While Shen Chen was working as a free child laborer for Song Zhong, the general situation in the world was changing.
Since the beginning of this year, the situation in Guanzhong has become increasingly difficult.
Let’s not talk about drought, just talk about war disaster.
After Li Jue killed Fan Chou, the conflict between Li Jue and Guo Si became completely acute, and the two sides fought fiercely, causing serious internal strife.
Liu Xie was kidnapped by Li Jue, and Guo Si kidnapped the Manchu ministers. The two sides refused to give way to each other, and the dogs bit each other.
By June, Zhang Ji came forward to mediate, and the two finally decided to negotiate a peace, each using one of his daughters as a hostage, and not to continue fighting.
After the two sides made peace, Liu Xie got rid of Li Jue and, with the help of Zhang Ji, decided to flee Chang'an and return east to Luoyang.
The Kansai region is a mess, and the Kanto region is not much better.
Yuan Shao and Gongsun Zan had been at war for the past few years. After the Battle of Jieqiao, Yuan Shao finally drove Gongsun Zan out of Jizhou and gained the opportunity to develop with peace of mind.
But soon Gongsun Zan eliminated Youzhou Mu Liu Yu and occupied the entire Youzhou. Yuan Shao's strong strength still made Yuan Shao feel like he was facing a formidable enemy and he did not dare to slack off.
Fortunately, at the beginning of this year, Liu Yu's old troops Xian Yufu, Qi Zhou, Xian Yuyin and others elected Yan Rou as their leader and summoned a large number of Xianbei, Wuwan and other soldiers and horses, and obtained tens of thousands of Han and Hu soldiers to attack Gongsun Zan.
Yuan Shao took advantage of this opportunity and immediately sent General Ju Yi to join them. With a total of 100,000 troops, they defeated Gongsun Zan in Baoqiu and now besieged him in Yijing. The situation is excellent.
The situation on Cao Cao's side is gradually improving. Last year, he fought against Lu Bu and had to stop his troops due to lack of food and grass. Starting from this year, he gradually began to attack Lu Bu. He won three open battles, defeated Dingtao and forced Linqiu.
After Tao Qian died of illness last year, Liu Bei was elected as the shepherd of Xuzhou by Mi Zhu, Chen Deng and others. However, not long after he took over at the beginning of the year, Yuan Shu sent a large army to attack. The two sides fought in Xuyi, Huaiyin and other places, with each side winning or losing.
By June, Lu Bu was driven out of Yanzhou by Cao Cao and fled eastward to Xuzhou to join Liu Bei. Because Lu Bu had indirectly saved Xuzhou once before, Liu Bei accepted him, but he didn't know that he was inviting a wolf into the house and brought a jackal in.
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On the east side of the Yangtze River, Sun Ce had crossed the river and defeated Liu Yao, occupying Danyang and Wu commanderies.
Zhou Shang, the prefect of Danyang at that time, was Zhou Yu's uncle. Zhou Yu had a close friendship with Sun Ce, so his arrival quickly gained support from the Zhou family.
However, Yuan Shu had always been treacherous. He had promised Sun Ce that if he captured Lujiang, he would recommend him as the governor of Lujiang. However, in the blink of an eye, he turned against Sun Ce and appointed Liu Xun as the governor of Lujiang.
It was the same this time. As soon as Sun Ce captured Danyang, Yuan Shu sent his cousin Yuan Yin to replace Zhou Shang. This made Sun Ce even more disappointed with Yuan Shu.
Here in Jingzhou.
Liu Biao still did nothing. Apart from resettling the refugees and farming in Nanyang, he neither sent troops nor expanded the land, and peacefully defended his Jingzhou.
As the number of refugees in Nanyang increased, Huangmen Pavilion gradually began to grow. According to the arrangements made before Shen Chen left, the refugees were recruited, the land continued to be developed, and manor and fortresses were built. At the same time, ceramic craftsmen began to be recruited to use blast furnace caves to burn paper.
porcelain.
By October, Liu Xie entered Anyi County, Hedong.
