Han officials

Chapter 173: The Book of Changes, the Great Road [5K]

In the first year of Chuping, on the day of Dinghai in the fourth month of summer.

After the Battle of Mangshan, Zhao Yun led his troops to seize Hangu Pass, but because they were alone and deep in the enemy's territory, they did not dare to continue the pursuit.

At the same time, outside Xuanping Gate.

Looking at the broken walls and ruins of mansions on both sides of Tongtuo Street, Wei Zhe was speechless for a moment.

Looking into the distance, the once towering South Palace and North Palace have now turned to dust, leaving only the charred palace walls.

Within a hundred miles, there was no trace of chickens, dogs, or people.

Luoyang, once admired by all nations as the divine capital, has become an abandoned city.

Seeing this scene, all the Wei army members, from Wei Zhe on down, sighed with regret.

"Dong Zhuo deserves to die!" Wei Zhe couldn't help but say something nonsense.

But at this moment, everyone present nodded in unison, because only this sentence could express their feelings at the moment.

However, because Luoyang was too dilapidated and decayed, Wei Zhe had no choice but to lead his troops to station in Biguiyuan.

When Liu Hong built Bigui Garden and Lingkun Garden ten years ago, he probably never imagined that this place would become a military camp.

Of course, it is no wonder that Wei Zhe and Dong Zhuo both chose to station here.

Although this is just a palace for the emperor outside Luoyang City, it is quite large in scale.
In fact, Bigui Garden is divided into two gardens, the East Garden, the East Garden has a circle of 1,500 steps, with a fish bridge platform in the middle, and the West Garden has a circle of 3,300 steps. There are hundreds of houses in the two gardens, just like a small city.

So Wei Zhe cleared out Dong Zhuo's remnants while sending people to look for Yuan Jun.

Yes, this guy lost contact a month ago.

Although there was a high probability that Yuan Jun was in grave danger, Wei Zhe still wanted to see if he could find his body.

We must see him alive or dead, and give an explanation to Yuanjun’s family.

Thinking of this, Wei Zhe immediately ordered: "Come, invite Xu Rong."

It is said that Dong's army was defeated in the battle of Mangshan, and Xu Rong was left behind accidentally, whether intentionally or unintentionally.

And after being surrounded by the Wei army, Xu Rong surrendered directly.

The clean and neat posture made Mao Kun feel embarrassed to take the credit of beheading the enemy general.

Fortunately, Mao Kun did not act impulsively at that time, otherwise Xu Rong would have cried out for justice even after his death.

A moment later, Xu Rong walked in slowly and bowed meticulously to greet him.

Seeing this, Wei Zhe didn't waste any words and went straight to the point, "Ziping, I heard that Yuan Ziliang was once your disciple. I wonder where he is now?"

Xu Rong bowed and replied, "I dare not hide it from you, General. Yuan Ziliang was indeed a guest of ours, but... he left after the burning of Luoyang."

Wei Zhe's reaction made Xu Rong realize that Yuan Jun's identity might not be just his old official.

Thinking of this, Xu Rong immediately suggested: "General, you can order people to search Minister Cai's mansion carefully, maybe there will be something to be found."

"Cai Bojie?" Wei Zhe was stunned when he heard it. When did Yuan Jun get involved with Cai Yong?

Seeing this, Xu Rong knew he was unaware of Yuan Jun's recent situation and immediately explained, "Since being recruited by Prime Minister Dong, Lord Cai has served as Imperial Censor, Imperial Secretary, and Minister of State, traveling through the three courts within three days. He was later promoted to Governor of Ba County and later retained as Minister of the Interior. I heard Ziliang was once a guest at the Cai residence."

After all, Yuan Jun was also a Censor, and even if Cai Yong was on duty for only one day, the two of them could still be considered colleagues.

Although Cai Yong was not seen in Bigui Garden, Xu Rong had a vague feeling that he might not have retreated to Chang'an with Dong Zhuo.

This is exactly the case!
……

Half an hour later, looking at Cai Yong, Yuan Jun and others who were in a rather embarrassed state, Wei Zhe was suddenly speechless.

He didn't expect that these people were actually hiding in the Cai Mansion which had been burned to ruins.

If Wei Zhe had not ordered a strict search, the soldiers might not have been able to find the cellar of Cai's mansion.

After Cai Yong and the others had sorted things out briefly, Wei Zhe asked curiously, "I heard Dong Zhongying treated Lord Cai quite courteously. How did he end up like this?"

Upon hearing this, Cai Yong sighed with regret and said, "It's all for the sake of the ancient sages' classics."

After saying this, Cai Yong looked at Wei Zhe with emotion and said in admiration, "I never thought that the general would attach so much importance to culture and education. It really makes me ashamed."

