Lu Meng was defeated by Guan Yu, and Yuan Tan recaptured Muling Pass. The Western Army had now completely completed the encirclement of Linzi.
But before Linzi was officially flooded, as usual, Liu Bei still planned to persuade him to surrender. Even if he failed, he could still undermine the morale of the city. First, he ordered Zhao Yun to escort the Dongwu prisoners to the foot of Linzi City, slowly march around the city for one state, and inform the people in the city.
The news that the reinforcements had been defeated was followed by the news that dozens of Eastern Army soldiers who had surrendered in the previous battle at Xindu were selected, led by Xu You, led by Ju Hu, the son of Ju Shou, Xin Ping, the younger brother of Xin Ping, and other old officials of the Eastern Dynasty.
Parade under the city. Dressed in brocade and riding tall horses, they walked under the city while calling the names of the old people in the city. Then they informed them of the news that the Western Army was about to flood Linzi, and urged old friends to surrender as soon as possible.
For two days, there was indeed a commotion in Linzi City, but in the end it was suppressed by Cao Cao. Then if someone approached the city again, the soldiers on the city would shoot arrows one after another. After several people were shot down, the Western Army stopped sending people to persuade them to surrender.
.On the contrary, the army was gradually retreated and stationed in the surrounding highlands in an organized manner. It was obvious that they were going to build embankments in the lower reaches of the Zi River to store water.
The construction of the embankment by the Western Army did not go smoothly at the beginning. The first two embankments in March failed. When Dong Yue was in charge, the first embankment was only two feet long. Due to the soft spring mud, the weir and dam collapsed from the middle.
, so he ordered to speed up the filling of the soil and then build it. Unexpectedly, when the construction reached 30 meters, there was another heavy rain. The spring tide surged and the weir dam collapsed again. It would be April soon, and when it rained heavily every day, I was afraid that the construction would be impossible.
The weir was more difficult. Liu Bei ordered Fa Zheng to personally supervise the construction. He buried several hundred-year-old giant trees on both sides of the river and filled dozens of tons of gravel between the giant trees to serve as the soil foundation for the weir dam. Then the weir dam was built.
Starting.
However, for the Eastern Army, the time of waiting for flooding was even more difficult. Tian Feng suggested to Cao Cao that he should lead his army out of the city to break out of the encirclement before the enemy's dam was completed. If they could escape to Huainan, they could borrow a boat from Sun Quan.
The ship might not be able to escape back to Liaodong and make a comeback. Cao Cao was not interested when he heard this. He refused: "If we fail to break through, we will be overturned in an instant. How about we stay in the city and the food in the city will last me two years. Could it be that Liu Bei
Can you still surround me in Qingzhou for two years?"
Tian Feng said: "The marshal can guard the city for two years, but the hearts of the officers and soldiers in the city may not wait for the marshal for two years." After saying this, Cao Cao was horrified. He stood up and stared at Tian Feng for a long time, until Tian Feng's hair dropped.
He stood up, waved his hands and said, "Yuan Haorong, let me think twice."
Unexpectedly, as soon as that night passed, Shi Tianfeng, the commander of the Marshal's Mansion, was stabbed to death in the mansion. Cao Cao was shocked when he heard this and immediately sent someone to investigate the matter. He then concluded that there was a traitor in the army who wanted to take refuge with the Western thieves, so he went to the city
Arrests were carried out on a large scale, tortured in detail in prison, and then he took the list and continued to ask for people. In a short time, he discovered more than a thousand traitors and spies among the generals who agreed to break through. Cao Cao beheaded them all and held their heads high.
To the left and right of the hanging city gate, people inside and outside the city, seeing this scene, were all frightened, trembling and sweating.
At this point, the completion of the Western Army's weirs and dams became a relief. As the heavy rains came in spring and summer, the Western Army continued to strengthen the weirs and dams. As a result, Linzi City was surrounded by vast oceans, and the surrounding area looked like a huge city.
