Chapter 331 Enjoyable banquet, the role of hangers-on
The hottest days of summer were slowly passing by, and the people of the three kingdoms of Wei, Shu, and Wu felt the hot heat, without exception. Only as night fell did the hot breath subside, and the Wei Dynasty was temporarily peaceful.
The people of the three kingdoms of Shu and Wu continued to live a regular life of working at sunrise and resting at sundown...
The banquet at Wu Qing's house has also ended. Although Wu Qing repeatedly and enthusiastically asked a few people to stay overnight at his house, the four of them did not stay overnight at Wu Qing's house. They said they were going back to the post office to rest and did not want to disturb Wu Qing any more.
Seeing that the four people were so persistent, they stopped trying to force them to stay.
He could only wave his hands with a red face and said: "Okay, okay, since you are so insistent, I will send a carriage to take you back to the post office."
Wang Shen and others clasped their fists and said, "Now that I have thanked the Marquis of Jiyang, I will say goodbye and come back to the house to visit you another day." After saying that, they got up and walked out of the hall under the guidance of the servants in the house.
Heading towards the gate tower,
Wu Qing pointed at the backs of the four people and said to the guests on the left and right: "Look, these people are trying to show off their abilities. They can't even walk safely. They are not willing to stay in my house. This is because they dislike me for the time being."
Have you lost ground?"
All the guests clasped their fists in unison and said: "My lord, this may be their first time to my lord's house, and it is also their first time to my big man. They are not familiar with this place, so they should be a little cautious. They will come to my lord's house after a while."
I’m sure you won’t refuse your lord’s hospitality when you come to visit me.”
Wu Qing raised the wine cup again and drank from it, smiling and saying to everyone: "What you said makes sense. I believe that next time I invite them to a banquet, they will not refuse my kindness again."
After Wu Qing put down the wine cup, he raised his head and looked at the sky outside the hall and said, "My lords, did you enjoy your banquet today?"
Wu Qing's guests all put down their cups and chopsticks and clasped their fists and said, "I'd like to thank my lord for the banquet. It's a very enjoyable banquet today. There are fine wines and delicacies, as well as beautiful people singing and dancing. How can we not be completely happy?"
Then another guest, who was good at observing words and expressions, said alone, clasping his fists and saying, "My lord, since the guests and hosts have had their fun and it's getting late, my lord, why don't you go back to the inner courtyard to rest early."
Wu Qing nodded and said: "What you said is absolutely true. Let's leave today. We will have another banquet in a few days."
After Wu Qing said that, he stood up and prepared to go to the inner courtyard. All the guests in the hall stood up, bowed and clasped their fists, saying: "I'll send you my lord here." The guests in the hall all waited for Wu Qing and the figure of the maid who was guiding the way with the lamp to disappear from sight.
,
They straightened up just now, sorted out their wrinkled clothes, and then slowly left the front hall and went to their respective houses in the front yard to rest. Although they did not have a young and beautiful maid to guide them,
But as a retainer who relies on his lord to make a living, it is good enough to have fine wine, delicious food, and beautiful songs. If there are more things, you need to rely on your own intelligence, strategy, and force to fight for them. After all, you can only win if you contribute to the lord.
Only then can we be worthy of these.
And Wu Qing is also willing to support these retainers recruited from all over the country. As a wealthy family in Shu, he is not short of food, money and food, so he can support him as long as he can.
Wouldn't it be great if one day someone as capable as Mao Sui and Xu Gong Sanmenke came to help him?
The acquaintances who came out of the front hall together were still talking to each other: "My lord treats us so kindly, it is really like the ancient Mengchang king. If one day my lord can make use of us, we will do our best and die!"
As a symbol of aristocratic status and wealth, retainers in the Three Kingdoms first appeared in the Spring and Autumn Period, when the practice of keeping guests was prevalent. The sons of the princes of each vassal state had a large number of retainers, such as Chun Shenjun of Chu State and Zhao Guo.
Lord Pingyuan, Lord Xinling of Wei, Lord Mengchang of Qi, etc.
Cao Cao's subordinates, ministers and generals gathered together, and among the people who left their names in history, the first person to follow him should be his disciple Shi Huan.
