Chapter 190: The Elephant Tomb

At this time, I returned to Chang'an...... Not only that, but Di Renjie and Wei Yuanzhong were not allowed to return to Chang'an, and even Li Zhici's two staff members, Wei Zhigu and Zhu Jingze, stayed in Luoyang. Only Yao Yuanchong and Ximen Chong, because of their bad year, there was still no imperial examination this year, so they accompanied him back to Chang'an.

Li Wei didn't quite understand.

Why did the father do this? Could it be that seeing that he had a harmonious relationship with his mother, the Three Kingdoms in his heart lost its meaning, and Suo Xìng got himself back to Chang'an? Or when he saw that the imperial village and crops were growing well, he wanted to grasp this righteousness in his own hands, so he let himself go back to Chang'an. Or because Chang'an is home to several prime ministers, and there is no one in charge, my father is afraid that his power will get out of control, so he really let himself go back to Chang'an to "supervise the country"?

asked Di Renjie, and Di Renjie replied with two words: "Unreasonable." ”

It is not right to say that Li Wei's thoughts are not right, and even Li Zhi asked Li Wei to return to Chang'an, but there is no reason to explain.

Li Wei is not in a hurry, what he is worried about is his mother and father, as long as he does not touch his bottom line, that is, the imperial power, he will be fine. sat down and talked to Di Hui Di Hao for a while, blew it, and told a few jokes by the way, which made the second daughter laugh and tremble. Di Renjie didn't admonish this time, on the contrary, he also smiled on the side.

is a human being, there will always be his own weakness, at first he just wanted to solve a problem for the prince, but now he takes it more and more seriously. It's just that His Majesty and the Empress still have scruples, otherwise they wouldn't be worried that the prince would dislike them when they enter the East Palace......

Jin Yu also wanted to accompany him to leave, begging with a handful of snot and tears, saying that the old slave was already one year old and His Royal Highness stayed in Xijing, and if he didn't come to the Eastern Capital, the old slave would not be able to see His Highness. He also said that the old slave followed behind His Royal Highness, grew wise, and even his body was better, and he was reluctant to leave Yunyun. made Li Wei cry and laugh, so he brought it along.

………………………………

I don't understand, I don't think.

When March came, the car left Luoyang and returned to Chang'an.

Fireworks went down to Yangzhou in March and spread throughout the ages. There is no boat, and there is no wide blue of the Yangtze River flowing to the sky, but there are a lot of people. On both sides of the road, there are also many flowers.

When I arrived in Yuzhou, it was close to dusk, and the car stopped. Because it is the avenue from Chang'an to Luoyang, the two saints like to run to Luoyang, stay in Luoyang for a while, and then return to Chang'an to stay for a while, and many annexes have been built on the avenue. There are also in Yuzhou, so they settled down in the annex.

After meeting with the officials of Yuzhou, Li Wei looked at Ximen Chong and said, "How about going to Shangzhou from Yuzhou tomorrow?" ”

"It's not a good road."

"Lone just wants to ......see your home" not necessarily, Shangzhou has many mountains, anyway, there is no hurry to return to Chang'an, the drought has passed, even the most serious Guanzhong last year, now all crops are growing very well. Go to Shangzhou to see the situation, and by the way, you can hunt.

Li Wei is still angry about his father's hunting in Ye County last year. As for returning to Chang'an to supervise the country, he just took it as a joke. If you really imprison the country, the consequences will be very, very serious.

"This ......"

Ximen Chong's original demeanor was also calm, and he followed behind Di Renjie and others, and was edified, and he was quite calm. However, the prince came to his house in person, and after hearing it, his heart was still very jī. In fact, in Yao Yuanchong's house, Li Wei said. But I didn't know how to answer for a while.

At this time, the outside shì guard came in to report that it was several old people from Earth Pony and asked to see the prince.

The words were very vague, and Li Wei thought that the Earth ponies had asked them to meet him, so he said, "Let them in." ”

There were three people who came in, and two of them Li Wei still knew, when he took a few younger brothers and sisters to have lunch in the plum wine shop, Hu Yingyan was among them, but Li Wei did not talk to them. There is a person who still has a very deep memory, it is the young man who took a few foreign girls to Chang'an.

There was another person, who was very strange, with a thin face and a dark face, as if he were a southerner. The three of them greeted each other with trepidation, and Li Wei sat them down and said, "What is the matter with Earth ponies letting you come?" ”

"No," that Yu Da Shao knew that the reason why he was summoned so quickly was that the prince had misunderstood, and he was afraid that the prince would be angry, so he immediately explained: "Your Highness, the subjects have important matters, I would like to see Your Highness, I am afraid that Your Highness will not see you." I heard that Lu Ma was prospering, and he was deeply respected by His Royal Highness, so he entrusted his name. ”

"What's the matter?" Li Wei was not angry, and he was not in a hurry anyway, so he listened to their "important matters" by the way.

It was not, but it made Li Wei dumbfounded.

