In the West Palace of Luoyang, Cao Cao sat in the main hall.

He was alone in the temple.

There were no candles in the room, only the turtle and crane lanterns were lit on the left and right sides of the screen.

The glittering candle flame could not let the entire hall pass through, reflecting Cao Cao's expressionless face, half shadowy, half bright.

Tiger Guard Jie reported everything Xun or said to him one by one.

Hearing the interweaving of trees and vines, Cao Cao was indifferent.

Hearing that Xun He committed suicide by swallowing medicine without hesitation, Cao Cao's face was slightly moved.

Hearing that Xun He would rather watch the big man die in the sun, a trace of surprising anger even flashed in his eyes.

Why.

Wen Ruo.

Do you have to die for that rotten man?

Lone has given you one last chance.

Cao Cao let out a long sigh.

In the end, the deep gaze turned into a touch of regret and painful remembrance.

"Bury the "Great Han" Shangshu Ling. ”

Cao Cao said the big man heavily, and then added: "Declare to the outside world that Xun Lingjun has been working hard for many years and died of illness." ”

"Yui."

The festival was commanded to depart.

After the others went out, Cao Cao propped his hands on the table, held his forehead and patted the eucalyptus, his face gloomy.

The verse never says.

Duke Wei had confessed when he sent him.

If Xun Lingjun asks to see him again one last time, he must bring Xun Or to him.

But until he finally died, Xun or didn't want to see him.

When Cao Cao learned of Xun He's choice, his heart was full of mixed emotions, such as uncomfortable, sad, angry, and reminiscing.

Xun may be disappointed in him.

Why is he not disappointed in Xun or not?

What is there to save this ruined country?

If there is no loneliness.

How can the Great Han continue to this day?

is alone, struggling to support this withered and dilapidated country, so that it will continue for decades.

There is no lone in the world who has such merits.

In the future, there will be no such person in the world.

Alone as a prince, even if he is called a king, why not?

Wen Ruo, Wen Ruo.

You have chosen the wrong path after all.

From today on, I will say goodbye to you.

Cao Cao was silent for a long time, and the breeze blew into the hall, causing the candle flame to sway.

The face of light and darkness was full of calm.

His ovary.

After all, he was far away.

......

......

Twenty-one years after the Han Dynasty was established, the world is still not peaceful.

After the defeat of Jiangdong Sun Quan in Hefei, Liu Bei sent envoys to appease him, and hoped that he could reorganize his troops and horses and attack Hefei in the north.

After that, Liu Bei withdrew Huang Zhong's 20,000 horses stationed in Jiangling to Jiangzhou, under the command of Tai Shici.

In fact, Tai Shici's age was already very old at this time.

In history, he died of illness in the eleventh year of Jian'an ten years ago at the age of forty-one.

But now he has lived for an extra ten years, perhaps because he was stationed in Jianchang and other southern regions in history, and died of illness due to the influence of poisonous insect miasma.

Now he is stationed in Jingzhou and Yizhou all the year round, and he has a good medical guarantee, which allows him to live for an extra ten years.

Among the generals that Liu Bei followed in the early days, Guan Zhang was the leader, followed by Tai Shi Ci, and then Zhao Yun, so when Guan Zhang was on the front line, Tai Shi Ci became his rear pillar.

At this time, with the addition of the 30,000 people who were transferred from Jingzhou at the earliest, plus the current 20,000, Jingzhou has been transferred 50,000 people, and the rear has become very empty.

Because the 80,000 troops in Nanyang were watched by Cao Hong and Xu Huang, the 50,000 Jiangxia Navy Army and Zhao Yun's 10,000 county soldiers, these are all soldiers and horses arranged on the front line, and after Liu Bei transferred 50,000 troops from Jingzhou, it means that there are only more than 10,000 county soldiers scattered in the rear.

It was then distributed to the counties, and the number of soldiers in each county was only one or two thousand.

In addition to Guiyang County, which was lent to Sun Quan, the other five counties of Jingnan were virtually nonexistent, the five counties of Jingbei, Nanyang, Zhangling, Jiangxia, and Xiling were guarded by Shen Chenjun, Huang Shotjun, and Zhao Yunjun, and the vital Nanjun was suddenly empty.

So in a sense, the only soldiers and horses that can be mobilized on the surface of Jingzhou are the Jiangxia Naval Army.

