In the first year of Chengtian, in the spring of the first month, Yecheng.
As the Chinese New Year approaches, Yecheng is filled with a Chinese New Year atmosphere. As the current situation stabilizes and the surrounding wars gradually end, General Chongtian of the Taishan Army orders a good New Year this year, and the whole family celebrates together.
Then the whole city became lively.
Last year was an earth-shaking year for many people. Especially the leaders of Guizhou living in Hebei. They experienced wars, conscription, and fled their hometowns. Later, they returned to their hometowns because of the policies of the Taishan Army. So no matter how rich you are,
Even if I have no money, I want to be happy at the end of this year and hope to be more stable in the coming year.
For the Taishan Army, after nearly a year of fighting, they finally have a good situation. They already have Taishan, Laiwu Valley, Dongping Kingdom, Heji area, and the old Wei Kingdom in Hebei. It can be said that the result of this battle is
Very good.
Now, as the Han army in Henan left Hebei, Lu Zhi's Hebei army had to abandon Handan due to the heavy losses suffered by the Qingzhou Yellow Turban and the Eastern Expeditionary Army, and ran all the way to Youzhou with thousands of defeated soldiers.
After the Han army in Hebei withdrew from Jizhou, the situation in Jizhou became increasingly chaotic. After more than a year of war, the order in Hebei has collapsed, and bandits and hunter groups are running rampant everywhere. Those who have some strength have established forts in the countryside.
Refugees gathered in groups to beg for food.
Therefore, at this time, the area of Yecheng and the upper reaches of Zhangshui controlled by the Taishan Army became a rare place of peace in this chaotic land.
Since Yecheng was regarded as Zhang Chong's main base in the future, it has been committed to transforming the rural structure at this time. On the one hand, it divides fields and households, breaks up clan relationships, and on the other hand, it also tries to transform the folk custom structure of this world. The so-called change of customs
It's vulgar.
This behavior was also regarded by many local rural scholars as a Legalist method, repeating the mistakes of the Qin Dynasty.
The reason why Zhang Chong went to great lengths to divide land and households at the grassroots level was a reorganization of the economic structure. However, the folk custom structure spread in the countryside matched the past economic structure of tenant farmers or serfs. It was a powerful force.
their transformation.
In this case, it is necessary for the Taishan Army to change its customs under its rule. Among them, the Chinese New Year is regarded as an important transformation activity and is highly regarded by the Taishan Army's civil affairs department.
The people below were all in high spirits, but Zhang Chong was more sober than them. Customs cannot be uprooted, only the branches can be changed. Because time has given these customs great resilience, even if there are powerful external forces.
Reform is also difficult to completely separate from the past.
Therefore, changing customs will be a long-term task. If it is only temporary, it is just another so-called new life movement.
Naturally, these lower-class people don’t know when the Chinese New Year begins and why they celebrate the New Year. Even if they ask those who have read poetry and books, they will get nothing except telling them something.
But not everything needs to be investigated. Anyway, for them, it is enough to have a specific festival at a time for them to revel.
These simple and unliterary Guizhou leaders may not know that the truth about Chinese New Year is that simple.
The word nian was passed down after the Zhou Dynasty. It was first called Zai in Tang and Yu, which means carrying. In the Xia period, it was changed to sui. Sui was originally an axe-like cutting tool, which was used to harvest crops. At that time, crops
Once a year, after the crops are harvested, people will kill animals to offer sacrifices to the gods, and "Sui" becomes the name for sacrifices.
This annual harvest sacrificial activity was the earliest Chinese New Year. Later, in the Shang Dynasty, the year was called "sacrifice". In the Zhou Dynasty, the year was officially called the year based on the harvest cycle.
For people in a farming civilization, a good harvest is the most important event. This means that they will not die of hunger in the coming year and can survive, so the New Year has become the most joyful thing for our ancestors.
In the past, the beginning of November was celebrated as the New Year. Later, during the reign of Emperor Wu, the first month was officially regarded as the beginning of the year, and it has continued ever since.
Since the origin of the Chinese New Year is the harvest festival, then offering sacrifices to the gods has naturally become the most important activity and theme of the Chinese New Year.
According to previous years, on this day, the human emperor, who is the son of heaven, that is, Liu Hong, should go to the eastern suburbs to welcome Qi. This is his obligation as an emperor.
