Although the snow was not very heavy, the temperature was getting lower and lower, and ice was seen in the wild. Under such circumstances, Sun Jun had no way to attack, which gave the people of Xiapi some breathing space.
During the Han Dynasty of the Three Kingdoms, the title was "Sangluan". The heads of states and counties were changing like things, but the noble families were as immovable as a mountain.
Among them is the Xiapi Chen family.
Judging from the records in the history books, the political stance of the Chen family in Xiapi seems to be very vague. They are either attached to Yuan Shu, or attached to Lu Bu, or they are flirting with Liu Bei, and in the blink of an eye, they abandon Liu Bei and fall into the arms of Cao Cao.
.
When it comes to the Chen family in Xiapi, most people in later generations may only remember Chen Gui and Chen Deng, but in fact there are many people in the Chen family, such as Chen Qiu, who was called the "descendant of the public clan" together with Yuan Shu.
We have a good relationship, and we often travel together arm in arm in Luoyang.
The Chen family in Xiapi has great power in Xuzhou. Chen Gui's son Chen Deng, considered to be the younger generation of the Chen family, dared to directly insult Tao Qian as "that state" and accused Tao Qian of being a "little man who trusts people and alienates a gentleman".
There is no gentry style, that's all.
The reason why Chen Deng has such courage is because the Chen family's private army exceeded 50,000 at its peak!
Known to the outside world as one hundred thousand people!
Well, not as famous as Sun Shiwan.
Of course, these numbers include old and weak women and children, which is similar to the calculation method of the Yellow Turban bandits at that time. Moreover, these private soldiers of the Chen family are not useless, whether in the conquest against Lu Bu at that time, or after surrendering to Cao Cao
It played a certain role in fighting against Sun Quan.
Sun Shiwan was thinking about the Guangling-Xuzhou line, which did not last for a day or two. He had been here once before and was beaten away by Chen Deng.
When Chen Deng was "powerful in Jiangdong", although he gained a lot of fame, it also made Cao Cao extremely jealous, so he transferred Chen Deng back from Guangling. As a result, the people of Guangling "removed the county and followed it, and the old and weak died."
"Chasing", the grand occasion is similar to Liu Bei's "bringing people across the river" in history.
In the end, Cao Cao compromised and sent Chen Deng back to Xiapi to serve as the prefect of Dongcheng. Dongcheng County was temporarily established by Cao Cao. It is located in Linhuai, next door to Xiapi. It can be seen that Chen Deng's Dongcheng prefect is actually the prefect of Xiapi.
, it was just a deliberate arrangement by Cao Cao, on the one hand not to offend Chen Deng’s wealthy status, and on the other hand to avoid the restrictions of the Han Dynasty’s “Three Mutual Laws”.
Chen Deng served as the governor of Dongcheng and died within a year.
Although everyone said it was sashimi, and the official said that Chen Deng "died of illness" and could not find a good doctor, but considering that Chen Deng was still alive and well a year ago, he led the Chen family's private army to defeat Jiangdong.
Sun Jun's attempt to march into Guangling...
But no matter what, after Chen Deng's death, the Xiapi Chen family inevitably declined.
After Chen Deng's death, the Chen family was deliberately suppressed by Cao Cao. Chen Deng's younger brother Chen Ying was sent to a small coastal county to be the county magistrate. Chen Deng's son Chen Su, historically, was
Twenty years later, he was named a doctor.
So from this point of view, Cao Pi is really a prodigal son. His father managed to take precautions and suppressed the local powerful and wealthy noble families for more than ten or twenty years. Then Cao Pi forgot about it in order to become emperor. Of course, at that time, Cao Pi It may also be that if you don't advance, you will retreat, and you are stuck. Without Cao Cao's great wisdom and unyielding determination, you just chose a path that seems to be "happy to everyone"...
But now, Man Chong had a headache. Although Sun Jun did not continue the attack due to the weather, and Xiapi's city defense was also seizing the time to repair and strengthen, the Jiangdong soldiers were coming fiercely. If Chen's power was not used, I am afraid that You can't win with time, but once you use it, it will be troublesome if you win. Are you afraid that you will be defeated by Boss Cao?
