Chapter 232 Promotion
In Ankangfang, Luoyang City.
It stands to reason that it is quite difficult to buy a house in the East City of Luoyang where every inch of land is valuable.
The east of Luoyang City is noble and the west is rich. Those who can own mansions in Ankangfang are basically powerful people in the court, and they normally would not sell their property.
Didn’t King Qinghe fall?
Ministers related to Prince Qinghe, in order to keep their positions or their lives, bribed Prince Jiangyang with large sums of money. The owner of this household was involved in the case and had to sell his house to survive.
The person who bought this house was a shrewd middle-aged man. He claimed to be a subordinate of General Anxi Su Ze and bought a house in Luoyang for Su Ze in advance.
General Anxi Su Ze?
Only a few people in Ankangfang had heard of this name. Some remembered that Su Ze was granted an official position through the "year-end suspension" system by protecting the Shangshu Tai during the Yulin Rebellion last year, but no one knew more about him.
There is no way around it, the general title of the Northern Wei Dynasty is really worthless.
However, Su Suan (the corrupt household official) did not care about what the people around him thought. It was a pity that the transaction was signed in Henan Prefecture, and the money for buying the house was written in black and white, so he had no way to pocket the money.
Of course, Su Ze was not at ease letting Su Suan come to Luoyang alone to prepare for the backyard, so he was accompanied by a blue follower - [A fair and selfless merchant apprentice].
This was the person Su Ze summoned through a directional summoning with the prefix term [Fair and Impartial]. The other four followers were arranged to the military camp to assist the military judge. Only this follower was sent to Luoyang with Su Suan because he was the only one who could keep accounts and write.
There is no other way. In the absence of a quest, directional summons will only give blue-green minions, and [Fair and Selfless] is a positive affix that will improve the quality of the minions themselves.
This merchant apprentice who was brushed out had no special skills and the only thing he could do was keep accounts.
However, Su Ze took a fancy to this point of him, so he asked him to follow Su Suan to Luoyang and asked him to do one thing - manage the purse.
Su Tu ([a fair and selfless traveling merchant apprentice]) does not need to worry about what Su Suan does every day, nor does he need to care about how he spends his money. He only needs to record every penny he spends and submit a report to Su Ze.
But even with such a simple job, Su Suan did not dare to blatantly embezzle the money.
After returning to the house, Su Suan was thinking about how to decorate the backyard. At this moment, a servant suddenly came to report that Princess Chenliu invited Su Suan to her house.
Su Suan quickly withdrew some jewelry from Su Tu and hurried to Princess Chenliu's mansion.
This was not the first time that Su Suan came to Princess Chenliu's mansion. After arriving in Luoyang, he first paid a visit to Princess Chenliu. This house was also bought with the help of Princess Chenliu.
Princess Chenliu knew that he was Su Ze's confidant. Lu Zhu led him to the reception room and asked directly behind the screen:
"How much property did you bring?"
Su Suan quickly calculated and said honestly: "This time, the master asked me to bring forty horses, three boxes of jewelry and spices from the Western Regions, and fifty rolls of Gaochang cotton cloth."
Su Suan said quickly, "To buy things for the backyard and make friends with ministers, more than half of the horses, jewels and spices have been used up. Only fifty rolls of Gaochang linen have not been touched."
Su Suan did not report false accounts, which was also Su Ze's miscalculation.
I thought Gaochang linen cloth would sell well in Luoyang, but I didn't expect that no one in Luoyang would care about it.
The reason is very simple. Ordinary people use linen, which is enough to keep warm and cover the body. Gaochang linen cloth is indeed more comfortable and warmer, but how could people buy Gaochang linen cloth just for this little comfort?
The nobles all wore silk. Although Gaochang linen was fresh, it was still far inferior to silk.
Princess Chenliu frowned and said, "The harvest this year is not good. The farms outside the city are all short of harvest. The taxes levied by the court are also heavy. I'm afraid this little money is not enough."
During this period of time, Princess Chenliu helped Su Ze manage the businesses left in Luoyang, and she knew everything about the family assets left behind by Su Ze.
In fact, Su Ze had quite a few industries left in Luoyang, including the paper mill, the Buddha statue casting workshop in Yongning Temple, and the farm where the Yulin Army cultivated land. When the court changed to casting Buddhist coins, Su Ze also made a fortune by following Princess Chenliu.
Now, Princess Chenliu has handed over these properties to Su Suan. She calculated the remaining money in the mansion and wanted to get a good official position for Su Ze in one go, but it seemed that it was not enough.
There was nothing that could be done about it. Prince Qinghe was executed, Queen Mother Hu was imprisoned, and although Princess Chenliu was not implicated, many of her old relationships were implicated.
Some people need to be rescued, some key positions need to re-establish connections, and some people who have come to rely on us need to make progress.
