At the end of the Han Dynasty: a stingy husband from his hometown

Chapter 114 Saved Sun Jian

Luoyang, Yuan Mansion.

Looking at the letter sent by Zhou Qi, Yuan Shao couldn't help showing a smile on his face, saying to the left and right: "Ziyi has been released as county magistrate for four years without arrogance or impetuosity, and he still remembers the Yuan family. He really has a heart."

It turned out that Zhou Qi followed Xi Zhicai's suggestion and not only presented some snow-white paper to Yuan Shao, but also wrote a letter to express his concerns about the Yuan family in Runan.

In Jingzhou and Yangzhou, Ma Yuanyi, the commander-in-chief of the two states, was killed because of Tang Zhou's informant.

Without Ma Yuanyi's commander-in-chief, the Yellow Turban Army in Jing and Yang Prefectures was like a pan of loose sand. They did not organize a large-scale uprising at all, and they were stillborn and wiped out early.

Now apart from the Jizhou Yellow Turbans, Yingchuan and Runan Yellow Turbans are the largest.

Yingchuan is the eastern gateway of Sili. If Yingchuan Huangjin cannot be wiped out as soon as possible, the capital Luoyang will always be under the threat of rebels.

This is also why the imperial court took the lead in setting up eight captains of Hangu, Taigu, Guangcheng, Yique, Xuanyuan, Xuanmen, Mengjin and Xiaopingjin to defend the capital.

Even among the three armies that attacked the Yellow Turbans, the imperial court also ordered Zuo Zhonglang General Huangfu Song and You Zhonglang General Zhu Jun to command more than [-] troops to attack the Yingchuan Yellow Turbans first.

In the letter, Zhou Qi expressed his concerns about the Yuan family in Runan, which made Yuan Shao very satisfied.

However, Yuan Shao secretly said: "Although Ziyi is so loyal, he doesn't understand the Yellow Turbans very well. Even if the Yellow Turbans are raging in Runan, the Yuan family is not afraid."

Zhang Jiao had been planning for so long, and with the aristocratic family's control over the place, it was impossible not to discover some clues.

But it was not until the eve of the Yellow Turban Uprising that this incident was brought to Luoyang. How could there be no tricks in it?

Looking at the process of the Yellow Turban Uprising, although they broke through the government and robbed the powerful, have those aristocratic families in the local area been harmed by the Yellow Turban Army?
The Yellow Turban Uprising benefited the most from aristocratic families. Not only did they force the emperor to lift the ban on the party, but they also allowed many people to gain a lot of military glory.

Most importantly, the Yellow Turban Uprising caused the court to completely lose control of the local area, and the local clans and prefects began to recruit rebels.

As the most profitable gentry, it is obviously impossible if they did not contribute to the Yellow Turban Uprising.

It's just that they are impeccable in doing things, and they are not humane at all.

Yuan Shao was not worried that his hometown in Runan would be plundered by the Yellow Turban Army, and said to his left and right: "Zi Yi's words mean to eliminate thieves and make contributions to the country. If so, I will help him."

"I'm writing a book right now, recommending Ziyi to General You Zhonglang."

After writing the letter, Yuan Shao looked at the white and jade-like paper, and the smile in his eyes grew wider.

The boy next to him said: "Since the master likes these papers so much, why not let Zhou Ziyi offer his papermaking skills?"

Yuan Shao waved his hand and said, "This kind of paper is expensive to make, and it is extremely difficult to produce, even Ziyi himself is reluctant to use it."

Speaking of this, he shook the letter sent by Zhou Qi. Although the quality of the paper was slightly better than that of Caihou paper, it was far inferior to those white as jade papers, which proved that this kind of paper was indeed very precious.

"The output is too low to make a profit, so it can only be given as a gift to the court officials and great Confucians."

"Ziyi is loyal, how can I ask for papermaking skills?"

From Yuan Shao's words, it can be seen that he attaches great importance to Zhou Qi, but it is not difficult to find that the fundamental reason why he didn't ask for papermaking skills is that he still has no profit.

