June of the first year of Zhongping of the Great Han Dynasty [184 AD].

Zhang Mad walked in the middle of the team, looking at the team that stretched for miles on the main road, and his heart was very proud.

After experiencing a fierce battle in the county town of Shan Father, the Tianping Army set off quickly, leaving this place of right and wrong, and by the way, staying away from Sun Jianbu, who went to besiege "Bo Cai Shuai". Along the way, because there were no unsightly Haoqiang and Han troops to disturb them, the road was quite smooth. The boundary in front is Pengchengguo in Xuzhou.

"Report!"

A pegasus galloped from the front. It was the scout team in charge of pathfinding. The soldiers of Tianping on the main road temporarily left the roadbed and hid to both sides, wondering in their hearts if there was another enemy?

The scout came to the arrogance, turned over and dismounted, gave a simple military salute, and reported loudly:

"Qiyu Qu Shuai, twenty miles ahead, there is a Han army blocking the road!"

Zhang raised his eyebrows and asked:

"How many? Who is the general? ”

"There are about three or four thousand people, and the general is unknown, but I just saw the word 'Cao' written on the general's flag!"

A stirring spirit in the heart of insolence. When he heard the word "Cao", his first reaction was to think of Cao Cao and Cao Mengde, who were known as the "first people of the Three Kingdoms". However, Zhang Mad immediately reacted, Cao Cao should still be in the Yanzhou area, entangled with the "Buji" department of the Yellow Turban Army!

Thinking of this, the arrogance suddenly grew. Except for Cao Cao's litter of Cao's Cao family, there are other surnames Cao in the Three Kingdoms, but there are no famous generals? Since it is Xuzhou, should you meet the Cao Bao, who is commonly known as "straw bales" in later generations?

"It's hard work, go and rest!"

Zhang Yan calmed the sweaty scout, and said to the soldiers beside him:

"Give an order to Yu Baichang [Yu Ban], let him advance carefully, and report immediately if he encounters an enemy!"

As the herald's soldiers went away, the Tianping Army Brigade advanced again. It's just that this time the advance slowed down, and the soldiers' weapons were not allowed to leave their bodies, and all the elite soldiers who were issued armor must also prepare their armor and be able to quickly put on armor to fight within half an hour.

On the June sun, the sun is like fire, and people can't wait to peel off this layer of skin on their bodies to cool down. Zhang Mad looked up at the sky and thought:

――In such weather, there are still people who want to fight?

- Not to mention anything else, as long as you put the armor on your body for an hour, you will get heat stroke in ten times. This Han general, should you consider the military heart?

Twenty miles away, the commander of the Han army, kneeling under a big tree, enjoying the human fan that followed the maidservant, picked up a bowl of lotus seed soup soaked in well water, took a sip, and asked his soldiers:

"How's it going, is it still quiet down there?"

When several soldiers heard this, they looked left and right, and finally the oldest one came forward and replied:

"The soldiers complained a lot, saying that the weather was too hot to put on armor. Don't hide it from Lord Sima, when Xia Guan stayed in the Southern Army, whenever he encountered such weather, he would never go to battle......"

Han Jun Sima looked about thirty years old, but his skin was thin and tender, and he looked whiter than the two young maidservants beside him. He put down the lotus seed soup a little anxiously, twisted the three strands of hair on his chin, and said:

"Am I going to be embarrassed? However, the 'Tianping Army' is marching towards Xuzhou! ”

The name of the "Tianping Army", after experiencing a fierce battle between Shan Father City and Sun Jian, the "Jiangdong Tiger", has spread its prestige in the surrounding area. Especially close to Wu County, knowing how amazing Sun Jian's bravery is, they have long been quite wary of this Yellow Turban Army that can resist Sun Jian's attack.

Moreover, this Han army Sima from a big clan also learned some details of the battle against the Tianping Army from the letterhead of Bao Xin, the governor of Yanzhou. With such information, the Han army Sima naturally had to raise his vigilance by twelve points.

Han Jun Sima's words aroused a burst of discussion among the following military candidates. A younger soldier couldn't help but shout:

"Lord Sima, when have we been afraid of the enemy? If these 'moth thieves' don't come, if they dare to come and make noise, we will destroy them, so why think about it? ”

In the face of the rudeness of his subordinates, Han Jun Sima was a little annoyed, but he immediately calmed down. He was depressed:

-- He is a descendant of the Cao family, a dignified and high-ranking family, and he has already cited the "filial piety" in the state, and he was supposed to be the handsome man of the country who was going to be elected as an official in Luoyang!

-- For the sake of a Yellow Turban Army, now he actually wants to appease these proud soldiers and fierce generals in this humble barracks!

- Moreover, if it weren't for the fact that he had brought 2,000 private soldiers with him, these Danyang barbarians would not have been able to look down on the title of "State Division and Military Sima".

Thinking of this, this Cao Sima couldn't help but regret a little, why did he accept the expedition of the assassin history and take over the official position of this "state Sima". He made up his mind that when this battle was over, he would resign from the position of military Sima to Lord Assassin Shi, and let his second brother Cao Bao, who likes to dance with guns and sticks, take over this position.

