Volume 3: The Land of Jingchu Chapter 230 Granting the Nine Gifts
The General's Mansion had two good things coming to it. First, the traitor Huang Zu who had caused chaos in Jiangxia had been beheaded in Echeng, and second...
But it did not come from Zhang Ling. After all, Chen Gong's persuasion of the ancient Yue tribe was just a "thought", a good start, and there was no actual benefit.
Moreover... the next step is to chase the tiger and devour the wolf, and drive the Baiyue to attack the Wuling barbarians in Jingzhou, which is not easy to say out loud.
The real happy event was that the imperial court’s “Nine Gifts” award came to Jinling for the fourth time!
Bai Tu had declined three times before, and this fourth time... the court's will was so firm, and there were also dozens of letters sent by people from more than a hundred counties in Yangzhou, all urging Bai Tu to accept the Nine Gifts.
Helplessly, Bai Tu, as a thin-skinned person, had to accept it.
The celebration banquet for Jiangxia’s victory added a bit of joy!
At the same time, the envoy also brought news from the Prime Minister's Office to Cao Pi and Sima Lang - at this time, the pseudo-general Yuan Shao and the Prime Minister's Office had already dispatched troops to Liyang and Yanjin respectively.
The two places are important cities north and south of the Yellow River respectively. The war between Hebei and Central Plains... is about to break out!
In terms of the number of people alone, it even exceeded the battlefield of Jingyang. Yuan Shao dominated the four states of Qing, Ji, You and Bing north of the Yellow River. Wuhuan and Liaodong had been severely damaged by Yuan Shao before, and a small number of Black Mountain bandits had already come out of the mountains to surrender.
With abundant food and fodder and powerful war horses, they were extremely powerful. Their army was said to number one million and their cavalry was one hundred thousand!
Of course, it was just a claim. In reality, with the population of the four states of Qing, Ji, You and Bing, they had just experienced the struggle between Yuan Shao and Gongsun Zan. Even if Hebei was so prosperous, it was impossible for it to have more than one million soldiers and armored troops. However... it was very likely that there were five or six hundred thousand or so.
It should also be taken into account that Yuan Shao took over the four states of Hebei, so he naturally had to bear the responsibility of resisting the Xiongnu, Qiang Hu in Hetao, and the Xianbei in the north, and Liaodong also had to keep an eye on Gongsun Du...
Although they may not necessarily fight with real weapons, and may even cooperate, but... the prerequisite is that they must leave behind an army that is strong enough to deter, otherwise a fight will definitely break out!
Just like Bai Tu now, he must also separate a part of his people and stay in Yuzhang and Zhangling.
It is estimated that the number of troops who can be pulled to the Yellow River battlefield is "only" 300,000 - don't underestimate 300,000... The more concentrated the troops are, the greater the pressure on logistics. Taking into account the civilian laborers and footmen who need to be recruited at the same time, it is not impossible for the total number to reach one million!
Moreover, it is impossible for there to be 100,000 cavalrymen, but there are 30,000 of them - in the world of Cheng Ji, an elite cavalryman needs at least two batches of good horses and four or five poor horses to be "trained".
Just like real cavalry, they also need several horses.
Yuan Shao is definitely the most generous prince in terms of cavalry...
As for Cao Cao, although he had gathered all the young and strong Yellow Turbans in Qingzhou and occupied Runan, but... at most, he could only use about 100,000 troops and a few thousand cavalry in the north.
It is slightly weaker than in history when there was no White Rabbit Effect - although because of Bai Tu's previous disaster relief, Runan's population is larger than the remaining population in history, but... Xuzhou and Huainan are not under Cao Cao's control now.
But it was not too weak. After all, Xuzhou had been "slaughtered" by Cao Cao before, especially the area around Pengcheng, which had long been overdrawn by Cao Cao. In fact, Liu Bei was the worst off in recent years. Xuzhou had a large population but a serious shortage of manpower.
