The outskirts of "Ying", the capital of Chu State.
The spring rainy season has lasted for more than a month, causing some sections of the main road to become muddy.
Spring is the season of recovery for all things. When moistened by more rain, plants grow much faster than in other seasons. Maybe what looked like a small bud yesterday has turned into a stretched paper overnight.
grass.
Under the heavy rain, the soles of the boots of nearly a hundred members of the Mo family were covered with thick mud, and they struggled to walk on the bumpy road.
Mo Zhai originally wanted to lead his tribe to have a good contest with the Gongshu clan of the original country in "Di Qiu", but due to various reasons, there was no chance for a formal contest, and all he suffered from the beginning was crushing.
In fact, that's right. New instruments have repeatedly appeared in Yuan Dynasty among Zhiyao's various ideas. Gongshu has made some use of them, and more importantly, he has been perfecting the instruments "invented" by Zhiyao, which has taken nearly thirty years.
.
In a competition like this, it's better to start from the same starting line. Others have already traveled thousands of meters away, but you have just taken the first step. How can you compete?
Even if the Yuan State is compared with the Song State, can the Song State compete with the Yuan State in terms of national strength? Based on the same assumption, the Yuan State can afford to use up resources and try and make hundreds of mistakes, while the Song State may use up all its resources after trying a dozen or so times.
However, Mo Zhai felt very unconvinced, all because he felt that he still had many fantastic ideas that he had not yet realized. If he lost, he would lose because Song State was too weak, not because of his own incompetence.
It was precisely because Mo Zhai did not show his true ability and declined the solicitation from the original country.
Regarding Mo's affairs, Zhiyao didn't know anything about it. The others didn't see Mo Zhai's ability. Although they were careful when recruiting, they didn't care much when they were rejected.
How should I put it? You can’t blame the person in charge of recruitment for being blind, but if you don’t pay enough attention, you may cause the original country to encounter a lot of trouble later.
Mo Zhai is holding back his energy now, wanting the world to know his abilities.
This time, the Mo family sold everything they could, and then entered the Chu country several times.
Everyone in the world can see clearly that only a few princes in the world are wiped out. The original Wang Yao had the ambition to wipe out the princes and unify the world.
Mo Zhai wanted to show his abilities, but there was no room for him to do so in his original country. Furthermore, he felt that some of the national policies of his original country were inconsistent with his own ideas, so Mo Zhai entered the Chu State to seek service.
It's not that they didn't encounter interceptions during the Yuan Kingdom. The blame is that the Yuan Army was too reasonable. First, they didn't drive Mo back to their homeland, and then they didn't plunder Mo and his party. Otherwise, it would be difficult for them to reach Chu State.
Count separately.
After entering the Chu Kingdom, the Mo family's misfortunes began. Every time they passed through a noble fiefdom, they would be extorted once, and barbarians in the wilderness would invade them more than once.
After all, the Mo family is also a noble family. It is not difficult for the team to resist the barbarians, but some members of the clan died. It was very difficult to reach the outskirts of the "Ying" capital.
"Is it really the right choice to come to Chu to seek refuge?"
Similar soul torture appeared in Mo Zhai's mind more than once.
In the minds of the old and the young of the destroyed country, the original country was of course an enemy country. This enemy country did not recognize the previous ownership of the land, and refused to recognize the ownership of slaves. They had to weigh and consider everything before allocating land according to the current population of a family.
To be honest, people are not used to the rule that the winner owns everything. What matters is that the country can be destroyed, but the property that belongs to someone cannot be taken away.
Now that the original country does not recognize the ownership of the old property rights, in the eyes of the subjugated nobles, they are a group of robbers. They have deprived them of their noble titles and plundered all their property. It is simply too polite and ruined!
Many nobles who lost everything had no choice but to leave their homes, and more than 90% of them chose to defect to Chu.
Why did the Yuan Kingdom sit back and watch these old nobles defect to the Chu Kingdom? It was not that the Yuan Kingdom was arrogant, but it just wanted to make the occupied areas "purer" so that the new policy could be implemented more smoothly.
As for the subjugated nobles who defected to the Chu State, they had no subjects and little property left. Will their defection to the Chu State help them, or will they make the Chu State
Increase the burden and you will be able to see it soon.
"We have arrived at Ying!"
It's not that Mo Zhai didn't tell the nobles of the Chu State that they were here to defect to the Chu State, but there are actually quite a few nobles from the Song State who have defected to the Chu State recently. If there are too many, it doesn't make them special. They will still be blackmailed if they deserve it.
The most important thing is that no one knows who played what role in the "Battle of Emperor Qiu", and it is impossible to show the specialness of the Mo family.