An isolated island. The water surface is wide, and fish and turtles can be seen from time to time. A few of the Eastern Army are veterans who have participated in the Yellow Turbans. Seeing this situation, they all think of the tragic situation of Geng Cang's destruction, and they are moved by the scene and feel sad in their hearts.
But as Cao Cao said, after the flood, although the city wall was much shorter, the Western army could not attack the city. They could only go in and out by boat and shoot arrows at the wall. The Eastern people took turns to rest, lit bonfires at night, and
Setting up an archery tower inside the wall made it obvious that the Western Army would not be able to capture the city in a short period of time. Among the top generals of both armies, there was a clear consensus on this battle: both sides would decide the final outcome in this long confrontation.
The outcome.
On the other side, after about a year of recuperation, Chen Chong's health finally got better. However, tuberculosis still left some sequelae on him, that is, when the humidity is severe, he can't help but cough all the time.
Throughout the winter and spring, he spent time repeatedly coughing. At this time, Fu Qian had returned to Yunbei, but his wife's brother Dong Yao came to visit him again, so there was no lack of popularity in the mansion.
At this time, Dong Yao had been promoted as a talented young man, and he was a young man who was quite proficient in poetry. When he saw that his brother-in-law kept coughing, he felt uncomfortable, so he mentioned the matter to Dong Bai and said: "The summer comes in Chang'an.
It’s even more humid and unbearable, and it’s not as high and cool as Longyou, so why not go to Longshang to recuperate?”
Dong Bai smiled bitterly and was speechless. It turned out that Chen Chong was still thinking about the war in the east and wanted to go to Luoyang to see the situation after a while. No matter how Dong Bai warned him, he would not listen.
After hearing this, Dong Yao wrote a letter that night and asked someone to send it to the East Palace of Luoyang to mention the matter to Liu Xie. After Liu Xie learned about it, he also wrote back to Chen Chong overnight, persuading him: "Although my uncle has worked hard, he will not be able to avoid it."
You underestimate your descendants too much. How can a country prosper in one person? If my uncle really wants to take care of the country, he should take good care of himself. If he dies of illness, what good will it do to the country?"
After reading for a long time, Chen Chong agreed and agreed to go to Lintao to recuperate, which just satisfied Dong Bai's idea of returning to his hometown to visit. After making the decision, the whole family was happy. After all, Chen Chong's two daughters, A Suo and A Yun, had grown up since childhood.
I have been living in Chang'an and have never been away from home. When I heard that I was going to travel thousands of miles this time, I just felt excited and curious. Chen Xiu was only one year old at this time. Although he could not speak yet, his eyes were dripping when he got on the carriage.
He glanced around, obviously very interested.
It's just that Zhao Qiu was a little embarrassed. After all, he had already agreed with Chen Chong to move to Luoyang. In the past few days, he had corresponded with several senior brothers in Beijing and planned to move to Dongdu Taixue. He had already found a place to live. Chen Chong saw this
Then he said: "Since everything has been agreed, you can go by yourself and seek lessons from Kong Ming and others in your free time. The Xihe elders have high expectations for you, so don't let them down."
After greeting Yin Yufan of Jingzhao again, he and his family slowly left Chang'an by car. As they drove past the Wei Bridge, he couldn't help but look back at the Chang'an city wall until it disappeared from sight. I don't know when,
The heavy pressure in his chest suddenly disappeared a lot, and his whole person felt relieved from the inside out. When Chen Chong realized this, he couldn't help but sadly thought: It turned out that in his heart, Chang'an was already a place of sadness that was hard to mention.
The ground is gone.
As he continued to head west, Chen Chong began to dream frequently. At first, he dreamed that he was traveling without a destination on an endless road. Later, he gradually began to see branches, leaves, rivers, and endless fields around him. By the time he
When he finally felt that this scene was familiar, he suddenly remembered that this was the scene when his grandfather Chen Shi died, and he went back to Yingchuan for the funeral. But he did not dream about his father, nor did he dream about his grandfather's remains. When he finally arrived in Huaili
, the light and shadow in the dream suddenly changed, and he found himself sitting in the carriage room, looking up at the vast stars in the sky. When he lowered his head, he found a young man sitting in front of the carriage, silently riding his horse, and his back was both familiar and unfamiliar. p>
Who is it? While Chen Chong was still thinking, he heard the young man turn around and ask: "Teacher, did you call me?"
