People in the Three Kingdoms: Starting from Preaching

Chapter 129 United Under Ideals

Youzhou?

Xu Chen?

Upon hearing these two names, Zhang Baiqi was a little confused at first. Although Youzhou is adjacent to Jizhou, the distance between them and Jizhou makes it difficult to know what is happening in Youzhou.

No matter what the Yellow Turbans of Youzhou were like, he felt uncomfortable when he heard Xu Chen call himself the Heavenly Master.

Although the Great Sage Master and General Digong and General Renjian are no longer with us, the position of leader of the Yellow Turbans is not someone that anyone can take. How could a little Taoist boy have the guts to call himself the Heavenly Master?

This made Zhang Baiqi frown and he couldn't help but shook his head, not really caring about it.

Huang Long said, "I also heard the news from the brothers who escaped from Youzhou. They said that there was a troop in Youzhou that was originally led by Wang Dang's brothers. Later, Xu Chen became the leader. Now he is doing well in Yuyang, Youzhou. He even drove away the officers and soldiers a few days ago."

Zhang Baiqi was a little interested, but after raising his eyebrows, he still didn't take it seriously: "If the big thing fails, he can certainly occupy the territory for a while, but sooner or later he will give it up. How can I talk about my future if I go to him?"

Huang Long thought for a moment and said, "The brother from Youzhou said that Xu Chen now controls two counties and governs more than 400,000 people. If necessary, he can always mobilize 20,000 to 30,000 soldiers. Moreover, he now has a lot of money and food, abundant land, a stable rule, and loyal people. The only thing he lacks is population. If this is true, he should not be underestimated."

At this time, Zhang Baiqi finally came to his senses. It was obvious that Huang Long had been moved.

But Zhang Baiqi was very skeptical about the authenticity of this story. According to this statement, the Yellow Turbans in Youzhou did not just hold the people hostage, but actually achieved stable governance and governed it effectively. Is this possible?

"Impossible, absolutely impossible!" Zhang Baiqi immediately shook his head and looked at Huang Long: "You must have been deceived by that guy from Youzhou. Call him over and I will ask him in person!"

Huang Long heard this but did not refuse, instead he ordered someone to go find him.

He was indeed tempted by the news, but he didn't really believe it completely. Zhang Baiqi wanted to question him in person so that he could verify its truth.

Not long after, a man was brought over. This man had a young face and a confident and calm demeanor. When he saw Zhang Baiqi and Huang Long, he was not at all flustered and greeted them calmly.

"How dare you sneak into my territory and spread rumors!" Zhang Baiqi's face darkened when he saw this person: "Believe it or not, I will kill you immediately!"

Huang Long was stunned when he heard this: "Uh, Brother Baiqi, are you saying that this person is a spy?"

Zhang Baiqi sneered, "If he is not a member of the Yellow Turbans of Youzhou, how could he know so much about what is happening over there? And if the Yellow Turbans of Youzhou are so good, why would he come here and encourage you like this? Isn't it just to win us over for Xu Chen?"

Huang Long thought about it again and felt that something was wrong. He suddenly felt that what Zhang Baiqi said made sense. The way he looked at this person again seemed to be wrong.

In fact, Zhang Baiqi was right. This person was an intelligence agent of the Yellow Turbans like Li Zheng, and he came here because he was arranged by Tian Shitou to contact the Yellow Turbans.

Although his identity was exposed at once, the intelligence agent did not panic.

As an intelligence officer, you need to stay calm at all times. Once you can't control your emotions, that's when something bad will happen.

The guys who were selected by Tian Shitou as foreign intelligence personnel are all guys with strong learning ability and quick and clever minds. After being trained by Xu Chen's method, they actually have relatively excellent qualities in this era.

"General, you are wise. I was indeed sent by the Yellow Turbans of Youzhou, but I am not here to sabotage or frame the Yellow Turban brothers. Instead, I am here to follow the wishes of my leader. I hope to unite the Yellow Turban brothers from all over the country, and together we can revive the great cause and overthrow the Han Dynasty once and for all!"

The intelligence officer looked solemn and spoke these words in front of the two men in a neither humble nor arrogant manner. He first emphasized the brotherhood of the Yellow Turbans to narrow the distance between them, and then directly stated his purpose and attitude to clear up any misunderstandings.

These words were indeed effective, and Zhang Baiqi and Huang Long's expressions relaxed.

If the intelligence agent refused to admit it, he might just drag him down and chop him off, but since he was so frank, and considering they were both Yellow Turban brothers, he didn't mind listening to a few words from him. The worst that could happen was that he would just drive him away.

Zhang Baiqi had a cold face: "So Xu Chen calls himself the leader? No one can stop him if he is alone, but he came to us and asked us to recognize him as the leader. Isn't he thinking too much?"

The intelligence officer felt very uncomfortable when he heard Zhang Baiqi's contempt for Xu Chen, but he knew that this was human nature, and since he was on someone else's territory, he could only pretend that nothing was wrong.

