"If a man pushes himself to discuss things, he abandons his status because of greed." [Book of the Later Han Dynasty·Guo Gong's Biography]
September 28, the second year of Jian'an.
Chen Liu, Yongqiu.
In early September, former general Zhu Jun had defeated several battalions of Zhu Ling's troops, gathered the powerful generals Fan Chou, Chen Xiangzhong and Shao's troops, with a total of more than 10,000 men, and surrounded Yongqiu. It turned out that Zhu Ling, Zhang Miao and others were the remaining troops. With only more than 2,000 men, Zhu Jun and Fan Chou could defeat them in one fell swoop. But Zhu Jun had his own ideas and had been standing still, seemingly not taking the credit for capturing Zhang Miao.
Zhu Jun had been a soldier for half his life and had made countless military exploits. Naturally, he disdained this achievement and was unwilling to share his secrets with a mediocre guy like Fan Chou. But in comparison, Fan Chou, who was still in his prime, was reluctant to give up this piece of work. Fatty, seeing Cao Cao pacify Jibei, Dongping, Jiyin and other counties one after another, leaving only Yongqiu County in Yanzhou south of the Yellow River.
The offensive and defensive momentum is easy to change. It should be a good time to make achievements, but Zhu Jun insists on holding him down!
Fan Chou was very angry. He asked to see Zhu Jun more than twenty times in the past few days. After Jia Xu and others came, he visited Zhu Jun several times. Except for meeting Jia Xu himself, the other few times he was rejected. No one cared about him. Although Fan Chou was famous in the army for his majestic general and Chitinghou's opinions and desire for war, how could this reputation compare to Zhu Jun who had been fighting on the battlefield for half his life?
Finally, he is a fellow from Liangzhou. When he was a member of the Xiliang army, he went through life and death together. His old friend Jia Xu, who raised the flag for rebellion, "kindly" gave him guidance: "As people get older, they lose their ambitions and fear difficulties and disasters. The former general now upholds integrity. He was in charge of the military affairs in the Kwantung region, including Yuzhou troops and horses, and had tens of thousands of troops under his command. He had made great achievements in his early years and was granted the title of ten thousand households. I wonder who is in this position if he is such a powerful minister and is not promoted by His Majesty. Aren’t you worried about the long-term future?”
"Is he afraid that if he has more achievements, the country will be jealous of him? That's right. He has a high position in Guandong now, and he has many soldiers and enough food. Anyone will be afraid of him. He can have such a plan, which can be regarded as deliberate. Yes, but..." Fan Chou muttered, and then doubted: "Since he has such a humble mind, why does he need to lead troops to disturb the muddy waters of Chenliu? Now Yongqiu will be captured sooner or later. , even if he doesn’t want to take the credit, what are you doing with your time?”
Jia Xu looked at Fan Chou's square-headed appearance, gently stroking his beard, just like he did when he was making plans for Li Jue, Guo Si and others in the army, and said slowly: "Capture Yongqiu, if we can completely It was also a great achievement to end the battle of Yanzhou, and there were thieves Zhang Miao, Zhang Chao and others in Kuang City. He refused to take this achievement, but he could choose who would take it."
After finishing speaking, as if he was worried that the stubborn Fan Chou wouldn't understand, Jia Xufu said in a persuasive manner: "If you don't tell me who is close, why don't you think about who the former general has been waiting for?"
"Cao Cao?" Fan Chong understood immediately, with a regretful look, as if he was running around, hitting walls everywhere and achieving nothing. In fact, Zhu Jun's thoughts were so obvious.
"This old guy!" Fan Chou became angrier as he thought about it. He suddenly stood up from the couch, his eyes seemed to burst out with fire: "Since I entered Guandong under the imperial edict, I have never done anything disrespectful to him. How come he has so much merit? I don’t want it anymore. You would rather give it to others than to me? I am the general who was pardoned and worshiped by the emperor! Even the emperor doesn’t care about the past. How come in his eyes, I, the old general of Liangzhou, are so useless? !”
