Chu and Han contend for the throne

Chapter 204

Xiang Ta's mansion in Wuzhong County.

Hearing that Xiang Zhuang's trusted general Gao Chu was assassinated outside Wuzhong County, Xiang Ta felt that the situation was serious, and immediately sent someone to call for Shu Sun Guan, Qu Yi, Wu Qi and other family elders to discuss the matter.

"Ling Yin, this is a big trouble." Wu Qi said loudly as soon as he sat down, "Xiang Zhuang is worried that he can't find an excuse to cross the river. Now that Gao Chu is assassinated, he has an excuse to lead the army across the river. It's over!" After saying this, Wu Qi said again, "Look, Xiang Zhuang will definitely have to pass, and he will definitely have to fight Xiang Tuo."

"I don't think so." Qu Yi said tit-for-tat, "More than half a month ago, you also said that Xiang Zhuang would cross the river in a big way and slaughter Xiang Tuo and Xiang Guan with iron and blood methods, but what happened? It turned out that Xiang Zhuang didn't act rashly. Cross the river! Now, Xiang Zhuang will not cross the river rashly because of Gao Chu's assassination, let alone Gao Chu is fine now."

Wu Qi frowned and said, "That's not because Xiang Zhuang doesn't want to cross the river, but because of lack of preparation!"

Qu Yi said, "If I remember correctly, you didn't seem to say that half a month ago, did you?"

"You!" Wu Qi pointed at Qu Yi, and said unhappily, "Qu Yi, why do you always sing against me?"

"No, I don't want to contradict you." Qu Yi waved his hand, turned his eyes to Shu Sunguan sitting in front of him, and Xiang Ta, who was sitting in the chair, and said solemnly, "I just want to say that Xiang Zhuang is not like we were at the beginning. What I was worried about was just a brave and ruthless man, but the facts have proved that Xiang Zhuang is brave and resourceful, capable of bending and stretching, enough to take on the important task of revitalizing Chu!"

After that, Qu Yi knelt up from the table again, bowed his hands to Xiang He and said, "Ling Yin, no matter how you look at it, General Xiang Zhuang is more than ten times better than Xiang Tuo and Xiang Guan, so, Let's not hesitate any longer, and hurry across the river to welcome Admiral Xiang Zhuang to Wuzhong to preside over the overall situation of Chu!"

Xiang He remained silent, but turned his gaze to Shusun Guan.

In fact, from the beginning, Xiang He never thought of inheriting the throne. Although some of the more than a dozen old Chu families who supported Xiang He did have the idea of ​​supporting him to inherit the throne, such as Wu Qi, but from the beginning , this sign was resolutely suppressed by Xiang Ta, but there was a reason for Xiang Ta's ambiguous attitude.

Although Xiang Ta doesn't have an army in his hands, the power of the dozen or so old Chu clans behind him is no small matter. Once Xiang He expresses his attitude to support Xiang Tuo or Xiang Guan early on, the fragile relationship between Xiang Tuo and Xiang Guan will be destroyed. The balance will be broken immediately, and as a result, civil war will break out in Jiangdong immediately, which is something he absolutely does not want to see.

In today's Great Chu State, the national strength and military strength are already very weak, and they can no longer kill each other.

Therefore, after Xiang He returned to Jiangdong, he did not express his attitude immediately, and even deliberately released rumors that he himself also intends to fight for the throne of Chu. In this way, neither Xiang Tuo nor Xiang Guan dared to act rashly.

Of course, there is another very important reason why Xiang He did not immediately express his support for Xiang Tuo or Xiang Guan, because Xiang He believed that Xiang Tuo or Xiang Guan were not enough to take on the important task of revitalizing Great Chu, and Xiang He wanted to see more Can Xiang Zhuang, who has fought thousands of miles and smashed the general trend of the King of Han sweeping the world, be able to take on this important task?
Therefore, since Xiang Zhuang's army approached Jiangdong, Xiang He has been watching with cold eyes.