As for Huainan... In history, Cao Cao's Huainan was a Huainan where nine out of ten houses were empty after a drought, and afterwards, most of the people in Huainan moved south to Jiangdong. When he was fighting against Yuan Shao, Huainan was almost an empty land!
So all in all, Cao Cao is not much weaker than in history, it’s just that... his potential is much weaker.
At this time, Liu Bei had already arrived in Xu Du alone under the repeated urging of Cao Cao.
Liu Bei had hesitated before, but under the current situation, if Cao and Liu did not join forces, he would only be annexed by Yuan Shao. If Cao and Liu joined forces... the gap between Liu Bei and Cao Cao would be even greater than the gap between Cao Cao and Bai Tu!
On the other hand, Liu Bei also heard some rumors in Xuzhou, saying that Cao Cao was bullying the Han emperor...
Before, Liu Bei did not have much confidence in Cao Cao's character, but... in Liu Bei's eyes, or in the eyes of most people, massacring a city and mistreating the emperor are definitely two different things - the latter is much more serious!
Especially recently, the imperial court has repeatedly granted Bai Tu the Nine Gifts. Although Bai Tu has been refusing , anyone with a discerning eye knows that this is "three times of refusing and three times of declining"...
For a moment, Liu Bei could no longer fully trust Bai Tu - it turned out that when it came to supporting the Han Dynasty, he could only rely on himself!
So Liu Bei decided to go to the court to take a look in person.
Of course, Liu Bei is now also a local lord, unlike during the Battle of Guandu in history when he was still relying on others for support.
Although he came to Xu Du in person, his second and third brothers were leading troops in Xuzhou, so Cao Cao did not dare to touch him easily.
…
The ceremony of bestowing the Nine Gifts has already been carried out in Jinling.
In fact, people in the Han Dynasty did not know what the "Nine Gifts" ritual in "The Book of Zhou" looked like in detail. Before Wang Mang, Confucian scholars in the Han Dynasty had only studied it from an academic perspective.
The etiquette used by Wang Mang to grant the Nine Gifts can be said to be originally created by Wang Mang, but Cao Cao... I don't know whether he didn't have time to create an original one or he was deliberately making trouble, but at this time he completely copied the "granting of the Nine Gifts" at the turn of the Han Dynasty!
However, Bai Tu did not want to create any more trouble, so he hastily cooperated with the court's ceremonial process and completed the procedure.
What Bai Tu had not expected was that "granting the Nine Gifts" not only nominally allowed him to get rid of some of the suppression of the imperial court's righteousness, which meant that Cao Cao gave up some of his righteous advantages over Bai Tu , but it actually had some practical benefits!
The Nine Gifts refer to nine kinds of imperial gifts, ranging from carriages and horses to clothing, most of which are just symbolic...
But it also includes three hundred "Tiger Guards", bows and arrows to "conquer injustice", and axes to "punish the guilty"!
Although there are only 300 elite soldiers, but... given the current situation, Cao Cao cannot waste them. Besides, even if he is willing to give them away, Bai Tu is not willing to use them!
So what is actually granted is just a title, or a quota.
However, this gave Bai Tu's guards another chance to be promoted and strengthened ...
As Bai Tu's personal guards, although it seems that their rank has not changed, but... from the personal guards of the Mu of Yangzhou, to the personal guards of the General of Chariots and Cavalry, to the personal guards of the general... in fact, Bai Tu's personal guards have also "slid" into higher ranks.
Now, he officially becomes the personal guard of the "Duke of Chu", and is nominally a Tiger Guard bestowed with the Nine Gifts!
Among the 300 personal guards who have been subjected to Taishi Ci's most brutal training and have the best welfare protection from the Ministry of Civil Affairs, nearly half have been promoted to gilded armor, and the other half are also approaching the limit.
There are also "one red bow and a hundred red arrows, ten black bows and a thousand black arrows" as bows and arrows for conquering injustice.
