Chapter 842: Let's Dance

Although it was not extravagant and not held in a big way, Tuhe was still lively on this day.

The Zhen clan sent a dowry of a hundred carts, which drove into Tuhe in a grand manner.

As the first wealthy family to surrender and bind, there was no greater gain than the Zhen clan. In the past three years, the scale of business had exploded. Books, salt, iron, furs, herbs, mountain goods, etc., they were the largest distributors, which made their family scale expand rapidly, and this was only an unranked business path.

The highest-ranking Zhen Sheng was the Minister of Commerce of the General's Mansion. In addition, there were many children of the Zhen clan who held civilian positions. Medicine and Wenchang Pavilion all had Zhen clan people. Although the levels were not high, they properly formed a force and deeply bound the Great General Wang.

Now as the first woman to marry into the General's Mansion, no matter how other wealthy families looked at it, the Zhen clan wanted people to know. If it weren't for the fact that Wuji was the ancestral home of the family and it was not easy to give up, they would all move north now. In fact, they were already moving north now, and only a part of the people were left in Wuji. Because Wang Yan had said more than once that the Han royal family would perish and the world would be in chaos, they trusted Wang Yan's judgment very much.

No one had more contact with Wang Yan than them, and no one believed in Wang Yan more than them.

The long motorcade beat gongs and drums, and before the sun in the autumn day became poisonous, it entered Tuhe City and drove to the General's Mansion.

Today's Wang Yan rarely wore festive red clothes, and he wore a crown on his head, still wearing a jade hairpin, and he was still very heroic after dressing up. He led a group of high-level officials of the General's Mansion, standing with his hands behind his back with a smile, watching the Zhen clan women being taken into the back house.

Listening to the Zhen clan's accompanying steward reporting the gift list, what a pair of East Sea pearls, a pair of Western Region jade discs, two sweat-blood horses, South Sea coral, hawksbill... Anyway, it was five-flowered and eight-door, messy, all precious things. If placed two thousand years later, it would be enough for Great General Wang to die dozens of times, and there would be no buffer at all.

After singing the dowry gift list, Wang Yan waved his hand, and then led his men into the Council Hall of the General's Mansion. The place here was very large, and there were low tables on the mat, which was just suitable for everyone to sit together to eat and talk.

Now almost the entire rule had used tables and chairs, and only this Council Hall used the current kneeling mat and low table. There was no special reason, mainly because it was not commonly used here, and it would only be used when holding a big meeting. And on such occasions, everyone sat on tables and chairs separately, which had a feeling of elementary school students in class, but they were wearing Han clothes and wearing crowns, which felt a bit ridiculous and not very formal.

Of course, they wouldn't feel anything wrong, but they were all very serious, but Wang Yan couldn't. Although he was immovable, he felt uncomfortable. This would definitely be changed in the future. He had already thought about it, building a big hall, similar to the Great Hall of the People, with a stepped shape. When holding a big meeting, he would sit on the dragon chair below, and these ministers would sit above, making it magnificent, so that everyone would not be tired...

Everyone sat on the mat, their postures were not uniform. For example, the front row Cai Yong, Hua Tuo, Zhen Sheng, Bing Yuan, Guan Ning, and Liu Bei who sat at the last seat, were all kneeling upright. Martial officials such as Huang Zhong, Taishi Ci, Zhou Cang, Liao Hua, etc., were all sitting cross-legged. They also knelt before, but found that the Great General did not stick to etiquette, and he himself sat cross-legged, sat with legs stretched out, etc., and they gradually relaxed. By now, they were completely gone, unlike the civil officials who still kept the etiquette, one board and one eye.

Personal guards served as waiters, serving dishes and wine one after another. Stewed pork elbow, stewed mutton, sauce beef, fragrant fried yellow croaker, smashed cucumber, five dishes and one pot of wine per person, very rich.

Cucumber is called green cucumber, which is also Zhang Qian's credit. Now there are many planted under the Great General's rule. Basically, every household will turn the ground in the yard and plant some, which is not much different from the Northeast rural areas two thousand years later.

"Today I am getting married, taking the opportunity to gather with you all. If it weren't for the rules under my rule, today's food would be ordinary to you. However, you have worked hard and worked hard, following me to plan great things for the people of China, all of you are gentlemen. Today, you should eat and drink to your heart's content, and get drunk. Gentlemen, drink."

Wang Yan sat cross-legged on the mat, holding the wine cup in his right hand, covering the front with his left hand, and toasted the subordinates with a smile.

