The Great Qin Empire---Qin Li

As a wealthy man, Dong Zhang's residence is indeed not small, especially the place for banquets. The roof has flying eaves and corners, the corridor pillars are round, and the hall is large enough to seat 34 people.

Although it was not dark, the hall was already lit up by candlelight, as if to show off the wealth of the host's family. Two rows of three-foot-high bronze lamp stands were placed against the wall. Their shapes were not very exquisite. Most of them were bronze figures in the shape of slaves kneeling on the ground, holding the lamp plate with both hands. The plate was filled with animal ointment, and the wicks burned quietly, emitting a faint smell of burning.

In front of the lamp stand, there were lacquered wooden tables uniformly painted black. Behind each table was a mat, divided into two rows of east and west.

Zhang Bo, a tall and fat man, felt a little crowded sitting alone on the central main seat. There were two green-clad maids sitting on the small chessboard beside him. In the end, he did not send his own sons to invite Heifu to the banquet. He felt that he had won the game, so he was in high spirits and invited everyone to sit down.

The guests who came today were divided into two seats, east and west, which seemed to be clearly divided.

Sitting on the east side were the sons and daughters of the Zhang family and the elders of the local area. Except for the third elder Zhang Fu, who was at the top of the east seat, wearing brocade clothes and loose clothes with wide sleeves, most of the others wore ordinary hemp clothes.

These people were all local clans and villagers. Their relationship was based on blood ties. Even if they did not have the same surname, they had in-laws. Every twelfth lunar month, families in the same town could go to the ancestral tombs together to worship their ancestors, and also eat and drink together. Everyone was flesh and blood, but the houses were just a little far away. Such a group of people are of course familiar with each other. As soon as they meet, they greet each other in the local dialect and chat enthusiastically, and glance at the group of "outsiders" opposite.

Heifu, Gongao, Zhongming, and the ten armored soldiers he brought with him sat on the guest seats on the west side. Everyone was also very aware of being "outsiders". They all wore light armor, hung swords on their waists, and knelt in the military posture. They all looked solemn and didn't say much, which seemed out of place with the lively atmosphere of the banquet.

Seeing that everyone was there, Zhang Bo clapped his hands to quiet down the chattering villagers. He spoke a lot in dialect, and Heifu only understood the general idea. It was nothing more than today's banquet, all for everyone to get to know the new patrolmen, and everyone should eat and drink to their heart's content and not be restrained.

Then, under the leadership of the Third Elder Zhang Fu, everyone at the East Seat stood up and bowed to Hei Fu, who was at the head of the West Seat. Hei Fu also bowed in return.

Although the customs in Wei were very different from those in Nanjun, fortunately, it was a banquet hosted by a local tycoon, without the red tape of aristocratic banquets in big cities. After introducing each other, the banquet officially began.

"Is Zhang Bo trying to show off in front of me?"

Looking at the candles burning in the broad daylight behind him, and the servants and maids who came in one after another with lacquerware food boxes, Hei Fu thought secretly.

In the Spring and Autumn Period, the princes, nobles, officials, scholars, and common people had different etiquette regulations even for the utensils used for eating. People of low status could not use bronze utensils.

But gradually, some nobles became poor, while some commoners became rich. Although they were restricted by etiquette, they still did not dare to use bronze tripods and gui excessively. However, another kind of utensil became popular. Just like bronze represented status, it became a symbol of wealth, which was lacquerware.

Liang and Song were known as the "Thousand Lacquer Trees" and were the handicraft center of lacquerware production in the Central Plains. Zhuangzi worked as a lacquer garden official in Song State. But the lacquerware here is still not cheap. Good lacquerware is as expensive as gold.

But I saw these lacquerwares in front of me. The small lacquer plates for serving dishes were black, and the lacquer bowls were uniformly red. The wine cups were ear cups, and they also had red and black cloud patterns, which were simple and bright. No matter which one, the style is exactly the same. Small towns and villages cannot make them. They should be specially customized in big cities...

At this time, Zhang Bo spoke, babbling a bunch of dialects. After he finished speaking, the villagers in the east seat laughed and looked at Heifu.

"What did he say?" Hei Fu tilted his head and asked his "translator" Zhong Ming.

Zhong Ming was a little embarrassed, but he still told Hei Fu the truth: "Zhang Bo said that these lacquerwares were made by the best lacquerware workshop in Daliang City at a great cost. They are extremely exquisite. Even his family rarely uses them on weekdays. Today, he put them up to entertain the distinguished guests from afar. He also said..."

Seeing Zhong Ming's hesitation, Hei Fu asked: "What else did he say?"

"He also mentioned that a few days ago, when he was entertaining a group of passing merchants at home, a merchant was greedy and hid a lacquer ear cup on the table in his arms and tried to steal it! Zhang Bo finally asked You Jiao, such exquisite utensils should not have been seen in the counties and towns of Qin State?"