"Don't underestimate you. After all, the Tianping Army is under Sun Sima, and those who have escaped with their lives are not ordinary incompetent moth thieves, so they must not be taken lightly! ”

Cao Bao's eldest brother, the patriarchal heir of the Cao clan in Pengcheng, and the famous scholar of Xuzhou - Cao Hong, suppressed the dissatisfaction in his heart and persuaded his soldiers with bitter words. Since Cao Hong did not know much about military affairs, he usually took an extremely cautious approach when directing operations. This kind of behavior made the leaders of the Danyang soldiers under him very despised.

However, contempt is contempt, people are celebrities who have been raised to filial piety, if you really want to clean up which one of them, even the state assassin will not save people's face. Therefore, even if they were disdainful in their hearts, several soldiers still had Nuo Nuo in their mouths.

After discovering that there were Han troops stationed in front of him, Zhang Qi naturally had no interest, and took the initiative to meet them and exchange ideas with them. The reason why he took the Tianping Army and went all the way east was to avoid the fierce Central Plains battlefield.

Although it was unlikely, Zhang Qiang still chose to take a detour, from a place more than ten miles away from the Han army's position, to the northeast, in order to avoid the Han army, which had superiority in strength and equipment.

In order to ensure the safety of the troops, Zhang Qi not only released all the scouts under He Qian, but also sent Yu Ban, who had the strongest commanding power, to open the way ahead.

In addition, the general Dian Wei was sent to the baggage team with his heavy armor team to protect the grain and baggage of the whole army. Coupled with Shen Fu, who has a calm temperament, after leading the headquarters of the palace, he feels that such an arrangement is simply foolproof.

After rushing for a long time, the Han army, which was sent out by the scout team and paid close attention, actually did not react to the movement of the Tianping army. This made the arrogant heart a little up and down, scratching his head. But, in any case, this powerful Han army of thousands of people actually seemed to be selectively blind, allowing the enemy to slip under his nose.

-- Do you mean that my prestige has reached the point where the enemy does not dare to act rashly?

Thinking wildly, I knew that this was impossible. If the original "Bo Cai Shuai" prestige is ten, then the current "Bu Ji Shuai" prestige is seven. As for the Tianping Army, which has only about 2,500 people, I don't know if there are three......

In fact, along the way, there have been many times of arrogance, and the opportunities for the team can be quickly expanded. After all, now the Central Plains is full of wars, and displaced people can be seen everywhere. Many desperated poor people are willing to follow any team in order to eat.

However, knowing the arrogance of the Yellow Turban Army's final ending, he had no intention of expanding it at all.

Not to mention the displaced people recruited, most of them are old, weak, sick and disabled, which will greatly slow down the advance of the Tianping Army. The mere issue of food for the increase in personnel is enough to drive people crazy. Moreover, there are more people, but the combat effectiveness of the army will not rise much, but more Han troops will pay attention to the Tianping Army, which originally wanted to be taoguang and obscure.

At this scale, it's good. With tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of Yellow Turban troops everywhere, even if a small team of 2 or 3,000 people is reported by the local officials, it will be a shame.

Due to the hot weather, the Tianping army now marched, all of them got up early at dawn, walked for a while, and waited until noon, they temporarily settled down, until the evening, when the heat dissipated, and then took advantage of the coolness to catch up with a certain distance. One consequence of this was that the soldiers were more likely to get tired. Therefore, you need to stop and repair for every three days.

It was noon. The various units of the Tianping Army were about to stop to make a fire to cook, but they saw that the sky was full of dark clouds, and it became dark in a blink of an eye, but in a moment, the raindrops the size of beans "crackled" and fell from the sky!

Although he knew that there would be such a rainstorm in such a season, the Tianping Army was still caught off guard. While secretly cursing this thief, Zhang Madness ran towards the big tree beside the road surrounded by his own soldiers.

At this moment, a sudden change occurred!

ps: Filial piety

According to the current point of view, "filial piety and honesty" is a rather fucked up talent selection system. A person, as long as he has a reputation for being erudite, filial to his parents, and honest behavior, can be selected to become an official. However, when Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty first implemented the system of "promoting filial piety and honesty", this was a pretty good talent selection system.

The key to this lies in the fact that the earliest "filial piety and honesty" is of a joint nature. If the referee is unqualified or commits a crime, the referee will be held responsible. Therefore, in the early days, high-ranking officials who were qualified to "raise filial piety and honesty" often did not run out of filial piety quotas.

However, at a later stage, for some reason, the joint and several liability of the referrer was abolished. Therefore, the filial piety recommended by the recommender has only benefits, not harm. In this way, "promoting filial piety and honesty" to gain official office immediately became an activity with huge benefits. All kinds of deceitful and sanctimonious people will also have a place to use.

Finally, something like "show talent, don't know the book; Filial piety and honesty, the father does not live. Nursery rhymes began to spread widely. And the loss of fairness and filial piety has finally been replaced by the "Nine Grades Zhongzheng System", which seems more reasonable on the surface.

Character - Cao Hong.

From "Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms: Book of Wei": "(Tao) Qian betrayed his feelings: Guangling was too guarded by Zhao Yu, and Xu Fang was also a famous person, and he was loyal and straightforward; Cao Hong and others, slanderous villains, humility and resignation. If there is disharmony in criminal and political affairs, many goodness will be harmed by it, and chaos will gradually occur."

The relationship between this person and Cao Bao is purely apocryphal.