In mid-March, Cao Cao led more than 23,000 soldiers to the south bank of the Yellow River and held Yuan Shao on a white horse.

Yuan Shao's army of 40,000 troops and 30,000 people, with Wen Chou as the front, Zhang He as the left wing, Gao Ran as the right wing, and the elite of the Euphorbia were tens of thousands of points to the commanders of the various departments.

Cao Cao ordered Xiahoudun to be the front, Xiahou Yuan on the left flank and Cao Ren on the right flank, and the sergeants led by him were mainly the soldiers of the original Yanzhou remnants and Beihai County, and the other 4,000 were tigers and leopards.

Yuan Tan and Le Jin fought against each other in Lu County, Jibei, Yuan Xi and Yu Ban held each other in Yan County, and the middle battle with Meng De at the beginning also began.

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The news that Deng Ji was preparing to ascend the throne on the first day of June had gradually spread to the surrounding area.

Before Zhang Wei and Yan Pu fled Hanzhong, Liu Bei had already strictly ordered all passes to be on guard to prevent the dignitaries of the Wudou Mi Sect from escaping through various roads again.

After learning the news that Deng Ji was going to be the emperor, Liu Bei stayed for a long time and roared angrily: "I don't want the way of heaven to be impermanent, so many difficulties, Deng Mu'an also rebelled against the Han Dynasty!" Is there no more loyalty in the Han family? ”

For him Liu Xuande, it is precisely because the selling and weaving mats are out of the market that the noble status of the Han clan cannot be lost.

Deng Ji rebelled against the Han Dynasty and called the emperor self-reliant, so he was not the object of the alliance, and there was also the matter of Nanyang being asked for and standing up for a new army, Liu Bei succeeded Zhang Lu and ordered the passes to destroy the plank road, and cut off contact with the pass.

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In this life, Liu Bei, who had not yet met the Son of Heaven and failed to officially recognize the clan relationship by the royal family, had such a big reaction after receiving the news that Deng Mu'an wanted to be the emperor, let alone Liu Biao Liu Jingsheng.

A few years ago, Gan Ning failed to vote for Deng Ji, and then Zhang Hu and Chen Sheng voted for Deng Ji with Peng Lize and Peng Hu, a water thief, and Liu Biaoshang still laughed. It is determined that this generation of thieves will not change. It's not a pity to switch to someone else.

But now. Nanyang sent back the news that Deng Ji wanted to establish a new dynasty and a new system, Liu Biao was also stunned for a long time, and then scolded angrily, and sent an order: "Those who pass Deng Ji are both rebellious for the country, and the clan should be punished!" ”

Later, he ordered Cai Mao to block the mouth of the river, and merchant ships were not allowed to go to the water again. Liu Xu, a big merchant in Changsha who kept transporting timber to Wancheng along the waterway, was no longer able to do anything, but in the past four or five months, he had bought more than 200 keels for Deng Jidai alone.

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Tianping Xiangxian boundary. Just after the spring sowing was over, thirty or forty men were emptying a bare-chested ditch in a ditch that was mostly dry, and the sides of the ditch were piled up with dirt and grass that had been dug up.

Liangzhou has been in turmoil for so many years, and last year it was again a traitor, and the ditches around the farmland in various places have been basically deserted, and many places have gradually been buried and blocked by mud, and they have become independent small puddles one after another, which can no longer be connected to water, and this field is free of drought and flood. It is necessary to re-dredge.

This is the people's own business, and the tun chief takes advantage of the idle farming to organize it. The government would not pay for hiring, but only dredged some congested places, not digging new ditches, and the work was not heavy, and even some other families in the tunzhong who did not share the fields in this area and did not benefit from them did not come to help, and the women of the families did not come.

The Liangzhou Dock Fort was not completed, but it took a long time to build the Dock Fort, and this ditch had to be completed before the rainy season, so this work was put in front first.