This almost emptied Princess Chenliu's treasury.
Princess Chenliu tapped her knuckles lightly and said:
"With Su Lang's military achievements, it won't be difficult to ask for a Pingxi General. All he needs to do is make some efforts in the Jiangyang Palace and the Taiwei Palace. This little money will be enough."
"General Pingxi, open a government office, with a quota of 20 officials, but if you want to hold the imperial seal, you need the approval of the Ministry of Personnel."
Now Su Ze is a fake governor, and his power is to punish those who disobey military orders during war.
If he was promoted to the position of Chijie, Su Ze would be able to kill officials below the fifth rank during war and temporarily appoint officials below the fifth rank.
Although there is only a difference of one word, it is a world of difference between "supervising military affairs exclusively" and "taking both military and civilian affairs into account."
With this power, Su Ze could reach into the county level and control local government affairs through the right to dismiss and appoint officials.
Su Suan came to Luoyang with money and property this time just to ask for the opportunity to keep the imperial seal.
Princess Chenliu said, "It seems that we still need to sell the Gaochang linen cloth at a high price to have enough money to bribe King Jiangyang. I do have a way, let's give it a try."
Hearing that Princess Chenliu had a plan, Su Suan immediately asked for advice. After hearing the plan, Su Suan blushed with excitement and said:
"My mistress has a good idea. I will do it right away!"
Hearing the word "mistress", Princess Chenliu felt relieved. She said to Luzhu, "Your master is the same. Men in charge are too careless. He didn't give any rewards for the Mid-Autumn Festival. Luzhu, take those things from the mansion and give them to Steward Su."
Su Suan thanked him profusely and said a lot of auspicious words before leaving.
-
Bian Ji (the debater monk who did not observe the Buddhist precepts) has been much more obedient in Luoyang since he witnessed the Xuanguang coup and was nearly killed by Yuan Yi and Liu Teng.
However, his prediction to Empress Dowager Hu before the coup made him even more famous.
Even King Yuanyi of Jiangyang often invited Bian Ji to his house to give lectures.
But today, Bian Ji did not go to Yuan Yi's house to preach. Instead, he rarely set up a high platform in Longhua Temple and preached Buddhism in public.
This is a rare thing. Since the last battle with Liu Lingzhu under the command of King Qinghe, Bian Ji has not preached Buddhism in public in Longhua Temple. Longhua Temple released the news three days ago. Today, the square in front of Longhua Temple was packed with people. For the people who have experienced several turmoil in Luoyang, Bian Ji's preaching is the gospel in their difficult days.
Today, Bian Ji was not wearing the linen monk robe that he usually wore when preaching in public, nor was he wearing the silk cassock given to him by King Jiangyang. Instead, he was wearing a white cotton monk robe.
It has to be said that clothes make the man. After putting on the white monk's robe, Bian Ji had more of the demeanor of a hermit or a high monk.
Those who came to listen to Bian Ji’s teachings today included not only ordinary people, but also many monks from other temples.
Before Bian Ji came, there were two branches of Buddhism in Luoyang City, competing with each other.
These two branches produced the same classic book, "The Treatise on the Ten Stages of Bodhisattva Practice", but because the translators, Bodhiruci and Lenamuddy, had different emphases on the Buddhist scriptures, they were divided into two schools.
The disciples of Bodhiruci are called the Northern Dao School, and the disciples of Lenamuddy are called the Southern Dao School.
From Yecheng to Luoyang, there are two paths, the South and the North. Bodhi's disciples from Dao Chong onwards are scattered in the north of the path, so it is called the Northern Sect; Lenamutva's disciples from Hui Guang onwards are distributed in the south of the path, so it is called the Southern Sect.
However, these two Buddhist masters have passed away now. Although Huiguang, the disciple of Lenamutva, is still alive, Huiguang mainly preaches in Xiangzhou. Therefore, there is no Buddhist master of any weight in Luoyang City now.
After the emergence of Bian Ji's new Buddhism, since one only needed to chant the Buddha's name to practice, it didn't matter if ordinary people couldn't read the Buddhist scriptures. Bian Ji compiled these Buddhist stories into stories. After these stories spread in Luoyang, they attracted a large number of believers to Bian Ji's Pure Land Sect.
Today, Bian Ji is regarded as a great master, and many Buddhist temples have discovered that believers are more concerned about the treatment after death than studying the abstruse Buddhist scriptures.
Therefore, each temple also tries to add some simple and easy-to-practice parts into its own sectarian doctrines.
All the major Buddhist temples in Luoyang sent monks to listen in on Bian Ji's lecture.
But this time, when Bian Ji went up to the platform, he did not start preaching. Instead, he pointed to the cotton robes on his body and began to talk about the origin of cotton.
