Ji Han Liu Zhang

In the second year of Xingping, mid-October.

On the Han River, a small boat floated on the water. At one end of the boat, a scholar in Tsing Yi stood upright on the bow. He cupped his hands and said to the people seeing him off on the shore: "Ming Gong, Yu is gone."

This scribe in Tsing Yi was none other than Cheng Yu, a scribe in the Prefectural Mufu, and the eldest son of Cheng Ji, the prefect of Ba County. He was leading Liu Zhang on a mission to go to Shangyong to do a population trade.

Liu Zhang on the bank nodded and said: "Go early and come back early. Your own safety is the most important thing. There is no need to force anything."

"Promise." Cheng Yu felt warm in his heart after listening to Liu Zhang's caring words. He responded to Liu Zhang's instructions loudly, and then he directed the boatmen to untie the cables tied to the shore. Following the direction of the current and wind, the place where he was located A small boat moved on its own without any wind, heading towards the lower reaches of the Han River.

Liu Zhang stopped where he was, and saw that the boat carrying Cheng Yu first occupied his entire eye, and then the boat gradually became smaller, like an ant looking for food on the ground, and then almost disappeared, making him feel quite lonely. The tone of distant sails and shadows in the blue sky.

Seeing the boat go away, Liu Zhang withdrew his farewell gaze and turned his attention to the river bank. Now late autumn has ended and winter is approaching. Although the cold wind cannot be called howling, it is still somewhat vigorous. The wind is sweeping down the branches of the trees on the river bank. The leaves that were already few and far between drifted down.

"The year is coming to an end, well, another year is coming to an end." Liu Zhang was reminded by the cold wind and wrapped himself in cold clothes. Counting this year, it has been two years since he came to this place at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty. If nothing unexpected happens, , the reign name of Xingping will be replaced, and the coming year will be the first year of Jian'an.

Peng Yi, who was standing next to Liu Zhang, responded, and he was also moved: "Time is like an arrow. If you shoot this arrow, you can't catch it back."

Listening to Peng Yi's cliché metaphor, Liu Zhang shook his head: "In my opinion, time is like a wild donkey, it doesn't stop when it runs."

"Ming Gong's statement is interesting. Compared with life just passing by in vain, it is more vivid and vivid." Peng Yi laughed and patted Liu Zhang on his ass.

Cheng Yu had left, and Liu Zhang and the others got back on their horses and headed towards Nanzheng. In fact, Cheng Yu was a humble official as an envoy, so there was no need for Liu Zhang to see him off in person. However, since Liu Zhang regained Hanzhong County, although he could not be called Su Xing Yemei had been working hard on the government affairs for a while, so he took advantage of seeing off Xing Yu and went on a trip to soothe his tired mind.

In the land of Hanzhong, Zhang and Lu had been separatist for many years, and the common people were devoted to the Tao of Heavenly Masters. Therefore, when Zhang Lu left, the people's sentiments fluctuated. In addition, the offensive and defensive battles in Hanzhong had been going on for several months, and the treasury of Nanzheng was emptied by Zhang Lu. Now, The affairs that Liu Zhang needed to handle were quite complex, the people's hearts needed to be appeased, and money and food needed to be measured.

In addition, there is also the Wudu war currently being launched with Zhonglang General Wu Yi as the commander-in-chief, the military council captain Fa Zheng as the counselor, leading the captains Xu Meng and Xi Su, plus the newly surrendered Meng Da and Yang Bo. At the same time, money, food, baggage, weapons and armor were all arranged by Tianliang, and many clerical matters required Liu Zhang's approval.

'Fortunately there is Huang Quan. 'Liu Zhang, who arrived at Nanzheng Temple, was thankful in his heart. As the prefect of Hanzhong, Huang Quan was very competent. He had done a good job in appeasing the common people, stabilizing the place, and allocating money and food supplies. There were no major flaws or mistakes. Liu Zhang saved a lot of effort and time.

When Cao Cao arrived, Liu Zhang, who had dismounted in front of the official temple, looked up and saw Huang Quan coming to greet him. Liu Zhang was not in a hurry. He handed the horse's reins to the guards beside him and asked the guards to lead the horses down and feed them. Bring some fine fodder, and at the same time Liu Zhang asked Huang Quan: "But Wu Du has sent news."

Huang Quan smiled and nodded. He handed the document in his hand to Liu Zhang and said, "Yes, General Wu Zhonglang sent news from Wudu, saying that the war in Wudu County is going very smoothly."

"As expected, the population of Wudu is weak, and there are no big and powerful families. Even if there were, they would not be able to compete with our strong soldiers from Shu." Liu Zhang took the document from Huang Quan and looked at it carefully. He stood up and responded to Huang Quan in a relaxed tone.

"What Ming Gong said is that Wu Zhonglang will attack Wudu County this time. In addition to the dangerous road and the difficulty of marching, some ignorant and ignorant people blocked the road in an attempt to prevent our army from entering Wudu County. Du... As for the aristocratic families in Wudu County, they all brought cattle and wine to reward the army and provided military aid. After a while, once the Wudu Army captured Biancheng, Wudu County would belong to our Shu. It's over." Huang Quan's tone was equally relaxed. He was very optimistic about the war in Wudu County and held the same views as Liu Zhang.

Meng Jie, the accompanying clerk, complimented him accordingly: "Within one year, the two counties were conquered. The power of the town was fierce. The sharp edge of Ming Gong was unstoppable. I congratulate Ming Gong."

