In the second half of the eleventh year of Jian'an, there were fires and smoke in all parts of Dahan.

Cai Mao and Zhang Lu fought in many places in Ba County, the two sides were half a catty and eight taels, the number of soldiers and horses, and the tactical level were about the same, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year, the rookies pecked each other, each other won and lost, and it was difficult to distinguish the superior in a short period of time.

And Huang Zu was not angry that he was captured by Zhou Yusheng at the beginning, so he secretly returned to Jiangxia, and with the support of Liu Biao, trained the navy, built ships, and prepared to attack Jiangdong again and eliminate Sun Quan.

Yuan Shang also actively prepared grain, grass, weapons and equipment in the first half of the year, and wanted to take advantage of Cao Cao's efforts to focus on the south and come to Bo as soon as possible.

So in the second half of the eleventh year of Jian'an, there were wars everywhere, and Huang Zu led 50,000 Jiangxia sailors to invade Jiangdong in a big way. Yuan Shang led an army of 60,000 and stayed 20,000 in Yecheng to attack Qingzhou.

By the beginning of the twelfth year of Jian'an, the entire Han Dynasty was fighting everywhere, and even Han Sui in Guanzhong wanted to destroy Ma Teng as soon as possible and occupy Xiliang and Guanzhong, and even the northern nomads came to intervene, and Gao Gan invited the Southern Xiongnu to come to the east of the Koluo River.

Under pressure, Ma Teng finally agreed to Cao Cao's request to join the Chen capital as an official, but there were also conditions, that is, his soldiers and horses must be led by his eldest son Ma Chao, and Cao Cao must also send troops to aid him.

In order to return to Guanzhong as soon as possible and drive Han Sui's forces away, Zhong Xuan agreed to these conditions. So Hedong belonged to the imperial court and was occupied by Zhong Xuan, Duan Xuan and others.

In other words, the current situation is that Ma Teng lured the wolf into the house at the cost of being a hostage himself, in exchange for a respite from their Ma family.

As a result, there was chaos in Guanzhong.

The forces of Han Sui, Cao Cao, and Yuan Shang attacked each other, coupled with the small princes such as Liang Xing, Hou Xuan, Cheng Yin, Li Kan, Zhang Heng, Cheng Yi, Ma Wan, and Yang Qiu, which were already in dilapidation, made the already dilapidated Guanzhong even more withered.

And just when all parts of the country were in turmoil, Liu Bei, who was far away in Jingnan, was still in the stage of recuperation, although he did not get Jingnan, but Liu Biao acquiesced to the troops in Xiangnan.

At this moment, Liu Bei's mood was very depressed, his eldest son died a few months ago, and he had been in mourning during this time.

In history, he actually had a lot of children, but in the early battles with Cao Cao and Lu Bu, his family members were repeatedly robbed, resulting in the children either dying early or being separated in the chaos, and when they arrived in Xinye, only two daughters were still around, and finally Cao Cao was taken away in Changbanpo.

But now, because Shen Chen had reminded him early on and asked him to disperse his family members, every time he was defeated, his family members were safe and sound, hiding in other county towns, protected by the guard Chen Zhi.

Only the last time Cao Cao defeated Liu Bei, Guan Yu and his two wives were captured alive, and their son and daughter were protected by Chen Zhi and fled elsewhere.

It wasn't until Liu Bei returned to Runan again that Chen arrived and brought his children over to join him.

This makes Liu Bei's eldest son, who should have died in the war or disappeared in the war, did not die, and followed him to Changsha County alive, who is twelve years old this year, and was born when he was a pastor in Xuzhou in 194 AD, and is about to grow up and become his heir.

As a result, because of the miasma in the south, Liu Bei's eldest son wandered around since he was a child, often frightened and lacked food and clothing, was weak and sickly, and was not accustomed to water and soil for a while, and fell seriously ill, and died of illness in the middle of the eleventh year of Jian'an.

For several months, Liu Bei was very painful, but for the sake of the great cause of the world, he had to support his body, still handle official documents normally every day, and often go to the barracks to train soldiers.

