Chapter 91 Letter from Liu Bei (sixth update, please subscribe)
In 193 AD, in order to repay Kong Rong, Taishi Ci single-handedly fought out of the Yellow Turban Guanhai Army and went to Pingyuan Kingdom to seek help from Liu Bei, thus getting acquainted with Liu Bei.
However, after this in history, they never had any intersection.
Because Liu Bei was later trapped in Xuzhou, he fought with Lu Bu and Yuan Shu every day in Xuzhou. After his mother died of illness in 195 AD, Taishi Ci went south to Yangzhou to join his fellow countryman Liu Yao, and finally met Sun Ce and became a famous general in Jiangdong.
But now history has changed a lot. Before Shen Chen left Xuzhou, he once told Liu Bei that Taishi Ci was a fierce general and he could be invited to Xuzhou.
After Shen Chen left, Liu Bei wrote to Kong Rong once. Remembering his words, he told Kong Rong about the incident.
It happened that Taishi Ci's mother died of illness in 194 AD, and Taishi Ci was observing mourning at home. Kong Rong wrote to him and told him that after his mourning was over, he could introduce him to Xuzhou to join Liu Bei.
After one year of observing filial piety, Taishi Ci did not go south to meet his fellow villager Liu Yao as planned, but came to Xuzhou with Kong Rong's letter of introduction.
At this time, after Liu Bei became the shepherd of Xuzhou, Zhao Yun resigned due to his brother's illness and went north to Zhongshan to take care of his brother's future.
Liu Bei lamented that he was missing a general beside him. Unexpectedly, Taishi Ci came to join him. He was overjoyed and appointed him as his subordinate governor.
But this time, Liu Bei also sent Tai Shici to come in person to deliver a message to Shen Chen.
Hearing that Liu Bei was still worried about him despite being trapped in Xiaopei, Shen Chen was very moved. After thanking Tai Shici, he took the letter from him and sat cross-legged on the table.
"Shen Chenxi" was written on the outside of the bamboo slip. When I opened it slowly, there were only about 60 short words inside.
Since there were no punctuation marks at the time, it needed to be segmented manually. After reading, Shen Chen sorted out the following passage.
"The young gentleman sat in front of me: I said goodbye in the early Yuanxia of Xingping. It's suddenly been cold in Jian'an. I haven't seen you for a long time. How have you been recently? I heard that Cao Cao was marching south to Zhangxiu, and I knew that you were in Nanyang and couldn't sleep at night, so I ordered Ziyi to look for the southern city first. I have entrusted you with this letter. Every day is lush and green, but I don’t know what to say, so I hope you will feel worried about me.”
The meaning of this sentence is: Hello, little sir, we separated in the early summer of the first year of Xingping, and now it is the winter of the Jian'an year. We haven't seen each other for a long time. How are you doing? I heard that Cao Cao is preparing to attack Zhang Xiu. I know you are here. Nanyang, I am very worried, so I asked Taishi Ci to go to Nanyang to find you, and put this letter in your hands. Time is running out, and I have too much to say. I hope you can take care of yourself.
Letters in the Han Dynasty were actually not very long. Due to the limited number of words on bamboo slips, it would be inconvenient to carry too many words. Therefore, the sender usually only wrote a few words or a few crosses when writing the content, just to explain the matter clearly.
Only silk letters can be written longer, but they are basically only a few hundred words. Before paper, ordinary people might not be able to write a letter for several years.
After reading this letter, Shen Chen was very moved.
Because it was very difficult to write a letter in the Han Dynasty, although there were inns and postal services at that time, they were mainly used for official purposes.
For example, tasks such as delivering official documents from various counties and counties, and reporting urgent military situations at the border to the court. It is almost impossible to write private letters. Even the officials of the post station cannot waste national resources and write letters home at will.
Therefore, in order to write this letter, Liu Bei used his personal power to deliver it.