Under Zhou Qi's deliberate guidance, Yuan Shao thought that the cost of this white as jade paper was not even lower than that of silk.

It is so expensive that it can only be used as a gift for occasional use by officials and wealthy people. It is difficult to popularize and make a profit, so its value is not great.

Compared with these papers, silk books are easier to preserve and can better demonstrate identity.

So instead of spending a lot of money to make this kind of white paper like jade, it is better to use silk script to write characters directly.

In Anfeng County, after several days of waiting, Zhou Qi finally received the transfer documents from Zhu Jun, the right lieutenant general.

Zhou Qi couldn't help but feel a little regretful when he saw that it was Zhu Jun who recruited him.

Compared with Zuo Zhonglang general Huangfusong, Zhu Jun's performance in the crusade against the Yellow Turban was unsatisfactory, and he was almost dismissed by the emperor and punished. If Huangfusong hadn't given up the credit later, Zhu Jun might not have received the imperial court's rewards and awards.

On the other hand, Huangfusong broke through the wave first, and then from south to north, he was invincible all the way, almost annihilating all the main forces of the Yellow Turban Army.

Compared with Zhu Jun, following Huangfusong is easier to get credit for.

But now that Zhu Jun had already sent the recruitment document, Zhou Qi couldn't think about anything else, and immediately took Dian Wei, Xu Chu, and a thousand soldiers and headed straight for Yingchuan.

In order to avoid suspicion, Zhou Qi originally planned to lead five hundred soldiers northward.

But Xi Zhicai persuaded: "Five hundred soldiers are too few. Duke Ming must bring at least a thousand soldiers. If anyone asks, tell me that 500 of them were urgently recruited after learning of the Yellow Turban rebellion."

Zhou Qi's remonstrance was like a wave, so he led a thousand soldiers to Yingchuan to quell the rebellion.

This time, Zhou Qi did not bring Xi Zhicai with him.

Huangfusong and Zhu Jun were the main players in the extermination of the Yellow Turbans this time. Zhou Qi used to be just an extra head, and following Zhu Jun in the crusade against the Yellow Turbans, he would inevitably experience bitter battles many times.

Zhou Qi, as a conscript, belongs to the family of others, and doesn't even have the right to lead troops to fight against thieves on his own, and it won't play much role if he brings Xi Zhicai.

In this case, Xi Zhicai simply stayed in Anfeng County to avoid any worries.

But it is said that Zhou Qi led his troops northward and when passing through Runan, they encountered several small-scale Yellow Turban troops who intercepted and killed them, but were defeated by Zhou Qi like a beast.

Zhou Qi discovered that although these so-called Yellow Turban soldiers all wore yellow scarves on their heads, they were most likely local powerful domestic slaves in Runan pretending to be real Yellow Turban thieves at all.

However, Zhou Qi's primary purpose was to go to Yingchuan to meet Zhu Jun. As for the true and false yellow scarves, it was not within his jurisdiction, so he simply pretended not to know.

Zhou Qi led his troops into the territory of Xihua. Suddenly he heard loud shouts of killing and ordered his scouts to go to find out the news.

Not long after, the scouts reported: "Qi County Magistrate, there is a rebel army ahead surrounded by thousands of Yellow Turban bandits, and the two sides are fighting fiercely."

Zhou Qi asked: "Can we find out the number of soldiers and horses on both sides?"

The scout said with a little shame: "The two sides are intertwined, the flags are difficult to distinguish, and the approximate strength of the troops cannot be estimated."

Zhou Qi frowned slightly when he heard the words, and said to Xu Chu: "Zhongkang first takes the soldiers under his command to rest on the spot, and is ready to rescue the friendly army at any time."

However, Zhou Qi brought Dian Wei and a dozen or so horsemen to a high ground, carefully observing the two sides who were fighting.

Zhou Qi is cautious by nature and does not want to lose his soldiers in vain, so he needs to find out the number of the Yellow Turban Army first.

