When Zhuge Liang crossed Pidongcheng and entered Huainan territory, the large army that moved from Huangmenting also went south from Xiangben Shunyishui at this time.

If you want to go from Xuzhou to Huainan, Surabaya and Huaishui are unavoidable hurdles.

In the Han Dynasty, the main way to cross such large rivers was not bridges, but ferries, because with the bridge-building technology at that time, it was difficult to build a good bridge to make the moat a thoroughfare.

Therefore, the relocation troops of Huangmenting needed to cross the river from the ferry in Xiapi County, where Xiapi was governed.

But when the large army arrived at the ferry port in the area of Geyi Mountain outside Xiapi City, what they saw was a desolation, and the ferry port had long been deserted.

As a last resort, everyone had to go upstream along Surabaya, there is actually a ferry port downstream, and go south along Surabaya all the way from Suiling to Xutai, and then go to the direction of Dongcheng.

It's just that Shen Chen thinks that this route is full of slaughtered Xuzhou people, and more than a month has passed since the beginning of May, and the degree of decomposition of the corpses will definitely be very high, and the plague bacteria breed and multiply, which is the most dangerous time.

Therefore, they had to go in the direction of Lu County in the upper reaches of Surabaya, but even in the direction of Lu County, they saw white bones along the way, villages were slaughtered, and floating corpses could often be seen in the river.

When they finally found a boat to cross the river from the ferry in Lu County, they went all the way south, and inevitably approached the county of Tuxian, where they finally saw what hell on earth was.

Villages were slaughtered cleanly, liquefied corpses could be seen everywhere along the road, flies and mosquitoes flew around, and there was no sound of chickens and dogs in a radius of dozens of miles.

The route planned by Shen Chen had already avoided the central area of the massacre, but even the tragic situation on the periphery was still beyond his imagination.

"Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and "Book of the Later Han Dynasty" talk about the records of a few crosses, how can they express the grief of hundreds of thousands of victims in Xiapi?

"Pull out the five cities, and then go to the East China Sea. returned to Tan, and Qian sent Cao Bao and Liu Bei to Tandong, and asked for Taizu. Taizu broke it, and then attacked Xiangben, and killed too much. ”

"Pulling out and worrying, Juling, and Xiaqiu, they are all slaughtered. Where hundreds of thousands of men and women are killed, there are no chickens and dogs, and Surabaya does not flow, and it is the five county county protection, and there is no trace of repetition. ”

The cold phrase "all the slaughter" and "every slaughter of hundreds of thousands of men and women" are like a record of lambs slaughtered in a slaughterhouse.

But these are all people.

Shen Chen's eyes were also full of sadness as he looked at all this.

There are many descendants who launder Cao Cao's slaughter of the city.

Pity.

Why are the ancestors of these whitewashers not the people who were slaughtered in Xuzhou?

After much consideration, things are getting a little better.

The large army crossed Suishui and Fuli in late June, approached Xiangxian in early July, and gradually moved towards Jiujiang.

In fact, it is not far from Xuzhou to Huainan, that is, from Linyi City, Shandong Province to Huainan City, Anhui Province, the whole journey is more than 400 kilometers, and the road is smooth, and the road is very easy to walk.

Normally, it takes three or four days to ride a horse, and if you walk 40 kilometers a day, it will never exceed 12 days.

But after all, Huangmenting is more than 1,000 villagers, not well-trained elite soldiers, the villagers take the old and help the young, and the daily march is about 20 kilometers, and the speed is not very fast.

Therefore, from mid-June to early July, it took about ten days, and I walked less than 300 kilometers, almost two-thirds of the way.

By mid-July, they had finally moved to the Shouchun area of Huainan.

At this time, Zhuge Xuan had actually arrived in Shouchun, and Yuan Shu was overjoyed when he learned that a family had passed by, so he summoned Zhuge Xuan to inquire.

Although the other party is only a third-rate family, he also appreciates his talent, so he praised Zhuge Xuan as Yuzhang Taishou.

A month later, the elders of Huangmenting Township also came to Shouchun, and Yuan Shu learned that a famous family passed by, so he summoned him to inquire.

Strictly speaking, the Shen family is very poor, and it has nothing to do with the family gate valve.

But the Deng family is different.

Tracing back to the ancestors, the grandfathers and great-grandfathers of Deng Mao, Deng Hong and others, they were all the top eunuchs in the period of the Empress Dowager Deng, and there were countless marquis with three dukes and two thousand stones in the family.

It's just that because of the persecution suffered during the period of Emperor An, the Deng family declined, and the children no longer served as officials in the court, and fled to other places.

But the tiger died and the aftermath remained, and the Deng family's reputation was still retained.

Therefore, when Yuan Shu heard that the Xinye Deng clan was coming, he naturally summoned him to take a look at the situation.

Shen Chen had expected this for a long time, so he discussed with Deng Mao, Deng Hong and other clan elders along the way how to deal with it, and finally decided to let Deng Hong pretend to be a master, fool Yuan Shu, and let him help the clansmen go to Jingzhou.

On July 16, the elders of Huangmenting Township were temporarily arranged by Yuan Shu in the north of Shouchun City, and Deng Hong took Shen Chen into the mansion of General Zuo of Shouchun City to pay homage to Yuan Shu.

General Zuo's mansion is large and luxurious, and there is a huge courtyard when you enter the door.

Under the guidance of the servants, Deng Hong and Shen Chen walked through the courtyard to the central hall and saw a middle-aged man sitting on the main seat.

