Cai Feng, the head of the Cai family, led several people on horseback to catch up with Chen Cao and his party, shouting: "Chen Ambassador, please wait a moment -"
Chen Cao dismounted his horse, waited for Cai Feng to approach, raised his hands and asked, "What else can Master Cai do to teach you?"
Cai Feng jumped off his horse and said with a smile: "I had a long conversation with the envoy for three days, and my mind was wide open. Now that I'm leaving, I feel so melancholy that I almost forgot about the small gift I prepared yesterday."
An oxcart gradually approached from the direction of Caijiawu Fort and stopped in front of Chen Caozhi. Two Cai servants carried out two boxes, one was a square camphor box and the other was a long nanmu box——
Cai Feng said: "As a noble man, I dare not profane with vulgar things. Now I am giving you a hundred volumes of family heirlooms. Among them are five volumes of the original copy of "Lu Shi Jing" from the "Jiaping Stone Classic" written by my ancestor Bojie Gong.
There is an old Fuxi-style harp in my family's collection, and I gave it to the envoy as well."
The "Jiaping Stone Classic" is a seven-part collection of "Book of Changes", "Shang Shu", "Lu Shi", "Rituals", "Spring and Autumn", "Gongyang Zhuan" and "The Analects of Confucius" written by Cai Yong in official script on the orders of Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty.
The full text of this classic was then carved by stone workers. Because it was made in the fourth year of Jiaping, Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty, it was called the "Jiaping Stone Classic". The original inscription left in Chang'an has been damaged by the war. Chen Caozhi once visited Lu Na Mansion
I have seen some rubbings of the ruined stele. Cai Yong's calligraphy is vigorous and rigorous in structure. He is the master of the Han Dynasty. What Cai Feng now gives to Chen Caozhi is the original "Lu Shi" written by Cai Yong. It is precious.
——
The Fuxi-style old qin mentioned by Cai Feng is actually the Jiaowei qin handmade by Cai Yong. Cai Yong was an outstanding talent. He was the first person in the late Han Dynasty in music, calligraphy, poetry, classics and history.
, the author of two volumes of "Qin Cao", he is not only good at drumming and playing flute, but also can make qin and flute. Just as the Keting flute has a wonderful origin, there is also an anecdote about the Jiaowei Qin. Cai Yong traveled three times during his travels.
When Wu was staying at a farmhouse, the peasant woman was lighting a fire for cooking. Cai Yong heard the crisp crackling sound of the wood burning in the fire. He felt something in his heart and quickly pulled out the burning paulownia wood under the stove to put out the fire. His hands were burnt.
Unconsciously, he used this piece of paulownia wood to make a qin. The sound of the qin was extremely beautiful. Because there were burnt marks on the end of the qin, it was named Jiaowei Qin. It was together with the two guqins from the Spring and Autumn Period and Sima Xiangru's Green Qi Qin.
It is called one of the Four Famous Qins. Unexpectedly, Chenliu Cai still owns this Qin!
Chen Cao was overjoyed and bowed to the ground: "Thank you very much, elder, for the gift. I will take good care of the book and the piano."
Cai Feng saw Chen Caozhi's expression of joy and knew that Chen Caozhi was very satisfied with the gift. Naturally, he was also very happy. He handed over his hands and said: "Chen Caojun has a safe trip. Cai gave it to you not far away."
This time, Cai's matchmaker followed Chen Caozhi and Su Qi to Sujiapu. Su Daozhi's answer was very refreshing. Cai was overjoyed, so he accepted the match and asked her name, and the marriage was settled.
Chen Caozhi only stayed in Sujiabao for two days, and then rushed to Wuyang to visit Wei Qian, the leader of the Wei family. The trip went very smoothly. Wei Qian knew that the other four major Wubao had all surrendered to the Beifu Army. For the benefit of the family, he was unwilling to do so.
After falling behind, Wei Qian asked Chen Caozhi to stay in Wuyang. Ten days later, he personally led two thousand private soldiers to follow Chen Caozhi south to Guangling. Wuyang was more than 500 miles away from Luoyang. Chen Caozhi originally wanted to rush to Luoyang to meet Shen Jin.