Meeting Xiang's inquiring gaze, Uncle Sun Guan stroked his long beard and said, "Ling Yin, let's wait a little longer and see how General Xiang Zhuang will deal with Gao Chu's assassination before making a decision." Not too late."

Xiang He nodded silently. If Xiang Zhuang can handle this matter calmly and rationally, it means that he is indeed a person who can accomplish great things. It shows that Xiang Zhuang is just a military man who lacks political acumen, at best he is another ancient king, and he is not good at planning big things!

After a pause, Qu Yi suddenly said again: "You say, who sent this Tianyan?"

"Who knows?" Wu Qi spread his hands and said, "Maybe it was sent by Xiang Guan, maybe it was sent by Zhou Yin and Yingbo, maybe it was sent by Liu Bang, Han Xin, Peng Yue, or it might be Xiang Guan. Tuo played a bitter trick, but one thing is for sure, this Tianyan is definitely not one of us."

"There is another possibility." Uncle Sun Guan said indifferently, "The man was sent by Xiang Zhuang."

"Huh, sent by Xiangzhuang?" Qu Yi said in awe-inspiring way, "Old uncle, grandson, what do you mean..."

Uncle Sun Guan smiled lightly and did not answer, but Qu Yi fell into deep thought. If Tian Yan was really sent by Xiang Zhuang, it was undoubtedly to create an excuse to cross the river, then Xiang Zhuang's army will probably cross the river in large numbers next time. Now, once Xiang Zhuang's army crosses the river, the scuffle with Xiang Tuo and Xiang Guan may be inevitable.

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Papermaking workshop in the eastern suburbs of Liyang County.

After more than half a month of groping and trying, the paper was finally made by Gongshu Che, Gongshu Ya father and daughter.

The whole process of papermaking is basically the same as that of the little book that Xiang Zhuang read when he was a child. It is to first mash young bamboo, reed, wheat straw and other raw materials to form a mud surface, then put them into the water tank and stir well, and finally mix them with Put the fine bamboo curtain into the water tank and wash it. When the pulp becomes a thin layer and adheres to the bamboo curtain, take out the bamboo curtain and turn it over, so that the "paper" covering the bamboo curtain can be evenly covered on the wooden board, and then put it on the paper. A heavy object is pressed on top to squeeze out the moisture in the paper, and then the paper is baked and dried, and a piece of paper is finished.

Xiang Zhuang immediately named the freshly baked paper "Gongshu Paper".

But to be honest, the quality of the first batch of public transportation paper was really not that good, the color was dark yellow, and the paper surface was extremely rough. Even Xiang Zhuang thought it was too rough to wipe his butt.

However, the father and daughter of Gongshuche and Gongshuya quickly improved the process, and added a bleaching process before pulping. In fact, the raw materials were boiled with limestone until the color faded, and then the process of extruding paper was improved. As a result, when the second batch of paper came out, not only was the color white, but the surface of the paper became much smoother.

Xiang Zhuang was overjoyed, and immediately took a piece of white paper that had been baked and dissected, and dipped a brush in enough ink to write the three big characters of "Gongshu Paper" on the paper, then looked left and right, quite proud, stood Bailixian, Gongshu, father and daughter beside Xiang Zhuang were stunned, because they had never seen such a font.

The excited Xiang Zhuang forgot about it.

In fact, Chinese characters in this era have just evolved into Xiaozhuan, which is in the transition stage to official script. As for the regular script, it will be decades later, and it will not appear until the official script matures. Historically, the regular script did not appear until the early Han It was first used by the scholar Wang Zhong. As for this world, it must be brought up.

Because in the future, Xiangzhuang will definitely engage in movable type printing. In the engraving and typesetting of movable type printing, the advantages of Kai script over Xiaozhuan and Lishu are obvious. Moreover, the transition between Chinese characters from Li Shu to Kai body is not blunt. Li Xian was taken aback for a moment, and immediately recognized Xiang Zhuang's writing "Gongshuzhi".

