I wandered in front of my sister's tent for a long time. When I had finished having fun by the river, all I wanted to do was tell my sister about it. But I was afraid that she was still sleeping. I was excited and anxious at the same time, and I didn't know what to do with my hands and feet.
"If you want to come in, come in. Don't hang around outside. You don't know how big you are. You keep hanging around outside. Do you want to scare people?"
"Sister seems to have been awake for a while?" I said, as if I had done something wrong.
"You were yelling so loudly by the river that I was woken up even though I was asleep." Although I looked a little sleepy, my sister didn't blame me. "But now we are only taking the first step of your plan. Now, let's get going. Don't disturb me on the way. I'm sleepy. Let me get some sleep."
My sister is a bit sleepy. This is probably her only shortcoming. When I was with her, I would often knock on her door in the morning to wake her up and play with me. At noon, I would pester her to continue playing games. Thinking of this, I secretly cursed myself as a jerk because I never took a nap, even in the summer when I was sleepy, while my sister always liked to take a nap in the afternoon. She always responded to my requests. Whenever I wanted to hide and play, she would close her eyes and wait for me to hide. When I no longer wanted to deprive my sister of this only hobby, it was a pity that because of government affairs, my poor sister still had to get up at the hour of Mao every day. When my sister handled government affairs, she was very serious and never dozed off regardless of the occasion like me. Recently, the bad guy Kong Ming appeared in the family again. When I thought of him, I also remembered the poor mother and daughter of the Huang family wandering around the house.
Under my order, when my sister fell asleep in the carriage, the entire army's carriage convoy had already fallen silent.
This time, Master and I walked in the front, and all the cavalrymen left the group with us. On the way, Master and I discussed some details. As soon as we arrived at the bridge, Ziyu was waiting for us there again.
"Deng Spartacus is very powerful. I think all the people in his clan are very powerful, including the women." Zi Yu had obviously witnessed the battle, and seemed to be quite familiar with Deng, even able to say his name fluently.
"Have you handed it over to them?" To be honest, I was not very relieved about one person: Zhou Cang. That idiot, don't let anything happen to him. At that time, I asked him and Ziyu to do this because Zhou Cang was more familiar with the mountains and Ziyu was more careful and steady.
"With the climb up there, nothing will happen to that idiot." Ziyu saw through my thoughts at once. "Dong Zhuo once tried to rush up, but there was no place to grab onto the steep cliffs. Dong Zhuo led his men around for a long time, but finally left in a rage. I guess he found another way."
I pointed to the end of the road into Sichuan, thought for a while, and explained all the plans again: "... Before Zixiang comes, you civilians here should build a pass behind your huge rock block. We may still have to enter Shu in the future, and there will be merchants coming in and out of Shu. Build a military town outside this cliff valley and station soldiers to guard the pass. After Zixiang finishes the business in Chencang, he will come here to serve as the prefect. Let Zhoucang go to Chencang and let him be responsible for transporting food and other supplies here. There is no need to divide the troops to guard Jiange. Even if he breaks through, he must first go to Longxi, or let their army jump over these hundreds of miles of mountain roads and come here directly. In that case, he will not be able to keep up with the supplies, and he cannot bring all the horses. He will not take such risks. ... Let's call this pass Shushan Pass and this town Bashan Town. Now I'll leave this here to Brother Ziyu. Hanzhong will be handed over to Brother Yu for jurisdiction in the future. When you go back, ask the warriors of the Deng tribe to come to Hanzhong."
"… And those burned bridges, four in total, need to be rebuilt too, right?"
"But of course. Ah, if you hadn't mentioned this, I would have forgotten for a moment. Is there a baggage train behind Dong Zhuo's army?" Zi Yu shook his head. It seemed that he had to go to Hanzhong to fight a battle.
"Did Naden hand you any prisoners?"
"Ah, he asked me to escort them to you." Zi Yu pointed at some people with their hands tied who were driven out by the soldiers behind him.
