Historically, when Ma Teng surrendered to Cao Cao, it was in the 13th year of Jian'an, that is, 8 years later, before the Battle of Chibi took place.
At that time, Ma Teng was actually far from as embarrassed as he is now.
Because after Cao Cao sent Zhong Yao to mediate the dispute between Ma Teng and Han Sui, Ma Teng then occupied Right Fufeng and Zuo Fengyi to recuperate, and even later sent more than 10,000 troops to help Cao Cao defeat Gao Gan.
This means that in the thirteenth year of Jian'an, Ma Teng should have recovered a lot of strength. Otherwise, Ma Chao would not have been able to unite with Han Sui to have an army of more than 100,000.
But even in that situation, Cao Cao sent someone to summon Ma Teng to serve as an official in the court. After assessing the situation, Ma Teng finally took his whole family to Yecheng.
It can be seen that deep down in his heart, Ma Teng still understood that the imperial court was powerful and the situation at that time was beyond his control.
The situation now is far worse than that time.
Han Sui and Ma Teng were at odds with each other, and the two sides attacked each other. Although Ma Teng defeated Han Sui at first, Han Sui was stronger and soon came back, defeating Ma Teng and defeating him, which was extremely dangerous.
If the imperial court intervenes again at this time and an army of more than 100,000 people attacks, he may not even need to fight with the few troops he has in Huaili when the army is already disorganized and morale is low. When the imperial army arrives, all the troops will be defeated.
When the army surrenders or is dispersed.
So faced with this situation of being a wolf and a tiger behind, Ma Teng had to lower his once noble head and beg for surrender from the court.
Zhang Ji didn't use many words to persuade Ma Teng. Without further delay, Huaili was very close to Chang'an, less than a hundred miles away. The group of people immediately hit the road, riding horses at a trot and galloping. It only took two and a half hours to get there.
arrive.
Zhang Ji set off almost in the morning and arrived at Huaili at noon. It didn't take long to persuade Ma Teng to surrender. He set off again in the afternoon. By the time the sun set in the evening, Ma Teng and Zhang Ji had already arrived outside Chang'an City.
At this time, Guan Yu was still reading in his mansion. He only dabbled in other books occasionally, but he couldn't put it down "Spring and Autumn" and had to read it again every day.
In fact, lighting a lamp and reading at night affects vision very much, which makes Guan Yu's eyes not very good and a little short-sighted.
So every time he reads, he puts on a pair of crystal glasses.
There was a highly transparent crystal cup during the Warring States Period. After it was unearthed, it was hailed as a treasure handed down from generation to generation, and was collected in the Hangzhou Museum for later generations.
But even if there are crystal mines in the East China Sea, it is extremely difficult to build a telescope and a pair of glasses.
Because natural highly transparent crystals are rare, most crystals contain impurities and have different colors, and only a few white crystals can be completely clear and transparent.
Hand-polishing glasses and telescopes requires a lot of materials. When materials are already scarce, it is impossible to keep experimenting.
In this case, the built telescopes and glasses can be said to be a success. The telescope is okay. As long as one pair is successful and there is a standard template, it will be much easier in the future and it will not consume a lot of energy.
Glasses are different, because people have different eyesight and the degree of polishing of the mirror is also different. Therefore, it is impossible to make them according to the previous successful template, and a large amount of transparent crystals will be consumed.
As a result, limited by raw materials and polishing processes, the output of highly transparent water mirror utensils in Qingzhou is extremely low.
The telescope is quite good. So far, senior advisers including Liu Guan, Zhang Chen, Jiuhu Admiral-level generals and Jushou Tian Feng basically have one.
There are only two pairs of glasses, one in the hands of Guan Yu and one in the hands of Zheng Xuan, which are comparable to treasures passed down from generation to generation.
So when Zhang Ji brought Ma Teng to Guan Yu's mansion to meet Guan Yu, as soon as he entered the hall, Ma Teng saw a middle-aged man in his forties sitting on the main seat.
He was wearing a green silk robe, with a ruddy face, a two-foot long beard, and two strange crystals on his nose, which made him look a little weird.
"General, General Andy is here."
Zhang Ji reported.
"oh?"
Guan Yu had listened to the guard's announcement earlier. He raised his head and looked down into the hall. He also saw a middle-aged man who looked like a Qiang man standing at the bottom of the hall.
When Ma Teng saw Guan Yu looking over, he quickly saluted and said, "Ma Teng has seen the general!"
"General Andy, no courtesy!"
Guan Yu put down the Spring and Autumn Period in his hand, placed the books, raised his right hand and said: "General, please sit down."
"Thank you, General!"
Ma Teng sat down beside him.
Guan Yu was so calm that he said: "General Andi is willing to abandon the dark side and turn to the bright side. This is a good thing for the court. But the general was also a Han captain at that time. I wonder why the general rebelled?"