"General, the three characters you wrote are public transport?" Bai Lixian asked tentatively.

Today, Xiang Zhuang has given Bailixian too many surprises, let alone the stack of public transport papers in front of Bailixian. As a scholar, Bailixian is very aware of this thin stack of paper. What does paper mean!What shocked Bai Lixian even more was that the font written by Dingzhuang was much easier to write than seal script!

"Yeah." Xiang Zhuang nodded and said nonsense, "I think scholars should be upright and upright, and their writing should be square and straight. The straight tree is called regular tree, so I want to call it regular script, Ziliang, what do you think?"

"Italian script?!" Bailixian couldn't help but feel slightly moved when he heard the words.

"Yes, it's called regular script." Xiang Zhuang said again, "Ziliang, I want to trouble you with something."

Bai Lixian hurriedly bowed his hands and said: "If there is anything, the general can just order it."

Xiang Zhuang nodded, and said solemnly: "Ziliang, I would like to ask you to write a comparison table to convert the words that often appear in various books into regular script. Is there any problem?"

Bai Lixian said without thinking, "No problem."

Although Bai Lixian saw the so-called regular script for the first time, it was really not difficult.

In this world, there are many things that you would never have imagined before they appeared, but once they appear, once the layer of window paper is pierced, everyone will know what is going on immediately, just like stirrups for cavalry The role of italics, for readers, the effect is similar.

Xiang Zhuang said happily: "Then Lao Ziliang will thank you."

Bai Lixian said again: "I don't know when the general will ask for this comparison table?"

"Of course, the sooner the better." Xiang Zhuang said, "If possible, I want it tomorrow."

"Okay, it must be done before noon tomorrow!" Bailixian thought for a while, and then he agreed. There are hundreds of thousands of words used in various books, but there are only a few thousand commonly used, and the number of words is not high. many.

At this moment, Jin Xiang came forward in a hurry, cupped his hands and said, "General, Jiang Zuo hastened to report that General Gao Chu was assassinated in Wuzhong. Fortunately, there is no serious problem."

Xiang Zhuang's face changed drastically when he heard the words, and then he breathed a sigh of relief.

"However..." Jin Xiang paused, and then said, "Sister Qin Yu was seriously injured."

"Huh?!" Xiang Zhuang immediately became nervous again when he heard the words, Gao Chu cared a lot about Qin Yu, if something happened to Qin Yu, wouldn't Gao Chu turn Jiangdong upside down?At that moment Xiang Zhuang asked, "Is Qin Ji alive or dead now? And Gao Chu didn't mess around?"

Jin Xiang shook his head and said, "General Gao Chu did not mess around, but Sister Qin Yu is not out of danger yet."

Bai Lixian's expression changed slightly, and he asked, "General, are you sending a large army across the river to meet him?" Bai Lixian knew very well that Gao Chu was not only Xiang Zhuang's confidant, but also the leader of the generals of the Chu family. In this sense, Gao Chu's status in the Chu army was even higher than Huan Chu, Ji Bu and other Chu army veterans, so Bai Lixian made this proposal.

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PS: I accompanied my mother to do a comprehensive inspection yesterday, so I didn’t update it yesterday, and I didn’t even have time to send a notice. I apologize to everyone today, because of yesterday’s update, the swordsman broke his promise again. The swordsman said that this book is Strive for continuous updates, alas.

What's more, I suddenly found that my mother was really old. When the doctor was talking to her, she was either hard of hearing or unresponsive. My mother was really old. I suddenly felt a very bitter feeling, but fortunately, My mother's health is not bad, but the stone is more than one centimeter, and the location is not good. It is very likely that surgery will be needed, and it will be confirmed after the CT structural examination. I am currently waiting in line for the examination... So, the updated estimate in the past few days It will not be normal, if there is another situation where the update is suspended without notice, I hope everyone can understand...

(End of this chapter)