Zhang Xi really doesn't want to take Zhang Ren in. Doing so is actually not worth the gain.
Liu Bei's acquisition of Yizhou has damaged his reputation, so Liu Bei must treat Liu Zhang's life well after Liu Zhang abdicates. Zhang Ren is willing to accompany Liu Zhang, but Liu Bei is more hopeful.
Some things about reputation are better than nothing.
But the current situation is that Liu Zhang took the initiative to ask Zhang Ren to become an official, and Zhang Xi had no legitimate reason to refuse Liu Zhang.
"The righteous general is loyal and brave. In the past, he was not allowed to surrender under Luocheng. He only wanted to accompany Ji Yugong day and night. Justice will not respond to this matter."
Zhang Xi could only use Zhang Ren's unparalleled loyalty and unwillingness to leave Liu Zhang as an excuse to dissuade Liu Zhang.
As a result, Liu Zhang called Zhang Ren and asked Zhang Ren to serve Liu Bei in the name of his lord. Although after becoming an official, Zhang Ren's lord was no longer Liu Zhang, but Liu Zhang still did so.
Of course Zhang Ren doesn't want to, he has to take good care of Liu Zhang.
If you don't have your own care, what if Liu Bei betrays his trust and sends someone to assassinate Liu Zhangke? !
Liu Zhang was so angry that he thought that if Liu Bei really wanted to assassinate me, you alone would be able to stop him. !
How could Liu Zhang not know Liu Bei's thoughts on keeping Zhang Ren by his side? He was once the leader of one party after all.
Indeed, in recent years Liu Bei needed Zhang Ren as a witness to prove that Liu Bei had not treated Liu Zhang badly.
But what about in a few years? ! What happens after Liu Bei takes complete control of Shu? !
Anyway, Liu Zhang didn't think it was normal for Liu Bei to let him go and cause him a "sickness death" or something like that.
Therefore, Zhang Ren staying by his side cannot actually guarantee his own safety.
It would be better for you to become an official for Liu Bei. I have no one around me, so that Liu Bei can feel at ease with me.
If Zhang Ren can still make contributions under Liu Bei's account, then the higher Zhang Ren's status, the more Liu Bei will have to use caution. Worrying about Zhang Ren's reaction, Liu Zhang will be safer.
It was difficult to say these words in front of Zhang Xi, so Liu Zhang took Zhang Ren to the back hall. The two of them muttered for a long time. After they came out, Zhang Ren no longer objected to becoming an official.
What can Zhang Xi say? !
Could it be that he doesn't like Zhang Ren? !
To be honest, Zhang Xi really looked down on Zhang Ren.
This Zhang Ren is not the Zhang Ren from the romance line.
Zhang Ren in the romance line was a famous general who pushed Liu Bei to the ground and rubbed him, and shot Pang Tong to death.
But this is Zhang Ren from the historical line. He is the one responsible for being pushed to the ground and rubbed by Liu Bei.
But regardless of Zhang Ren's level, Zhang Xi had no choice but to agree first since the words came to this.
Accept it first, and then take Zhang Ren to Jiangling to meet Guan Yu and ask Guan Yu to appoint Zhang Ren.
It doesn’t take long anyway, just across the river from Gong’an is Jiangling, which is about five or six days’ journey.
When they arrived in Jiangling, Sun Shangxiang took his family members to the newly established Nanjun Prefecture to clean up the house, while Zhang Xi took Zhang Yi, Li Qiu, and Zhang Ren to see Guan Yu.
Zhang Yi and Li Qiu were brought by Zhang Xi, so Zhang Xi was naturally responsible for arranging positions for them. Guan Yu could not interfere in this aspect. Theoretically, the official positions of the two people were equal.
As for Zhang Ren, Guan Yu was so pleased with him that he appointed Zhang Ren as General Pi on the spot, under the command of General Wenpin of the Public Security Bureau.
Guan Yu himself was just a bandit general, but he was able to appoint Zhang Ren as his general as soon as he came up, which meant that he valued Zhang Ren very much.
The subsequent arrangements were also very considerate. Knowing Zhang Ren's loyalty, since Liu Zhang now lives in the Public Security Bureau, letting Zhang Ren go to Wenpin to be a general would also allow Zhang Ren to do his best.
