The Jagged Cavalry of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 51

After Zhang Yan returned to Pengcheng, he put all his thoughts on building the city. In order to complete the project as soon as possible, he transferred [-] civilian workers from Xiapi to join the team of expanding the city.

As a person with modern thinking, Zhang Yan fully demonstrated his supernatural power in this era. In order to make the city wall stronger, he used his modern knowledge to "invent" cement, and immediately put the cement Put into use in city construction.

In addition, Zhang Yan also taught the folks how to use levers, and made a set of pulleys himself, and asked the blacksmith to imitate thousands of sets, and then used these pulleys to make many personal hoists.

In this way, the folk husbands will save a lot of effort to carry things, so time will naturally be saved.

With the extensive application of cement, levers, and human hoists, the speed of building the city has also increased significantly. Half a month later, the first phase of Pengcheng's expansion project was completely completed. A city wall more than three feet high is like a city wall. A huge circle covered everyone in it.

After the city walls, gates, and towers were all built, Zhang Yan took all the civil and military officials of the city to inspect to see if there were any deficiencies.

After some inspections, Zhang Yan personally pointed out some deficiencies, and asked the supervisor in charge of the work to immediately take the civilians under his jurisdiction to carry out renovations.

There are no major problems, and there are not many minor problems. The first phase of the expansion of Pengcheng can basically be regarded as completed.

For this reason, Zhang Yan also specially held a bonfire party, asking everyone to come and celebrate together, and have fun with the people.

Later, in order to relieve the pressure during this period, Zhang Yan specially took three days off. After three days, the second phase of Pengcheng expansion project will be carried out.

During the construction of the first phase of the project, based on Mi Fang's special contribution, Zhang Yan specially appointed Mi Fang as the captain of Pengcheng, and justifiably kept him in Pengcheng.

After all, the relationship between Zhang Yan and Mi Zhen has been basically confirmed. For such a long time, the two have been exchanging letters constantly, and there is a sense of intimacy between the lines.

Taking advantage of these three days of being free, Zhang Yan rode on a black cloud and snow horse, went to the Mi Mansion in Tancheng, and found an excellent matchmaker there, brought enough gifts, and formally proposed marriage to Mi Zhen.

In ancient times, if you want to get married, you have to go through a whole set of complicated etiquettes, namely Nacai, Asking Names, Naji, Naji, Nazheng, Asking for a Date, and Greeting in person. These six procedures are indispensable.

Nacai means that the man first sends a matchmaker to the woman's home to propose marriage, and after the woman agrees, he sends an envoy to send an engagement gift and make a formal proposal.

After Natse is over, the envoy immediately asks the name of the woman's parents, the woman's own name, rank and date of birth, and returns to the man for fortune-telling, which is to ask the name.

After the questioning is over, the man gets a good omen through divination, and the envoy returns to the woman's home, and the marriage is officially confirmed. This is Najib.

After Najib is over, the man sends a gift to the woman, no matter rich or poor, the gift is indispensable, this is called Najib.

After giving the dowry, the man sends someone to the woman's home to decide on the date of marriage. In fact, the man has already fixed the date of marriage during divination.

When the agreed wedding date comes, the groom will go home to greet the bride at dusk (marrying a wife at dusk is said to be the original meaning of "marriage").This is the six rituals of ancient marriage.

Zhang Yan knew nothing about this, so everything was done according to the arrangement of the matchmaker.After tossing around in Tancheng for three full days, he finally decided on the date of their wedding, which will be on the tenth day of March next year.

After that, Zhang Yan left Tancheng and quickly returned to Pengcheng.

As soon as Zhang Yan returned to Pengcheng, before his butt was hot, he heard someone report that a group of people had come from outside the city and wanted to see Zhang Yan by name.

He soon came to the tower and looked out of the city, but saw two carriages parked at the gate of the city, two men in long robes standing on the snow, with several strong guards behind them.

"Master Wang, Master Zhao?" Zhang Yan only took one look, and immediately recognized these two people. They were Wang Lang and Zhao Yu.

Zhang Yan asked the soldiers to open the city gate and let Wang Lang and Zhao Yu in. He also hurried down the tower and came to the opening of the city gate as quickly as possible.

Once they met, Zhang Yan said very humbly: "My lord Wang, my lord Zhao, I'm really sorry, my subordinates didn't recognize the two lords, it's really..."

Wang Lang patted the snowflakes on his body, interrupted Zhang Yan hastily, and hurriedly said: "Master Zhang, don't blame yourself, and you can't blame them."

Zhao Yu echoed, "That's right, Mr. Zhang, look at us dressed up like this, we almost don't even know ourselves."

It was only then that Zhang Yan noticed that Wang Lang and Zhao Yu were all dressed as merchants, and the accompanying personnel were also dressed in strong attire, which looked no different from the merchant team.He asked suspiciously: "Why are the two adults dressed like this?"

"My lord Zhang doesn't know something. The two of us were ordered to go to Chang'an to meet the current emperor. But if we want to go to Chang'an from Xuzhou, we have to pass through Cao Cao or Yuan Shu's territory. If we don't disguise ourselves, how can we do it?" Did you come back smoothly?"

"It turns out that the two lords have gone to Chang'an as an envoy. No wonder the two lords seem to have weathered faces. It seems that they must have been tortured along the way. Zhang Yan is in Pengcheng today to clean up the dust for the two lords. please!"

Zhang Yan then ordered people to go back to the prefect's mansion first, and then arranged for someone to prepare a banquet, while he led Wang Lang and Zhao Yu slowly towards the prefect's mansion.

As soon as Wang Lang and Zhao Yu entered Pengcheng, they felt much safer, and their previous worries were completely gone.However, the new scene in Pengcheng surprised Wang Lang and Zhao Yu.

