ATPnovel Page 197
Page 197
"This sea cucumber is a great tonic. Shopkeeper Song sent it from Jiaozhou a few days ago. It is basically not available in Chengdu now." Zhuge Liang smiled slightly.
"Uh...then let me try..."
Chapter 424 The Promotion
Pound's careful probing alone caused everyone in the hall to smile slightly. Most of them had never eaten seafood, and they were as timid as Pound at first.
Song Chen's caravan arrived in Chengdu a few days ago and brought Jiaozhou novel fruits and various seafood.
The sea fish tasted fishy, and Pound almost held his breath while chewing. After a brief trial, he still chose mutton.
"Yide said briefly in the letter, why don't you explain it to everyone in detail?" After Liu Bei finished reading the letter, Zhang Fei spoke highly of Pound in the letter, praising him for his bravery and loyalty.
"only."
Pound put down his chopsticks and stood up. He started with Zhang Fei's "raising bandits" in Langzhong, and then he told about Zhang Fei's battle of fishing in the cofferdam. Everyone in the hall felt incredible after hearing it.
Liu Bei was overwhelmed when he heard the wonderful things. He couldn't believe that the third younger brother who lost Xuzhou had now learned to use tricks, and he was also the most advanced conspiracy.
"Is this really Yide's plan alone?" Liu Bei asked.
Pang De nodded and said: "The last general is not lying. The third general said that fishing in cofferdams was learned from the lecture hall..."
"Lecture on martial arts... Ziyu..." Liu Bei said to himself.
Zhuge Liang bowed his hands to Liu Bei and said: "Although Yide is reckless, he is not a fool in his roughness, and he is still quite resourceful, which is the master's blessing."
"Kong Ming is not completely right. Yide is not only rough but detailed, I think he is also very good at summarizing. He is better at using troops than in Jingzhou. Ziyu's martial arts lecture hall has brought him a lot of benefits." Pang Tong couldn't help it. praise.
Just when everyone was sighing, the waiter brought in the grilled oysters, and everyone immediately sat down to enjoy the food.
"Yide has made such a great contribution, the lord should reward him heavily. I think this dish is very suitable." Zhuge Liang pointed to the oyster and said with a smile.
Liu Bei nodded, "The oysters are really delicious. Bei has never tasted such delicious oysters before. Ziyu sent two hundred catties this time, so let him share half of them."
"Could it be more? Yide is still chasing Zhang He, and I don't know when he will return to Langzhong. It would be a pity if the road broke down." Pang Tong reminded.
"Uh...how can I go back on my word? Let's just try something new, and Kong Ming will be distributed by you, and it will be evenly distributed among the civil and military in Chengdu..." Liu Bei instructed.
"This... Liang can only issue a few tokens to each family. If there is really not enough, I will owe it. I will ask Ziyu to send more to make up for it next year." It is hard for a clever woman to cook without rice, and Zhuge Liang is ready to pay the IOUs.
"It's really you." Liu Bei frowned.
"My lord, General Pang's meritorious service this time is not small, and he should be rewarded." Zhuge Liang reminded.
Liu Bei nodded deeply. He looked at Pound and said affirmatively: "Yide praised you for being brave and loyal, so he named you a loyal and brave general."
"Uh...thank you, my lord." Pang De immediately stood up and thanked him. According to the promotion process of the army, he thought he would be named a general, at most a partial general, but Liu Bei did it in one step and named himself a general.
As soon as Liu Bei's words fell, everyone was in an uproar, because not doing things according to common sense would attract criticism. Except for the three military divisions in the hall who were miscellaneous generals, the rest had high administrative positions, but the positions in the army were all low. Guan Donghe is also a general in charge of the army.
In Liu Bei's huge camp, except for General Pingxi Ma Chao Yiqi Juechen, the other generals including Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Lan Tian, etc., add up to less than ten people.
Liu Bei opened Jinkou happily, but Zhuge Liang, Fazheng and others could not dissuade them, and they left after the banquet.
Because he wanted to visit his brother Pang Rou, Ma Dai, Song Chen and other friends who were stranded in Chengdu, Pang De planned to rest for a few days before heading back to Langzhong.