When Sun Quan heard the news, he was furious.

Although Liu Bei sent an envoy to appease, the front foot was appeased, and the back foot transferred the soldiers and horses of Nanjun, the significance is obviously self-evident.

Due to the Hefei fiasco, Sun Quan's importance in Liu Bei's heart reached a new level, leaving only the Jiangxia navy, which was not good at land warfare, to guard the Yangtze River defense line in Jiangxia and Nanjun, which was quite contemptuous of him.

However, due to the fact that the situation on the front line in Guanzhong is not clear, and Liu Bei does not know the truth about the specific transfer of troops and horses in Yizhou, he does not dare to make a mistake.

He could only write to Cao Cao to congratulate Cao Cao on his ascension to the Duke of Wei, and at the same time sent an envoy to Liu Bei to express his obedient attitude that he would continue to fight Hefei when he was ready.

The situation on Liu Bei's side is actually relatively clear.

First of all, except for the Nanyang Army and Jiangxia Army, which could not be mobilized, the rest of the soldiers and horses were almost evacuated, and all of them went to Jiangzhou.

But he didn't directly take these soldiers and horses to the rear to hide, but the virtual reality, and successively used the Yizhou soldiers and horses and the Qiang people recruited by Ma Chao to carry out the transformation of the virtual and the real.

After a meal, 120,000 troops emerged on the front line of his Guanzhong, but 50,000 horses were hidden in the rear of the road, and the soldiers and horses in Yizhou reached more than 200,000 at once.

In addition to the troops on the front line and the troops hidden in the rear, these soldiers and horses also had troops in Jingnan to quell the rebellion, as well as troops left behind in various counties and Jiangzhou.

There are not many first-line main forces, and the total number is only 100,000, and the rest are second-line county soldiers or ethnic minority teams.

It's just that after several years of army restructuring and rectification, even the second-line county soldiers should be able to fight with the main army in Jiangdong.

So Liu Bei was not worried that Sun Quan would suddenly attack.

The second is the reality of the front.

Among the 120,000 troops, the main force was still the 50,000 elites and 10,000 cavalry of Guan Zhang, followed by the 10,000 Yuan army, and the rest were all Qiang and Di people.

Relying on Ma Chao's prestige, the Wudu Qiang people turned to the wind and suddenly expanded tens of thousands of horses for Liu Bei.

However, Liu Bei also knew that the morale of these Qiang people was not high, and they came to vote for Ma Chao's prestige, and they would not necessarily fight for him.

The second is that their combat effectiveness is not strong, and their nomadic nature leads to their discipline being far less strict than that of the Han people.

Therefore, Liu Bei promulgated a reward system for the whole army to increase the morale of the army. On the one hand, the army retreated to Wudu and Hanzhong, and Ma Chao was appointed as the commander of Qiangdi, and Lei Ding and others were deputy generals, and they stepped up the training of soldiers.

Therefore, the current situation in Guanzhong is that Cao's Xiahoudun and Yu Ban's army blocked the exit of Baochuan Road and Chencang Road, and confronted Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, and on the other hand, Cao Cao personally led the army to be stationed on the Tianshui line, and confronted Liu Bei, who was stationed in Wudu.

The two sides, including their main forces, the alien army, the rebel army, and even the second-line troops, add up to 300,000 or 400,000 people, and the forces on both sides are staggered, testing back and forth from time to time, there are no large-scale wars, and small-scale struggles are continuous.

It was not until August of the 21st year of Jian'an, after eight months of confrontation, that Cao Cao finally accumulated a wave of grain and grass, began to march into Lucheng, and personally led the army through the southern Rongqiu of Lucheng to arrive at the Gushan Pavilion outside Xiabianwai.

Gushan Pavilion is a township pavilion forty miles north of the next debate, the road here is densely hilly and mountainous on both sides, Liu Beijun was stationed here before, heard that Cao Jun arrived, and withdrew to the rear.

There are more than 200 miles from Xixian to Xiabian, and there are mountain roads along the way, there are countless township pavilions in the middle, Liu Bei has arranged a large number of sentry posts, scouts, beacon towers and camps in the mountains and pavilions on both sides, stretching for hundreds of miles.

After arriving at Gushan Pavilion, there are only three pavilion towns left from Xiabian, Chiting, Qiubei Pavilion and Wujie.

