Khotan, Xinjiang Hotan County is the oasis second only to Lop Nur in the southern part of the Western Regions, and the geographical location is simply unique: two rivers from the Kunlun Mountains, a Baiyu River Yulong Kashgar River, a Moyu River Karakash River, the two rivers flow in parallel for hundreds of miles before converging into the Khotan River, and inject into the Taklamakan River to the north, Khotanese people live in the middle of the narrow strip, do not have to worry about the attack of wind, sand and drought, so the population is nearly 20,000, the largest country in the south.And the location of jade mining in Khotan, in the middle of the Baiyu River, in the distance is the top of the Kunlun Snow Mountain, just looking at it can feel the cold of the majestic glacier, the river bank is full of gravel, can not be cultivated at all, but the Khotanese people who pick jade have been in groups, and the naked feet are stepping on the cold water.And the one who led them to pick jade was the translator of Khotan, who was actually a Han man, with arrow marks on one side of his forehead and white sideburns, according to his own account, he had been in Khotan for almost 30 years."
Villain Zhao Yannian" Why is it another year?
Can't you change your name?"
When Xiaowu was with the general of the second division to conquer Dawan, he was ill when he returned, and it was difficult to keep up with the army, so he was stranded in Khotan."
It turned out to be a veteran of the year, when Li Guangli conquered Wanwan for the second time, he brought out more than 60,000 people, but only more than 10,000 people returned to Yumen Pass, most of them died in the Tao, but there were also more than 1,000 people stranded in the states of the Western Regions for various reasons, becoming the first batch of migrating population."
Which army are you in under the Second Division?"
Zhao Yannian was a little timid: "Riding the captain Shangguan Ji." ”No wonder he said that although he was homesick, he didn't dare to go back to Dahan, after all, Shangguan Ji and his family were liquidated.So Zhao Yannian took root in Khotan, married a wife and had children, and became the leader of hundreds of Han people here, but also found a way to gain a foothold: to help the king of Khotan Caiyu.Although Khotanese jade was transmitted to the Central Plains through various routes in the Yin and Zhou dynasties, large-scale mining was still in the later years of Xiaowu.At first, the Khotanese only regarded jade as a beautiful stone in the mountains and rivers, and even used for sheepfolds, until the Sogdians began to exchange livestock spices for them, and then sold them as goods.After the establishment of the Western Regions Protectorate, there was no need for the Sogdians to transit, and they were directly sent to Yumen as tribute, which could be exchanged for a large amount of silk silk.Silk is the currency of the Western Regions, and the king of Khotan regarded jade as a treasure and reused Zhao Yannian to take the people of Khotan to pick it.Zhao Yannian pointed to the snow-capped mountains in the distance and said to Ren Hong: "Dare to tell Yu Duhu, the jade comes from Kungang, and it is washed down by the snow that melts in summer and autumn. ”It is not difficult to fish for jade, as long as you can see the jade in the river, you can bend down to catch it.But as jade became the main commodity in Khotan, the king of Khotan could not wait for autumn, and sent people to pick jade in summer."
When I pick jade in summer, the water is full of mud and sand, and I can't see the jade in the river, so I just step on it."
Zhao Yannian has been doing this for more than 20 years and has a lot of experience, and he took a few Han people to walk barefoot in the shallow water of the river, and he could distinguish which one was jade and which one was stone, and he would never miss it.Hordes of Khotanese followed suit, holding hands and singing while stepping on jade in the river."
What are they singing?"
Ren Hong asked the translator.The translator replied that the Khotanese people sang it meant: "How beautiful the white jade is, how aggrieved it is when it is hidden in the water."
It's not hard to come to the world, just touch my feet!
”Wonderful, this is really a good advertisement for Taoyu, Ren Hong couldn't stop laughing, this song can be changed, and put it in the story that he is going to send someone back to Chang'an.But jade mining is not so easy, you have to try your luck, Ren Hong came here to inspect the whole afternoon, Heli only mined three pieces of jade, two pieces of color in general, only a fist size, is the best sheep fat jade is like a fat and translucent sheep tail after the oil is frozen, the texture is smooth, clean and moist, not only white, but more importantly, as if the liquid is stagnant, may melt at any time, full of a sense of agility.The Khotanese people who stepped on the jade became the heroes of everyone and were held high on the water to celebrate, but the sheep fat jade was handed over to Zhao Yannian, and he held it to Ren Hong.Ren Duhu didn't mean to swallow it privately: "How much is such a good piece of jade worth in Chang'an City?"
