The Mi family is a very wealthy family in Xuzhou. They also have a mansion in Guangling Haixi, which is not much worse than Tancheng.
When Mi Zhu returned to his house, there were nearly a hundred slaves guarding the door. At that time, the world was in chaos and the people were in dire straits. As long as they had enough to eat, countless young men would voluntarily become slaves to wealthy households.
Therefore, Mi Zhu's statement that the Mi family has two thousand slaves in Haixi is definitely not a lie.
As soon as Mi Zhu entered the house, he came to Mi Fang to discuss the betrothal of Mi Zhen.
When Mi Fang heard that Mi Zhu wanted to marry Mi Zhen to Liu Bei, she became unhappy and said, "Liu Yuzhou is already thirty-five, and my younger sister is young. Isn't the age difference too big?"
Mi Zhu sighed: "It's not like you don't know the status of our merchants. Liu Yuzhou is a feudal lord and a member of the Han Dynasty. If he becomes the king in the future, it will be too late for us to try to attach him to him."
"Do you think my little sister could marry better?"
After hearing this, Mi Fang lowered her head in thought and hesitated.
He was moved, raised his head and said, "I heard that Liu Yuzhou's first wife was lost and trapped in Xiapi. He married his younger sister as his first wife so quickly. Isn't he afraid of the world's criticism?"
Mi Zhu listened and said: "Liu Yuzhou also said the same, so what he means is to take the younger sister as a concubine."
After hearing this, Mi Fang's face changed drastically, she slammed the table and said angrily: "No!"
"Even if our Mi family is not a noble family, it has been a good family for generations. If we marry our legitimate daughter to someone else as a concubine, is this worthy of my father and mother who deserve to die?"
Mi Zhu listened and sighed: "Second brother, have you ever thought about what my Mi family will do if the lord fails?"
"Businessmen like us, who have no money but no foundation, will Yuan Shu and Cao Cao treat us like honored guests?"
"It would be great if our house is not raided!"
"Think about it, how many people in the world are as benevolent and righteous as our lord?"
Mi Fang listened and muttered: "What kind of benevolence and righteousness? I think you are also a pervert."
"Last year, after my lord took in the Gan family, he doted on her exclusively. Didn't he also have fun every day?"
"It would be fine if my little sister is a real wife, but if she becomes a concubine, will she really have to compete with a despicable woman like Gan for favor?"
Mi Zhu's expression changed: "Shut up, Mrs. Gan acts impartially. Now she is taking care of all the affairs of the master's house. She may not be able to correct her in the future. If she offends her, my little sister will not have a hard time in the future. "
Mi Fang became even more angry, "Brother is so determined to let me be my concubine?"
"Isn't this life a slave life?"
"In this case, why not marry her to the Yuan family and become a concubine to the lord of a state? Isn't it better than being the lord's concubine?"
Seeing that Mi Fang was getting more and more excited, Mi Zhu stood up and said, "I won't tell you anymore. I came here today just to inform you."
"Now that I am the head of the family, I am the one who makes the decision about my little sister's marriage."
"I think the second brother had a quarrel with Guan Yunchang, and that's why he was so conflicted, right?"
"Don't drag the Mi family into a dilemma because of your personal likes and dislikes!"
Mi Fang's face turned blue and white after hearing this, and she got up and left the table angrily.
Before leaving, he said: "It is the biggest joke in the world that our dignified Mi family needs to sell their little sister in order to gain peace and wealth!"
Seeing that Mi Fang didn't understand him, Mi Zhu sighed inwardly. The Mi family looked at the extravagance of the rich, but in fact they had to give out huge amounts of wealth to various forces every year to buy peace, otherwise they would have been annexed long ago.
It's a joke, as long as there's someone on your head, who's not a joke?
Mi Zhu thought of Liu Bei's two brothers, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei. Their relationship with their lord was so close that no one else could get involved. Some ambitious nobles must be dissatisfied with this, just like Chen Qun who took the opportunity to join Cao Cao.