He asked Xu Chu to lead his troops to rest and recuperate because his soldiers had been running for a long time and were exhausted. If they rushed into the battlefield rashly, they would be in unknown danger.

Zhou Qi jumped off the horse and set up the awning with his hands to watch the two teams who were in a stalemate, but his pupils could not help shrinking.

"Sun?"

However, they saw a large flag with the word "Sun" in the rebel army, followed by a strong man rushing left and right. Wherever he passed, the Yellow Turban Army was defeated steadily.

Dian Wei couldn't help sighing: "The leader of the rebel army has extraordinary martial arts skills, and he is brave in battle without fear of death. I don't know who he is?"

Zhou Qi had roughly guessed the identity of the other party. He should be Sun Jian of Wu Commandery, but he did not say it out loud, but continued to watch the two sides fight.

After observing for a while, Zhou Qi had a great improvement in the combat effectiveness of the Yellow Turban Army.

In later generations, whenever someone mentions the Yellow Turban Army, they will think that they are a mob, they are simply vulnerable, and they are a proper machine for extracting military exploits.

This is not the case.

Zhang Jiao had planned for more than ten years to carry out the rebellion with a purpose. The official Yellow Turban Army had a strict organization and firm beliefs. Although there were few elite Yellow Turbans, they all wore leather armor and carried sophisticated weapons.

Regardless of Huangfu Song, Zhu Jun, Lu Zhi or Dong Zhuo, they all suffered defeats in their initial battles with the Yellow Turban Army. From this, we can also see that the Yellow Turban Army has good combat effectiveness.

The reason why the Yellow Turban Uprising was quickly suppressed was not only due to the strength of the Han Dynasty, local tyrants and aristocratic families, but the most fundamental reason was the lack of real support from the scholars, which resulted in the lack of outstanding generals in the Yellow Turban Army, and was eventually defeated by officers and soldiers.

The death of Zhang Jiao also doomed the failure of the Yellow Turban Army.

Since the Yellow Turban Army was wiped out by the officers and soldiers, the rest scattered all over the place, turned into bandits and bandits looting everywhere, lost their original belief and fighting power, and then became defeated in one blow.

Sun Jian was brave, and the fighting power of the rebel army under his command was also extraordinary.

But in the face of the Yellow Turban Army, which was several times larger than himself, it was not easy to win. If several generals under Sun Jian's command were not afraid of death, which aroused the desperate mood of the soldiers, they might have been defeated by the Yellow Turban Army long ago.

"what?"

Zhou Qi saw that the Yellow Turban Army, who had been at loggerheads with Sun Jian, suddenly began to rout, but this rout was not random, on the contrary, it seemed to be intentional.

On the other hand, when Sun Jian saw that the Yellow Turban Army was defeated, he immediately raised his sword and shouted sternly: "The bandit army has been defeated. If we don't pursue them now and make great achievements, how long will it take?"

After Sun Jian shouted, regardless of whether the soldiers under his command could keep up, he immediately took the guards around him and rushed towards the Yellow Turban Army, and quickly distanced himself from the soldiers under his command.

Seeing that Sun Jian was chasing further and further, the Yellow Turban Army, which was already being defeated, suddenly turned around and fought back, separated and surrounded Sun Jian and his soldiers, and then began to besiege and kill Sun Jian.

Zhou Qi, who had a panoramic view of the situation on the battlefield, immediately yelled that it was not good.

Historically, when Sun Jian was fighting the Yellow Turban Army, Yu Xihua suffered a serious injury and fell off his horse because of his greed for meritorious service. Lost his life, it can be said that he escaped from death.

That record may be this battle.

Zhou Qi knew that Sun Jian had fallen into the trap, so he took Dian Wei back to the camp and shouted: "Follow me to kill the enemy, rescue the friendly troops, and make great achievements today!"

After finishing speaking, Zhou Qi didn't talk nonsense, and rushed towards the battlefield with a thousand people under his command.