"Zi Rui, let me do it." I was about to speak when Master took over. I bowed respectfully. Master and Chen Liang's calmness and experience in handling various events made me fully believe that Master could handle all of this well. As for myself, I am afraid that there is no other way except to use age as an excuse to forgive the mistakes that occur from time to time.
The master just asked a few questions to the group of people, then came back and rushed towards me.
"Master, it's up to you to take Hanzhong." My master and I had already discussed how to take Hanzhong, but because my target was too big, it was inconvenient for me to implement this plan.
"Well, you just need to lead the people behind to catch up when the time comes." Master immediately put on the helmet of the Xiliang people. I looked behind me again. The more than 10,000 cavalrymen were no different from the Xiliang army. The only difference was that they all had a piece of white cloth wrapped around their heads. When cleaning the battlefield, we also specially collected the horses, armor, and weapons of the Xiliang people. We didn't take anything with us, but we took all of Dong Zhuo's things. This was to prevent him from leaving troops stationed after taking Hanzhong. Master would use the excuse that Dong Zhuo was dead and lead the troops to withdraw first to open the city gate.
"That's great." The master asked people to raise the big "Dong" flag.
"Dong Xi is dead." I felt the need to remind Master, "Dong Zhuo's flag is not the same as this one. He was at least a Tianshui Gong."
"I know that he has a younger brother named Dong Min. Fool, do you think your master is as stupid as you? In the future, you should pay attention to inquiring about other people's information carefully." I couldn't stand it anymore. In the last sentence, even my master was brought into the teacher's mouth.
"How many military horses are there in the city?"
"Less than 5,000, plus all the miscellaneous soldiers and all the baggage. ... I'm going first, you guys hurry up and follow me."
After the master left, I waited for the group behind me at the bridge.
"Brother Ziyu, why don't you leave?"
"Does this require your care?" Ziyu looked at the other side of the bridge persistently, his eyes full of expectation.
"Who do you want to see?" I was very interested. Usually, if we, a group of sanctimonious officials in Jingzhou, had such an image, it was usually just to see women. Zishe and I once pretended to have a meal in a hotel just to hear that a new family across the street had a beautiful daughter. It was just a pity that I never found one I liked.
"Zhou Yu?" Seeing that he didn't answer, I asked tentatively, of course I had to start with the most terrifying person, the one who made him feel the most psychologically resistant. Sure enough, he looked at me with contempt.
"Mr. Hu Yu." I was sure of it.
"And your sister." He not only agreed with me, but also added.
When the large group passed by, Ziyu immediately resumed his solemn appearance, with a false appearance of standing tall in the wind, and a sharp gaze, watching the army passing by. The car driven by Zhouyu passed by, and as I wished, they stopped in front of Ziyu enthusiastically. Li Zhen and Zhouyu were both familiar with Ziyu, and they were old friends, so they talked without interruption. I watched Ziyu maintain that calm image with a sense of fun, but I always felt that he looked extremely anxious and ridiculous. Because Zhouyu and his car blocked Ziyu's view of the entire army. Chen Ou came to greet him when he passed by, and Zhengge also came to join in the fun. Ziyu immediately said that he wanted to go over to see his sister-in-law. I believe that Brother Wenzheng knew what he was thinking, because he was resting in the car because he was not feeling well, so he asked him to come to see him later. There was no need to ask my sister, she was sleeping.
When I left, I said hello to Brother Jiang Wei out of loyalty. However, I knew that Zi Yu had come in vain this morning.
When passing the original location of the bridge, the team was a little confused. A very strange bridge appeared on the water where the burned bridge was. However, Brother Chen Liang had obviously seen this bridge before. He was not afraid at all and passed by first. Seeing that there was nothing unusual about it, everyone slowly passed by.
"How was this bridge built?" I wondered.
