Goose Three Kingdoms

Chapter 657: Gatekeeping
In September, Zhou Yu attacked Huang Zu, King of E, and besieged him in Jiangxia City.

Without waiting for rescue from Jingnan, Taishi Ci set fire to the Hankou navy.

The two giant tower ships, built with the maximum technology and material resources of Jingzhou, were defeated and fled to the south bank.

From then on, the Han River was unobstructed. Taishi Ci went down the Yangtze River to block the Ju River, cutting off Huang Zu's retreat.

Immediately, Lu Su led the troops stationed in Baqiu and the troops of Changsha to rescue. Taishi Ci captured people and boats and retreated to the Han River.

Before the arrival of the Pseudo-Northern Dynasty reinforcements, Zhou Yu also withdrew his troops.

Huang Zu led his troops in pursuit, but was defeated by an ambush by Zhou Yu, who then calmly returned to Suicheng.

After the war, Huang Zu abandoned the north bank and moved to E County on the south bank.

Zhou Yu did not send troops to take over the counties of Jiangxia on the north bank. These counties belonged to the salient, and whoever occupied them would have to bear the additional military garrison costs and risks.

When the good news came, Black Bear had returned to the Wangchuan River Valley in Lantian, and the shogunate had also moved there.

The new Sima Huang Quan took office and was ready to reinforce Jingzhou at any time if the situation got out of control.

Fortunately, Zhou Yu and Taishi Ci fought together fiercely. Huang Zu was already old, and after his son was killed, he was named King of E, which briefly inspired Huang Zu's fighting spirit.

But after this defeat, Huang Zu's morale and the cohesion of his subordinates were almost gone.

The Wuhou Mansion is a manor covering an area of ​​5,000 acres, with a ravine inside the manor.

In the depression at the bend of the ravine, Sun Jian, Sun Ce and Sun Quan were buried one after another.

Yu Fan successfully completed the task. When he dug out the coffins of Sun Jian and Sun Ce and transported them to Jingzhou, he also sent people to dig out Sun Quan.

When he arrived in Nanyang, Sun Shao, Marquis of Wu, came south to greet him.

Now the question of succession to the title of Marquis of Wucheng is also hanging over the heads of the Sun clan. Sun Quan also has a son, and the title was originally inherited by Sun Kuang, Sun Ce's fourth brother.

However, Sun Kuang fell off his horse and died while hunting. There were only two suitable successors. One was Sun Quan's son, who would inherit the title by being adopted by Sun Kuang; the other was Sun Jian's third son Sun Yi or youngest son Sun Lang, who would inherit the title.

Therefore, at the bend of the ravine, Sun Jian's tomb is the highest, followed by Sun Ce's tomb, and then Sun Kuang's tomb. They were all county marquises during their lifetime, and their tombs are graves.

And Sun Quan was just an ordinary grave mound, sandwiched between Sun Ce and Sun Kuang, inconspicuous.

Sun Shao was young, and several Sun clan members asked Yu Fan for help, but Yu Fan felt embarrassed.

He, Sun He and Sun Ben were walking on a mountain path, with light snow falling from the sky.

Yu Fan said: "The achievements of the Sun family are most famous for supporting the Jian'an court and suppressing the Yuan Dynasty. And the merits of our predecessor, Duke Wentai, were to suppress the Yellow Turbans, quell the rebellions in Xiliang and Jingnan, and suppress the traitor Dong Zhuo. In my humble opinion, no matter who succeeds, the county marquis will be demoted to a township marquis."

Sun He was also mentally prepared for this, so he said, "The laws made by the Grand Marshal are clear, but there is no precedent for this kind of thing in my family."

The county marquis inherited the title and was demoted to a township marquis, and he was mentally prepared for this.

But Sun Kuang was only seventeen years old, not married, and had no illegitimate children, so there was no such thing as an heir inheriting the title.

He was worried that his title would be stripped away. If Sun Kuang had not died, the Sun family would have two county marquises and one pavilion marquis; if Sun Jian's nephew Xu Kun was counted, that would make three county marquises.

Sun Shao was also young and unmarried, so the Sun family had no suitable female relatives to visit the east and west villages.

Even though the Sun family now has some rare treasures and luxury goods, they lack the means to sell them.

Yu Fan wanted to do the Sun family one last favor personally, but he had a very good relationship with Ma Chao. Now he was out of favor in Xixiang, so he was afraid that speaking for the Sun family might do something bad.

The world is about to be settled. Let alone a downgraded county marquis, even a Guannei marquis is worth a fortune.

After hesitating for a long time, Yu Fan could only say: "I will do my best to mediate this matter."

After leaving the Sun family manor, Yu Fan rode towards the shogunate residence.

Passing by Zhang Lu's Zhaohua Temple, I saw that even in such a cold season, there were still believers driving horses or walking here to worship.

