In the second year of Zhonghe, the first month, the Shangyuan Festival.

Due to last year's favorable wind and rain, Huaisi in Shandong and Liaodong in Hebei Province were ripe in two seasons. In addition to the Bohai Sea troops, the imperial court in other places have a truce and strike, the horses are released in Nanshan, the auxiliary soldiers are disarmed and returned to the field, plus the imperial court vigorously tuntian, and increase fishing and hunting, and the provinces of the Qin domain to implement the strategy of prohibiting the grain from leaving the domain, unified purchase of grain, etc., plus Huaixi Yang Xingmi, Zhejiang West Qian Biao, Fujian Zhang Rui, Guangzhou Yu Gui, Annan Yuqiu, Tianping's Yu Xuan and other millions of stone of grain transported from all over the country, Hebei, Beiping, Shanxi, Rehe provinces that have been in the spring famine for two consecutive years, and finally the grain depot is abundant, The amount of food provided by the people has returned to the level of the previous years.

The people of Yanjing City finally had a long-lost smile on their faces in the New Year of the second year of Zhonghe.

During the New Year, Yanjing City Jinwu can't help but be happy, the people are happy, this year's Shangyuan Festival is also more and more hot, and the lanterns in the three-day festival are particularly prosperous.

Even Li Jing in the Forbidden Palace was also interested, walked out of the palace, changed into a long robe, and pretended to be a man who went to Beijing to participate in this year's civil and military scientific examination.

This year, the situation in the Qin Dynasty has improved, and the lights of the Lantern Festival are also particularly lively.

Groups of lions, dragon lanterns, stilts, juggling, walking through the bustling city, storytelling, singing, and selling everything. Li Jing led a small team of costumed guards through the bustling crowd until they came to Zhengyangmen. I saw a large group of women crowded to touch the big copper nail hat on the Zhengyang Gate.

Some touched it, smiled, and couldn't squeeze in, sighing for a long time.

For a time, the adult called. The child cries. Laughter. Scolding, shouting, and noisy voices all came together. In this nightless day of fire trees and silver flowers, it is becoming more and more noisy. Li Jing didn't understand it after watching it for a long time, and couldn't understand what it meant for a group of women to rush to touch the copper nails on the door here? This is not a Buddha statue of Jin Xiang, nor is it a superstar hero, what are you fighting for?

Zhao Jiang saw Li Jing's doubts. Then he turned to an old man next to him.

"Uncle, these women and Taoists, why are you squeezing here?"

"Hehe, you're out of town to take the exam, right? No wonder you don't know the way, this is only in the past two years, since the big front door was built, somehow there is such a custom. It is said that when the Lantern Festival of the first lunar month is held, you can touch six copper nail hats, so the whole family can be six or six Shun all year round. If you can touch seven copper nail caps, the whole family can be safe and secure all year round. If you can touch nine copper nail caps. Then the whole family will be long and full of harmony. Sixteen. It's to be smooth, eighteen, to be haired, ninety-nine, the whole family lives to ninety-nine, if you can touch one hundred and sixty-eight, that is all the way! If you can touch 999, it will be a healthy family, smooth from generation to generation, and for a long time. ”

Li Jing couldn't help but feel surprised and funny when he heard it, he really couldn't imagine that an ordinary city gate was actually endowed with such a magical effect. The cold, round and smooth copper-nailed hat is more powerful than the Buddha statues. But thinking about it is just a sustenance and expectation, these women, rushing here, squeezing around, but also to pray for their parents, husbands, children, this piety is touching.

The old man just smiled when he saw Li Jing, and he didn't believe it, and said a little unhappily at the moment: "Don't you still don't believe it, do you know the origin of Zhengyangmen?" ”

Li Jing smiled slightly, but was silent, neither shaking his head nor nodding.

The old man was also a man of many words, and immediately felt that as a citizen at the foot of the royal city, he had the obligation to introduce the outsiders well. Immediately gushing introduce, this Zhengyang Gate was also newly built when the Qin Dynasty expanded Yanjing, and it was one of the nine gates in the inner city.

Three years ago, Zhengyang Gate was officially completed, its architectural form is a brick fortress type gatehouse, the city platform is nine zhang high, the door hole is five volts and five coupon arch coupon type, open in the middle of the city platform, and it is also the city gate of the only arrow tower opening the door hole in the nine gates of the inner city. Moreover, this city gate is dedicated to the Qin King Yuren, and the three gates in the middle are usually not opened, and the officials and people only go to the two gates. The arrow tower is a heavy eaves rest on the top of the mountain, and the ash tube tile green glazed edge. Up and down nine floors, there are nine layers of arrow holes on the arrow tower, each floor has eighteen holes, and there are nine layers of arrow holes in the east and west, eighteen holes on each floor, which are specially used to defend against archery.

