Three Kingdoms

  Chapter 1286 Festive wine

   Lu Bu was not the only one who counted his age with his fingers. Liu Bei, who was far away in Xuzhou, also sat down at the beginning of the new year, his heart skipped a beat, and he realized that he was already close to forty.

  In the Han Dynasty, when the average life expectancy was only in the 40s and less than 50 years old, it is not a big problem to say that a 40-year-old person is already covered with loess on his neck. In the past few years, it seemed to be full of energy, and the body with endless vitality gradually felt a little bit of fatigue. This kind of fatigue is not from the muscles, it seems to come directly from the bones.

  Tired heart.

"Wa hahaha!"

  A thunder-like sound came from outside the door, waking Liu Bei up from his contemplation. His figure couldn't help but crooked, and he almost fell off his seat, "Third Brother..."

   "Big Brother! Congratulations! Big Brother!!" Before Zhang Feiren arrived, the voice came first, and after the final sound fell, the figure appeared at the gate outside the courtyard.

   "You know?" Liu Bei pondered for a while, and then said, "Come on. Come in and sit down."

"Brother really, why didn't you tell my brother about this kind of good thing earlier!" Zhang Fei laughed loudly, and then greeted the guards on the side and said, "Come on, take the wild oysters and rabbits that a certain hunted outside the city and wash them quickly." Peel it clean, cook it quickly and serve it up!"

   "Where's the second brother?" Liu Bei looked behind Zhang Fei and asked without seeing Guan Yu.

   "Aha! The second brother went to get the wine!" Zhang Fei replied, and immediately lowered his voice, muttering, "The second brother is also, why can't I let someone go to get the wine..."

   Liu Bei smiled, but did not answer.

   Not long after, Guan Yu came over with several personal guards holding two jars of wine.

  Zhang Fei jumped down and sat down on the couch with a "huh", "Second brother is here, sit, sit...well, why are there only two altars..."

  Guan Yu glanced over coldly and said, "What else?"

   "It's not... that..." Zhang Fei shook his hand quickly, then turned to Liu Bei, and said, "Isn't this a happy event for the elder brother? Why is it one person, one altar?"

  Guan Yu ignored Zhang Fei, bowed his hands to Liu Bei, and sat down.

  Liu Bei greeted: "Third brother, sit, sit...haha, I want to drink, are you afraid that I won't have a chance?"

  Zhang Fei suddenly said: "That's right! Hahahahaha! At that time, I must get drunk!"

  Liu Bei is indeed on his way to the pinnacle of his life recently, and happy events continue...

  Although Tao Qian had eleven million reasons for not wanting to die, he still couldn't make it through and passed away. Before Tao Qian's death, Mi Zhu, as Xuzhou's farewell driver, rushed to Xiaopei overnight to welcome Liu Bei into Xuzhou.

  Liu Bei has repeatedly yielded? Well, there are, but seeing that Tao Qian is almost dying, Liu Bei is not too hypocritical. Otherwise, Liu Bei wouldn't have followed Mi Zhu into the city with soldiers and horses, and then let Guan Yu and Zhang Fei immediately lead troops to control the city defense, wouldn't he?

  Where is Tao Qian from?

  Danyang people.

  For Xuzhou, Tao Qian is a foreigner, so although Tao Qian has been in Xuzhou for these years, the place is considered stable and the people's livelihood is safe and peaceful, but in fact Tao Qian's ability to control Xuzhou is still firmly on the surface.

  This can be seen from the fact that Tao Qian's other name is Mi Zhu. Before Mi Zhu, it was Zhao Yu who served as the other two, what about the two, hehe, that's all, neither of them is a nobleman, and even their abilities are quite limited.

   For a long time, the great nobles on the ground in Xuzhou have not really sold Tao Qian's account. Of course, Tao Qian is not a fuel-efficient lamp,

When Li Jue and Guo Si rebelled, captured Chang'an, and took control of the government, Zhu Jun was still alive at that time. Tao Qian thought that the time had come, and thought that the Tao family's gourd could be painted according to the Yuan family's ladle, thinking about doing another wave. Then he joined forces with Zhou Qian, the former governor of Yangzhou, Yinde, the prime minister of Langya, Liu Kui, the prime minister of the East China Sea, Ji Lian, the prime minister of Pengcheng, Kong Rong, the prime minister of Beihai, Yuan Zhong, the prime minister of Pei, Ying Shao, the prefect of Mount Tai, Xu Qi, the prefect of Runan, and the former prefect of Jiujiang. Fuqian, Dr. Zheng Xuan and others jointly presented Zhu Jun as the Grand Master, moved him to the Mu Bo, and challenged Li Jue and others to welcome the emperor...

  The result was unsuccessful.

