The wine and food were served in the same way, but Hou Lan only ate a few small pieces lightly and stopped using chopsticks.

After drinking a lot of wine, Hou Lan then talked to Sun Ming about his daily routine, revealing the fact that Sun Ming's ancestors had been found out for eight generations.

Even Sun Ming's private occupation of Sangqian City was mentioned in passing.

Sun Ming walked on thin ice, carefully answering every question Hou Lan.

When the banquet ended, Hou Lan also advised, "You have to go to the thieves as soon as possible to make meritorious contributions, we will pay attention to you, when the days are short, the heavy responsibility of recovering the Han Dynasty again will be in your hands." ”

"When the Yellow Turban traitor is almost destroyed, if you really figure it out, you will come to Luoyang when the time comes."

That Hou Lan lived in the palace, and he naturally knew that the emperor's current physical condition was about to fail.

He is trying to attract talents everywhere so that the Son of Heaven will die in the future, and their eunuchs can continue to control the world.

Sun Ming accompanied Hou Lan back to the Taishou Mansion, and Wang Ze was no longer in the mansion.

"Okay, knowing that you are busy with military affairs, you don't need to accompany me, you can retreat by yourself."

Na Hou Lan left Takayanagi the next day, and he had to go to the valley to recruit another talent that he thought would be useful.

After Sun Ming retreated, he went to the Gaoliu military camp again and saw Wang Ze, who did not go back to his home in order to hide from Hou Lan.

This Wang Ze is also a member of the county-level scholar clan, and their family is also the defender and beneficiary of the power of the scholar clan.

For the sake of understanding, I have divided the scholars into county, county, and state levels.

Zhou Tao of Zhuo County is a county-level scholar, Wang Ze is a county-level scholar, and Yuan Shao's fourth and third dukes are state-level scholars.

When Wang Ze saw him, he said, "Sun boy, don't believe the eunuchs, they bring disaster to the country and the people, but they are sinners in the world." ”

Sun Ming laughed and said, "Boy, I can still tell the difference between black and white, but the kid and Luoyang Zhongshu Ling Weizhou are not in agreement, this commendation has been deducted by him, and it is Hou Lan who helps the kid fight." ”

Sun Ming told Wang Ze about the grievances between him and Wei Zhou.

Of course Wang Ze knew about the Wei family, and frowned, thinking to himself that this Wei Zhou pushed Sun Ming out for the sake of a damned person?

Then he replied, "Boy, don't worry, when I go to Luoyang, I will help you get justice." ”

Sun Ming then returned to the camp with the commendation order and two treasures rewarded by the imperial court.

The commendation order named Sun Ming as the general of the thief, Yu Li, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, and Han Zhong were lieutenants, and some others were also promoted.

It is now June of the second year of Zhongping, that is, in the summer of 185 AD, Sun Ming led his troops out of Zhuo County to more than five months now.

In less than half a year, he repeatedly made military exploits, promoted two levels in a row, and became a Zhonglang general, and for a time the entire Youzhou spread Sun Ming's name.

In fact, the promotions of Guan, Zhang and others have little to do with their troops, and how many soldiers they can bring mainly depends on how much Sun Ming gives and his own ability.

The most important thing is the two treasures rewarded by the imperial court, a large sword, and a treasure armor.

The knife is a nine-ring machete, extremely sharp, made of high-quality iron by the court blacksmith, weighing fifty-one pounds.

The armor is a silver lion armor, also made of fine iron, with a lion face carved on its chest.

Sun Ming thought about it, but it was useless to keep it for himself, so he immediately rewarded Li Meng with the treasure knife and Han Zhong with the treasure armor.

Sun Ming then found Yu Li to chat privately about his conversation with Hou Lan and asked Yu Li's opinion.

Yu Li listened to Sun Ming's narration and thought for a long time, before he slowly spoke, "Then Hou Lan used a clear trick to directly tell the owner of your enemy and let you move closer to him." ”

"The enemy he said is something we can't fight against at the moment, but once we hit the eunuch's faction, it will be the enemy of all the Dashi clans in the world, you have to think about it."

Sun Ming smiled bitterly and said, "Even if I don't get closer to the eunuch faction, the Dashi clan in the world may not be very kind to me." ”

"The Wei family, the Yuan family is enough to block my ascent channel, in that case, why should I please those scholars."

Yu Li thought about it and felt that it was the same thing.

Sun Ming continued, "I used to be a nameless white cloth in Zhuoxian, I was not afraid of the Wei family, and now I have no reason to be afraid of them." ”

"And that Hou Lan seems to have acquiesced in my move to occupy Sangqian City, I should take advantage of Hou Lan's momentum to take down the entire Dai County and gain a firm foothold."

