Two days later, outside the Guo District outside Taoqiu, outside the newly built arena in the place of extravagance, Zhao Wuxian and the Jin envoy Qin, as well as some Cao nobles, waited for the arrival of the Wu envoy.

As the head of the merchants who presided over the operation of this place, Zigong was a little dissatisfied: "Cao Jun and Si Kou have been here for a while, but the Wu people have not yet arrived. I checked, since Wu Zishou's dream, every time the Jin Kingdom has an alliance meeting and a court appointment, he has taken the monarchs of Zhuxia to wait for the Wu people together, even if they don't reprimand them much in the future, but they are used to not talking, and the shelves are very large, and they are late every time. ”

Wuxian has been refreshed for the past two days, he is not angry, and smiled slightly: "It's not easy to see distant relatives, who let the Jin State ask for help from people at the beginning, and now, like the outbreak of the household, the Wu State probably looks down on the Central Plains countries even more......"

At the ceremony of the official announcement of the completion of the arena yesterday, Cao Bo held a whole day of celebrations, hunting and slaughtering 900 deer, pigs, yellow sheep and other beasts, and distributing meat to all nobles above the rank of scholar in the city, in order to celebrate the doubling of the income of the Cao State Treasury last year.

The name "athletic" comes from Zhao Wuxian's suggestion, after all, whether it is racing, horse racing, or juju, jiaodu, cockfighting, etc., they are all highly competitive and confrontational sports.

As for today, a day of various competitions will be held in the arena, and the people of Wu will be invited to watch.

The state of Wu has become more and more powerful, and I heard that after succeeding to the throne, in order to save money on conquest, he only ate one fish and a bowl of soup for each meal, and never added meals. He kneels and sits without two layers of mats, the utensils are not stained with red lacquer or carving, there are no pavilions and pavilions in the palace, there are no decorations for cars and ships, and clothes and utensils are taken from their practicality rather than vanity. In the country, when encountering natural disasters and plagues, he personally inspected. Pacify the widows and orphans and support the poor, and in the army, eat and sleep with the soldiers. Therefore, the soldiers and the people were willing to die for him.

Five years ago, they broke Chu in five battles, which terrified the princes of the Central Plains, and won a great victory in the war with Chu last year. forced the Chu people to abandon the Yingdu and move the capital to a land that was easier to defend.

As a result, Chu lost Qunshu and Huaiyi, and retreated all the way to the west. The status of "Zhenru Southern Yiyue", which was once verbally promised by the King of Zhou, has essentially been surrendered to the Wu State. If it is said that the princes of today have the most hope of establishing a hegemony like Chuzhuang and Jin Wen in one fell swoop, it is not the Jin State that has worked hard to maintain the Ji Zhou Sect Alliance, nor the Qi State that has endured for more than a hundred years, nor the Qin people who live in Yongzhou, but the King of Wu!

However, Zhao Wuxian also got some news from Zigong. After the victory over the Chu State, this Wu Wangzhi was complacent, and he was also a little lazy and extravagant. He committed the act of adultering the king of Chu, Chu Lingyin, Sima wives and concubines, princesses and gentlemen who were despisable for the Central Plains Zhuxia; Expand the city, add palaces, buy porcelain and other luxury goods; The death of his daughter lured hundreds of Yue people to the tomb to accompany the burial, and the whole country was in an uproar.

But it's perverse. But fortunately, there are Wu Zixu and Sun Wu by his side, all of whom are heroes in the world. The talent of the king! If you can make good use of talents, stabilize the situation, first destroy Yue, and then encroach on the Chu State and Huaisi small states, it will only take a few generations, and Gou Wu will definitely be able to unify the south. Become a country of tyrants!

Therefore, the Wu people today are no longer ashamed of their previous self-esteem, and they are full of self-confidence and once again sent envoys to the north. The princes of the Central Plains also began to change their attitude towards Wu, especially the twelve states of Huaisi, who had to serve the Wu people carefully. for fear of offending them and provoking war.

Cao Bo is also among them, and the method he thought of was naturally to take advantage of extravagance.

……

Under the care of Zigong, the extravagant place that introduced many new ways to play in later generations detonated the craze of the nobles of the Central Plains again and again, and today's Taoyi is more popular than ever.

With the influx of people of all colors, Taoyi has become the city with the largest floating population in the whole world. Therefore, the people of Cao are also well-informed, but the arrival of the people of Wu has made the rich people who are not engaged in agriculture here and only live on goods and breeding curious, and they have come to watch on the side of the road.

When the convoy of Wu envoys finally drove out of the inner city and appeared at the end of the road, the people stood on tiptoe to get a glimpse of what was going on. After all, for the Central Plains, the wild seaside country three thousand miles away is too far away and unfamiliar, not to mention all kinds of rumors.

When the people over there gradually saw the appearance of their clothes, the shirtless suddenly became heezzy, which was very different from the image of the pink-faced Xiaosheng of Wu Yue in later generations, and the Wu people in the Spring and Autumn Period were dressed up as savage and fierce.

Kan Zhi's subtle voice sounded beside him: "Fu Jian has a tattoo, the wrong arm is left, and the people of Ouyue are also." The black tooth carving theme, but the crown is scarce, and the country of Great Wu is also. I thought it was an exaggeration, but it was true today. ”

The soldiers of Wu who opened the road in front were not tall, but they were stout and brave, different from the Chinese custom of growing hair and crowns, their hair was about a foot long, and they were all broken into short hair, some combed their short hair into a bun, and some were directly draped over their shoulders. It was still hot in July, and they were wearing short black armor, the skirt of their legs was only up to the thighs, and their knees were tied with a piece of cooked cowhide as knee pads.