This matter has to start with the southerner, this person's surname is Mingmo, which is a very unpopular surname, and it may be a descendant of the wingmen, including the Yu Dashao, named Yu Nuo, who is probably also a descendant of the Hu people. Now that the Tang Dynasty has a great integration of nationalities, there are countless Hu and Fan people in the country, and it is possible that they will account for one-fifth of the proportion. Li Wei was not surprised.

Jimo is a native of Luzhou, and later Luzhou, Sichuan, is not very remote, but in the Tang Dynasty, it was already equivalent to the border, and further south, most of them were places of bondage. The family has a few money, and he has been studying since he was a child, but when he grows up, he likes to travel, including Chang'an, and has been to Chang'an several times, not only Chang'an, but also other places. The year before last, I arrived in Nanzhao.

The Tang Dynasty called the Southern Zhao also called the Six Zhao, the Wingman Department, the Barbarian Department, the Golden Tooth Department, the Wangbu Department, the Puzi Department, and the Mangbu Department, among which the Wingmen Department in the West Daojiang River and Yushui, and the Heman Department on the south side of the West Daojiang River, have been subjugated to the Tang Dynasty, and the other four have not surrendered. Or rather, the Tang Dynasty was not interested in it.

In fact, this is not the case, in the territory of the Tang Dynasty or in the territory of Nanzhao, there are countless tribes, the larger ones are Baiman, Wuman, Moqiman, Jianwangman, Da Bolong, Xiao Bolong, Ke Man, Chongzhou Man, Dongxie, Nanxie, Yizi, Xizhao, Kunmingman, Erheman, Yongchang Man, Wangman and so on. Even the officials of the Tang Dynasty, none of them could say it completely.

The people of the capital of the Tang Dynasty thought that these were barbarians, backward and ignorant, and even sometimes they were a little afraid in addition to looking down on them. This is not the case. The various ethnic groups of Nanzhao admired the Central Plains culture very much, especially after Zhuge Liang captured Meng seven times. However, part of the reason for the endless border disputes is that most of the tribes are very friendly to the Central Plains, and even many tribes want to marry women to the Han family.

But they were disappointed. The woman doesn't want to do it, after marrying into the Han family, unless she stays in the tribe, once she leaves the tribe, the end will not be good. This is the grievance of the sī people. There are also grievances against officials, because it is a wild place, and the officials transferred by the imperial court are either military generals who are ready to be suppressed at any time, or they are bad officials. In particular, most of the exiled officials, except for those who were exiled because of political struggles, either because they had made mistakes or were corrupt. One can imagine what such an official will do when he arrives in the border area. In fact, sometimes the tribes rebelled, and they were forced by officials.

Hearing this, Li Wei was dumbfounded.

Jimo continued to speak.

After arriving in Nanzhao, the tribes were very friendly to him, so they couldn't think about it. Traveled to Vietnam, arrived at the ancient county town of Yongchang, Zhuge Liang City, and was about to return when he stayed in a village. I saw an old elephant walking alone south. I couldn't help but wonder that I saw many elephants along the way, some of them were wild and a few were domesticated. Artificially raised ones are not counted, and most of the wild ones come in groups. The more you see, the more you can tell the difference between captive elephants and wild elephants.

So asked.

The local people said that elephants are animals sent down by the gods and are very spiritual. Every time before dying, it has a premonition of its own, and automatically leaves the elephant team and finds the elephant tomb alone to rest in peace.

Jimo asked strangely when he heard it, what is the elephant tomb, the first time I heard about it, I didn't understand it very well. The locals kept silent, but Jimo was really curious, drank a lot of wine with a person, and finally came up with a word. The elephant tomb is just a legend, no one knows where it is, only that every elephant must rest here when it dies. Since ancient times, no one has seen it, so there are all kinds of strange legends, and gradually the locals have also made it a taboo subject.

The locals are taboo, and Jimo does not have this consciousness. He immediately thought of something else, ivory. At this time, how many wild elephants are there in Nanzhao, and how many elephants will be born and die in a year? Dead elephants are worthless, but there is one thing, and that is ivory.

Shangguan Wan'er had already covered her small mouth, and Wei Yue's eyes didn't blink when she heard it, and she was counting.

An ivory can be sold for a sky-high price in Chang'an, how many tusks will there be in the elephant tomb, is it tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands? How much will it be worth? It must be many times more than the money that Yang Xuetang sells in a year.

After this thought, Jimo didn't have the heart to travel anymore and returned home. His family is very rich, but he has not found this elephant tomb for thousands of years, and it will definitely be difficult to find it. So I thought of my friend in the capital, that is, this Yunuo. Ran to Chang'an.

After discussing it, Yunuo immediately agreed. A lot of money will be used, and no money is needed, but silver is needed, which is not used for circulation, but for jewelry and utensils, which is not only beautiful, but also sometimes wards off evil spirits. If you want to find the elephant tomb, you must use the local people as guides, and mobilize the local people must buy it. But it is also very dangerous to bring a large amount of silver into Nanzhao. Even if the locals are simple, there are also young people. Therefore, you must have a lot of people in your party and bring some weapons. Weapons are easy to handle, except for a few in the Tang Dynasty, such as Modao and other controls, most weapons were not controlled. Besides, the government military system, which serves the people in leisure time and soldiers in wartime, will not be able to achieve comprehensive arms control. The main thing is people. The place he went to was very dangerous and needed some strange people, which was also the main reason why Jimo was looking for Yu Dashao's help.