Beside the city gates of Ying, the Chu State built some thatched pavilions to protect them from the rain. Inside, there were specially registered officials from other countries who came to seek refuge.
"Mr. Mo? I have never heard of it. I wonder if there are many people here?"
"My last name is."
"The son's surname? It turns out he belongs to the Duke of Song Dynasty. Please take this bronze medal to the next place."
"I wonder where the next place is?"
"Enter the city holding the bronze medal high, and there will be people to receive you."
Mo Zhai took a closer look at the bronze medal in his hand. The writing methods of Song and Chu were different. Some words needed to be guessed together to roughly guess what they meant.
Those who received such bronze medals were all Song nobles. The Chu State treated them differently from ordinary Song nobles. It is difficult to say whether they are good or bad for the time being.
Because it was still raining, almost no ordinary people entered or left the city. Mo Zhai ran into another group of people who had come from the Song Dynasty to defect to the Chu Kingdom. The two sides just looked at each other silently and did not communicate verbally.
To be honest, everyone is quite depressed. What should we talk about? Should we reminisce about the past and criticize the cruelty of the original country together?
If you have that kind of time, it would be better to quickly go through the procedures set up by the Chu State, enter a place that can protect you from wind and rain, warm yourself up by the fire, and have a hot meal.
"The people who came to seek refuge were all unknown. They were only accompanied by relatives, retainers and servants."
"The cruelty of the original country is evident, but..."
"The Song Dynasty has been destroyed, but there are still many useful people left. I don't know if they can make any contribution by joining the Chu State."
"I heard that most of them are useless people. Zhongting is worried about how to arrange them. If a fief is granted, even if Da Chu has a lot of land, what is the use of raising such people?"
"Zhongting and the feudal princes are already fighting endlessly over the fiefdom, so why would they settle in the city and join the Song people?"
During the long journey, Mo Zhai had already experienced what hardship was, and he still felt uncomfortable hearing every sarcastic comment.
It's just that those words are true. Most of the truly capable nobles of the Song Dynasty died in battles with the Yuan army. Even if they didn't die in battle, they would be vigorously recruited by the Yuan country because of their outstanding performance.
Some old nobles of the Song Dynasty who accepted the recruitment of the Yuan Kingdom were qualified to retain half of their family property, and the Yuan Kingdom promised that there would be no discrimination in rewards for meritorious service.
In fact, as long as they could see the situation clearly and were not hindered by other factors, the clever old nobles of the Song Dynasty would rather suffer injustice on the side of the original country than defect to the Chu Kingdom and experience the pain of national subjugation again.
This also led to the fact that among the old nobles of the Song State who defected to the Chu State, the number of smart people was very small and they did not have a large number of themselves. This ruined the reputation of the old nobles of the Song State and gradually made the temples of the Chu State less sensitive to the people who came to seek refuge.
The old nobles of the Song Dynasty didn't like him very much.
"He is a Duke of the Song Dynasty. I wonder who his father is and what position he holds?" The junior official of the Chu Kingdom who was in charge of the hierarchy was a little careless.
Mo Zhai said truthfully: "My father has no official position. My ancestor has been a Sima since then and has no official position anymore."
This Chu State official recorded it in Chu State's writing, and asked casually: "Does this person hold any position in Song State?"
Mo Zhai said matter-of-factly: "There is no official position."
After asking a series of questions, the Chu official began to think that Mo Zhai was a descendant of the Duke of Song who had long been in decline.
"So it seems that I have learned that Chu entertained the old people of the Song Dynasty and came here to have a meal?" The Chu official did not mean the slightest bit of ridicule. From his point of view, he was just telling the truth.
Mo Zhai wanted to refute, but when he thought that he had accomplished nothing, he didn't know how to refute.
That's right, after the generation of Muyi, no one from their group has held an official position. Previous generations had some titles because of their official status.
With the fief in his name, he lived a comfortable life without any worries about food and clothing. After the blood relationship became distant, no one made any contribution to the country, so the fief was taken back.
Muyi is also called Sima Ziyu. Sima is an official position, Zi is the surname, and Yu is the surname. Therefore, he is the ancestor of the later surname Yu.
The main reason why Mo Zhai is not the Yu clan is that he was rewarded by Song Jun Luan and received a fiefdom called "Mo", and took the name of the fiefdom as his surname.
Mo Zhai, who had a ball of fire in his heart, looked unhappy. He was furious and didn't know who to turn on. Thinking of the difficult situation of his people, he suppressed his anger and said gently: "Please tell the superior, Mo Zhai is as good at making weapons as the Gongshu clan of the original country."
The Chu State official in charge of recording had a calm expression on his face. He recorded the records carefully and truthfully. He muttered: "Another nonsense talker. Who dares to compare with Gongshu of the original state?"
