Just when Pei Wei and Sima Zhi were crisscrossing the desert grassland, Sima Shu, who was in Luoyang, suddenly received an urgent report from Zhang Liang, the assassin of Liangzhou!

The weather is getting hotter and hotter, this day Sima Shu is leading the concubines to enjoy the cool in Hualin Garden, and now he is also a child, since Yang Xianrong gave birth to a son in February this year, he named Sima Yuwai. In April and May, Queen Wang Huifeng and Concubine Luzhu gave birth to a son (Sima Zang) and a daughter (Sima Fang) successively.

And now that Concubine Wang Huiying is also pregnant, how can he not be happy when he sees that his fourth child is about to be born? He was lying on the rocking chair, with Gong E who was fanning a fan standing beside him, Concubine Pei Jin was holding a melon and fruit on the side to feed him personally, and another Zhaoyi Jiang Jun was also accompanying him.

mentioned this Jiang Jun Sima Shu couldn't help but feel pity for him in his heart, in history she was Sima Shu's favorite concubine, was named a beauty, Baolin, and the biological mother of Sima Shu's eldest son Sima Yu. After Sima Shu was imprisoned, Sima Shu's father-in-law Wang Yan hurriedly announced his daughter's divorce from him, the crown princess Wang Huifeng returned in tears, and Jiang Jun and the prince's biological mother Xie Jiu were arrested and tortured to death.

Originally, he thought that he would never meet each other in his life, but who would have thought that when he ascended the throne, he would see the other party's name among the concubines chosen by the ministers. Thinking of the karma of his previous life, he did not hesitate to call the other party's name, and in this way, Jiang Jun became his concubine again. It's just that this life is destined to be much better than the original.

"Your Majesty, are you still worried about the problems of the textile factory?" Pei Jin looked at Sima Shu and frowned slightly, and asked softly.

"Well, a little, it's been more than two months, and I don't know what happened to Zhang Liang?" Sima Shu closed his eyes, and while enjoying the service of the beauties, he replied casually that he had high hopes for cotton.

"Your Majesty, what type of flower is depicted on this picture?" Concubine Hui Pei Jin picked up the picture that Sima Shu casually put on the table and glanced at it, and found that it was a flower that she had never seen before, and asked softly,

"Well, concubine, this is cotton, which is an important crop related to the national economy and people's livelihood." Sima Shu replied with squinted eyes.

"Your Majesty, what is cotton?"

"Uh, this, the flowers of cotton should be like silk."

"Oh! Does Your Majesty intend to use this to alleviate the wool crisis? ”

"Well, Concubine Ai is smart, I do have this plan, but cotton is not easy to find! As early as two months ago, I told the Liangzhou Thorn Mansion to pay attention, but there has been no response for such a long time, it seems that the situation is not good. Sima Shu was a little disappointed in this, he thought it was a very easy thing to do, but he didn't expect it to drag on for so long.

Cotton cultivation first appeared in the Indus Valley civilization in the 5th-4th millennium BC.

Around the 9th century, the Moors introduced cotton cultivation to Spain.

In the 15th century, cotton was introduced to England and then to the British colonies in North America. In fact, the indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica have long known how to use cotton to weave clothes and blankets.

In the 16th century, the Spaniards entered southern Mexico and the Yucatan Peninsula and found that cotton cultivation was already well developed, and the islanders spun colored cotton into homespun cloth and made local clothing.

At least before 2000, cotton fiber has been used as textile raw materials in Guangxi, Yunnan, Xinjiang Province and other regions. However, in the Central Plains, at first people only used cotton as an ornamental plant, and did not recognize its economic value.

Suleiman, a famous Arab traveler in the 9th century, wrote in his "Suleiman's Travels" that the cotton seen in the present-day Yanjing area was still seen as a 'flower' in the garden.

