Zhuge Liang, the word Kongming, Langya Yangdu.

In the second year of Jian'an, he passed the township examination, county examination, and state examination consecutively, and all of them ranked first in the first place, becoming the first person in the history of the establishment of the imperial examination system in the Han Dynasty.

Because of this, Zhuge Liang's name became popular in Xuzhou all of a sudden.

In the circle of scholars in Xuzhou, no one knows Kong Ming.

When Liu Jian left Xuzhou, although he did not entrust Zhuge Liang to Liu Bei, he also secretly told Liu Bei to pay attention to Zhuge Liang's dynamics and growth.

Of course, as long as Zhuge Liang is safe, there is no need for Liu Bei to intervene.

Liu Bei is still very obedient.

Especially for Liu Jian's words, he really listened to them.

Since Liu Jian asked Liu Bei to pay more attention to Zhuge Liang, Liu Bei naturally paid attention to him with a spirit of 120,000 points.

But fortunately, Zhuge Liang has not had any special circumstances during this time.

He just studied hard at home with peace of mind, and signed up for the imperial examination according to the time, behaved in a standardized manner, and worked hard to improve.

In addition to reading, Zhuge Liang also communicates a lot with local craftsmen and farmers on weekdays.

Compared with the things in books, Zhuge Liang attaches more importance to using practice to improve his ability.

Especially for the inventions and creations of local craftsmen in Xuzhou, Zhuge Liang was very interested.

Hebei's keel waterwheel has been popularized in a large area in Xuzhou, and Zhuge Liang is very fascinated by the structure of this waterwheel.

He often stood on the side of the tributaries of Surabaya, watching the keel waterwheel irrigate the water from the river to the fields, and every time at this time, Zhuge Liang's face would show a look of thought and yearning.

Later, he would also consult with the more famous and experienced farmers in the area for advice on farming.

At the same time, for those who go out to sea to fish all year round at the port of Xuzhou, Zhuge Liang will often ask them how to observe the climate and how to observe the direction of the sky and wind.

As for the geographical chronicles of the states of the Han Dynasty, Zhuge Liang also studied carefully.

He wants to know astronomy and geography.

In terms of practical operation, the students of the entire Han Dynasty can say that no one has done better than Zhuge Liang.

With these accumulations, coupled with the fact that the columns of the imperial examination are now mainly practice-oriented.

The volume of scriptures only accounts for a small part, and most of them are current affairs and political leaders, as well as agricultural techniques and people's livelihood and other examination questions, so Zhuge Liang, who has accumulated a lot of experience, eventually became a celebrity in Xuzhou Lianzhong Sanyuan.

It's not all genius, it's more about his hard work and the right approach.

Zhuge Liang even won three yuan, and now Liu Bei can't notice him.

So, he hurriedly wrote a letter to Liu Jian in Chang'an, telling him the good news.

For Liu Jian, it was not surprising that Zhuge Liang could have such achievements.

Prime Minister Zhuge Cheng, who was praised by later generations, won several first places in Xuzhou, isn't this a matter of course?

It stands to reason that Zhuge Liang can come to Beijing to participate in the palace examination in the next step, but the time of the palace examination should be at the beginning of next year, and now the imperial court is organizing various states to arrange a war with Yuan Shao, Cao Cao, Yuan Yi, Sun Ce and others in the south, and it is estimated that this year's palace examination may have to be postponed later.

However, since Zhuge Liang has already won three yuan, with his achievements, there is no problem at all if he wants to serve in the local government.

Before the palace examination, let him enter Xuzhou first, give full play to his talents and talents, and at the same time increase Zhuge Liang's own governing experience, which is not inappropriate, on the contrary, it is very beneficial to him.

No matter what kind of genius you are, you need experience at the grassroots level.

So, Zhuge Liang came to Pengchengguo with the position of Tan County Cheng and began to participate in local governance.

After all, Zhuge Liang is a person that Liu Jian attaches great importance to, since he is in the local government of Xuzhou, don't look at it as just a county magistrate in Tancheng, but Liu Bei also attaches great importance to him.

Liu Bei deliberately found Tancheng Ling and asked him to reuse Zhuge Liang and make sure that Zhuge Liang could give full play to his talents.

In fact, there is no need for Liu Bei to order this matter, and the Tancheng County Order will definitely use Zhuge Liang.

After all, he is a celebrity in the three yuan of the state.

It's not something like that that you can meet every day.

As a result, Zhuge Liang was in power in Tancheng, and assisted Tancheng to order the development of tuntian, water conservancy, agricultural reform, and commercial and industrial development around Tancheng.

As soon as Zhuge Liang arrived, he showed his superb ability in internal affairs and governing the people.

Zhuge Liang personally participated in the tuntian of Tancheng, including the water conservancy reform.

