After receiving the news, Chen Chong stayed in Anyi until December 24th, when the first batch of grain from Yanzhou finally arrived outside the city.
The troops transporting grain were still Cao Cao's infantry, so he hurried out of the city to meet them. Opening the door, Chen Chong saw a long queue. Warriors in black armor were looking up and down at the city, stamping their hands and feet. The leader was a tall, six-foot-tall man. He held up a bamboo hat to cover the snow. He took it off and held it in his hand, carrying a knife at his waist. The deerskin boots under his feet were covered in slush. When the man saw Chen Chong approaching, he quickly lowered his head and raised his hands and said, "I met Chen Shijun in the tent of the prefect of Xiadong County. Lieutenant Yue Jin, the commander of Chen Chong's trap, met him."
Chen Chong saw that he was short in appearance and courteous, but his words were neither humble nor arrogant, and he was as stable as a rock. He could feel that he was a courageous man. Chen Chong asked him about Cao Cao's recent situation, and he said: "Cao Fujun has just defeated Heishan Yudu, and went south to attack the rear general Yuan Shu. Now there is chaos in Yanzhou, and Liu Shijun cannot calm it down, so all the counties rely on Fujun, so we can Raise this food and grass.”
Cao Cao has begun to show his talents! Looking at the rice grains that would last for three months, Chen Chong was filled with emotion. The talented men he had befriended in the past were now traveling north and south of the Yellow River. What made him happy was that at this difficult time, Cao Cao chose to help him so clearly despite the risk of breaking with Yuan Shao. He was very happy and said to Le Jin: "The captain can tell Meng De when he returns. If he encounters difficulties, he can contact Henan Yunchang. If something goes wrong, Xuande and I will not sit idly by."
Having said that, thanks to Cao Cao's help, he will be able to have a good year this year.
After receiving the food, Chen Chong gave the state officials a holiday, and he only went with Zhang Fei, two horses, and returned to Xihe from the Pingyang Trail. It was New Year's Eve when we passed Tongtian Mountain. Although the snow had stopped early, the sky was covered with dense clouds, like rolling turbid waves, floating among the mountains. Looking around, there was an endless sea of clouds rolling across the fields.
Chen Chong turned around and looked south, but he couldn't see the way he came. The surrounding mountains are like small islands among the huge waves, disappearing and appearing in the clouds. The majesty of the heaven and earth makes pedestrians and horses look like earthworms floating in the vast sea, making them appear extremely small.
When we arrived in Yuanyang, it was already the New Year. The state capital has all been moved here, and with it, the entire Chen family of Yingchuan. Liu Bei originally planned to let them live in Jinyang, but his uncle Chen Chen sternly refused, saying that Chen Chong is now the head of the Chen family, no matter what In this situation, I should live with him this year, so I still insisted on going to Yuanyang City.
When Chen Chong arrived, Chen Chen and Chen Kui had already found a residence in the suburbs of the city and built an ancestral hall. About two hundred Chen clan members were still cleaning and tidying up the rooms. Seeing that they had occupied nearly a thousand acres of land, Chen Chong immediately felt bad. He went to ask Chen Qun privately where the land came from. Chen Qun replied that they bought it at market price and there was no forced purchase or sale. Chen Chong looked at the accounts and asked why the price was so low. Chen Qun replied that the market price in a hungry year was like this. Chen Chong was speechless and immediately ordered Chen Qun to pay the price one by one according to the usual annual price.
After the matter was arranged, Zhang Fei went to Jinyang to find Liu Bei, and Chen Chongcai met his father. His father Chen Kui wanted to treat him with dignity as usual, but when he saw the arrow scar on Chen Chong's eyebrow, he was immediately speechless. Only his uncle Chen Chen still talked to him. The two first talked about the incident in Qingzhou. Qingzhou was almost entirely occupied by the remnants of the Yellow Turbans, and the Prime Minister and Governor sent by the imperial court were unable to defend it. When they left, the Yellow Turbans had turned to attack Taishan County, and the surrounding counties and counties could not take over. It was not known how long Chen Ji could hold on. .
