To the east of Luoyang Jin City, there is an abandoned house. Originally a minister of the Yuan Party, he was convicted and killed after participating in the Yuan Kui rebellion, and his family was also implicated, and the mansion was abandoned after that.

Later, the armor organization in Luoyang City cleaned up the place and used it as a meeting and office location.

But in fact, the armor guards in the city have a special office location, called Luoyang Baojia Division. Near Dongzhi Gate. In the abandoned house of Jinshi, it is actually a private meeting place for the small leaders of the armor guards in various townships in Luoyang.

At the end of the shift, they would gather here in groups of three or five, drinking, bragging, and so on, as if it were a men's club.

The Lu Bu rebels were approaching, and the abandoned courtyard was full of people at this time, and almost all the armor leaders in Luoyang gathered together to discuss how to meet the enemy.

The person who presided over the meeting was called Huang Zheng, a middle-aged man over forty years old. He is the oldest among these people, and he has a calm personality and military experience, and he is the backbone of everyone on weekdays.

As early as more than ten days ago, Liu Wei, the son of heaven, issued an edict to go out of the city to fight against Lu Bu's anti-thieves, and the next step was the mobilization propaganda of the Propaganda Bureau, calling on the people of the Luoyang Army to go to the national disaster together.

As a militia organization, it is inevitable that the armor guards will go into battle to meet the enemy in this war. Huang Zheng gathered everyone today for the purpose of cheering up.

"Brother Huang, what else is there to say. My brothers and I are not greedy for life and afraid of death, if the traitor comes, I, Zheng Acheng, will not let them step into Luoyang if I fight for this life. A young man named Zheng Acheng took the lead in speaking.

The leaders of these armor guards are all young offspring, and they are the age of enthusiasm. In particular, under the patriotic propaganda and education of the Propaganda Department recently, everyone is eager to go into battle immediately to kill the enemy and serve the country.

"Brother Zheng is right, those traitors from the Northland are here, and we ate them!"

"Yes, who's afraid of whom?"

"Defend the family and the country!"

After Zheng Acheng finished speaking, others also stood up one after another. For a while, the courtyard was full of emotions and people.

Huang Zheng waved his hand to suppress their emotions, glanced sideways at the silent Wang Zhuzi, and asked, "Brother Zhuzi, what do you think?" ”

Wang Zhuzi made meritorious contributions to the Yuan Kui rebellion, received official propaganda and praise, and was also quite authoritative among the people. He is a wise man, a wise man among all.

"Uh......" Wang Zhuzi said with a slight deep groan: "The rebels in Bingzhou are not easy to deal with, and General Guan and General Jiang have both suffered defeats. If it is a head-on fight, I am afraid it will be a hard battle. ”

"Humph! If Brother Wang is afraid, he can stay in the city and defend the city, and I, Zheng Acheng, will go out and fight the rebels to the death!" ”

Wang Zhuzi's words aroused Zheng Acheng's dissatisfaction, and he immediately spoke sarcastically.

Wang Zhuzi's face was flushed when he was robbed by Zheng Acheng, and he retorted loudly: "You are not afraid of death, am I afraid of death?" It's just, it's just ......"

Wang Zhuzi was in a hurry, and he couldn't organize how to explain his thoughts in words.

At this time, Huang Zheng opened his mouth to explain for him: "The pillar's words are to tell you that it is not so simple to sacrifice your life for the country. It's easy to die, but after you die, the rebels are not defeated, and they will still storm the city and kill our relatives, so what's the point of your death? ”

Huang Zheng said as he pulled up his trouser leg, a horrific scar clearly visible on his thigh.

"This is left by the Yellow Turban Thief with General Huangfu." Huang Zheng pointed to the scar and said.

