Outside Luoyang City.
As the sun sets in the west, the ruined city wall is no longer majestic and looks like a withered scene. The undulating mountains echo each other, and the water of the river in the distance glows with red light, like a dilapidated ink painting.
On the official road, the roadside is overgrown with weeds, wild flowers sway in the wind, and the warm sunshine spreads through the mist on the ground, trying to add a layer of warmth to this desolation.
Cao Zhang's army slowly circled the official road outside Luoyang City and continued to advance in the direction of Xudu.
Cao Zhang, Ma Chao and Ma Yunlu stood quietly on the high ground outside Luoyang City, looking at the scene in front of them. In addition to sadness, they felt more resentful and helpless.
Ma Yunlu sighed softly: "I remember when I was a child, my father once told me that Luoyang is a solemn and ancient city. I didn't expect that it would become like this now."
Cao Zhang sighed softly and said with emotion: "Luoyang City was once the old capital of the Han Dynasty, but it was destroyed by a fire caused by Dong Zhuo. Not long ago, in order to defeat Li Jue, I arranged another surprise fire attack. It has added another disaster to Luoyang, and now that I think about it, I really regret it."
Ma Chao comforted Cao Zhang: "Ziwen, you also want to defeat the enemy and win, and sometimes you have to do it. If you don't use tricks to defeat Li Jue, wouldn't Luoyang under his tyranny control will worsen even more. Loving the people and being kind are the most important things. Yes, but these must be troubled times, and sometimes extraordinary measures must be taken to deal with troubled times. Now that the war has subsided, we work hard to rebuild Luoyang and restore its glory."
"What the elder brother said is that only by calming down the troubled times as soon as possible can we have a chance to rebuild Luoyang and restore its former glory." Cao Zhang felt much relieved after listening to Ma Chao's persuasion.
He also understands that maintaining a benevolent and righteous heart can gain more support from the people, but if he becomes timid in pursuit of "benevolence and righteousness" or even ignores the overall situation, it will become a saintly heart and false benevolence and righteousness. . To calm down this troubled world, sometimes we still need to maintain enough ruthlessness and determination.
"Let's go!" Cao Zhang greeted Ma Chao and Ma Yunlu, the two nodded, and the three of them faced the afterglow of the setting sun and quickly ran towards the advancing army...
As night fell, Cao Zhang's army temporarily stationed in the wild to rest and prepare to continue marching the next day.
The soldiers began to light a fire to cook, and the smell of cooking fireworks was everywhere.
Cao Zhang was drinking a bowl of vegetable porridge when Xu Shu hurriedly came from a distance with a messenger.
"Master, there is a messenger from Xu Du. He claims to be from the Sima family." Xu Shu reported to Cao Zhang.
When Cao Zhang heard that it was someone from Sima's family, he knew that something big must have happened. He quickly put down his porridge bowl and asked with concern: "What's the matter?"
The messenger handed a letter to Cao Zhang: "This is a letter from my eldest son."
Cao Zhang took the letter, opened it, looked at it, and then nodded with a smile: "Thank you for your hard work. Go eat and rest."
Xu Shu called a soldier to take the messenger away.
"Master, has something happened to Xu Du?" Xu Shu asked with concern.
"Everything is going well. The sales of Cao Gongzhi and "Thousand Character Classic" went very smoothly, and I have gained a lot in the past two months. Boda is still doing things very safely." Cao Zhang responded with satisfaction.
"Oh, what's the reason for Boda's letter?" Xu Shu knew that if it was just to report the income, Sima Lang didn't need to be so anxious and sent a messenger to report to Cao Zhang.
"He is reporting to me that Miss Guo has been infected with the plague and is now in a very serious condition." Cao Zhang responded with a deliberately solemn expression.
Xu Shu, Ma Chao and Ma Yunlu, who were sitting next to Cao Zhang and drinking porridge together, became nervous when they heard the word plague. Living in this era, they all knew that if they got the plague, they would basically be close to death.
"How could Miss Guo be infected with the plague?" Xu Shu asked with concern.
