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Volume 1: The Border Town of the Empire Chapter 344: Crystal Glasses

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    Chapter 344 Crystal Glasses

    After the edict was delivered, Fang Jie had to face an endless dinner party. The generals from the left avant-garde and the officials from Pingshangdao took turns to go to battle. Today they were at Zuixian Tower and tomorrow they were at Yonghe Tower. The famous restaurants in Yongzhou City were only half a mile away.  I ate Yue Fangjie almost every time.

    The customs in the southwest are similar to those in the south of the Yangtze River, but the flavors of the dishes are very different.  Jianghuai cuisine pays attention to lightness and pure elements, and pursues a state where the dishes are like the scenery.  Southwest food has a strong taste, and the taste is more sweet, fresh and fragrant. It has some meaning to Sichuan food in the previous life, so Fang Jie didn't feel awkward at all, but liked it very much.  In my previous life, any small roadside restaurant could cook up a few Sichuan dishes. Putting aside whether they were authentic or not, the names were always right.

    Having been socializing for half a month, Fang Jie was afraid that his fat would pop out, so he added half an hour to his training time every morning.

    ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? out of the wine pool and meat forest's offensive, Fang Jie declined all today's invitations on the grounds of feeling unwell, and planned to visit Yongzhou City with Shen Qingshan and Mu Xiaoyao.  Speaking of which, it has been more than ten days since I arrived in Yongzhou, and I still haven¡¯t had a good look at this big city in the southwest.

    ?Compared with the orderly and upright style of Chang'an, the buildings in Yongzhou City are slightly scattered.  In Chang'an City, the buildings are as neatly constructed as tofu cubes, but here everything seems to be casual.  Relatively speaking, Fang Jie prefers this kind of city that looks a bit messy.

    Chang'an City is so big, but if you don't look at the shop signs on both sides of the street when walking on the street, it will feel like you are always walking on the same street. It is grand and majestic, but it will eventually cause visual fatigue.  There are mountains and rivers in Yongzhou City, and the officials seem to still retain the legacy of the Shang Dynasty. They don't like to live in troublesome places, so they all live in the house at the foot of Yihe Mountain in Yongzhou City.  In Chang'an City, officials were proud to live near Taiji Palace, while in the original Shang Kingdom, officials were proud to live far away from the palace.

    It seems that the latter is a bit indifferent to fame and fortune, but in fact it is more luxurious and corrupt.  Yihe Mountain is not big, so logically it should be considered a branch of Cangman Mountain.  Yihe Mountain is actually two mountains, connected by a short slope that is not a mountain ridge in the middle. The two short mountains are more than ten miles apart, and one is surrounded by the imperial city in the east of Yongzhou City.  The other one is in the south of the city and is occupied by officials.

    The officials of the Shang State were so corrupt that no one paid attention to government affairs. A group of officials gathered together to recite poems and compose poems for fun.  Even when going to court, the Shang emperor would usually sit on the dragon throne and make a couplet. The official below would be heavily rewarded for whoever made the neat second couplet first.

    A dynasty that has lasted for hundreds of years has valued culture over military affairs to a shocking degree.  When Nanchen still existed, the Shang people still had blood in their bones.  Several attacks by Chen's army were defeated by the Shang army. At the most glorious time, the Shang army counterattacked and invaded Chen's territory for 1,700 miles, which was only 200 miles away from Laoyang City, Xijing of Chen.

    It was also after that war that the civil servants felt that they could not let the military generals regain their status and overwhelm them in the court, so they jointly concocted evidence and framed more than a dozen generals for trying to join forces for rebellion. The Shang emperor was furious.  Kill all the generals who came back with military exploits.  The civil servants clapped their hands and celebrated, praising the emperor as the only emperor through the ages.  Since then, the literary style of the Shang Dynasty has become even better, and the low status of military commanders has plummeted.

    This is why the Sui army was so overwhelming when it attacked the Shang Kingdom.  So when Luo Yao, the general of the left vanguard, arrived outside Yongzhou City with 20,000 exhausted troops, the hundreds of thousands of merchant troops guarding Yongzhou surrendered without even fighting.

