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

Chapter 348 Jushou offers another suggestion

In the palace, Dian Wei frowned, with confusion and distress in his eyes, obviously something was on his mind.

Seeing this, Zhou Qi couldn't help but ask: "Brother, why are you doing this?"

Dian Wei also felt that he was distracted, scratched his head in embarrassment, and then asked doubtfully: "Ma Mengqi is indeed a rare warrior in the world, and his physical strength and martial arts are at their peak."

"But I also know that Yan Liang is brave. Even if I take action myself, it will be difficult to kill him."

"So after thinking about it, I still can't figure out why Yan Liang didn't even get a single move from Ma Mengqi."

After listening to Dian Wei's words, Zhou Qi couldn't help laughing, then stepped forward and patted Dian Wei on the shoulder, saying: "When it comes to charging into battle, killing generals and capturing flags, I am not as good as my brother; when it comes to grasping people's hearts, knowing people and employing them, It’s better to be alone as a brother!”

Dian Wei asked with some confusion: "Ma Mengqi and Yan Liang are fighting. Isn't the competition about their own martial arts?"

Zhou Qi stroked his beard, shook his head and said: "It's not just martial arts, it's also psychological games!"

Dian Wei heard the novel term "psychological game" and couldn't help but asked: "May I ask my lord, what is psychological game?"

The Zhang family was born in a wealthy family, and she also knew that women from wealthy families could not escape the fate of marriage, even if they were the beloved daughters of the King of Chu.

Why?

"The reason why I didn't send my brother to fight is because my brother has been famous for many years and his reputation for bravery has spread all over the world. Yan Liang knew that his opponent was his brother, how could he not take precautions?"

Zhou Qi looked at Dian Wei and said solemnly: "Although Meng Qi is brave, Yan Liang is not much inferior. The reason why he was stabbed under the horse by Meng Qi's spear is not because of his lack of skill in martial arts, but because he underestimated the enemy's carelessness."

When Dian Weiwen heard the words, he thought about it for a moment, and then couldn't help but sigh: "My lord is really able to see into people's hearts and strategize."

"What's more, Meng first surrendered to Cao Mengde with Ma Shoucheng, and then was besieged at Baishui Pass and surrendered to Chu. He had no impressive record, so he would be looked down upon by Yan Liang."

In this era, the legal age for marriage was thirteen for women and fifteen for men two years later.

After all, Yan Liang has been famous for a long time, and he can kill all the generals of Cao's army. When he is satisfied, why would he care about a small role like Er Ye?

After clearing up Dian Wei's doubts, Zhou Qi went straight to Zhang, the side chamber, and told him that he planned to marry his daughter to Ma Chao.

Hearing this, Mrs. Zhang smiled and said, "In that case, I can just follow the king's arrangements!"

Without the help of Liaoyuanhuo, Ma Chao would not be able to do this.

On the one hand, the government will help women who are still unmarried at the age of fifteen to find a partner and urge them to get married as soon as possible. On the other hand, they will impose a high sum of money, which is five times that of others, forcing the parents of the girls to rush to marry off their daughters.

Because a woman who can be married off as a marriage partner must be famous and have extraordinary talents.

Zhou Qi smiled and said, "Brother, have you forgotten the Liaoyuanhuo that Gu gave to Meng Qi?"

Liaoyuanhuo is the best war horse among the descendants of the Red Rabbit Horse. It is also famous for its short-distance and ultra-high bursts. It is an out-and-out divine horse.

As mentioned at the beginning of this book, the Western Han Dynasty had strict requirements for the age of marriage for women. Women could get married at the age of thirteen. If they were not married by the age of fifteen, the government would intervene.

"Meng Qi is different. Although he is very famous among the Qiang people in Liangzhou, for people from the Central Plains, Xiliang is a desolate and barbaric land after all. How can anyone look up to Meng Qi because of this? "

Most marriages still rely on the parents' orders and the words of the matchmaker. Not only does a woman have no right to choose a husband, she is not even qualified to leave her name.

As a native of the Han Dynasty, Zhang naturally could not be unconventional.

In fact, in history, Yan Lianghui was assassinated by the second master among the people, probably for this reason.

Because when Ma Chao rushed towards Yan Liang, Yan Liang, as a battle-hardened general, had already estimated the location where the two would meet, started to accumulate strength in advance, and even thought about how to attack.

In addition, Yan Liang misjudged Ma Chao's strength, which led to him being stabbed under the horse with a spear.

Although this policy was gradually canceled later, whenever war or other factors led to a sharp decline in population, similar policies would inevitably be re-established.

What he didn't expect was that the explosive power of the prairie fire was so amazing that it could accelerate to such an extent in an instant, and quickly rushed in front of Yan Liang, catching the opponent off guard.