However, it would take more than half a month to go back and forth, and I would not be able to rush back to Guangling by the end of June, so I wrote a long letter to Shen Jin and sent a capable man to deliver it——
On the second day of the sixth lunar month, Chen Caozhi and Liu Laozhi set out on their return journey. Wei Qian led two thousand private soldiers to accompany them. These three thousand sergeants were all infantry and brought half a month of food with them. They went to Pingyu Sujiabao and met Su Qi. The 1,000 Su family's private soldiers he led gathered together and reached Xincai. They also joined Cai Guang's 3,000 Cai family's private soldiers. More than 6,000 people arrived in Hefei on June 16. The governor of Yuzhou, General Xizhong Lang, Yuan Zhen personally went to greet him outside the city and rewarded the army with 1,000 dendrobium rice and 300 sheep. Chen Caozhi met Yuan Zhen in Shouzhou four years ago. Yuan Zhen was quite arrogant. When they met again, Yuan Zhen had a rude attitude. Because of the difference, he paid more tribute to Chen Caozhi. Chen Caozhi is now the sixth-rank Sima of Sizhou. What's more important is that Chen Caozhi married the two powerful men of Lu and Xie, and his status rose sharply. He also lobbied the Huaihe and Huaihe governors this time. The results of Wu Wu are remarkable. Looking at these 6,000 soldiers, it can be imagined that Yuan Zhen has a sense of crisis. In recent years, he has also wanted to persuade these refugee commanders to be used by him, but because he is only a small town, there is no imperial edict. , those refugee tribes refused to obey orders, but now Chen Caozhi has the support of Huan Wen, and he obeys the imperial edicts and responds to them at once. This makes Yuan Zhen jealous, hateful, and very worried. Now that Yu Xi has been defeated and dead, Huan Wen is jealous. The only one left is his Yuzhou soldiers. Sooner or later, they will come to seize the military power of Yuzhou——
Yuan Zhen invited leaders such as Chen Caozhi, Liu Laozhi, Su Qi, Cai Guang, and Wei Qian to the city for a banquet. During the banquet, Yuan Zhen asked Chen Caozhi about the purpose of rebuilding the Beifu Army. For Yuan Zhen, Chen Caozhi must not To be honest, the rift between this person and Huan Wen is deep and difficult to resolve. Historically, Yuan Zhen was forced by Huan Wen and took Shouyang to rebel against Yan, and then rebelled against Qin, and was finally annihilated by Huan Wen. Of course, Chen Caozhi could not build himself into the Beifu Army. But Yuan Zhen’s real intention to weaken the Huan family was that this was a top secret, and the fewer people knew about it, the better——
Chen Cao said: "Huan Da Sima saw that Xianbei had a large number of people, and it would be difficult for the Beifu army to resist if they did not build a northern army."
Yuan Zhen knew that Huan Wen had a plan for the Northern Expedition, and said: "I heard that Murong Ke withdrew his troops due to illness, and Murong Chui also retreated from Lingwu and Tongguan back to Gongyi. Yan's plan to annex Di and Qin has not been completed, so naturally there will be no attempt to invade our territory of Jin." My heart, but Erhu occupies our Central Plains and Guanzhong, and all our Jin people hate it. I ask Chen Sima to report to Duke Huan on my behalf. If Duke Huan makes an expedition to the north, I will serve him."
During Huan Wen's third Northern Expedition, Yuan Zhen sent troops to Qiao and Liang, but water transportation was blocked due to the failure to open the Shimen. After Huan Wen's defeat, he blamed Yuan Zhen. Yuan Zhen's rebellion was also due to this. Of course, none of this will happen now. But considering Yuan Zhen's relationship with Huan Wen, it is impossible for him to contribute in next year's Northern Expedition. Yuzhou also has 30,000 soldiers, so it is a pity that he cannot play a role in the Northern Expedition. Historically, Yuan Zhen died before Huan Wen. Huan Wen and Yuan Zhen are old and old, and Huan Wen is eager to eradicate Yuan Zhen in order to usurp the throne as soon as possible, but Chen Caozhi will not regard Yuan Zhen as his opponent at all. Time is Chen Caozhi's most powerful assistant, and he only needs to wait. Given the opportunity, both Yuan Zhen and Huan Wen will be defeated by the ruthless years——
Chen Caozhi and Yuan Zhen had a great time drinking and talking happily. The next day, when Chen Caozhi led his army eastwards, Yuan Zhen gave him some food, grass, wine and meat.