At this moment, Yuan Shao was suppressing Gongsun Zan, and the pressure was greatly reduced. Moreover, because Jizhou was strong and the people were rich, his strength had jumped to the top of all the princes. Therefore, Jushou suggested to Yuan Shao at this time that he should welcome Liu Xie to "hold the emperor and command the princes".
, an animal warrior and a horse are trying to get rid of the court."
However, Guo Tu and Chunyu Qiong believed that the Han Dynasty was now weak and the emperor's flag was of no use. Moreover, inviting the emperor to Hebei and having to report everything to the emperor would only cause more trouble, so they advised Yuan Shao not to adopt Jushou's plan.
After careful consideration, Yuan Shao felt that what Guo Tu and Chunyu Qiong said was reasonable. In the end, he ignored Ju Shou's suggestion, but Cao Cao paid tribute to Liu Xie, and was appointed as the shepherd of Yanzhou by Liu Xie in October of the second year of Xingping.
At the same time, Lu Bu took advantage of Liu Bei's main force to fight Yuan Shu in Huainan and launched a sneak attack on Xia Pi. Liu Bei had no choice but to flee to Guangling. At that time, Guangling was impoverished due to the disaster of Ze Rong, and Liu Bei's soldiers could only eat the corpses of those killed in battle. Living life, he fell into an extremely difficult situation.
Fortunately, before Shen Chen left, he persuaded Mi Zhu to sell his hometown's properties and store up grain as soon as possible to prepare. Therefore, when Liu Bei was in trouble, Mi Zhu immediately sent someone to deliver a large amount of grain to him, solving this urgent need.
In Jingzhou, on October 11th, Shen Chen and Deng Hong were meeting an old friend by the Hanshui River in Xiangyang.
While Zhou Lin was still on the boat, he saw Shen Chen and Deng Hong standing on the dock waiting for him from a distance. After landing on the shore, he immediately enthusiastically went up and cupped his hands and said: "Mr. Youshuo, Shen Xiaolang, it's been a long time." Missing."
"De Mao, long time no see."
Deng Hongyi smiled and said hello, Demao was Zhou Lin's name.
Zhou Lin took out a small wooden box from his arms and said, "Shen Xiaolang, this is for you."
"Thank you sir."
Shen Chen did not refuse, as this was the custom at the time.
If people who are not familiar with each other or very familiar friends are visiting each other, gifts are often not prepared.
But if you are friends who know each other but don't know each other very well, and come from a very far away place, you have to prepare gifts for each other.
This situation is recorded in the Han Dynasty stone carving "Travel Map" and many ancient books. Later generations called this behavior a souvenir gift.
Deng Hong also took a wooden box as a return gift.
Zhou Lin's gift was a book. At that time, there were all kinds of strange things given to each other as gifts. The more common ones were bamboo slips, jade pendants, wild geese and the like.
Deng Hong's return gift was a piece of porcelain, a three-color porcelain produced in the Huangmenting cave.
The reason why Zhou Lin came here this time was also because of this.
Last year, he made an agreement with Shen Chen. When he came to Jingzhou for business again, he would pass by Jiangling and send someone to Xinye to tell him.
In July of this year, Zhou Lin went to Jiangdong. When he arrived in Jiangling, he sent his slaves to Xinye as agreed.
Large-scale merchants like them often have fixed partners, and they can be found in places like Jingzhou and Jiangdong.
Therefore, every year after Zhou Lin sells the products from Jingzhou and Jiangdong in Yizhou, he will purchase a large amount of local Yizhou products and go to Jingzhou and Jiangdong for delivery.
So after staying in Jiangling for a few days and delivering the goods to the local partner, he set off for Jiangdong.
He would deliver the goods to Jiangdong and then receive the goods. By the time he returned, it would already be September. By the end of September, he would arrive in Jiangling again, and the slaves he had sent out before were already waiting for him, with a cart with him. Fine porcelain.
Zhou Lin realized the business opportunity when he saw these porcelains, because the glaze color of porcelain in the Han Dynasty was very single, mainly celadon and white porcelain, and there were also a small amount of yellow-green glazed porcelain.
The porcelain that Shen Chen gave him was not only exquisitely made, smooth in appearance and novel in style, but also colorful and colorfully painted.
Although I don’t know how it will sell when I take it out, at least it looks pretty good.