    There were hundreds of thousands of defenders, but the attacking side only had 20,000 troops and was still exhausted. The victorious side turned out to be the latter This is most closely related to the fact that the merchant army had no soldiers.  The royal family of the Shang Kingdom did not trust military generals and only trusted civilian officials, so the people who later took charge of the military were actually a group of academicians who were best at reciting poems and writing poems.

    "It's not scary for literati to lead troops. What's scary is for literati to lead troops who only know how to write poetry."

    Precisely because of this corruption and the high status of literati, they would most enjoy the official residences with uniform buildings at the foot of another mountain in Yihe Mountain.  After Luo Yao garrisoned the southwest, he hired some old officials from the Shang Kingdom, but none of their original possessions were confiscated.  Later, some of the newly appointed civil servants tried to move into the vacant houses in Yiheshan, but Luo Yao didn't bother. Within a few years, the official houses were once again filled with people.

    People on the left avant-garde have always looked down upon civil servants and just sneered at this kind of behavior.

    Fang Jie and the three of them walked along the street and looked around. The memories of the days when they took refuge in Nanyan couldn't help but come back to their minds.  The customs and customs of Nanyan are almost the same as those of Yongzhou, so it is inevitable that there will be some familiarity in my heart.¡°People here seem to have a lazy temperament.¡±

    Mu Xiaoyao pointed at the people fishing by the river, and then at the people gathering under the big tree to play chess.

    Fang Jie nodded: "It has only been more than 20 years since the Shang Dynasty was destroyed. In fact, people's living habits have not changed much. Luo Yao deliberately ignored those civil servants, creating the illusion that he respected the civil servants. In fact, such captives  The method is the easiest to kill people's fighting spirit. This is how the Shang Kingdom declined from a powerful country. Luo Yao just maintained this trend and let the literati only care about relaxation and enjoyment, so he was the first to admit that he was a Sui person in the past twenty years.  Instead, it is the literati who have always promoted their own integrity.¡±

    "actually¡­¡­"

    Fang Jie said as he walked: "The greatest threat to the country in all dynasties was not the military men, but the literati. Because the literati were provocative and influential."

    "For a village, there are 300 people. If there is a martial artist and an old gentleman in the village, people will respect that old gentleman more. The martial artist needs to kill more than three people to make these 300 people fear him and listen to him.  And the old man can convince the villagers with just one word."

    Shen Qingfan said: "You mean, Luo Yao's two hands are very beautiful? If you don't kill the literati and let them be pampered, these influential literati will live a good life, so they will also promote a beautiful  Then the people would feel happy. Then Luo Yao would create troubles and kill a group of people from time to time to keep people afraid of him a good trick. "

    "It's really a good idea."

    Fang Jie said calmly as he walked away: "Because this method is so beautiful, I don't believe Luo Yao is loyal anyway. This is no longer a general's mind, but an emperor's mind."

    ¡­¡­

    ¡­¡­

    When they were almost at the foot of Yihe Mountain in the south of the city, Fang Jie and the other three ate something on the roadside.  After eating, they started shopping more leisurely, walking into shops on the roadside from time to time. After half an hour, Mu Xiaoyao and Shen Qingshan had a lot of things in their hands.  Rouge, gouache, jewelry and jade.

    Naturally, they couldn¡¯t hide their shopping from Luo Yao. It is estimated that it won¡¯t be long before Luo Yao knows exactly what they bought and ate.

    Jubaozhai is a shop specializing in antiques and treasures. It is said to have a history of 200 years.  Even when the city of Yongzhou was destroyed and the country changed hands, the shop did not fall down.  As the southwest stabilizes, Jubaozhai's business is getting better and better.  Things that were originally difficult to circulate have become more marketable due to the integration of the north and the south.

    Fang Jie and the three of them walked into Jubaozhai and walked around the room casually.

