Sour dates.
Last night's celebration banquet was a feast for both the guests and the host.
The princes were very satisfied with the news revealed by Zhang Heng, but they were not prepared to meet Zhang Heng's request.
Two hundred thousand stones of food and grass is too much!
You, Zhang Ziyi and Liu Xuande, can add up to 20,000 people together. With so much food, we won’t be afraid of killing you!
In response, Zhang Heng smiled coldly and said only one sentence.
I, Zhang Ziyi, have shed blood for the coalition forces and made meritorious service for the Han Dynasty!
This decisive battle with Dong Zhuo, do you really think it will be over so soon without saving more food?
I'm fighting in the front, but you won't even give me any food. What kind of alliance is that?
If you don't provide food, I will go out to fight for Xinhe Liansheng!
With his merits and the domineering character Zhang Heng deliberately created, he instantly felt confident when he spoke.
The princes had nothing to do against Zhang Heng, who was not stingy, but they really couldn't get out the two hundred thousand stones of food and grass. So after some classic bargaining, 200,000 turned into 100,000. As for the weapons, armor and other materials that Zhang Heng asked for, none of them were available.
Aren't you capable of fighting? Just go grab Dong Zhuo's. The war is about to begin, and we don’t need the ordnance ourselves, so how can we give it to you?
After all kinds of persuasion from the princes, Zhang Heng finally agreed to halve the price of food and grass.
But the princes took the opportunity to make a request.
In other words, it's not a requirement.
Liu Dai stroked his beard and chuckled: "Brother Ziyi, I see you are coming back this time. You only have a few hundred soldiers under your command. How are you going to transport these 100,000 stones of food and grass?"
"I have my own solution, so I won't bother you."
The price offered by Zhang Heng was broken, and he was not happy, so he handed it over coldly.
Liu Dai smiled and comforted him: "Zi Yi, don't be angry. We are meeting here to defeat Dong. If we really have food and grass, why wouldn't we refuse to give it to you? I promise you, as long as we follow up on the food and grass transportation from Jizhou Come here, even if others don’t give it, I will make up for it for you.”
"Do you really mean what you said?" Zhang Heng asked in surprise.
"It's natural. A gentleman's words are hard to catch up with!" Liu Dai said with a smile, stroking his beard.
Hearing this, the faces of Zhang Miao and others next to him suddenly became a little ugly.
What do you mean, others refer to us?
You, Liu Gongshan, are the good guys.
"In that case, I'd like to thank you so much, envoy." Zhang Heng's face looked better now, and he thanked him with his hands.
"Zi Yi, you don't have to be polite." Liu Dai waved his hand, "As for the one hundred thousand stones of food and grass now, if Zi Yi is worried about the war ahead, you can leave first and I will send someone to deliver it to you. How about it?"
Only then did Zhang Miao and others understand Liu Dai's plan, and they called him a good guy.
It's fake to transport food and grass, but it's real to take the opportunity to send people to watch the battle.
Thinking of this, Zhang Miao quickly stood up and said with a smile: "What Liu Shijun said is true. Dong's army is attacking. The war ahead is tight. How can we lose the commander-in-chief? Ziyi can leave first. Although the official is not talented, there are still some useful people under his command, so I will definitely send food and grass to Ziyi to Xingyang!"
Seeing Zhang Miao come out to interfere, Liu Dai couldn't help but frowned. Just when he was about to decline, Zhang Heng on the side spoke.
"In that case, I would like to thank you all very much." Zhang Yi said to everyone, "In the current war, we don't dare to let the soldiers go into battle hungry. I also ask you to supervise the transportation of food and grass as soon as possible."
"Don't worry Ziyi, I will start arranging this matter today and never let any of Ziyi's warriors go hungry!" Zhang Miao promised, patting his chest and smiling very happily.
While arranging the army to prepare for war, he sent people to watch the battle.
If Liu Bei can still win against Dong Zhuo's army, then there is no need to worry anymore and he can just attack directly.