But Mi Zhu is very open-minded. He just wants to continue the Mi family. Now marrying off his younger sister is the only way for the Mi family to have a close relationship with Liu Bei.
Another mansion in the city was Zhang Fei's residence. As soon as Guan Yu entered, he smelled a strong smell of alcohol.
He frowned slightly and walked into the hall, where he saw Zhang Fei lying on the long table with wine jars in front of him.
Zhang Fei looked up drunk and saw Guan Yu coming in. He raised the wine jar and shouted: "Second brother, you are here!"
"Drink with me, have a few drinks!"
Guan Yu shook his head, snatched the wine jar and put it aside. He sat down opposite Zhang Fei and said, "Third brother, drinking makes things worse. If you are seen like this, what will others think of you?"
Zhang Fei was already drunk and said angrily: "Who dares to talk nonsense? I will chop him down!"
Guan Yu's face turned cold: "Third brother, can you still kill everyone in the world?"
"I'm not talking about you. This time you trapped the daughter of my sister-in-law's eldest brother. Are you treating me right?"
Zhang Fei's face turned red as he looked like the bottom of a pot, and he stammered: "How could I have expected such a thing to happen!"
"It's all my fault. At worst, I'll die to repay my brother!"
Guan Yu shouted: "What are you talking about? When the three of us became sworn brothers, we only wanted to die on the same year and on the same day. Do you also want us to accompany you to commit suicide?"
Zhang Fei was speechless after hearing this, and muttered: "Anyway, I'm not as good as the eldest brother and the second brother. I can't do anything right. I'm a waste."
Guan Yu sighed: "Third brother, there is something wrong with you, and you really need to change it."
"It is against military law to drink and cause trouble in the middle of battle. That is to say, everyone only tolerates you for the sake of my eldest brother."
"I won't mention it now. Can you change your bad temper? If you speak so unpleasantly, is it possible that everyone has problems, but you don't?"
"You must offend everyone?"
After hearing this, Zhang Fei hesitated and said: "I admit that I have faults, but what I told is the truth, and they also have faults."
"Just like when I sold meat, everyone is like cut meat. Either fat or thin, or short of weight, or with bones, how can there be no defective meat?"
After hearing this, Guan Yu sneered: "What about you?"
"I see you are not only carrying bones, but also pig skins and hairs!"
Zhang Fei heard this and argued: "I am a meat seller, not meat!"
"It's natural for the butcher to pick on the meat. How can the meat pick on the butcher?"
When Guan Yu saw Zhang Fei's arrogance, he was so angry that he stood up and said, "Third brother, think carefully about how to make up for your mistakes. There are only a few cities left in Xuzhou!"
Zhang Fei stared blankly at Guan Yu's leaving figure, raised the wine jar, took a big sip of wine, and suddenly burst into tears.
"Why is it so difficult to do something!"
"It's still easy to sell meat. If anyone dares to be picky, I'll chop his mother in half with a knife!"
While Yuan Xi was organizing his troops in Yecheng, news about Xuzhou came one after another.
Liu Bei lost Tancheng, was defeated in Guangling, and was forced to flee to Haixi. His remaining troops were only a few thousand, and the two most prosperous counties in the four counties had been lost. He also sent people to Jizhou several times to ask for help, but Yuan Shao The matter was handed over to Yuan Shang, and there was no more news about the Yuan family.
After discussion, Yuan Xi and Guo Jia believed that Yuan Shang would not rescue Liu Bei.
Because Guo Jia speculated based on various signs that Yuan Shang was most likely to be on good terms with Cao Cao in private.
Moreover, now that Cao's army is approaching Tancheng and confronting Sun Ce, Yuan is happy to see them fighting each other.
Yuan Xi and Guo Jia have discussed the pros and cons of leading troops to rescue Xuzhou, but they have not yet reached a consensus. This matter is too risky, because the opposite is Sun Ce, the little overlord, and Yuan Shu is behind him, and there may be a sneak attack by Cao Cao, who is eyeing him.