The cotton in the Western Regions was brought from India by monks who preached Buddhism. Cotton has always been loved by monks because of its white color.
The Dafo Temple in Gaochang had a large number of cotton fields, which were used to grow cotton and weave it into robes for the monks in the temple.
Princess Chenliu analyzed that the reason why Gaochang linen cloth could not be sold before was because there was no group of people who needed to buy it.
It is impossible to sell Gaochang linen cloth to common people and nobles, but if you add value to Gaochang linen cloth, it will be easy to sell it to monks in Luoyang.
You have to know that the monks in Luoyang are very rich. Kings, dukes, ministers and nobles would often donate their houses and lives to temples. Even this small Longhua Temple once occupied a lot of land from the imperial guards.
As expected by Princess Chenliu, Bian Ji's preaching in a cotton robe was a huge success.
With the promotion of Bian Ji, Gaochang linen cloth quickly became the most popular attire among monks.
Nowadays in Luoyang city, if you don’t have a cotton robe, you should not debate with others!
The same goes for believers. If a monk who preaches the sutras does not even have a cotton robe, how can he be called a devout monk?
Master Bianji said that cotton robes are standard equipment for eminent monks.
All the Western Region merchants in the four cities of Luoyang were questioned by these monks, but cotton cloth has never been a bulk commodity. Now because of the war in Guanzhong, the Silk Road to Luoyang has been cut off, and there are not many pieces of Gaochang linen cloth to be found on the market.
At this time, a newly opened Western Region shop put a large amount of Gaochang linen cloth on the shelves, which was quickly snapped up by the group of wealthy monks in Luoyang.
With the money "sponsored" by the monks in Luoyang, Princess Chenliu quickly smoothed out the relationship with King Jiangyang.
The Menxia Province reached a resolution with astonishing efficiency, and it was stamped with the imperial seal on the same day.
Because of his military merit in resisting the Qinzhou rebels in the Battle of Longxi, Su Ze was promoted to the rank of General Chijie, General Pingxi, and was appointed to command the military affairs of Hezhou, Liangzhou and Longxi County.
The court's appointment was delivered to Guanzhong by fast horses.
This time, Yuan Yi praised Su Ze so much, and he also wanted to warn Xiao Baoyin.
Since Xiao Baoyin entered Guanzhong, the Qinzhou rebellion has become more and more intense, and the veteran Cui Yanbo was even killed because of his reckless advance.
In order to maintain the war in Guanzhong, Yuan Yi requisitioned a lot of supplies, which affected his ability to make money.
This was also the ultimatum Yuan Yi gave to Xiao Baoyin. If the situation in Guanzhong could not be reversed, the court would really consider changing the commander.
Of course, it would never be Su Ze's turn to be the Grand Commander of the Western Expedition.
Prince of Jiangyang Yuan Yi prefers Yuan Shen, as Yuan Shen is one of the few members of the royal family who can lead troops in battle, but his private life is too bad.
-
September, the first year of Zhengguang.
Hou Gang had just crossed the Baoxiade Road with great difficulty, but found that the pass leading out of the Baoxiade Road was unguarded.
Hou Gang immediately sent scouts to gather information, and only then did he learn that Mo Zhe Tiansheng had defeated Cui Yanbo and captured Chencang.
When the troops brought by Hou Gang heard that Mo Zhe Tiansheng was now stationed in Chen Cang, they all showed excited expressions and wanted to go to Chen Cang to join Mo Zhe Tiansheng.
After hearing about the battle situation in Yongzhou, Hou Gang was also surprised.
He didn't expect that the government army was so weak that it was defeated by Mo Zhe Tiansheng and the important town of Chencang was captured.
Hou Gang made up his mind and headed towards Chencang with the thousand men who had escaped from Liangzhou.
Just when Hou Gang and his men met up with Mo Zhe Tiansheng and told Mo Zhe Tiansheng about the battle situation in Liangzhou, Su Ze's envoy reporting the victory also crossed the Tangluo Road and delivered the victory report to the Western Expedition Camp in Wugong.
When faced with Su Ze's report of victory, Xiao Baoyin first questioned it.
He even ordered the torture of the messengers who brought the news of victory. In the end, the counselors who had been talking big fell silent when they heard the battle report from Liangzhou.
Mozhe Tiansheng, who defeated the government troops in Yongzhou, was just the youngest son of Mozhe Dati.
However, Mozhe Dati was killed by an arrow shot by Yang Kan, and the main force of the Qinzhou rebels led by Mozhe Dati were completely wiped out by Su Ze and Yang Kan.
Xiao Baoyin felt very regretful. Since Yang Kan and Su Ze were so good at fighting, didn't he seem incompetent?
Xiao Baoyin looked around and his eyes fell on Liu Kai, the chief secretary of the executive office.
(End of this chapter)