Cai Yan was very angry, and the consequences were not serious.

Because Li Su missed even the main day of the New Year, he did not return to Chengdu. On the New Year, Liu Bei feasted the ministers, and Li Su did not attend.

And before Li Su left, she told Cai Yan about the date of marriage, and asked her to prepare for the Yuan Festival. A person who is going to get married on the fifteenth day of the first month can't go home on Chinese New Year's Eve, how can this give the girl a sense of security?

Fortunately, Li Su hurried and returned to Chengdu on the ninth day of the first lunar month.

Cai Yan asked the servants at home to wait in Wuyang County eighty miles in advance every day, and reported back as soon as there was news, so before Li Su returned to Chengdu, Cai Yan intercepted him halfway.

Li Su can't be blamed for this, mainly because the traffic conditions are too poor and there are always delays on the road.

After all, he was going to open up a no-man's land that had not been developed by the Han Chinese, just like Columbus was looking for a new continent.

As soon as they met, Cai Yan frantically punched with his small fists: "I'm in a hurry!" I'm really annoyed that you won't be home like this in the future! There are still six days to get married, and the posts are all out, and my father arrived earlier than you when he came from Jiangzhou! You don't even give a letter in advance. ”

"Isn't this coming back, the days are not good, if I inform you again in the middle, and then delay the day, you won't be more anxious." Li Su slowly soothed the girl and asked her not to be angry, and finally used a big killing weapon to stabilize the woman's nonsense.

"Several of the people I sent to explore the path were poisoned by the miasma of snakes and insects, can I be reckless?"

As soon as these words came out, Cai Yan was directly silent, he didn't dare to say a word again, and after crying for a few seconds, there was only one sentence left, "It's good to come back, let's go home first, the Hou Mansion is all decorated, just wait for you."

As he spoke, he took Li Su into the car and went back to the Hou Mansion in the fiefdom of Pixian County first.

Liu Bei is not in a hurry to report his work.

After getting into the car, Cai Yan also personally filled a bowl of soup from a copper jian to Li Su, asking Li Su to drink it as soon as possible to nourish his body.

"What is this?" Because the soup was relatively thick and opaque, Li Su couldn't see clearly for a while, so he couldn't help but ask before drinking.

Cai Yan: "This is coix soup, I heard that it eliminated Nanzhong fever." When Emperor Guangwu was at the beginning, the general Fubo Ma aided the southern expedition to Wuximan, and he did not accept the water and soil, so he recruited coix and several carts for treatment.

At that time, there were still people who used this to frame and slander Emperor Guangwu, saying that Ma Fubo had accepted bribes from several cars of pearls. You were in a hurry, and you should have prepared it for you before you left. Next time, I'm going south and bring more supplements to cool off the heat and relieve fever. ”

There is a wife who has read more than 10,000 books, and arranging food and living is exquisite, and drinking a cool soup has quoted scriptures and classics.

Along the way, Li Su also learned from Cai Yan that some colleagues had already left Chengdu after the New Year because they had other business trips, so they gave gifts before leaving.

For example, Zhao Yun, I heard that he left Chengdu on the third day of the first lunar month - Liu Bei asked him to lead 5,000 cavalry to Yidu County, and immediately took office, leaving 2,000 mobile troops to garrison in Yidu, and divided 3,000 cavalry to Fancheng and Xinye to support the upcoming Guan Yu and Sun Jian's northern expedition against Dong.

Guan Yu and Sun Jian agreed on the date of sending troops in February, so Zhao Yun was able to leave in Chengdu after the New Year, and it was already Liu Bei who treated him favorably, and thanks to the fact that his troops were all cavalry, he would not delay the trip.

Lu Su also had to rush back to Nanzheng to preside over the defense work of the northern front before the snow melted in the Qinling Mountains in February, but Lu Su had an iron relationship with Li Su, and there was still time to go, so he insisted on waiting until Li Su finished the marriage on the Shangyuan Festival before leaving, and it was a big deal to hurry up on the road.

