Chapter One: North of the Yellow River, three-thirds of the way
In the Battle of the Boundary Bridge in history, Gongsun Zan's losses were actually not large. Only three thousand white horse Yi Cong were surrounded and annihilated because they pursued too deeply, and the entire army was annihilated.
On the frontal battlefield, as Gongsun Zan himself failed, the army had no command, so the whole army was defeated and fled in all directions.
So in fact, Gongsun Zan only lost four to five thousand troops, including infantry and cavalry. Later, he reorganized his troops and returned to Youzhou, and he still had the ability to launch a war.
Later, at the Battle of Julongshui, Gongsun Zan defeated Yuan Shao again, invaded Jizhou, and occupied Bohai County and Pingyuan Kingdom. The two entered a stalemate stage, and it was not until the Battle of Longcuo two years later that Gongsun Zan was completely defeated, laying the foundation for Yuan Shao's power.
Victory.
But today, after Chen Mu felt that Gongsun Zan was becoming more and more arrogant, he took advantage of his willingness to underestimate the enemy and drive away wolves and gobbled up tigers. Yuan Shao and Gongsun Zan were both defeated. The losses of both of them reached tens of thousands of troops.
The Qingzhou Army only paid a price of three to four thousand men. In the end, the battle ended when Gongsun Zan was defeated and the Qingzhou Army drove Yuan Shao back. Only the Qingzhou Army did slightly better among the three parties.
When Liu Bei and Chen Mu came back from Youzhou to express condolences for Lu Zhi, the war was already over. Tian Feng withdrew from Wei County, and Taishi Ci and Zhang Liao also received orders to return to Qinghe Kingdom.
The coalition forces retreated like a tide. Gongsun Zan retreated into Bohai County, while the Qingzhou Army retreated into the eastern part of Qinghe Kingdom according to Chen Mu's early deployment.
The eastern part of Qinghe Kingdom was the area around Dezhou, Shandong in later generations. The reason why the entire Qinghe Kingdom was not occupied was related to the terrain.
In the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River in the Han Dynasty, from the north bank of the Yellow River to the south bank of Qingshui, there were a large number of rivers crisscrossing each other, called Jiuhe.
Including when we look at the map of Dezhou City today, we can still see two ancient rivers, the Tuhai River and the Majia River. The other six rivers have disappeared in history. The remaining one, the Gejin River, is located in the north, which is the Zhangwei River in later generations.
The terrain of the Han Dynasty has changed greatly from that of later generations. In ancient times, the river channels were wider and the water flow was greater. Nine rivers crisscrossed each other and gave rise to countless tributaries. This resulted in the eastern Qinghe Kingdom, the southern Bohai Kingdom, and the northern Pingyuan Kingdom.
The water systems in Dezhou, Leling and Dongying are extremely complex, with many rivers and lakes.
The terrain to the west of Qinghe Kingdom is a large plain area. Except for the three cities of Ganling City, Beiqiu City and Dongwu City, there is no danger to defend.
Therefore, in order to achieve the strategic purpose of carving up the Bohai Sea and weakening Jizhou, the Qingzhou Army had begun to make deployments as early as last year after occupying the Qinghe State. They built a large number of fortresses and beacon towers along the Jiuhe Embankment, built the Qingzhou Navy, and vigorously developed shipping.
, training the ability to fight on the water.
You don’t have to be invincible in water battles like Jiangdong. You just need to ensure that the rivers between several important cities in Qingzhou, such as Xiuxian County, Yimu County, Ling County, and Hexian County, are unobstructed, and troops can be mobilized at any time.
Just food.
In this way, starting from Xiuxian County and then to Lingxian County in the south, from north to south, with the backing of Pingyuan Country behind it, a complete defense line of copper walls, iron walls and rivers was formed.
Some are like the Maginot Line. The only way to break through this line of defense is to go north from Anping Kingdom, enter Hejian Kingdom, then enter Bohai County from Hejian Kingdom, attack Pingyuan Kingdom from the north, and go around this line of defense.
behind.
