Only ten days ago had they just received great victory reports from the front against Tuyuhun.
Yet at this very moment, Li Shimin was already calculating in his heart how to use troops against Gaochang.
This was not because he wished to imitate Emperor Wu of Han and exhaust the people through endless warfare. Rather, just as later generations would summarize, if one wished to truly manage and control the Western Regions, Gaochang had to be firmly held in hand.
Moreover, it was not as though he had not given Gaochang chances.
Ever since Jieli offered his dance, at the Grand New Year Court Assembly, Li Shimin had already openly and subtly signaled to Gaochang's envoys:
Back in the former Sui, in the fourth year of Daye, Emperor Yang had established the three commanderies of Shanshan, Qiemo, and Yiwu to govern the Western Regions, and had also set up the Protectorate Office of the Western Rong within Gaochang's territory to deter the region. The King of Gaochang had even sought to marry Princess Huarong, daughter of Emperor Yang. This clearly showed that Gaochang was a vassal of Sui.
Now the Tang had inherited Sui's mandate and ruled the realm for thirteen years, yet Gaochang acted as though nothing had happened. What kind of logic was this?
Was the King of Gaochang unwilling to personally come and call him Heavenly Khagan?
The meaning in those words could not have been clearer.
Yet the King of Gaochang showed no intention of complying.
Last year at New Year, he claimed to be ill and promised that next year he would surely send his legitimate son to Chang'an to show respect.
This year was even simpler. The one who arrived in Chang'an was still only an envoy, bringing completely unsurprising news.
Both father and son, Qu Wentai and Qu Zhisheng, were both unwell.
At this point, Li Shimin's last bit of patience toward Gaochang was completely worn away.
What puzzled him was that, according to later historical records, Qu Wentai was supposed to personally go to Chang'an to congratulate Tang on destroying Eastern Turkic Khaganate.
So why was it that all he ever saw were Gaochang's envoys?
...
"Huangfu Song's great grandson?"
Liu Bei froze for a moment, then let out a sigh.
"Huangfu Song has been dead for nearly twenty years. What a pity he could not end his life crowned with full merit and glory."
These were still vivid memories for Liu Bei.
After the Yellow Turban Rebellion, the court and the realm were filled with ambitious men, power rising and falling in constant struggle. Among them, Huangfu Yizhen could truly be said to have served with a single minded loyalty.
Only now, thinking back, nearly all of Huangfu Yizhen's achievements were from suppressing the Yellow Turbans. And when later generations called the Yellow Turban uprising a rebellion of the people, it left Liu Bei unsure how to judge it.
Fortunately, it now seemed that his clan had not fallen into obscurity, so the old general would not be left without spiritual offerings.
"Huangfu Yizhen was from Anding. This great grandson should be found in Anding Commandery."
Fa Zheng was very familiar with the geography here, and especially familiar with Anding. It was located just north of little Jiang Wei's hometown.
"Anding Commandery is now under Yong Province, temporarily overseen by Lord Xuande. This is the perfect chance to support the descendants of loyal ministers, reward the heirs of faithful service, and provide education and guidance, to fulfill the old general's devoted heart toward Han."
Fa Zheng's words made Liu Bei slowly nod.
He then directly instructed Fa Zheng to handle the matter, which made Fa Zheng overjoyed.
If he handled it, with just a bit of maneuvering, wouldn't Huangfu Mi, the future dual master of literature and medicine, easily become his disciple?
Thinking again of little Jiang Wei, whom Wolong and Fengchu were always competing over, Fa Zheng nearly felt tears well up.
The old Fa family has finally made it.
No one knew of Fa Zheng's inner emotions.
Zhang Zhongjing, meanwhile, was more focused on Huangfu Mi's achievements and fell into deep thought.
The Inner Canon had acupuncture sections, but Huangfu Mi's works were said to have founded the discipline of acupuncture studies. That meant his writings must have been far more systematic and comprehensive.