But it's a pity that now Liu Hong can only go to the old east suburb altar in Chang'an. The six horses pulling the carriage can't even make up for the green horses. Then the three gongs and nine ministers can't count, and the field sacrifice ends miserably.
Activity.
On the contrary, the imperial court in Luoyang to the east was full of people, and the chief officials of the prefects from all over the Kanto region also stood slowly and solemnly. It was more dignified than the imperial court in the west.
Along with these officials, there were also princes and kings from various places. Because of the Han family system, the dynasty was congratulated every year. This was the Zhengdan dynasty.
At this time, the Han emperor would go to court early in the morning of the first lunar month to receive the congratulations of the civil and military officials. At the same time, the princes and officials from all over the country also received New Year banquets.
Happy scene.
This event must be held every year unless there is a serious disaster.
This year, whether it was the first year of Chengtian or the first year of the Republic, was the beginning of a renewal of everything and an important opportunity to unite their respective camps. Therefore, even though the current situation was difficult, both the Eastern and Western courts held grand Zhengdan activities.
In previous years, an important program would be inserted into this event, and that was the debate meeting. It was a traditional program since the reign of Guangwu.
Participants argued with each other about the classics. If someone did not understand the theory or practiced the classics well, he would give up his seat to a knowledgeable person. Legend has it that there was a man named Dai Ping who once won fifty consecutive prizes by virtue of his profound attainments in classics.
Many seats, famous in Kyoto.
But this literary event rarely disappeared this year.
Liu Hong from the west directly changed this project into a contest between Kansai warriors and a hand-to-hand fight. If Liu Hong was not allowed to bring soldiers into the ban, Liu Hong would even hold a martial arts fight.
Coincidentally, at the Luoyang court, the time for debate programs was also reduced, and they also added some martial arts events. It seems that even if the gentlemen of Guandong are unwilling to accept it, they still understand that an era belongs to warriors
, has arrived.
In the horn play in Luoyang, Li Dian from Jiyin successfully came out on top and won his glory.
After four years, this young hero finally reached his age as a warrior.
When Chang'an and Luoyang were offering sacrifices to heaven and starting the Zhengdan Dynasty, Guangzong's New Year was very dull and tense. The most stressful thing was worshiping gods.
As an organization that started out as a religion, Taiping Dao is naturally very taboo about people offering sacrifices to other gods.
As for the Spring Festival, the most gods are worshiped here. The heaven, earth, mountains, rivers, sun, moon, stars, and even the door, stove, and household of the home are all sacrificed, not including some of the ancestors of various communities, wild temples, Anyway, there is something to offer.
And because of the emergence of war, the people and leaders of Guizhou who suffered from the chaos have placed their hopes on these gods. Of course, this includes Huang Tian of Taiping Road, but it also includes other gods. Some people even heard that Taishan Mansion You are also very smart, and you will pull it out to worship.
Naturally, this is not allowed by Taiping Dao, so in other places Zhengdan is beaming with joy, but around Guangzong, people are checking who is worshiping the wild gods, and the atmosphere is depressing and somewhat sectarian for a while.
In fact, one of the key reasons why Hebei Taiping Road is so tense is because there are far fewer Qu Shuai coming to see Guangzong this time than expected.
Except for some areas that were wiped out such as Yuzhou, Yanzhou and Jingzhou did not come to participate. Even some counties in Qingzhou did not come. Only Donglai, Qi and other places still sent congratulatory gifts.
This is not the saddest thing for Hebei. The saddest thing is that Taishan, not far away, only sent one envoy, and it did not have the following identities. Instead, it came as an ally.
Hebei can only swallow this embarrassing situation. With their current strength, they cannot use force to make Taishan surrender.
It was this change that made Taiping Road become more conservative and could not tolerate any disobedience below. Therefore, the Guizhou head under their rule was not happy this year.
But all of the above are not what the people in Yecheng area consider. They are using their rare peace to prepare for this festival carefully.
Just like Guangzong's side, the Taishan Army actually has some complaints about the wild gods worshiped by Xiangyeli Society. But what they are smarter than Guangzong's side is that they know that no matter what they worship, the people are actually asking for it. personnel.
Since there is no way to provide a stable environment for the people under their rule, strictly asking them not to do anything actually has little effect. Therefore, they do not intend to directly change the customs from this area.