But at this time, Qingzhou is not France that is good at surrendering. Yuan Shao's strength is also incomparable with Germany. If he wants to attack from Bohai County, he still has to face the Qingyou two-state coalition that has already divided Bohai County equally. It is no less difficult.
There will be another Battle of Geting, and the outcome will definitely be more tragic than the Battle of Geting.
After all, in this battle, Yuan Shao was able to repel Gongsun Zan and Liu Bei, but Qingzhou let go and was unwilling to fight Jizhou prematurely. If he really made up his mind to fight, both sides would definitely suffer losses and become weak in the end.
He couldn't devour anyone, but instead benefited other princes.
The coalition forces retreated, and Yuan Shao immediately led his troops to regain the lost territory. In just one or two months, most of Jizhou was back in his hands. This also made Yuan Shao breathe a sigh of relief, and hurriedly began to conquer Qinghe State, Anping
Kingdom, Hejian Kingdom and other places were fortified.
At present, the Qingzhou Army and the Youzhou Army still carve up Bohai County and half of the Qinghe Kingdom. It cannot be said that their strength has greatly increased, because these territories have not had time to digest, and it can only be said that Yuan Shao's strength has been weakened a lot.
In this way, by the second year of Xingwu, that is, the third month of Yangchun in 194 AD, the territory of power north of the Yellow River had basically been finalized, forming a three-legged alliance.
In the past few months, the front lines of both sides have been intensively building fortifications, forts, and gathering a large number of troops, entering a tense and exciting stage of confrontation.
Liu Bei personally took charge of Pingyuan County, while Chen Mu returned to Linzi, entered Taishan Academy, and began teaching.
By early May, it rained heavily in Qingzhou.
During a rare break, Chen Mu held his one-year-old son Xiao Xiyu and wandered around in the Chen family's house in Linzi City, watching the rain hitting the bamboo leaves and the trickling water.
Chen Xiyu is the name of Chen Mu's eldest son. The meaning of this name is also very simple. He hopes to become a piece of pure white jade.
In fact, Chen Mu did not get married and have children in his previous life, because he graduated from college, went to study abroad, studied for a master's degree and a Ph.D., and after graduating with a Ph.D., he was already twenty-seven years old. He then worked in finance and was nearly thirty years old, and he had not yet started a family.
.
So this name was actually given to his nephew by his father.
Chen Mu had an older brother who got married early and had children. His young nephew was lively and cute, and he liked him quite a lot. In the world a thousand years ago, he thought of his family a thousand years later, which made Chen Mu often cry in his dreams at midnight, so he named him Xiyu.
, has two meanings.
Qingzhou issued a government notice as early as last year, abolishing the law prohibiting double names during Wang Mang's time. As the second-ranking figure in Qingzhou, Chen Mu set an example and took the lead by giving his son a double name.
In addition to him, Zheng Xuan's eldest grandson was also born this year. Because he was born in the year of Dingmao and his son was born in the day of Dingmao, he was named Xiaotong, which is also a double name.
In the entire military and political circles of Qingzhou, Chen Mu was the number two, while in the educational and literary circles, Zheng Xuan was the number one figure.
Not only in Qingzhou, but also in the entire Han Dynasty, Zheng Xuan is famous. In terms of prestige and fame, he is even more famous than Chen Mu. With the endorsement of the two of them, the double name has been spread in Qingzhou since then. From now on, there are many children born this year.
I was given two names at least.
Little Xiyu was only one year old, she was crystal clear and extremely cute. She was still a little baby, looking around curiously in her father's arms, listening to the hypnotic sound of rain ticking, and fell asleep after a while.
Chen Mu liked it too, and didn't want to wake him up, so he sat on the recliner with his son in his arms and listened to the rain quietly. The servants in the mansion walked much softer when they passed by.
Luo Fu and his mother Fang were cooking in the kitchen themselves. Chen Mu said several times that they could just let the servants do it, but they didn't listen and preferred to do it themselves. After working hard all her life, her mother had nothing to do and just wanted to find some food.
