Great Song Dynasty Writer

Chapter 92 Southwest Situation

In May, the midday heat in Hejiang County casts blurry, indistinct shadows between the blue-tiled roofs.

It was an ordinary afternoon. In an inconspicuous courtyard in the city, five students dressed in long cotton robes were sitting around a stone table under a grape trellis.

"I really want to go back to Brother Lu's restaurant and try his food again!"

Lu Guangyu had a vivid memory of "spicy chicken," and it was lunchtime, so he kept talking about it while drooling.

Indeed, after a few days of simple interior renovations and the hiring of two more staff, Lu Beigu's private restaurant opened for business.

Although it started quietly without much publicity, this restaurant, whose prices were significantly higher than those of ordinary home-style restaurants, quickly attracted the attention of some people.

Hejiang County is, after all, a trade hub, and there are quite a few people willing to spend money to try it out.

And then something amazing happened soon afterward.

—As long as someone goes in to taste it, they come out wiping away sweat and tears from the spiciness, while praising it endlessly!
This word-of-mouth effect is quite remarkable. Soon, the news spread like wildfire, and the name of a unique little restaurant on South Street in Hejiang County became widely known.

More and more diners are going to try it, and there are even queues at the private kitchen restaurant!

Making money was certainly gratifying, but the surge in customers also alarmed Pei Yan, who was in charge of cooking. She had no choice but to raise the prices again. However, contrary to her expectations, this not only failed to deter customers but actually increased the queue.
Lu Guangyu and others went there a few days ago when it had just opened, so they were able to eat there early. Now it would be difficult to eat there again.

Lu Beigu was unwilling to reveal that he was the one who taught his sister-in-law how to cook, so he didn't feel comfortable cooking himself.

"Alright, stop thinking about it. Time is of the essence. Take a couple of bites of your pancake and keep learning," Zhu Nanxing said, rolling his eyes.

Because they only had about ten days of vacation before reporting to state school, but they all wanted to do well on the quizzes this year, they were unwilling to waste this short break and spontaneously got together to study hard.

The efficiency of studying together as a group of five is definitely higher than that of studying alone, because in addition to creating a learning atmosphere, they can also discuss problems they don't understand.

This is Huang Jingji's home. He took out a few steamed buns and a pot of water, which served as lunch for the five of them.

"I heard that many students from Luzhou Prefecture are actually exempt from the corvée labor we were exempted from?"

Lu Guangyu gently placed the Analects on the stone table, took a steamed bun, took a bite, and suddenly asked a question.

"There are many students from Luzhou who are exempt from corvée labor, but their situation is not the same as ours."

Huang Jingji replied, "Although the three counties of Luzhou are peaceful, the two salt commissioners in the south are actually quite chaotic. Some students from Luzhou are exempt from corvée labor because this was a special exemption granted by the imperial court to households that participated in suppressing the Wuman rebellion in Luzhou."

"A rebellion by the Wuman people of Luzhou?"

Lu Beigu was also somewhat surprised and put down "The Compilation of the Spring and Autumn Annals" to hear what was going on.

"Eh? Brother Lu, you don't know?"

At this point, the others were somewhat surprised, as if this was a very ordinary thing for them.

After distributing steamed buns to the group, Huang Jingji scratched his head and asked, "Seven years ago, the Wuman rebels in Luzhou had already reached Sanjiang Village, which is within our Hejiang County. At that time, the imperial court mobilized a lot of troops, and almost everyone in Hejiang County knew about it."

“It’s normal that Brother Lu doesn’t know,” Lu Guangyu said at this moment. “At that time, we were all very young, probably less than ten years old, and we lived in Gulin. Even if we heard about it, we probably wouldn’t remember it.”

"I really don't remember it."

Lu Beigu took a bite of his steamed bun, quite curious about the question, and asked, "Could you explain in detail? What exactly happened with the barbarian rebellion in Luzhou?"

After several people explained it to him, he roughly understood that Luzhou in the Song Dynasty was actually divided into two parts with completely different levels of security and geographical environment. The three counties in the north, close to the Yangtze River, were inhabited by a large number of Han people, with developed water transportation, prosperous trade, and good public security. The large mountainous area in the south, nominally under the jurisdiction of the Luzhou government, was actually distributed from north to south as "Han people-Liao people-Wuman".

The Liao people are divided into "acquainted Liao" and "raw Liao". The "acquainted Liao" are Liao tribes that have submitted to the Song Dynasty and paid taxes, while the "raw Liao" are caught between the Song Dynasty and the Wuman and often become the object of contention between the two sides.