Ma Teng was startled, thinking that Guan Yu was going to settle an old score, and his scalp went numb. He quickly stood up and raised his hands and said: "Just because when I followed Duke Bo Shen to attack Han Sui, I was defeated and captured, I had no choice but to surrender my life to the thief Gou. Now the king of Han
The master has arrived, and Teng will never dare to resist the might of Heaven."
"I see!"
Guan Yu nodded with satisfaction: "Since it happened for a reason, it is natural that he should not be blamed. It's just that the general once rebelled against the imperial court and got together with traitors like Han Sui. Although he is now against his will, how can the imperial court know whether the general is sincere?
What’s the real intention?”
Ma Teng thought for a while and said: "I am willing to let the whole family go to Luoyang as a pledge."
Guan Yu suddenly laughed: "That's not to say that our Han Dynasty is so powerful that it would detain the ministers' children, but this behavior seems a bit stingy. Your Majesty is magnanimous and will not be so suspicious of the ministers."
Ma Teng then said: "It all depends on the general."
Guan Yu thought for a while and said: "I heard that you have a Qilin son, Ma Chao, who is always brave and good at fighting. You can lead your army to Gaoling to rest for a while and adjust its morale. You don't have to worry about food, grass and equipment. The court will provide them. Just
All I need is Ma Chao to follow me and let me destroy Han Sui."
"this......."
This chapter is not finished yet. Please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Ma Teng hesitated for a moment and said: "My son is only twenty-four years old this year. He has always been reckless. If I were not by his side, he might have bumped into the general.
.”
Guan Yu smiled and waved his hand: "It doesn't matter if the young people are more energetic. Don't worry, general. As long as the Ma family really cares about the court and Ma Chao is willing to wait in front of the tent, the court will definitely not treat you badly. I heard that General Ma is Fu Bo."
After the general?"
"Exactly."
When Ma Yuan was mentioned, Ma Teng immediately raised his chest and raised his head and said: "I am the fifth generation grandson of General Fubo. My great-grandfather was Ma Kang, the grandson of General Fubo. He was framed and killed in connection with the Dou Xian case. My grandfather could only
I brought my whole family back to Maoling to live there. Later, my great-uncle Du Liao General Ma Xu recruited my father as Tianshui captain. As a result, not long after, the Tianshui Qiang people rebelled, causing my father to lose his official position and live in Longxi.
It will be left behind in Xiliang."
Ma Teng has always been most proud of the fact that his grandfather is Ma Yuan. After all, Ma Yuan is famous far and wide. With such an ancestor alive, future generations will also have glory in their faces.
But besides being proud, he actually also has a bit of inferiority complex.
Because after his great-grandfather Ma Kang was killed, the family declined. His father Ma Ping's generation was very poor and had to marry a Qiang woman, resulting in half of the Han blood being divided.
The blood is not pure, which is a very shameful thing for the Han people who paid great attention to ancestors and blood at that time.
Therefore, whenever Ma Teng was met and asked if he was a descendant of Ma Yuan, he would introduce himself to his family and keep emphasizing why he did not appear in Fufeng Maoling, but in Longxi, Xiliang. He wished he could read all the eighteen generations of his family tree.
Come out and prove your identity.
If Guan Yu didn't know better at this time and laughed at Ma Teng because he didn't look like a Han, he would probably have made Ma Teng furious on the spot.
But fortunately, he was not that low in emotional intelligence. He just nodded and said: "I have always admired General Fubo. Since General Ma Teng is from a famous family, he must not think about rebellious men. If he has evil intentions again, I'm afraid,
General Fubo, who has been a Han all his life, has a spirit in heaven, so he has to unleash his thunder and anger and scold his descendants for being unworthy."
Ma Teng looked embarrassed and held up his hands and said: "General, please rest assured. My father warned me and my brother many times before his death not to forget that we are descendants of General Fubo. Now that I have surrendered to the imperial court, I will definitely not have any worries again."
Rebellion, if there is any violation, the ancestors and gods will punish you!"
"Since the general is proud of his ancestors, as long as the general is devoted to the Han Dynasty, future generations will also be proud of the general."
Guan Yu smiled and said: "Before your Majesty sent me here, he asked me to supervise all affairs in Guanzhong. I also have the power to appoint officials. From today on, the general will be the general of the rear army, ranking among the twenty generals.
As a lieutenant general, I wonder what General Ma Teng’s intentions are?”
Ma Teng had no bargaining power, so he handed over his hand and said, "I would like to be sent by the general."
"Um."
Guan Yu nodded and said: "As long as you serve the court sincerely, the court will not be suspicious of its ministers. General of the rear army, please rest assured. I plan to ask the general of the rear army to move to Gaoling first, and I will handle Han Sui's side.
But there is one thing, military orders are like mountains. If there is military affairs, you must obey them. I hope the general will do it well and don't make mistakes."