In addition to prohibiting some witches from making money and killing themselves, the Taishan Army did not stop them from burning incense or buying silk and satin for clay sculptures to worship.
Because sometimes, people really need some sustenance, otherwise they are prone to chaos. For this reason, the Taishan Army also intentionally strengthened some good customs.
For example, there is a custom near Yecheng, which is to look at the ice on the trees during Zhengdan, which can predict the harvest in the coming year. If the snowflakes on the branches are round particles, it is a good omen for the harvest; if they are flakes, it will be a good sign for the coming year. You may encounter drought.
Therefore, on the morning of Zhengdan day, the people in Guizhou climbed up to see the ice trees. When they saw all the round and bright particles, they all cheered.
The Taishan Army spread the good news everywhere, so that they would know that the coming year would be a good harvest.
In addition to these, the Taishan Army also intends to infiltrate some new things into the rule.
Such as paper!
Paper has already existed in this world, but the craftsmanship was not good enough and the paper was fragile and fragile. Zhang Chong had improved these before when he was dormant in Mount Tai, and he already had a complete paper craft that could be used daily.
Later, when the Taishan Army captured Chaoge, in the Lacquer Garden to the north, the industry was improved with Lacquer Garden Bamboo, which improved the toughness of the paper. This type of paper is also called Lacquer Garden Paper.
From then on, almost all official documents within the Taishan Army were made of these lacquered paper.
In order to spread propaganda and paper to the people under the rule, the craftsman battalion of the Taishan Army specially made a batch of couplets. They were two pieces of yellow paper with two propaganda sentences written on them.
For example: "Men farm and women weave together, so we don't have to worry about eating and dressing."
These are the spoken words of the missionary department, which specializes in educating the people in Guizhou. Therefore, these things are distributed to them free of charge.
But I don’t know how it was passed on. Passed on and passed on, these couplets became the yellow talisman of the Taishan Army. They also regarded these as some kind of gods and placed them at home for worship.
Obviously, even though there are couplets about the Taishan Army's will to reform, in the eyes of the Guizhou leaders in Lishe, they still have the same meaning as before.
Old ideas still dominate their thinking.
And this has also produced a big change. That is that they are creating gods.
The reason why the Guizhou leaders of the Xiangyeli Society worshiped the gods was to pray that the gods would bless them with a healthy and prosperous life. There was a strong utilitarianism behind this.
But now, the Taishan Army has come and helped these Guizhou leaders achieve a turnaround that had never happened in ten generations. They were assigned land and homesteads, began to be respected by others, and lived in an environment where there would be no systematic oppression of them.
This huge change in reality caused them to convert their prayers to gods into prayers to Zhang Chong. They regarded Zhang Chong as a god.
They were cattle and horses in the past, but now they have become humans. So during this Spring Festival, they all express their gratitude to Zhang Chong for his kindness to them.
The most extreme gratitude is to transfer their piety to God to Zhang Chong, their savior, so they do not worship the God of Death but the God of Living.
This change was naturally reported to Yecheng by the Taishan military officials at the grassroots level. After learning the news, Zhang Chong thought for a long time and decided not to respond for the time being.
Because Zhang Chong understands that although from an emotional point of view, he does not want to be regarded as a god by the people, because it is equally easy to create gods and destroy gods since ancient times. But from a rational point of view, this actually reflects the people under his rule's respect for Mount Tai.
military satisfaction.
Because people's worship of God is their expectation for a better life. Now they worship Zhang Chong, undoubtedly because their lives have been greatly changed. And this also reflects their confidence in the Taishan Army.
After all, if they think that Zhang Chong and others cannot live in Yecheng, then these people's behavior of worshiping Zhang Chong will definitely be punished by those who return home later.
Therefore, in order not to dampen the enthusiasm of the people, Zhang Chong decided not to interfere too much in worshiping gods.
But for another thing, this is not the case.
That's gambling.
If worshiping gods still has a certain soothing effect on people's hearts, then gambling is a completely chronic habit.
Gambling was originally a form of entertainment, but when combined with the inclination for leisure and indolence in human nature, it became a chronic habit that corrupted customs and production.
Yecheng, as a place in the ancient Wei Dynasty, had a very strong gambling culture. For example, Liu Bang was fond of gambling back then, and he was good at cockfighting and dog fighting. In normal years, every family would gamble during the Chinese New Year.
