Standalone Northern and Southern Dynasties

Chapter 513 The Reincarnation of Heaven
Hou Jing was very respectful to the household steward sent by Princess Nanyang.

At the beginning, Hou Jing took great care of Princess Nanyang because of the care of his lord Su Ze and his mistress.

The last time the Yizhou nobles used the female workers hired by Princess Nanyang to cause trouble, Hou Jing eventually sent their contracts to Princess Nanyang's mansion. Hou Jing originally thought that Princess Nanyang would naturally turn these female workers into her domestic slaves, but he did not expect that Princess Nanyang summoned these female workers and burned all the contracts in front of them.

The strangest thing about this incident was that the female workers whose contracts were burned actually started crying bitterly. They knelt on the ground and begged Princess Nanyang to take them as slaves.

In fact, it is not uncommon for people to be willing to be slaves.

Especially in times of turmoil, a free self-employed farmer might not necessarily live a better life than a servant in a royal palace.

These female workers are all women, and many of them are widows who have lost their husbands.

Princess Nanyang treated her servants kindly and was herself a top weaving master. These female workers were willing to be slaves in Princess Nanyang's mansion.

But Princess Nanyang said:
"You can still continue to work in the workshop in the mansion. Why do you have to belittle your status?"

"Now that Yizhou is under the rule of Duke Su, everyone's life will be better."

After Princess Nanyang said this, the female workers were skeptical, but Princess Nanyang didn't waste any more words. She announced that the female workers' wages would be increased and allowed the female workers who had completed the manufacturing workshop tasks to bring their own raw materials to the workshop to weave brocade. The brocade they wove could be sold directly to the workshop or sold outside.

Now several skilled female workers looked at Princess Nanyang excitedly.

Brocade weaving is a technical job, but there are top talents in every profession. These female workers also had some basic knowledge of brocade weaving when they worked in the mansions of the aristocrats.

Princess Nanyang was a generous professor who was not stingy with even the technical details and taught everyone the brocade weaving technique step by step.

For those skilled female workers, the biggest challenge in weaving brocade is the tools.

A loom capable of producing complex patterns is very expensive and is simply not affordable for the average person.

In other words, Princess Nanyang had this ability. Many of the looms here were designed by Princess Nanyang herself and built by craftsmen from the Ministry of Works. These looms cannot be bought outside.

Princess Nanyang allowed the weavers to use the looms to weave their own brocades after they completed the tasks of the manufacturing department, which was equivalent to lending the machines to them to make money.

After the women workers expressed their gratitude, Princess Nanyang continued:
"The last time, Governor Hou also said that among the soldiers who are going to conquer Shu, there are also many who are still single. I am going to report your situation and ask Governor Hou to arrange a marriage for you."

The female workers were boiling with anger.

Everyone knows that the salary for serving in the military in Guanzhong is high.

These are all good families, not those lousy soldiers and bandits in Yizhou!

If you make meritorious service in the army, you can be awarded medals and have the opportunity to become an official. I heard that the most recently appointed garrison commander of Baidi City and governor of Ba County were once privates.

To go back to the point, even if a soldier died in battle, Duke Su was very generous in providing pensions to his family members.

The female workers who met the marriage requirements were grateful profusely and became even more loyal to Princess Nanyang.

This incident made Hou Jing admire Princess Nanyang very much.

Finding wives for soldiers is a natural thing to do.

For soldiers, these female workers who mastered textile technology were also very good marriage candidates.

Soldiers in Guanzhong have a high status, but they are still grassroots gentry after all.

The possible marriage partners were girls from self-cultivating farming families of the same birth, or daughters from small local families, daughters from merchant families, or girls from military officers' families.

These weavers can weave brocade, and their productivity can even match or even exceed that of an adult man. You must know that brocade is the currency in circulation today, and being able to weave brocade is the same as being able to print money.

The north during this period had not yet been bound by the ethics of the Song and Ming dynasties. In addition, after the Five Barbarians' Invasion, China was influenced by the barbarian culture, so marrying a widow was not a shameful thing.

Some places even inherited the levirate marriage system from the grasslands.

Having given birth to a child is a great thing!
This shows that you can have children! And the probability of having a second child with a difficult birth is much lower.

Arranging wives for soldiers is a way to make the soldiers feel at ease.

Hou Jing admired Princess Nanyang because she was one of the few nobles in that era who could truly care about the people at the bottom of society.

Duke Su is also one of them, but Su Ze himself came from the lower class, so it is normal for him to tend to the lower class.

But Princess Nanyang is a lady of noble birth who has been pampered since childhood. The fact that she can understand the hardships of ordinary people so well only shows that she is truly kind-hearted.

Hou Jing met Princess Nanyang's household steward, a serious female official.

After the female official saluted Hou Jing, she explained her purpose.

"Your Highness said that Chengdu is very hot this year, and he wants to set up a porridge stall in the city to provide cold soup to the people to cool down."

"In addition, I heard that the governor wants to rebuild the Dujiangyan Irrigation System, and Your Highness is also preparing to donate at the construction site."

This is also what Princess Nanyang often did after entering Shu.

Because she was in charge of the manufacturing bureau and was a master of brocade weaving, the Princess of Nanyang got rid of Xiao Baoyin, the burden, and did not need to use her own private money to support him. Her life became better and better. This was not corruption or anything like that. The brocade woven by Princess Nanyang herself could be sold at a sky-high price, whether in Yongle City or Luoyang, or even in Jiankang and the Western Regions!