Hearing this, Liu Zhang smiled and shook his head, but did not answer or respond, but Peng Yi had a different view: "It's just two counties, but I'm not happy. Ming Gong has Jiuzhou Wanfang in his heart. When the time comes, Ming Gong conquered all the nine provinces and stabilized the world. It is not too late for Meng Shuli to congratulate him."

"What Bing Cao said is absolutely true." Meng Jie was not a mediocre person. He naturally understood the deep meaning of Peng Yi's words. Although it was winter, he responded to Peng Yi with a spring breeze on his face.

As Liu Zhang listened to the two men praising him, he finally understood why there were some flattering villains around the monarch. Although everyone loves nice words, but if they always speak to the monarch's heart and provide emotional value to the monarch, It can be regarded as a skill.

"When will Xun You and Zhang Su arrive?" As they talked, they arrived at the Mingtang of the official temple. Liu Zhang seemed to have thought of something, so he asked Meng Jie. Meng Jie responded. As a scribe of the Prefecture Mufu, he had a lot of documents in his hands, and he knew many things in order to be ready to respond to Liu Zhang's inquiries at any time: "I report to Duke Ming, according to Xun You and Zhang Calculating Su’s departure time and itinerary, the two of them should be arriving at Baishui Pass soon.”

"That's very good." Liu Zhang responded happily.

……

Wudu County.

Meng Da didn't know how many times he had slashed today, nor how many Di people he had killed today. He only knew that he had chopped down a total of four ring-headed knives today. No, Meng Da glanced at the curled sword in his hand. The ring-shou sword of the sword silently added one to the number of ring-shou swords that were chopped off today, and it was the fifth.

But even if Meng Da chopped off the five-handled ring-headed sword, the Di people in front of him still came like a tide without knowing whether to advance or retreat, as if they had forgotten life and death, and only wanted to cause a little harm to Meng Da.

'They are really barbarians, not afraid of death and not greedy for life. Meng Da felt a little helpless. He complained about the fierce Di Ren in front of him, but he did not stop swinging the knife in his hand. After slashing the Di Ren in front of him, he swung the long knife like a full moon. Taking advantage of the opportunity to repel the enemies around him, he took over a sharp and flawless ring-headed sword from the bodyguard beside him.

After a series of numb killings, Meng Da saw that the Di people finally fled with fear due to the death and injury. The road in front of him that was originally blocked by the enemy was now clear. He also rarely relaxed and rested for a moment with his sword. , he was a little tired from fighting in the morning to this afternoon.

After the battle, Mengda's soldiers began to clean up the battlefield, hoping to get some benefits from the Di people who died in the battle. Unfortunately, their idea came to nothing. As barbarians, the Di people were really poor, let alone the Di people. He didn't have any decent armor or weapons, and even his clothes were incomplete. As for the quality of his clothes, it looked like they had been passed down for three generations.

"What a bunch of poor people." A certain soldier complained. He searched for a long time but couldn't get any decent loot.

As the general, Meng Da was not unhappy because the Di people were too poor and did not have decent trophies. As long as today's battle went smoothly, he had made meritorious deeds and could write them down in the merit book. He doesn't like the spoils of war.

"Meng Dawei worked hard today. He arrived first before the battle and defeated the Di people who blocked the way. It is a great achievement." Meng Da's good friend, Jun Yixiao Weifa came to Meng Da after the war and congratulated Meng Da.

'Meng Xiaowei', hearing Fazheng call him, Meng Da's face showed joy. When he served under Zhang Lu's tent, he was only a captain, but when he abandoned the secret and surrendered to the light, he returned to Liu Zhang's tent. , but he is already a school captain.

'I am really a wise master, I just hate meeting each other so late. Meng Da had an idea. In his opinion, the Yizhou Shepherd Liu Zhang whom he was serving now was a veritable wise master. He rewarded the virtuous and used their talents regardless of their origins. The most important thing was that he was generous and unparalleled in the world.

Meng Da laughed cheerfully: "Serving Ming Gong, how dare you call it hard work? Fighting for Ming Gong, you should die first."

Fa Zheng saw that Meng Da was speaking in an official tone, but he was showing his true feelings. He teased: "Colonel Meng is so devoted to Ming Gong that he doesn't even care about life and death."

"That's right, if you treat me with public trust and treat me as a national official, I should repay you." Meng Da said boldly, and at the same time, he teased Fazheng: "Xiaozhi said this to me, but I don't know that I also In the game, Duke Ming originally intended to keep you in Nanzheng to serve, but you asked to accompany General Wu Zhonglang to attack Wudu. Didn't you also have the intention of serving Duke Ming."

After saying this, Mengda shook his head and said: "Speaking of staying in Nanzheng, it is not as comfortable as climbing mountains and ridges to attack Wudu. What's more, it is already winter, the cold wind has suddenly risen, and the whole body is chilling!"

Then Meng Da and Fazheng looked at each other. They had been friends for many years and felt that they had the same mind. They couldn't help but laugh loudly for a while.

After laughing for a while, Meng Da got down to business: "Will the Di King Dou Mao of Hechi surrender?"

When he mentioned the Di King Dou Mao of Hechi, Fazheng shook his head: "The Di King Dou Mao expelled the envoy sent by General Wu Zhonglang, saying that Hechi is his royal land and no one else is allowed to enter."

"I think this Dou Mao has a way to die." Meng Da snorted lightly, he was very unhappy with Dou Mao's unsubmissive attitude. (End of chapter)