Liu Bei was in trouble because Tancheng, the capital of Xiapi, was lost.
At that time, Liu Bei was stationing troops on the border of Xuzhou. When he heard the news, he was struck by thunder.
Originally, Guan Yu led his troops east to Guangling to counter Sun Ce, and Liu Bei led his troops west to guard against Cao Cao. Both routes were very important, but the task of defending Tancheng was much easier.
Liu Bei thought over and over again and decided to hand over this easy task to Zhang Fei.
As long as Zhang Fei doesn't do anything excessive and there are so many officials and generals in Tancheng to help him, he can just wait until Liu Bei and Guan Yu resolve the crisis and return to the army.
Unexpectedly, the most relaxing place would have a big problem!
At that time, Zhang Fei came to Liu Bei in embarrassment with hundreds of remaining soldiers. He explained the cause and effect. Liu Bei sighed: "Third brother, it's not that this can't be done, but it's too urgent."
The cause of the incident was that Zhang Fei discovered that Cao Bao, the key general of the Danyang Bing faction in Tancheng, had different intentions.
Someone tipped Zhang Fei that Cao Bao and Sun Ce of Guangling had written collusion. After Zhang Fei checked and found that the evidence was conclusive, he was furious and ordered troops to capture Cao Bao.
The bad thing is that Zhang Fei did this in a big way, which caused the news to leak out. After Cao Bao learned the news, he mobilized the Danyang generals in the city to raise troops to attack Zhang Fei.
The two sides fought for a day, with no outcome in sight, but Cao Bao took the opportunity to open the city gate and ushered in an enemy army that no one expected to appear in Tancheng.
Sun Ce!
He led thousands of soldiers into Xiapi City, took advantage of the chaos to attack Zhang Fei, defeated Zhang Fei severely, and was forced to abandon the city and flee.
Zhang Fei knelt on the ground and said with a look of shame on his face: "Fei is sorry for brother, because he trapped his whole family in the city!"
At that time, Liu Bei had a wife and two daughters, who should have been acquired by Sun Ce.
Liu Bei sighed secretly in his heart, now that things have come to this, what else can he say?
And Zhang Fei cannot be entirely blamed for this. The other party is already preparing to start an uprising. Even if Zhang Fei doesn't find out, the result will only be worse.
He could only say: "Brothers are like brothers and feet, and wives are like clothes. If the clothes are torn, they can be sewn; if the limbs are broken, can they be repaired?"
"Third brother, you don't have to blame yourself. It's just a matter of going down to Pi and finding a way to fight back."
Zhang Fei then raised his head and said bitterly: "That Sun Ce is treacherous, and the officials and generals in the city are nothing!"
"Now it seems that there are many people who support Cao Bao, otherwise I wouldn't have waited until Sun Ce entered the city to find out!"
Liu Bei asked again: "Who in the city escaped with you?"
Zhang Fei thought for a while and said: "Kong Rong's family probably didn't escape."
"I didn't see Chen Qun. Maybe he died in the rebellion?"
"Chen Deng led an army to help me, but I didn't have time to take him with me when I escaped."
"Mi Zhu seems to have led people to escape to Haixi. I don't know if they can escape."
Liu Bei's eyes darkened. Except for Sun Qian, Jian Yong and a few people around him, were the others just sent away by Zhang Fei?
His heart was bleeding, and Zhang Fei could see that Liu Bei was unhappy, so he quickly said: "Brother, we don't need to worry about Cao Cao anymore. Why don't we join forces and go back to recapture Xiapi!"
Liu Bei shook his head and sighed: "The opponent must have been prepared for a long time. It is easy to defend the city but difficult to attack it. How can thousands of us defeat it?"
"Moreover, most of the soldiers' families are in Tancheng. Now people are in panic. If we go back to attack the city, I'm afraid people will be even more confused!"
"I have an idea, take this opportunity to go southeast, bypass Tancheng, and go to the border of Guangling to meet up with Yun Chang."