He visited the fields to plan, dug a ditch to Surabaya for the people of Tancheng, and built on it the keel waterwheel that he had renovated in the past.

This waterwheel was named Zhuge Waterwheel.

Compared with the keel waterwheel used in Hebei, the Zhuge waterwheel has been transformed, which is more convenient, labor-saving, and more efficient.

This is what Zhuge Liang researched during his study and visits to the people.

In this matter, Zhuge Liang is really very talented!

It is no wonder that in addition to being a great politician, Zhuge Liang in history was also a great inventor.

In addition, Zhuge Liang was very particular about the measurement of the field and the details of how to reclaim it, and he formulated a set of detailed plans, including the layout of the field and the arrangement of the ditches, and arranged the weather and soil characteristics of each tuntian point, so that the irrigation of the people could achieve the maximum efficiency.

In addition, Zhuge Liang also made detailed adjustments to the locality, road construction, including local governance and law enforcement methods, as well as the assessment of officials, and reported them to Tancheng Order.

It can be said that Zhuge Liang's talent surprised Tan Chengling.

It didn't take long for the folk atmosphere and officialdom in the entire Tancheng to undergo earth-shaking changes.

This is all thanks to Zhuge Liang!

Zhuge Liang's actions in Tancheng soon reached Liu Bei's ears.

Liu Bei was very surprised by this young man's ability.

However, this also proves that Liu Jian is indeed a figure who is good at reading people.

It was at this time that Cao Cao's soldiers and horses began to march towards Xuzhou in an all-round way.

He received an invitation from Yuan Shao to go to Xiapi from Jiangdong, preparing to invade Xuzhou again.

After Liu Bei knew that Cao Cao used troops, he had no extra time to take care of Zhuge Liang's affairs.

He immediately found Han Dang, Cheng Pu, Tai Shici and others, and asked them to lead their troops and horses to the next batch, and sit in the dangerous place of the Xiapi Kingdom, preparing to resist Cao Cao's attack.

The Xuzhou Army has developed very rapidly in recent years, mainly due to the construction of ports, commercial and trade accessibility, and sufficient funds.

Hebei's support is also very strong, Xuzhou because of Hebei's previous policies as a guide, so the reform is also very smooth, economic development is very fast.

The losses caused by the war have been made up for by an effective political system.

In terms of military affairs, Xuzhou has a great advantage, that is, the iron weapons and armor of their army, including war horses, are supported by Hebei, and the equipment used by the Xuzhou army is the top of the Han Dynasty.

With the support of abundant financial and material resources, Xuzhou's army is definitely a strong army of the Han Dynasty in terms of overall grade.

Although Cao Cao imitated Liu Jian's ruling model in recent years, he was also vigorously developing Jiangdong, which made Jiangdong's population, food, and technology grow, but there was still a lameness.

In terms of military equipment, Cao Cao had no way to compete with Hebei.

Not to mention weapons and armor, from the war horse alone, Cao Cao's Jiangdong Army is a few grades behind Xuzhou.

Jiangnan also produces southern horses, but how can the quality of the war horses in the south of the Yangtze River be compared with the war horses in the north?

Liu Bei's cavalry here rode high-quality Youzhou war horses imported from Hebei at a low price.

Cao Cao didn't have such a channel, although he was also able to find a way to secretly buy some horses from Youzhou through private channels, but most of the war horse channels in Youzhou were still in the hands of the official led by Liu Jian.

The number and grade of the war horses in the north that Cao Cao purchased were completely unable to arm a powerful cavalry.

It can only be barely improvised.

And the key to the Jiangdong Army's northward march this time was the need to fight the Xuzhou Army on the plains.

And fighting on the plains, the key point is the cavalry tactics.

Although Cao Cao had Xiahou Yuan, Cao Hong, Cao Ren, and other great talents in commanding and training troops, the cavalry really did not have enough war horses as support.

Therefore, he could only vigorously develop the navy and crossbow army, as well as the infantry.

A strong crossbow army and a naval army can help Cao Cao effectively consolidate the banks of the Yangtze River and prevent the northern army from launching a fierce attack on his Jiangdong, which is more than enough as a defense, but now let him attack the territory of Xuzhou, it is a little more than enough to be strong.

But Cao Cao couldn't do anything about this, after all, Yuan Shao had already asked him to send troops, and Cao Cao also released Yuan Shao's pigeons last time, resulting in a period between the two people who were really not in harmony with each other.

This time he couldn't miss the appointment again.

And the current situation is that he, Yuan Shao and others are in a cold situation.

Liu Jian's strength is already too strong, if he and Yuan Shao don't join forces, and each other is broken by Liu Jian one by one, it will be a matter of time.