”Zhao Yannian swallowed his saliva: "At least a million dollars!"
”Don't talk about others, Ren Hong turned his head, and the guards beside him were greedy, Sun 100,000 came here to pick up ten pieces of mutton fat jade, and he could realize his dream of 10 million.It is conceivable what kind of sensation such a legend will bring after it spreads in Sanfu."
Then how much reward can the Khotanese people get for stepping on the beautiful jade?"
Zhao Yannian said with a smile: "Five barrels of wine and ten picks of Hu cakes." ”This is simply a dispatch called Huazi, and the jade diggers at the bottom really rarely make a profit.The king of Khotan had regarded the two rivers of white jade and black jade as forbidden and sent people to inspect day and night, and the Khotanese and Sogdian merchants dared to come and secretly mine jade, and once they were discovered, they would be executed.I heard that there are also people who venture into the mountains to attack jade, after all, the source of jade is near the glacier, but they often die for life.Not only do you have to climb Osaka at a higher altitude, but there is no road, and sometimes you have to climb up along the cracks in the rocks and hold on to ropes, and if you are not careful, you will fall into the abyss.This trip down, Ren Hong has a bottom in his heart, and the king of Khotan set up a banquet to entertain him in the west of the national capital in the evening.Ren Hong remembered that a thousand years later, Li Shengtian, the last king of Khotan, called this name, but it was common for the ancestors and grandchildren of the Hu people to have the same name.King Khotan went to Chang'an last year, except for the Han Dynasty who was a little unhappy with the throne of Shanshan in front of him, he was extremely satisfied with the business of directly paying tribute jade in exchange for silk silk in the past three years, and was respectful to Ren Duhu, and even gave him the sheep fat jade that Zhao Yannian got in the afternoon, which was politely refused by Ren Hong.And the prince of Khotan is called "Wei Chi Xinhe", who is also thirty or forty years old, with a good face, not a drop of wine, and glances at Ren Hong from time to time during the banquet, as if he is very interested in him.The language of the Khotanese people is not very different from that of Loulan and Jingjue, and the most distinctive thing is that the Khotanese women like to use charcoal ink to connect their eyebrows, which looks like there is an extra black line on their foreheads, but the Khotanese people take this as beautiful and do not feel different.Ren Hong only drank wine, applauded the dancers and musicians, and said secretly in his heart: "If Zhang Chang is here, he can learn it and try this Khotanese thrush method for his wife." ”When he returned to the mansion specially built for the Han envoys, Ren Hong had already thought about the story of Taoyu to tell to the people of the Central Plains.The protagonist of this story is called Zhao Yannian, and the name of the bad street is easy to resonate with.This will be a poor boy of Sanfu, Zhao Yannian, who has achieved nothing for half his life, followed the second division to the west, but stepped on a piece of mutton fat jade in the white jade river in Khotan, sold it for millions of dollars in Chang'an, and became rich overnight.Just like his neighbor Xiao Zhao bought a lottery ticket and won a million, causing the whole community to flock to gambling, no matter what era, there is no shortage of leeks.Then arrange some of today's observations and hears, so that the story is half-true.For example, by the White Jade River in Khotan, you can pick up a piece of beautiful jade by bending down, such as the jade picking song of the Khotanese people, which focuses on describing the ease of stepping on jade, which makes people think that I can do it after listening to it."
This story is set to spread in Sanfu and Sanhe, and the imperial court recruits people to come to the Western Regions and Beiting mainly in these places."