Zhang Zhongjing wondered whether he could also do something similar.
If he added acupuncture chapters into the Treatise on Cold Damage, would that be seen as stealing credit?
Perhaps it would be better to wait until Huangfu Mi was found, then see his age and medical talent, and give him some careful guidance.
As for Kongming and Pang Tong, what interested them even more was the beekeeping methods.
Even though they could not see the beekeeping methods from Tiangong Kaiwu, they could skip what later generations called ancient beekeeping, and directly attempt to study and research more advanced methods.
Two key items stood out.
The movable frame beehive and the honey extractor.
Thanks to the pictographic nature of Chinese characters, just from the name movable frame beehive, the two already had a rough direction for trial production. The honey extractor was more difficult, but they could still start experimenting from the idea of spinning and shaking.
However, all of this pointed to one crucial figure, casually mentioned by later generations.
Jiang Qi.
"Could this Jiang Qi be the Jiang Qi of Tianshui?"
Jian Yong muttered curiously.
His words were immediately caught by the two strategists' sharp ears. Feeling their gazes, Jian Yong calmly continued.
"All members of the Jiang clan live in Tianshui. This Jiang Qi is also from Tianshui. In earlier years, he was forcibly ordered by the commandery governor to enter service and assist Cao. He would rather die than comply."
"Later, after Jiang Qi's mother passed away, he completely withdrew into the wilderness. People say that now he lives with bees and pigs as companions, and occasionally others follow him."
Kongming and Pang Tong exchanged a look and both broke into smiles.
The loss of li beer, the decline of malt sugar, and the grape wine techniques were all too distant for them to act on.
But here was another living great talent, right in front of them.
Seeing their expressions, Jian Yong laughed and volunteered.
"In that case, tomorrow I will return to Shanggui and go into the wilds to seek this hidden worthy."
Kongming and Pang Tong immediately laughed loudly, overjoyed.
[Lightscreen]
[The topic returns once again to the New Year.
Now that we know there is a time difference between north and south for Little New Year, the line in folk songs about "the twenty fourth, sweep the house" becomes much easier to understand.
Simply put, it evolved from ancient rituals of worshiping the Five Household Gods.
After the Qing dynasty simplified procedures for convenience, the household god rituals were fragmented. The Kitchen God became more prominent, while the other four household gods were gradually simplified into the act of cleaning the home.
In this regard, the ancients were not doing too badly.
The Book of Songs records methods of smoking out mice in enclosed rooms. The Rites of Zhou also records that during festivals, a substance called shell ash was used to scatter and sweep walls to drive away insects.
Modern research suggests that the shell ash recorded in the Rites of Zhou was likely crushed shells, serving as a lower grade substitute for lime in coastal areas.
However, ancient times were limited by manpower and resources. Such thorough cleaning was mostly a privilege of the elite, and it was difficult to reach the nationwide scale of eliminating rats, bedbugs, flies, and mosquitoes that was achieved after the founding of the modern state.
Although limestone was used early in ancient construction, it was mostly treated as a decorative material. Using lime for pest control, warfare, and daily livelihood only really became widespread in the Sui and Tang periods.
During Sui and Tang, metallurgy developed rapidly, unlocking high temperature kiln technology. Besides iron smelting, this technology was quickly applied to the mass production of lime.
Because of this, the Tang dynasty could more easily construct grand projects like the Daming Palace described as "the Nine Heavens open their gates to the palace halls."
Similarly, by the Ming dynasty, mass lime production technology developed even further. Once again, Tiangong Kaiwu gives the most complete discussion.
However, even in the Ming, understanding of limestone was still imperfect. Song Yingxing recorded that limestone was found two to three chi below the soil, which we now know is completely incorrect. Limestone can be exposed or deeply buried and is not limited to a specific depth.
The most typical examples are in the border areas of Hunan and Jiangxi, and farther south, where exposed limestone is everywhere, even rising into stone forest landscapes.]