"Then since Sun Ce has appeared in Tancheng, he must have divided his forces to entangle Yun Chang, and then he could take the opportunity to escape and attack Tancheng."
"As a result, the Guangling City he occupies must be empty. If the three of us brothers join forces and attack his lair, we may be able to reverse the situation!"
After hearing this, Zhang Fei was overjoyed and said: "Brother is talented, we won't lose if we trade with each other!"
Liu Bei's heart was bleeding. You were not married yet, but I lost my wife and two daughters. It's a big loss no matter how you look at it, right?
But he couldn't show it on his face and said: "Soldiers need to be quick, let's set off to Guangling immediately to catch them off guard!"
Seeing Zhang Fei's happy face, Liu Bei was worried. Will things really go so smoothly?
Who in Guangling entangled Guan Yu so that he could not stop Sun Ce from dividing his troops?
Little did Liu Bei know that Guan Yu, who was at the foot of Guangling City, was also thinking about this issue.
After he returned from collecting grain, he and Sun Ce were in a stalemate for more than a month. The two sides set up camps and attacked each other every day.
Later, the soldiers on both sides became exhausted, and the intervals between attacks became longer and longer.
It wasn't until there was no movement for three days that Guan Yu suddenly woke up and went out to check, only to realize that something bad had happened!
In the opponent's camp, Yuan Shu's general Zhang Xunqiaorui had already been replaced, but Sun Ce was missing!
He suddenly realized that something was wrong, led a fierce attack, broke Yuan Shu's army camp, and Zhang Xunqiao Rui was forced to retreat.
Guan Yu knew that it was too late to return reinforcements at this time, so he might as well capture Guangling in one go, so he took advantage of the victory and pursued the attack to the gates of Guangling City.
However, he could only stop there. After Zhang Xunqiaorui returned to Guangling City, he seemed to have become smarter. The two of them went out of the city to harass day and night, making Guan Yu's lone army unable to advance or retreat.
Guan Yu was worried. If he continued like this, he would run out of food and supplies, so he could only retreat to Xiapi.
I don’t know what happened to the eldest brother and the third brother. Most likely, Sun Ce went to attack Xiapi secretly. If the third brother could stop Sun Ce, he might still be able to save the situation.
It should be...no problem, right?
When the fight in Xuzhou was fierce, the eyes of the nobles in the world were not focused on this.
After all, Xuzhou is a place of four wars, easy to attack but difficult to defend. When the world is in peace, it is a hot potato, but when the world is in chaos, it becomes a hot potato. It is not surprising whoever takes Xuzhou.
At this time, a wedding in Ye City attracted their attention even more.
After all, Yuan Jiazi, who has risen like a comet in just one year and is known as the fierce tiger of the Yuan family, is getting married.
In the eyes of some outsiders, this is just an ordinary marriage of a newly adopted son of the Yuan family marrying a merchant's daughter, but in the eyes of those who know the inside story, they understand how many twists and turns there have been.
Some Jizhou nobles were very worried. After all, according to rumors, this fierce tiger was famous for killing without blinking an eye on the battlefield.
But at least nothing happened from the morning of the wedding to the banquet.
But what surprised everyone was that according to the net worth of the bride and groom, this wedding should be quite extravagant, but in fact it was quite simple.
Different from the Zhou rites, Han people began to celebrate their weddings with joy, and the custom of having a wedding ceremony appeared, and the wedding style was extremely extravagant.
On the day of the wedding, the husband's family must accept congratulations from the guests and prepare a banquet to entertain the guests. The guests drink, laugh, and speak and behave without restraint.
The custom of having a wedding party is the most prominent manifestation of the joy at the beginning of a wedding. This custom began in the Han Dynasty. "On the eve of the wedding, there is no difference between men and women." Traditional etiquette does not need to be followed, and men and women can play casually, and even behave out of the ordinary.
Another manifestation of jule is spreading tents.
According to the records of "Wu Chen Zachao", the tent-laying began when Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty first arrived. The emperor welcomed Mrs. Li into the tent and sat together in the tent. They drank together with the wine and warned the officials to scatter five-color concentric flowers and fruits in the distance. The emperor and his wife filled it with clothes.