    The boss of Jubaozhai is a man who looks to be in his fifties. He has a goatee and his eyesight is probably not very good. He always squints when looking at people.  As soon as Fang Jie and the others entered the door, the clever boy immediately shouted that the distinguished guest was here.  The boss immediately came out from behind the counter, greeted him politely, and then ordered the boy to serve tea.

    Tea is not served by just anyone. In the antique making industry, you need to have a good eye for things, and even more so for people.  Although the boss's eyesight is not very good, he never looks at things or people.

    "Master, what do you want to see?"

    He personally brought the tea and led Fang Jie and the others to the reception area next to them.

    The sandalwood tables and chairs and the three-legged bronze incense burner on the table are also antiques and are worth a lot of money.  Tea is also good tea, but it is not the scented tea that northerners are used to drinking.  People in the north drink tea with a strong flavor, while people in the south of the Yangtze River like to drink tea with a light aroma.

    Fang Jie picked up the tea cup and smelled it. He praised the tea and said with a smile: "I don't have anything specific to buy, so I just walked around here casually. If there is anything that catches my eye, I will take it."

    "Then do you have any special preferences?"

    The boss asked with a smile on his face.

    ¡°I¡¯m from the north, but because I had to come to Yongzhou, I didn¡¯t have time to find a workshop in the north to make something.¡±

    "doing things?"

    The shopkeeper shook his head: "I'm really sorry, our stuff is genuine."

    Fang Jie smiled and waved his hand: "No, I'm not asking you to cheat, but to make something rare and something no one has done before. I collected some good crystals a while ago, can you find a craftsman with good skills?  , polish these pieces of crystal, I can write down the craftsmanship and you just do it, and the price can be easily negotiated. "

    "What do you want to do?"

    The boss asked curiously.

    Fang Jie gestured: "Glasses, you should know about clairvoyance. They are commonly used by generals in the army, but they are all bought from Dongchu merchants. The effect of what I want to do is similar to that of clairvoyance, but it requires  More preciseSome.  "

    Fang Jie explained in detail, and the boss frowned and thought for a while and said, "It's not difficult to find craftsmen, but what you asked for is indeed more precise. It must be so transparent that it seems like nothing is blocking the eyes. This is a delicate job, not a temporary job."  It will be done soon.¡±

    "Not urgent"

    Fang Jie smiled: "I will stay in Yongzhou for at least a month. If I can, I will have someone send the crystal over."

    "Crystals are rare."

    The boss had to take another look at Fang Jie: "As far as I know, it is only produced in the Fire Nation south of Mongolia and Yuan Dynasty. It is said that it is also found in Cangman Mountain, but it is extremely rare. These things are basically found in our Sui Dynasty"

    He stood up and saluted respectfully: "What do you call me, sir?"

    Fang Jie was startled, thinking that this person was really thoughtful.

    "I am traveling to Chang'an."

    Hearing these words, the boss's face changed. He was about to salute but was stopped by Fang Jie: "Don't salute, I don't want to be too troublesome In addition, I have other things to tell you."

    When he said this, Fang Jie dipped his finger in tea and wrote the word Wu on the table.

    No one in Yongzhou City knew, and no one could have imagined that Jubaozhai had been bought by Huotong Tianxiaxing many years ago, and now the people in Jubaozhai are all subordinates of Wu Daodao.  The locals thought that the owner of Jubaozhai was too old and had returned to his old house in the countryside to rest, so they left the business to the shopkeeper.  In fact, as early as five or six years ago, the owner of Jubaozhai was replaced by Sanjinhou.

    Seeing the boss named Wu, his face changed slightly: "What are your orders, sir?"

    "It's nothing."

    Fang Jie smiled: "I asked you to get the things done as soon as possible. The reason why I came to you is because I know that there is no business that cannot be done by Huotong Tianxiaxing. Also, every move I make in Yongzhou is being scrutinized.  Watch, it¡¯s impossible for my people to enter and exit Yongzhou at will, there is some news that I need you to bring out.¡±

    "But according to your instructions, the proprietor has sent someone to explain it a long time ago. When your Excellency arrives in Yongzhou, everyone in Jubaozhai will definitely obey your orders."
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