"I don't know the specific situation, but now we need to quickly find a famous doctor to treat him." Cao Zhang responded with a anxious gesture.
In fact, Cao Zhang had already thought of the issues mentioned in Sima Lang's letter when he prepared ointment for Guo Zhao before departure. Pretending to be sick can fool you for a while, but in the end, it will take a famous doctor to cure Guo Zhao of the so-called "plague" in order to win people's trust and allow her to return to normal and interact with him.
And in the late Eastern Han Dynasty where they were now, there happened to be two famous doctors.
One is Hua Tuo, but he travels around as a doctor and has no fixed residence, so it is difficult to find him.
Another famous doctor is Zhang Zhongjing, who was also very famous for treating typhoid fever in ancient times.
He happened to be the prefect of Changsha at this time, and he was considerate and caring for the people. He often treated visiting patients in the court. The title of court doctor originated from him. It was relatively easy to find him for medical treatment.
Cao Zhang stood up and shouted loudly: "Quick, paper and pen will serve you!"
Xu Shu hurriedly greeted the soldiers, set up a bookcase for Cao Zhang, and prepared pen and ink.
Cao Zhang picked up the pen and wrote quickly. He quickly wrote a letter and a few more pieces of paper.
He greeted Li Jin: "Season!"
Li Jin hurried forward to wait for orders.
Cao Zhang sealed the letter and paper with writing in his hand in a small bamboo tube and handed it to Li Jin: "Ji Ji, you immediately take my letter and greeting card, and ten personal guards, and rush to Changsha at starry night. Go to see Zhang Ji, the governor of Changsha, present the letter, and then quietly escort him to Xudu to treat Miss Guo. Be sure not to alert the troops in Jingzhou or cause unnecessary trouble."
Li Jin took the letter, turned around and left, acting according to Cao Zhang's arrangements.
Ma Chao looked at Cao Zhang with some surprise: "Ziwen, this machine belongs to the governor of Changsha and is a subordinate of Liu Biao. You can invite him with a letter?"
Cao Zhang smiled very confidently: "In addition to letters, I also gave him a few prescriptions. Maybe these prescriptions can impress his curiosity."
After all, Cao Zhang was a forensic doctor in his previous life. When he was studying medicine, he also dabbled in traditional Chinese medicine, especially the "Compendium of Materia Medica".
Before crossing over, the Central Plains experienced a special period of three years and accumulated a lot of experience in treating typhoid fever and epidemics. These could help Zhang Zhongjing treat wind and cold and greatly help him complete his book "Treatise on Febrile and Miscellaneous Diseases".
Cao Zhang specially selected several classic prescriptions from the "Compendium of Materia Medica" and asked Li Jin to bring them to him. He believed that Zhang Zhongjing would be tempted after reading them and personally came to Xudu to diagnose and treat Guo Zhao, and also met with him.
At that time, Cao Zhang can also discuss with Zhang Zhongjing. In addition to medical exchanges, he can also try to develop some medicines, which can not only relieve the people's worries, but also be used for future military supplies.
While Cao Zhang was thinking, the sound of rapid hoofbeats came from the distance, and another fast horse arrived.
After a while, a messenger was brought to Cao Zhang.
"Master Qi, Sikong has an order. Please don't go back with the army. Please immediately lead the two Xiahou soldiers back to Xudu. There is something important for you to deal with!" The messenger was sweating profusely and reported to Cao Zhang very tiredly.
Looking at his appearance, Cao Zhang understood that this was a message sent to him by an urgent messenger from eight hundred miles away. It was obvious that something big had happened to Xu Du, and the specific mention of bringing Xia Houshang and Xia Houru made Cao Zhang vaguely guess. Yes, the matter is definitely not trivial, and may be related to the previous leak of military information.
Cao Zhang did not dare to neglect, and immediately ordered to go down. Ma Chao, Xu Huang, Yan Xing, and Pang De led the army to slow down, while he took dozens of personal guards and set off overnight to return to Xudu...