Instead of working hard, unlike his father Chen Qing, he had begun to become a wealthy father-in-law with peace of mind.
My younger brother Chen Zhi is also 23 years old this year. He is studying in the Department of Chemistry at Taishan Academy. He does chemical experiments all day long with Wei Ao, the dean of the School of Chemistry, and is often away from home. His parents are very worried and want him to marry as soon as possible.
His wife was rejected by him.
Except for the wild girl Chen Feng, who is already tall and tall and often runs away, Chen Qing and Chen Xiyu are the two most at ease in the family.
Chen Mu teaches in Taishan Academy, and he also knows what that wild girl Chen Feng is doing every day. Now in Taishan Academy, Cui Yan Gongsun Fang Guoyuan's batch of students have graduated several times, and now they have arrived at Cui Lin Zhuge Jin
The world belongs to this group of people.
As for the group of Zhuge Liang, Kong Jian, Huang Qi and Yao Bo, some left, some stayed, and some newcomers gradually became the central force in the academy. Among them, Chen Feng also entered the academy and is currently studying in the academy.
College of Agriculture.
The little girl likes plants and keeps some flowers and plants. In addition to tending flowers and plants in the Agricultural College, she also goes on outings with Zhuge Liang, Kong Jian, Huang Qi and other classmates who she has played with since childhood.
After all, we are already in different colleges, and our relationship still needs to be maintained.
When Chen Feng entered Taishan Academy to study, Chen Mu thought he would encounter some obstacles. But it turned out to be very smooth, and he did not cause any criticism while studying there.
If you think about it carefully, you should understand that the Han Dynasty was not the Southern Song Dynasty after all, and women were not persecuted. There were quite a few talented women in the Han Dynasty. Ban Jieyu, Ban Zhao, Cai Yan, and Zhuo Wenjun are all typical representatives. It is not unusual for women to study.
matter.
What's more, the world is in chaos, and only those who have soldiers and food are kings, and there are no Taoist priests who ran out to accuse the powerful Chen Mu of allowing his sister to study in the highest university in the Han Dynasty.
At present, Qingzhou's foreign combat capabilities are quite strong, and its development in cultural, economic, technological, legal, people's livelihood and other issues is also increasing day by day.
Townships are governed by virtue, and officials are governed by virtue. The most important thing in assessing officials is their moral character.
In a society with a small country and small people, a county only has tens of thousands of people. If the county magistrate and governor have bad morals and are stabbed in the back by the people, their reputation will soon spread and they will be dismissed in the assessment. Therefore, officials
He pays great attention to personal ethics and rarely engages in corruption or bending the law.
However, the emperor is not short of hungry soldiers. Although officials are subject to the supervision of the people, evaluators often visit various places to examine the officials' moral character. However, the wages and benefits are extremely high, at least not allowing those good officials who work hard to live a poor life.
There are few people, large land, and the benefit of the rapid development of science and technology is rapid economic growth. The steam engine has been invented, but it is still in the improvement stage. Its working efficiency is too poor and it is easy to break.
In terms of political reform, Qingzhou is making every effort to abolish slavery. Although it does not dare to initiate land reform for the time being, it can liberate a large number of labor forces. In the past, powerful people spent very little money to buy people, and people would become private slaves of powerful people, hidden by them.
But now that slavery has been abolished and the hidden population has been strictly investigated, people who previously only worked for the powerful have been redistributed land and paid taxes and grain normally, which has promoted the normal development of a local government.
Although there are also powerful people who are dissatisfied, because if they are found to have concealed their population, they will be fined a large amount of money and land, but who would let Chen Mu have the butcher's knife?
Times have changed.
How could the Qingzhou powerful men, who were expecting Chen Mu to make political achievements but was soon transferred away, imagine that not only was Chen Mu not transferred, but he still took root in Qingzhou and continued to torment them.