Speaking of which, Li Su, the groom's official, is also quite unreliable, and he didn't personally ask about the first three or four procedures in the "Six Rites", and directly asked Cai Yan to fight left and right by himself. Fortunately, the facades for outsiders to show are still very decent, so as not to fall off the face of the Cai family, a "great Confucian in the world".

However, the Southern Expedition always has to bring some local products, Li Su knows that women like jewelry, and when he gets home, he can definitely stop Cai Yan's mouth by taking out the goods that Pang Xi gave him when he left.

The carriage soon arrived at the fiefdom of Pixian County, and at the gate of the Hou Mansion, Li Su took the lead in jumping out of the car and personally helped his fiancée down, which can be called a good man in the late Han Dynasty - he usually wants to be supported by a maidservant, and he will never let the male owner hold it down with his own hands.

Before Li Su had time to show off his gains, Cai Yan first showed off like a treasure and asked, "Do you think this Hou Mansion is still magnificent?" I chose the carvings myself. ”

Cai Yan pointed to the brass mocking eaves on the roof of the mansion gate and the copper pattern on the door frame. Even the tiles on each façade are painted in plain tones and low-key and restrained. Cai Yan was proud while introducing.

"With a wife like this, I don't have to worry about the housekeeping of the family in the future." Li Su nodded with satisfaction, still very relieved about Cai Yan's aesthetic and cultural connotation.

When it comes to decoration, it should be decided by the wife who is well versed in etiquette, and maybe it will become a fashion trend in the Han Dynasty in the future.

Following Cai Yan inside, Li Su counted the number of advances, this Hou Mansion was built seven deep, and it was really magnificent.

There is also a watchtower that can be climbed in the second entrance of the door, which looks similar to Wei Que at the gate of the palace, but it is simple. The height is also reduced to three zhang high, in short, it is not beyond the etiquette law. Guards and archers can also be stationed upstairs, which is like the defense of a prince's mansion of a heavy minister.

At the same time, in order to prevent the guards on the watchtower from peeping into the lives of the people in the inner courtyard, the building began to rise from the fifth entrance, and each entrance was raised by one floor, about eight feet drop, and the foundation was built with rammed earth below.

The houses of the Han Dynasty, whether they were imperial palaces or princely mansions, were single-storey, but they could be built with "platforms", such as Tongque Terrace. The difference between the platform and the floor is that the usable area is always only one floor, the foundation can be raised, and the lower part of the raised part is still solid, and there is no upstairs and downstairs.

Li Su's Hou Mansion has been raised by three layers in the back, and thousands of cubic meters of rammed earth have been piled up by eyesight, and the outside has to be covered with stone walls. If it weren't for the fact that the structure was "spreading the pie", it could be piled up with manpower and construction at the same time, otherwise it would be impossible to build a house with decoration in a few months.

It is estimated that thousands of strong laborers were levied to repair this mansion, but Li Su already had 1,500 households, and theoretically he was indeed qualified to let the people in the fiefdom come to him for twenty days of conscription every year. For the portion exceeding 20 days, the tax can be reduced, or the people can consult with each household, and send a representative to work for a longer period of time, so that the family's share can be done.

Being a feudal aristocrat is cool, Li Su, a guy who is used to everyone being equal, is a little addicted to privileged treatment.

"The people who participated in the forced labor should be exempted from tax this year." Li Su is not a harsh person, he followed his wife to visit and felt very satisfied, and with a wave of his hand, the construction workers were exempted from taxes this year.

Cai Yan was still unsatisfied, and pulled Li Su to the wings on both sides of the sixth entrance: "Look at these bathrooms again, I am not satisfied, I have moved them according to your previous design, and I have changed the decoration slightly." This one is for bathing, and this one next to it is steaming.

You have always said that the wooden barrel is easy to breed insects and mildew after soaking for a long time, and you want the kind of stone carving pool in the first emperor Bigui Garden, I specially according to your requirements, I found a Zhangxiong merchant from the foaming water to buy obsidian glass to build this stone pool, and also asked the craftsman to drill holes through the pipes and connect the hot water tower, do you want to try it tonight? ”

Li Su took a look with interest, the sauna room was similar to the one he built when he was in Nanzheng, but the bathing pool had been upgraded a lot, and finally there was no need to soak in a wooden barrel.