There are several guards in the hall to protect him, and there is a middle-aged Confucian scholar on the left hand side of the man, who is Yan Xiang, the master of Yuan Shu.

Seeing the middle-aged man on the main seat, Deng Hong took Shen Chen forward and bowed, "I've seen General Zuo." ”

"You are Deng Hong. No courtesy, please be seated. ”

Yuan Shu motioned for them to sit down.

"Thank you, General Zuo."

Deng Hong took Shen Chen to sit on the seat on Yuan Shu's right hand.

The Han Dynasty respects the right, which is mentioned in the Book of Han and the Book of the Later Han, and it was not until the Tang and Song dynasties that the left was respected.

Therefore, Yuan Shu, as the top famous family of the Fourth World and the Third Duke, let two people who have no official positions sit on the seat under his right hand, which is obviously a great respect.

It can also be seen from here that Yuan Shu at this time is far from being so arrogant and arrogant in the future, and still has the etiquette of the fourth world and the third duke.

After Deng Hong sat down, he said to Yuan Shu: "General Zuo, this is my grandson Shen Chen, who is eight years old, I heard that General Zuo is famous all over the world, and he is deliberately clamoring to come with me to pay tribute to the general's prestige. ”

"Look up to me?"

Yuan Shu said curiously: "You childish boy is interesting, since you want to come to see me, now that you see me, how do you feel?" ”

Shen Chen stood up and said seriously: "Chen feels that the general does not match his name. ”

"Oh?"

Yuan Shu was a little unhappy in his heart, but his face still maintained normalcy and asked, "What's wrong?" ”

Shen Chen said: "The world says that Yuan Highway is dominated by the name of the fourth and third princes of the Yuan family, and his talent is far inferior to Yuan Shao. I think this is all their praise of Yuan Benchu, obviously the general is the dragon and phoenix of the Yuan family, but the world turns a blind eye, isn't it worthy of the name? ”

Yuan Shu was angry at first, but when he heard it, he became happy, and quipped: "Don't you want to trick me, don't you teach you to say this from your ancestors when you came?" ”

"By no means."

Shen Chen shook his head and said: "When I was in Xuzhou, I saw that the village was dilapidated, and the roads were full of corpses. After arriving in Huainan, he saw that the people lived and worked in peace and contentment, and the people had enough food and clothing, wasn't this because of the benevolence of the general? ”

Yan Xiang on the side also laughed when he heard this, and said to Yuan Shu: "Ming Gong, even the eight-year-old boy who came all the way from Xuzhou can see the difference between us and Cao Cao Tao Qian. ”

In fact, Yuan Shu summoned Zhuge Xuan and Deng Hong, not really to recruit any talents. He had just defeated Chen Wen, the assassin of Yangzhou, last year, and completely occupied Huainan, and was now preparing to go north to take Xuzhou.

Therefore, every time I hear that someone from Xuzhou has come, I will summon them to inquire about it, so as to understand the current actual situation in Xuzhou, so as to make a judgment and prepare for the war.

In addition to touting Yuan Shu in Shen Chen's words, Yan Xiang had already heard two pieces of information.

One is that the reason why Cao Cao withdrew from Xuzhou was that there was a big mess in the rear, and now he has no time to take care of himself, and it is a good opportunity to go north to seize Xuzhou.

The second is that Xuzhou is indeed dilapidated now, and its strength has been greatly reduced, and now attacking Xuzhou will be much less obstructive.

This also matched the news they had received from the displaced people and Zhuge Xuan who had come from Xuzhou before.

However, the information that Yan Xiang could hear, Shen Chen naturally did not know.

But he also knew very well that this could not be concealed, the Xuzhou Massacre caused a large number of people to migrate south to Huainan, and it was easy for Yuan Shu to get this information, and it would not do them any good to tell lies.

Therefore, it is better to tell the truth, and use the information that everyone knows to please Yuan Shu, which is equivalent to standing and earning money without saying anything.

Yuan Shu really laughed and said: "All the children nowadays are very smart, at the beginning of the year, Ji Ninggong brought his six-year-old son Lu Lang to see me, and stole three oranges from my case to go back to honor his mother." Today, I saw the Deng family from Sun Shenlang and saw the clues of the general trend of the world, the future life is terrifying, the future life is terrifying. ”

Shen Chen immediately said: "These are all what the Sixth Uncle Ancestor told me, he said that if the Han family is declining today, and the heroes are rising together, it is no different from the end of Qin. Qin lost his deer, and the world chased it. Among the princes in the south, Cao Cao was tyrannical and unkind, Tao Qian was old and unbearable, only General Zuo was young and strong, and he could protect the territory and the people, with the prestige of the Yuan family, why not sweep the universe and support the Han family? ”

He did not say that Yuan Shu could claim the emperor himself, but said that Yuan Shu had the ability to support the Han family.

The reason why I say this is because the mainstream environment of public opinion at that time was still dominated by Kuang Fu Han family, and after Cao Cao coerced the Son of Heaven to order the princes, countless family lords came to vote. Yuan Shu lost the hearts of the people immediately after becoming emperor, and the rebellion of relatives is a typical example.

It's just that Yuan Shu actually already had the idea of becoming an emperor at this time, so he was a little displeased when he heard Shen Chen's words.

However, he also knew that it was not yet the time, so he did not show displeasure, but his attitude was a lot weaker, and he said lightly: "I see, your uncle is right, the reputation of the Yuan family is all over the world, and I should clear the world, but do you know that our Yuan family and your Deng family still have a relationship?" ”