Standalone Northern and Southern Dynasties

Chapter 379: Painting on a Blank Paper
There is another happy event in Yongle City. Su Yuyao, the younger sister of Su Ze, the Duke of Gaoping, is going to marry Dugu Xin, a soldier in the shogunate.

The only sister of the Duke of Gaoping is very famous in Yongle City. Many young men from aristocratic families who are of marriageable age want to get promoted overnight by marrying Su Yuyao.

Dugu Xin was also very famous in Yongle City.

Although his origin from the Six Towns was criticized, he was able to stop many rumors with his handsome face and personal talent.

What made the scholars in Guanzhong a little disappointed was that the only relative of the Duke of Gaoping was also from the Six Garrisons rather than Guanzhong.

However, the officials and people in Yongle City still welcomed the wedding with great enthusiasm.

After all, in their eyes, Xiazhou is the territory of the Duke of Gaoping, which is Su Yuyao's maiden home. Of course, the marriage of a daughter from her maiden home must be splendid.

Nowadays, the various states in Guanzhong are divided into different levels according to the distance and closeness of the relationship.

Xiazhou and Hezhou are the two states with the most special status, because Hezhou is the place where Su Ze started his career. The governor of Hezhou, Li Shizhe, stopped caring about affairs from a very early time. The political affairs of Hezhou were all handled by Su Cho. It was also the first place to implement the system of granting land to soldiers. In the whole Guanzhong, the population of Hezhou was relatively small, but it had 60 Zhechongfu, the most among all states and counties.

Xiazhou was the place that Su Ze conquered personally and where he remained stationed for a long time.

Xiazhou itself is a relatively backward region, and it is also a mixed area of ​​farming and nomadism. The power of the local nobles is very weak, and they are also the most well-behaved and obedient.

Xiazhou was also a region that implemented the system of granting land to soldiers relatively well. It had thirty Zhechoufu. Although it could not be compared with Hezhou, Xiazhou was the province with the smallest population, and this number was already a lot.

Next are Longxi County and Liangzhou, which were also conquered by Su Ze himself. He also stationed troops in these areas and personally presided over government affairs.

Especially in Liangzhou, Su Ze personally killed the Yang family of Hanzhong and intimidated the gentry and powerful people in Liangzhou.

There were forty Zhechofu in Liangzhou and thirty Zhechofu in Longxi County, but the population of these two places was far greater than that of Hezhou and Xiazhou.

The local nobles and powerful families in Longxi and Liangzhou were not a monolithic entity. Liangzhou faced border threats, and Longxi County also had the problem of nearby barbarians. Su Ze's policy of naturalizing the Qiang and barbarians and providing relief to the local people was gradually dividing and disintegrating the power of the local nobles.

Gaoping County is relatively special. There are not many Zhechoufu, but there are many Qiang people and tribes in Gaoping County, but not much arable land.

Finally, there are Huazhou, Jingzhou, and Qinzhou, the last states to surrender. These states were originally occupied by the rebels, and the local aristocratic families and powerful people have been cleared out.

During the long-term war, the rebels were not good at organizing production, which caused famine and a sharp decline in the local population.

In Su Ze's words, it is "a blank sheet of paper for painting". As long as these returning nobles and powerful families are stopped, it will be easier to implement the system of granting land and military service in these three states in the future.

The worst is Liangzhou.

The Liangzhou Group obviously joined Su Ze earlier, but there was not a single Liangzhou scholar in Su Ze's group.

In previous examinations, Su Ze was very dissatisfied with Liangzhou's performance, and the system of granting land to soldiers was the worst promoted in Liangzhou.

Su Ze certainly knew that this was because the local gentry in Liangzhou were quite powerful, and in the early days of his business, in order to win over the gentry, he was more lenient towards the gentry in Liangzhou, which led to the current situation.

However, Su Ze did not care. Now that he had already established his own control over Guanzhong, it was the Liangzhou gentry who were anxious.
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Jia Yuan, the head of the Guzang Jia family, was on his way to Yongle City.

Because of the involvement of the son of the Jia family who served as the county magistrate, Jia Yuan was originally the deputy governor of Liangzhou. However, because of a statement made by the Council of State Affairs that he violated the Three Mutual Laws, he was transferred from Liangzhou to serve as the governor of Baishui County, Huazhou (near Baishui County, Shaanxi Province).

A state deputy governor becomes a county governor, which is considered a lateral transfer in the officialdom.

However, transferring from the old nest of Liangzhou to the newly-annexed Huazhou was already a very dangerous political signal.

The Jia family has been able to survive from the Han Dynasty to the present day, so they are certainly not fools. They know that Su Ze is dissatisfied with their Guzang Jia family.

So on his way to take up his post, Jia Yuan had to go to Yongle City to exchange official seals. On the way, he heard about Su Yuyao's marriage, and hurriedly prepared a valuable gift to give to Su Ze as an apology.

In addition, when Su Ze was planning to set up Chongwen Pavilion, he called on the gentry to donate books, but the gentry in Liangzhou donated the least.

This time, Jia Yuan brought all the Confucian classics books passed down in his family.

The Jia family rose to prominence very early. It is said that they were descendants of the political commentator Jia Yi. Later, Jia Hui and his son Jia Kui were both great Confucian scholars in the Han Dynasty. They wrote "Zuo Zhuan Jie Gu" and "Guoyu Jie Gu". These two books were the family academic works brought by Jia Yuan this time.

After entering the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, the Guzang Jia family delved deeper into academic research.

The reason is that there is no way to make progress in politics, so one can only delve into academic studies.

When Emperor Xiaowen compiled the family clans, the Jia family was only a second-rate family and was listed as Class C.