But this year is different. Regarding gambling, Zhang Chongming's administration has taken a heavy blow. Gambling is not in line with production activities, and once the amount is too large, someone will inevitably commit a crime, which will pose an important threat to regional stability.
For example, if you win money, you will definitely eat and drink, and waste your enjoyment; if you lose money, you will either sell your children or rob and steal, which will definitely harm the local customs.
So even though gambling was popular among the people, Zhang Chong decided to vigorously crack down on it.
In addition to intensifying publicity in various cities and communities to point out the dangers of gambling, all those who are caught and commit the first offense will be punished on the 15th day of the Spring Festival. Those who commit the second offense will be punished on the 15th day of the Spring Festival. Those who are stubborn again will be punished for half a year.
However, Zhang Chong also knows that a ban can only act as a blocker, and a ban also needs to play a guiding role.
Since the Spring Festival gambling is due to the end of the busy farming season, there is a lot of leisure time. Let the people get busy.
After Guo Huai, a traveler in Anping County, Wucheng City, learned about the above spirit, he personally organized the people in the area to cut firewood. Not only did he replenish every household's winter firewood this year, but he also sold the excess to Wucheng.
The city subsidized the cost of the social opera.
There is also Zhao Gang, the field guard soldier from Linzhang Township, Yecheng, who came out of the cross-collision team. He practiced Sanjiu in winter and Sanfu in summer. He led the field guards to organize young and strong soldiers to practice five soldiers to improve their tactical abilities.
The propaganda team trained in Yecheng performed dramas in one township after another. In short, since the people liked what they heard and heard, it was also beneficial to their production and life.
Of course, even if this is the case, it can only stop people who don't like gambling, but it is useless for those who gamble excessively. Therefore, every township has organized an investigation team. Anyone who catches gambling will open a full social club.
held a general meeting to build up social pressure, and then sent them to Yecheng to build fortifications.
I believe that by doing this, we will be able to kill the gambling culture in Yecheng and prepare the culture for the coming spring plowing.
It was also in this atmosphere of joy and prohibition that Shangji officials and a group of entourage from Mount Tai, Laiwu, Dongping State, Heji area, Puyang and other places also entered Yecheng one after another.
One of the young men named Xu Sheng also followed Taishan's planning group to Yecheng.
Xu Sheng was from Langyaju County and was one of the candidates recommended by the local Taishan military officials to join the Yecheng Military Academy.
At this time, the Taishan area expanded rapidly under the development of Du Man and Yang Mao. Even under very restrained conditions, it also extended its power to the Langya area in Xuzhou, and either suppressed or contained the Langya thieves in this area.
After Zang Ba, the former tycoon here, knew that the Taishan bandits were coming, he decisively gave up Langya and went south to Xuzhou to join the Han army.
And this Xu Sheng was a junior among the Langya thieves. His superior thought that this person had great potential, so he promoted him to the Military Academy in Yecheng.
The Military Preparation School in Yecheng was formerly Zhang Chong's Military Academy, which had been training middle and low-level military officials before. This time when it took root in Yecheng, Zhang Chong ordered each base area to select those with potential and meritorious service to enter the Military Preparation School for further training.
On the one hand, this is to improve the combat readiness capabilities of each base area. On the other hand, it is also to improve the connection between the central government and various localities and reduce the tendency of separation.
Each base area has different distances and different departure times. The first one to set off was the Shangji Mission in the Langya area.
In addition to low-level military officials such as Xu Sheng who were enrolled in the school, there were also some high-level officials who came just to meet Qu Shuai Zhang Chong.
After a year of struggle, the Taishan Army has grown into a powerful group, and some systems are gradually being constructed. The arrival of officials from various places is not only to explain the construction results of the base area, but also to listen to Commander Qu's instructions for the coming year.
Of course, because the base areas are not connected together now, and there are many anti-Taishan Army forces in the middle, there is definitely a certain risk in passing through these areas.
But this risk must be taken.
Xu Sheng didn't understand this. He just took the recommendation letter and the talisman given by his superior and found the senior who greeted him. After gathering twenty people, the senior led them to the current location of the Military Academy.
A group of dock walls located by the Zhang River, directly south of Yecheng.