Zhang Fei defeated Zhang Yun in Berkshire, news of Pang De's promotion due to his military exploits spread like wildfire, and soon spread in the streets and alleys of Chengdu. Slowly, some disharmonious rumors appeared, and colleagues alienated intentionally or unintentionally. Pang Rou, Ma Dai.
Pang De first visited his benefactor Song Chen, and then bought a gift and came to Pang Rou's home. The elder brother greeted him warmly, but he always hesitated to speak after the greeting.
Pang Rou thought over and over again, and reminded her kindly before leaving: "Ling Ming, your border battle is too hard, why don't you tell the lord, how about moving to a quiet place?"
"Is it hard to be in the army and guard the border? Don't you know if I can bear hardships? Xia Houyuan may go south at any time, and I have to go back to Langzhong to assist the three generals." Pang De was very puzzled.
Pang Rou shook her head: "My lord promoted you to a loyal and brave general. Too much limelight can easily make people jealous, and it's not very good for the major general..."
"What rumors have you heard, brother?" Pound frowned.
"Hey... we are all foreign generals, and the major general has a bad reputation, so there will inevitably be some rumors. Even generals like General Zilong are hard to stop Youyou's mouth. Let's not be so brave..." Pang Rou sighed.
Pang De shook his head one after another, "My lord is the hero of the world, my brother can't speculate like a villain."
"I'm talking about the Major General. Some people say that the purpose of the lord's heavy use of you is to weaken the Major General. In short, it's a dilemma..." Pang Rou said what he heard.
"This is a child's words. I don't need to pay attention to it. I just need to remember the kindness of the major general. The current master is General Zuo. He is righteous and accepts him. We will do our best to repay him." Pound understands military affairs but does not understand politics. , but he saw Liu Bei's unparalleled personality charm from Zhang Fei, Zhuge Liang and others.
"Hey, I also heard it from hearsay, so let's just let Ling Ming not listen to it." Pang Rou said softly.
Liu Bei didn't expect that his unintentional actions would plunge the Pang brothers into a political vortex. He didn't notice much at first, until Mrs. Wu frequently mentioned Pang De and Ma Chao recently, and Liu Bei finally had to pay attention.
Pingding Yizhou accepted Wu Cheng as a concubine. Her luck was much better than Sun Shangxiang. In less than three years, she gave birth to Liu Bei's two sons, Liu Yong and Liu Li, and successfully tied the Wu family to Liu Bei's chariot. As a result, Wu Yi, the rebellious general, rose to the top and gradually became the leader of the gentry in Yizhou.
When Liu Bei went to Shu to reward the officials, the Jingzhou faction and Yuancong faction benefited the most, and the Yizhou gentry were not happy. This time, they suddenly reused the generals who surrendered Ma Chao, which made the wronged Yizhou gentry even more uncomfortable.
Unable to offend the Yuan Cong faction and the Jingzhou faction, the Yizhou gentry dared to provoke the surrendered general of Xiliang, and the rumors of Ma Chao and Pound gradually increased.
Liu Bei summoned Wu Yi and asked, "Ziyuan, you are in charge of Chengdu's defense. What's going on recently?"
"Uh... no?" Wu Yi pretended to be confused.
"Why do I hear that Meng Qi and Ling Ming have a lot of discussions? You have to take care of these irrelevant and slanderous remarks about the general." Liu Bei said inside and outside, asking Wu Yi to control those tongue-twisters in Chengdu.
Wu Yi was slightly taken aback, and then said awkwardly: "Fangmin's mouth is better than Fangchuan, Yi can only try his best..."
"There is no peace in the backyard, how can we sweep the world, Ziyuan wants to share my worries." Liu Bei played the emotional card.
Chapter 425 A Dou's Excuse
Wu Yi and Liu Bei talked for a while, and finally reminded politely: "I will definitely step up my efforts to investigate, these rumors should be instigated by Cao Cao carefully, but the master is sitting on three states and vying for the balance of the world, some things should be careful... "
"The backup never doubts." Liu Bei shook his head.
"What General Ma has done is really difficult to reassure his colleagues. Hearing that Zhang Lu once wanted to call Meng Qi his son-in-law, his counselor said, 'If someone doesn't love his relatives, how can he love others?' To be tolerant, it is best to keep an eye out, that General Pang was originally his wing..."