It seems that the old aristocracy of the Song Dynasty, who understood their situation, had a lot of braggarts. Later, they were exposed by the Chu Kingdom, which directly ruined the credibility of the rest of the people.
There are two very famous families in the original country, either because of their great military exploits or because of their unique expertise.
Gongshu is trustworthy in various inventions and maintenance, and has built an excellent reputation.
The Dou family is very famous in water conservancy projects, and many water conservancy projects in the original country were led by them.
The Mo family? To tell the truth, not many people in the Song Dynasty knew that there was a Mo family, let alone who they knew who Mo Zhai was.
"I'm not talking nonsense. Zhai can make large crossbows, small crossbows, and many other city defense equipment. If you don't believe me, you will know after a try." Mo Zhai is not incapable of bending.
The junior official of the Chu State had seen many Dukes of the Song State who came to seek refuge, and had heard many boastful words. In the end, too many of them were defeated immediately. When he wanted to refuse, he saw someone and immediately stood up and saluted.
The person who came in was Xiang Wu. He was one of the representatives of various feudal lords in "Ying", and he was a very inconspicuous one.
Is this Xiang the ancestor of the Xiang family in the Warring States Period? In fact, no one can tell for sure.
At present, of course, there is the Xiang clan. They are one of the vassal princes of the Zhou royal family. The Xiang state was destroyed by the Chu state very early, and the Xiang clan was dispersed into several Xiang clans.
So speaking of it, the Xiang family who fought hard for the Chu State in the future, and even later restored the Chu State, could actually be regarded as a bad fate.
After all, the State of Xiang was destroyed by the State of Chu, but the descendants of the Duke of Xiang were loyal to the State of Chu. If you don't understand the history, it would be strange to understand it.
Of course, similar things are normal. For example, Yang Youji is also a noble of Yangguo. After Yangguo was destroyed, Yang Youji also served the Chu State and made many great contributions.
It's just that in that case, Xiang Yu didn't respect the last king of Chu, but was doing something bad for his ancestors.
When Xiang Wu heard what Mo Zhai just said, he scanned Mo Zhai back and forth with a scrutinizing gaze for a while, and then said, "I don't know how I will prove it?"
Of course, Mo Zhai's current appearance is extremely embarrassing. His family background and talking like a petty official in Chu State are not considered to be condescending, but just trying to win over him.
When asked by a man who looked like he had power, Mo Zhai did not have too much self-esteem and replied: "You only need to give Zhai a piece of land and some food rations to prove it."
A capable person is not afraid of tests; what he is afraid of is that there are no people who even want to test them.
Xiang Wu nodded silently, indicating to register first, and waited for Mo Zhai to complete the registration before he said, "There is no need to enter the city, just come with me."
There were some things that Mo Zhai should ask clearly, so he said: "I don't know who is under my command. If Zhai is really capable, can he recommend him to the King of Chu?"
This is because Mo Zhai has suffered enough from being crushed. After showing his talents, he wants to get the support of King Chu Ning with national power. He does not want to become a vassal of a certain Chu nobleman, making small troubles and then being beaten again.
The original country used its national power to crush it.
Xiang Wu took a deep look at Mo Zhai and said, "Let's try it first before talking."
Recommend it to Chu Wangning? I’m overthinking it.
King Ning of Chu showed great hostility to the prince when he was still a prince, and only made a humiliating compromise after usurping the throne.
Nowadays, not to mention that Chu Wangning and Feng Jun are in the same situation, the confrontation between the two sides has never stopped.
Because the original country was really aggressive, people restrained themselves.
So, how could Fengjun introduce the talent to Chu Wangning when he discovered it? He must have used it for his own use as a bargaining chip against Chu Wangning, and even seized the opportunity to strengthen himself.
The Mo clan members were placed in a village outside the city, where they could be considered sheltered from wind and rain.
At the beginning, Mo Zhai was busy making all the tools and did not immediately make the hand crossbow and bed crossbow.
Xiang Wu came over and saw the tools made by the Mo family. Even if he didn't see the shadow of the crossbow for the time being, he could still understand that he had picked up a talent.
Do you think it's easy to make a tool? First of all, you need to master a lot of techniques, including setting up a smelting furnace and having skilled manual work.
Even if he only masters smelting, he can actually be regarded as a useful talent, not to mention that it only took Mo a little less than half a month to create a large workshop.
"The Mo family in the Song Dynasty? Is there such a family? I've never heard of it before." Xiang Wu felt that he should send someone to the Song Dynasty to find out.
What should I do if I find a talent? Not only is it impossible for Xiang Wu to introduce him to King Ning of Chu, he even won’t mention it to other princes at all. All he wants is to use it for himself!