Before the Battle of Guandu, the second master really had no achievements. The so-called Warm Wine and Killing Hua Xiong did not exist. Even Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei never participated in the princes' challenge to Dong.

"Because Meng Qi's reputation is not good, Yan Liang thinks he is brave, so he will underestimate the enemy and be unprepared, so he will be stabbed under the horse by Meng Qi."

Ms. Zhang had already expected this day to come, and she was not opposed to it.

The so-called free love is relatively rare in this time and space.

"Yuan Benchu ​​came with great momentum. This war will last for at least several years. By then, his married daughter will be quite young."

What's more, Ma Chao had just killed Yuan Jun's general Yan Liang, was born in a famous family, and had a lot of talent. What does it matter if he is older?

Even so, she hesitated a little and then said: "It's fine that the king decides on this marriage, but my daughter won't be old enough to get married until next year..."

Zhou Qi waved his hand to interrupt Zhang's words and said, "How could I not know this?"

Ma Chao killed Yan Liang instantly with one move. In addition to the opponent's negligence, Liaoyuanhuo also made great contributions.

"If this is the case, even if Yan Liang loses to his brother in the end, he can still retreat calmly."

As a general with no official title, no title, and no achievements, it is reasonable for the second master to be despised by Yan Liang.

For example, there are no names of Liu Bei's wives and Liu Chan's two queens except for their surnames recorded in history books.

It can only be said that Yan Liang's character is hard to change. Even if Zhou Qi travels through time and space, the other party will not be able to change his arrogant and arrogant character.

And because it is a marriage, a woman will still represent her family even if she gets married, and she will be respected in her husband's family.

It was precisely because Yan Liang misjudged the explosive power of Liaoyuanhuo that he was in chaos under Ma Chao's attack.

When Dian Wei heard this, he had a thoughtful expression on his face, but he still said: "Even if Yan Liang underestimates the enemy, his bravery is extraordinary after all. Even if he loses the opportunity, he should not be defeated so quickly. "

"Do you underestimate the enemy?"

"It's just an engagement now, and we'll get married after this war is over."

After the two warmed up for a while, Zhou Qi informed Zhang of his intention.

The reason why Zhou Qi wanted to marry off his daughter early was not only to marry Ma Chao, but also to re-implement this policy.

After these years of wars between princes and various natural and man-made disasters, the Han population has dropped sharply.

If we do not implement effective policies to stimulate population growth, after the war drama is over, it may be like the Jin Dynasty. Because the population of the Central Plains has dropped sharply, there will be no way to resist the invasion of foreigners, and eventually lead to the Five Husties in China. tragedy.

Even in the early days of the founding of New China, the country still implemented many policies to encourage childbirth, which led to the huge population base of 1.3 billion.

It was not until the international situation gradually stabilized and national security could be guaranteed that population growth began to be restricted. Zhou Qi married a daughter because he was going to set an example and let the women under his rule get married and have children early.

However, in order to ensure the birth of newborns, Zhou Qi trained surgical talents in the medical school early, encouraged medical officers to understand the structure of the human body and explore the mysteries of the human body. He even specially invited Hua Tuo and Zhang Zhongjing for this purpose.

With the addition of Hua Tuo, surgery began to develop rapidly in medical schools in Chu.

Coupled with the theories of anti-inflammation, disinfection, blood type and blood transfusion provided by Zhou Qi, doctors with superb medical skills have begun to gradually overcome the problem of caesarean section.

However, due to the limitations of the times, priority will be given to normal delivery unless a caesarean section is necessary for difficult labor.

As for how to determine blood type in this era, there is really no good way.

Zhou Qi is not proficient in this major, so he can only put forward theories and let others explore on their own. The road must be extremely bumpy.

Although there is no way to determine the specific blood type, when you want a blood transfusion, you can also use the ancient method of dripping blood to identify relatives. By observing the coagulation reaction between blood, you can determine whether a blood transfusion can be given to the patient.

Only when two identical blood types meet can there be no agglutination reaction and they can fuse together without any obstacles.

In addition to legislating for women to marry, Zhou Qi also planned to legislate to urge widows to marry and encourage men to take concubines.

During times of war, the male population will inevitably decrease sharply, which will also create many widows.

If a widow has a child under three years old, she does not need to remarry; otherwise, she must remarry. However, the widows of soldiers who died in battle could not take away their children if they remarried.

The children must stay in the family and be raised by the clan at the expense of the government. A special department shall be established to supervise the children to avoid the occurrence of clan abuse of children.

This not only ensures that the widow will remarry and have more children, but also ensures that those who died fighting for the country can leave a lasting legacy.

There is now an unwritten rule in Chu State that, except for special circumstances, men who are unmarried or newly married and have not given birth to children do not need to perform military service.