This made Yu Fan frown. As of now, the counties in Guanzhong were still under military control in theory, and officials and civilians were not allowed to move across the county privately.

However, it is obviously impossible that the believers of Zhaohua Temple came only from Lantian and Duling.

Keeping this matter in mind, he prepared to give the Zhang family some support.

At the shogunate's residence, Yu Fan went to the secretary's desk to hand in his pass. Zhuge Jin accompanied him for tea and asked, "Mr. Zhongxiang, what are your plans after this?"

"I have a good relationship with the Right Wise King. I want to go to Wuyuan and find a job under the Right Wise King."

Yu Fan held the tea in his hand and asked directly, "Does Lord Zhuge have any advice?"

"I dare not, but now the translation of dragon bone scripture is in urgent need of a doctor of Yijing like Mr. Zhongxiang; and the reconstruction of Lanting also has the important task of sorting out the historical records of the Wei Kingdom. I thought Mr. Zhongxiang could mention these two matters when he paid a visit to His Majesty."

Zhuge Jin gave him his advice and took out two official documents for Yu Fan: "This is a pass to the Lantian camp, and the other is a pass to Chang'an."

Yu Fan took it and read it, slightly curious: "Why do we need to sign a separate document to enter or leave Chang'an now?"

"This matter... is a long story."

Zhuge Jin looked out the window and said, "The wife of a certain centurion in the suburbs of Chang'an was from Yanshi. There was a fellow villager who was studying at the university, and they had an old relationship. This woman stole the family's property to support her lover, and then poisoned her husband... In short, this matter is unsightly. The Grand Marshal was furious and ordered the Sizhi Hall to conduct a thorough investigation. Therefore, the documents of communication between Chang'an and the capital were strictly checked."

"How could such an ugly thing happen?"

Yu Fan couldn't help but sigh: "How foolish."

To be fair, the centurions in various parts of Guanzhong generally came from humble backgrounds and could barely write a few hundred Golden Books in recent years.

The women who were initially assigned to them as wives generally came from high-class families.

Not to mention meeting a fellow countryman with whom you have old friendship, even meeting a fellow countryman with whom you have common language may lead to similar incidents.

This was a centurion with the military rank of lieutenant or captain, with an official rank of two hundred or three hundred stones. He was a meritorious man who had followed the Grand Marshal in his campaigns across the country. If he strangled his wife to death in a rage, no one would have investigated as long as he had covered it up a little.

Now he has been poisoned to death. Which of the surrounding captains and military officers can remain calm?

There are many hidden secrets in this matter, which Zhuge Jin is unable to express.

Immediately, Yu Fan began to ask about the affairs of the Sun family, and only Zhuge Jin could grasp the mentality of the Grand Marshal at all times.

After Zhuge Jin heard this, he said, "The former Marquis of Wu had three daughters. Have they been engaged?"

"The eldest daughter is eleven years old and has not yet been engaged."

Yu Fan frowned and said, "Lord Zhuge, I heard that Guanzhong prohibits officials above the rank of 1,000-stone official from marrying each other?"

Zhuge Jin looked at Yu Fan in confusion: "Mr. Zhongxiang, did you misunderstand? The former Marquis of Wu has passed away. Although his son inherited the title and enjoyed a salary, he did not enter the government. How could there be a limit of 1,000 stones? When Sun Zhongmou was alive, he held generals of various titles, which was still prohibited. Now it seems that there is no restriction anymore."

After a pause, Zhuge Jin continued, "Madam Dongxiang intends to expand the girls' school. If Sun's daughter can enroll, with the help of Madam Dongxiang, this matter should be successful."

"Expanding girls' schools?"

Yu Fan just kept it in mind and didn't ask any further questions.

Zhuge Jin knew that the key factor in expanding women's education was the phenomenon triggered by Chen Qun's "On Good Seeds".

Whether a scholar is excellent can be seen from his academic performance.

But how do women investigate?

For this reason, many people supported the expansion of Dongxiang Girls' School.

Whether a daughter marries well or not... doesn't seem to be that important in the long run of inheritance issues.

It seems that the most important thing is to select outstanding women from generation to generation to supplement the family and strengthen the foundation of the clan.

Anyway, the Grand Marshal had already issued a ban restricting marriages, and the importance of daughters in each family was greatly reduced.

She could only marry an outstanding scholar or official from a low-ranking family, or marry a famous family who would not enter officialdom.

With this famous family as a transit station, intermarriages are formed to connect various families...but in this way, it is easy to be wiped out.

The execution of Wang Yun's three clans has made many people disgusted with marriages between big families.

No matter how honest you are in your work, you can't stop your in-laws from doing stupid things and seeking trouble.

Refusing to marry into a big family is actually a safe survival strategy.

(End of this chapter)