Of course, it's just a symbol. Eleven bows and arrows, who can they conquer?
Cao Cao didn't even want to provide eleven bows and arrows, but he was also granted a "quota", and... two buckets of paint, one big and one small - he had to paint them himself. The ones he painted red were red bows and red arrows, and the ones he painted black were black bows and black arrows.
But in Cheng Ji's world, since these are the Nine Gifts bestowed by the Han Dynasty, they contain the bonus of Han Dynasty's luck. The red bow is about twice as good, and the black bow is about 30% - this is Lu Su's estimation.
So Bai Tu sealed up this batch of "paint" directly.
Okay, don’t you want to save money?
Then save it...
Isn’t it true that the more powerful the “arrow” is, the greater the fortune of the Han Dynasty will be?
Well, that is "double it, one hundred times", "thirty percent, one thousand times"... We have to think about it and explore the potential of the Han Dynasty!
Bai Tu didn't know that under Xi Zhicai's arrangement, the fortune of the Han Dynasty, especially the imperial court, had been transferred to Cao Cao's fortune, and in the future Cao Cao... would really regret this decision.
After all... it's okay if you get a strong bow, but you use it to get an iron lump. Isn't it too much to say it's a "red cannon"?
This is the aftermath...
Now in the Jinling General’s Mansion, Cao Bang’s favorite event is taking place - the banquet.
It's already summer and Jinling is getting hotter, but in the General's Mansion, there are plenty of ice unicorns!
What is Ice Qilin?
Legend has it that the gods were moved by Bai Tu’s diligence and hard work, and sent down a white jade unicorn, so that Bai Tu had endless ice to cool off, so... desserts made with ice are also called "Ice Unicorn".
These all have allusions and repertoires!
Sima Lang secretly scoffed at this legend: I don't believe it! You even sent down a white jade unicorn...
What’s more, this story doesn’t make sense. A unicorn appears and a saint comes out!
So after such a big vision, you were just given a few pieces of ice in the end? It's really embarrassing for Qilin!
What puzzled Sima Lang was that he had specially inquired about it, but he had never found that the General's Mansion mobilized the people to harvest ice in the middle of winter...
Could it be that the people in the General's Mansion picked them themselves? Could they last that long?
Not only in the General's Mansion, but also in various government offices, ice carts were delivered every day. The staff members who were valued by Bai Tu also had ice delivered to every household all day long.
"Boda, look at this ice unicorn. It's cool and chilly... Is it fragrant in this hot summer?" Cao Bang asked Sima Lang seriously.
"It is indeed a rare and precious delicacy for relieving summer heat, but..." Sima Lang said with a frown.
As people become more and more skilled in making sugar cane, even Bai Tu is no longer too proud of his own skills. Now Jiangdong has its own folk sugar-making process...
Naturally, the grasp of "sweetness" has become more and more relaxed, and the taste of this "Ice Kirin" is getting better day by day.
But Sima Lang still felt that this kind of thing was a typical example of waste of money and labor and extravagance and debauchery!
However, before he could finish his "but", Cao Bang interrupted him and said, "In that case, Boda, after the banquet, can you ask Bai Gong for some ice for the daily supply?"
"Ah? Isn't this too abrupt?" Sima Lang was stunned at first, then saw Cao Bang's eyes and immediately blushed.
Cao Bang's eyes seemed to say: [Isn't this too abrupt for you? Aren't you good at this? ]
This reminded Sima Lang of the fear of being dominated by the Glazed Lamp...
Cao Pi couldn't help but say, "An Guo! Don't be rude!"
Upon hearing this, Sima Lang forced a smile towards Cao Pi - Master Pi was indeed kind-hearted.
"Before, it can be said that the Glazed Lamp was liked by Boda's second brother. Now Boda's second brother is not here. How can it be used as an excuse to ask for the Ice Qilin... ahem, I mean 'reason'." Cao Pi scolded.
Sima Lang: ...