Man Chong was from a humble family. None of his parents or ancestors had any big names, and they were no match for the Chen family in Xia Pi. Therefore, when Man Chong arrived in Xia Pi, especially after knowing that Man Chong was unable to resist the Jiangdong soldiers in Guangling. And when I had to retreat to Xiapi, haha, that expression was so joyful.
Man Chong also wants to scold him for being such a mother!
Guangling experienced a war before, and then the population was brought back to Xiapi by Chen Deng, so that Guangling was almost abandoned. How could Manchong defend it and withstand it?
Should I use Tianling Gai to top it?
Although Man Chong has been recruiting new soldiers continuously and asked Yin Li to train the new soldiers, in fact, despite Yin Li's background as a Taishan thief, his actual force is very limited...
In history, Yin Li was killed by a little-known Quan Cong, and he won first and then lost. He died in the hands of the pursuers when he was evacuating.
The Chen family has soldiers, but it is obvious that the Chen family will not take them out. Those are the Chen family's private soldiers. In other words, they are equivalent to the Chen family's own property. Except in extreme circumstances, they will deprive anyone of their private property. This is a very serious and serious matter and cannot be done casually.
What's more, if Man Chong seeks the Chen family's place, and the Chen family really sends troops to defend Xiapi, then what is the value of Man Chong's existence? If it really comes to that point, it can only rely on the Chen family to defend the city, and vice versa. Chen found an excuse to kill Man Chong, and Cao Cao finally had to hold his nose and admit it, just like he had endured and let Chen Deng become the governor of Dongcheng.
Man Chong stood on the wall of Xiapi City, looking at the vast expanse of white, his face could not help but turn a little pale.
Internal and external troubles, dilemma...
Cao Cao did not give new instructions, which means that Man Chong must find his own way here in Xiapi.
"Come here! Go and ask Mr. Chen to come!" Man Chong ordered loudly.
Due to the war, the Chen family has basically retreated to Xiapi. Of course, there are still many in the Chen family's forts. Due to the Chen family's continuous repair and construction, these forts have even The defensive strength is comparable to that of a small county. Generally speaking, Sun's soldiers will not spend time attacking these forts unless absolutely necessary.
It's very simple. The input-output is not proportional. Once one of them is attacked, the rest of the forts will become hostile. If you don't attack, you will not only get a small amount of material supplements for free, but also after conquering the central city,
These surrounding forts will also immediately express their nominal surrender...
In the age of cold weapons, it was much more cost-effective to adopt a relatively gentle approach to these forts than to directly attack them one by one.
The capital of the Chen family lies here. Not only does it have a long-term business foundation in Xiapi City, but it also has a Wubao system in the surrounding areas. Of course, it is precisely because of this that the Chen family is full of favors and ignited the war around Xiapi.
, more or less dissatisfied...
Not long after, Chen Ke came.
Chen Deng is the eldest, Chen Ying is the second, Chen Ke is the third, and Chen Ke has a younger brother.
"Someone has received an urgent report..." After Man Chong met Chen Ke, there was no politeness, or foreplay, and he directly entered the topic. Of course, this is also in line with the habit that Man Chong has created all along.
, iron-blooded, inhumane, not even very humane, "I hereby inform you... there is chaos in Mount Tai!"
Chen Ke was startled and turned back to look into the city, because he had just met Yin Li, a member of the Taishan Army.
Man Chong added, "The person who caused the rebellion is none other than Zang Xuangao..."
Chen Ke breathed a sigh of relief. Zang Ba, Sun Guan, Yin Li and others were in the same group. Zang Xuangao was not a rebel, which meant that Yin Li was relatively safe. This may also be the reason why Man Chong has not arrested Yin Li yet.
…
Chen Ke was thinking, and suddenly he realized a new problem. Since Zang Ba was not responsible for the rebellion, who else was in the Taishan Army? Who else would be specially marked and paid special attention to?
The Prime Minister of the East China Sea, Chang Xi!
And Donghai County is just north of Xiapi!
So this means that Xiapi has no way out at the moment. There are Jiangdong soldiers in the south and Taishan rebels in the north!