"Our leader only wants to unite all the Yellow Turban brothers. Now that the Yellow Turban cause has collapsed, the brothers in various places are scattered. This is our most dangerous time. If we don't unite to fight the enemy at this time, we will be wiped out by the Han court sooner or later."

At this point, the intelligence officer seemed to remember something and sighed again: "Besides, life here is really too hard. After a long time, many people will not be able to survive."

Hearing these words, Zhang Baiqi and Huang Long fell silent.

No matter what their attitude towards the Yellow Turbans of Youzhou is, there must be no problem with what they said just now. The Yellow Turbans today really need to unite, just as he longs for the Black Mountain Yellow Turbans to unite. On a more macro level, if all the Yellow Turbans in the world can unite, it will definitely be a great force.

But the problem is that the Yellow Turbans now lack a leader who can convince the people.

"I heard that Xu Chen is just a former Taoist disciple of the Great Sage Master, and he is only seventeen years old now. How can a man who hasn't even grown a full beard want to be the leader of the Yellow Turbans?"

Zhang Baiqi disagreed: "Even if we Yellow Turbans want to unite one day, we will not unite around him."

After hearing this, the intelligence officer was silent for a while. Zhang Baiqi thought he had silenced the other party, so he waved his hand to send him away.

Unexpectedly, before he could make any move, the intelligence officer took out something from his arms. It was a paper book. Then Zhang Baiqi saw an inexplicable firmness in his eyes.

"General, you are wrong. The Yellow Turbans do not want to unite around our leader, but around their ideals." The intelligence officer held up the book carefully and looked at Zhang Baiqi very seriously.

Zhang Baiqi's eyes fell on the book, and he was stunned for a moment: "Ideal, what ideal?"

"The ideal of equality for all and the pursuit of rights; the ideal of overthrowing all the powerful families and the emperor, and removing the mountains for the poor people in the world; the ideal of breaking the old rivers and mountains and building a more advanced world!"

The intelligence officer said this, then walked forward and placed the book next to the two men: "Generals, if you don't trust me, I will stay outside the village. I will leave this book for you to read. If you change your mind, you can come back to me."

After he finished speaking, the intelligence officer clasped his fists towards the two of them, then turned and left.

This made Zhang Baiqi and Huang Long look at each other, and finally they both turned their eyes to the books beside them.

Zhang Baiqi became interested and picked it up to have a look. He had never seen a paper book like this before. It felt quite exquisite to the touch, but the really important content of the book was beyond his ability to understand.

"Come here, pick a literate prisoner and let him identify this book to me."

They didn't know what the book was called, and they had no idea what the content was, but the ideals mentioned by the intelligence officer did arouse their great interest.

It is not for the purpose of becoming an emperor yourself, nor for the glory and wealth of a small group of people, but to achieve fairness for the general public. Regardless of whether this is realistic or not, at least it is very different.

The leader named Xu Chen seems to be quite interesting.
"Is it interesting, Zhongjing?"

Xu Chen still had no idea what was happening in the distant Taihang Mountains, nor did he dare to hold too high expectations for what results these intelligence agents sent out could achieve. He was more concerned about what was happening in Yuyang.

More than a month passed, and Zhang Zhongjing finally got his wish of a simple microscope.

The importance of the microscope as a scientific instrument cannot be overstated. However, as long as the basic microscopic functions are achieved, it is not difficult to make it. The only difficult thing is the lens.

The principle is nothing more than multiplying the multiples of two convex lenses, which ultimately enables observation of the microscopic world.

"Interesting, very interesting, I really saw the true face of this microscopic world, it turns out that what you said is true!"

Zhang Zhongjing lowered his head with his eyes placed on a cylindrical object, which was the tube of a microscope. The eyepiece and objective lens were embedded in the upper and lower parts of the tube respectively. A ten-fold eyepiece plus a dozen-fold objective lens could eventually reach a magnification of more than a hundred times, which was enough to observe the cell structure.

What is placed on the stage at this time is actually just a drop of water, which is taken from the tank, a drop of ordinary clean water.

But what this drop of water finally presented to Zhang Zhongjing's eyes was a whole new world. He saw countless almost transparent microorganisms wriggling and surviving in this world.

This is truly the case where a drop of water gives birth to all things. This is truly a world beyond the sight of the naked eye, and now I have seen this world with my own eyes.

Suddenly, Zhang Zhongjing raised his head and his eyes began to moisten. This was his reaction to great happiness. He could really glimpse a whole new world, and this world would reveal countless mysteries of the world to him in the future.

He knew that medicine would usher in a whole new chapter.

"Master Xu, natural science is indeed a profound subject. I, Zhang Zhongjing, am convinced." He turned his head and looked at Xu Chen with eyes full of admiration and gratitude.

Xu Chen smiled and said, "This gift is not given for nothing. If Zhongjing develops any theory, it will be compiled into the Natural Classic."

(End of this chapter)