When Zhuge Liang passed through Xiapidong City and entered Huainan, the large army moving from Huangmenting also moved southward from Xiangben along the Yishui River.
If you want to go to Huainan from Xuzhou, Sishui and Huaihe River are inevitable obstacles.
In the Han Dynasty, the main way to cross large rivers like Sidubaliu was not through bridges, but through ferries, because with the bridge-building technology at that time, it was difficult to build a good bridge to open up the natural chasm.
Therefore, Huangmenting's relocation troops needed to cross the river from the ferry in Xiapi County, Xiapi Administrative Office.
But when the large army arrived at the ferry in the Geyi Mountain area outside Xiapi City, what they saw was desolation. The ferry had long been deserted.
As a last resort, everyone had to go upstream along the Surabaya River. There was actually a ferry downstream. They could just follow the Surabaya River all the way south, cross the river from Suiling to Xutai, and then head towards Dongcheng.
It’s just that Shen Chen believed that the people along this route were all massacred in Xuzhou. More than a month had passed since early May, and the corpses would definitely be decomposed to a very high degree. Plague bacteria would breed and multiply, which was the most dangerous time.
Therefore, they had no choice but to head towards Lu County upstream of Sishui River, but even in the direction of Lu County, they saw numerous bones along the way, villages were massacred, and floating corpses could often be seen floating in the river.
After they finally found a boat to cross the river from the ferry in Lu County, they went all the way south and inevitably approached Zhilu County. They finally saw what hell is on earth.
Villages were massacred one after another, and liquefied corpses could be seen everywhere along the road. Flies and mosquitoes were flying around for dozens of miles, and there was no sound of chickens or dogs.
The route Shen Chen planned had already avoided the central area of the massacre, but even the tragic situation on the periphery was still beyond his imagination.
"Three Kingdoms" and "Book of the Later Han" talk about several dozen records, how can we express the sorrow of the hundreds of thousands of victims in Xiapi?
"We captured five cities and captured the territory to the East China Sea. After returning to Tan, Qian sent Cao Bao and Liu Bei to camp in the east of Tan to attack Taizu. Taizu defeated them and then attacked and conquered Xiangben, killing many of them."
"They were all slaughtered in Juling and Xiaqiu. Hundreds of thousands of men and women were killed, and no chickens or dogs were left. The Surabaya River stopped flowing because of it. It was the protection of the five counties and there was no trace of it again."
The cold words "too much and too much slaughter" and "hundreds of thousands of men and women were killed" are like recording the lambs being slaughtered in the slaughterhouse.
But these are all human beings.
Shen Chen's eyes were also filled with sadness as he looked at all this.
There are many people in later generations who have whitewashed Cao Cao by massacring the city.
pity.
Why are the ancestors of these whitewashers not the people who were massacred in Xuzhou?
After thinking about it, the situation finally got a little better.
The large army crossed the Suishui River and Fuli in late June, approached Xiangxian County in early July, and gradually headed towards Jiujiang.
In fact, it is not far from Xuzhou to Huainan. It is from Linyi City in Shandong Province to Huainan City in Anhui Province. The total distance is more than 400 kilometers, and the road is smooth and easy to walk.
Normally, it takes three or four days to get there on horseback. If you walk, it will never take more than twelve days, assuming you walk 40 kilometers a day.
But after all, Huangmenting is composed of more than a thousand villagers, not well-trained elite soldiers. The villagers bring the old and support the young, and they march about 20 kilometers every day, which is not very fast.
Therefore, from mid-June to early July, which took about ten days, we only traveled less than 300 kilometers, almost two-thirds of the way.
By mid-July, they finally moved to Shouchun, Huainan.
At this time, Zhuge Xuan had already arrived in Shouchun. Yuan Shu was overjoyed when he learned that a noble family had passed by, so he summoned Zhuge Xuan for questioning.
Although the other party was only from a third-rate family, he still admired his talent, so he appointed Zhuge Xuan as the governor of Yuzhang.
A month later, an elder from Huangmenting Township also came to Shouchun. Yuan Shu also learned that a famous family was passing by, so he summoned him to inquire.
Strictly speaking, the Shen family's family status is very poor and has nothing to do with the aristocratic family.
But the Deng family is different.
Looking back at our ancestors, the grandfathers and great-great-grandfathers of Deng Mao, Deng Hong and others were all the children of the top officials during the period of Empress Dowager Deng. There were countless people in the family who had three princes and two thousand stone princes.
It was just because of the persecution suffered during the reign of Emperor An that the Deng family declined, and his descendants no longer served as officials in the court and fled to other places.
However, the power of the tiger's death is still there, and Deng's reputation still remains.
So when Yuan Shu heard that the Xinye Deng family was coming, he naturally wanted to call him over to see what was going on.
Shen Chen had anticipated this, so he discussed with Deng Mao, Deng Hong and other clan elders along the way how to deal with it, and finally decided to let Deng Hong pretend to be an expert and fool Yuan Shu into helping his clan members go to Jingzhou.
On July 16, the elders of Huangmenting Township were temporarily arranged by Yuan Shu in the north of Shouchun City. Deng Hong took Shen Chen into General Zuo's mansion in Shouchun City to pay homage to Yuan Shu.
General Zuo's mansion is spacious and luxurious, with a huge courtyard leading into the door.
Under the guidance of their servants, Deng Hong and Shen Chen walked through the courtyard and came to the middle hall, where they saw a middle-aged man sitting on the main seat.
There are several guards protecting the hall, and there is a middle-aged Confucian scholar on the left hand side of the man, who is Yan Xiang, the chief secretary of Yuan Shu.