However, it was said that Sun Jian was besieged and killed, and the soldiers around him were killed and injured very quickly, and he was also injured and fell off his horse. Fortunately, he reacted quickly and rolled into the grass after falling from the horse, pretending to be dead.

Fortunately, Cheng Pu, Huang Gai and others saw that Sun Jian was lost, and they desperately led their troops to kill them, which attracted the attention of the Yellow Turban Army and allowed Sun Jian to survive.

Seeing both sides fighting hard, the rebels were even gradually at a disadvantage.

While Cheng Pu, Huang Gai and the others were leading the fight and looking for Sun Jian, they suddenly heard shouts of killing from behind, they couldn't help but turn pale with fright, thinking that the reinforcements from the Yellow Turban Army had arrived here.

"Anfeng County Magistrate Zhou Qi is here, why don't the thieves come quickly and die!"

But after Zhou Qi shouted loudly, Cheng Pu, Huang Gai and others breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that the visitors were friends rather than enemies, they immediately shouted: "Reinforcements have arrived, brothers follow me to kill the enemy! "

With the addition of Zhou Qi as a new force, the morale of the Yellow Turban Army plummeted. In addition, Dian Wei and Xu Chu were both powerful enemies. They guarded Zhou Qi's left and right sides, cutting down watermelons and vegetables wherever they went, killing several people in a row. The small leader of the Yellow Turban Army quickly broke up the formation of the Yellow Turban Army.

The Yellow Turban general who was commanding the Yellow Turban army to fight, never thought of suddenly killing a Han army. Seeing this situation, he knew that the situation was over, and immediately ordered Ming Jin to withdraw his troops.

Zhou Qi led his men to pursue them for more than ten miles, and saw that they had already reached the foot of Xihua City. Yellow scarves surrounded the city with a banner with the word "Peng" in them. Zhou Qi saw that the bandit army was too powerful and did not dare to fight with them, so he led his troops. He temporarily avoided the front line and went to join forces with Sun Jian.

However, after the defeat of the Yellow Turban Army, Cheng Pu, Zu Mao, Han Dang, and Huang Gai searched for Sun Jian everywhere on the battlefield, but there was no trace of Sun Jian, and they were all extremely anxious.

Seeing that the battlefield had been cleaned up, but Sun Jian was still not found, several people were a little confused.

"The head of Anfeng County leads the troops!"

At this moment, someone suddenly came to report, and several people hurried forward to greet them.

Cheng Pu, covered in blood, came forward and said: "Cheng Pu in Xiayou Beiping, whose name is Demou, has long admired Zhou Lang's name. If Zhou Lang hadn't led the army to help us this time, we would have been tricked by the bandits."

Zhou Qi looked at this historical veteran of the Three Dynasties of Eastern Wu, and hurriedly stepped forward to support him, saying: "We all belong to the Han army, and killing thieves is not enough."

"Dare to ask if Demou is under Sun Sima's command?"

Cheng Pu nodded, and with a bitter look on his back, he said: "We are the first part of Sun Sima's command, but just now we fought with the bandits, Sun Sima charged too far, unfortunately he got separated from us, and we don't know Sima's whereabouts. "

Zhou Qi pondered for a moment, turned around, looked around, and finally pointed in a direction and said: "Before the battle with the Yellow Turban bandits, a certain leader saw a fierce general heading over there to kill him. I wonder if it was Sun Sima."

Cheng Pu looked at the direction Zhou Qi was pointing at, and said with a wry smile, "Someone has already sent someone to search over there, but there is no trace of Sun Sima."

Zhou Qi said, "You might as well look for it again."

Seeing Zhou Qi's insistence, Cheng Pu and others did not delay, and continued to lead people to search in that direction. During the period, they encountered some soldiers who had followed Sun Jian in the fight and were seriously injured and survived.

From their mouths, Cheng Pu and the others could also confirm that Sun Jian had indeed rushed to this point.

But no matter how hard they searched, they couldn't find Sun Jian, and they couldn't help becoming more and more anxious.