"The sheepskin bags are inflated and tied to wooden frames. The wooden frames are connected and float on the water. The two banks are nailed firmly to form a bridge. The herdsmen in Longxi often use this method to cross the river. I believe that each soldier in Dong Zhuo's army carried a sheepskin bag in case of emergency."
"Then why don't they put it away?"
"It must be that Dong Zhuo is urging the troops to fight very hard."
On the 15th day of the third month in the second year of Zhongping, at the time of Shen, when we arrived at the city of Hanzhong, there were already some burnt flags with the words "Marquis of Ping'an Fengyun" on the top of the city wall. My surname had just been burned on it. I guess it was an act of revenge by Dong Zhuo's men.
The city was even clunkier than when we left, with more tents, horses, and carts. I finally felt that I had made some money.
This time Dong Zhuo really brought all his belongings here, including all his servants and even various craftsmen from Tianshui. He almost moved the city here.
Inside the big tent, I announced the following battle plan.
"Everyone should have a good rest today. Those who can get on the horse tomorrow, come with me and head straight to Tianshui." I have always been concise and clear.
"Is it okay?" My sister was a little unsure.
"It's okay. I've sent Zi Tong to Luoyang to find our two lucky military advisors and have them find a way to hold Ding Yuan back. With the power of the two of them, I believe Ding Yuan won't be able to escape from Xiliang at all."
"Are you jealous?" she whispered to me and smiled at me. She wanted to remain serious but unfortunately she couldn't hold on.
Although I never did, I could feel that I was jealous. I had hardly talked to any girls. Of course, I had to exclude my sister and that terrible Zhou Yu. After hearing what I said, Li Zhen and Chen Ou actually talked about the issue of whether they had children in the big tent, which made me feel even more uneasy. I was immediately taught a lesson by Master's wife, and then she told them the difference between a hen laying an egg and a woman giving birth to a child. We were very excited to hear it, and Brother Chen Liang was the happiest among us. In the end, even Master couldn't sit still anymore, and tricked his old sister out of the big tent with various excuses.
As the sun set, Deng's men arrived and brought me Zhou Cang's greetings. I invited Deng to join us in the journey to Liangzhou, and Deng agreed immediately.
Then I started chatting with him, I was still very interested in their lives.
"How do you divide your tribes? How do you tell which tribe they are?" Because I saw that many people in the Deng tribe were very similar to Han people, almost the same, but when he pointed out that another person was a Han Chinese, I couldn't see any Han feeling in this person. And in a group of Han people, there are all kinds of people, I don't know how they can tell them apart.
"We grew up together, just like brothers and sisters. There are only a few thousand of us in this generation. Isn't it easy to divide them?" I was thinking, is it easy to divide them? "We have been trained according to the Spartan method. Did you see us sleeping outside last time? We are not allowed to sleep indoors unless we are married. We must learn to withstand and resist all kinds of natural attacks. The ancient Spartans are indeed very strong. If there is a chance, I will tell you all about all the training methods. You will definitely be impressed." He realized that he had gone off topic and stopped talking quickly, but I didn't care, because I felt everything he said was very fresh and I was willing to listen. Now is probably my most relaxed time. Dong Zhuo has become a turtle in a jar, looking at the mouth of the jar but unable to get out. What am I afraid of? "We are all from the same tribe as our father, and we can intermarry freely without any hindrance. It is said that when the Han people first started living with our tribe, they were not used to it, but soon..." He seemed to feel that he could not find the words to describe that process, and I couldn't find it either, so I motioned for him to continue "However, the Amazon women are slightly different. When they give birth to a boy, he will be of the same tribe as his father, and the girl will be Amazon. The customs of the Amazon tribe were even stranger in the past. They would steal a man, and when a girl became pregnant, they would drive the man away. If the child was born, they would keep the girl and give the boy to his father." Deng stopped again. He always realized quickly that he was going off the topic, but it seemed that he could not avoid it.