Hei Fu frowned immediately. Zhang Bo was not only showing off, but also speaking with thorns!

He glared at Gong Ao, who was about to slam the table in anger, shook his head at him, and then faced the people in the East Seat and began to talk.

"Repeat my words to them in Liang Wei dialect, and don't miss a word."

Zhong Ming promised, so he repeated every sentence Hei Fu said.

"You Jiao said that he had seen lacquerware that was ten or a hundred times more exquisite than these!"

When this was said, everyone in the East Seat was stunned and looked at each other, while Zhang Bo laughed and said that Hei Fu was bragging.

Hei Fu was not in a hurry and began to talk about the tomb robbery case he cracked when he just became a pavilion chief.

It was the tomb of the Ruo Ao family, a royal family of the Chu State, which had been passed down for hundreds of years.

Compared with the history of the Ruo Ao family, the Zhang family, which can only be traced back two hundred years, especially the Yangwu Zhang family, which has not been prosperous for more than three generations, is simply a grain of rice, competing with the sun and the moon.

In the huge coffin chamber of Ruo'ao Douxin, in addition to the bronze tripods and gui that represent his status, there are also mountains of lacquerware in all shapes and sizes.

Heifu can name only a few of them.

There is a carved lacquer ban, which is also a wine table. Heifu remembers that the table top is carved from a whole thick wooden board, with cloud patterns engraved in relief and painted in red, two dragons in relief at each corner, and four legs carved into animal shapes. The table base is painted with cloud patterns and grass leaf patterns, and the animal-shaped ban has scales and vortex patterns on its feet. The whole body is painted with black lacquer and painted with red patterns...

"Isn't this thing ten or a hundred times more exquisite than this low black lacquer table?"

There is also a mandarin duck-shaped painted lacquer box. Heifu described that its head, body, wings, feet, tail, etc. are all shallow reliefs, with fine carvings and lifelike images. The surface of the vessel is painted with patterns in vermilion, gold, and yellow on a black lacquer base: feather patterns are painted on the mandarin ducks, two symmetrical phoenixes are painted on both sides of the tail, and the curling and connecting cloud patterns are painted on the base...

"Isn't this thing ten or a hundred times more exquisite than this ordinary lacquer box with no patterns?"

Zhong Ming relayed Hei Fu's words, shocking Zhang Bo and everyone else in the East Seat.

The Ruo Ao family was a wealthy nobleman. From what Hei Fu saw, the burial form of the Ruo Ao family was completely comparable to the "Tomb of Zeng Hou Yi" where countless national treasures were found. Therefore, the lacquerware was rare in form and exquisite in craftsmanship, which could be called the leader of the era.

When those artifacts were dug out, even he, a well-informed modern man, was shocked and almost couldn't help but secretly take a few for private collection, not to mention the Zhang family tycoon in front of him.

After Heifu finished speaking, he smiled calmly. Although he didn't say it explicitly, his meaning was self-evident.

Compared with the true nobles like the Ruo'ao clan, you, the rural tycoon Dong Zhang, are nothing. You dare to show off in front of me. Do you really think I am an ignorant Rongdi soldier?

Everyone in the East Seat was speechless. Zhang Bo also opened his mouth, wanting to say something but stopping. He just asked whether Heifu had seen it, and didn't ask if he had it at home, so Heifu's answer was not wrong.

At this time, Gong Ao, who was awakened by Heifu's words, also began to brag.

Isn't it just showing off? Their surname is Mi and Gong, and they are also distant branches of the royal family of Chu. Their ancestors were also rich. Although it is not as good as before, the lacquerware used for sacrifices and banquets in the clan is also custom-made in Jiangling. The customs of Chu prefer exaggerated and wild patterns. Compared with them, the lacquerware of the Central Plains is really less imaginative. Now, it is the turn of Zhang Bo and the people of the East Seat to be embarrassed. They all began to retort, and a war of regional aesthetics was about to break out.

Seeing that Gong Ao was getting bigger and bigger, Hei Fu stopped him and said with a smile: "The bloodline of the Ruo Ao family is long, and no clan in the world can match it. Its fiefdom is ten times larger than that of Huyou Township; the number of households under its rule is as many as the entire Yangwu County; its wealth is so abundant that even the King of Chu would be ashamed. However, when the army of Wu'an Jun of Qin came, the descendants of the Ruo Ao family could only bury their wealth in a hurry, abandon their ancestral tombs, and flee eastward in a hurry. From this, we can see..."

Hei Fu slammed his scabbard heavily on the lacquer table, scaring everyone at the table.

He said coldly: "No matter how exquisite the lacquerware is, it cannot withstand the chopping of copper and iron swords. No matter how dazzling the wealth is, if you want to keep it for a long time, you have to be respectful in front of Qin Li!"

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