The reason why there is no explicit regulation is because we are worried that some people will take advantage of this policy and deliberately avoid having children to avoid military service.

But this kind of thing is also difficult to control.

Due to the lack of contraceptive measures, there was no way to prevent the birth of the child other than asking the wife to have an abortion.

It was precisely because of this that Zhou Qi stipulated that abortion was illegal and would be punished. Even those who sold abortion pills would be sentenced.

After getting along with Zhang, Zhou Qi immediately ordered Ma Chao to lead the paid cavalry to station in Fan City the next day. When he found an opportunity, he went out of the city to fight in order to boost the morale of the generals in the city.

Due to Ma Chao's impressive record of killing Yan Liang, Yuan Jun would be panicked every time he left the city.

However, Zhou Qi also gave Ma Chao a death order, and every time he went out to fight in the city, he had to stop it in moderation and not give Yuan Jun a chance to surround and kill the cavalry.

At Yuan Jun's camp, Yuan Shao's face looked a little unsightly.

Since Yan Liang was beheaded, the morale of Zhao's soldiers has obviously dropped a lot, and their offensive has inevitably weakened.

The most important thing is that Yuan Shao also knew about Zhou Ji's marriage to Xia Houyuan's niece.

The marriage between Zhou Qi and the Xiahou family meant that Chu and Qin shook hands and made peace, so Yuan Shao had to divide his troops to defend Cao Cao.

What troubled him the most was the Fancheng battlefield.

He did not expect that the soldiers of the Chu State were so tenacious and could still hold on to Fancheng despite being attacked by soldiers and horses several times his own.

As time goes by, winter is coming.

Once the cold winter comes, the pressure on Yuan's army to transport grain and grass will inevitably increase greatly, which will be even more detrimental to the siege party.

The only good news is that the soldiers under Yuan Shao's command are basically from the north and are more frost-resistant than the soldiers under Zhou Qi's command from the south.

Even so, Yuan Shao also had to face the severe challenge of the coming cold winter.

The most important thing is that if Fancheng is still unable to be captured after winter, then when spring comes next year, continuing to use troops on a large scale against Chu will inevitably affect the spring plowing in Zhao.

Don't look at the fact that Yuan Shao only dispatched 300,000 soldiers and horses in this battle. If you include the civilians responsible for transporting grain, grass and baggage, the number will be astonishing.

Although Yuan Shao had long expected that wiping out Chu would not be accomplished overnight, he was already prepared for a protracted war.

But at this time, Yuan Shao was still a little anxious.

He summoned his subordinate Wen Wu and asked slightly tiredly: "Fan City has been unable to be conquered for a long time. Ruyang has been besieged for half a year and is in urgent need of help. Who among you can offer a good strategy to break the current deadlock?"

All the generals were silent when they heard this.

On the contrary, the counselors under Yuan Shao began to frown and think hard.

I don't know how long it took, but no one came up with a constructive strategy. Yuan Shao could only wave his hand helplessly and signaled everyone to disperse.

However, after everyone dispersed, Jushou did not leave.

When Yuan Shao saw this, his eyes couldn't help but shine. He hurriedly stepped forward and took Ju Shou's hands, asking, "Sir, do you have any good ideas?"

Ju Shou said: "I dare not say good strategies, but I do have some ideas."

Yuan Shao said: "Come quickly!"

Jushou organized his speech and said: "The strength of Chu State is indeed far beyond imagination. First, Cao Mengde was defeated at Yangping Pass, and now even Jiaozhou Shixie is retreating steadily under Xiang Bode's offensive."

"If Your Majesty cannot take advantage of Shi Xie's defeat to achieve a decisive victory on the frontal battlefield, and wait until Jiaozhou is occupied by Xiang Bode, the soldiers and horses of Nanzhong and the garrison troops and horses of the southern counties of Jingzhou and Yangzhou will all have no worries. Come to Xiangyang's aid."

"At that time, Chu's military strength increased greatly, and it would be even more difficult to win."

When Yuan Shao heard this, his face turned extremely ugly.

When he confidently went south to attack Chu, he also relied on Liu Bei to maintain a neutral attitude, and Cao Cao and Shi Xie were able to contain many of Chu's troops.

If the war really drags on until Shi Xie is defeated, Zhou Qi can gather the strength of the whole country without any worries and fight Yuan's army in Xiangyang and Fancheng.

At that time, it was hard to say who would win or lose.

Looking at Yuan Shao's face, Jushou walked to the map, pointed in a direction, and said, "Since Xiangyang and Fancheng are difficult to capture, why don't your majesty attack elsewhere?"

When Yuan Shao saw where Jushuo's finger was pointing, he couldn't help but open his mouth in surprise.

(End of this chapter)