Yu Li pondered for a while, "I support the owner's approach, the strong in this world are kings, if you want not to be bullied, you can only be stronger than them." ”

After Sun Ming negotiated with Yu Li, he went to deal with daily military affairs.

Another day passed, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei led their troops as the front army, Sun Ming sat in the middle army, and Han Zhong led a 300-strong Xianbei cavalry to echo each other.

These three hundred cavalry was the beginning, and Sun Ming had a purpose to form a powerful cavalry.

An army of 15,000 men marched straight to Macheng.

Macheng County ordered Pei Yuan to find out the news, and as soon as Sun Ming's army was launched, he jumped up and down like an ant on a hot pot.

Pei Yuan is a villain who is greedy for life and afraid of death, he surrendered directly when the Yellow Turban came, and now in the face of the stronger Sun Ming, he can't raise the heart to resist.

Sun Ming's army had not yet arrived, and Pei Yuan had already led more than 100 people out of the city for ten kilometers to meet Sun Ming.

Some guest officers may be about to ask, is there really someone so cowardly? Are you afraid of dying like this?

The answer is yes, in history, Song Huizong was a man who gave full play to the words greed for life and fear of death.

Sun Ming Yao looked at Pei Yuan's suspicious behavior and decided to be cautious, and immediately sent Zhao Yun to lead a thousand people to surround Pei Yuan and the others first.

After confirming that Pei Yuan had really surrendered, Sun Ming couldn't help frowning and led the whole army up.

That Pei Yuan saw that Sun Ming came to him in front of him surrounded by many people, and he knelt down without any restraint, and shouted with tears in his eyes

"The lower official met with the thief Zhonglang General, and the lower official in order to preserve his strength and protect the safety of the people of Macheng."

"Endure humiliation and succumb to the thief, and now that I have finally waited for the general, no matter how much the sacrifice of the subordinate is worth it."

Now Sun Ming is already a Zhonglang general, and his official position is no lower than that of the county order, so it is no problem for Pei Yuan to call himself a lower official, but what he said is simply to take himself as a fool.

Sun Ming listened to Pei Yuantian's shameless speech, a look of disgust flashed on his face, and then he helped Pei Yuan up.

"Pei County has worked hard, let's go to the city."

Sun Ming said this, but their middle camp did not move, and let Zhang Fei and Guan Yu lead two front armies to take over the Macheng military camp.

After two hours to confirm that all the people in Ma Cheng were in control, Sun Ming and the others entered Ma Cheng.

After Pei Yuan welcomed Sun Ming and others into the city, he also set up a banquet for Sun Ming, during which Pei Yuan was extremely flattering, and he also took out many boxes of gold to bribe Sun Ming.

Sun Ming accepted the money and ostensibly promised Pei Yuan to let him continue to be the commander of Macheng County.

When he completely controlled Macheng the next day, he asked Han Zhong to take down all the dozens of executives in Macheng, and Pei Yuan was escorted away by the soldiers who broke in when he fell asleep at home.

Those executives were interrogated by people in the military and said everything.

It turned out that the people of Macheng lived a very miserable life, and the officials led by Pei Yuan wantonly collected the people's fat and ointment in Macheng, which made the people of the whole city complain.

After the Yellow Turban Army arrived, Pei Yuan let himself go and forcibly bought the acres of land of all the farmers in Macheng at a low price, forcing all the people to make money for him alone.

He also robbed other people's property at will in the city, and forcibly robbed people's daughters, which was more like a bandit than a bandit.

Sun Ming looked at the list of offenses, and was so angry that he burst out on the spot, this kind of scum should be cut with a thousand cuts.

In prison, Pei Yuan was still shouting to see Sun Ming, and kept muttering that Sun Ming had promised him that he would be fine.

The next day, Sun Ming ordered the scum to be escorted to the entrance of the vegetable market, found some executioners, and slowly cut off their flesh one by one.

On this day, the whole city of Malaysia did not do business, and came to watch the execution.

The crowd was already crowded several streets, and the people behind were still desperately squeezing in, and everyone present applauded, and the people's complaints simply resounded throughout the city.

Sun Ming then left behind some troops and administrative staff, and like Sang Qiancheng, he took Macheng under his control.

And all the family assets of those who were executed were confiscated by Sun Ming and used as military funds and the construction of Macheng.

Two days later, on the day when Sun Ming's army marched from Macheng, the people of Macheng went out of the city to send each other several kilometers, which shows that Sun Ming's prestige has reached the point of being in full swing in the local area.