Cai Yong was also a book lover and a book collector.

It was precisely because of this that he was willing to take the risk to hide Yuan Jun.

At the same time, after hearing what Cai Yong said, Wei Zhe realized that this matter must be related to Yuan Jun.

Seeing this, Yuan Jun did not hesitate and told him all his plans for the past month on the spot.

It is said that before Dong Zhuo burned Luoyang, the issue of moving the capital to Chang'an caused unrest in Luoyang.

At that time, after Yuan Jun realized that Dong Zhuo really wanted to move the capital, he became interested in the collection of books in the East Palace in the palace.

Even though he copied quite a lot in the past two years, it was nothing compared to the collection of books in Dongguan.

So when everyone was thinking about their own family, Yuan Jun was working hard to figure out how to preserve this collection of books.

He initially wanted to bribe the guards to secretly transport the Dongguan collection of books out of the city and hide them outside the city.

However, the Eastern Palace is a mountain of books and a sea of learning, with a huge collection of books.

Not to mention anything else, when Emperor Guangwu returned to the capital Luoyang, he transported more than 2,000 carts of secretarial books.

Now, almost two hundred years have passed, and the number of books collected in Dongguan over the years has tripled.

It is naturally impossible to transport such a huge collection of books out of Luoyang quietly.

So Yuan Jun was forced to take a risk and go to Cai Yong.

Because everyone in the court knew that Cai Yong loved books, and among the civil officials in the court, he and Wang Yun were the most respected by Dong Zhuo.

Wang Yun was sent to Chang'an to make preparations first, and Yuan Jun could only find a solution from Cai Yong.

Fortunately, Cai Yong did not let Yuan Jun down.

After learning that he was ordered by Wei Zhe to rescue these books, Cai Yong agreed after a brief hesitation.

After all, judging from Dong Zhuo's actions after he entered the court, he really didn't seem like someone who cherished classics.

In this case, one can imagine the fate of these books once the capital is officially moved.

Cai Yong did not dare to imagine how much Dong Zhuo, who came from Liangzhou, would cherish these ancient books.

In the past, he might have wanted to persuade Dong Zhuo to become a wise minister, but now he has completely given up.

Deposing and enthroning an emperor could be explained, but moving the capital was certainly not the act of a minister.

It can be said that Dong Zhuo's various actions have trampled the dignity of the Han Dynasty into the mud.

So with the cooperation of Cai Yong, Yuan Jun and others took advantage of the chaos in the city before the capital was moved to act quietly.

Instead of transporting all the books out of the city, he chose to bury them on the spot.

Due to time constraints, they could only hastily pack the items in wooden boxes and wait to dig them out again in the future.

Fortunately, Yuan Jun acted in time, because when the capital was moved, the silks and books collected by the nobles were either abandoned or lost along the way, and only one in ten could be safely transported to Chang'an.

At this point, Cai Yong said with lingering fear, "Fortunately, after we hid the Dongguan collection, we also dealt with most of the collections in Biyong, Lanting, Shishi, Xuanming, and Hongdu. Otherwise, the Holy Way would have suffered great harm!"

By the way, the more than 4,000 volumes of books in Cai Yong’s home were also hidden on the spot.

It was precisely because of this that Cai Yong found an excuse to stay when all the officials in the court moved to Chang'an.

This morning, when Dong Zhuo led his troops to a decisive battle with Wei Zhe, Cai Yong, Yuan Jun and others returned to their old house and hid without knowing the outcome.

After hearing the whole story, Wei Zhe was filled with emotion.

"Ziliang, you really gave me a big surprise!"

What he saved was not just a few classic books, it was the cultural heritage of China!

The most important thing is that Yuan Jun also hid the laws and decrees of the Han Dynasty and various books and documents.

With these laws, books and archives in hand, Wei Zhe had a clear understanding of the current situation of the world, such as the strategic location of the passes, the number of households, the strength of the situation, and the suffering of the people.

Thinking of this, Wei Zhe immediately walked up to Yuan Jun and poured wine for him personally.

"Come, Ziliang, drink this cup to the full!"

Seeing the look of relief in Wei Zhe's eyes, Yuan Jun felt inexplicably moved.

Such courtesy is truly what a wise ruler in ancient times showed!
Thinking of this, Yuan Jun immediately and respectfully drank the millet wine in the cup. Seeing this scene, Xi Zhicai, Shi Yi and others beside him could not help but show envy on their faces.

However, even though they were envious, they also knew that Yuan Jun had indeed made a great contribution this time.

Even based on his actions today, I wonder how he will be praised in history in the future.

To have one's name recorded in history and one's achievements recorded in history is nothing more than this.

The reputation that Huangfu Song cared so much about after his death might not be even a fraction of what he achieved.