The civil and military officials under the seat all responded "drink," brushed their wine cups to the Great General, looked up, and drank it all in one gulp.

Hua Tuo ate a piece of smashed cucumber first, and said loudly: "The General's words are wrong."

"Where is it wrong?"

"People eat five grains, and there are still diseases. Such big meat, if eaten often, martial generals like Hansheng are still okay, but civil officials like Cai Gong will inevitably be stupid and fat. This is a lesion, which is unfavorable to the body, and the lifespan will also be damaged."

If you don't say that Old Cao wants to behead you, the speech is too straightforward, and you talk about professionalism when you come up. The big boss talks about hardship, you say that you can't eat too much. Although it is such a truth, is it like words?

Wang Yan shook his head with a smile: "Yuanhua's words are reasonable. Although it is still early, as we grow stronger day by day, the meat will be more and more, and this will inevitably happen. Gentlemen, don't talk about civil and military, there will always be a day when the war is fought. At that time, I am afraid that you will be lazy, civil and martial, and all of them will be stupid and fat like pigs. The so-called greed for more and not chewing, civil cannot prosper the country, martial cannot settle the state, and it also damages the lifespan. Gentlemen should keep Yuanhua's words in mind, think about it, and be cautious."

"Follow the General's teachings."

"Hahaha, gentlemen, don't be so formal. This is not discussing state affairs, but just chatting together, just be natural. Left and right, the Zhen clan's accompanying music and dance girls, please come to help us."

The personal guard responded. A moment later, more than a dozen dance girls, as well as a music band of more than ten people, and personal guards carrying musical instruments behind them, came in and bowed to the Great General, and then played music and danced, starting the performance...

Liu Bei, who was sitting at the last seat, drank by himself and ate and drank sweetly. His current position was not enough to attend this banquet. It had only been three months, and he was only the most grassroots civilian official in Tuhe City, not even a pavilion chief, but a subordinate of the pavilion chief, busy running around every day, issuing notices, and counting data.

And those sitting here today were the bosses of various departments in Tuhe, as well as the county magistrates of other county towns, and the titled commandants of the seven guards and the Xiaoji Camp, a gathering of the core high-level military and political officials of the General's Mansion. As an outsider taking refuge here, a grassroots civilian official, being able to sit at the last seat on such an occasion was already the highest courtesy given to him by the Great General Wang.

Being able to reach today, there were no fools. Perhaps Hua Tuo was unintentional, but the Great General Wang's words were a warning. But the confidence revealed in his words that the world was already in his hands, compared to the conversation with the Great General when he first came, Liu Bei was naturally accustomed to it. He had already accepted the Wang rebel's wild words, but what surprised him was that the high-level officials sitting here were equally unquestioning, as if it should be so.

This was a very terrible thing, because it represented the strong cohesion under Wang Yan's current command.

And in the past three months, he had gone deep into the grassroots and had in-depth contact with the people, and more clearly understood how rich Liaodong was today.

Every household had surplus grain, two meals a day, thick porridge in the morning, dry rice in the evening. There were three or five chickens, ducks, and geese, and several eggs could be eaten every month. There was a pig, which was fattened and killed at the end of the year, which could be eaten by himself or sold. There were General's Mansion grain, oil, salt, and sugar shops in the market. Salt was cheap, grain was at a flat price, rapeseed oil was expensive, and sugar was the most expensive.

There were wine and food shops, and the people could eat a meal every month or so. There were cloth shops, and the people could afford coarse cloth and hemp clothes. Although there were silks and satins, few people bought them. There was a market, selling furs, mountain goods, and vegetables, melons, and fruits grown by the people themselves. There were fish shops, which were caught in the sea and rivers, and the people could afford them. Suizhong, Tuhe, Fang County, and Pingguo were close to the sea, cheap and fresh, and transported north, the loss was high, and the price was expensive, but the people could also afford it.

The richest were the people of Tuhe, but they just had more chickens, ducks, geese, pigs, etc. Relatively speaking, the people in Xiangping and Xuan Tu backed by big mountains also had mountain treasures, which could subsidize. The two balanced each other, and there was nothing. As for the people living in the middle, merchants coming and going north and south had to pass by, and the price was also moderate. In addition, some people bought goods in the county town, or carried poles, or pushed small carts, selling in various villages, and could also have more income. The suppression of prices under the Great General's rule was done quite well.

Liu Bei could definitely say that the people of Liaodong were the richest, because any family pulled out was better than his life at the beginning. As far as the situation in China as a whole is concerned, having experienced the previous Yellow Turbans, and the various chaos of various Yellow Turban remnants and Taishan thieves that had never stopped over the years, the taxes in various places were heavier, and the life of the people was not even as good as his time.