The southernmost Wuman tribes were different from the four major tributary forces, including the Luo clan. They were completely disobedient to the Song Dynasty and could not even obey orders without being summoned. They were in a state of rebellion for many years. These Wuman tribes, led by families such as Degai and Puye, conquered the Liao people by force, demanding that they pay taxes and provide soldiers to form the "Liao soldiers" system. They then used the Liao soldiers to launch attacks on the two salt commissioners located in the mountains from time to time.

"Or to put it bluntly, the root of the Wuman rebellion is Yujing."

Huang Jingji said, "Yujing is a world-famous salt well. During the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, this lucrative area fell into the hands of the Wuman tribe because various forces were unable to take care of it. Of course, the imperial court could no longer tolerate this situation, so it sent troops to drive the Wuman tribe to the mountains in the south and took Yujing under the control of the government. Therefore, starting from the first year of Dazhong Xiangfu, the Wuman tribe has been constantly rebelling."

"In the second year of the Qingli era, the Wuman tribe had accumulated enough strength and began to fight against our army many times, controlling the salt wells and plundering the Liao people. From the fourth year of the Qingli era to the first year of the Huangyou era, the court mobilized troops from Sichuan and even Guanzhong and Shaanxi, and it took five years to quell the rebellion. But in reality, it was just driving the Wuman tribe back to the mountains. Now they have rested and recuperated for five or six years and are showing signs of restlessness again."

Lu Beigu looked up at the grape trellis above him. The new green vines had already produced fruits the size of green beans. Sunlight filtered through the leaves and dappled the pages of the book, like a handful of scattered gold.

To be honest, living in such a peaceful and tranquil county town, he found it hard to imagine that such a large-scale rebellion could occur in the same prefecture, and that it had never stopped since the founding of the Song Dynasty.

"Then tell me, why can't the imperial court wipe out these Wuman tribes in one fell swoop?"

Another classmate, Zhu Zhen, who ranked fourth in the county examination, also came over, fanning himself with a palm-leaf fan. The ink bamboo pattern on the fan had faded somewhat.

"Of course not, Dali is behind Wuman."

Zhu Nanxing said, "Both sides share the same race and customs. When Duan Siping, the founding emperor of Dali, was able to establish the country, the thirty-seven tribes of Wuman contributed a lot. The two sides swore an oath of blood at the 'Shicheng Alliance'. In the past hundred years, there have been continuous intermarriages between the Wuman and Dali nobles. They are already so closely connected that even if their bones are broken, their tendons are still connected. It is fine if the court repels the Wuman invasion, but it is hard to say how Dali will react if it crosses the border to attack the Wuman."

After listening to his classmates' comments, Lu Beigu roughly understood the current situation in the southwest.

To be honest, Luzhou, as the southwestern border of the Song Dynasty, had a rather complicated situation. To the south of the Liao people was the Wuman, and to the south of the Wuman was the Dali. It could be said that a change in one part would affect the whole situation.

The reason why the Song Dynasty and Dali did not go to war and did not develop into a situation like the Song-Xia War was mainly because neither side wanted to fight. The Song Dynasty could not support a three-front war in the northwest and south, and the King of Dali was not the troublemaker like Li Yuanhao. Therefore, both sides were carefully controlling the situation.

As for the situation of the Dali Kingdom, Lu Beigu had a general understanding of it because he had read historical materials.

The current king of Dali is named Duan Silian. Hmm, one of his descendants is quite famous, named Duan Yu.
During this period, the Dali Kingdom was in the midst of the rise of the powerful Gao family. Duan Silian felt that there were many internal troubles, so he was particularly humble towards the Song Dynasty. For example, last year, due to the pressure from the Song Dynasty, Duan Silian killed Nong Zhigao, who had been defeated by Di Qing and then sought refuge with him.

"So, does that mean it's not necessarily safe for us to go to Luchuan County to study at the prefectural school?" Lu Guangyu asked with some concern.

"That's not the case."

Lu Beigu said, "Countless caravans and ships travel back and forth every day from Hejiang County to Luchuan County. The Yangtze River is definitely safe. The only unsafe places are Yujingjian and other areas south of Luzhou, but we won't go there."

"Too."

Lu Guangyu nodded.

Afterwards, the group quickly finished their steamed buns and continued their studies.

The ten-day holiday passed by in the blink of an eye. During this time, Lu Beigu studied diligently and finished reading the ten volumes of "Spring and Autumn Annals Anthology". However, there were still many questions that his classmates could not answer, and he felt that his abilities had reached a bottleneck.

Soon, the day arrived for them to set off together for Luzhou State Academy.

[Volume 1, "The Mountain and Water Gentleman," concludes.]

(End of this chapter)