After the simple celebration, Wei Zhe sent people to accompany Yuan Jun to explore many collections of books.

Fortunately, he came quickly enough. If he had waited for a year or two, most of the books would probably have been destroyed.

At the same time, Wei Zhe also sent a group of people to cover up all the tombs dug by Dong Zhuo.

They also prepared a grand sacrifice to appease the spirits of the previous emperors in heaven.

Cai Yong was deeply moved after seeing it, and wrote "Mangshan Fu" that night. The whole article has more than 600 words, and every word is a gem.

The next day, Xi Zhicai, Shi Yi and others read it and couldn't help crying, which shows how deeply it moved people.

So before long, the news of "Mangshan Fu" and the Battle of Mangshan spread throughout the area around Luoyang.

The counties and prefectures of Yuzhou, Yanzhou and Jizhou all learned the news one after another.

For a moment, the world was shocked!
……

That day, Danyang County.

Cao Cao didn't pay much attention to the letter sent by express horse from his hometown.

But when he saw Wei Zhe's great victory at Xuanmen Pass and breaking through three passes in one day, his eyes suddenly widened.

When he saw the words "Wei Zhe won a great victory in Mangshan and conquered Luoyang", he sat up in shock.

"This...this..." For a moment, Cao Cao was speechless.

He was somewhat pleased with himself for not misjudging the person, but at the same time he was also shocked by Wei Zhe's fighting ability.

How long has it been since?

With a group of anti-Dong coalition forces just watching, he actually recaptured Luoyang on his own?
After being shocked for a long time, Cao Cao continued to look down.

Only when he saw Cai Yong's "Mangshan Fu" included in it did he become happy.

Because Cao Cao always loved literature and calligraphy, he often discussed these with Cai Yong when he was in Luoyang.

Now that Cai Yong has a new work published, I naturally want to take a look at it.

But the letter reads:

"Only during the Chuping period did the turmoil suddenly rage in the Heavenly Palace. The chieftain Dong threatened the emperor and set fire to the temple. Behold the scenic beauty of the northern Mang Mountains and the fertile soil of the Yi and Luo Rivers, once rich in crops, now bearing weeds. I ascended the steep mountain to mourn the abandoned capital, and by the flowing river, my heart ached. Thus, I set to writing to express my sorrow and panic."

Seeing this, Cao Cao couldn't help but stroke his beard and sigh, as if he understood Cai Yong's feelings at the time.

Then Cai Yong continued to write:
"If the fiery spirit loses control, the Nine Cauldrons will sink. The locust trees on the Imperial Academy's walls will scorch, and the sacred platform will bend the purple palace. The golden Di weeps in the dew, and the bronze camel lies in the hazelnuts. Thousands of torches illuminate the banquet in the netherworld; thousands of scrolls fly into ashes, turning into the phosphorus of demons and monsters. Women and children fill the ravines, blocking the bird paths of the Jiao and Han Rivers; hats and robes are covered in dust, dimming the star patterns of the Yellow River and Luo River."

"At that time, the Left General, Wei Gongwei, led a lone brigade to attack the pass, holding up a broken banner and looking north. Seeing the ruined tombs and the bones exposed, he shed blood and tears among the weeds and buried the withered corpses in the yellow earth. He repaired the dilapidated tombs on Mangshan Mountain and piled new soil to rebuild the majestic Yuntai."

"At that time, all the counties indulged in wine and liquor, and heroes competed with swords and daggers. Only the general held a candle and repaired the tomb, holding a white banner to call back the soul. He made the sun and moon dim and then shine again, and the mountain collapsed and then rose again. When Ji Zha hung his sword, it was only to preserve the private friendship of Yanling. Now the general repairs the tomb, it is truly the order of the Han Dynasty!"

"Seeing him halt his horse at the ruins, his sword pointed at the North Star, he said: 'How can a minister sleep peacefully here?'"

"As soon as he finished speaking, thunder shook the dark cliffs, and rain washed away the dust of battle. The broken monument grew taller with the help of loyal souls, and the cold springs were rekindled by righteousness. The seventy-two emperors' palaces were preserved intact thanks to their loyalty; the four hundred years of the royal legacy are continued by the righteous and heroic spirit."

"Zichan, in the past, did not destroy the local school, and Confucius praised his benevolence; the general repaired the mountain tombs, and the spirits and gods admired him. As a result, the fire that ignited the sky in Luoyang did not reach the earth's veins; how could the Dong family, with their arrogance, seize the celestial phenomena?"

"Tyranny can destroy a palace, but it cannot destroy the people's hearts; a single thought of loyalty and righteousness is enough to set the world right!"

"Luan said:
The Mang Mountain is majestic and the Luo River is surging.
The fiery essence is obscure and the fire of catastrophe is blazing.