Li Su knows that natural stones such as marble, granite, and basalt must be more or less radiant, and it is not necessarily good to build a bath, so before leaving, when Cai Yan talked to him about the decoration plan of the Hou Mansion, Li Su also mentioned a few mouths and excluded some of the best stones.

Unexpectedly, Cai Yan was also a big spend, and actually found someone to buy an obsidian pool!

Obsidian is not very rare in the Americas or Japan, but it is still rare in China, you have volcanic activity in areas where crustal movement is relatively frequent, and it is only produced in the snow area in China.

Although this stone is also a volcanic product, because it has been glazed, it is pure silica black glass, so there is no radiation, and it is harmless to the body, and it looks magnificent. And it is easy to clean up, sterilization and insect control.

In Shu at the end of the Han Dynasty, you could only trade obsidian by going to Nan'an County in Qianwei County and looking for merchants from the ancient kingdom of Zhangxiong who entered the Shu trade along the Moshui (Dadu River).

When other rich people were still holding obsidian glass plates and stringing beads, Li Su directly used them to build a bath, which was a level of luxury, and I was afraid that Emperor Han Ling would not dare to think about it when he was alive. Emperor Ling's bathroom in Bigui Yuan only used granite, marble and the like. Who made Luoyang too far away from the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and Bi Lan couldn't have imagined it when he designed it.

Li Su couldn't help but gasp, and secretly asked his wife: "How much did the obsidian glass of this pool cost?" ”

Li Su was a little mentally prepared, knowing that the unit price of obsidian of the same weight should be inferior to agate, or even as jadeite (agate in the late Han Dynasty was more valuable than jadeite, and jadeite was more valuable than agate in later generations), but he couldn't stand the many materials used here, and the eight-foot-long pool, even if it was just a surface veneer material, I was afraid that it would cost hundreds of catties.

Cai Yan was actually a little embarrassed: "It took six hundred horses of Shu brocade to get the material...... But isn't the husband rich, because of the war this year, Shu brocade is not easy to sell, so we should find a way out for the unsalable Shu brocade of the people in the fiefdom. ”

Li Su suddenly discovered that Cai Yan was cultivated by him to become a high-level chopper again, alas, it was all his own iniquity that he did not bring a good job.

"Okay, thank you, it's all for me, too." Li Su knew that he still had at least hundreds of millions of cash flow assets, but he was not afraid, he had to give his sister a gift, "I am in Nanzhong, and I also brought back a lot of local products, I think you will like it." ”

As he spoke, he asked the servant to send the buckets of gems to the house first, there were three buckets of jadeite, two buckets of agate, and a liter of pearls, both agate and jadeite were not polished, but the stone skin had gone, revealing the emerald green and crimson stone flesh, and then carved the shape to wear the ornaments.

Cai Yan was also slightly surprised when he saw it: "So many gems...... That's not good. ”

Li Su stroked his back and said with peace of mind: "Don't worry, I insisted on giving money, but it was given according to the value of the origin of the Central Plains, and it was not worth much." Pang Taishou was unwilling to accept the money obtained, so in the name of Pang Taishou, he gave rewards to the Tuntian officials and the soldiers who performed well in Tuntian, and some gave bereavement pensions to the families of the soldiers who died in the expedition. ”

Li Su is still very principled, he doesn't do things that obviously violate the Han law, and he can't take the lead in governing the country. Jade agate is paid according to the price of Yongchang County, and the subject of payment is Shu brocade, and it cannot be calculated according to the price of Shu brocade in Shu County, but also according to the price of Shu brocade in Yongchang County, so it is not much.

"Let the craftsman choose some good materials, carve a few pieces these days, and wear them when he gets married, so he should follow the local customs." After Cai Yan saw it, she didn't like it very much, after all, she had also seen a lot of jewelry, but she felt warm for her husband to think about herself in such a miasma and dangerous place.

