Silver Fox of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 25 Yuan Shu
When Zhuge Liang crossed the east city of Xiapi and entered Huainan territory, the large troops from Huangmenting also moved south from Xiangben Shunyi River.

If you want to go from Xuzhou to Huainan, Surabaya and Huai River are unavoidable hurdles.

In the Han Dynasty, the main way to cross such large rivers as Sidu and Baliu was not a bridge, but a ferry, because with the bridge-building technology at that time, it was difficult to build a good bridge to make the natural moat open.

Therefore, Huangmenting's relocated troops had to cross the river from the ferry in Xiapi County, where the Xiapi Administration was located.

But when the large army arrived at the ferry in the Geyi Mountain area outside Xiapi City, what they saw was a desolation, and the ferry had long been deserted.

As a last resort, everyone had to go upstream along the Sishui River. In fact, there is a ferry downstream. They can go all the way south along the Sishui River, cross the river from Suiling to the territory of Xutai, and then go in the direction of Dongcheng.

It's just that Shen Chen thinks that all along this route are massacred Xuzhou people. It has been more than a month since the beginning of May, and the degree of decay of the corpses must be very high. The plague bacteria are breeding and multiplying, which is the most dangerous time.

So they had no choice but to head towards Lu County upstream of Surabaya, but even if they went in the direction of Lu County, they saw a lot of bones along the way, villages were slaughtered, and floating corpses were often seen floating in the river.

After they finally found a boat to cross the river from the ferry in Lu County, they went all the way south and inevitably approached Qulu County, where they finally saw what hell on earth is.

One by one the villages were slaughtered, liquefied corpses could be seen everywhere along the roads, flies and mosquitoes were flying around, and there was no sound of chickens or dogs in a radius of tens of miles.

The route Shen Chen had planned had already avoided the central area of ​​the massacre, but even the tragedy on the periphery was still beyond his imagination.

"Three Kingdoms" and "Hou Hanshu" talk about the records of several crosses, how can they express the sorrow of the hundreds of thousands of victims in Xiapi?

"Pull out the five cities, and then go to the East China Sea. After returning to Tan, Cao Bao and Liu Bei were sent to Tandong to ask Taizu. Taizu defeated them, and then attacked and pulled Xiangben, killing too many people."

"All of Juba, Juling, and Xiaqiu were slaughtered. Whoever killed 10 men and women, leaving no chickens and dogs, and the Surabaya River was not left behind, so the city of the five counties was protected, and there was no trace of it."

The cold sentence "so many slaughtered" and "every man and woman killed 10 people" seems to be recording the lambs slaughtered in the slaughterhouse.

But these are all human beings.

Shen Chen also looked at all this with sadness.

There are many descendants who whitewashed Cao Cao's massacre of the city.

pity.

Why are the ancestors of these whitewashers not the massacred people in Xuzhou?

After deliberation, the situation is finally a little better.

The large army crossed Suishui and Fuli in late June, approached Xiangxian in early July, and gradually moved towards Jiujiang.

In fact, it is not far from Xuzhou to Huainan, that is, from Linyi City in Shandong Province to Huainan City in Anhui Province, the whole journey is more than 400 kilometers, and the road is flat and easy to walk.

Normally speaking, it takes three or four days to ride a horse. If it is calculated by walking 40 kilometers a day, it will never exceed twelve days.

But after all, Huangmenting is more than 1000 villagers, not well-trained elite soldiers. The villagers, together with the old and the young, travel about 20 kilometers a day, and the speed is not very fast.

Therefore, starting from mid-June to early July, in about ten days, I only walked less than [-] kilometers, almost two-thirds of the distance.

By mid-July, they finally moved to the Shouchun area in Huainan.

At this time, Zhuge Xuan had already arrived in Shouchun, and Yuan Shu was overjoyed when he learned that there was an aristocratic family, so he summoned Zhuge Xuan to inquire.

Although the other party was only a third-rate family, they also appreciated his talent, so he named Zhuge Xuan as the prefect of Yuzhang.

A month later, the elders of Huangmenting also came to Shouchun, and Yuan Shu learned that there was a famous family passing by, so he summoned him to inquire.

Strictly speaking, the Shen family's status is very poor, and it has nothing to do with the family.

But the Deng family is different.

Going back to the ancestors, the grandfathers and great-grandfathers of Deng Mao, Deng Hong and others were all the children of the top officials and eunuchs during the time of Queen Mother Deng, and there were countless people with three princes and two thousand stones in their families.

It was only because of the persecution during the reign of Emperor An that the Deng family fell into decline, and their children no longer served as officials in the court, so they fled to other places.

But the power of the tiger is still there, and Deng's reputation is still preserved.

So when Yuan Shu heard that Xinye Deng was coming, he naturally called him over to check on the situation.

Shen Chen had anticipated this a long time ago, so he discussed the solution with Deng Mao, Deng Hong and other clan elders along the way, and finally decided to let Deng Hong pretend to be an expert, fool Yuan Shu and ask him to help the clan go to Jingzhou.

On July [-]th, Yuan Shu arranged for the elders of Huangmenting Village to be temporarily located in the north of Shouchun City. Deng Hong took Shen Chen into the residence of General Zuo in Shouchun City to pay homage to Yuan Shu.

General Zuo's mansion is spacious and luxurious, and there is a huge courtyard when you enter the door.

Under the guidance of the servants, Deng Hong and Shen Chen walked through the courtyard and came to the middle hall, where they saw a middle-aged man sitting on the main seat.

