Imperial Palace, Chancellor's Desk.
Dong Zhuo's letter arrived in Luoyang early in the morning, but because there were too many government affairs recently, and Li Ru was burdened with them all, he didn't have time to read them until noon.
As soon as he picked up the document, a person walked in from outside the palace. It was Dong Min, Dong Zhuo's younger brother.
"Sir." Dong Min cupped his hands at Li Ru and said with a smile.
"What's wrong with Shuying?"
Li Ru asked lightly, Shuying was Dong Min's nickname.
Dong Min smiled and said: "Come and invite sir to have a drink."
"Eating wine?"
Li Ru frowned, somewhat confused.
"I'm not inviting you, sir, but I'm going to drink at Shizhong Cai's house at his invitation." Dong Min said with a smile.
Li Ru put the letter in his hand back on the desk and asked, "Cai Bojie... why did he invite me to wait for no reason?"
"It's not for nothing." Dong Min said with a smile, "Shizhong Cai's eldest daughter is about to get married. Today is an auspicious day. Shizhong Cai is throwing a banquet, and my husband and I are among the invitees."
It turned out to be a social event!
Li Ru shook his head and smiled, "Shu Ying can go alone, I won't go."
There are countless erudite scholars in this era, but if we really talk about it, there are only two master-level figures.
One is Cai Yong and the other is Zheng Xuan.
Zheng Xuan was the master of Confucian classics from the two Han dynasties. He single-handedly unified the sects that had disputed between ancient classics and modern classics for hundreds of years. Moreover, his achievements in arithmetic were among the best in the Han Dynasty for hundreds of years, and he could be called a learned man!
Compared with Zheng Xuan, Cai Yong was more comprehensive, mastering astronomy, law, music, classics, and literature. He also wrote "Dongguan Han Ji" with Zheng Xuan's junior brother Lu Zhi and others, making great contributions to culture. It can be called a masterpiece.
Dong Zhuo entered Luo last year and began a series of operations, including the traditional repertoire of recruiting celebrities to work for him.
Zheng Xuan had been indifferent to fame and wealth throughout his life and had never been an official. Dong Zhuo certainly would not ask for trouble, so he set his sights on Cai Yong.
Of course Cai Yong didn't want to work for Dong Zhuo, but Mr. Dong came up with his own unique skill: If you don't come to work today, I will visit your grave tomorrow!
Under such threats, Cai Yong had no choice but to answer the call.
In this way, Cai Yong, who had been in exile for more than ten years, returned to Luoyang.
Speaking of which, although Mr. Dong was a bit rude, he was indeed very interesting to Cai Yong.
Seeing that the famous scholar Cai Yong was willing to give him face, Mr. Dong waved his hand and conferred an official title on Cai Yong. Within three days, he traveled through three stations and was promoted faster than riding a rocket. He instantly became a hot upstart in Luoyang City.
In the end, he was worshiped as a servant by Dong Zhuo, and he could be said to be half of Dong Zhuo's group.
A few days ago, Cai Yong married the Wei family in Hedong and planned to marry his eldest daughter Cai Yan to Wei Zhongdao. Today is the day of the request, so he invited Dong Min, Li Ru and others to the banquet.
The so-called invitation date is one of the six rites, and its function is to set an auspicious day for getting married.
Seeing that Li Ru didn't plan to go, Dong Min came up to him and said with concern: "Sir, you work hard on official duties, but you must also take care of your body. If you collapse from exhaustion, my brother will no longer have a wise man by his side."
Since entering Luo, Li Ru has become busier and busier while eating less and less. Naturally, he has lost weight visibly, making his already tall figure look like a skeleton.
"I'm fine."
Li Ru shook his head, not wanting to mention his physical condition, but picked up Dong Zhuo's letter again.
"Prime Minister Dong sent a battle report this morning. I was going to send someone to invite you to watch it together, but you happened to be here. Let's take a look."
When he heard the battle report from the front line, Dong Min's expression changed. Worried about some bad news, he hurriedly walked up.
After the two read the contents of the letter, Dong Min's face darkened.
"I don't want the war ahead to deteriorate to this point. Sir, do you think it is necessary for my brother to withdraw?"
Li Ru was silent, with a hint of coldness in his eyes.
Dong Min sighed again: "The former Guandong bandits were defeated, and now the city is shrinking. It's time to take advantage of the victory and pursue the enemy. If my brother withdraws at this time, wouldn't he be playing into the hands of the bandit army?"