He wrote the letter in January this year, and then sent Tai Shici all the way to Nanyang. He had to sleep in the open and wind all the way, and it was very dangerous. It can be said that it took a lot of effort to get this letter into the hands of Shen Chen.
In the troubled times, the postal system collapsed, and Taishi Ci could not get supplies along the way, so he had to rely on his own strength to come from Pei State.
It can be seen from this that Liu Bei is still very concerned about Shen Chen's safety.
I am afraid that if Taishi Ci had not been an official specializing in this job before, with rich experience and superb combat effectiveness, Liu Bei probably would not have allowed his men to take the risk to deliver the message to Nanyang.
Seeing this situation, Shen Chen said with great emotion: "I am very lucky that Mr. Liu can remember me. General Taishi, I have troubled you all the way."
Taishi Ci smiled and said: "That's not true. I actually came from Runan. Before I came, Liu Shijun was appointed by the emperor as the shepherd of Yuzhou. The imperial court sent him to garrison in Pei State. Hearing that Sikong went south to conquer Zhangxiu, he was very worried. The little gentleman is in danger, so I was sent here. There is no danger on the way, but I had to spend some time in Runan due to the war in Sikong."
After the Yellow Turbans in Runan were eliminated, the public security was much better, but now it is still very shabby, no different from ten houses and nine empty houses. Therefore, Liu Bei sent Tai Shici to come from Runan, and it was still very safe.
It's just that Cao Cao is at war, so he can only wait in Runan for a while. It wasn't until Cao Cao's army returned to the court recently that he dared to come.
Shen Chen asked: "How is Mr. Liu doing now? Is he okay?"
Taishi Ci said: "Your health is fine. You can eat strong food and drink alcohol. It's just that last year, you were attacked by the thief Lu Bu and lost Xuzhou. I sigh and mourn every day."
"That guy Lu Bu."
Shen Chen frowned, Cao Cao was cruel, while Lu Bu was capricious.
The characters of these two people are indeed not very good.
"I don't know what Liu Shijun has experienced in the past few years since I left Xuzhou. General Taishi, can you tell me?"
Shen Chen asked again.
"Of course you can."
Taishi Ci told him Liu Bei's experiences over the years.
It turned out that Tao Qian died of illness not long after Shen Chen left Xuzhou, so Chen Deng, Mi Zhu and others recommended Liu Bei as the pastor of Xuzhou.
At that time, Liu Bei recruited Chen Qun in Xiaopei, but Chen Qun persuaded him not to go. At first he remembered Shen Chen's words, so he didn't go either, but he couldn't stand Chen Deng's persuasion and finally went to Xuzhou.
But it is a pity that history still runs according to its trajectory, and Shen Chen has not changed anything.
Xuzhou was originally a place where dragons were trapped. Coupled with internal and external troubles, no one everywhere listened to him as Xuzhou Mu, which made Liu Bei's strength actually very poor.
Except for Chen Deng and Mi Zhu who supported him, local wealthy families such as Cao Bao and Xu Dan, the leader of Danyang elite soldiers left behind by Tao Qian, refused to deal with him, resulting in his low control over Xuzhou.
In particular, Cao and Xu acted against each other, so the only troops Liu Bei could control were only three to four thousand men brought by his subordinates from the plains, and several thousand newly recruited from the local area, which added up to less than 10,000 men.
However, even so, Yuan Shu sent troops to attack Xuzhou, but Liu Bei stubbornly resisted and could not advance.
After Lu Bu was defeated by Cao Cao at the end of 195 AD and came to Xuzhou to join Liu Bei, the situation immediately became different.
Lu Bu was capricious and took advantage of the stalemate between Liu Bei and Yuan Shu to sneak attack Liu Bei and occupy Xuzhou.
Liu Bei was almost wiped out, so he had no choice but to collect his remaining troops and go to Guangling. However, he was defeated by Yuan Shu. Finally, with the help of Mi Zhu, he sued for peace from Lu Bu, and finally settled in Xiaopei to survive.