The businessman's acumen directly told him that these things might be marketable, so he parked the fleet in Jiangling and personally took a boat from Yunmengze to Jingling, then entered the Han River from Jingling and went north to Xiangyang.
Both sides brought several followers. Under the leadership of Deng Hong, the group headed towards his direction in Xiangyang City.
On the way, Zhou Zhoulin said to Deng Hong: "I heard that Youshuo is an official in Liu Jingzhou?"
Deng Hong couldn't hide his smile and said: "Now I am the chief secretary of the office of Liu Shijun. I am responsible for the clerical and treasury work. I am not a high official."
He was promoted last month, from librarian to librarian. The reason was that the father of the previous librarian died of illness. According to the custom at that time, Ding You went home to observe filial piety, so the man gave up his official position.
There were only two people in the whole library. As soon as he left, Deng Hong was naturally promoted. Now he is considered to be three hundred stones higher, only one level lower than Zhuge Xuan.
Shen Chen on the side curled his lips and said: "Although I have been appreciated by Ambassador Liu and moved to be the master, my great-uncle is already twenty-seven years old and has not yet married. I am afraid that my great-uncle will not be able to rest in peace."
Deng Hong's face froze, and he lowered his head and said in Shen Chen's ear: "You guy, can you save some face for your sixth uncle? Besides, I've seen the Cai's daughter you mentioned. She's as strong as a fat pig and extremely ugly. , how can I marry you?"
"Uncle, you don't want the clan to fail to grow in Jingzhou. At this time, uncle has to dedicate himself and sacrifice his small self for the sake of the clan to complete his big self."
Shen Chen responded in a low voice: "Besides, she is a bit ugly, but I heard she is very gentle and a good wife and mother."
After he arrived in Xiangyang, he asked around and wanted to help Deng Hong solve life-long problems.
Some time ago, Zhuge Xuan married Zhuge Liang's eldest sister to Kuai Qi of the Kuai family. On the day of the wedding, Shen Chen and Deng Hong went to send gifts and drink wedding wine, and then the Zhuge family suddenly entered the upper echelons of Jingzhou. lock up.
This made Shen Chen very anxious, so he asked around, and finally heard that the Cai family happened to have a daughter to be married, who was the daughter of Cai Mao's cousin. She was in her teens, but she never got married because of her appearance.
So he tried his best to win over Deng Hong.
Both of them are considered to be older singles at this age. Although the woman doesn't look very good, her family situation is good and she has a lot of wealth. She is barely a match for Deng Hong, a descendant of the Deng family.
But after Deng Hong heard about it, he secretly tried to find a way to see the woman. From then on, he tried his best to refuse and stopped talking.
It was useless for Shen Chen to work every day, which gave him a headache.
After hearing Shen Chen's words, Deng Hong still evaded: "It's not urgent, it's important to work, we'll talk about it later."
It is very similar to the words used by Shen Chen in later generations when he was trying to get rid of his parents.
Shen Chen sneered: "It's not up to you to make the decision. In a few days, I will write to my great-uncle, second uncle and the others and ask them to force you. My parents ordered the matchmaker. Now that my great-uncle and great-aunt are gone, my great-uncle and the others can Make a decision."
"Achen you!"
Deng Hong was almost in tears. He never expected that he would be stabbed in the back by his grandson!
People say that the elders make the decision for the younger generation to decide on the marriage.
Why do younger people still make decisions for their elders?
It's turned upside down.
The two whispered and soon arrived in the city. Deng Hong hired two carriages, one for him and Shen Chen, and one for Zhou Lin. The servants walked towards the west of the city.
Deng Hong's house is in the west of the city. The house is not big, and it is in the suburbs of the west of the city. It is close to the West Gate. It is four or five kilometers away from Liu Biao's pastoral office where he works, and more than 20 kilometers away from Xianshan Academy where Shen Chen is staying.
But nowadays, there is a lot of money in Xiangyang. It would be nice to have a suite, but what else is needed is a bicycle.
It was three or four kilometers from Beicheng to Xicheng, and it took almost half an hour to arrive. Deng Hong led a group of people into the house, while the servants stayed outside the door and entered the hall to prepare for the meeting.