"At that time, together with General Huangfu, we were besieged by tens of thousands of elite Yellow Turban thieves in Changshe, and we fought for several days, and many of our comrades were killed in battle. Many of them are new to the army, and they are all heroic like you, clamoring to be loyal to the country. In the end, they all died in the killing field, and we were still besieged by the Yellow Turban Thieves, and their deaths had no meaning. ”

Huang Zheng's voice became muffled, as if he was saddened by the sacrifice of his past comrades. After a pause, he continued: "Brother Zhuzi's idea is very right, the enemy is very strong, and what we are thinking about on the battlefield should not be how to fight to the death, but how to defeat the powerful enemy. It's not just about bleeding and sweating, it's about using our brains and thinking about what we're fighting for. ”

Huang Zheng's words silenced everyone. Everyone was thinking about the meaning of his words. Wang Zhuzi continued: "I have already contacted General Zhang Yide and allowed me to go and train with the Shenwei Forbidden Army. General Zhang Yide is a famous general in the world, and I will learn from him well, so that we can kill the enemy for the country. ”

Everyone nodded yes when they heard this, and just as they were about to continue the discussion, they heard a loud commotion outside the courtyard. Everyone was puzzled, and was about to send someone out to see what was going on, but they found that a guard ran in in a panic, and said to them in a hurry; "Your Majesty, Your Majesty has come to the Gold Market!"

*********

With the advent of the war, a large number of refugees poured into Luoyang City, which brought a lot of pressure to Luoyang for a while. Although Cui Yi, who was the Luoyang Commander at the time, was an honest official, his ability was average. The influx of refugees was also anxious for a while. Fortunately, Liu Wei and Lu Zhi gave advice from time to time, so there were no major mistakes. It's just that the miserable scene of refugees in the city has cast a shadow of war in the hearts of Luoyang residents.

In addition to the imperial court's resettlement of refugees, some merchant families also came forward to provide relief, either out of good reputation or out of compassion.

One of them is the newly opened Yuehui Building in Luoyang City, where a wooden shed is erected on a vacant lot below the restaurant, and the soup porridge is constantly used every day.

At this time, the restaurant and catering industry in Luoyang has been extremely prosperous, and the emergence of Yuehui Lou can be regarded as keeping up with the trend. It's just that not long after it opened, it encountered a military disaster, which can be said to be an unwarranted disaster.

Fortunately, the background and capital of Yuehui Building are very strong, and the owner behind it is the Cao family.

Sheltered by Cao Cao, the Cao family's industry in Yanzhou was already extremely large, but it was still very weak elsewhere. This time in Luoyang Kaiyue Huilou not only has the meaning of capital expansion, but also has the political purpose of being close to the emperor. The person in charge of the restaurant business is Cao Cao's nephew and Cao De's second son Cao Jin.

Although business was cold, Cao Jin didn't care. On the contrary, immediately after the appearance of the refugees, they set up wooden sheds to give porridge and food, which has won a lot of praise from both the official and the people.

Next to the window on the second floor of the Yuehui Building opposite the wooden shed, Cai Yan leaned against the window and looked at the tragic scene of the refugees downstairs waiting for soup porridge, and couldn't help but worry.

She had heard that the rebels had fallen into a deserted area, especially the Huns, who were prone to plundering. What a terrible thing it would be if he was unfortunate enough to be humiliated by thieves after the city was broken.

Cai Yan couldn't help but tremble when he thought of this. At this time, Yang Zhi walked to her side drunkenly.

"Akihime, what's wrong?"

A smell of wine came with the words, and Cai Yan couldn't help frowning. Ever since the news of the imminent arrival of Lu Bu's rebels spread, Yang Zhi has been borrowing alcohol to escape the reality of fear. Whenever he was drunk and lost his temper in the middle of the party, he came over and pretended to be intimate in his words, which was actually extremely rude.

Fortunately, Cai Yan himself has a very high level of cultivation, and he is familiar with him, so he will not turn his face immediately. Just pretended not to hear his words, and said coldly: "Brother Yang is drunk." ”

Yang Zhi shook his body and said, "I'm not drunk, it's they who are drunk." I'm the only one who is sober. They can't see the trend of the world clearly, if they listen to me and move to Chang'an as soon as possible, how can there be today's military disaster. Akihime, you and I ......"