The two sighed for a moment, and Chen Chen sighed again. There were still several important things waiting for him to do in the clan in the past two days.
The first is to perform an ancestor worship ceremony and officially complete the handover of the position of the Chen clan leader.
Secondly, Xun Yu's daughter A'e has a marriage contract with Chen Qun. Now that Xun Yu's daughter has reached the age of hairpin, according to the marriage contract, Chen Chong should personally issue a letter of appointment and send an envoy to Yanzhou to recruit Xun's A'e to work for him. Chen Qun got married.
Then he hoped that Chen Chong would spare some time to take a test on his ethnic studies.
Chen Zhong is the son of Chen Chen. Unexpectedly, after the whole conversation, Chen Chen didn't say a word about Chen Zhong, which made Chen Chong feel uncomfortable. He agreed. After the two of them talked, Chen Kui looked at him for a long time and finally said: "You You are also going to be a father. I hope you will be more prudent in your work in the future." Finally, he patted Chen Chong on the shoulder and walked away slowly, leaving Chen Chong with his back.
As a result, in the past few days, Chen Chong not only had no leisure time, but also had to take a considerable amount of time to sort out family affairs. This was really a very troubling thing. A long time passed. When he was a boy, he traveled to various states and counties to study. There was very little time, and apart from the relatives he had spent day and night with when he was young, he felt very strange to many of the clan members. Sometimes he had to think for two moments before he could call out their names, which seemed very embarrassing. Some tribesmen wanted to entrust him to enter the state capital. Chen Chong all conducted strict assessments, but those who failed to pass were rejected.
Returning home at night, Chen Chong lamented this to Cai Yan and couldn't help but said: "My people don't think about the national crisis. Instead, they think that the pastoral work in my state is so easy that chickens and dogs can ascend to heaven. If they have such thoughts, I will bring them into the state capital." , when Dong Zhuo’s army comes, will I be doing them good? Or am I harming them?”
He also accused Chen Qun and said: "I thought that Chang Wen has been with me for a long time and I should know how to be considerate of the people's sentiments, but now it seems that it is not true!"
Cai Yan was already six months pregnant, her belly was obviously bulging, and her movements were extremely inconvenient, so she stayed in the house all day wearing plain clothes. Chen Chen sent maids to take care of household chores, while he sewed the baby with stitches beside the couch. When she heard Chen Chong's complaint, she could only advise: "No one is a saint, how can he be selfless? The tribe doesn't have any bad intentions, and they can support you even after entering the state capital."
Chen Chong had a sullen face and did not answer. Cai Yan knew that he had not listened at all and could not persuade her any more. She sighed, remembering that her second sister had asked her to find a future for Yang Mi, and she could only swallow her words at this time. Then he asked him: "Will you go to Hedong again after the New Year?"
Chen Chong hugged Cai Yan into his arms and said softly: "I'll go in a few days. I'll be back as soon as the river thaws. I will definitely be by your side." Cai Yan said "hmm", leaned on his chest, and said after a long time: "No woman will like a saint."
Chen Chong knew what she meant and said with a smile: "Of course I am not a saint, but I still like you."
After he managed to finish his family affairs, he suddenly received news from Liu Bei. Liu Bei arrived in Meiji with Liu Jia, Liu Deran, and Zhang Fei, and invited him and Cai Yan to have a banquet in Meiji. Chen Chong was very happy, and took an ox cart again that day. , and my wife spent three days heading to Meiji.
The person who greeted Chen Chong in front of the city was Liu Xuan, the king of Youri. He presented Chen Chong with a disciple's ceremony. Chen Chong introduced Liu Xuan to Cai Yan with a smile and said, "This is your master's wife." Liu Xuan couldn't help but see that Cai Yan was pregnant. He said happily: "It turns out that the teacher finally has a successor." Chen Chong heard something in his words, and then he realized that Liu Bei had only been married to Liu Jia for a year, and she was pregnant the month before.
