Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 794 Shameless

This speculation about Ma Di can reasonably explain why he abandoned the valley and chose to camp on the mountain. It was not that he didn't want to, but that he couldn't do it.

Ma Di was able to become a general of an army and be entrusted with important tasks. If he was really a mediocre person with unusual common sense, it can only be said that Zhuge Liang was really not suitable to be a military advisor.

Many records in historical books are extremely absurd and unreasonable, Ma Di is one of them, so Li Shimin said that historians rarely know soldiers.

Zhuge Liang's miscalculation was that the Wei State sent troops much faster than expected. Especially Zhang He's performance exceeded his plan. Zhang He used his extraordinary marching speed to arrive on the battlefield in advance and defeated Ma Di.

Under this situation, Ma Di blocked Zhang He with his exhausted army who had marched eight hundred miles. In fact, it would be difficult for most other generals of Shu to win this battle.

After all, history records that Ma Su had 10,000 soldiers and Zhang He had 50,000 soldiers. Although Zhang He's army may not have all arrived, his cavalry did. At that time, Ma Su was still setting up camp, but was caught off guard by Zhang He's successful surprise attack and lost the street pavilion.

Many people in Shu were defeated, but no one was killed. The real cause of Ma Su's death was that after his defeat, he fled out of fear.

This was the real reason why Zhuge Liang had to kill Ma Su because he violated military discipline and no one could save him.

The final result was that Zhuge Liang failed in his first attack on Wei, forcing Zhuge Liang to use the most dangerous empty city strategy to retreat.

It's not that Zhuge Liang doesn't take risks. When he has no choice but to take risks, he will take more risks than anyone else.

Yuan Xi also understood Zhuge Liang's mentality. After reviewing the Battle of Chaohu, there were indeed many unsatisfactory results. In addition to Zhuge Liang's first military use, which was still immature, there were also many accidents. For example, Taishi Ci failed to find Zhou Yu, which led to the future. Give it your all.

It is not unreasonable for Zhuge Liang to attribute this to the fact that he took too many risks, but both Yuan Xi and Lu Xun came through this step by step. It's just that Zhuge Liang has too high requirements for himself.

No one is born to fight. A qualified commander needs to fill in countless lives during his growth to become a famous general. Not to mention that Zhuge Liang is now a young man under twenty, and Yuan Xi has to do The only thing is to shorten this process as much as possible and let Zhuge Liang grow up as soon as possible.

Killing people now is to save fewer people from dying in the future. After all, in this troubled world, it is still too unrealistic for any party to want to make a quick decision and have the final say.

Yuan Xi comforted Zhuge Liang and said, "If I attack Yuan Tan, will it have an impact on the situation in Yanzhou? Will Cao Cao take the opportunity to counterattack Jizhou?"

"If Yuan Shang cannot withstand it, he will be back to the starting point."

Zhuge Liang thought for a while and replied: "I can't be sure, after all, the other party has his own considerations."

"But if I were Cao Cao, taking the opportunity to attack Jingzhou again, or even joining forces with Yuan Tan to attack Xuzhou, would be one of the options."

Yuan Xi was suddenly startled, "I have thought about the former, but I really haven't thought much about the latter."

"If this is really the case, in three months, I may have to face the main forces of Cao Cao and Yuan Tan at the same time?"

Zhuge Liang nodded, "Yes, so three months is really tight."

"But there is nothing we can do about it. If we delay the attack any longer, the high-ranking cadres who invaded Sili Hedong will be unable to withstand it first. If they do not have enough stamina, they may be counterattacked by Ma Teng and Han Sui."

Yuan Xi sighed: "Indeed, his number of soldiers is not large, and the several Xiongnu tribes who joined forces cannot fight a tough battle. If they fight for another two months, the morale of the Xiongnu soldiers will be gone."

"It's a pity. The divorce plan I used at the beginning was complicated, but it didn't seem to be very effective. Ma Teng and Han Sui have not had internal strife so far. It seems that there are still too many redundant links."

Zhuge Liang replied: "I understand this matter from beginning to end."

"There is nothing wrong with my lord's plan, and there are no major flaws in the middle steps."

"There must be suspicion within them. The reason why there is no internal strife is that they have a common external enemy. As long as they are not stupid, they will never break up at this time."

"In other words, they will only fight among themselves when they have no external threats and feel that the overall situation is settled and they are sure to win."

Yuan Xi nodded in agreement. He naturally knew this truth, but if the senior officials did not send troops, they would not be able to contain Ma Teng and Han Sui. It was really a dilemma to send troops but let the two temporarily unite.

He said aloud: "There are too many variables in fighting Yuan Tan. How about calling Zilong from Montenegro?"

Zhuge Liang said: "If we move our troops now, it will be easy to reveal our intentions."

"My lord, please wait with peace of mind. Liang and Boyan will make some careful plans in the past few days."

Yuan Xi smiled and said: "The military advisor's mentality is more stable than mine, so I feel relieved."

Zhuge Liang thought to himself that most of this I was just pretending, but actually I didn’t know what to do.

But if you don't give your lord confidence as a military advisor, your lord will be even more at a loss, right?

He stood up and said: "I'm afraid Jiangdong's envoys will arrive in the next few days. I want to go back and think about how to deal with them."

Yuan Xi couldn't help laughing, "You can scold the military advisor, but it's best to make them vomit blood."

Zhuge was wondering, how could he have such ability?