Who makes Zhang Renzhongyi? Guan Yu likes such people. Whether he has the ability or not can be discussed separately, but loyalty is definitely the most rare quality in this era.
Guan Yu was not worried about what Zhang Ren would do to support Liu Zhang once he became a general. On the one hand, Wenpin was watching, and on the other hand, since Zhang Ren could be so loyal to Liu Zhang, he would not treat his position and his new lord the same way. How bad.
After all, this time when he became an official, Zhang Ren's lord was no longer Liu Zhang, but Liu Bei.
As for Zhang Xi, after Guan Yu met with Zhang Ren, Li Qiu and Zhang Yi, he specially left Zhang Xi to stay overnight in Guan Mansion to discuss some official matters.
The main thing is to clearly draw the boundaries of authority between the two people. If there is any dissatisfaction with each other in the future, it is better to discuss it in advance.
Of course, these matters should not involve irrelevant people. They are matters for Guan Yu and Zhang Xi to discuss and decide with each other behind closed doors.
Therefore, Guan Yu specially invited Zhang Xi to the backyard and held a banquet. The two of them drank and talked about this matter.
Zhang Xi had no objection to this.
But as they chatted, Zhang Xi discovered that Guan Yu and he seemed to have slightly different understandings of rights and responsibilities.
Well, it's not a big disagreement, just a small discrepancy.
Guan Yu believed that although he only held the official position of governor of Xiangyang, he was entrusted by Liu Bei to have the function of governor of Jingzhou and was stationed in Jiangling. Therefore, all matters of Nanjun centered on Jiangling should be obeyed by him.
As for Zhang Xi, since there was a personal letter from Liu Bei explaining the whole story, Guan Yu was also willing to give up some of his powers, so let Zhang Xi be in charge of Nanjun's government affairs.
For example, spring plowing and autumn harvesting, collecting grain and collecting taxes, building water conservancy projects, appeasing the people, and repairing city walls are all about that.
To put it simply, Guan Yu meant that he was in charge of military affairs, while Zhang Xi was in charge of Nanjun's government affairs.
Zhang Xi is not opposed to such a distribution in principle, but there is one point. He is the governor of Nanjun, so he must have at least nominal control over the troops and horses of Nanjun.
As the garrison general of Governor Jingzhou, Guan Yu can indeed mobilize Nanjun's troops at any time, but he must inform him in writing.
This is a matter of principle.
The prefect of a county is in charge of both military and political matters, and the matter of Guan Yu's governorship of Jingzhou, although it is also true, must still be handled according to the rules.
Guan Yu wanted to mobilize troops from Wuling and Lingling counties to go north, but he had to write a letter to Xu Shu and Pan Jun. They had the right to know.
Therefore, Zhang Xi asked Guan Yu to give him such respect.
This is just a sign of respect. If Guan Yu, Governor of Jingzhou, really wants to mobilize troops, no one can stop him.
But Guan Yu felt that this was unnecessary.
He is in Jiangling, not in Jingnan like Wuling and Lingling. The effect of sending orders back and forth is the same as an official document.
Another thing is that usually the soldiers and horses of Nanjun are under the control of Guan Yu, who is also responsible for training. Even though Zhang Xi is now the prefect of Nanjun, the soldiers still listen to him. Why bother to go through this? !
Then Zhang Xi had to explain that this was a matter of procedure and for Guan Yu's sake. What would the court think if Zhou Mu crossed the prefect to mobilize troops? !
Although we know that the relationship between Guan Yu and Liu Bei is very close, and we also know that Liu Bei trusts Guan Yu very much, Liu Bei is in Chengdu after all, and it is not easy to go to Chengdu from Jiangling. Why give the villain an excuse? !
Guan Yu immediately fell silent and no longer struggled with Zhang Xi in this regard.
Zhang Xi also breathed a sigh of relief and asked for this military power. It was really not that Zhang Xi wanted to go against Guan Yu, it was mainly just in case.
On the historical line, Guan Yu's loss of Jingzhou was not careless. He arranged for people to guard the public security and Jiangling places, and the number of them was about 10,000. It was really not careless.