When they entered the king's tent, the banquet had already begun, but there were not many people there. Apart from Liu Bei and his wife, there were only Zhang Fei, Liu Xuan, Liu Bao, Tian Yu, Da Qiequ, Zhang Chang, and Shi Sang. Chen Chong wished them happy New Year one by one and gave them gifts. They were all books compiled and excerpted by Cai Yan in his spare time. Everyone except Zhang Fei was very happy.
Called a banquet, it was actually very simple. The most expensive part was just roasting two lambs, but in the habits of Liu Bei and Chen Chong, this was already an extremely luxury. Since August, Bingzhou has banned alcohol throughout the state, and there was no wine to drink at this time, so Chen Chong made tea instead of drinking, and a group of people ate dried fruits and chatted.
First, he talked about the recent situation in Guandong. Several people invariably talked about the Yellow Turbans in Qingzhou. Liu Bei said: "When I left, there were three counties in Qingzhou that were all in Yellow Turbans. Now I hear rumors that all six counties in Qingzhou have been lost, and more than half of Taishan and Langya have not been preserved. Look. The great disaster this year has forced several departments to fight independently, but they have all united into one, and I wonder who is the leader now?"
Tian Yu said: "No matter who is the leader, they will eventually compete for food in Henan and Hebei. It is said that there are nearly 200,000 capable warriors in the Qingzhou Yellow Turban Army. Who in the Central Plains can surrender such a large army?"
When Liu Xuan heard that there were 200,000 soldiers, he couldn't help but exclaimed: "How can there be 200,000 soldiers? It's just a lie."
Chen Chong shook his head when he heard this and said: "If we are pushed hard, who can't fight? Rabbits can still fight for their lives, let alone women and babies? What the Yellow Turban lacks is nothing more than governance and military armor. They have already raised an army. In seven years, there will always be progress.”
Several people who participated in the war fell into silence, and then changed the topic to talk about some ancient wars, such as the Battle of Handan where Lord Xinling repulsed the Qin army, and the Battle of Yin and Jin where Wu Qi promoted the Wei Dynasty. Finally, they talked about that year. During the Battle of Jinyang when the Three Jin Dynasties attacked Zhao, we talked about the scene when the Fen River flooded the city of Jinyang, and then recalled that the amount of water in the Fen River is now very low. It is really hard to imagine what the Fen River looked like back then, so everyone lamented the fate of God. great.
At the end of the talk, Liu Bei suddenly remembered something and said to Chen Chong: "During the Chinese New Year, I wanted to pay homage to Duke Kang Cheng. Unexpectedly, when I went there, his disciples told me that in November, he brought three disciples with a wooden stick and mango shoes. , riding on a donkey for a long journey, claiming that he would go to the desert alone to search for strange mountains, rivers, rare medicines and rare herbs. But he did not know when he would return."
"If one can really be so carefree in the world, it would be a beautiful story." Chen Chong couldn't help but sigh when he heard that Zheng Xuan traveled far away. He thought of Jiao Xian and thought that he still had many difficulties that needed to be solved. For a moment, there was really something This kind of feeling is not as good as the wooden stick, mango shoes, bamboo hat and coir raincoat, and the urge to retreat to the mountains and forests. But he soon thought of many dead people, which dissipated the impulse, causing him to chant:
"The feathers are rising in the side court, and the beacon fire is as chaotic as fireflies. It's time for Zhang Bowang to go to Jiaohe City at night. The horse's head is about to set the sun, and the sword's tail catches the shooting star. If you have not been rewarded in your life, it doesn't matter if your life is at stake."
On the way back, Cai Yan said to Chen Chong: "You have a lot of fun when you are with them."
It started like this in the third year of Chuping.
