The ancients had an orderly system of elders and younger ones. Zhang Fei had Guan Yu and Liu Bei above him. When the four of them were together, Chen Mu was the only one left. As the fourth child, how could he have the qualifications to take care of the third child?
Something will happen.
Thinking of this, Chen Mu came up with a plan and said: "The third brother's words are hard to follow, but since the third brother is so cooperative, it will certainly not be difficult for the younger brother. If the third brother can be obedient, the younger brother will
Take out the fine wine from the family collection and give it to Third Brother to taste. It’s not my fault. This wine is the best in the world and is more than ten times stronger than the rice wine.”
Zhang Fei's eyes almost stared down, and he said in disbelief: "It's more than ten times stronger than Xiaojiu? Seriously?"
"That's natural."
"good."
Zhang Fei was overjoyed: "Big brother and second brother, you have all heard it and you have to bear witness for me."
Liu Bei said helplessly: "Okay, okay, I heard it."
Although Guan Yu is not as addicted to alcohol as Zhang Fei, he is also a person who loves wine. He looked at Chen Mu with twinkling eyes: "Fourth brother, I must not believe it. I have never tasted a wine that is more than ten times stronger than Xiaojiu."
I’ve seen it before, why don’t you take it out and have a look, so that I can open my eyes?”
Chen Mu still didn't know what his second brother was up to. He rolled his eyes and said, "That's not possible. This is what I promised to third brother. This is a small amount of wine. When I return to Puyin next time, I will get a few more bottles for third brother."
A brother."
Guan Yu hesitated to speak, he was really curious. But now he was marching and fighting, and it was not suitable to drink. Although he wanted to see something, he could only give up.
That afternoon, Liu Bei asked Lu Zhi for a military order and gave all his elite troops to Chen Mu.
Counting the remaining 300 soldiers brought out by Zhuojun and the more than 2,000 soldiers who surrendered to Luo City, there are more than 3,000 people in total. However, under Liu Bei's own account, only the recently surrendered soldiers are left, totaling more than 2,000 people.
, the combat effectiveness is not very high.
However, considering that it would be difficult for a war to happen in the future, Chen Mu accepted Liu Bei's kindness and took these more than 3,000 people on the road.
The original Luo Shi thieves were Hu Zhi and others. These people had little fighting awareness and were easily defeated by Meng Zhen's forward army. Later, Liu Bei accepted them and conquered their hearts through many benevolent and righteous actions and became loyal.
It became an army with a fighting spirit.
Just having the will to fight is not enough, you must have experienced war and seen blood.
Therefore, after more than ten days of training, Liu Bei led them to fight the Jize ambush battle. Everyone's hands were stained with blood. Although they would not become veterans of all battles at once, they were at least much stronger than the ordinary yellow turban rabble.
There are many, so it can be considered useful.
As for Liu Bei's acceptance of the newly acquired troops, he still needs some training from Liu Bei. Regarding the training of troops, Chen Mu can only provide some reference opinions. In fact, Liu Bei has to do it himself.
It is worth mentioning that as the relationship with Zhao Lin got better, Liu Bei's army also gathered more and more wool. Originally it was only a troop of 500 people, but he suddenly gathered a large force of nearly 5,000 people, including three
The weapons and armor of the Thousand People were exactly the same as those of the official army. Such a huge consumption was naturally discovered by Lu Zhi.
This matter can be big or small. At the most serious level, it is corruption, at the most trivial level, it is dereliction of duty. At worst, it may be beheading or at worst, it may be the loss of official position.
Because of the Dong Chuang incident, Liu Bei discovered that Chen Mu, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei were actually doing this kind of thing with Zhao Lin without telling him. He was so angry that he scolded the three of them.
However, the four brothers were brothers and sisters, so they could not fight again and again, nor could they scold him too harshly. Liu Bei could only grit his teeth and stamp his feet, and ran to Lu Zhi, shouldering all the charges and begging Lu Zhi to punish him.
Unexpectedly, Lu Zhi didn't even give him orders, and even allowed him to expand his army to 1,000 men, thus expanding his power.
This was something Liu Bei never thought of in his dreams. After returning from Lu Zhi, he still couldn't believe it.
However, Lu Zhi's attitude was beyond Chen Mu's expectation.