"I understand the humble position!"
Ma Teng was quite smart and quickly changed his role and began to regard himself as a subordinate.
"Well, general, let's go first."
Guan Yu waved his hand, indicating that he could leave.
However, Ma Teng stopped and hesitated for a moment, seemingly hesitant.
Guan Yu was surprised and said: "General, is there anything else you can do?"
Ma Teng asked out of curiosity: "I would like to ask the general, what is that on the general's nose?"
"This?"
Guan Yu took off his glasses and said with a smile: "These are glasses polished with East China Sea crystal. I am used to reading under the lamp at night, which makes my eyes not very good. After having these glasses, I can see things much clearer."
When Ma Teng saw that the crystal was clear and transparent, he couldn't help but sigh with emotion: "I don't know what it is, but I didn't expect it to be crystal. Such a highly transparent crystal must be expensive."
Guan Yu said: "Crystal is indeed expensive, but what is even more valuable is the polishing. To make a pair of such glasses, it would cost thousands of kilograms of transparent crystal, costing millions, and there are only two pairs in the entire Qingzhou.
I have one, and Old Master Zheng has one."
"A pair costs millions?"
Ma Teng was shocked. The cost of making this thing was too expensive.
In fact, our country's crystal output is very abundant and the price is not expensive. Not to mention East China Sea crystal, there are many crystal mines in Xiliang.
However, many crystals unearthed in later generations are relatively turbid, and very few are highly transparent. Only a few unearthed cultural relics such as Warring States crystal cups, Xinmang crystal bead strings, Northern Zhou crystal beads, and Tang Dynasty crystal strings are highly transparent.
It can be seen that the completely transparent crystal is also very precious. It weighs 223 grams per pound and costs thousands of dollars. The price of making a pair of glasses can almost buy a red rabbit horse.
Therefore, in the entire Qingzhou, only two short-sighted people, Guan Yu and Zheng Xuan, can use it. This was built under Liu Bei's order. The other senior officials, no matter how bad their eyesight is, can only wait eagerly for the perfect ratio formula of soda-lime glass to be available before they can afford it.
.
However, Qingzhou Institute of Chemistry did not let those with myopia wait too long. The School of Chemistry spent nearly four to five years doing a lot of experiments, using countless materials and formula ratios, and finally found the perfect formula.
In the West, the history of soda-lime glass can be traced back to the ancient Egyptian period more than 4,000 years ago. After two thousand years of development, glass was already common in the Roman Empire in the first century BC.
It's just that although the soda-lime glass they produced is close to transparent, it is not completely transparent.
Because the material ratio has never been established, it is just like before the tungsten filament incandescent lamp came out. Although there were already carbon filament bulbs for people to use, their lifespan and efficiency were far inferior to the tungsten filament incandescent lamp that appeared later.
It wasn't until the Italians developed the perfect glass formula in the 13th century that people finally made completely transparent soda-lime glass.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! It was at the peak of the Italian glass industry in the 13th century that the Italian optician Armato invented myopia glasses, almost at the same time as high-transparent glass.
Birth.
Therefore, it can be said that the history of glasses is almost equal to the history of transparent glass.
Now that Qingzhou has made transparent glass available, glasses will naturally follow suit, which is bound to be good news for myopia patients.
From then on, wearing glasses was no longer a luxury for people in the Han Dynasty.
certainly.
This is just a glass product.
For other products, as long as we find the right direction, the development of science and technology will inevitably change with each passing day.
Now it's just Guan Yu who wears glasses. Who knows if in a few years Guan Yu will appear on a bicycle and ride a thousand miles alone?
Seeing Ma Teng's surprise, Guan Yu smiled and said: "If the general of the rear army has bad eyesight, there is no need to worry. Qingzhou has already produced highly transparent colored glaze. The colored glaze is cheap and can be used to make glasses at a very cheap price."
If you have time, you can go to Qingzhou and let the craftsmen help configure it."
"Thank you, General, but I have very good eyesight and don't need glasses. I'm just curious."
Ma Teng quickly waved his hand to show that he was not short-sighted.
Guan Yu said: "So that's it. If that's the case, what else can the general of the rear army do?"
"never mind."
Ma Teng cupped his hands and said, "I'm sorry to say goodbye."
"Go ahead."
Guan Yu put on his glasses again and started reading again.
After Ma Teng left, he returned to Huaili that night.
He kept thinking about one thing along the way, and that was the transparent colored glaze Guan Yu mentioned.
Because the army was dispersed and supplies were taken away by Han Sui, Ma Teng was now destitute and returned to before liberation overnight.
But in his early years, in order to make a living, he once did business, cutting firewood in the mountains and selling it, and sometimes burning charcoal to make ends meet.
So when he heard Guan Yu talking about transparent colored glaze, he immediately realized that there might be business opportunities in it.