  In addition, two years ago, Que Xuan from Xiapi gathered thousands of people and claimed to be the Son of Heaven. Tao Qian sent troops to kill him...

   It is said so, but in fact? The uneven distribution of spoils and the need to take the blame are nothing more than a few thousand people claiming to be emperors. Is Que Xuan out of his mind? Que Xuan and Tao Qian raised their troops together, took Mount Tai, Hua, and Fei, and plundered Rencheng.

Where are Hua County, Fei County, and Ren City? Hua County and Fei County are at the junction of Taishan County and Shanyang County, and Ren City is Ren Chengguo. But after all, he is still the emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty...

   As a result, Tao Qian's actions attracted dissatisfaction and strong counterattacks from Taishan Zang Ba, Sun Guan and other Taishan thieves, and even attracted the attack of Yanzhou Cao Cao...

So Tao Qian knew that once he died, his two sons would not be able to become weapons, so he could only seek the help of Liu Bei, a foreigner. Otherwise, the local gentry in Xuzhou might sell his son directly to Cao Cao in Yanzhou. Even sold to Eryuan, so it's better to leave it to Liu Bei as a favor.

  Seeing that Liu Bei had already taken control of the city defense, and Kong Rong had a good impression of Liu Bei, so although Chen Gui and Chen Deng were dissatisfied, they did not stand up to oppose it, which was tantamount to acquiescing to this result.

   Then Mi Zhu is going to marry Liu Bei...

   This became the great joy that Zhang Fei said today, and he brought the prey he killed to congratulate Liu Bei.

Not long after, the guards brought up the packed wild hawks and hares, some were roasted and some were boiled. Although the craftsmanship was rough, Liu Bei and the others basically didn't care about it, so they happily He raised his wine bowl and walked away first.

  The three of them laughed and talked, and after eating and drinking for a while, they gradually got down to business.

   "Brother! I heard that the daughter of the Mi family is both talented and beautiful, and she is just perfect for the elder brother! Hahaha!" Zhang Fei laughed and said, "Brother, come here, I will respect you again!"

Liu Bei smiled, picked it up casually, touched Zhang Fei, drank it, turned his head, and saw Guan Yu's thoughtful expression, he couldn't help but reached out and patted Guan Yu's shoulder, saying: "It's okay, it's not a big deal, Haven't you been here for so many years..."

   Zhang Fei thought that he had done something wrong again, blinking his eyes, his face covered in circles.

  Guan Yu frowned and looked at Zhang Fei, and said, "Brother, I haven't mentioned this matter to you and me, but everyone in the city knows about it, so don't you think about it, third brother?"

   "Huh?" Zhang Fei was stunned holding the wine bowl.

  Liu Bei said: "It's okay, it's okay. In fact, there is nothing wrong with this... I just felt that I was not good enough for Zizhong's sister, so I am still considering it..."

   Zhang Fei stared: "What?! Is there anyone who is not good enough for you?!"

"Shut up!" Guan Yu scolded Zhang Fei first, and then said to Liu Bei, his eyebrows raised, "So Mi Zizhong made the claim in the city without authorization? How dare you threaten Big Brother with public opinion! "

"Zizhong..." Liu Bei waved his hand, and said slowly, "It's not about coercion...Zizhong is mostly helpless... Now that Tao Xuzhou has passed away, Xuzhou's people's hearts are still undecided...In the past few years, the Mi family has taken advantage of Tao Xuzhou's momentum to boost business. It has expanded a lot…”

  Zhang Fei scratched his head, but he didn't quite understand. Zhang Fei is not stupid, but his temper is too straightforward, and he is unwilling to think about many things around the corner, so sometimes it is inevitable that he feels a little dull on the surface.

"...For us, it is also a combination of two benefits and two harms. After all, the newly recruited Danyang soldiers are also fluctuating in their hearts..." Liu Bei said looking at the sky, "Everything is based on stability...the reason why I didn't Immediately agree to Zizhong, but I don't think it is necessary to get married...not to mention that the second and third younger brothers are not married yet, my eldest brother..."

"But Mi Zizhong thinks that if you don't get married, you will feel uneasy, so..." Guan Yu frowned, and although his expression relaxed a little, he still said with some dissatisfaction, "Although it is excusable, but the relationship between relatives and friends is the most important thing. The transaction, but makes someone despise it!"

   "Well... the second brother can't be like this, Zizhong also has difficulties..." Liu Bei said with a slight smile, "What's more, this has indeed played a role in stabilizing people's hearts, hasn't it?"

  Zhang Fei nodded and said: "That's true. I heard that my eldest brother is going to get married, and even the shops on the street have started to hang black and red two colors to express the joy..."

   Liu Bei smiled.

   In fact, there is one thing Liu Bei didn't say.