After suffering a blow this time, Jia Yuan learned from his mistakes and decided to change his mindset. He even took out his family heirlooms and hugged Su Ze's thighs tightly.

In the post station, Jia Yuan's son Jia Zhi stood beside his father and said:

"Father, does my son really want to study in Chongwen Pavilion?"

Jia Zhi is now twenty years old and is an outstanding young man among the younger generation of the Jia family.

Jia Zhi started to learn at the age of three and was very proficient in the family's classics, history, and collections. With his academic ability, he was able to study in Chongwen Pavilion, but was only qualified to give a lecture.

As a child of an aristocratic family, Jia Zhi certainly did not like Chongwen Pavilion. Many of the students in Chongwen Pavilion were children of impoverished military families and merchants.

This time Jia Yuan obediently handed over the official seal of Liangzhou Beijia, and the only condition he proposed to Su Ze was to let his son study in Chongwen Pavilion. Su Ze knew what Jia Yuan meant, so he agreed to his request at that time.

This time when Jia Yuan went to Yongle City, he also had the task of taking his son to enroll in school.

Jia Yuan looked at his son and knew that he was arrogant, but there was one good thing about Jia Zhi: he was very filial.

Jia Yuan said:

"In Chongwen Pavilion, there are various classics collected by the Duke. Do you dare to say that you have read all of them?"

Jia Zhi immediately shook his head. Although he had finished reading his own classics, the Confucian classics were voluminous and the annotations and discussions of each school were completely different. Sometimes, different interpretations of the same sentence would give the entire text a completely different meaning.

Jia Zhi was not so arrogant as to think that he was proficient in all the classics.

Jia Yuan said earnestly:
"When you enter Chongwen Pavilion to study, you represent the entire Guzang Jia family. Son, please don't bring trouble to the family."

Jia Zhi was a filial son. After hearing this, he immediately bowed and said:

"My son, learn from your mistakes! I will study hard and not bring shame to the family."

Jia Yuan nodded and said:

"When you enter Chongwen Pavilion, you just need to study hard. You don't need to do anything else."

Jia Zhi breathed a sigh of relief. He was a child of a scholarly family, but his father had kept him in the family to study. He originally did not want to become an official but wanted to continue the family's academic path.

Therefore, Jia Zhi was not as good at building relationships and flattering each other as other children of the gentry. Instead, he was rather dull and boring by nature.

He originally thought that his father sent him to study in Chongwen Pavilion so that he could make friends with the higher-ups in the Duke's Mansion.

Now that I know all I have to do is study, I feel relaxed.

When Jia Zhi thought of the large number of books collected in Chongwen Pavilion, including not only the family heirlooms of various families in Guanzhong, but also the royal collection brought by Princess Chenliu, he began to look forward to Chongwen Pavilion.

For book lovers, it is a wonderful thing to be able to read in Chongwen Pavilion.

Jia Yuan looked at his son and let him enter Chongwen Pavilion, which was Jia's attitude.

If you are in a different circle, don't force yourself to fit in. My son is not good at socializing, but he has some talent and ability in academic research.

Let him go to Chongwen Pavilion. As long as he studies hard, he may have a chance.

For the Jia family, sending a young man with an overly active mind to Yongle City would bring disaster to the family.

This is also the Jia family's way of survival. By packaging themselves as an academic family, they try to stay away from political infighting as much as possible.

The advantage is that as long as the ruler is not too outrageous, he will respect such cultural families and will not kill them all.

The disadvantage is that it is difficult to enter the center of power. If you encounter some monarchs who do not pay attention to civil governance, you may not even have a chance to stand out.

Anyway, Jia's attitude is clear. Whether to kill or chop her up depends on what the county lord Su Ze thinks.

Jia Yuan had welcomed Su Ze in Dunhuang that year, and he still felt a little regretful for not getting close to him and getting on his good side in time.

However, as a member of the Liangzhou gentry, he could not betray his origins. All he could do now was to cut his losses in time.

Accompanying Jia Yuan was Liu Chong, the supervisor of Shandan Horse Farm.

For Su Yuyao's marriage, the pastoral supervisor, who was originally a eunuch, carefully selected ten top-quality horses from the stable as gifts for the newlyweds.

In addition, Liu Chong personally visited all the horse farms to identify the bloodlines of the horses and made a horse register for the stallions of the Shandan Ranch in the format of the civil register.

This is also the gift Liu Chong wants to present to Su Ze.

Jia Yuan sometimes feels sad that when it comes to flattery, eunuchs like them are the experts!

Liu Chong's attitude towards Su Ze can be said to be a weather vane of Su Ze's rising status.

When Su Ze was still the General Protector of the Qiang, after defeating the Gaoche people in the Battle of Dunhuang, he rented a place to raise horses from Liu Chong, the herdsman supervisor.

At that time, Liu Chong's attitude was arrogant. He turned a blind eye. As long as the money was in place, there were many wealthy families in Liangzhou who occupied the horse farms. Liu Chong treated Su Ze as an ordinary newly rich local tyrant.

As Su Ze's achievements grew and the Northern Wei court became increasingly weak, Liu Chong began to "rent" more pastures to Su Ze and no longer demanded the overdue rent.

After Su Ze's dominance became apparent, Liu Chong became more docile and directly assisted the pastoral supervisor sent by Su Ze to take over the entire ranch. He also took the initiative to help Su Ze retake the ranch that was occupied by the Liangzhou gentry.

Now that Liu Chong knew that Su Ze attached great importance to horse breeding, he presented a horse register and even collected a book called "Horse Breeding Manual", Jia Yuan could not bring himself to be so rude at first and respectful later.

Talent!
(End of this chapter)