Xiapi became an isolated island!
Chen Ke's face finally looked a little ugly...
……(／_＼)……
Xiapi is not the only place suffering from internal and external troubles.
Deep in the desert, a raging white disaster is also destroying the original ecological system in the desert.
In the face of natural disasters, farming peoples are obviously more durable and have higher tolerance than nomadic peoples. Of course, these endurances and tolerances are all gained from experience in disasters one after another.
In the Han Dynasty, if there is such a natural disaster, the court will come forward to provide disaster relief, such as opening Changpingcang, etc., relieving the victims, exempting the disaster area from taxes, etc. After all, these are the rules that have been set. Even if the court is decayed, on the surface, the
There are still some people doing things, and this is the function of the dynasty.
Of course, in the feudal dynasty, no matter how perfect the rules and laws were, it would still be because the administration of officials in different places was different, which would lead to great differences among the people. Some places would indeed put the victims first, while others would
The local government, under the pretext of disaster relief, doubled down on exploiting the country's hard-pressed wealth...
In addition to the disaster relief provided by the court, the stabilizing effect of local powerful households in China will also be exerted during this period. After all, sometimes the actions of the court are too slow. If you really have to wait for the court for everything, it is often
Water from afar cannot quench thirst from near.
Although the local clan system has different affinities and moral differences, in the face of disasters, elders will still stand up to some extent, direct the countryside, and help poor households. But there is no free lunch in the world. After the disaster subsides, most of these guys will swallow
He took away the land from a poor relative and turned him into his own tenant farmer.
A small powerful person in a place often grows stronger in disasters.
Compared with the Han Dynasty, these tribes in the desert do not have these two layers of protection net.
"The weather is so weird..."
"I asked the elder a few days ago, and the elder said that he also felt strange. The snow is almost non-stop..."
"Yeah, it used to be rainy in bursts, but now it seems like it's been raining for so long!"
"People can still hold on, but the domestic animals, big and small..."
"well……"
The temperature drops.
Whether it was rivers or ponds, they were all frozen into ice.
Several shepherds looked at the vast expanse of white and talked to each other listlessly, feeling worried.
But what these herdsmen didn't expect was that on the other side, the white-bearded elders and tribal chiefs also showed an almost pale complexion.
The "White Disaster" is not the most terrifying thing.
The most terrifying thing is the "Black Disaster".
A hole was dug out of the snow on the ground, revealing the frozen hard ground under the snow. And in this gray-black ground, the elder picked up a few almost transparent objects...
"Look...the roots of the grass here are also frozen..." The elder's voice was hoarse and full of sadness, "Even if it is spring and all the snow has melted, no grass will grow here... There will only be a black patch of grass."
Earth...this is a black disaster...』
Generally speaking, there is snow and soil as a spacer layer. The grass roots inside the soil are not easily frozen, but this is not absolute. If it is covered with snow for a long time, because there is no air circulation and continuous low temperature, the grass roots will be frozen to death.
, this area will form a large grass-free area.
At that time, even if people know how to migrate and go to a place with long grass, livestock do not understand. These large and small livestock are accustomed to using their hooves to dig and use their noses and tongues to provide food. Not only can the grass roots frozen in the ground not
Bringing supplementary food to these large and small livestock will lead to varying degrees of frostbite on the hooves, mouth, nose, and tongue due to these behaviors.
At the same time, frozen and rotten grass roots will also damage the intestines and stomachs of these large and small livestock...
People can give orders, but what can they do in the face of these animals? They can save this one, but not that one, and they can't hold this one, but they can't hold that one.
"If it's spring and they don't have grass for three days, these guys will be irritable. If they don't have food for ten days, the ewes won't produce milk. Then the lambs...if they don't have grass for a month..."
For nomadic people, the number of livestock is often dozens or even a hundred times that of the population. Under normal circumstances, these large and small animals will look for food on their own and do not require much human care. But now if nature does not provide a new season of green grass,
This means that these people not only have to eat for themselves, but are also responsible for the food and grass for all livestock!
"Let's move!"