After ten years of governance, Qingzhou is now politically clear and healthy, from people's livelihood to economy to official politics, and is like a rising star.
However, there are currently many small technologies, and there is no big technology that can change the world. Even if it provides a direction, it still requires countless experiments and accumulation.
As for agriculture, it has just started. After all, it will take several months for the planting industry to see results.
Therefore, for now, everything is just in a preliminary stage. It is impossible to turn the Han Dynasty into the 21st century overnight. Maybe it will be possible in a few hundred years, but now, Chen Mu feels that it will take a few decades
, I would be satisfied if it looked like the British Industrial Revolution in the 18th century.
The heavy rain stopped in the afternoon. Luo Fu crept over and whispered in Chen Mu's ear: "Husband, it's time to eat."
Chen Mu raised his head and saw her beautiful appearance. His heart moved. He stretched out his head and kissed Luo Fu on the mouth.
Luo Fu took two steps back like a frightened rabbit, looked around and saw that there was no one in the yard, then he felt relieved and complained: "Xiao Yu'er is watching."
Chen Mu lowered his head and saw that Xiao Xiyu had woken up at some point, staring at a pair of Kazilan's big eyes, looking at him curiously, and then smiled: "It's okay, even if the child grows up, he can't remember it.
Year old thing."
"Give me Xiao Yu'er. Mother asked you to come over for dinner. Father is waiting."
Luo Fu came over and took over Xiao Xiyu. Xiao Xiyu was wrapped in red cloth and silk. She was giggling in her mother's arms. She then touched the child's forehead with her forehead and joked: "You are so stupid, in his arms."
I don’t sleep well here, but I feel more comfortable in my mother’s arms.”
Chen Mu stood up, stretched, came over and put his arms around Luo Fu's waist and said with a smile: "Who said that, little Xiyu slept soundly in my arms, right little Xiyu."
As he spoke, he was about to tease his son.
At this time, my mother, Fang, entered the courtyard, and while walking from the corridor, she complained: "Luofu, why did it take so long for you to ask Mu'er to eat."
"Here comes mother."
Chen Mu responded quickly.
After Mrs. Fang entered the yard, she saw little Xiyu, clapped her hands and said with a smile: "Oh, my good boy."
Chen Mu and Luo Fu went to Qin's house a few days ago and came back this morning. At that time, Fang went out to buy things. When they came back, Xiao Xiyu was sleeping in the room and did not go to see her.
After not seeing her grandson for a few days, Mrs. Fang misses her very much.
He came up and took his grandson away. Mrs. Fang rushed the young couple and said, "Go, go, you go to eat, and I will hold my sweet grandson."
Chen Mu and Luo Fu looked at each other with helplessness. Not only Fang, but Chen Qing also loved Xiao Xiyu very much.
In ancient times, the most important thing was the legitimate son and grandson. Why was Yuan Shu not as capable as Yuan Shao, but he took over all the Yuan family's power in Runan?
It is because Yuan Shu is the legitimate son and Yuan Shao is the son of a concubine.
Isn't it mentioned in many novels of later generations that wealthy families invest differently in the education of their eldest sons and concubines? The eldest sons are well-dressed and well-fed, while the concubines can only eat chaffy vegetables, and their status is the same as that of subordinates.
These are not fictions by novelists, but very realistic reflections of ancient reality.
The Chen family's parents love little Xiyu the most and want to hold it in their hands. Of course Chen Mu knows that doing this is bad for his son's training. But fortunately, he is still young, so it doesn't matter if he is one year old. It will definitely not work if he is like this when he is five or six years old. Specifically
Education will have to be discussed later.
After leaving the courtyard and entering the main room, his father was already sitting in the room. Chen Zhi and Chen Feng often ate at the academy and never went home. There were only four people at the family dinner, the two elders of the Chen family and the eldest son and daughter-in-law, while Xiao Xiyu could only drink
Milk.
Chen Mu himself is already twenty-seven years old, and Chen Qing is older. He was overworked in his early years and had premature hair. Now he is over fifty and his face is extremely old. He is greeting his son for dinner.