After looking at the jewelry, Li Su clapped his hands again and ordered his subordinates to carry two iron cages over, Cai Yan was startled when he first saw it: "What is this!" ”

Li Su: "Don't be afraid, this is the "Dongguan Han Ji" written by your father. The beast of 'Ailao Yi, out of the beast' mentioned in the Legend of Southwest Yi". ”

Cai Yan heard that this was something in the historical materials written by her father, and she was not afraid at once: "This is the beast?" I read my father's manuscript, and it was written, 'The elephant is as big as a donkey, and the shape is quite like a bear, and it eats iron with many powers, and its color is pale, and its skin is warm and boiling'. It doesn't look as vicious as it sounds. ”

Li Su smiled: "Even if you eat iron, you can only tear off the iron sheet, it eats bamboo and mutton, how about it, do you want to raise it?" ”

Cai Yan's eyes rolled: "Is it really bamboo?" Not vicious? I wonder if 'its skin is warm' and is it dangerous to touch it? ”

Li Su thought about it, first found a servant to come in, took the fork and prepared to stand it at any time, and then said: "Now that I am asleep, it should be fine to touch it a little, this thing can sleep for ten hours a day." ”

"It's lazy." Cai Yan heard that he was so lazy, so he was not afraid, touched it, and found that 'its skin is warm' is really true, and there is a sense of pride in his heart, "Hmph, it seems that my father may know more knowledge than Bangu." When Taishi Gong and Ban Gu wrote the biography of the Southwest Yi Lie, they didn't know what the beast was like, and you said that my father hadn't seen it with his own eyes, so where did he hear it. ”

Li Su couldn't help laughing: "It can't be compared like this, compared with the knowledge of the geography and properties of Siyi, it must be that the descendants have an advantage over the ancients, when Taishi Gong wrote the "Historical Records", there were only Yelang King and Dian King, which is equivalent to today's Qiqi County and Jianning County.

At that time, where did the Ailao Kingdom and Yongchang County come from, the Ailao Country was attached to the Ming Emperor, and the tribal barbarian king on that piece of land was not known to the people of the Han Dynasty when Taishi Gong and Ban Gu died. ”

Cai Yan's eyes rolled, and he hugged Li Su's arm and shook it: "Then I will be like Ban Zhaoxu's "Book of Han" in the future, I will tell my father that I will write the future "Biography of Southwest Yilie", and you will secretly tell me the customs and customs of those places, and I will write it." ”

Cai Yan already felt in his mind that the record of the Southwest Yi specialties left by Cai Yong was too detailed, and women had extra racial talent for chopping hands to find specialties, so this kind of thing should be written by women.

Li Su didn't want to continue these nonsense topics, so he interrupted Cai Yan and asked, "You haven't answered me yet, these two beasts, I plan to keep them in the mansion as the fierce beasts of the town government."

You also know, 'Shogunate Dong Tong Yingyang', although I am only a Zhonglang general so far, but General Zhengxi allowed me to supervise one side, and also allowed me to set up my own guard Dian Wei, staff Zhuge Jin, etc., and opened the mansion with Yitong. Other shogunates have to raise some tigers and bears to strengthen their military might, and I don't think this is bad, and there is no danger of tigers and bears. ”

Li Su also doesn't like to make it too bloody, so it means to spread tiger skins in the shogunate festival hall and raise a few beasts.

Cai Yan has read a lot, and of course he understands the etiquette of the imperial court, so he immediately knew what to do: "Yes, I'll take care of this matter, or else, I think we changed the two stone lions at the door?" ”

Li Su was taken aback: "Carved stone at the door? This...... It's too shocking, and it's black and white, and the carved stones are pure white, and others think that our town is a stone bear. ”

Cai Yan: "There it is! Before you made an obsidian glass bath, there are some chiseled off scraps, let's let the craftsman carve two white bears according to the appearance of this beast, and the limbs and ears are chiseled with obsidian glass, which is magnificent. ”

The stone carvings at the entrance of the shogunate are all made of obsidian, which is so broad that the colleagues are dumbfounded.