"But if you move in this weather, you will freeze to death! People! Animals! They will all freeze to death!"
"But to continue here is to wait for death!"
"..."
It is difficult for the elders and chiefs to agree on the same opinions.
Whether to choose to freeze to death or wait to die has become a difficult question.
Although the dispute between the chief and the elders was limited to a small area, this kind of thing could not be hidden for long, and other herdsmen soon knew about it.
After the White Disaster, not many livestock will survive. If there is another Black Disaster, people will not be able to survive without grass, let alone livestock.
This is the ecosystem of the desert steppe.
Although these guys have invaded south again and again in history, when faced with natural disasters, these guys are even more powerless and vulnerable than the farming people.
This kind of tribe in the desert has no official government to coordinate disaster relief, and no help from clans and neighbors. They believe in the law of survival that the weak eat the strong, and those who hold back the old and the weak deserve to die. Disasters are all endured by each tribe.
, to survive the hardship, no one will help at all. As for the so-called brother tribes around, they are like enemies at this time, and it is already quite good not to take advantage of the chaos to plunder.
In the past, the disaster relief strategy in these grassland deserts was to organize "national integration" activities going south to transfer internal disasters to the farming people in the south. However, with the rise of the military power of the Hussars in the northern region, several consecutive
After all the tribal royal courts were taken over, there was no organizer left.
In scattered tribes, no one trusts anyone. Without credibility and binding force, there will be no basis for cooperation at all.
Such a snowflake in the Little Ice Age has become the mountain that crushes the backbone of these nomadic tribes in the grasslands and deserts today.
Many old men in the tribe have died.
These old people, either actively or passively, became the first people in the tribe to die and "returned to the embrace of the gods."
Every day, there are several people, more or less, who put their old fathers and mothers on horses in front of tents that cannot hold up, and let the horses take them step by step into the wilderness.
And go.
When the elderly leave, they often continue to bless their children...
"Live well..."
"Child, stay alive..."
This is the rule of the grassland and desert.
If there is a disaster, if the men are over sixty and the women are over fifty, they will be asked to destroy themselves.
These elderly parents would choose a place, dismount and drive the horse away.
The horses will find their way back, and they will never have to go back.
They either froze to death in the cold, were devoured alive by hungry wolves, or froze to death and then were eaten by wild beasts.
After a few days, all that is left of these old people are often the bloody skeletons on the ground. If they are intentional, they will pick them up and bury them, but most of them just let their parents dump their bodies in the wilderness.
Living people have too much time to take care of themselves, let alone dead people?
Some may not even have horses, so they can only carry their old parents out on their backs, find a rock without dirt or corpses, put their parents on it, and then obey the rules of no turning back and leave quickly, as long as
The old father and the old mother themselves did not cry or lament, so it was not considered a sad thing.
Living is painful, and dying is also painful.
All living beings suffer!
Therefore, many nomadic people feel that it is better to die in battle than to be abandoned when they are old, and now they don’t even have the chance to die in battle...
The class solidification of the nomadic people is even more serious than that of the Han people.
Ordinary herdsmen are always just ordinary herdsmen, and they may not even be able to understand the most basic counting. Ordinary herdsmen can quarrel over how many fingers there are on both hands and feet, because some people will freeze their fingers off in the wind and snow...
…
The humble ordinary herdsmen don't need to have knowledge, they just need to work and have fun.
Only superior people possess knowledge. This is a necessary condition for tribal leaders, chiefs, elders, wizards, and other superior people to maintain their continued "superiority."
But now these "superior people" are also facing a crisis.
Because the number of low-class people has begun to decrease.
My elderly parents died, and my livestock fell ill and collapsed one by one.
Even if there are various reasons, various rules, and various measures, lower-class people still have emotions, can be sad, and can feel pain. These emotions accumulate, like magma under an extinct volcano, maybe under
It will erupt at some point.
A way must be found.
Internal and external troubles, a dilemma.
In the smoke-filled tent, the tribe's elders and chiefs bumped heads, enduring the smoke caused by the damp firewood. "A choice must be made...otherwise..."
"Xiang Nan! If you stay here, you will die sooner or later!"