  Mizhu's younger sister wants the position of wife! The position of Liu Bei's heir must be reserved! Although Mi Zhu didn't say it clearly, the so-called etiquette arrangements for the marriage were handled according to the position of Liu Bei's wife.

  Liu Bei is now Xuzhou Mu, so the Mi family is Xuzhou Mu's wife!

   And Gan’s…

Ugh.

  Liu Bei is not a heartless person when he treats his wives and concubines, but most of the time it is because he is forced to help...

  After all these years of fighting in the north and south, there has been no stability. Although several wives have been with them, not all women can adapt to the harsh battlefield environment and long-distance migration.

So Liu Bei lost his wife, well, he lost his wife many times, and now there is a Gan family in front of him, who was originally just a concubine, but now Liu Bei has stabilized a little bit, thinking of the years of hard work and friendship of the Gan family, he promoted Gan as his wife, as As a wife, Liu Bei also hesitated when Mi Zhu proposed it. After all, Mi's behavior would definitely be wronged by Gan's...

Originally, Liu Bei wanted Mizhu to provide some money and food as capital for training and recruitment, but Mizhu was also afraid that the money would be wasted, so he simply married Liu Bei like Jingxiang and Huang, so that he could pay Liu Bei. , which is equivalent to paying for himself, as long as the Mi family can give birth to a son and a half daughter and become an heir, it will be equivalent to stabilizing the position of the Mi family in the future. This approach is actually no different from the template of the royal relatives in the Han Dynasty.

   "Also..." Liu Bei signaled for a while, and after the servants and guards retreated, he lowered his voice and said, "North and South Yuan, the two virtuous brothers think... who has a better chance of winning?"

Liu Bei led the Xuzhou Shepherd, as the saying goes, if he is not in his position, he will not seek his own government. Although he is a state shepherd, he is actually a snack between the two big guys, Er Yuan. Now that he has received the seal for the first time, of course he needs to Express your attitude, and this attitude is very important, and it will determine the future route.

Before Liu Bei followed Gongsun Zan, and Gongsun Zan was in an alliance with Yuan Shu. Although everyone knew what this so-called alliance was, Yuan Shu might not think highly of Gongsun Zan, but Liu Bei got some favor from Gongsun Zan, so he was naturally close to Yuan Shu. One faction cooperated with Cao Cao and fought against Cao Cao several times.

   And now Gongsun Zan obviously...

  Liu Bei naturally had to consider leaving a way out for himself.

   This time Liu Bei accepted Xuzhou Mu, Yuan Shu didn't express it at all, and he didn't know whether he disagreed or didn't care. Anyway, there was no news so far, so Liu Bei didn't know what to do.

  Yuan Shao was in a state of war before, but after all, he didn't offend him. If he expressed his defection to Yuan Shao now, Yuan Shao would definitely not refuse, and Liu Bei didn't mind being a daughter of the horse.

  Guan Yu pondered for a while, and said: "General Gongsun is kind to us..."

"It's kind of kind to have kindness, but it's also called back and forth, without half respect!" Zhang Fei muttered, "Do you still remember that... what was that called? It was the younger brother of General Gongsun, who scolded the elder brother That kid? Didn’t it just go away? Didn’t even fart!”

   "Well..." Guan Yu nodded, but did not deny the fact, "General Gongsun did not do well..."

Liu Bei was silent for a moment, and said: "General Gongsun and X are classmates. General Gongsun lent troops to X, and X has also fought for them these years... There is nothing wrong with it... But the soldiers under the three of you and me are now Most of them are not Youzhou soldiers... If Danyang soldiers are still sent north...um..."

   This is the actual difficulty. Although friendship is also very important, it is pale and powerless to bypass difficulties. For Gongsun Zan, Liu Bei is really powerless at the moment. I haven't got a firm foothold yet, should I abandon all this hard-won land in my hand, lead the army thousands of miles alone, cross Qingzhou and Jizhou, and go north to rescue Gongsun Zan?

   And judging from the current situation, it is inevitable that Gongsun Zan will be destroyed. Even if he went to the rescue, it would be just a drop in the bucket and nothing would be changed.

  Then, after Gongsun Zan fell, Liu Bei would still follow Gongsun Zan's old path and continue hugging Yuan Shu's thigh, or would he hug Yuan Shu's thigh instead?

   "Brother, I don't know what you think?" Guan Yu looked at Liu Bei and asked.

Liu Bei took a long breath, then sighed and said, "I heard that the Son of Heaven is already in charge, and you and I are courtiers of the great Han no matter what, so I decided to send someone to pay tribute to the court... What do you two virtuous brothers think? "

  Guan Yu heard the words, nodded after thinking for a moment and said: "This policy should be right!"

  (end of this chapter)