And what surprised Liu Bei even more was that every person he had contact with, from the old man in his fifties or sixties to the child of three or four years old, had extreme reverence for Wang Yan, almost to the point of being worshipped as a god. However, he thought about it, if he were a difficult person, and under the leadership of Great General Wang, life was getting better day by day, he would also be like this.

In terms of the army, when he was on vacation earlier, he gathered with two good brothers and talked about Liaodong. The situation inside the army that Guan and Zhang said made him even more surprised. Three meals of dry rice every day, a piece of meat every half month, the training intensity was very high, the military formation cooperation was very powerful, the soldiers' desire to fight was quite strong, and the combat effectiveness was very fierce. The military equipment was not only complete, but also of better quality and more resilient.

Similarly, these soldiers were more superstitious and worshipped Wang Yan. When they chatted, they basically talked about how the Great General was. And after dinner in the evening, the military executive would organize soldiers to learn to read, learn according to the printed military regulations and civilian regulations, and occasionally the military executive would talk about what policies the General's Mansion had issued, and explain in detail what benefits it had for them.

Such a team, to say that there is no combat effectiveness, is impossible. Not only is there combat effectiveness, but there is also very strong combat effectiveness. Not to mention the ideological problem, just eating and drinking, even if you indulge the army to loot the people, you can't loot this level of eating and drinking.

As for his two good brothers, they followed Liao Hua to kill into the grassland last month.

Liu Bei, sitting at the last seat, had no heart for singing and dancing, and various thoughts flashed in his heart, even the food he ate had no taste...

The song stopped, the dance ended, Wang Yan stroked the short beard he had already raised, nodded with a smile: "Liaodong is a bitter and cold place, without singing and dancing, Meng Guang is thoughtful."

"To tell you the truth, this is not my intention, but the intention of the hostess. The hostess is well-read and loves singing and dancing, so she brought it as a dowry." Zhen Sheng bowed and answered with a smile.

Wang Yan raised his eyebrows. He planned to appreciate it carefully after the banquet dispersed...

"It's very good to come here. My Liaodong soldiers and civilians don't know music, don't know music, don't understand dance, and work hard all day. They should also enjoy this singing and dancing. Since the lady loves singing and dancing, she should establish a singing and dancing department, summon more singers, dancers, and musicians, arrange new songs and dances that inspire spirit, and perform in the army and county towns, so that my people can watch. Meng Guang, this matter is handed over to you, find a place to open a mansion, provide the singing and dancing department to work, and specifically how, come to discuss with the lady tomorrow."

"Yes, General."

Wang Yan nodded, and then looked at the dancers and musicians who were standing honestly in the field but could not hide their astonishment, and said: "You are not lowly people, and you are not noble people. There is no difference from the common people. When arranging new songs and dances, you must remember that making my soldiers and civilians happy is the best of the best. Don't be self-respecting and elegant, and cut yourself off from the people."

"Follow the Great General's teachings."

The Great General waved his hand.

The group bowed and retreated three steps, then turned and left quietly. They were all professionally trained...

After drinking a glass of wine with everyone, Wang Yan said: "I know that you all want to go south for a long time, but now the north is not settled, the grassland is not pacified, and it is not suitable to send troops south. And even if you go south, we cannot expand too much. Now I say again, raising troops is for the people's livelihood. Now there are millions of soldiers and civilians under my rule. If I vigorously promote military affairs, the people's livelihood will inevitably decline, and the people's hearts will inevitably be chaotic. Even if I unify the Central Plains, my people will be poor again. What is the use of that ninety-five position?

If it is for my own wealth, today's foundation is already very good. Even if I become emperor, what about it? In order to keep the people's livelihood safe, and even better, we must plan slowly, step by step, and it will not be possible without twenty or thirty years of work. Gentlemen, don't be in a hurry, you should use your heart to do things."

After everyone responded, Wang Yan continued: "Recently, news came from Luoyang again. The Han Emperor Liu Hong is already unable to walk, his body is weak and even coughing up blood, and he will not last long. I expect that there will be changes next year. You should prepare. If there are really changes, after the autumn harvest, you will send troops to Linyu to peek at the two states of You and Bing."

Wang Yan gathered these people today because he noticed the restlessness of these people and unified their thoughts. It is indeed four years later, the granary is full, and they are still importing grain to the rule. The current grain reserves are enough to support 150,000 troops to fight for half a year. Of course, this is according to their current eating standards for soldiers. If it is according to the general army, they can hold on for a year.