From the outside, Pengcheng is a huge city, but once you enter the city, you will find that 10,000+ peasants are all huddled in shacks, and the barracks are also very simple. Stoves can be seen everywhere, and bonfires are one after another. Pengcheng was still in ruins.

Wang Lang and Zhao Yu had already seen the ruins of Pengcheng when they went to Chang'an, but what they didn't expect was that the two of them had only left Xuzhou for two months. How could the walls of Pengcheng have already been built?And just from the outside, it is enough to be shocked by his magnificence and majesty.

As the group walked and chatted, Zhang Yan inquired about the results of Wang Lang and Zhao Yu's meeting with the emperor. Only then did he learn that Tao Qian was officially conferred the title of Xuzhou Mu by the current emperor, the title of General An Dong, and the Marquis of Liyang.

Moreover, even Wang Lang and Zhao Yu were appointed as prefects by the emperor.Wang Lang was the prefect of Kuaiji, and Zhao Yu was the prefect of Guangling.

In addition, Wang Lang and Zhao Yu did a real thing without telling Tao Qian, that is, they applied for the position of general from Zhang Yan in front of the emperor.

Who ever thought that the emperor really agreed to Wang Lang and Zhao Yu's request, and ordered Zhang Yan to be a general of Xiaoqi, and granted the general a seal ribbon, so that Wang Lang and Zhao Yu could take it back.

In addition, after listening to Wang Lang and Zhao Yu's narrations about Xiapi and Pengcheng in Xuzhou, the emperor learned that after the death of the kings of Xiapi and Pengcheng, because they had no sons and no successors, they abolished Xiapi and Pengcheng. The feudal states of the land were renamed counties, namely Xiapi County and Pengcheng County.

It can be said that Wang Lang and Zhao Yu's trip was fruitful.

It's no wonder that today's emperor, held hostage by Li Jue and Guo Si in Chang'an City, is actually a puppet.The princes of the four directions did not buy into Li Jue and Guo Si's account, but at this time, under the persuasion of Wang Lang and Zhao Yu, Tao Qian took the initiative to go to Chang'an to pay tribute to the emperor, which was tantamount to acknowledging the status of Li Jue and Guo Si. In addition, Zhu Jun, an old acquaintance of Tao Qian's, was still in the court, so it was inevitable that he would be awarded an official title.

Zhang Yan brought Wang Lang and Zhao Yu to the hall. Wang Lang and Zhao Yu took out the seal ribbon of General Xiaoqi and handed it to Zhang Yan. Zhang Yan was very grateful and warmly entertained Wang Lang and Zhao Yu. Both Chen Gui and Mi Fang were called to accompany them, and the whole hall was filled with joy.

At noon the next day, Zhang Yan personally sent Wang Lang and Zhao Yu out of the city. He sent them a long way and showed reluctance, which moved Wang Lang and Zhao Yu deeply.

Regarding Zhang Yan's canonization as General Xiaoqi, to a certain extent, it created a higher momentum for Zhang Yan.

Looking at the whole of Xuzhou, apart from Tao Qian's position as General Anton, only Zhang Yan is a truly appointed general, that is to say, he is already the second highest in Xuzhou in terms of military positions.

However, Zhang Yan did not show great joy, because he was always worried about the safety of the whole Xuzhou.

For this reason, he specially sent hundreds of scouts to Yanzhou, Yuzhou, Yangzhou, Qingzhou, Jizhou and other places to inquire about news. He wanted to live more and more accurate news, and he couldn't be a frog in a well who didn't know anything.

The second phase of Pengcheng's expansion project was carried out as scheduled, but this time, Zhang Yan dispatched all the troops and handed over the entire project to Chen Denglai to supervise him. He took Mi Fang, Xu Sheng, and the soldiers in Pengcheng outside the city. Severe training began.

In this long and severe winter, the whole land is covered with ice and snow, and even animals rarely come out, but in this land of Pengcheng, all the people are extremely busy.

While Zhang Yan was training his troops, he was building the city at the same time. He was doing both, and no one wanted to delay it.

At the same time, the scouts were secretly inquiring in various places, and sent some news to Pengcheng continuously.

When Zhang Yan was sorting out the news, he accidentally discovered an important piece of news: Liu Yu, the shepherd of Youzhou, was at odds with Gongsun Zan, the prefect of Youbeiping. He led troops to attack Gongsun Zan, but was defeated by Gongsun Zan. Throughout the state, he led Youzhou pastoralists himself, and went to the imperial court, received a reward, worshiped as a former general, and easily waited.

Apart from this, there was no other important military information, but Zhang Yan did not let those scouts come back, but continued to lurk in various places, specially spying on him.

Now that Zhang Yan has soldiers and money, he doesn't have to worry about food. Xiapi's treasury is like a cash machine. As long as Zhang Yan gives an order, supplies will be continuously delivered from Xiapi to expand Pengcheng. With great security!
Time passed quickly, and in a blink of an eye, it was the end of the new year, but Zhang Yan basically didn't give the peasants too much rest time except for a few days off, and continued to expand Pengcheng day and night.

Winter is coming to spring, the long and severe winter has finally passed, the work of expanding Pengcheng is coming to an end, and people who are racing against time can finally stop and take a rest.

In the first year of Xingping in the Han Dynasty, on the third day of March, when the last tile fell on the city tower, the whole Pengcheng was completely boiled. The huge project, which lasted several months, under the leadership of Zhang Yan and the joint efforts of 10,000+ civilians, Pengcheng has been completely completed. A majestic, grand, and towering circular city stands on this land, showing its heroic spirit...

(End of this chapter)