"Yuan Zhi!" When Chen Chong called out the young man's name, he had already woken up. Dong Bai, who was looking after him, was still awake. When he saw him sitting up suddenly, he was extremely worried and asked him what was wrong. Chen Chong shook his head.
He stroked his forehead and said, "It's just a dream." He paused, and suddenly felt something strange on his forehead. He brought his hand to his eyes, only to find that it was covered in cold sweat.
Why did he dream about the scene when he left Luoyang? Now that he thinks about it, he only feels that from then on, after saying goodbye to his grandfather forever, his life entered a new stage, separated from most of his past, and began to become a new person.
It has been more than twenty years since I worked hard to achieve my new goal. If I have such a dream again now, does it mean that I have entered a new beginning?
He suddenly had a bad premonition. It was Chen Shi who left him at that time, but now? Could someone else be leaving him? But after thinking about it for a while, he felt that such an idea was too nonsense, so he gave it up for the time being.
I think it’s just that people tend to get sad when they get older.
Around early May of the third year of Yanxing, Chen Chong and Dong Bai came to Lintao. The local county magistrate had long received the news that the prime minister was coming to recuperate, and he had led the crowd to wait twenty miles outside the city. Chen Chong and
I didn't like this kind of ostentation, but I also knew that favors were inevitable, so I exchanged a few polite words and asked them to help arrange accommodation and escorts, and then they had a dinner together, which was the end of the welcome. p>
But then living in Lintao really made people feel comfortable. It is located on the edge of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, a transition zone from the Gannan grasslands to the Loess Plateau and the Longnan mountains. It is low-temperature and dry. In the humid and sultry summer, it is really suitable to escape the heat here.
For this purpose, the Lintao Order built a small courtyard for Chen Chong by the Tao River. Hundreds of white pears were planted around it, and Chen Chong and his family lived in it.
At Dong Bai's request, Chen Chong also went with Dong Bai and Dong Yao from time to time to search for Dong's old relatives. Although Dong Zhuo had no relatives within the three clans, there were still some distant relatives living in the local area.
Dong Zhuo was implicated. Over the years, they had been discriminated against by the locals and had been living a miserable life. Many people even changed their surname from Dong to Su and moved to other places to live. This made Dong Bai feel quite guilty. When Dong Bai came to find him, they heard that
The wife of the then prime minister turned out to be Dong Zhuo's granddaughter. They were very surprised for a moment, and then they became happy and hoped that Chen Chong could promote her. However, Dong Bai pushed her back and only gave them some money to subsidize their family.
All in all, my days in Lintao were quite pleasant. Probably because of the high terrain, I could just find a hill to climb up here, and then look up at the sky. I felt that the blue sky was very close to me. If I had been there occasionally,
When it rains lightly, you can see rainbows cascading all around you, which is a unique spectacle here. Looking down at the land, you can see the endless grassland, on which Qiang people and Han people can be seen grazing everywhere. They sing songs and use whips and dogs.
Driving the jet-black flocks, these sheep are all black and purple lambs, a local specialty.
These scenes made Chen Chong feel comfortable, and the cough he had been having was somewhat improved. By August, he had almost stopped coughing, and his health was probably much better than before he got sick. Liu Xie has also been
Communicate with him and tell him that everything is going well with the Eastern Expedition, that the Eastern Dynasty is not far away from being destroyed, and that the reunification of the country is close at hand.
Seeing that there was no urgent matter in the country, Chen Chong decided to stay in Lintao for a while longer, copying inscriptions and collecting folk songs during the day, and writing at home at night. He planned to return to Luoyang to visit after finishing the work.