This tall and majestic arrow tower is made of reinforced concrete plate casting, the door is double, the front is the hanging jack gate, and the back is the door of the iron leaf copper nails.

Between the Zhengyang Gate City Tower and the Arrow Tower, there is also a huge urn city, the south end is an arc-shaped trowel, the arrow tower is located at the top, the urn city is 36 zhang long from north to south, 28 zhang wide from east to west, there is an empty field inside, there are doors in all directions. On the Zhengyang Gate, there are also the curved eaves of the cement flat seat guard and the arrow window, and the moon wall section also adds many relief pattern decorations.

The whole Zhengyang Gate, also known as the big front gate by the people, this area is also the junction of the inner and outer cities, there is the most lively market.

Especially because of the tall city gate tower and arrow tower, especially the gate in the middle of the five gate caves, only the king of Qin can enter and exit, and when the king of Qin got married, the princess of Qin Yu entered from there once. In the annual civil and military competition, three people can walk out of this door once during the national examination. In normal times, the ministers of civil and military affairs enter and exit the left door, and the princes and princes enter and exit the right door. The left and right doors are not usually opened, and only when the Qin Domain holds a ceremony, the civil and military officials enter and exit through the two gates.

In Yanjing City, the front of Zhengyangmen is slightly lower than the Wufeng Tower in the Forbidden Palace. But although the five phoenix towers are more majestic than the Zhengyang Gate, they are too far away from the people, and they are rare to see in a lifetime. And the door in the middle of the big front door is even more remarkable. Therefore, every year during the Shangyuan Festival, it is quite remarkable to be able to touch the big copper nail cap on the door in the middle. Usually, I don't have the opportunity to touch this door at any time.

After listening to it for a long time, Li Jing finally understood, it turned out that it was because only he could walk through this door, or it was the champion, Bangyan, and Tanhua, which was quite sacred for ordinary people. Touching it is also praying for peace and smoothness.

"Uncle, you don't need to be so crowded. Come one by one. Otherwise. Even if there are three days of the Shangyuan Festival, this can't be finished. ”

"How else to say that you are a foreigner, I don't know what is going on at the foot of this royal city. In previous years, everyone also lined up one by one to touch it, as if they were going to burn incense. But this year is different, I heard that the mission of Chengde Town is going to enter the city from here today, and go to meet the King of Qin, and then there will be martial law all the way, so it will not be possible today. Who are you saying isn't in a hurry? ”

Li Jing nodded slightly, and Cheng Dezhen agreed to make peace with Li Jing as soon as he asked for peace years ago. However, these days, although Li Jing ordered the attacking soldiers and horses to stop attacking, the troops on the border also began to stop advancing, and the follow-up auxiliary soldiers and civilians began to return to their hometowns one after another, Li Jing was not in a hurry to let them come over immediately. On the contrary, he had already arranged the prefectures and counties and garrisons along the way, and led the envoys of Chengde Town all the way to visit the assembly and training of the garrisons and township soldiers and militias in various prefectures and counties, so that they could see the might of the Qin army.

Walking all the way like this, I kept watching the Qin army garrison assemble and review the soldiers and horses along the way, and a lot of time was delayed on the way. From Zhenzhou to Yanjing, they walked on the road for almost half a month. Li Jing even deliberately arranged the time for them to enter the city on the Shangyuan Festival, just to let them see the lively and rich situation in the Yanjing Festival, and completely shocked Chengde Town.

"Chengde Town is here to surrender, I heard that Wang Rong, the marshal of Chengde Festival, came to meet King Qin in person?" A man next to him also said, looking at his outfit, he seemed to be a small official, and he knew more about these things than others.

"Oh, really?" When the old man heard this, he also came to his senses, "But these things, we Xiaomin people don't know the way, I heard that this Chengde Festival handsome Wang Rong is only ten years old." ”

"Well, a little brat, Chengde is now in charge of his two uncles, Wang Jingyin and Wang Jingyi. Maybe Wang Rong didn't want to come, because his two uncles had already seen him unpleasantly, so they took the opportunity to kick him to Yanjing, and it just so happened that they were in power. Another man joined in.

Li Jing listened to the side, but did not speak. The mission in Chengde Town has been on the road for so long, in addition to Li Jing specially arranging for them to visit the Qin army, in fact, Li Jing also sent Li Zhen to the south a long time ago, and along the way, he and the Chengde mission have already started to make actual judgments. After talking for more than half a month, Qin Fan and Chengde have almost reached peace talks.

