Chapter 133: Fighting Openly and Secretly (I)

Thanks to Qingzhou's perfect and fast military mail system, Cao Song's letters and parcels sent back to his hometown of Qiaoxian (now Haozhou, Anhui) were safely delivered to his son Cao Cao through Xuzhou in only seven days.

After the defeat of Bian Shui's army, Cao Cao, who lamented the "lack of conspiracy" of Yuan Shao and others, returned to his hometown, and did not fall silent, but with the full support of local clans and childhood friends, he recruited troops again and rose again, and the number of people under his command soon increased to more than 3,000.

Just after the Dragon Boat Festival in May, Cao Cao, who was training with his generals and colonels, received a letter and package from his father from Langya, and immediately returned to the hall with great interest to open it, and saw the beautifully printed "Langya Journal" and a refreshing "Qingzhou Times", Cao Cao was very surprised, picked up the 100-page thick academic journal and quickly flipped through it, and then opened the top copy of the "Qingzhou Times", and was immediately attracted by the upright and atmospheric red masthead font and the eye-catching issue date on the side.

Cao Cao looked at it for nearly an hour, quickly opened the cowhide envelope and took out the letter, carefully studied the font and content that his father was familiar with, the more he looked at it, the more surprised he became, the more excited he became, he read it again and again three times, and finally sighed faintly: "Liu Zijian does have the talent to go through the heavens and latitudes!" ”

Cao Ren, the younger brother who followed, laughed: "Liu Zijian is just a poor disciple who has been running from time to time, how can he be so amazed by the eldest brother with his small skills of carving insects?" ”

Cao Cao immediately glared: "Carving insect skills? Look at the armor on your body, and then look at the long knife on your waist, all of them were created by the iron workshop under Liu Zijian's rule, are these also small skills of carving insects? Think about the dumbfounded when you saw the Langya fleet on the south bank of the Yellow River before you left the sour jujube, can you still say the words of carving insects? ”

Cao Ren, who was only twenty-two years old but was a head taller than Cao Cao, immediately shut up. It wasn't his true idea to belittle Liu Cun just now, but it was just a natural expression of the young man's competitive mentality.

Cao Cao also understands the heart of his brother. casually handed the letter to Cao Ren: "You can also take a look, after reading it, you will know how big Liu Zijian's heart is." In this world, I am afraid that Liu Zijian is the only one who can make Confucians like Zheng Xuan and Bing Yuan listen to opinions with an open mind, and can make my father praise so much! ”

Cao Ren quickly read the letter, gently put it on the desktop in front of Cao Cao, lowered his head and asked in a low voice, "Big brother, is Liu Zijian really so powerful?" ”

"It's a hundred times more powerful than we imagined! Just look at his ruthlessness in ruthlessly suppressing more than 100 wealthy families in Qingzhou in order to implement the new policy, you should know how ambitious he is! ”

Cao Cao put down the May issue of "Langya Journal" in his hand, and his face was full of complexity. After thinking about it for a long time, he suddenly took the case: "I can't wait any longer, you go and inform everyone immediately, I will wait for the north to go to Dongjun early tomorrow morning, and take over the position of Taishou of Dongjun appointed by Lord Liu Dai, the assassin of Yanzhou, so as to save you a lot of dreams at night!" ”

Almost at the same time, Liu Bei, who could not be reused by Yuan Shao and was despised by all the princes, led his troops back to Yuyang, Jizhou (now southwest of Miyun, Beijing) again, and officially assumed the post of Sima of other departments under the command of Gongsun Zhan, a brave general, but he was worried about Gaotang County, which was not what it used to be. and Qingzhou Mu Liu Cun, who expanded this county into a huge fortress, but he didn't know that his every move was under Liu Cun's watch.

Like Cao Cao, Liu Bei was deeply shocked by Liu Cun's ruthless repressive methods, and marveled at Qingzhou's rapid development and world-leading manufacturing industry. It also found a huge impetus generated by Qingzhou's new policy.

In the past two months, Liu Bei took two sworn brothers several times and followed Gongsun Zhan south to the Gushui estuary wharf on the west bank of Bohai Bay. Receiving and transporting military rations, cloth, carriages and other materials sent by Qingzhou, the two huge transport ships of the Qingzhou Navy with a length of more than 30 zhang and a height of four floors. and the fast warships cruising around the periphery of the transport ship, which made Liu Bei deeply shocked every time. And every time he felt that he was getting farther and farther away from Liu Cun.

Although Gongsun Chan also admired Qingzhou's rapid development and manufacturing capacity, what Gongsun Chan valued most was the gathering of more than 5 million people in Qingzhou to live and work in peace and contentment.