One person excavated, and the other used a bamboo basket to pour the earth onto the top of the ditch, and the speed was very fast.

During the interval between people throwing their arms to work, some people also say two witty words from time to time, which makes everyone happy for a while, which is a good way to eliminate fatigue.

As long as the taxes promised by Deng Zhijun do not change, as long as God does not make a bad character, the haze of the thieves and chaos has passed, and this year finally has hope, just dredge a few ditches, for people who are used to doing heavy work, it is really nothing, talk and laugh, and it is easy.

However, in the crowd in the ditch, there was a tall and thin old man of sixty or seventy years old, with a gray beard, but he was only busy wielding a hoe, and there was no expression on his face.

A young man told another joke about the neighbor's bed, which caused everyone to burst into laughter, and the old man's son trembled with laughter.

This joke was so cruel that the young man's neighbor was so angry that he threw him over by the ditch, grabbed two handfuls of mud and smeared them on the young man's face, and punched him a few times in the thick flesh of his back and buttocks.

The others watched and laughed even more, joking and instigating with their hoes one by one, and laughing non-stop.

The old man snorted angrily, threw down the hoe vigorously, turned his head and shouted at the laughing people: "If you don't do it, go home!" ”

The old man's son was splashed with a hoe and was half covered in muddy water, and the people around him were a little afraid of the old man.

The two who were fighting were also separated, and the young man got up, came to the old man, and said with a smile: "Grandpa Chen, today's ditch is dredged, but there are some things that need to be done, so you can finish it by playing tricks, no need to be in a hurry." ”

"Humph!"

The old man snorted coldly, picked up his hoe, wiped off the muddy water on the hoe handle, and said in an urn voice: "Finish early and go home early!" ”

The young man said: "It's been half a month, and Grandpa Chen is still angry with Deng Yuanjun?" I can't wait for the common people, there is land and food at home, everything is worry-free, so that Jun Rende is exempt from forced labor, I should be grateful, what else do I want? Doesn't he care if he is an emperor or not? ”

The old man raised his head and sneered: "Who is I, Chen Sanqiang, who dares to be angry with the envoy?" But you brass don't know anything, I don't dare to forget, I have eaten Han food since I was a child, clothes and clothes, and my father and great-ancestors are all Han people! ”

This old man's name is Chen Qiang, Nanyang relocated, after settling in Xinmintun, Liangzhou, let the older generation call him Chen Sanqiang, in his own words, he is strong face, benevolent and righteous, and does not admit defeat.

The young man's name is Brass, and he also moved over from Nanyang, and when he heard the old man's words, he replied: "Grandpa Chen, when I was a Han Minsman in Nanyang, I had a good year and I was not able to eat enough, and it was difficult to cover my body. If Grandpa's family is not like this, why did they move under the rule of Deng Yuanjun? The affairs of the Han family have their own meat eaters, what does it matter to us to rise and fall? ”

It's just that this old man's stubbornness can not be persuaded by a few words from Brass, Chen Qiang reprimanded coldly: "Ignorant child! We are waiting for today's hardship, but we are the mistakes of the national thieves, what does it have to do with the Holy Son of Heaven? If you can get rid of the evil people, you can restore peace in the world. There are many state affairs, and the Quartet is endless, how can the government have so much money and food to hire people to do the work, and how can there be a country that does not practice forced labor since ancient times? Deng Mu'an can't do this for the time being, but he does Huang Lao's technique, if he wants to attract the people to vote, sooner or later it will be abolished, you don't celebrate it early! ”

Although Chen Sanqiang is also illiterate, the wall of his hometown is a private school, and he has heard a lot of books and texts, and he has also heard scholars debate the techniques of governing the country of various schools, so he knows a little about the big truth.