Li Ru still didn't speak, staring at the letter.
To be precise, it was a name mentioned repeatedly in the letter - Liu Bei!
Where did this guy come from? It was this person who flooded Niufu in the previous time. Now, it is this person who leads the army to defend Xingyang, making it impossible for Dong Zhongying to break the city.
If there was no such person, I am afraid that Dong Zhongying would have won and returned to the court by now.
Thinking of this, Li Ru couldn't help but think of what Jia Xu had said to him outside Luoyang City that day.
Li Wenyou, you go against the general trend of the world with your own strength. Even if you have the power to reach heaven, you will be shattered to pieces!
Are you destined to fail?
No, I will never accept it!
"gentlemen?"
Seeing that Li Ru was still silent, Dong Min couldn't help but ask.
After hearing this, Li Ru's eyes regained clarity. He shook his head and said, "The city of Xingyang is well-defended and there are tens of thousands of defenders in the city. If we can't attack it in one fell swoop, it will be difficult to break through. Retreating... is reasonable. "
Upon hearing this, Dong Min immediately became anxious and said anxiously: "But if my brother retreats, if the Guandong bandits take the opportunity to come and kill us, we will die without a burial place!"
"No, the Guandong bandits are nothing more than scattered sand. As long as our main force is not damaged, they will never dare to act rashly."
Li Ru waved his sleeves and made a decisive move.
Compared to Xu Rong, who was easily fooled, Li Ru saw it clearly.
"The army has been fighting for a long time, and it should be tired. It is not a bad thing to retreat and rest for a while before making plans. Furthermore, the return of Prime Minister Dong's troops to the court can also shock the secretly young people."
After saying that, Li Ru cupped his hands to Dong Min and said, "Shu Ying, you go to the banquet first, and I will reply to Prime Minister Dong right now."
Dong Min nodded, clasped his fists and said, "Sir, please don't work too hard. I'll take my leave now."
After Dong Min left, Li Ru immediately wrote a reply to Dong Zhuo.
Based on the current situation, Li Ru suggested that Dong Zhuo try to attack twice more. If he still couldn't defeat Xingyang, then withdraw his troops decisively and never be reluctant to fight.
As for the withdrawal of troops, we have to prepare to move the capital to Chang'an.
The first thing to bear the brunt of was how to deal with Huangfu Song who was stationed in Fufeng County.
In this regard, Li Ru's plan was to issue an edict and order Huangfu Song to return to Luoyang alone. Based on Li Ru's understanding of him, Huangfu Song would probably obey the imperial edict. If he really doesn't obey the order, Li Ru has also prepared a second plan - fight!
Then, it was time to deal with the man in the deep palace, Hongnong King Liu Bian, who had been driven off the throne.
According to the original history, Liu Bian was poisoned in the first month of this year. However, due to Zhang Heng's time travel, Liu Bei marched in advance to challenge Dong. Dong Zhuo was always tired of dealing with it, but he forgot about him.
After writing these matters into the letter one by one, Li Ru put away his pen. After drying the ink, he summoned the waiter with a wave of his sleeve and listed it as an urgent six hundred miles to be sent to the front line.
After doing all this, Li Ru slowly stood up and looked out of the hall in a daze.
Because Li Ru was not used to having people by his side when handling official affairs, he dismissed most of the officials from the day he took charge of the office. This makes Taige, which is usually bustling with activity, become extremely deserted.
It was April in spring, the sun was in the middle of the day, and it was the time of late spring and summer solstice, but Li Ru tightened his clothes unconsciously and felt a coldness that penetrated into his bones.
Stepping out of the hall, the moment the sun shone on his body, Li Ru felt his body became a little warmer.
But...the chill in my heart couldn't be eliminated.
…
After a wave of fishing enforcement against Xu Rong, Zhang Heng was in a good mood, and he and Tai Shici galloped towards the warm sun. After returning to Luoyang, his uncle Zhang Wen was not at home.
After asking the housekeeper, he learned that Zhang Wen had gone to Cai Yong's house for a banquet.
Speaking of which, Zhang Wen originally planned to take Zhang Heng to the banquet venue, but Zhang Heng left the city early in the morning and Zhang Wen couldn't find anyone, so he had to give up.
"Cai Shizhong is marrying the Hedong Wei family?" Tai Shici sneered, "Now that the world is in chaos, he is so interested that he actually arranged the marriage of his children!"