In other words, if there are many clouds, there will be many children.
However, Guo Jia had previously apologized to the guests and said that they would avoid having to have a wedding ceremony today, which made many young noblemen express regret.
They had long heard that the girls from the Zhen family were beautiful and fragrant. Today, they finally came to congratulate her on behalf of the family, but it was a pity that they could not get a glimpse of her beauty.
Someone took the opportunity to make a few noises, but found that no one agreed with him. He suddenly woke up and quickly fell silent.
If you offend the Yuan family, how can you get any good results?
At this time, the wedding ceremony was going on in the back hall.
There are seven rituals in total: worship in the hall, wash your hands, sit opposite each other, stay in the same cell, tie your hair together, tie your hair, and hold your hands.
"Book of Rites: Hunyi" records that when a man and a woman get married, they must "eat together and drink together, so they have the same dignity and inferiority as one body, so they can be intimate with each other."
The worship hall is also called worshiping heaven and earth. When holding a wedding, the bride and groom first visit heaven and earth, and then worship their ancestors, parents, and elders.
But at this time, on the elder's throne in front of Yuan Xi Zhen Mi, one was Yuan Ji's tablet, and the other was Huan's.
Under the auspices of Liu He, the two worshiped the tablet and then knelt down to Huan.
Huan was so excited that she stood up and helped the two of them up. She looked at the radiant and charming Zhen Mi, and couldn't help but think of the scene when she got married, and her eyes turned red.
She took Zhen Mi's hand and handed it to Yuan Xi.
Zhen Mi raised her head slightly, a little shy and did not dare to look directly at Yuan Xi.
What she is wearing today is a dark black wedding dress. The top and bottom are made of silk, silk, gauze, etc. The sleeves are decorated with more than a dozen colors of silk, which can be said to be extremely gorgeous.
Yuan Xi thought to himself that the Zhen family had really spent a lot of money on it. Not many people could wear this outfit, and it shouldn't be any more beautiful than it was on Zhen Mi.
The intricate and exquisite decorations on Zhen Mi's head reminded Yuan Xi of poems from his previous life.
"When the rooster crows, it's time to wake up, and I put on my new clothes. I wear my embroidered skirt, and everything is in order. Silk shoes are under my feet, and my head is a tortoise shell. My waist is as smooth as silk, and my ears are full of bright moons. My fingers are like peeled onions."
The root and the mouth are as if they contain Zhudan. The delicate steps are delicate and exquisite, unparalleled in the world."
Liu He said at this time: "Madam, the hand-holding ceremony is still behind me."
Huan's face looked embarrassed after hearing this. She was nervous, but something was wrong.
Zhen Mi's face turned red and she quickly wanted to pull her hand back, but Yuan Xi held her hand tightly and said with a smile: "Parents' fate is the most important thing."
Liu He smiled bitterly, thinking that this person was really casual, so he said: "The bridegroom and the bride take a shower first, enter the bridal chamber, sit on opposite mats, share the same cell, and tie their hair together."
Wu Zhao and Cao Xian brought the copper basin, and Yuan Xizhen Mi put her hands into the water and washed them clean.
Yuan Xi raised his head slightly and saw Cao Xian's envious face, Wu Zhao's smile with a hint of sadness, and his heart was slightly touched.
Cao Xian probably felt that he would be a concubine in his life and would never have such a wedding again, but Wu Zhao had experienced the same scene, but in the end it didn't have a good outcome.
The different fates of people sometimes depend on the illusory fortune, which is really sad.
When Liu He saw that the two of them had finished washing, he said, "The newlyweds are entering the bridal chamber."
At this point, his affairs are over, and the rest of the etiquette is a matter between the groom and the bride.
Yuan Xi and Zhen Mi turned around, saluted and thanked Liu He, and bowed to Huan before holding hands and entering the bridal chamber.
Behind the two of them, Wu Zhao and Cao Xian gently closed the door.