Why is this happening?
the reason is simple.
Lu Zhi was born from the grassroots. He was not only smart, but also well versed in the principles of being wise and protecting oneself and being worldly.
He has the final say on all matters in the army. When Liu Bei's troops report losses, he also has the final say on whether there are any losses. Even if someone reports it to the court and the court sends people down to verify it, where can you check the things that were lost in the war?
Are you still going to various battlefields to search for them one by one?
Therefore, even if someone from the court comes to investigate, the matter can only be left alone.
In this way, for Lu Zhi, the risk of this matter is extremely small. And he does not blame Liu Bei, as long as Liu Bei does not go so far as to recruit tens of thousands of troops to pick out his own wool, and the whole sheep will be stripped bare.
Yeah, that's all insignificant.
After all, Liu Bei has made great achievements now, his memorial has been written, and the angel has returned to Luoyang with Liu Bei's achievements. It will be a matter of time for Liu Bei to become prosperous in the future.
Teachers and students have the same love as father and son. Liu Bei has become prosperous. If he, the teacher, falls into despair in the future, he will at least have a way out.
This is the so-called cunning rabbit's three caves.
Lu Zhi, a bad old man, is smarter than anyone else.
In this way, Chen Mu took Zhang Fei and three thousand well-trained troops with official weapons and equipment southward, preparing to march to Yuzhou.
Jizhou is very close to Yuzhou. One is to the north of the Yellow River, commonly known as Hebei. The other is to the south of the Yellow River, commonly known as Henan.
Although the two places are not bordering each other, they are only separated by Chenliu State. The straight-line distance from Handan to Xuchang is only 300 kilometers.
But in the Han Dynasty, travel was inconvenient, requiring long detours and journeys of thousands of miles.
However, Chen Mu is not a fool. The water system near the Yellow River is extremely developed, especially in the four places bordering Jizhou, Yanzhou, Sizhou and Yuzhou. There can be hundreds of river basins.
After some rivers branch off from the Yellow River and go south to Yanzhou and Yuzhou, you can take boats to go down the river.
His army only has 3,000 men, including 500 cavalry troops that Liu Bei helped to gather together. The number is small, so Zhang Fei can lead the cavalry south, and Chen Mu can lead the infantry by water with dozens of boats.
The only problem was that the northerners were not good at water, and the ship shook, causing the soldiers to vomit all the way. When they got out of the dredging water and arrived at Junyi County, which was later known as Kaifeng, the soldiers couldn't stand it anymore and had to surrender.
Rest for two days to restore morale and physical strength.
After the soldiers recovered and Zhang Fei joined him according to the original route, the army began to walk to Xinzheng in the southwest. Since Chenliu country had been occupied by the Yellow Turbans, it was difficult to cross Chenliu, so Chen Mu could only choose to walk from Xinzheng
.
It was already late May when we arrived in Xinzheng.
At this time, the imperial court heard that Huangfu Song and Zhu Jun were besieged in Changshe, so they sent Cao Cao with 5,000 troops to help out, and they happened to arrive in Xinzheng at the same time as Chen Mu.
Xinzheng is located in Hanoi County, at the intersection of Sizhou and Yuzhou. It is only a hundred miles away from Changshe. It is the closest city to Changshe County.
The imperial court worshiped Cao Cao as the Commander-in-Chief of Two Thousand Stone Cavalry. At the age of twenty-nine, Cao Cao became a high-ranking officer with a rank of two thousand stone. Cao Cao, who had slender eyes and long beard, and a dignified appearance, rode a tall horse and entered Xinzheng County with high spirits.
Xinzheng ordered him to prepare food, grass and military supplies and go out to meet him, waiting for him at the city gate.
At this moment, Cao Cao suddenly noticed that on the plain not far away, a well-organized army packed up the camp and slowly headed south from the side official road to the north of Xinzheng City.
Cao Cao narrowed his eyes and asked Xinzheng Lingdao: "Who are these people?"
Xinzheng Ling responded: "This is the subordinate of Liu Xuande, the new Northern Army Sima of the imperial court. Liu Xuande is a disciple of General Lu Zhonglang. It is said that he is the queen of King Jing of Zhongshan. He defeated the Yellow Turban in Jizhou and made countless achievements. The emperor was overjoyed and sent people to Youzhou.