Cao Jun marched step by step, and Liu Beijun retreated step by step.

Sima Yi offered advice to Cao Cao, and he believed that Liu Beijun was retreating step by step, which must be luring the enemy.

It is better to adopt a counter-lure strategy to attack the enemy, send the vanguard to attack Chiting, once Liu Bei chases him, he will immediately retreat in defeat and take the opportunity to ambush.

Cao Cao then sent Zhang He as the vanguard and led 5,000 people to go straight to Chiting.

Zhang Hezhi, the defenders of Chiting really fled.

Cao Jun chased all the way.

Halfway diagonally assassinated Zhang Fei, defeated Cao Jun, and fled in embarrassment.

Seeing this, Zhang Fei was triumphant and continued to catch up.

Unexpectedly, he fell for Sima Yi's tricks and encountered an ambush in Gushan Pavilion, but he lost a lot of people.

Zhang Fei fled back to defend himself, and Liu Bei could only hold on.

After that, the Cao army besieged the moon and repeatedly provoked, but Liu Bei was unmoved, and finally the Cao army dispersed on its own after two months of siege.

In October of the twenty-first year of Jian'an, after Cao's army retreated, Liu Bei learned from the pain.

He believed that the reason for his fiasco in Gushan Pavilion was that there was no reliable military advisor around him to give him advice.

The strategy of luring the enemy into the depths was arranged by himself, and it was okay to deal with ordinary people, but against people like Cao Cao, the general strategy would not take effect, but would be recognized by Cao Cao and countered.

So he needed a resourceful military advisor to accompany the army to help with reference.

But at this time, his main advisers were not around.

Zhuge Liang sat in Jiangzhou and handled the official affairs of Jingzhou and Yizhou. Pang Tong sat in Shu County, Fa Zheng Jia Xu sat in Xiangyang, and Xu Shu followed Guan Yu to fight against Xiahou in the front line of the Bao Slope Road, and he couldn't get out.

In the end, he wrote to Zhuge Liang to inquire about this matter, and Zhuge Liang suggested that he transfer Fa Zheng and Jia Xu to Hanzhong.

Because Jingzhou has been almost governed, those who should be killed have been killed, the fields that should be confiscated have been collected, and the population has been liberated, and there is no point in leaving Fazheng Jia Xu in Jingzhou.

And they can make Sun Quan happy when they are gone.

After all, Sun Quan has always been very jealous of them, although Sun Quan must be most jealous of Shen Chen, but Shen Chen is restrained in Nanyang, as soon as Fa Zheng and Jia Xu leave, Nanjun will be unmanned, Sun Quan wants to attack Nanjun, and he will definitely be happy to see this scene.

Liu Bei felt that Zhuge Liang had a point, so at the end of the twenty-first year of Jian'an, he summoned Fa Zheng and Jia Xu into Yizhou and followed him to fight against Cao Cao.

At the beginning of the twenty-second year of Jian'an, Xiahoudun and Yu Ban entered Xieyu Pass.

Guan Yu camped for dozens of miles behind Xieyu Pass, and started a bloody battle with the two, and finally used Xu Shu's strategy to defeat Xiahoudun and Yu Ban, and the two retreated to Yixian, and for a time Liu Beijun's prestige was shocked.

In February, Cao Cao personally went to Yixian County and led his troops to attack urgently.

Guan Yu was defeated and retreated to Kei Valley to hold on, Cao's army was unable to attack repeatedly, Cao Cao was worried that he was too deep, and Tianshui was forced by Liu Bei, so he retreated and went back.

】

The two sides still maintained the situation of Zhuge Liang's first exit from Qishan, and the two sides confronted each other.

However, the two small victories at Gushan Pavilion and Xieyu Pass, which beat Liu Bei's soldiers and horses to a shrunken defense, had already allowed Cao's army to gain a considerable advantage, and in this case, the Chen Imperial Court began to build momentum for it.

Cao Cao's henchmen in the court wrote to the emperor to become the crown prince.

Liu Xie had no choice but to do so, at the end of April of the 22nd year of Jian'an, he sent Zongzheng Liu Ai to envoy the festival, and went to Chang'an to worship Cao Cao as the king of Wei.

At the same time, Liu Xie also allowed Cao Cao to set up the banner of the Son of Heaven, enter and exit the police, give twelve crowns, take the golden root car, and drive six horses.