Counting the strong combat effectiveness and combat will cultivated by high-intensity training in the past four years, as well as the titled commandants Huang Zhong and Taishi Ci, the two great generals, and Zhou Cang and Liao Hua, the two generals who, although their personal combat effectiveness is poor, have cultivated military command and mobilization, not to mention the Great General Wang, an invincible fierce general and commander.

Without bragging, they send troops now, and they can completely fight from Liaodong to Luoyang within half a year, kick the Luoyang Son of Heaven off his position, and change Wang Yan to sit on it.

So these people were a bit floating, and they couldn't hide their fanaticism for war. Then Wang Great General, the leader, had to gather these people to knock them.

In fact, really speaking, a considerable part of these people still want to make contributions from the dragon, seal their wives and sons, and be rich for generations. Although Wang Yan has told them more than once that it is at most to make their descendants better, it is absolutely impossible to hold power without merit, and they will be beheaded if they commit crimes. But they don't care at the moment, they all want to get rich first, and talk about the rest later.

But they thought wrong, and just wait to see if the Great General Wang will behead them...

As for saying that one battle will settle the Central Plains, that is a joke. The world is not Luoyang. Even if the old Liu family is kicked down and the Great General Wang sits on it, what can he do? If it is really like this, it will still be that the world will rebel, who will listen to his orders? Instead, they all want to kill him first.

He is not in a hurry, so he should develop slowly like this, how much land to plant, how much grain, how many people to support, then how much territory to take down. Such an iron hoof moving south slowly, the fear of Old Cao and others, that kind of powerlessness, like a cat catching a mouse, may be a little interesting for the current Great General Wang...

After communicating with the high-level officials under his command, the banquet dispersed, and the Great General Wang returned to the bedroom behind the General's Mansion.

"The maid pays respects to the Great General." Seeing Wang Yan come in, the two little maids who were serving hurriedly bowed and saluted.

"Have you eaten?"

"Just now the General's maid came to send food, and we have all eaten."

Wang Yan waved his hand: "Retire."

The two little maids bowed again, turned and left the room, and thoughtfully closed the door. Although it was autumn, the weather was hot, but fortunately, the ice in the room was sufficient, which was still cool.

Looking at the red-clothed woman sitting on the couch with a head cover, Wang Yan walked over a few steps and lifted the cover, meeting that pair of caught-off-guard, wide-eyed eyes. In an instant, Zhen Dao's face was dyed with red clouds.

Her eyes were very big, with curved willow eyebrows, a nose like a jade, and cherry lips, and her face was baby-fat, which was very durable. There was a natural fragrance on her body, which had the effect of a perfume bag, and even more of her own body fragrance, which felt very good.

The Wuji Zhen clan started from Wang Mang, and it has been 150 years so far, 15 years a generation, and there have been ten generations so far. Doubting the aesthetics of wealthy families is like the aesthetics of the chaebols of South Korea. Even really speaking, the aesthetics of chaebols are definitely not as particular as wealthy families. After all, beauty has never been just beauty.

And the marriage of wealthy families is a common thing. The next generation achieved by the genes continuously improved by the two families is naturally not bad. So when it comes to Zhen Dao, she can also be called a beauty. Not to mention that she is a legitimate daughter of a wealthy family, and the training she has received is also quite superior.

Why is Zhen Mi famous, but Zhen Dao's reputation is not obvious? Because she doesn't have an emperor husband, an emperor son.

Looking at the man in front of her who had let her undergo four years of family training, Zhen Dao bowed and said: "Concubine, pays respects to the General."

Wang Yan stroked her face, felt her trembling, and then used both hands to pick up the complex head ornaments on her head one by one.

"I heard that you love singing and dancing, and the accompanying singing and dancing musicians are also your intention?"

"Exactly."

Zhen Dao tried her best to control her breathing not to be chaotic. She naturally knew what she was going to face next. Her mother had taught her early...

Pulling out the last long gold hairpin, Wang Yan stroked her scattered black hair, laughed and patted her back: "Let's dance."

"Yes, General."

Zhen Dao smiled brightly. She shook her hair, stood up and bowed to the Great General Wang, and then went to the spacious open space in front of the bedroom couch, slowly swaying her red wedding dress and dancing.

The Great General Wang had already taken off his single garment, lying on the couch, also with his hair scattered, watching Zhen Dao dancing in red clothes with a smile.

That dance was really good-looking... ===== CHAPTER 843 =====