Jia Xu's brows twitched, but he didn't expect Fan Chou to think this way. It is true that Zhu Jun looked down on him and never even regarded Fan Chou and other Dong Zhuo's old troops as allies. It was only because of the imperial edict that he pinched However, Zhu Jun's real intention for doing this was not because of this. It was just that Jia Xu refused to tell the truth. Seeing that Fan Chou was making random guesses, Jia Xu simply followed the trend and nodded expressionlessly, as if it was the same. Very chesty.
When Fan Chou saw Jia Xu's silent attitude, and recalled Zhu Jun's indifference towards him, and Zhong Shao's dismissive attitude towards him, he felt that his guess was extremely correct. Although it was late at night, he was still angry. Mie, it was really unbearable. After saying goodbye to Jia Xu in a hurry, he took a few soldiers and walked to the Chinese army's tent again.
This time he was not so polite. Fan Chou violently pushed aside the guard guarding the tent door and barged into Zhu Jun's bed.
The shoving and shouting sounds from the servants and Fan Chou soon woke up Zhu Jun from his sleep.
"It's midnight." Zhu Jun is getting older and his energy is not as good as before. He wants to sleep as soon as it gets dark. Now that he is woken up by someone, he feels unhappy. In fact, he has clearly heard Fan Chong's voice outside. A screen, but he pretended not to know and asked angrily: "Where did this old man come from who doesn't know etiquette and dares to come here and make a noise?"
"It's me, Fan Chou!" Fan Chou replied loudly without giving any face.
'Mean slave!' Zhu Jun couldn't help but pick up the mattress with his hands and thought angrily: 'This boy escaped death by luck and was pardoned. How long can he be peaceful for a long time? He forgot to act prudently and corrected his mistakes, but instead made trouble for me. Here they come while sleeping. These old generals from Liangzhou are indeed like wolves, with violent temperaments and lawless behavior!'
"Huh." Zhu Jun snorted coldly, and asked unhappily: "General Fan came here at night, what is the purpose of this place? Fortunately, there was no accident after making such a fuss. If the general suffered any harm because of this, If you are disturbed, you will not be able to escape this blame!"
Fan Chou was not intimidated by these words. After being instructed by Jia Xu before leaving, his voice became even louder: "Our army has been besieging the city for half a month. We have seen successes in Yuzhou, Hejian and other places, but there is still no discussion of attacking the city here. Conclusion. Now that the situation has changed, even Cao Zhendong has recaptured Yanzhou, but the prince still cannot capture even one Yongqiu. The general is worried that the general will miss out on his great fame in this life!"
Zhu Jun groped around in the darkness for a while and then ordered: "Hold the lamp!"
But he had no intention of getting out of bed and walking around the screen to meet Fan Chou. Instead, he lay down again.
It was late autumn, and the night was very cold. When Jia Xu came from Chang'an, he specially brought a few quilts given to Zhu Jun by the emperor. Ordinary quilts were stuffed with silk and wadding, and poor families could only stuff them with hemp and hay. , it is difficult to keep warm at all. And this kind of royal bedding is thick and soft, and it can completely isolate the cold air when covered.
It is said that this kind of bedding is filled with white folds from the Western Regions, which is also the "cotton" newly named by the emperor. It is sewn by the East and West weaving rooms combined with high-quality Shu brocade silk. It became popular in Guanzhong as soon as it was launched. However, due to the Linyuan's cotton has just begun to be planted on a large scale, and the yield is not high, so it is only used as an imperial gift and given to ministers. Among the officials and princes outside, only Liu Yu, the governor of Bingzhou, and Zhu Jun himself have it. This honor.
Zhu Jun was lying on the warm quilt, resting his hands on the quilt, caressing the smooth Shu brocade quilt cover unconsciously, and a faint warmth came from his palms, which represented the emperor's continued trust in him. He also had great achievements. Huangfu Song, for example, was still a hussar general at this time and was always involved in military planning in front of the imperial court. Therefore, it would be completely wrong to say that he did not dare to order an siege because he was worried that his achievements would shock his master.
He stood still because he had his own plans, but now Fan Chou's unintentional words reminded him.