Since then, Cao Cao's travel and regulations have been no different from those of the Son of Heaven, only usurping the throne.

When Liu Bei learned of this, he was furious and condemned Cao Cao for violating the White Horse Alliance, wanting to seek power and usurp the throne, personally leading the army, and going out of Qishan to attack Tianshui.

Cao Cao personally went to battle him, and the two sides faced each other again.

coincided with the 22nd year of the great epidemic in Jian'an, especially in the north.

Except for Kong Rong, who was killed a long time ago, and Ruan Yu, who died early, the other five were all wiped out.

Sima Yi's elder brother Sima Lang died of an epidemic because he went deep into the epidemic area to inspect the epidemic.

Lu Su died of the plague.

Ling Tong died.

Huo Jun died.

Tai Shi Ci died, and the whole world became desolate because of the plague.

Even Tai Shici, who lived for ten more years, did not carry it, and finally died of illness in this pandemic.

Strictly speaking, the plague in history swept through the north where Cao Cao was located, Huainan where Sun Quan was located, and Jingzhou where Liu Bei was located.

It doesn't have much impact on the Bashu region.

But now, because Cao Cao and Liu Bei fought in Guanzhong and Xiliang, many people were killed and injured, and the continuous allocation of grain and grass in the east and south of the country has spread the infected people everywhere and gradually become popular in the army.

Under such circumstances, Liu Beijun and Cao Caojun both had large-scale epidemic outbreaks, and the two sides finally withdrew to Chang'an, Guanzhong, and the Hanzhong Basin.

At this time, the epidemic was still raging in the world, and the north, Xiliang, Guanzhong, Hanzhong, Huainan and Henan became the hardest hit areas.

On the contrary, there are not many infections in the Nanyang Basin.

Of course, Shen Chen didn't know that there would be a plague that swept the world this year in history, but he knew how to prevent it.

So after knowing that there was a large-scale epidemic in the north, a large number of policies were immediately enacted.

For example, patients should be isolated, wash hands frequently, ventilate more, drink water boiled and drunk, do not gather outside in large numbers, all troops are stationed in the camp for closed management, and contact between people is minimized.

Although there are no masks, this will prevent at least 80% of infections.

Finally, there is the appearance of Zhang Zhongjing.

Zhang Zhongjing's family was almost ruined by the plague in his early years, so he decided to study medicine, and often lived in Jingnan or Lingnan and other places to find medicinal materials and study treatments.

At this time, Zhang Zhongjing had reached his old age, and finally wrote the medical work "Treatise on Typhoid Fever and Miscellaneous Diseases", and learned that the plague was going again, so he went to Xiangyang in person and handed over this work to the government, hoping to provide some help.

When Shen Chen learned of this, he hurriedly asked Zhang Zhongjing for help, he once sent someone to bribe the jailer and obtained Hua Tuo's lifelong work "The Book of Green Bags", which also contained some ways to deal with the plague.

After Zhang Zhongjing finished reading the "Green Capsule Book", he added his "Treatise on Typhoid Fever and Miscellaneous Diseases" and studied the symptomatic prescription.

For a time, the plague in Jingzhou was completely eliminated.

In the same year, Shen Chen sent people to Bashu and sent many experienced doctors in Jingzhou to find Zhuge Liang.

Zhuge Liang and Pang Tong immediately dispatched doctors and a large number of symptomatic medicinal materials to the front line to help Liu Bei solve the problem of plague rampant in the army.

By the end of the 22nd year of Jian'an, the plague in Jingzhou and Yizhou had basically been eliminated, and the affected population and scope were only a few hundred thousand people.

The north was not so lucky, the impact of the plague was extremely serious, affecting all places under Cao Cao's rule, countless people died of illness, zombies in every family, and weeping in the room.

Especially the people at the bottom, one person infects the whole family and suffers, and sometimes the plague is wiped out as soon as it comes, and even the dead people in a township and a county town are often killed.

For example, Zhang Zhongjing's own family of more than 200 people died less than one in ten, and the infection was extremely rapid, which is the terrible thing about the plague.

Cao Zhi saw the damage caused by the plague with his own eyes and wrote "Speaking of the Plague".

With this plague, the population in the north plummeted, and the population of Yangzhou also fell a lot, only Jingzhou and Yizhou quickly controlled the spread of the epidemic and stopped the loss in time, so that the epidemic did not expand.