Cao Cao actually regretted it a little now, he felt a little that he shouldn't have come to Jiangdong to develop in the first place, although this place can be divided into one side, but the upper limit of overall development is still a bottleneck.

But if you think about it carefully, Cao Cao thinks that if he doesn't come to the south, where can he go? Stay in the north and compete with Liu Jian in Hebei?

Can he really compete against Liu Jian? Cao Cao was skeptical about this.

But now in fact, whether he regrets taking medicine or not, he must also have a head-on battle with Liu Bei in Xuzhou.

Fortunately, his opponent was not Liu Jian, but only Liu Jian's spokesperson in the southeast, Liu Bei.

So Cao Cao led 30,000 elite soldiers to the north and entered the territory of Xiapi Kingdom, and he prepared to occupy one county after another, hoping to gain a foothold in Xiapi Kingdom first, and then compete with Liu Bei.

But Liu Bei is also a veteran on the battlefield, how can he give Cao Cao a chance to completely gain a foothold in the Xiapi Kingdom?

Cao Cao's soldiers and horses had just crossed the Yangtze River by boat, and as soon as they entered the plain, Liu Bei sent his men Han Dang and Cheng Pu to lead his most elite cavalry battalion in Xuzhou to harass Cao Cao's army.

Once the opponent's infantry comes out of the camp, his cavalry team can split the opponent's infantry formation, causing chaos in the opponent's battle formation, defeating the opponent's morale, and making the opponent unable to continue to attack north.

Liu Bei's purpose was to wear off Cao Cao's toughness so that his soldiers and horses could not last long in Xiapi.

As long as Cao Jun's resilience is worn out, Liu Bei feels that he will win this war.

Cao Cao has also done much work in Jiangdong over the years, he not only vigorously developed Jiangdong's tuntian and economy, but also tried every means to pacify and recover Shanyue.

He imitated Liu Jian's method of recovering Wuhuan and Xianbei in Hebei to deal with Shanyue, and the effect was more significant, after all, Shanyue did not belong to foreign races, most of them were still from the Han Dynasty, and it was relatively easy to communicate and assimilate.

When these elite Shanyue teams arrived in Cao Cao's hands, they became one of his trump card troops.

These Shanyue soldiers are not afraid of death in battle, and they cross mountains and wade through rivers, and their combat effectiveness is extremely strong, and they can be said to be the strongest soldiers among the strong soldiers in the mountain war and field tribes.

With these Shanyue soldiers as helpers, Cao Cao's advantage in the battle of the mountains is very great, even if the well-equipped Xuzhou army is difficult to resist in the face of Cao Cao's Shanyue troops.

So, an interesting scenario emerged.

Liu Bei's soldiers and horses kept trying to find a way to pull the troops up the plain.

Cao Cao's soldiers and horses have been trying to find a way to move the battlefield to the mountains and dense forests.

The situation of the troops on both sides was that once they reached the plain, Liu Beijun's war horses were like tank cars, which broke Cao Jun into pieces, scattered and fled.

And once they reached the mountains and woods, those Shanyue soldiers who crossed the mountains and waded through the water, like walking on the ground, took the advantage, and Liu Bei suffered a lot.

The two sides are back and forth, and they are happy to fight, winning and losing.

Cao Cao and Liu Bei can also be said to be chess opponents who will meet good talents.

In particular, the military advisors under the two of them were not mortals.

Cao Cao's side is Zhou Yu, who is good at scheming and proficient in warfare.

Liu Bei's side is Lu Su, who is old and serious, and he is calm.

Zhou Yu always wanted to lure Liu Bei to the land of the dense forest, let him set up camp in a place near the mountains and rivers, and then find a way to clean him up.

But how can Liu Bei not have a long memory?

At the beginning, Zhou Yu was famous for his fire attack, and Liu Bei had long remembered his methods.

Especially now, Lu Su reminds that Liu Bei and others can't make mistakes easily.

Therefore, the two sides have been going back and forth, testing each other.

However, compared to Cao Cao, Liu Bei has a trump card in his hand, and this trump card is specifically for Cao Cao.

That was Cao Chun, who was captured alive at the beginning.

This Cao Chun is Liu Bei's brother-in-law.

After being captured alive, Liu Jian did not abuse Cao Chun, and did not restrict his freedom.

He handed Cao Chun over to Liu Bei.

And Cao Chun's sister is now Liu Bei's wife.

For the sake of his sister, the relationship between Cao Chun and Liu Bei is okay.

It's just that Cao Chun is in Liu Bei's hands, and Liu Bei sends people to Cao Cao's camp from time to time in the name of Cao Chun to talk about things, so that Cao Cao doesn't have a headache.

He understood that Liu Bei was using Cao Chun to blackmail himself again, and wanted to talk to himself about conditions.

(End of chapter)