Today, Liu Bei was handling official business in the county office, and Chen Zhi suddenly came in and said: "Report, Uncle Huang, Liu Mi, a native of Changsha, came to ask for a meeting." ”

"Oh?"

Liu Bei had heard of Liu Mi, who was a descendant of the king of Changsha, although he was already a member of the Han family, and he was a local famous family in Changsha, so he said: "Please come in." ”

Soon a middle-aged man walked into the hall with a young man, who came from Changsha Liu's Liu Mi, and after seeing Liu Bei, he arched his hand and said, "Meet General Zuo." ”

Liu Bei hurriedly got up and said: "Your feet are all relatives of the Han family like me, but they have the same surname and the same clan, don't be polite, please sit down!" ”

Liu Mi smiled and said, "Thank you, General Zuo, this is my nephew's name Kou Feng." ”

Liu Bei looked over and saw that the young man was heroic, and he immediately liked it, so he said, "Sit down, two." ”

The two sat down.

Liu Mi said: "General Zuo is stationed in southern Hunan, known as a virtuous government, and the local people love the general. My nephew, who has been practicing martial arts since he was a child, is quite brave, and when he heard that I wanted to offer my family and my clansmen to help the general, he clamored to come. ”

Kou Feng also arched his hand and said: "General Zuo's prestige is like thunder, and I am willing to take my Kou clan Ding and join the general's army to help the general achieve great things!" ”

Although Jingnan is remote, there is no shortage of capable people.

Liu Biao seems to be powerful, but he is too old, and he is now in a hurry to attack Xichuan and Jiangdong, in fact, he wants to pacify the south as soon as possible, and then calm the internal troubles before he dies, paving the way for the eldest son Liu Qi or the second son Liu Cong to ascend to the throne.

It's just that many people think that Liu Biao will definitely not be able to take Yizhou and Yangzhou in a short time, and once he falls before seizing these two places, then Liu Biao's family will run out of gas and fall apart.

Therefore, many families began to seek other Ming lords who could lead Jingzhou to hegemony, and Liu Bei, who was stationed in southern Hunan at this moment, was obviously a good choice.

Therefore, these local clans in Jingnan want to invest in him, and Liu Mi is close, so he naturally wants to take the lead and come to join.

As for the defection of the family, Liu Bei, of course, did not refuse to come, and said very happily at the moment: "The two can help me, I am very happy, my army is lacking two such talents, if you don't give up, you can enter my shogunate." ”

The benefits that the clans can give are very many, such as stabilizing the place, providing money and weapons and equipment, and these clans have a lot of land and population, which can supplement the soldiers and grain and grass.

So Liu Bei also gave a rich reward and invited Liu Mi to join his shogunate.

As General Zuo, he can open the government himself, coupled with the name of Yuzhou Mu, among the official positions given by the actual imperial court, he is the great prince of Jingzhou second only to Liu Biao, at least before Sun Quan got Yangzhou Mu, the official position is not Liu Beigao, and he is not justified.

Liu Bei invited himself to join the shogunate, Liu Mi naturally accepted the invitation gladly, and the three of them continued to talk, during the conversation, Liu Bei was very fond of Kou Feng, and unconsciously wanted to accept him as a righteous son.

After having this thought, Liu Bei knocked on the side, it turned out that this Kou Feng was born in the Kou clan of Luo County, and Kou Feng's parents died early, so he followed his uncle Liu Mi and had no parents.

After learning the news, Liu Bei planned to say the idea of accepting him as his adopted son.

"Sir and I are of the same clan."

Liu Bei pondered the sentence for a while, and said to Liu Yu: "My nephew Kou Feng is also a nephew, and it happens that I am on my knees."

While talking.

A maid in the backyard hurriedly came and whispered a few words to Liu Bei's side.

Liu Mi and Kou Feng saw Liu Bei's face showing ecstasy, and then got up and said to them: "Two, there is something in the back house, wait for me to be absent for a while, and I will let someone talk to you about specific matters." ”

"It's okay, the general's business matters."

Liu Mi hurriedly said.

"Thank you, sir, for your forgiveness."