There are several guards in the hall to protect, and there is a middle-aged Confucian scholar on the lower left hand side of the man, who is Yuan Shu's director Yan Xiang.

Seeing the middle-aged man on the main seat, Deng Hong led Shen Chen to bow his hands and said: "I have seen General Zuo."

"You must be Deng Hong. No courtesy, please sit down."

Yuan Shu motioned them to sit down.

"Thank you General Zuo."

Deng Hong led Shen Chen to sit on the mat on Yuan Shu's right.

The right is respected in the Han Dynasty, which is mentioned in "Han Shu" and "Hou Han Shu". It was not until the Tang and Song Dynasties that the left was respected.

Therefore, Yuan Shu, as the most famous family of the fourth generation and the third lord, let two people without official positions sit on the seat below his right hand, which is obviously regarded as a great respect.

It can also be seen from this that Yuan Shu at this time is far from being as arrogant as he will be in the future, and still has the etiquette of four generations and three princes.

After sitting down, Deng Hong said to Yuan Shu: "General Zuo, this is my grandson Shenchen, who is only eight years old. He heard that General Zuo is famous all over the world, and he made a noise to come with me to pay tribute to the general's reputation. .”

"Look at me?"

Yuan Shu asked curiously, "It's interesting that you are childish. Since you are going to see me, how do you feel after seeing me now?"

Shen Chen stood up and said seriously: "Chen feels that the general does not match his name."

"Oh?"

Yuan Shu felt a little displeased, but he kept a normal face and asked, "What's wrong?"

Shen Chen said: "People in the world say that Yuan Gonggong is the fourth generation and third prince of the Yuan family to dominate the world, and his talent is far inferior to Yuan Shao. I think this is all their flattery to Yuan Benchu. It is obvious that the general is the dragon and phoenix of the Yuan family. But turn a blind eye, isn't it not worthy of the name?"

Yuan Shu was angry when he heard it at first, but later he became happy and joked: "Don't lie to me, kid, did your ancestor teach you to say this to please me when you came here?"

"Absolutely not."

Shen Chen shook his head and said: "When I was in Xuzhou, I saw that the villages were dilapidated and the roads were full of bones. After Cao Cao eunuch, he did not practice virtue and committed massacres repeatedly, which made the rear rebel. After arriving in Huainan, I saw that the people lived and worked in peace and contentment, and had ample food and clothing. , isn't this because of the general's benevolence?"

Yan Xiang on the side also laughed when he heard this, and said to Yuan Shu: "Ming Gong, even an eight-year-old boy who came all the way from Xuzhou can see the difference between us and Cao Cao Tao Qian. The land of Huaibei, why can't we have it?"

In fact, when Yuan Shu called Zhuge Xuan and Deng Hong, he didn't really want to recruit any talents.He just defeated Chen Wen, the governor of Yangzhou last year, and completely occupied Huainan. He is currently gearing up his troops and preparing to go north to take Xuzhou.

So every time I hear someone coming from Xuzhou, I will call to inquire about it, so as to understand the current actual situation in Xuzhou, so that I can make a judgment and prepare for the war.

Apart from praising Yuan Shu in Shen Chen's words, Yan Xiang had already heard two pieces of information.

One is that the reason why Cao Cao withdrew from Xuzhou was that there was a big disturbance in the rear, and now he is too busy to take care of himself, and it is a good opportunity to go north to capture Xuzhou.

The second is that Xuzhou is indeed dilapidated now, and its strength has been greatly weakened. Now that attacking Xuzhou, the obstacles will be much smaller.

This also matched the news they had received from the refugees and Zhuge Xuan who had come over from Xuzhou.

However, Shen Chen was naturally not ignorant of the information that Yan Xiang could hear.

But he is also very clear that this cannot be concealed. The Xuzhou massacre caused a large number of people to migrate south to Huainan. It is easy for Yuan Shu to obtain this information. Lying will not do them any good.

Therefore, it is better to tell the truth and use the information that everyone knows to please Yuan Shu, which is equivalent to earning money while standing still without saying anything.

Yuan Shu really laughed and said: "All the children nowadays are very smart. At the beginning of the year, Duke Ning brought his six-year-old son Lu Lang to see me and stole three oranges from my case to honor his mother. Today Seeing that the Deng family has seen the clues of the general trend of the world from Sun Chenlang, the future generations are to be feared, and the future generations are to be feared."

Shen Chen immediately said: "The sixth uncle told me these things. He said that the Han Dynasty is declining and the heroes are rising together. It is no different from the end of Qin Dynasty. Qin lost its deer, and the world chased it. Among the southern princes, Cao Cao is tyrannical and cruel, and Tao Qian is very old. Only General Zuo is young and strong, and can protect the environment and the people. With Yuan's prestige, why not worry about sweeping the world and helping the Han family?"

He didn't say that Yuan Shu could proclaim himself emperor, but that Yuan Shu had the ability to help the Han Dynasty.

The reason for saying this is because the mainstream environment of public opinion at that time was still dominated by Kuangfu Han. After Cao Cao coerced the emperor to make the princes, countless families and powerful people came to vote.Immediately after Yuan Shu proclaimed himself emperor, he lost popular support, and the betrayal of relatives is a typical example.

It's just that Yuan Shu already had the idea of ​​proclaiming himself emperor at this time, so he was a little displeased to hear Shen Chen's words.

However, he also knew that the time had not yet come, so he did not express his displeasure, but his attitude was a little more indifferent, and he said lightly: "I see, your uncle is right. Sweeping the world, but do you know that our Yuan family and your Deng family still have a relationship?"

(End of this chapter)