The Book of Liang? The Biography of Gaochang records: There is 'grass, which is like a cocoon, and the silk in the cocoon is like a fine silk, which is called Bai Diezi. It can be seen that cotton, an important raw material for today's textile industry, was originally regarded as flowers and grasses.

There are about 3 different ways for cotton to be introduced into China. According to the analysis of flora and historical data in later generations, it is generally believed that cotton spread to the Central Plains from the north and south.

Nanlu was the first Asian cotton of India, which was introduced to Hainan Island and the Liangguang region through Southeast Asia, according to historical records, at least in the Qin and Han dynasties, and then into Fujian, Guangdong, Sichuan and other regions.

The second route was introduced to Yunnan from India via Burma, around the time of the Qin and Han dynasties.

The third way is that African cotton was introduced into Xinjiang Province and Hexi Corridor through West Asia, the time was about in the period of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the North Road was the ancient book 'Western Regions', during the Song and Yuan Dynasties, cotton spread to the vast areas of the Yangtze River and the Yellow River Basin, and by the 13th century, the North Road cotton had been transmitted to the Weishui River Basin in Shaanxi.

Historical documents and unearthed cultural relics prove that the cultivation and utilization of cotton by the people of all ethnic groups in China's border areas was far earlier than that of the Central Plains, and until the Han Dynasty, cotton textiles in the Central Plains were still relatively rare and precious.

During the Tang and Song dynasties, cotton began to be transplanted to the Central Plains. Around the time of the Southern Song Dynasty, cotton cloth gradually replaced silk and became the main clothing material of the Chinese people.

In the early years of the Yuan Dynasty, the political axe set up the Kapok Lifting Division, and collected cotton cloth from the people on a large scale, as many as 100,000 horses per year, and later took cotton cloth as the first of the summer tax (cloth, silk, silk, cotton), which shows that cotton cloth has become the main textile clothing.

After the Yuan Dynasty, he ruled that he tried his best to collect cotton and cotton cloth, published books on cotton planting technology, and persuaded the people to plant cotton.

From the Ming Dynasty Song Yingxing's "Tiangong Kaiwu" recorded that "cotton cloth is available in every inch of land", "there must be ten rooms of looms", it can be seen that cotton planting and cotton weaving have spread all over the country at that time.

In fact, Sima Shu did not know the history of cotton cultivation in China, he simply thought that there were more merchants from various countries in Liangzhou, and there might be people who had seen cotton, so he asked Zhang Liang to try his best to find cotton in Liangzhou.

But don't say it's really happening!

When Zhang Bin took office two months ago, the first thing he did was to copy several copies of the cotton portrait given to him by the emperor, and then hand it over to his confidants to find it. A month later, there was still not a word of cotton.

Zhang Liang was very anxious about this, after all, this was a task given to him by the emperor himself, and it seemed that Sima Shu attached great importance to this matter, if he couldn't do it to the emperor's satisfaction, wouldn't he lose a lot of points in the emperor's heart? This was too big a blow to Zhang Bin, who was bent on entering the cabinet.

Fate is sometimes so magical, just when Zhang Liang was getting desperate, a merchant from the Guishan country suddenly told him that he had seen this kind of cotton in the Guishan country. Zhang Liang was overjoyed when he heard this, and personally sent someone to take the merchant to the mansion for questioning, and the merchant of the Guishan Kingdom came to the Assassin's Mansion in fear.

"The little one is visiting Lord Thorn Shi, I don't know what happened when the big man called the little one to come?" The Kushan merchant Gamilo saluted Zhang Liang in a proper manner, and now the strength of the Kushan Kingdom has been greatly damaged, so that their people will not be hard when they go outside.

"Your Excellency, don't be nervous, this official came to you this time to ask you for a test." Zhang Liang said comfortingly.

"Lord Thorn Shi, please speak, the little ones know everything, and they say everything."