"For example, I have the blood of Sereis, Han, Amazon, Parthian..." I think he would have to use more than one hand to describe each of his tribes. "The blood of Sereis. I think you call this..."
Bastard, I thought of this word in my mind, but I thought it was too hurtful, so I didn't say it out loud, and he couldn't think of the word for a while. I didn't want him to think of this bad word, so I decided to interrupt his train of thought.
"How do you get along with girls..." I think it is necessary to ask, because here, the orders of parents and the words of matchmakers seem to be of no use to them.
"It's just that two people like each other, isn't it? Usually after fighting together, there will be many pairs..." As if to prove his words, a female soldier of the Deng tribe ran past us, and one of our young soldiers from Jingzhou ran after her! He suddenly saw me and panicked, not knowing what to do. Deng and I were very consistent, pointing at the direction where the woman went, and said, "Chase her!"
Looking at that guy chasing the female soldier, Deng said to me: "Your soldiers are very good at fighting! I fought with them and found that although they are not very strong, they are very brave in fighting. Their fighting skills are not like you and me who are just farmers. They are very good at fighting. So, the women of our tribe seem to like your soldiers very much." What I was thinking in my heart was that these bastards usually look more honest than each other, but they are desperate when they see female soldiers around.
Suddenly, the wall in front of us collapsed. It was not surprising that the wall collapsed. There were ruins everywhere, and they were not very stable. But the reason why it collapsed was because a man and a woman were fighting and knocked it down. The man was our Jingzhou soldier. Could it be that our soldiers had a conflict with the Deng people? The people around were all watching the fun. There were our Jingzhou soldiers and Deng people, especially the young leader, who was leading the commotion with one arm hanging... I finally understood.
"The way Amazon women find husbands..." Spartacus pointed at the two people rolling on the ground helplessly and amusedly and told me, "They don't like any hand ornaments, they like to be strong..."
"However, your women are indeed different from our Central Plains women. They are very open-minded."
"No, I see your sister, that Zhou Yu, and that extremely powerful female general in black, they are all very relaxed."
My sister is indeed like that, but she is mainly like that towards me. The other two are definitely outliers. However, my sister-in-law seems to be much more quiet than the rumored one. It seems that Zhou Yu is hopeless, unless Li Zhen can do a good job of educating and guiding her like Jiang Zheng did.
"What is Zhou Yu doing in that car?"
"What are those Amazons doing there? Amazon women are martial artists, so they might have weapons. Why would they be attracted to those precious things?"
I agreed, because Zhou Yu was also there, and this barbarian girl would not be interested in that kind of dressing up.
But the facts proved that we were all wrong. When Zhou Yu found me, she came over with a necklace around her neck, opened her hands full of rings, and asked me which one was prettier. And the group of Amazon women also tried on the jewelry without giving me face.
Deng and I looked at each other in shame.
Suddenly, one of the Amazon women cried out, and everyone else stopped what they were doing. Deng and I immediately stepped forward and stepped onto the carriage, following everyone's gaze towards the box containing the jewelry.
An ear, to be exact, an ear with a dozen gold earrings running from the ear rim down to the earlobe, which was the attire of a wealthy foreigner, but no matter what its previous owner was like, now it was just an ear.
The next morning, Deng, Li Zhen, Zhou Yu, Master, and I led a temporary cavalry of more than 30,000 people and set off quickly. On the way to Tianshui, Liangzhou, I felt a little heavy. I knew that the people of Liangzhou had suffered a disaster. Dong Zhuo was simply... I couldn't find words to scold him. In fact, my vocabulary for scolding people has always been very poor because I was punished by my sister for swearing. Wherever he passed, there was a mess and nine out of ten houses were empty.
The villages along the way no longer exist, and the only traces of the people who lived here in the past can be found from the charred walls.
