that the population here was sparsely populated, far less prosperous than when he left.

At the age of 15, at the peak of the black epidemic, he left the country of Yan and embarked on a journey to the west. When he returned to his hometown of Yandu, he was already 63 years old.

"Leaving home at fifteen, returning with gray hair!"

He first went to look for his father and mother, but learned that his father had passed away. When he went to look for his younger brother, he learned that his younger brother had died of the black plague.

His father left him the seat of nobleman in the parliament and waited for him to return to the country of Yan.

Xu Xiake didn't care about this number of nobles in the parliament, so he appointed his brother's granddaughter as the successor of this number.

His father would rather keep the quota than inherit it to his younger brother. Xu Xiake felt that he had treated his younger brother badly, so he let his younger brother's granddaughter become his successor to the noble quota.

Afterwards, Xu Xiake handed over his "Journey to the West" to the parliament and asked them to transcribe and distribute it, so that more people could understand this vast world.

Two months later
winter
As agreed, he went to Luoyang, Wei State, to attend the birthday celebration of the little princess.

Another month later, according to the agreement decades ago, he went to Jiankang City, Jin State, to reminisce with Liu Chuyu, who had become the Empress Dowager, only to find that the innocent and lovely little girl back then had turned into a cruel politician. As a family, in order to consolidate his power to listen to politics behind the curtain, he was merciless in killing people. The folk nursery rhymes of Jin State said that Liu Chuyu was the "Iron Queen Mother".

Years can really change a lot, and power is really a bottle of poison.

Xu Xiake really couldn't connect the cute little girl who pulled his sleeve back then with the "iron-blooded empress dowager" who raised a boy and loved her face, killed ministers, wore emperor's dress, and intended to usurp the throne.

Another month later, he returned to Yandu and gave lectures at Yandu Academy. He met a student named "Lin Zhi". Many ideas of this student surprised him, but this student was so rebellious that he even said that Confucius was a saint. It's just a bereaved dog, and said that the disciples and grandchildren of Confucius are all jerks.

Xu Xiake only felt that this student was too scary to have such thoughts. He thought that he was already a relatively unrestrained Confucian scholar among the Confucian scholars, and he could listen to any speech, even if it was made by the hostile Legalists. He can also listen to those remarks.

But this Lin Zhi is really deviant!

Another month later, in the autumn of the ninth year of Yangong 280 (499), Fuyu was destroyed by Goguryeo. Some Fuyu nobles surrendered to Goguryeo, and most of them fled to Yan, begging Yan to restore the country for them.

At the same time, when Fuyu King delivered a speech in Yandu, he hoped that the Yan people would help the poor Fuyu people to restore their country.

Xu Xiake, who was already 64 years old, died in his own home...forever!
Yan Gonglu personally held the funeral for Xu Xiake, and Xu Xiake's grandniece kept mourning for Xu Xiake.

"Journey to the West" written by Xu Xiake was designated as a masterpiece of Yan State by the government of Yan State. The documents are also temporarily closed to the public, and only the nobles of the parliament can view the transcripts.

Xu Xiake himself is generous and selfless, but this does not mean that the nobles of Yan Kingdom are generous and selfless.

(End of this chapter)