Yuan Xi was undecided and felt depressed, so he went to find Zhen Mi, but heard the maid say that she had gone to the study to find Cai Zhaoji.
He thought he had nothing to do, so he walked all the way to the study. When he reached the door, he saw Zhen Mi practicing calligraphy on a bamboo slip with a brush under the guidance of Cai Zhaoji, while Cao Xian and Cao Jie looked on.
When everyone saw him coming, they stood up. Yuan Xi said: "You are busy, so don't worry about me."
He saw that what Zhen Mi wrote on the bamboo slips was in official script, with neat and beautiful handwriting, and he praised: "This character has quite a charm."
Zhen Mi's pretty face turned red and she said, "She's still far from Sister Zhaoji."
When Zhen Mi said this, no one felt that she was being modest, including Yuan Xi.
Because this is indeed true.
Official script originated very early, even earlier than Xiaozhuan. According to legend, Cheng Miao was the ancestor of official script. Later, after the official script matured, it was also called Bafenshu in the late Eastern Han Dynasty. Wang Cizhong is said to be the ancestor of Bafenshu. Over the next four hundred years, It was mainly developed during the Han Dynasty, so it is also called Han Li.
But strictly speaking, official script has gone through three stages: ancient official script, Han official script and modern official script.
Ancient Li is the original Qin Li, Han Li is the master of the development of official script, and Cai Yong is known as the master of Han Li.
Zhang Huaiguan of the Tang Dynasty divided the levels of famous calligraphers in history into the first divine grade, the second wonderful grade, and the third capable grade.
For the mature Han Li, that is, Bafenshu, only Cai Yong is selected as a divine calligrapher.
During the Three Kingdoms period at the end of the Han Dynasty, regular script began to appear. At this time, regular script was called Jinli. The first person to promote it was Zhong Yao, an important minister of Cao Wei. Therefore, Zhong Yao is also revered as the ancestor of modern regular script.
Zhong Yao's calligraphy teacher was Cai Wenji in later generations.
At this time, the Cai family's calligraphy was the best in the world, so Zhen Mi said this.
Cai Zhaoji smiled and said: "Although Madam's knowledge is still short, she already has some charm in her. In time, she will achieve something."
Yuan Xi thought to himself that this was the benefit of having a good teacher. When it came to teaching calligraphy, Cai Zhaoji, who could teach students like Zhong Yao, naturally understood much better than the average person.
He looked over and saw that what Zhen Mi was copying stroke by stroke was the Xiping Stone Scripture.
This is a stone engraving of Confucian classics officially designated by the Han court. Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty ordered the correction of Confucian classics and sent Cai Yong and others to compile the Seven Confucian Classics ("Lu Shi", "Shang Shu", "Zhou Yi", "Spring and Autumn" and "Gongyang Zhuan"). "Etiquette" and "The Analects of Confucius") were copied and carved into stone books.
It took a total of eight years to carve, with a total of 46 steles and 250,000 words. After it was carved, it was erected at the location of Luoyang Taixue outside Kaiyang Gate of Luoyang City in the Han and Wei Dynasties at that time, so people also called this book Taixue. Stone Scripture.
Yuan Xi looked at the bamboo slips in front of Zhen Mi, which were all written by Cai Zhaoji, and asked in surprise: "Have you memorized all this scripture?"
Cai Zhaoji smiled and said: "How is that possible?"
"As long as you remember the essence of the subtle words, you can understand the essence inside, and you can still be consistent when writing silently."
"Even if there are some errors or omissions in some words, they do not affect the original meaning of the scripture."
After hearing this, Yuan Xi realized something, wouldn't this mean eliminating the waste and retaining the truth?
He vaguely felt that the logic behind this was similar to the decision before him. While he was thinking about it, Sun Li came to report that someone from Xuzhou wanted to visit Yuan Xi.
Yuan Xi was quite surprised when he saw the name on the tattoo.
(End of chapter)