Seeing the middle-aged man on the main seat, Deng Hong led Shen Chen forward and bowed his hands and said, "I have met General Zuo."
"You must be Deng Hong. No courtesy, please sit down."
Yuan Shu motioned for them to sit down.
"Thank you, General Zuo."
Deng Hong took Shen Chen and sat on the table to the right of Yuan Shu.
In the Han Dynasty, the right was respected. This was mentioned many times in the "Book of Han" and "The Book of the Later Han". It was not until the Tang and Song dynasties that the left was respected.
Therefore, Yuan Shu, as the most famous family of the Four Generations and Three Dukes, allowed two people without official positions to sit on the seat under his right hand. It was obviously a great respect.
It can also be seen from this that Yuan Shu at this time was far from being as arrogant and arrogant as he would be in the future, and he still had the etiquette of the Four Generations and Three Dukes.
After Deng Hong sat down, he said to Yuan Shu: "General Zuo, this is my grandson Shen Chen, who is eight years old. I heard that General Zuo was famous all over the world, so he specially clamored to come with me to pay homage to the general's reputation. .”
"Look at me?"
Yuan Shu asked curiously: "It's interesting for you to be a child. Since you want to come to see me, what do you think after seeing me now?"
Shen Chen stood up and said seriously: "Chen Chen feels that the general does not live up to his name."
"oh?"
Yuan Shu felt a little unhappy, but kept a normal expression on his face and asked: "What's the discrepancy?"
Shen Chen said: "Everyone in the world says that Yuan Gongli came to dominate the world in the name of the fourth and third prince of the Yuan family, and his talent is far inferior to that of Yuan Shao. I think this is their flattery of Yuan Benchu. It is obvious that the general is the dragon and phoenix of the Yuan family. But if you turn a blind eye, wouldn’t it mean that you are not worthy of your name?”
Yuan Shu sounded angry at first, but then he became happy and joked: "You kid, don't try to trick me. Did your ancestors teach you to say this when you came here to please me?"
"Absolutely not."
Shen Chen shook his head and said: "When I was in Xuzhou, I saw that the villages were in ruins and the roads were full of corpses. After Cao Cao was eunuch, he did not cultivate virtue and committed repeated killings, which led to the rebellion in the rear. After arriving in Huainan, I saw that the people were living and working in peace and contentment. Isn't it because of the general's kindness that the people have plenty of food and clothing?"
Yan Xiang on the side also laughed when he heard this and said to Yuan Shu: "Ming Gong, even an eight-year-old child who came all the way from Xuzhou can see the difference between us and Cao Cao Tao Qian. Henan Why can’t we get the land of Huaibei?”
In fact, Yuan Shu summoned Zhuge Xuan and Deng Hong not really to recruit any talents. He had just defeated Yangzhou Governor Chen Wen last year and completely occupied Huainan. He was currently preparing to go north to capture Xuzhou.
Therefore, every time I heard someone coming from Xuzhou, I would call them and ask them to understand the current actual situation in Xuzhou so that I could make a judgment and prepare for the war.
In addition to praising Yuan Shu, Yan Xiang had already heard two messages from Shen Chen's words.
One is that the reason why Cao Cao withdrew his troops from Xuzhou was that there was a big chaos in the rear and now he had no time to take care of himself. It was a good opportunity to go north to capture Xuzhou.
The second is that Xuzhou is indeed in dilapidated condition and its strength has been greatly reduced. If we attack Xuzhou now, the obstacles will be much smaller.
This also matches the information they received from the refugees who came from Xuzhou and Zhuge Xuan.
However, the information that Yan Xiang could hear was certainly not unknown to Shen Chen.
But he also knew very well that this could not be concealed. The Xuzhou Massacre caused a large number of people to move south to Huainan. It was easy for Yuan Shu to obtain this information, and lying would not do them any good.
Therefore, it is better to tell the truth and use information that everyone knows to please Yuan Shu, which is equivalent to making money by standing still without saying anything.
Yuan Shu really laughed and said: "Nowadays, children are all very smart. At the beginning of the year, Duke Ning of Ji brought his six-year-old son Lu Lang to see me. He stole three oranges from my case and went back to honor his mother. Now again Seeing Deng’s descendant Sun Shenlang discern the clues of the general trend of the world, the next generation is to be feared, the next generation is to be feared.”
Shen Chen immediately said: "These are what the sixth uncle told me. He said that now the Han Dynasty is declining and all the heroes are rising together, which is no different from the late Qin Dynasty. Qin lost its deer and the whole world chased it away. Among the princes in the south, Cao Cao is tyrannical and unkind, and Tao Qian is old and decrepit. Only General Zuo is young and powerful, and can protect the country and the people. With the reputation of the Yuan family, why worry about not being able to clean up the world and help the Han Dynasty?"
He did not say that Yuan Shu could proclaim himself emperor, but that Yuan Shu had the ability to help the Han Dynasty.
The reason why I say this is because the mainstream public opinion environment at that time was still focused on supporting the Han Dynasty. After Cao Cao coerced the emperor to order the princes, countless aristocratic families came to vote for him. Yuan Shu immediately lost people's support after he became emperor, and the betrayal of relatives and friends is a typical example.
It's just that Yuan Shu actually had the idea of proclaiming himself emperor at this time, so he was a little unhappy when he heard Shen Chen's words.
However, he also knew that the time had not come yet, so he did not show his displeasure, but his attitude became much more indifferent, and he said calmly: "I see, your uncle is right, the Yuan family is famous all over the world, I take it for granted. Clean up the world, but do you know that our Yuan family and your Deng family still have a history?"