Yang Zhi said that he was about to reach out to pull Cai Yan, but Dong Ci and others not far away saw that something was wrong here, and hurriedly ran over to pull Yang Zhi.

"I'm going to hit Miss Akihime. It was Brother Yang who was drunk. Dong Ci apologized to Cai Yan instead of Yang Zhi.

Cai Yan smiled, shook his head and said, "It's okay, I know that Brother Yang didn't mean it." Please also send Brother Yang to rest elsewhere. ”

Dong Ci nodded, and pulled Yang Zhi away with a few friends. Yang Zhi struggled, and shouted: "The thief is big, the thief is big!" You don't know the general trend, you don't know the ......."

When passing by Wang Cang's side, he glanced at Yang Zhi with disdain, and said coldly: "Soft bones!" ”

Dong Xi sent someone to send Yang Zhi to rest elsewhere, and after returning to Wang Cang's side, he said to him: "Zhong Xuan don't say that about Brother Yang, he, he...... Alas! ”

Dong Xi sighed heavily.

Lü Bu's rebels were approaching the city, and the fear of war was literally weighing on everyone's heart. In particular, the tragic scene after the influx of refugees gave them an intuitive understanding. It's just that Yang Zhi is so scared that there is no one to say it.

Cai Yan also came over at this time, and Dong Ci asked again: "Miss Zhaoji, are you okay?" ”

"The slave family is fine, thank you Brother Dong for your concern."

Seeing that Cai Yan's mood was not high, Dong Xi and the others thought that she was also worried about the military disaster, so they didn't continue anything, but just explained that she should not worry, and said something like the court would defeat the rebels.

Yang Zhi's departure was just a small episode of discord in the party. The crowd quickly began to talk again.

Since the news of Lu Bu's rebellion came, there were no entertainment gatherings in Luoyang City. Especially under the patriotic propaganda and education of the imperial court, and the spur and encouragement of some series of words such as "the merchant girl does not know the hatred of the country", most of the literati gathered together to talk about the upcoming war, and each made suggestions and guidance.

In these meetings, Cai Yan listened to them talk about how to deal with the arrival of the thieves, how to arrange the troops, how to unite vertically and horizontally, or to point out the shortcomings of some of the imperial court's preparations. And the most controversial of them was the decision of the Son of Heaven to prepare to go out of the city to meet the enemy.

Cai Yan is a literary master, but he doesn't know anything about military affairs. Listening to these people's discussions, plans, and even quarrels because of disagreements, she will have a feeling that although there are troubled times, there are talents from all generations. For the coming war, I am not so worried.

It's just that as the war continues to approach, when the pressure of the war comes suddenly, the uneasiness in Cai Yan's heart finally intensifies.

For what they said, Cai Yan also learned it to his father. It's just that Cai Yong didn't comment on them after listening to it, but asked Cai Yan to attend such gatherings less.

Cai Yan felt strange, in fact, his father's attitude was already extremely disappointed. As a great Confucian of the time, he naturally has a more thorough view of human nature than others. Cai Yan didn't understand at first, but felt faintly uneasy in his heart.

However, Cai Yan is still a smart person after all, and as time goes by, she gradually guesses the problem. These people have said so much, but in fact it is useless, and they are just talking about misleading the country.

Thinking about this, Cai Yan began to feel disgusted with her scribe friends, and even Brother Dong, whom she had always thought was good, was among these people, which made her extremely disappointed. There is also great pessimism and fear about the future war.

The chatter in the Yuehui Building continues, even to the point of scorching heat. It seems that these people can make Lu Bu's army of thieves disappear by talking and laughing.

Cai Yan opened his mouth in the midst of this noise, as if he was about to shout something. However, before she could do anything, there was a commotion outside the restaurant.

Cai Yan was the first to hear the sound of the commotion, and curiously returned to the window, seeing that the people on the street had gathered in a circle. In the center of the circle was a figure she recognized.

(To be continued, stay tuned for the next chapter.) ）