"Good! Come, look at the thing on this painting, have you ever seen it? ”

Gamilo carefully took the paper, glanced at it carefully, and raised his head to look at Zhang Rail: "My lord, isn't this cotton?" This plant is very common in our Kushan country, and everyone uses it to weave cloth. And if the small ones are not mistaken, there are also in the Gaochang area, but this kind of thing is called white stacks there. ”

"Really? Can you be sure? Zhang Liang was overjoyed when he heard this, and finally had a frown after searching for nearly two months.

"How dare the little ones deceive the adults, and there are probably some big families in Liangzhou, but they all treat cotton as a flower. If the adults need it, the small ones can be imported from the Kushan country. Gamilo saw that Zhang Liang was really interested in cotton, so he wanted to please the other party.

"Okay, if you can help the official introduce a batch of seeds and related planting techniques, the official can make the decision to provide you with some discounts in the purchase of Dajin goods." Zhang Liang also knows that if you want the horse to run, you must let the horse graze.

Just when Zhang Liang was very excited to find cotton, Pei Wei, who was far away in Shengle, was fighting with words in the south of the Tuoba tribe.

Tuoba Yilu didn't expect that the envoy sent by the Great Jin Dynasty turned out to be a young man who was only about twenty years old, but after a series of temptations in front of him, no one in the Tuoba tribe dared to despise this young man. As soon as he entered the big tent, Tuoba Yi Lu politely said: "It is really an honor for the envoy of the Great Jin Dynasty to come to my desert. I don't know what happened to Master Pei? ”

Pei Wei didn't beat around the bush, and said directly: "This time I came to form an alliance with the Great Khan." ”

Tuoba Yilu replied very calmly: "Where an alliance is formed, there must be reciprocal interests. Recently, my Tuoba tribe seems to have no contact with your Great Jin. Besides, just more than ten years ago, Wei Guan, the general of your Great Jin Dynasty, split my powerful Tuoba tribe with a strategy, killed Ben Khan's father, and formed a feud with our department. ”

Pei Wei faced Tuoba Yilu's questioning, and said with a smile: "What the Great Khan said is bad. Shiyan only heard that there are no eternal enemies and no eternal friends in the world, only eternal interests. Besides, the reason why my Great Jin Dynasty has a feud with your ministry is only because your department has repeatedly violated my border, harassed my border people, and looted my property. ”

During the banquet, Ubatu, the king of Zuogu Li, said angrily: "Wei Guan designed to kill my big man, is this just the end of it?" ”

Pei Wei smiled faintly and said: "Fighting on the battlefield, the emphasis is on unscrupulous means, Lord Wei used some extraordinary means to keep my border peaceful, it seems that there is nothing wrong, right?" If it weren't for your own internal problems, how could General Wei Guan have an opportunity? From another point of view, if it is the Great Jin that is defeated, it is the soldiers and civilians of the Great Jin who are killed. And Lord Wei has long since died, and after many years, the hatred should be resolved. ”

As a hero, Tuoba Yilu was not blinded by the previous hatred between the two sides, he saw very clearly that as long as there were enough interests, he did not mind forming an alliance with his enemy.

"Although the Great Jin Dynasty is strong, it is still harassed by the Huns of Bingzhou, Wang Jun of Youzhou and Jiangdong, and has not been able to recover all the lost territory, what conditions do you have for an alliance with me?"

Pei Wei said: "As the king said, the Great Jin is indeed attacked on three sides now. However, my Dajin is strong, Jun Ming and virtuous, as long as I recuperate for three or five years, I will definitely be able to sweep away the universe and make the universe clear. At that time, my Great Jin will regain the lost territory, and the territory will not be smaller than your Tuoba tribe in Mobei. I hope that after the alliance, the Great Khan can contain the Xiongnu from the north and help me complete the unification of the Great Jin! ”

Tuoba Yilu asked, "If I help you and others regain the lost territory, what profit will my clan have?" ”

Pei Wei said: "I will sacrifice grain, gold, silver and jade silk to repay the Great Khan, and I will not hesitate to do so." (To be continued.) )