If Liu Bei is defeated, he can make further plans.
It has to be said that Zhang Miao's abacus almost fell off Zhang Heng's face.
But Zhang Heng didn't care, and was even happy to see the results.
He had made a plan before coming to Suanzao, which was to annihilate Dong Zhuo's forward army under the watch of all the princes, so that they could send troops to fight Dong Zhuo without any worries.
Now that the matter was done, Zhang Heng was really worried about the war ahead, so he took advantage of the situation to say goodbye to all the princes.
In the afternoon of that day, Zhang Heng embarked on his way back to Xingyang as all the princes came out of the city to see him off.
Unexpectedly, a few miles outside Xingzhi City, a team of hundreds of people suddenly appeared and blocked Zhang Heng's way.
Zhang Heng looked at the leader, who was a young man in his mid-twenties, with starry eyes and sharp eyebrows, quite handsome, and a thick and smooth beard on his chin. The length was actually only slightly less than Guan Yu's, which was very conspicuous.
The most noticeable thing are the two short halberds behind this person.
The use of a weapon like a halberd is very complicated and cannot be wielded by those who are not highly skilled in martial arts. Especially the short halberd, if you want to practice it to a great extent, it is difficult for those who are not talented.
This was the first time I saw someone using this kind of weapon since Zhang Heng traveled through time.
But the most important thing is that at this time, he is no longer what he used to be. This can be seen from the fact that all the princes personally left the city to see him off. The small groups of troops stationed outside the city all moved out of the way when they saw his team.
So Zhang Heng was very confused. The guy in front of him seemed to be a member of the jujube coalition, so what did he want to do when he stopped him?
Before Zhang Heng had time to ask what was going on, the young man leading the opposite party jumped off his horse and strode over.
"stop!"
Zhang Heng's personal soldier, the village chief, shouted quickly.
Three hundred soldiers also drew their weapons and started to be on guard.
Facing hundreds of sharp knives, the young man was not afraid at all and still strode over. He didn't stop until he was about ten steps in front of Zhang Heng, raised his hands in salute and said: "Taishici of Donglai, I have met Captain Zhang! "
Seeing that the young man refused to stop, Zhang Heng's military commander had already raised his sword and was about to order the killing of this young man, but was suddenly stopped by Zhang Heng with a wave of his sleeve.
"What did you say your name was?"
Zhang Heng asked with his eyes widened and his brows furrowed.
"I am Tai Shi Ci, whose courtesy name is Ziyi."
Taishi Ci responded loudly:
Could this person be Tai Shi Ci, who was brave enough to conquer Jiangdong and challenge Sun Ce for dozens of rounds without losing?
This is a big fish, we must not let it go!
After confirming the identity of the person in front of him, the surprise on Zhang Heng's face immediately turned into shock. Even the beard that he thought was naughty just now became extremely pleasing to Zhang Heng's eyes.
Well, this beard is so beautiful. A real man should have such a beautiful beard!
Without any time to think, Zhang Heng quickly jumped off his horse and hurried up to meet him.
"Ziyi is exempt from gifts!"
Zhang Heng waved and smiled.
"Thank you, Captain." Tai Shici stood up straight.
Zhang Heng looked at Tai Shici up and down, but the more he looked at him, the more satisfied he became. He couldn't help but smile and said: "I have always heard of Ziyi's name, but I didn't expect to be lucky enough to meet him today. It is really a great joy in life!"
"Um...the captain has actually heard of me?" Tai Shici said in surprise.
Zhang Heng said with a smile: "Ziyi broke the rules to serve the public and repaid his master with righteousness. This matter was known all over the world, and I was lucky enough to hear about it."
"The captain is so complimentary. He has a humble reputation and is not worth mentioning." Tai Shici said humbly.
After some pleasantries, Zhang Hengcai smiled and asked, "But I don't know why Ziyi is here and why he is blocking the way?"
Upon hearing this, Taishi Ci looked solemn and said loudly: "To be honest, I am here because I was entrusted by someone to defeat the traitor Dong Zhuo!"