At the end of last year, Lu Bu came to attack Liu Bei again, and Liu Bei was defeated.
It happened that at that time, Cao Cao had already welcomed the emperor and made Xuchang his capital, so Liu Bei went to Xuchang to join Liu Xie.
At that time, he thought he could flex his muscles in the court by following Liu Xie, but he didn't expect that Liu Xie was just Cao Cao's puppet, and the two forces were secretly competing with each other.
Liu Xie was also very happy to see him coming. He thought that the power of the royalists had become stronger, so he looked at his family tree and recognized him as the emperor's uncle.
Cao Cao also wanted to win over Liu Bei, and in order to prevent Liu Bei and Liu Xie from getting too close, he went to the court to make him the shepherd of Yuzhou, gave him some grain, grass, soldiers and horses, and asked him to return to Pei State to continue to resist Yuan Shu and Liu Xie.
Lu Bu.
Many people think that Cao Cao admires Liu Bei and plans to train him as a confidant, so he entrusts him with important tasks.
In fact, Cao Cao did admire Liu Bei very much, but it was a bit ridiculous to cultivate him as a confidant.
Because first of all, it is Liu Bei's official position. He was Xuzhou Mu and Zhendong General at the beginning, so in terms of arranging official positions, he must not be lower than Xuzhou Mu, and the east happened to need defense, so he was named Yuzhou Mu.
Secondly, if he was really trained as a confidant, he would not be allowed to go to Pei State, but would be taken with him to conquer Zhangxiu.
So in general, it is true that Cao Cao admired Liu Bei, but the main purpose was that he planned to conquer Zhangxiu south this year, and was afraid that Yuan Shu and Lu Bu would cause trouble, so he asked Liu Bei to serve as the eastern barrier in Pei State.
In this way, Liu Bei acted as a shield for him, and secondly, it also transferred him away from Liu Xie to prevent Liu Xie's royalist faction from becoming too powerful, which was of great political significance.
However, under the current situation, after receiving the support of Cao Cao, Liu Bei finally managed to take a breather and was stationed in Pei State safely.
Hearing the news, Shen Chen breathed a sigh of relief. He felt lucky for Liu Bei and happy that he could continue to follow the trajectory of history.
It's not that Shen Chen is afraid of changes in history, but he feels that Liu Bei's character is still a big problem. If he hadn't been on the move in recent years and had no experience in official circles, he might not have been able to grow.
What if Liu Bei is still the fiery-tempered Liu Bei?
certainly.
As the saying goes, a country is easy to change, but a person's nature is hard to change.
Judging from his insistence on avenging Guan Yu and launching the Battle of Yiling in his later years, his character has not changed much.
But even if it can make him deal with things more diplomatically, think more when he encounters problems, and no longer be as impulsive as before, that would be a good thing.
So Shen Chen was very happy to see Liu Bei go through more hardships and grow up step by step.
After hearing Liu Bei's experience in the past few years, Shen Chen sighed to Tai Shici: "It's not easy for Liu Beijun, but God will help you. I believe that one day you will be able to prosper."
Taishi Ci said: "Sir, do you have anything you want me to tell you to Mr. Liu?"
Shen Chen thought for a while and said: "General Taishi, please rest in Huangmen Pavilion for two days. Let me go back and write a letter to thank the envoy. By the way, there are some things that I need to entrust to the general to bring to the envoy."
"good."
Taishi Ci nodded. He had to take a break after sleeping and eating in the open air.
Shen Chen asked people to arrange the residence of Taishi Ci and several knights. He originally planned to go south to Xiangyang today but changed the date. He went back to think about writing a letter and prepared some things and gave them to Taishi Ci to send back to Liu Bei.
Today I have six chapters with 20,000 words, which is a bit overwhelming. What’s worse is that my friend is getting married in two days and I have to attend the wedding. I will try my best to update 10,000 words every day. Don’t worry, unless I die suddenly, there will be no updates.