The bronze face and bare arms have blue-black tattoos, which are tattooed on the skin with needles and other tools, and then filled with ink or danqing to make them a permanent sign. The Wu people are still stomping on their feet, with thick calluses on their feet, and they walk on the sand and gravel as if they were walking on the ground.

Wu Guoren's dress provoked the onlookers to whisper, but these words Wu people couldn't understand, and there were occasional conversations between them, and they also became the words of the Southern Barbarian dove in Zhao Wuxian's ears, which was incomprehensible.

Because of the remoteness and strangeness, the image of the Wu people has been alienated, and there are many legends about them, such as the Wu people's bestiality, no etiquette, eating raw fish, turtles, shrimp and clams, and even cannibalism......

In fact, if you think about it, it is humid and hot in the south, and too long hair is easy to breed parasites, which will also make you dizzy and hot. The tattoo is because there are insects, snakes, crocodiles, etc. everywhere in the rivers and lakes, "as the so-called, often in the water, so cut off its hair, tattoo its body, like a dragon, so it is not harmed." The Wu Yue people believe that tattooing the body with the scale symbol of the water tribe can protect them from harm, which is just a worship of the dragon snake.

After the argument the night before, Zigong and Kan Zhi had some different meanings, and now although he knew the reason, he didn't bother to talk, just wrapped his sleeves and didn't speak.

On the contrary, Zhao Wuxian said to Kan Zhi: "Don't be surprised, live in Chu and serve Chu, live in more and more in service, live in summer and wear in summer, this is not the nature of people, but according to the surrounding climate, habits, Wu Yue people have always been like this......"

In the end, his voice was low: "But what I didn't expect was that the Wu State Mansion, which was originally surnamed Ji, was also assimilated. ”

The monarch of Wu is now no different from the indigenous Yue people, tattooed, and does not know etiquette, just like when Wu Wang Shoumeng first participated in the Central Plains League, he looked at the prosperity of his clothes, and said: "Lonely in the barbarians, in vain to the vertebral bun as a custom, how can there be a suit." ”

Wu Xian knows that the great division of the Zhou Dynasty existed in the form of Zhou Junyimin, Rongmin, and Dimin, which needs to be integrated with strong cultural advantages, and must be supported by a sufficient immigration base, otherwise there will be an example of Wu being reversed and assimilated.

In later generations, there were countless similar events, and the Vikings established many dynasties in the territory of the Rus', only to be completely assimilated into the Rus' monarchy. The Mongols marched westward, and they were also monarchs in the territory of the Turks, but they were Turkized one after another.

Therefore, for hundreds of years, the Wu State was abandoned on the seashore and did not communicate with the concubines, so in the eyes of their "relatives" Cao Guoren, these Wu people were completely barbarians from another world, which made people have to frown when they saw it!

When it was, Dongfang said Yi, who was tattooed, and there were non-fire eaters. The south is said to be barbaric, carved and crossed, and there are people who do not eat fire. In the West, it is said that Rong, who is clothed and skinned, and there are non-grain eaters. In the north, it is said that Di, who lives in caves in clothes and feathers, and has non-grain eaters. Only China has great etiquette, so it is called Xia; There is the beauty of uniforms, which is called Hua!

The state of Wu, between the southern barbarians and the eastern Yi, although politically has been incorporated into the system, is still difficult to explore culturally, and is at the crossroads of China and barbarians. Once they ravaged the Central Plains by invading the Chu State, the consequences would be unimaginable!

The more southern, Yue, is more barbaric than Wu......

As for the Rongdi in the west and north, such as Yiqu, Xianyu, Dai, and even the Xiongnu tribes in their infancy north of Yinshan, they will continue to attack the Central Plains with climate change.

Wu Xian said secretly: "The fact is that in the entire Eastern world, only China is the most civilized and civilized now. This is a contest between the Chinese and the four descendants, civilization and barbarism, the agricultural system and nomadism, fishing and hunting. If we don't work hard, it is very possible for our children and grandchildren to wear their hair on the left side. ”

If you want to win this war, you can either conquer it by force, or assimilate it with a strong cultural centripetal force!

However, it is too early to say this, and it seems that there has always been a great disagreement among the Wu nobility over the Chineseization and the preservation of the indigenous character, and it is very promising to peacefully evolve into a "civilized state".

In the Wu Guo convoy in front of him, there are a small half of the "aliens".

For example, Cao Bo, who is getting out of the car now, and Wu Guoxing, who is saluting the doctors, Qu Wuji, is now a distant uncle who is uncomprehensible......

After more than a thousand years of exchange and imitation, Chu is now a sub-civilization of Zhongxia, Wuchen and Hu Yong were originally Chu people, and their descendants Qu Wuji maintained this tradition. He has a high crown and broad belts, deep clothes and wide sleeves, speaks like Zhou Yayin, and practices proper etiquette, but because the national strength of Wu State far exceeds that of Cao State, and he defeated the Chu people who have given the Central Plains a headache for two hundred years, he has some arrogance in his bones.

And the young man behind Qu Wuji, who was also dressed as a Chinese scholar, also attracted Zhao Wuxian's attention, he tied his hair into a bun, wrapped it in a cloth crown, and kept looking around with his dark eyes, full of curious yearning, but there was a bit of hesitation and shyness in his demeanor.

This is an atypical Wu person.

Wu Xian guessed: "Qu is a Chu person living in Wu, and his words, deeds, and clothing cannot represent the current situation of the nobles of Wu State." But look at the figure and skin color of this young man, as well as the tattoos exposed under the neckline, probably the natives of Wu Kingdom, is it because he is not used to wearing this wide robe and big sleeves, or has he never seen so many people? (To be continued......)

PS: Ask for collections, ask for recommendations, ask for subscriptions, ask for monthly passes!