I checked his genealogy, wanted to include the clan, and was granted the title of Sima of the Northern Army. This time General Huangfu was in trouble in the war, so General Lu Zhonglang sent his subordinates Chen Mu and Zhang Fei to assist General Huangfu and General Zhu."
"It turns out to be Liu Xuande's subordinate, who has recently caused a sensation in both the government and the public."
Cao Cao nodded.
He was originally a figure in the center of power in Luoyang, so he naturally knew what happened in the court recently.
Wang Jun returned to Luoyang as an angel and reported everything to the emperor.
According to Chen Mu's plan, Wang Jun first expressed his merit to the emperor for Zhang Rang and Zhao Zhong, saying that the reason why he ordered Liu Bei to help get back the ransom that the emperor had spent was because of Zhang Rang and Zhao Zhong's instructions.
Zhang Rang and Zhao Zhong were naturally very happy because they had gained such great achievements inexplicably.
Wang Jun took advantage of the situation and asked Zhao Zhong to help recommend Liu Bei to the emperor, and also handed over the five million yuan that Chen Mu had given Wang Jun to help bribe Zhao Zhong.
Zhao Zhong received the credit for no reason and also accepted other people's money. Of course Zhao Zhong was willing to do so. He immediately asked the emperor to take credit for Liu Bei. In addition, Lu Zhi's memorial also arrived in Luoyang. The two were combined into one, and the emperor was naturally generous with rewards.
Generous rewards.
Originally, according to Liu Hong's intention, Liu Bei helped him avoid the 50 million ransom at once. Long Yan was so happy that he planned to directly give the high-ranking official a generous salary and worship him as a school captain with a rank of two thousand dan.
But considering that Liu Bei was too young, it would be bad to be promoted too quickly. Secondly, he was still working under Lu Zhi, and suddenly he was on an equal footing with Wu Lan and other five captains, which could easily cause dissatisfaction among his original superiors.
Therefore, Wang Jun immediately advised Liu Hong and suggested that Liu Bei should be admitted into the clan and be given a title and title.
This is actually what Chen Mu meant.
Before leaving, Chen Mu gave him some advice, saying that if the emperor was too happy and wanted to give Liu Bei a high official, he must stop it.
Because for Liu Bei, the most important thing now is not the high official, but the title.
In the late Han Dynasty, high-ranking officials were in danger of overthrowing at any time. They were ranked among the three nobles and could be killed at any time. They were not as good as pigs or dogs.
Only title is fame.
In this way, Liu Bei's title as a clan member of the Han Dynasty can be firmly established without giving others any excuses.
During the Eastern Han Dynasty, the family surnamed Liu spread out and the Liu family became the largest family. As for the main family of the royal family, Zong Zheng, one of the nine ministers, was responsible for managing the affairs of the clan.
Generally speaking, disciples like Liu Bei who belong to a declining clan are not eligible to be admitted to the clan. His name is not even included in the royal family tree.
For example, his grandfather Liu Xiong, who rose to the rank of magistrate of Fan County, was not included in the clan.
Because those who are included in the clan must be given titles, such as Liu Bei's great-grandfather Liu Hui, Marquis of Jichuan, and his great ancestor Liu Buyi, Marquis of Fengling, so that their names can be found in the royal clan.
Chen Mu's purpose was to write Liu Bei's name into the royal family's genealogy and become a legitimate member of the royal family.
But it is not that simple to be admitted into the clan.
Although the number of titles in the late Han Dynasty was rampant, it has not reached the point where it will become a waste more than 20 years later. It is still relatively precious today.
Even if Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty wanted to give it, he would have to send people to Zhuoxian County to investigate Liu Bei's genealogy in Zhuoxian County, go through the eighteen generations of his ancestors, and confirm that he is indeed a member of the Han Dynasty before he can formally revise the genealogy and include him on the door wall.
Therefore, although Liu Bei has not yet been awarded a title, the imperial court has already sent people to Zhuoxian County. I believe that after a while, Liu Bei will not only be an individual commander, but also a marquis, at least a pavilion marquis.
When the time comes when he says that he is a member of the Han clan, his persuasiveness will be very strong, and his fame and reputation will naturally skyrocket, and it will soon be known throughout the country.