With that said, Tai Shici told what happened...
In the past, when Taishi Ci was the official of Donglai County, there was a disagreement between the county and the state. The contents of the memorials reported to Luoyang every year were often contradictory, but the decision of the Luoyang Shangshu Desk was based on the first arrival.
One year, the prefecture's memorial was sent to Luoyang first. The county governor was afraid that it would be detrimental to him, so he wanted to know the content of the prefecture's report. In the end, Tai Shici stepped forward and took over the task.
Taishi Ci rushed to Luoyang first. After the official in charge of reporting from the prefecture arrived, Taishi Ci pretended to be an official from Luoyang and asked to see the memorial. The officials in the state didn't know it was a fraud, so they took it out, but Taishi Ci drew his sword and destroyed it on the spot.
The officials in the state were furious and wanted to arrest Taishi Ci, but Taishi Ci said that I was indeed guilty of destroying the memorial, but you can't escape the responsibility for your failure to keep it. For now, let's run away together to avoid jail.
At this point, the officials in the state had no choice but to flee with Tai Shici. But Taishi Ci rushed back to the county overnight and reported the matter to the county governor.
Taishi Ci successfully completed the task and naturally became famous, but he also offended the state officials at the time, so he had no choice but to flee to Liaodong to avoid trouble.
Last year Dong Zhuo came to Beijing and prepared to depose the emperor. At that time, in addition to Lu Zhi's objections, there was also a foolish young man who expressed dissatisfaction. That person was Kong Rong.
As a direct descendant of Kong Laoer, Kong Rong was of course very familiar with his family's allusions, so he argued fiercely with Dong Zhuo several times using the words of a sage, which made Dong Zhuo furious, but he was helpless.
At that time, Dong Zhuo still wanted to cooperate with the aristocratic family, so he naturally couldn't kill Kong Rong, but he couldn't do it, so he ordered the Chancellor to worship Kong Rong as the prime minister of Beihai.
Although the Yellow Turban Rebellion was basically put down a few years ago, there are still remnants of the Yellow Turbans in China at this time, and Qingzhou is the worst among them. Dong Zhuo's move was to use the help of the Yellow Turban remnant to kill Kong Rong. Even if he couldn't kill Kong Rong, it didn't matter, at least he didn't have to listen to this guy beeping in front of him.
After Kong Rong took office in Beihai, Qingzhou, he heard about Taishi Ci's deeds and admired him very much. He sent people many times to care for Taishi Ci's mother. After Taishi Ci returned home, he was very moved and went to see Kong Rong.
It happened that the princes were challenging Dong. Although Beihai under Kong Rong's rule was in chaos, he still wanted to send troops to challenge Dong. So Taishi Ci once again showed his special skills of self-recommendation and volunteered to come to the alliance to challenge Dong on Kong Rong's behalf.
Kong Rong was overjoyed and immediately assigned 700 people to Taishi Ci to come.
Although there were fewer soldiers and horses, it was already quite difficult. You must know that at this time, Kong Rong was like a clay Buddha crossing the river, and he could not protect himself.
After hearing what happened, Zhang Heng smiled and nodded, thinking that Tai Shi Ci was not only a brave general, but also a righteous man. It would be a great pleasure to poach him from Kong Rong.
But it shouldn’t be easy. After all, Kong Rong was kind to Taishi’s mother...
Thinking of this, Zhang Heng suddenly discovered a bright spot.
Judging from Tai Shi Ci's appearance, he should be around 22 or 3 years old. In this era, people generally got married at an early age, at age sixteen for men and fourteen for women.
In other words, if Taishi Ci was the eldest son in the family, his mother would be thirty-six or seventeen years old at most. According to the concepts of later generations, she would be a mature eldest sister, and she would also be a widow.
And Kong Rong is less than forty years old this year...
hiss!
Ziyi, are you sure Kong Rong took care of your mother because he admired you?
Your father's coffin board hasn't changed color, right?