All the way to Tianshui, I didn't feel that this was the territory of the Han Dynasty. Yangping, Anding, Nan'an, Jicheng, and finally Tianshui, all five cities were in flames. As the Duke of Tianshui of the Han Dynasty, Dong Zhuo actually did this to the people of his own territory. In the past, Nanyang was controlled by the Yellow Turbans, so he could at least make up some reasons for doing this, but these are all my Han people, his subjects. Isn't he afraid of being blamed by the court? The more I thought about it, the angrier I became, and I wished I could eat him alive.
I stationed my army outside Tianshui City, waiting for the arrival of the follow-up large force. Here, I issued a notice to reassure the people and listened to the news from the north. Ding Yuan had not come in the ten days since Dong Zhuo left. This was really incredible.
One day, a scout came to report that Han Sui and Dao Zhang of Xiliang had rebelled, and Ding Yuan was suppressing the rebellion and had suffered several defeats. If it had not been for Lu Bu's bravery and invincibility, Xiliang would have been conquered. So they were all relieved.
My sister's large group of people arrived four days later. When they came, we were able to settle down together in Tianshui City.
The population of Tianshui gradually increased, but it was still much less populated than before. I returned some of the things that Dong Zhuo had looted, but for many things, such as the ear, I could no longer give them back. I had someone bury the ear in the ruins of Dong Zhuo's former mansion, and did not allow anyone to take off his (her) earrings.
Another day, Li Zhen came back. He went to inspect the cities in the southern part of Liangzhou and brought a man with him. This man's surname was Jiang, and his name was Jiong. He was more than eight feet tall and had a majestic appearance. He was originally a Gongcao of Jicheng and had always been popular among the people. When Dong Zhuo raised an army, Jiang Jiong noticed it. Because he knew Dong Zhuo's temper, he immediately gathered the villagers and asked them to go to a distant place for refuge. For this reason, the people of Jicheng fled to avoid the disaster. After Dong Zhuo left for a few days, he took people back to Jicheng to put out the fire and settle down. Because the governor fled far away, he took charge of all the affairs of Jicheng. When Li Zhen visited here, he regarded him as a genius, so he took him to Tianshui.
"You don't have to be the acting prefect. I will order someone to carve an official seal immediately, and you will be the prefect of Jicheng. Is that okay?" I feel addicted to recruiting people for my teacher, especially such absolute talents.
"Yes, sir." His answer was neither humble nor arrogant, which made me feel good about him immediately.
Before I left, my teacher told me that this was possible, and he also gave me full authority to handle the affairs of the local officials. Although the appointment of officials must be ordered by the central government, the governor of the state can take all the power. Although Xiliang is not the land of Jingzhou, there is such a clause in the law that the governor can replace officials in other states and counties where the rebels are suppressed. Hanzhong belongs to Yizhou, and Tianshui belongs to Liangzhou. Now they all belong to my Jingzhou. If the court wants the reason, it will be written: Xiliang Dong is unkind and slaughtered the people of my Han Liangzhou, so we attacked him.
We were extremely busy in Tianshui. Ding Yuan in the north was also busy. He was about to collapse in Xiliang, and we had no intention of going to help him. Suddenly, we heard that the court had sent a letter to recruit Han Sui. We thought there must be something wrong, and it was probably the work of those two guys in Luoyang.
We felt that it was time to quickly establish good relations with our future neighbors, so Jiang Zheng took our gifts and various supplies to "comfort" Ding Yuan, who was probably very angry.
On April 15, the second year of Zhongping, it was early summer and the weather was getting hot. We had been in Tianshui for a month, so I thought we could leave because Tianshui had finally regained its vitality. On this day, we officials agreed to go to the northwest of Tianshui for a trip. The grass on the ground was unexpectedly dense, but sister, this kind of grass is a weed. It will grow wildly as long as the weather is hot and humid. Many kinds of war horses cannot eat it, and cattle and sheep will not eat these messy things. It gave me a new understanding of sister's knowledge.
After walking less than ten miles, we suddenly saw a large lake with clear water, dense reeds and lush aquatic plants beside the lake, which looked like the water village of Dongting Lake.