The servants in the mansion are all hired, not slaves. They came up and set the dishes and chopsticks before going down. Fang came in with Xiao Xiyu in her arms. Chen Qing was calm on the surface, but when eating, he was the fastest to pick up the bowls, obviously missing.
With his left arm, his right arm quickly picked up the rice, taking a few bites casually before putting down his chopsticks.
"I've finished eating. Why are you holding Xiao Xiyu while eating? Give it to me."
Chen Qing glanced at Fang.
Mrs. Fang rolled her eyes. She still didn't understand what the old man was thinking. On the surface, he was concerned about her not being able to hold her grandson while eating. In fact, he was the one who liked her grandson the most. He spent most of the time in the house except when Luo Fu was breastfeeding.
Xiao Xiyu is all in Chen Qing's hands.
Seeing their father pretending to be reserved, Chen Mu and Luo Fu both looked at each other and smiled. The family was enjoying themselves, and there was a sense of family happiness.
After lunch, Chen Qing took little Xiyu to rest, while Luo Fu and Fang did their own housework. Fang was born into a poor family, and although there were servants in the house, she never had enough time on her hands and often grabbed food.
Luo Fu, as the daughter-in-law, naturally cannot watch the servants' work and can only work with her mother-in-law.
Chen Mu couldn't control them, so he went back to his study to prepare a book, a lesson plan, etc. He mainly taught political classes. He didn't have his class in the past two days, and he would have his class in a few days, so he had to do it in advance.
Be prepared to find more talents for Qingzhou officialdom in the future.
But just as he arrived at the door of the study, footsteps could be heard from behind. A military intelligence officer dressed as a servant came over and said softly: "Commander, Hou Lingshi is back."
"oh?"
Chen Mu smiled, nodded and said, "Where are you?"
"Just returned to Jinan."
"Well, send someone to pick them up and let them return to Linzi as soon as possible."
"only."
Siming turned around to convey the order.
Chen Mu returned to the study and sat down without thinking about Hou Xu. Instead, he was thinking about other things.
Hou Xu went out this time to Luoyang to plan an attack on Guanzhong.
After the Battle of Geting, Guan Yu withdrew his troops from the border. After all, stationing troops for a long time put great pressure on Luoyang's food and grass.
After withdrawing the troops, although some people were still left to defend Lu Bu, they were still able to free up some of their men to complete the strategy of attacking Guanzhong.
It's not actually a real fight, it's just a bluff.
Duan Xuan seized Huayin and part of Hedong's territory and entered Guanzhong from the Qinling Ancient Road. Huayin was the first to bear the brunt.
So this time Guan Yu nominally attacked Guanzhong, but in fact he was covering Yan Zhong and Xu Rong's arrival in Qingzhou.
Chen Mu once asked Yan Zhong to persuade Jia Xu to come too.
But Jia Xu was really too afraid of death. After all, he was once a member of the Xiliang Army, unlike Yan Zhong who was an undercover agent at the beginning and followed Dong Zhuo to do some bad things.
If you come to Qingzhou, you will have no backing, you will be afraid of not being reused, and you will be unfamiliar with the place and you will be deceived.
So he declined and went to work under Zhang Ji, who entrusted him with important tasks.
Chen Mu thought it was okay. It was normal for Jia Xu to have such concerns. If it were him, the once hostile force suddenly invited him over, he would probably have to think about it for a long time. After all, fear of death is a common problem between the two of them.
Now Yan Zhong and Xu Rong have arrived in Qingzhou and the dust has settled, so Chen Mu does not think about them. Instead, he is thinking about things in Xuzhou.
If I remember correctly, the beginning of this year should be the day when Cao Song died.
At the end of the year, Tao Qian died.
Now the three pillars north of the Yellow River are in a confrontation stage for the time being. Compared to Gongsun Zan and Yuan Shao, Qingzhou still has the ability to develop southward.