Brass couldn't confess to the old man, so he could only shut up and stop talking, but someone next to him disagreed, and said: "Listen to Tun Changyan, Deng Yuanjun has been in Luoyang for eight years, and there has been no conscription under his rule." Recently, Tunzhong has discussed the new system, although it is difficult for us to understand the details, but everyone says that Deng makes the king give power to the people, which is rare for eternity, is this not better than the Han family? ”

There were no soldiers and inspectors in the ditch, Chen Qiang was bolder, and sneered: "Let power go to the people, how can there really be such a thing?" This is just that Deng Mu'an wants to do a contrarian thing on behalf of Han, if this is just to cover up his name, you will believe it? Don't hear that only the people can run for election? Eight or nine meritorious people are brave soldiers, supervising households, this is as close to Deng Mu'an, you don't see the party wants to implement the new system, and the farmer's family will be done by us, and they have been recruited back to the army? I haven't heard of any thieves in the near future, why don't you plan this matter first? In the future, it will allude to the deer as a horse, how can the small people know? ”

I remember that under Deng Ji's rule, I was afraid of being reported to the official, but the old man didn't scold anything more ugly.

Now the Xinmintun in Xiliang is not as good as Sizhou Henan, and most of the meritorious people only have the home of the brave soldiers, and the residents of Brass and their tun are only good people, only the master, the tun chief and a carpenter are good people, and the rest are all civilian household registrations, and the people who work here today are all civilians, and they only know a little about Deng Mu'an's new system, even if they don't agree with Chen Qiang's words, they can't say anything to refute it.

"It is still difficult to understand whether the conscription or service may be one or two or twenty years, but you can know the truth after two or three years of power," the old man sneered again: "At that time, you and the others will know that no matter where we are, we are only for the untouchables, and Deng Mu'an's new dynasty will fool the people, and it may not be as good as the old system of the Han Dynasty in the future!" There are many traitors in the Han family, until the Son of Heaven suffers, and the foolish people can be bullied! Sigh! ”

Chen Sanqiang seemed to have a point, after listening to his long sigh, everyone's previous cheerful mood began to become heavy, and no one laughed and joked anymore, only silently doing the work in hand.

Brass stopped talking, and paid no attention to the mud on his face, and returned to his original position, and was just about to dig with his hoe, when a lump of grass fell from the mound of earth that had been piled up above the ditch, and was striking him on the head.

"Huh?"

Brass looked left and right, and the people around him were several steps away, not like anyone was joking.

Bowing his head in confusion, the remaining water surface under the ditch was rippling layer after layer, and the tips of the weeds next to him were trembling.

When he looked up again, he found that the entire ditch was shaking, and the dirt on both sides of the ditch fell straight down.

Everywhere the dirt fell into the ditch, not only brass, but many people had already noticed the abnormality, and they were surprised and wondered.

"Boom! Boom Boom! ”

Paying attention to the outside, only to hear the chaotic and dull loud roar, Brass hurriedly threw away the hoe, climbed to the ditch hard, only glanced at it, and then turned around and shouted: "Grandpa Chen, the soldiers are recruited back to the army, I am afraid it is for the military!" ”

After all, Chen Qiang is old, and it is rare to climb up for a while, and when his son goes up first, he then stretches out his hand to drag him up the mound, only to find that at the end of the northern vision, the black-pressed cavalry is running along the avenue to this side, and the knights on the horse are more black-armored halberds, which are the Pingliang Army to which the soldiers belong to the Tun soldiers.

Chen Sanqiang opened his mouth slightly, he didn't understand what else was going on in this army——— if he was to conquer Zhangye, he shouldn't come to Tianshui.

Thinking of the old man's argument before, the mood of the people watching around was first relaxed, and then it was tight——— and there was a military matter?

Note: Pawn, pawn. Han Dynasty conscription. Men between the ages of 23 and 56 are required to serve. Each person serves one month a year in the county or county, and is called a pawn. Each person takes turns to serve in Beijing for one year in a certain order, and is called a regular pawn.

(Recommended tickets, monthly passes, requests) (To be continued.) )