This time when Guan Yu lost Jingzhou, he was really stabbed in the back. He never expected that Shiren, the veteran of Liu Bei Group, and Mi Fang, Liu Bei's brother-in-law, would surrender to Jiangdong so simply without giving him any time to react. What else could Shiren say? It's like knowing people but not their hearts, but Mi Fang is really incomprehensible.
Moreover, Lu Meng, regardless of his strategic vision, just said that he crossed the river in white this time. He defeated Guan Yu's defense measures along the river with only a few disguises, and said that he had surrendered Shiren and Mi Fang with just a letter and a mouthful. Later, he also did the same. He actually used his commanding skills to block Guan Yu to death in Linju, and finally captured Guan Yu.
But in the novel, Guan Yu is as conceited as an idiot, and Lu Meng is just like a lucky villain.
Zhang Xi wants this military power just to prevent Guan Yu from going off the rails if he gets mad. In that case, Zhang Xi has the military power in his hands and can at least hold on to Jiangling City and buy time for Guan Yu to return to the army.
Now that Guan Yu has given in, Zhang Xi will naturally not continue to struggle with this issue and will quickly settle down.
After that, the two of them discussed some things while drinking, not only some political strategies in Chengdu, but also some wars when Liu Bei took Yizhou. In the end, they talked about other things, and they didn't know how they ended up talking about it. Ma Chao's matter has gone up.
Guan Yu wanted to ask Zhang Xi what kind of person Ma Chao was. After all, Zhang Xi had met Ma Chao outside Chengdu.
Guan Yu was really just curious. After all, the second master had heard of the reputation of Xiliang Jinma Chao, and wanted to hear Zhang Xi tell what kind of brilliant person this person was.
But Zhang Xi drank some wine and looked down on Ma Chao from his previous life, so he started nagging.
In Zhang Xi's opinion, Guan Yu was careless in asking this question.
Who are you Guan Yu? Liu Bei's sworn brother. Although he surrendered after being captured by Cao Cao, as soon as he heard the news about Liu Bei, he immediately came to join him with a seal and a gold seal.
But what about Ma Chao? !
With the reputation of General Fubo Ma Yuan, he was born in a famous family, but he rebelled and killed his father. He allowed Jiang to kill his wife and children. No matter how brave he was, it would not be wrong to compare Guan Yu with him. Share? !
After Guan Yu listened to Zhang Xi's comments about Ma Chao, he was very glad that it was already night and the two of them were talking about this while drinking and chatting behind closed doors. Not even Guan Ping was present. Otherwise, if Zhang Xi's comments were spread, Well, then Ma Chao must hate Zhang Xi to death.
He quickly reprimanded Zhang Xi, warned him not to talk immorally while drunk, and then lightly passed the topic.
Sometimes, Guan Yu really can't do anything to Zhang Xi.
Because Zhang Xi always hung out with Kou Feng and Guan Ping in the early days, Guan Yu always regarded Zhang Xi as his nephew.
Even if Zhang Xi set up an ambush and defeated Xia Houyuan in Badong County, Guan Yu talked about it as a warning and to motivate Guan Ping, not as a confirmation of his colleagues' achievements.
It probably has something to do with the fact that Erye thinks that defeating Xia Houyuan is not a great achievement.
But the second master can feel this way because he is the second master.
If other people really think that Xia Houyuan is not a powerful character, then they are really out of their minds. Anyway, Guan Ping will not think that Xia Houyuan is a weakling.
In short, the second master regards Zhang Xi as a junior, but in the eyes of the second master, Ma Chao is from a famous family and was once a prince, so he should be his equal. It is always not good for juniors to evaluate their elders like this. .
But Ma Chao, the elder, and Zhang Xi, the junior, the second master still knows who is closer to him. So, although the second master reprimanded Zhang Xi, he defined it as talking nonsense after drinking. If it really gets spread in the future, his second master testified , Zhang Xi just drank too much and was arrogant. Do you, Ma Chao, still want to argue with a junior? !
Generally speaking, Guan Yu still protected Zhang Xi. Seeing that Zhang Xi drank a little too much and started to behave badly, he quickly called Guan Ping to arrange a room for Zhang Xi so that he could have a good rest.
When he sobers up tomorrow, he will be sent back to his home.
Then, let Zhang Xi rest for three days, and three days later, he will officially take office.
(End of chapter)