On June 27, Chen Caozhi led 6,000 soldiers to Guangling on the north bank of the Yangtze River. The new city of Guangling was built by Huan Wen at the beginning of the year. He succeeded, so he went down the river from Gushu to Guangling, waiting for the arrival of Chen Caozhi and the Huaibei commanders, hoping to offer them favor and win over people's hearts——
On June 30th, Xu, led by Tian Luo, Guo Quan, and Dai Xun, and the 19 Wu refugee commanders from two prefectures in Henan arrived in Guangling. Tian Luo had 4,000 private soldiers, Guo Quan, and Dai Dun each had 3,000. The rest of Xiaowubao had a total of 15,000 private soldiers and a total of 25,000 sergeants. Together with Cai Guang, Wei Qian and Su Qi who arrived two days earlier, a total of 32,000 sergeants were present. Huan Wen was overjoyed and admired Chen Caozhi. He immediately reported to the court and recommended Chen Caozhi as the fifth-rank Yingyang general, Tian Luo as the fifth-rank Xuanwei general, Cai Guang as the fifth-rank rebel general, Guo Quan as the fifth-rank general against the invaders, and Dai Xun as the fifth-rank general against the invaders. General Pinpolu, Liu Laozhi, the sixth-grade Pingluo captain of the North Prefecture, Su Qi, the sixth-grade Pingluo guard of the North Prefecture, Shen Shiqian was promoted from the Cavalry Governor to the eighth-grade North Prefecture to join the army——
At the same time, Huan Xi and Huan Shixiu recruited the direct descendants of the three major refugee clans, Gaoheng of Le'an, Liu Gui of Dongping, and Zhuge Kan of Langya, from the Jinling and Jingkou areas to join the Beifu army. Each had more than a thousand private soldiers, plus Sun Wuzhong and He Qian were both awarded sixth-rank captains and enlisted in the army. They also recruited refugees in the Jianghuai River to join the army, and obtained a total of 23,000 sergeants. Huan Shixiu added five-rank Weiyuan generals——
In this way, the Beifu Army had 55,000 infantry, and Huan Wen also handed over to Huan Xi the 3,000 heavy cavalry in armor and equipment commanded by Duan Si and Ran Sheng. In just a few months, an army of nearly 60,000 The army gathered in Guangling, and Jingkou North Prefecture had a powerful military force that was almost equal to that of Xifu!
Huan Wen naturally regards the Beifu Army as the force controlled by his Huan family. You can imagine his joy. He strongly supports the Beifu Army in terms of weapons, money and food. He allocates money and food from Jingzhou and Jiangzhou to Jingkou for the Beifu Army's expenditure. This is also He controlled the Beifu Army's means and military logistics, and controlled the lifeblood of this army. Therefore, he would rather have Jingzhou and Jiangzhou controlled by his Huan family provide money and food to support the Beifu Army, rather than let the court support this army. An army.
On July 12, the Beifu Army completed its establishment. Tian Luo and Cai Guang still took charge of their own headquarters, but they had established bureaus and garrisons step by step according to the Wei and Jin military systems. From then on, they started training in Jingkou and Guangling. The Beifu Army The commander-in-chief is General Anbei, with Huan Xi, the governor of Sizhou, Chen Caozhi, and Huan Shixiu as deputy.
Chen Caozhi was the state Sima in charge of military affairs and naturally had to deal with the generals of Beifu. He asked the left and right songs led by Shen Chiqian to demonstrate the infantry battle formation. Tian Luo, Guo Quan and others were deeply impressed by the offensive and defensive infantry battle formation. It has both capabilities and is extremely powerful, so this military formation that combines infantry and chariots, named "Queyue Formation", began to be promoted throughout the army——
On July 21, the imperial court appointed Chen Caozhi, Huan Shixiu, Tian Luo and others to general positions and issued an edict announcing that Chen Caozhi and others would go to the capital to meet the emperor and receive seals and ribbons——
When Chen Caozhi bid farewell to Huan Xi, Huan Xi said with a smile: "Zizhong's wedding is coming soon. He returned to Beijing to receive the rank of general, and he is getting married. It can be said to be a double happiness. Xi is busy with military affairs and cannot attend Zizhong's wedding. So I gave him a small gift." The copy has been prepared, and I will send someone to deliver it to you on the day when your son will be reunited with you."
Xie Yan and Shen Chiqian bid farewell to Chen Caozhi. Xie Yan said, "I will come back on the seventh day of August, and Chiqian will come with me."
Shen Chiqian smiled and said: "Master Chen's wedding will be the grandest wedding in Jiangzuo, and the disciples can't wait to look forward to it."