Something suddenly occurred to me, and I blamed myself for being too careless.
"Spartacus," I thought, I was going to make good on my promise, "what do you think of this lake?"
"It's beautiful." A simple answer.
"Do you want your people to settle down in Tianshui and graze here in the future?" Seeing his face light up, I knew he was very willing, so I didn't listen to his answer and continued, "We need a general here to guard these five cities and a thousand miles of land. Are you willing to do it?"
"Yes." Clear and concise.
"Treat the people here as you would your own people. When dealing with enemies who have entered Tianshui's territory, treat them with order first and then with force. And help us raise our own horses. Is that okay?" I already regarded him as a general of Jingzhou.
"Okay, but I'm afraid I can't do it alone. I'm not familiar with those things." Honest and simple, the perfect candidate, I decided.
"Jiang Jiong from Jicheng can assist you. In addition, Chen Liang will stay here for a while. If you have any questions, feel free to ask him." He thought to himself that he had found another great general for Teacher Wei.
On April 17th of the second year of Zhongping, the weather was cool because there was little rain here, so even though it was cloudy, the army still set out. I left 100,000 soldiers and horses to Chen Liang, asking him to return to Jingzhou after the autumn harvest, and all the soldiers and horses were handed over to Deng Spartacus.
But I still took some Deng people with me. In the end, they decided to let Qing and some of the most experienced Deng warriors and their families go back to Jingzhou with us, so that Qing and them could train infantry for us in Jingzhou. Li Zhen once asked me secretly and jokingly, "Are you going to take people back as hostages?" I immediately kicked him off his horse. How could I have such a despicable idea? I was punished for joking. The teacher dared to use people, and I was even more courageous. This time I absolutely believed in my judgment.
The road was very different from when we came here, with life everywhere and people's faces beginning to smile. This made us very happy, as our hard work this month was not in vain.
At this point, the battle of Hanzhong with Dong Zhuo was over.
On the way back, our interest in the trip increased greatly. We were able to appreciate the scenery as we walked, which we had not noticed when we hurried here.
One day, when passing by a river, I asked its name. The villagers answered: "West Han River, which flows into Ling River from Shuzhong and into the Yangtze River."
Everyone was in high spirits and suggested reciting poems about Bailiang, starting with me.
"The clear Han River flows eastward," the beginning is always simple.
"Here, Lingjiang flows into Yizhou." Jiang Zheng said casually.
"Excuse me, why is Dong Zhuo so worried?" Li Zhen always has a way of criticizing people.
"A dangerous building stands on a steep cliff." My sister's words made everyone laugh.
"Go up the mountain to cut wood for a boat trip," Zhou Yu also came to join in the fun, and he looked quite decent and interesting.
"The boat is in Jingzhou and the people are in Yangzhou." The master's words satirized the fact that the people of Xiliang were not good at boats, which caused another burst of laughter.
“Maybe he can walk up the mountain,” Hu Yujun’s Chinese has improved a lot, because she also came to play this game with us, although…, but just seeing Jiang Zheng’s happy look, we also cheered.
"Since then, there have been many monkeys in Shu Mountain." Chen Ou said brilliantly.
"If you ask the people of Ba what they want..."
"Xilian..." Jiang Zheng didn't continue. He noticed that something was wrong with me. Everyone was looking at me who was suddenly distraught.
I realized what I did wrong. I didn't know it would be like this. I thought about this plan for so many times, but I never thought about it. I should have thought of it when I was in Xiliang, but I was too busy to think about it. I looked around at everyone, calmly and sadly: "Although I have made contributions to Jingzhou, I will be punished by heaven."
(Author's note: Seven-character ancient poetry with rhyme in each line is called Bailiang style. It is said that Emperor Wu of Han built Bailiang Terrace and composed poems with his ministers, and each line used rhyme, so this kind of poetry is called Bailiang style.)