Now she has absorbed the weaving techniques of Shu brocade, and both her weaving speed and artistic attainments have reached a new level.

Perhaps Princess Nanyang wanted to accumulate merit, or perhaps she was just kind-hearted, but she would make donations in Chengdu every now and then. This is one of the reasons why she was called the Weaver Girl by the local people.

Some people even wanted to build a shrine for her, but of course Princess Nanyang flatly refused.

Princess Nanyang wanted to do good deeds and accumulate virtue, so Hou Jing naturally agreed. To a certain extent, Hou Jing also had to thank Princess Nanyang.

It was precisely because of Princess Nanyang's good reputation that some of Hou Jing's bad reputation was offset, and the people of Shu began to accept Guanzhong's rule.

Hou Jing also intentionally or unintentionally strengthened the Shu people's good impression of Princess Nanyang. Even some rumors about Princess Nanyang and Duke Su were instigated by Hou Jing behind the scenes.

After sending off Princess Nanyang's household order, Hou Jing also waited for Yang Jia's envoy.

When Hou Jing saw the letter sent by the messenger, he saw the crooked Chinese characters written by Yang Jia. After being busy all day, Hou Jing really "could not bear to finish reading" and threw the letter to Chen Baxian beside him.

Chen Baxian read the contents of the letter. Fortunately, Yang Jia's cultural level was limited, so there was no nonsense in the letter.

There were only four words in Yang Jia’s letter: “We want soldiers and food.”

Although he had been promoted to the governor of Ba County, Yang Jia moved the seat of Ba County from Jiangcheng (Chongqing) to Baidi City, and was thinking about seizing Kuimen day and night.

Hou Jing cursed at Chen Baxian:
"This Yang Jia just keeps an eye on Kuimen every day! He doesn't even think about this governor. Yizhou is now out of food!"

Chen Baxian was a little overwhelmed. When you, General Hou, were rampaging in Yizhou, didn't you think about Duke Su?

At that time, the Government Affairs Hall sent urgent orders every now and then, asking Hou Jing not to start a war easily, but didn’t Hou Jing attack Baidi City anyway?

Now that Hou Jing is in charge, he also knows that firewood and rice are expensive, so he orders Yang Jia not to start a war easily. It's really the wheel of karma.

After Hou Jing finished scolding Yang Jia, he also felt a headache.

Before the autumn harvest this year, Yizhou had no food for the war, and this year many places were exempted from taxes by the county lords, so it is likely that not much tax revenue could be collected.

Even after the autumn harvest, it would be impossible to fight a big battle like the one at Baidi City.

Hou Jing was also very troubled, as he also wanted to capture Kuimen and Jingmen.

If Kuimen and Jingmen were controlled by the enemy, the throat of Shu's trade would be strangled.

Su Tingquan raised the flag of the palace of King Xiao Yi of Xiangdong and mixed in with the caravans traveling between Jingzhou and Yizhou, and sold quite a few things.

Today, the trade between Yizhou and Jingzhou is even more prosperous than when Yizhou was under the control of Southern Liang.

A large amount of goods from Yizhou were transported to Jingzhou by ships. They were carrying the flag of King Xiangdong, and Wang Sengbian, who was guarding Kuimen, did not dare to stop them.

However, after these goods were transported to Jingzhou and profits were made, it became difficult to transport them back to Yizhou.

Kuimen and Jingmen guard the Yangtze River waterway with fast-flowing water, like a one-way valve. It is easy for ships upstream to enter downstream, but it is very difficult for ships downstream to return upstream.

Especially for grain transport ships fully loaded with grain, they have a deep draft and a heavy hull. If they want to return to Yizhou, they must rely on trackers on land to pull them.

Wang Sengbian once wrote to Xiao Yi, the King of Xiangdong, arguing that the trade between Yizhou and Jingzhou was aiding the enemy, and demanded that Kuimen be closed and trade be banned.

Of course Xiao Yi disagreed. He was Wang Sengbian's superior, so Wang Sengbian could only allow the ships flying the flag of Xiangdong Palace to travel back and forth in the Three Gorges.

However, as the actual military commander, Wang Sengbian also had his own powers.

The simplest thing was that he banned towing in the Three Gorges area in the name of the Three Gorges Pass, thus preventing the grain from Jingzhou from flowing back to Yizhou.

King Xiao Yi of Xiangdong had no way to deal with this.

During the Northern and Southern Dynasties, although the status of military men was not high in name, they had already formed a group and system.

During the Qin and Han Dynasties, civil and military officials were integrated. When they went out, they were generals, and when they came in, they were prime ministers. Even in the early Han Dynasty, there was a rule that one could not be granted a title of nobility or become a prime minister without military merit.

However, with the development of the times, the civil and military began to separate, and after the collective castration of the gentry in the Wei and Jin Dynasties, starting with the Northern Palace Army, both the royal family and the gentry wanted to control the army through commanders.

Without Wang Sengbian, Xiao Yi had no one to guard the gate of Jingzhou for him.

So no matter how dissatisfied Xiao Yi was with Wang Sengbian, he could not do anything to him.

Faced with the books and treasures sent back by Su Tingquan, Hou Jing could only send these valuables to Yongle City.

But what I want is food!
Hou Jing said to Chen Baxian beside him:
"You go there in person. The war cannot begin before the autumn harvest this year, unless Yang Jia can get the soldiers to go to war without food!"

Chen Baxian could only bow his head and say:
"only."

(End of this chapter)