At this moment, I suddenly heard the neighing of a war horse, but it was Sun Jian's horse that ran over at some point.

Huang Gai hurriedly said: "This is Sima's mount!"

Han Dang said: "War horses understand human nature. This horse has been with Sun Sima for many years. It may be able to help us find Sun Sima."

Zhou Qi nodded and said: "The so-called old horse knows the way, you can try to let this horse lead the way."

As soon as Zhou Qi finished speaking, he heard the neighing of the war horse, and then rushed towards the lush water weeds by the river not far away.

Several people hurriedly followed, and they could vaguely see a trace among the aquatic plants.

They hurried forward, just in time to see Sun Jian lying in a coma among the water plants, and they were surprised and delighted at once.

Seeing this, Zhou Qi looked at the steep river embankment and the river as close as Chichi, and couldn't help but secretly said that he was lucky.

If Sun Jian had not fallen into the grass under the river embankment, he would have been killed by the Yellow Turban Army long ago. If he had rolled a little further, he would have fallen into the river and been drowned.

Sun Jian happened to be in a coma in this hidden place. He escaped the Yellow Turban Army and didn't fall into the water.

Inside the temporary camp.

Fortunately, Zhou Qi was accompanied by military doctors with excellent medical skills and good medicine, so he was able to stop Sun Jian's bleeding in time and pull him back from the ghost gate.

Not long after, Sun Jian woke up leisurely.

Compared with history, because Sun Jian was discovered early and received timely treatment, and because he did not lose so much blood, his injuries were far less severe than in history.

He woke up and learned that he and others had been rescued by Anfeng County Magistrate Zhou Qi, and was about to forcefully get up to thank him, but Zhou Qi held him down on the bed.

"Sun Sima is still seriously injured, so don't act rashly, lest the injury burst."

Sun Jian said weakly: "I heard Zhou Lang's name a long time ago, and I am lucky to meet you today. His name really lives up to his reputation."

Zhou Qi said humbly: "A mere name is nothing to worry about. On the contrary, Sun Sima became famous at a young age. On the battlefield, killing thieves must take the lead. He is like a fierce tiger. Qi admires it very much."

Zhou Qi's words were not just polite.

Although Sun Jian's family had been officials in Wu for generations, they were all minor officials and never had any senior officials. Otherwise, according to the rules of being officials in different places, the descendants of the Sun family would have been transferred to other places long ago.

He made great contributions to suppressing the rebellion, but he served as the county magistrate in three consecutive places, and he didn't even get the county magistrate or magistrate.

Even so, he was able to rely on his strength and bravery to use his military exploits to push himself to the position of governor of Changsha before the death of Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty, and was even granted the title of Marquis of Wucheng.

In the late Han Dynasty, when aristocratic families were valued, it was absolutely difficult to achieve this.

The name of the Jiangdong tiger is well-deserved!
Sun Jian sighed dejectedly, "I thought that the Yellow Turban bandits were like the Xuchang traitors. Although they were numerous, they were vulnerable to a single blow. I never thought that they would be tricked by the bandits and almost die."

Sun Jian had to sigh.

When Xuchang rebelled, he claimed to be Emperor Yangming and raised tens of thousands of troops to attack and plunder the county. However, Sun Jian only recruited more than a thousand people to put down the rebellion. Sun Jian became famous and was named the Prime Minister of Yandu County for his merits.

Unexpectedly, Sun Jian almost lost his life in his first battle with the Yellow Turban Army.

He could vaguely feel that those local rebels were completely different from these Yellow Turban thieves.

Zhou Qi also said with a solemn expression: "I see that the Yellow Turban thieves advance and retreat in a controlled manner. They will also fake defeat to lure Sun Sima to advance rashly. The leader of the army is definitely an ordinary person. But I don't know who this Yellow Turban general is?"

Zhou Qi was really puzzled, he had never heard of such a number one figure in the Runan Yellow Turban in the original history.

(End of this chapter)