Gongsun Zhan was most moved by the rapid growth of Qingzhou's population, and praised Liu Cun's ability to resettle the victims, and his most common sentence was: "In addition to the six million people in Jingzhou and the five million people in Yizhou, I am afraid that Qingzhou has the largest total population, even if you choose five out of a hundred, you can easily pull out two or three hundred thousand soldiers!" ”

Every time he heard Gongsun Zhan's emotion, Liu Bei nodded in agreement, but he wanted to say to Gongsun Zhan in his heart: "It's not terrible to have a large population, what is terrible is that while Liu Cun suppressed the local power, he constantly allocated land to the poor and reclaimed the fields to promote industry and commerce, and what was even more terrifying was Liu Cun's far-sighted plan to win the hearts of the people!" ”

But Liu Bei will never say this to Gongsun Zhan, Liu Bei will only say it to his second brother Guan Yu and third brother Zhang Fei, just like Liu Bei entrusted a familiar local businessman to leave each issue of "Qingzhou Times" for him, Gongsun Chan does not like to read it, but Liu Bei and his two sworn brothers often read it, often discuss it together, and sigh together.

Liu Bei, who was thoughtful and stoic, didn't know that the grocery store shopkeeper who left him a copy of "Qingzhou Times" every time in the front street of Yuyang Chengfu was the chief official of Youzhou Station in Qingzhou's "Zhushan Camp", and he was an important person who specially monitored Gongsun Zan and kept an eye on him Liu Bei.

Liu Cun's attention to Liu Bei is no less than that of Yuan Shao and Cao Cao, but Liu Cun's actions are very cautious, and his request to Lu Jiu is: "Zhushan Battalion" only needs to know the whereabouts of the monitored objects, and there is no need for deeper investigation for the time being, so the senior agents sent out are not under much pressure, but can complete the task more covertly and efficiently.

######

On the tenth day of the fifth month, Liu Cun ushered in Mi Zhu, a special envoy sent by Xuzhou Assassin Shi Taoqian, Liu Cun led his eldest brother to the shogunate east of the general's mansion for a walk, and talked with Gongsun Pei, Han Rou, Guoyuan and others, and then returned to his home in the west courtyard.

Mi Huan was pleasantly surprised when he saw his brother's sudden arrival, and personally brewed a pot of fragrant tea and sent it to his brother, then sat beside his brother and looked at it for a long time, worriedly telling his brother not to be too tired, he was so thin that he couldn't recognize it, but in exchange for Mi Zhu and Liu Cun's laughter.

"Little sister, don't say this again, my brother finally lost weight, but you let your brother get fat back, and I'm afraid that your husband won't laugh enough at your brother?" Mi Zhu quipped.

Liu Cun said with a smile: "It's good to be thinner, although obesity is rich, it is not good for the body, and it is easy to cause various diseases due to inconvenience." ”

Mi Zhu suddenly remembered something: "Mr. Wu Pu, who was invited for you last time, can you stay with peace of mind?" ”

"Stayed, he is very satisfied with the conditions we provide, in the middle of January, I officially handed over the largest 'Langya Medical Hall' in Xiahe City to him to preside over, and vacated the two shops and warehouses on the left and behind, built a pharmaceutical workshop and two special medicine warehouses, and specially made a batch of instruments and bottles and cans for him, so that he and his four disciples can accept more disciples to start learning."

"If everything goes well, his master Mr. Hua Tuo will come to Langya in person before the end of the year, but he may not be able to keep this master who is determined to save the world, but even so, I am very satisfied, thank you for your support." Liu Cun replied happily.

Mi Zhu waved his hand: "This time, in addition to bringing the greetings of Lord Tao Gongzu (Tao Qianzi) and the order of 10,000 sets of light cavalry armor, there is also a major event involving the trilateral relationship between Xuzhou, Yanzhou and Qingzhou, that is, the demarcation of Nanwuyang at the junction of the three states. ”

"Yanzhou Assassin Liu Dai didn't dare to trouble you, but he was dissatisfied with my Xuzhou, and dared to say that Nancheng was a subordinate county in Yanzhou, and he said that he wanted to take back the Nancheng that his second brother is guarding now, and it is estimated that he saw that we made a lot of money by burning charcoal cement in Nancheng, and he felt uncomfortable and wanted to exchange for benefits through blackmail."

Liu Cunzheng couldn't find an excuse to clean up Liu Dai, who was becoming more and more unscrupulous, and immediately walked out of the living room when he heard the words, and asked Zhai Chao to invite Gongsun Pei, Guoyuan, Zhao Rong and Lu Jiu, who had just returned.

*********

PS: The third more is sent, asking for subscriptions, monthly passes and full praise support! (To be continued......)