After staying in Luoyang for two days, Taishi Ci also heard the news that Cai Yong had joined Dong Zhuo, and naturally he had no good impression of this current Emperor Wenzong.
When Zhang Heng heard this, he couldn't help laughing and said: "Why, Ziyi doesn't allow people to marry or mourn."
"That's not true, it's just..."
Zhang Heng shook his head and chuckled: "It's not just...even if the sky falls, you still have to wear clothes and eat, as long as you are still alive. If you are honest, you know etiquette, and if you have enough food and clothing, you know honor and disgrace. You can't talk about righteousness on an empty stomach." "
When a person is alive, the most important thing is to continue living. The physiological needs must be met first, and then the so-called justice of the family and the country can be fulfilled.
After hearing these words, Taishi Ci looked thoughtful, clasped his fists and said, "Thank you, Master, for your teachings."
"Zi Yi's words are harsh, but they are just based on his feelings." Zhang Heng waved his sleeves and said with a smile, "The weather is nice today. Come on, let's go for a walk in the city."
Since I came to Luoyang, I haven't had a good stroll yet. Anyway, I couldn't catch up with Cai Yong's family, so I just took a walk around.
"Follow your orders!" Taishi Ci said, cupping his fists.
So Zhang Heng and Tai Shici transformed into a duo of street runners and wandered around Luoyang Street.
Although Luoyang City was the capital of the empire, its scale was not large compared with the cities of later generations, but its population density was indeed high, and the items sold in the market were not cheap.
Different from other people's way of shopping, Zhang Heng does not intend to just browse the shops. Instead, he goes into the shops when he sees them and buys as soon as he goes in. Regardless of whether you can use it or not, just buy it anyway.
Although Taishi Ci didn't understand this kind of behavior, he worked as a porter honestly, and soon he had a big burden on him.
What happened to the master book?
It’s just a matter of buying some things, but why are there even rouge and gouache for women...
Of course Taishi Ci couldn't understand it, because Zhang Heng was not buying things, but trying to understand the prices.
The next stage after challenging Dong must be to find a piece of land to establish a base.
Governance of people's livelihood is a big game, and new regulations must also be introduced on legal, economic, farming, recruiting and other related matters.
These cannot be decided just by patting one's head in the temple. Only by visiting the people and understanding the real living conditions of the people in the market can we formulate the most appropriate rules.
Zhang Heng is preparing for this.
After the two of them walked around, it was afternoon.
Zhang Heng lived up to expectations and spent a lot of money.
Just as he was about to turn around, he saw a commotion in the distance.
Zhang Hengfang looked around and saw a team of dozens of people walking through the street.
The reason for the commotion was that everyone in this team was wearing armor and carrying swords, and they exuded a murderous aura that only experienced military service.
Elite, this must be the elite of the army!
Taishi Ci understood it instantly and quickly looked at Zhang Heng.
"Master Chief, if there is such a battle in Luoyang City, it must be Dong Dong's confidant. Should we get out of the way first?"
"No need." Zhang Heng shook his head and said, "Just retreat to the crowd of common people."
If it was really meant for me, there was no point in running away. If it wasn't directed at him, running away would attract attention.
Taishi Ci nodded and took a step forward to protect Zhang Heng behind him. The two of them moved to the side of the road like the common people.
As the team approached, Zhang Heng was surprised to find that there were two young girls in the middle, guarded by many guards.
The girl on the left looks to be fifteen or sixteen years old, with an oval face, peach blossom eyes, and is wearing a bright red dress. Her every frown and smile are filled with youthful atmosphere, and the smile on her face is like a blooming peach blossom.
As for the girl on the right, her face is calm. Although her appearance is outstanding, she wears a sarong with a hairpin, no makeup, and only a wooden hairpin on her head. Wearing a light green dress on her body, she was cold and elegant, calm but quiet.
The expression on his face was as cold as the moon in the sky, and his bright eyes exuded the light of wisdom, seeming to be incompatible with this mundane world.
The most surprising thing is that she is a woman with a very strong bookish aura!
Zhang Heng had only experienced this temperament from two people, one of whom was Chen Gong and the other was his uncle Zhang Wen.
It is said that Luoyang is prosperous, but Zhang Heng did not see it.
On the contrary, it was the beauties in the city, Zhang Heng felt it deeply.
After arriving for only a few days, I saw three girls with outstanding looks.
"There are so many beauties in Luoyang City..."
Zhang Heng sighed softly.