Therefore, he hooked up with the big ròu dealer in Chang'an East City, Ye Yi, that is, the fat man who sat at the bottom. With more than 30 people, he went to Nanzhao. This happened about a short time after the Jida Festival, and when he passed by Jijia, Jimo brought a dozen more servants. There were forty-nine men in this process

Li Wei used to tell many interesting stories, but they were all made up and not credible. Now it is a living thing, and Yao Yuanchong has listened to God. However, Yao Yuanchong shook his head, he had never heard of the elephant tomb in Wangzhou. However, the terrain of the south, in mind, the mountains and forests are complex, and there are miasma in many places, although Jimo said that the people are simple, but some people like to raise Gu, but it is very terrifying. There are no Gu, and there are many insects and snakes. If it's an ordinary trip, one person or two is enough. But if you look for this elephant tomb, I'm afraid it won't work. However, this legend also attracted him, and he did not interrupt Jimo's words.

Jimo speaks very slowly, after all, he is a southerner, and his accent is different, but fortunately, he has been to Chang'an several times, and his official speech is not standard, so he may make do with it. The crowd can understand it.

In addition to the three of Jimo, these forty-nine people also have warriors with superb martial arts, onmyoji who are good at watching the terrain, and even three people often haunt Nanzhao to make a living, proficient in the language and customs of various tribes, and other strange skills. The preparation is also very thorough. All the way to set off again, at the beginning of July last year, to Zhuge Liang City.

Money can make ghosts grind, and when they hear about the search for elephant graves, the locals immediately avoid them as if they had heard something. It almost caused a siege by the locals. However, six more young people agreed to join the group. With a guide, I searched for the lone elephant, and this search lasted for nearly a month. Two strong men brought over from Chang'an died of epidemic because they were not accustomed to the water and soil. Four others also had to be evacuated to Luzhou to recuperate because of serious illness. But when everyone was impatient, the local guide finally saw an old elephant and began to look south for a resting place.

"Did you find it?" Bi'er asked nervously.

Not long after Jimo and the others returned to Chang'an, the matter of the palace was spread widely, and they knew something about Bi'er, so they didn't dare to slack off, and said respectfully: "Little lady Jiang, listen to what the servant says." ”

In this regard, Li Wei is also curious, about the elephant tomb, which was so developed in later generations, there are still all kinds of legends.

Jimo continued: "This elephant continues to go south, but it is very alert. We didn't dare to follow too closely, and we followed all the way. Fortunately, the goal is huge, and there is no loss. But when you go to Vietnam, the more sparsely populated it is. There were many snakes and insects in the jungle, and although we had medicine with us, six more people were bitten by poisonous insects and died. ”

"The southern wilderness is dangerous." Ximen Chong sighed.

Yao Yuanchong shook his head and said: "No, they are only following this wild elephant returning to the nest, and they are all walking on a deserted road, so there are more insects and snakes, in fact, many places have been cultivated by barbarians, and they may not be so terrible." ”

"Yao dialogue, this is exactly what he said," Jimo didn't know that Yao Yuanchong had stayed in Wangzhou for a while, thinking that the prince's dialogue was knowing, and it was reasonable, and he continued: "When people talk about Nanzhao, they think of Zhuge Liang a lot, but they don't know that Nanzhao is called Ailao Country. In the 12th year of Yongping in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the chief Liu Maung led 77 Yi kings, more than 50,000 households, and more than 500,000 people attached to the country, this time it was attached to the east and west for 3,000 li, and the north and south for 4,600 li. Emperor Ming of the Han Dynasty gave Liu Maung the seal of mourning and set up Yongchang County. Therefore, Sinicization, coupled with Zhuge Liang's appeasement, if it weren't for the later ones, Nanzhao Yi was a county or a place in my Tang Dynasty. But at that time, not all the mourners were willing to join in. Some tribes rebelled against Liumaung, and many wars took place. It's just that the terrain is far away, and the imperial court opened Yongchang County, which is just a bondage. There is no record in the history books. Some of the tribesmen who were unwilling to attach themselves were defeated and moved south. This shows that during the Han Dynasty, the population of Nanzhao was at least 550,000 or more, or even 700,000 or 800,000. Not all places are wild. ”

Not only Nanzhao, but all parts of the world, including the current North and South America, also have their own civilizations, but the Han culture stands at the top of the world. But it doesn't mean that the people in other regions are really stupid, and they are not even as good as livestock. But knowing it, Li Wei didn't say it.

Jimo continued: "This line is getting farther and farther away, and when we come to a big mountain, finally this wild elephant slows down. ”

Slowing down means that it is not far from the elephant tomb, but speaking of this, Jimo made a strange creaking sound in his throat, not only him, but also Yu Dashao and the fat man Ye Yi, with an extremely terrifying look on their faces.