The bronze camel is buried in thorns, and the mournful wild geese are flying high.
The book shines brightly again, and the avenue is endless!"
-
After reading it, Cao Cao fell silent, feeling mixed emotions.

After a long while, he finally couldn't help but sigh with regret: "Duke Wei is so powerful, I am not as good as him!"

Xiahou Dun, who was standing by, was shocked when he heard this, because he knew how proud Cao Cao was.

However, this time, no matter how he asked, Cao Cao remained silent and just handed him the letter.

So after a while, Xiahou Jun also became a little withdrawn.

Others were winning all the way, but they were beaten by Xu Rong. The gap between them was too big!

……

At the same time, in the Suanzao camp.

Yanzhou Governor Liu Dai hesitated to speak, while Chenliu Prefect Zhang Miao was dumbfounded.

The prefect of Dongjun, Qiao Mao, was shocked, and the prefect of Shanyang, Yuan Yi, looked disappointed.

After a long while, Guangling Governor Zhang Chao could not help but sigh:
"Brother Gongwei, you are truly a hero!"

As soon as these words were spoken, the big tent seemed to be activated, and everyone sighed with emotion.

Some praised Wei Zhe for his superb military strategy, while others admired his unparalleled loyalty and righteousness.

Of course, there were also people mocking Dong Zhuo for being vulnerable.

However, no matter what, the Suanzao camp was still caught off guard by Wei Zhe's sudden recapture of Luoyang.

You know, Dong Zhuo was so vulnerable, they had to rush to Chenggao Pass to help in the battle no matter what!

Now, it is Wei Zhe who takes all the credit and wins the support of the whole world!
Thinking of this, Liu Dai, Zhang Miao and others felt somewhat uncomfortable.

They didn't even mention sending troops to continue attacking Chang'an, and were only thinking about how to fight for power next.

As for Wei Zhe? Haha~ It’s time for him to run out of food!
After all, we can't let him take all the good things, right?
In comparison, Yuan Shao of Hanoi's reaction was much more rational.

He immediately sent people to Luoyang to offer sacrifices to Yuan's relatives and to congratulate Wei Zhe.

The most crucial thing is that Yuan Shao sent people to express his intention to form an alliance with Wei Zhe, and even said that he was willing to welcome him as the governor of Jizhou.

However, Wei Zhe just laughed when he heard this and didn't take it to heart at all.

A similar case was Yuan Shu in Nanyang.

Although this guy was brutal, Yuan Shu knew in his heart how capable Dong Zhuo was in defeating Yuan Shu.

Therefore, he also wanted to recruit Wei Zhe... Yes, Yuan Shu wanted to recruit him.

As the head of the Yuan family in Runan, he believed that he was naturally nobler than Wei Zhe, the son of a powerful family in a border county.

Alliance? Impossible, how could Yuan Shu be friends with such a lowly peasant?

However, he was quite generous. Yuan Shao only used the position of Governor of Jizhou as a cover to fool Wei Zhe, while Yuan Shu was really preparing to recommend Wei Zhe as the Governor of Yuzhou.

But no matter whether it was Yuan Shu or Yuan Shao, the official positions they recommended were nothing but bullshit to Wei Zhe.

He is not Sun Jian, and his foundation was not built on these noble families from the very beginning.

Therefore, Wei Zhe politely declined both the envoys from Yuan Shu and Yuan Shao.

But then again, the most miserable one among these people is Sun Jian.

He traveled thousands of miles from Changsha, first killing the governor of Jingzhou and then the prefect of Nanyang along the way.

He said he wanted to fight against Dong, but before he even started fighting with Dong's army, he killed two county officials.

It would be understandable if the other party was appointed by Dong Zhuo, but these were all appointed by Liu Hong during his lifetime.

In this way, Sun Jian, who kept calling for the fight against Dong Zhuo, seemed to be helping Dong Zhuo.

For a time, Sun Jian's reputation plummeted in the officialdom, among scholars, and among the people.

The key point was that he had finally arrived in Nanyang County and reunited with Yuan Shu, but before his troops had time to rest, Luoyang had already been recaptured by Wei Zhe, which made Sun Jian feel very frustrated.

After this round, he gained nothing except a bad reputation for killing scholars.

The higher Wei Zhe's reputation in the world at this moment, the more envious Sun Jian became.

Even though Yuan Shu was rejected by Wei Zhe and then recommended Sun Jian as the governor of Yuzhou, he still felt resentful.

But what's interesting is that after Wei Zhe rejected the two Yuans' memorial, he turned around and imitated them...
-
Oh, my brain cells are dead, it’s so difficult to write.

Forget it, let’s go to sleep, good night!
(End of this chapter)