Liu Bei kept apologizing, and then hurried to the backyard.

The two were confused.

However, Liu Bei didn't let them wait too long, and after a while, Jian Yong and Sun Qian came over and talked with them.

And Liu Bei came to the backyard and hurried to Mrs. Gan's room.

It turned out that the maidservant told him that Mrs. Gan had been in poor health recently, so she asked the doctor for diagnosis and diagnosed the matter of Ximai.

After knowing that he might have another son, Liu Bei extinguished the idea of accepting a son and came to visit.

"Ma'am."

Liu Bei entered the room and saw Mrs. Gan lying on the bed, accompanied by Mrs. Mi, he walked over with great joy, held Mrs. Gan's hand and said, "Madam." ”

Mrs. Gan said with a smile: "Husband, I feel unwell in recent days, and I often want to vomit, thinking that I may be pregnant, so I came to the doctor to take a look, but I didn't expect that I was indeed pregnant." ”

"It's good to be pregnant, it's good to be pregnant."

Liu Bei patted Mrs. Gan's hand excitedly, his eldest son died of illness, leaving only two daughters, and there was no successor to the great cause, which always made people feel decadent.

Now that Mrs. Gan is pregnant again, although I don't know if it's a boy or a girl, there is hope.

If there is hope, there is a rush, which makes his mood and mood a lot more uplifted.

Seeing that he was as happy as a child, the two ladies immediately showed a cheerful smile, as if they were happy because of Liu Bei's happiness.

When Liu Bei saw this scene, he looked at the two ladies, he was sad for a while, and he couldn't help but sigh to himself: "In the early years, I wandered around and let the two ladies suffer with me, but now I am finally stable, and I don't have to be afraid." ”

Mrs. Mi said with a smile: "Yes, husband, now that I am finally more stable, I only hope that my sister will give birth to a child and be able to inherit the great cause of my husband." ”

Mrs. Gan looked at Mrs. Mi, took her hand and said, "My sister and I are like sisters, and we have supported each other every day over the years, and my husband can't snub my sister because I am pregnant." ”

"This is natural, the two ladies suffer with me, and I will not let you be displaced again in the future!"

Liu Bei hugged them, his eyes were extremely determined.

There are too many people he has failed over the years, whether it is his wife and children, or the siblings who follow him.

From now on, I, Liu Bei, will definitely have the next career, and I must not let down my family and subordinates!

"Report!"

At this time, someone outside the door came to report again.

Liu Bei told the maidservant to take good care of the two ladies, went out of the backyard, and asked under the porch, "What's the matter?" ”

The attendant who came to report said: "General Bao, there is a businessman named Zhou Lin who asks to see you. ”

"Oh?"

Liu Bei wondered, what did Shangjia come to him for?

Could it be that like those big families, they also want to learn what Lu Buwei does to live in?

However, since someone asked to see him, he naturally did not refuse to come, not to mention businessmen, even ordinary civilians could enter and leave his mansion at will to find him.

Soon Liu Bei summoned Zhou Lin in the side courtyard.

Zhou Lin was a merchant representative of the combined fleet of many families in Xichuan, and had many transactions with Huangmenting.

But now because of the war between Xichuan, Jingzhou, and Yangzhou, it is difficult for his business to be maintained, and in the past two years, he has listened to Shen Chen's suggestion and gone to Jiaozhi.

In fact, Jiaozhi is rich in spices, jewelry, ivory, medicinal materials, grains, and minerals, but due to its remote location and dangerous road traffic, basically no one will be interested in that place except for the history of Jiaozhou.

However, when the southern business was close to being cut off due to the war, Zhou Lin could only choose to send someone to try his luck, but he didn't expect to find a lot of good things.

For example, there is a rice in Ninan County, south of Cochin, which has a large yield and a short growth cycle, and seems to be able to be cultivated alternately with southern rice.

This kind of rice was asked for by Shen Chen, but Zhou Lin wanted to sell it at a good price, so he sold it everywhere in Jingzhou, but the big families in various places were not very interested in this kind of thing, so he found Liu Bei to see if he needed it.

(End of chapter)