Little did he know that in Yuan Xi's heart, Zhuge Liang was the most famous troll in the Three Kingdoms in later generations. He made many high-ranking officials of Wei and Wu angry to death.

In the next few days, Yuan Xi became idle. He heard that Kuai Yue had visited Zhuge Liang and wanted to use the marriage between the Kuai family and the Zhuge family to get through the back door. Zhuge Liang naturally pretended to be deaf and dumb. The envoy from Jiangdong was much slower. A few days later, a message was sent along the river, saying that the envoy would arrive in three to five days. Yuan Xi was just waiting for his arrival and took Kuai Yue to negotiate terms. Then he would have a good show.

When he came back from patrolling the city, he first went to Feng's house. Feng hurriedly stood up to greet her. Yuan Xi took out a box from his arms and said, "When I came back today, I remembered that my wife mentioned that the makeup powder was gone the day before yesterday, so I found one. I bought some from the shop."

Feng quickly took it and thanked her. When she opened it, she found that the makeup powder was made of rice flour, so she smiled and said, "Shijun really hates lead powder."

"I heard Da Qiao say that the envoy once mentioned that the lead powder commonly used by gentry women nowadays is very bad?"

People in the Han Dynasty advocated white powder and black powder, but due to limited conditions, they often used natural materials to modify their faces, such as finely grinding edible rice grains to apply on the face. This kind of foundation is healthier, but whitens the face. The effect is not obvious.

Therefore, many noble women at that time chose more expensive lead powder to apply on their faces. Although this mineral powder was toxic, it had a strong whitening effect. However, the toxicity of lead would only explode over time. People at that time did not know that. Therefore, it was already too late when the body became unwell, not to mention that the cause was not known, so people among the gentry often died short-lived.

It is ironic to say that the gentry were originally the group with the best living conditions, but in the eyes of later generations, their lifestyle had many unhealthy aspects.

For example, they took Wushi Powder, used lead powder for makeup, ate more sweets, and some nobles did not eat whole grains but only meat, which led to constipation and other gastrointestinal diseases. Under various factors, some nobles lived better and died earlier.

Hearing Ms. Feng's question, Yuan Xi said, "Everyone loves beauty, but I also hope that beautiful women can live longer."

Feng looked at the box with a rather complicated mood, "Having said that, for some people, the beauty of beauty seems to be a very ugly thing. I'm afraid that many noble women want to stay even if they know that lead powder is not good. Live in your youthful and luxuriant appearance."

Yuan Xi sighed: "Although everyone has their own ambitions, I feel that although appearance is extremely important to a woman, it is not everything in her life."

"A woman's talent, virtue and integrity are also her shining points. For example, among my female relatives, Zhao Ji's history writing and calligraphy, Ling Qi's battle formations, and Cao Xian's internal affairs are all the ones I admire very much."

Feng said in a low voice: "But I'm afraid that your wife is the most special in your heart, right?"

"Your Majesty has never mentioned her. Is it out of respect for him?"

Yuan Xi looked out the window and said in a daze: "Maybe... no, it should be like this."

"Other than her appearance, there seems to be nothing special about her that is superior to other women, but it seems that only in front of her can I feel an inexplicable closeness."

Feng said softly: "I am being abrupt. To be honest, I am very envious of her for being able to find a good husband like Shijun."

Yuan Xi laughed and said: "Madam, you are ridiculous. In fact, I am not very qualified. I am out for most of the year and only rush back once during the Chinese New Year, which makes her feel like a widow."

"Thinking about it now, because I spend so little time with my son, I can't even remember what he looks like."

Ms. Feng lowered her head and was lost in thought. She didn't know what she was thinking. After a while, she summoned up the courage to say, "Do you hate me very much?"

Yuan Xi was surprised: "Why do you think so, madam?"

Mrs. Feng bit her lip, "I have known you for a long time, but your Majesty has always been polite and respectful, and has never done anything beyond the bounds of etiquette."

"Although I am in ruins, I am somewhat conceited about my appearance. Are you really a saint, or do you hate me?"

Yuan Xi laughed, "Madam, she speaks very straightforwardly. I really like this kind of character that doesn't mince words."

"I have also heard what Madam said about repaying her kindness to me. To be honest, as a man, I must be very happy to be favored by Madam, but I still hope that Madam can find something meaningful in her life, and It’s not about passively waiting like today.”

"I'm afraid that if you just serve people with sex, your life will be boring when you get old and lose your sex, right?"

"Of course, there's some bad taste of mine in it."

Feng was startled, "What kind of evil... taste?"

Yuan Xi smiled: "A wife is worse than a concubine, a concubine is worse than a thief, and a thief is worse than not being able to steal."

"Perhaps the most evocative thing is the expectation generated by this unobtainable harassment, right?"

Feng showed a speechless expression for the first time. This expression was so vivid that it brought fresh life to her previously dull face. She glanced at Yuan Xi, "Shijun is really a special person. I don’t want to send it to my door, but I have to do this...what is it?"

"Ambiguous." Yuan Xi chuckled.

Feng nodded, "Yes, that's the word. Your Majesty once said that I never understood it, and only now do I understand it."

Then she rolled her eyes and leaned forward slightly, "What do you mean, sir, as long as you don't go beyond the last step?"

Yuan Xi was certainly not a saint. When he saw Feng leaning forward, her beautiful curves exposed, he couldn't help but feel a little thirsty, so he stood up and closed the door, turned around and said with a smile: "Since Madam wants to challenge my bottom line, Then I won’t be polite.”

(End of this chapter)