It is the most densely populated place in the world, and like Jiyin County, where Ren Hong went, there is an imbalance between arable land and recognition, and it has begun to fall into the Malthusian trap.Many people have lost their land due to natural and man-made disasters and become tenant serfs and maids, and it is impossible for all of them to do business, while the craftsmen are basically hereditary, and their skills are never passed on, and the number of idle people in society is increasing year by year.Immigration is a way out, and Xiaowu was constantly moving people to Shuofang, Hexi and other places.But human nature is like this, the attraction of first-tier cities is far greater than that of small counties in the eighteenth tier, and most people would rather be slaves in Guanzhong than go to the border to get a hundred acres of land to start over.And recruiting soldiers to fight this kind of thing, only the self-confident good family of the six counties can be competent, after all, ordinary people avoid war, do big things and spare their lives, and forget their righteousness when they see small profits.But if you hear that there is a hundredfold profit speculation like jade mining in the Western Regions, it will attract them greatly.People have a fluke mentality, and feel that good luck can hit their heads, especially the stories of those idle and evil teenagers who get rich overnight and get nothing for nothing, which just pokes their hearts, so that the work of recruiting people to come to the Western Regions will be much easier.Shang Ying regarded these idle people as "poison", and forced farming and warfare was "poison lost to the outside", and in the eyes of Jing Zhaoyin and the county guards, how could Lu Zuo, an evil young man who was not engaged in farming, not be the black sheep who poisoned the place?
The result of letting it go is the problem that Sanfu is facing now, a large number of light heroes and rich people collude into groups, stealing children and brawls are still light, and there are even gangs that buy murderers in Chang'an City, and the public security is extremely poor.If these socially unstable elements can be attracted by the story and all go to the Western Regions to pursue wealth, Jing Zhaoyin, who has always been angry and is dismissed every once in a while, may have to beat gongs and drums to send plaques to thank Ren Hong.Ren Hong smiled helplessly, tens of thousands of people are a drop in the bucket for the total population of tens of millions, but in the Northern Court of the Western Regions, it is a drop in the bucket."
After all, serious people, who will come to the Western Regions!"
Dreams and adventures, deception and war, and even blood and tears, this is the westward movement of the Great Han.Ren Hong turned over and fell into a deep sleep, but probably thinking about it day and night, he dreamed of this set of jade stories, and he made many versions of it by himself later.For example, people in Yuzhou and Jingbei counties will hear that a poor guy named Chu Yannian couldn't survive in the Central Plains, and when he arrived at the edge of Lishui in Jingnan, that is, Changsha County and Wuling County, he lowered his head when farming: Good guy, he picked up a piece of dog's head gold with a big head!
Sold for millions in the market and became rich overnight.In the dream, he even said that Liu Ai, who was pro-government, had changed the currency system and incorporated silver into Chinese currency.also made up the story of a young man named Fan Yannian who lowered his head and picked up a piece of basin and silver on the mountain of Wadao, and sold it for millions of dollars and became rich overnight.Many chivalrous and evil teenagers in Qingzhou and Xuzhou were enthusiastic, risking the danger of sinking the ship, and followed the Han envoy's sea ship to the island to pan for silver."
Why is it called longevity?"
Ren Hong frowned in his dream, and decided that his children and grandchildren would never take this name.And early the next morning, Chang Shizhong came to report that the prince of Khotan, Wei Chi Xinhe, had come to visit.In addition to Wei Chi Xinhe, who was holding a gift, there was an old man with a high nose and deep eyes, blue eyes, a bare head, a yellow coat, and bare feet, and a young man in the same costume beside him.Obviously, it is not a Khotanese people, and the Khotanese race is also a mixture of East and West, which is quite similar to Loulan."
Protect it."
The prince of Khotan bowed down to Ren Hong, and introduced the foreigner beside him: "This is Shamen Pilu Zhan of the country of Khotan, and he is also a guest of the country of Khotan!"
”Poppin is the Crimea of later generations, and Khotanese is only separated by a Karakoram Pass, as for Shamen Renhong only then reacted, Khotan is the first stronghold of Buddhism in the East and the Western Regions, it seems that the great monks have come here, but what did the prince of Khotan want to do when he brought him to see him?
Missionary?
Pilu Zhan and his disciples can only speak Khotanese, not Chinese, and fold their hands towards him, after a difficult translation by the prince of Khotan, Ren Hong found a paradoxical thing.This old Shaman, named Virujan, is not the Indian monk he remembers, but a Greek monk!
PS: Chapter 2 in the evening.