The food and drink of the diners are supported by the master, and they also receive wages. Although it is also a professional industry that depends on the nobles, it is different from the domestic servants. They are considered to be talented people with special skills and can do things for the master.
Yuan Shao loved to raise scholars, that is, he supported many retainers, among whom outstanding ones such as Zhang Jin were able to persuade the general He Jin to cooperate with Yuan Shao, and finally became the pastor of Jiaozhou.
Cao Cao also kept retainers, but his level was much lower than that of Yuan Shao. Later, only Shi Huan was reused.
Shi Huan's courtesy name was Gong Liu. He was a young knight and was very heroic. When Taizu first started, he served as a guest and served as a lieutenant in the military academy. From expeditions, he often supervised the generals. When he saw his trusted friends, he turned to worship and led the army.
Cao Cao was willing to keep him as a disciple because he was brave and able to help the weak.
Warriors with a sense of morality often value friendship and are very loyal to their masters, just like the disciples of Xu Gong, the governor of Wu County, who assassinated Sun Ce in revenge for him.
"Taizu's early rise" does not specifically refer to Cao Cao and Chen Liu starting the army, but also starting to serve as an official and making a name for himself.
In addition, the army that Cao Cao raised was his personal property, so there was no need to waste food to support his retainers. Naturally, Shi Huan followed Cao Cao's army as a retainer and served in his army.
He was certainly not the only disciple of Cao Cao, but he was the only one who left his name in history as a disciple of Cao Cao, and he followed Cao Cao earlier than his family members such as Cao Cao, Xia Hou, and other later civil and military officials.
"Running the army" is important and cumbersome, and is an important part of the art of war. However, the commander needs to devote his energy to managing the overall situation. If he has no time and energy to do this, he needs to have trustworthy people to be specifically responsible for this aspect of work.
Therefore, depending on the level of the commander, there are need to have officers in charge of the central army at different levels, such as central commanders and lieutenants, to help the commander-in-chief take charge of the training, personnel, supervision and other management affairs of the main force.
It can be seen that the officers in charge of the Chinese Army do not have the military power of the Chinese Army, but only the power of agency management.
But for many years of command and management, there are mountains of military orders. If the people in charge of the Chinese army are not loyal enough, it will be very scary.
Therefore, the first requirement for those in charge of the Chinese army is absolute loyalty, and secondly, they must have sufficient military management capabilities, manage the army well, and have combat effectiveness.
When Cao Cao raised his army, he asked Shi Huan to be his lieutenant in the central military. Later, when the army grew in size, making him the central leader in charge of the imperial army would definitely meet these two requirements.
Shi Huan was not only loyal to Cao Cao, but also had strong military management capabilities.
Because of his training and management, Cao Cao's army could maintain such a high combat effectiveness, allowing Cao Cao to dominate the world.
During the Battle of Guandu in the fifth year of Jian'an, during the confrontation between Cao Cao and Yuan Shao, Cao Cao adopted Xun You's strategy and sent multiple troops to harass and intercept Yuan Shao's grain transport troops, so that Yuan Shao's advantage of having a larger army quickly turned into a disadvantage due to the consumption of grain.
Shi Huan's food-burning operation with Xu Huang was the one that made the most contribution to Xun You's entire strategy, and Xu Huang was awarded the title of Marquis for it.
Cao Cao had many generals under his command for this kind of harassment operation, and Shi Huan was not necessarily sent there. This time it seemed more like a training exercise.
I don’t know whether it was the result of two actual battles that made Cao Cao feel that he had little future in leading troops in battle, or he was reluctant to let such a good leader go out to take risks. The rest of the time, he followed Cao Cao in the battles, and there was not much.
individual performance opportunities.
After Cao Cao took over Zhang Lu in Hanzhong, someone suggested that Han Hao should be allowed to stay as the commander in Hanzhong. Cao Cao said, "How can I not have an army to protect me?"
From this point of view, Shi Huan and Han Haotong are Cao Cao's most important central army generals. Cao Cao should still want to keep Shi Huan by his side and be reluctant to let him take risks. However, because of this, Shi Huan has lost more opportunities to show his abilities.