Chengde Town was officially attached to the Qin army, and Wang Rong, the commander of Chengde Festival, had to enter Yanjing City and stay in Yanjing as an official, in fact, as a hostage. And in addition to Wang Rong, Wang Jingyin and Wang Jingyi brothers also had to send a son to Yanjing as a hostage. In addition, Wang Rong demoted himself to the title, changing from the king of Changshan County to the prince of Changshan County, and still retained the position of Chengde Marshal. At the same time, the Qin domain would also withdraw the invading soldiers and horses from the two prefectures of Hebei and Shen, and return the seven cities captured. However, on the other hand, Chengde Town had to completely withdraw from Dingzhou, and cede the five counties of Dingzhou that had been captured by the Qin army, as well as the remaining six counties that had not been captured, to the Qin army. Here, Chengde Town still retains the four prefectures of Zhen, Shen, Zhao and Hebei in the future, and Li Jing admits that the Wang family controls the four prefectures of Chengde. However, Chengde Town can only maintain a maximum of 50,000 soldiers and horses in the future, and the number must be disbanded. At the same time, Chengde Town must also hand over 20% of its tax revenue to the Qin Domain every year in the future. The appointment and dismissal of civil and military officials within Chengde Town shall be determined by Chengde Town, subject to the consent of Li Jing.

This condition of attachment was discussed for a long time, but in the end it was agreed.

This time the Qin army attacked Chengde and captured twelve counties, and finally the Qin army re-built these scattered territories, and the Qin army exchanged the seven counties of Zhaozhen Zhuzhou for the six counties of Dingzhou, and the result was that Chengde preserved the four prefectures of Shenzhao Zhen and Hebei that they traditionally controlled, but Dingzhou, which they had swallowed with great effort in recent years, was forced to vomit out again.

In addition, the biggest bargaining chip that Chengdezhen took out was to send Wang Rong and several other Wang disciples to Yanjing as hostages. But for this article, in fact, Li Jing feels that the two sides are mutually beneficial. Because the sons sent by Wang Jingyin's brothers are only concubines, and they are all little hairy children under the age of ten, such hostages, they will not be heartbroken if they send a few. And to send Wang Rong as a hostage, for Li Jing, Wang Rong is the nominal commander of Chengde, and he stayed in Yanjing as a hostage, which has a great effect on the momentum of the Qin army. But for Wang Jingyin, they are very annoyed with this nephew now.

He was only ten years old, but he had already begun to disobey them. Wang Rong was very opposed to this surrender of the Qin Domain, and even secretly exchanged letters with Li Ke, and actually planned to seize power from their brother by the hand of Sha Tuo. This kind of thing is intolerable no matter what, Li Keyong is a hungry wolf, if he comes, their brothers still have a foothold? Therefore, after seeing the powerful and elite soldiers and horses of the Qin army along the way, and hearing that Li Zhen proposed that Wang Rong should enter Yanjing as a hostage, Wang Jingyi only pretended to be embarrassed on the surface, but in fact, he quickly agreed to the deal with his brother Wang Jingyin in secret letters. In the end, they still held on and exchanged Wang Rong for several favorable conditions, so that Li Zhen agreed not to send a supervisor army or officials, but the two sides exchanged several pieces of territory occupied by the Qin army, and finally made this peace treaty.

In short, Li Jing was superficially obedient and subordinated to Chengde Town, but in fact he got the territory of Dingzhou, and by the way, he also got Wang Rong into Yanjing as a hostage.

On the side of Chengde Town, Wang Jingyin's brothers finally reached an agreement with Qin Fan, and Li Jing no longer used troops against Chengde. On the surface, they surrendered and depended on Li Jing, but in fact they still listened to the tune and did not listen to the announcement, and continued to hold the Chengde army and control the city of Sizhou. Moreover, they also threw their disobedient nephew Wang Rong to the Qin Domain.

Their biggest loss was that they had to pay 20% of the tax and grain to Li Jing every year in the future, and at the same time, the number of soldiers and horses should not exceed 50,000.

Wang Jingyin felt that this condition was not bad, at least they kept the four states of Chengde Town, and as for Dingzhou being swallowed, there was no way. As for whether Li Jing will continue to turn his face after swallowing Dingzhou, that is a matter for the future.

In fact, if Li Jing is tougher, he will definitely be able to squeeze out some benefits. However, Li Jing's purpose this time was not to deal with Chengde, but to cooperate with the plan to send troops to the northeast, so he was already very satisfied when things came to this point. No matter how greedy he is, he is afraid that he will make things too complicated, and if he attracts Li Keyong and other wolves, it will be troublesome at that time.

Just thinking about it for a while, Wang Rong and Wang Jing arrived, and this matter was considered to be a perfect end. At this time, there was a commotion in the crowd, and two women were pulled and pulled from under the large front door. One of them is still very young, and it is clear that she is just a twenty-eight little jade, she cried and shouted: "You shameless thing, aunt and grandma, I fought with you today, let everyone see what you are!" (To be continued......)