After that, Zhang Zhongjing couldn't bear the suffering of the people in the north, and begged Shen Chen to print the "Treatise on Typhoid Fever and Miscellaneous Diseases" and the "Green Capsule Book" into a volume to save the north.

At that time, the epidemic was fierce, and it swept the entire Han Dynasty in just a few months, Jingzhou and Yizhou were also seriously affected, and Shen Chen also spent a lot of effort to barely calm down.

In the matter of saving the north, even if he had the mind of a saint and chose to help the enemy rule the people, he was powerless at that time.

But at the end of the year, the epidemic in Yizhou, Jingzhou was finally controlled, and when he heard Zhang Zhongjing's request, Shen Chen did not hesitate, and chose to print these books in large quantities and send them to the north for sale.

In this way, the epidemic in the north is controlled and the people in the north are prevented from suffering again.

Second, it's also for myself.

Due to the spread of the epidemic, there have been a large number of dead patients in Henan.

Because Nanyang was temporarily controlled by Shen Chen's epidemic regulations and policies, the situation was relatively slight, which made many people think that Nanyang could be treated, so a large number of people dragged their families and chose to run to Nanyang.

At that time, Cao Hong himself was also plagued by the plague rampant in the army, and when he learned that the people were moving to Nanyang in large numbers, he did not stop it.

The first is the inability to stop.

Secondly, it is not a bad thing to let the sick go to enemy-occupied areas.

So they acquiesced in the matter, and even opened and closed the gates, so that at least more than 100,000 people moved to the south.

In this case, even if Zhang Zhongjing later came to the rescue, so that Shen Chen could barely control the spread of the epidemic in Nanyang, it would continue to cause large-scale infection because new patients continued to come.

It is impossible for him to slaughter the sick people.

Therefore, it is the best choice to let the treatment of the epidemic spread to the north.

At this point, Shen Chen gave full play to his advantages, and conducted many analyses with Zhou Budo to study the pros and cons.

From the perspective of rationality and practical interests, the more serious the epidemic in the north, the better.

Anyway, the epidemic in the south has been controlled, and even if new epidemics continue to spread, the losses he will suffer will be much smaller than Cao Cao's.

If the loss of 1 million people in Jingzhou and Yizhou can be exchanged for the loss of 5 million people under Cao Cao's rule, then there will be too many obstacles for the future confrontation between the north and the south, and Ji Han's recovery of the north.

But in terms of sensibility and expected benefits, he should help.

Xing, the people are bitter.

Death, the people suffer.

The people of the world are suffering, and everyone is Han after all, so why should you treat you as an enemy just because you are a citizen of the enemy-occupied area?

Controlling the spread of the epidemic in the north can also help prevent the recurrence of the epidemic in the south.

So that's a good thing.

The most important thing is to take advantage of this opportunity for Shen Chen to carry out cultural propaganda among the people in the north.

He himself was a great Confucian in the world, and his works include "Zhuziyan" and "Shen's Sutra Collection".

The former was written by Xu Shu and recorded his dialogues with Zhuge Liang, Pang Tong, Xu Shu, Sima Hui, Pang Degong and others with Shen Chen as the protagonist.

It includes an analysis of the ills of the Han Dynasty, a description of human nature, and the concept of "unity of knowledge and action".

The latter was compiled by Shen Chen and many disciples together, recording the scriptures and meanings of Shen Chen's education disciples.

The two books were printed and spread all over the world, and all the family gates were collected, even Cao Cao himself was reading them, and Shen Chen himself had a certain status in the northern academic circles.

At this time, helping to control the plague is just the right time to carry out a cultural invasion, win the hearts of the people, and pave the way for the pacification of the north in the future.

It's just that this kind of popular interest is invisible and intangible, and it is far less realistic than the interest that there is a large population in the north, so it is said that it is a predicted benefit, not an actual benefit.

But when Zhang Zhongjing asked him to help, Shen Chen's choice was without any hesitation, and these interests and perceptual rational analysis were also the results of his review when he discussed with Zhou Budo afterwards.

Because Shen Chen is a person with a conscience, even if there is no benefit in helping him, as long as it is within his ability, he still has to help, and he still has to save it.

Children who have been drenched in the rain will eventually hold up an umbrella for others.