Even Zhuge Liang and Pang Tong would not say such words that are suspected of alienation, that is, Wu Yi dared to speak out because of his close relationship.
Liu Bei knew that Wu Yi would not tell stories, and his words represented the thoughts of the generals in the middle of Shu, so he comforted him: "Ziyuan can rest assured, I will care about myself."
"The generals in Shuzhong are all loyal men, and they are very familiar with the terrain of Yizhou. My lord, you can use it boldly..." Wu Yi carefully reminded.
"That's great. When I collect Hanzhong in the future, Ziyuan can be a pioneer along the way?"
"The final general is willing to serve his life." Wu Yi was overjoyed.
Liu Bei finally understood Wu Yi's intentions. The generals in Shuzhong felt that they had given too few opportunities, and they also wanted to go to the front line to make some military exploits.
Liu Bei had a steelyard in his heart, no matter where he came from, the generals were all loyal, but in terms of personal bravery in leading troops and fighting, the overall strength of these generals in Yizhou was not enough, but he didn't mind giving Wu Yi some chances.
In fact, without Wu Yi's reminder, Liu Bei will naturally balance the relationship between the various factions, and his art of manipulating people is already among the best.
Wu Yi got a satisfactory answer and left happily. Liu Bei lamented that the gap between his wives and younger brothers was too great. Mi Fang had no sense of existence as the prefect of Wuling. The benefit, on the contrary, is that Lantian guarding Jiaozhou has nothing to fetter, and it is also Liu Bei's most reassuring existence.
"My lord, the car is ready, do you still want to go see Mrs. Wu?" Liu Bei stepped out of the guard door, and Chen Dao was already waiting outside.
"Go and see Adou. It's been a long time since I checked his studies." Liu Bei pointed to the direction where Gan Qian lived. In addition to balancing the relationship between courtiers, he also had to balance the relationship between wives, concubines and children.
"Wei." Chen Dao opened the curtain to let Liu Bei get into the car.
Because Wu Cheng gave birth to two sons in a row, and because of Wu Yi's relationship, Liu Bei visited Mrs. Wu's residence the most times, and Sun Shangxiang, the youngest, was neglected by many. Fortunately, he had his daughter Liu Yi as a companion, so he would not be lonely and bored.
At this moment, it was lightly raining, Liu Bei didn't hear the children playing, walked through the wet courtyard in front of the house, and found Liu Chan sitting on the porch with Liu Shu and Liu Wan playing with each other.
Liu Bei walked forward slowly, and found that there were sea snails, shells and other seaside things on the small case, which Lan Tian asked Song Chen to drop by.
"Father..." Liu Shu was the first to notice Liu Bei, and stood up to salute politely. After the death of his biological mother Mi Zhen, Liu Shu's personality became very sensitive.
"Father..." Liu Wan and Liu Chan also stood up.
Liu Bei waved his hand to signal everyone to relax. He pointed to the objects on the case and asked, "Where did this all come from?"
"My uncle entrusted someone to send it from Jiaozhou." Liu Wan replied with her head bowed.
"The shell is bright. Is there anything special about this shell?" Liu Bei asked curiously.
Liu Chan put a conch to Liu Bei's ear: "Father, listen, uncle has brought the sea."
"It's really like this." Liu Bei's kind face was full of smiles, and suddenly he remembered that he was here to test and teach Adou's knowledge, so he asked: "Mr. Siqian (Yin Mo) has taught you "Zuo Zhuan" for several months, but can Have you learned any good principles? Can you share one or two with me?"
"Uh... I'd better recite "Thousand Characters" for you. The heaven and earth are dark and yellow, the universe is prehistoric, the sun and the moon are full, and the celestial constellations..." Liu Chan felt his back sweating, and immediately changed the subject.
"You don't need to memorize it, it seems that you haven't paid much attention recently." Liu Bei said with a sullen face.
Liu Chan lowered his head and murmured, "My child is only eight years old. My husband said that "Zuo Zhuan" is too difficult for me..."
"Isn't that right? Didn't Ziyu talk about it before? You were younger then..." Liu Bei was very puzzled.
"Uh...Mr. Siqian is not as interesting as my uncle, so my child can't listen to it..." Liu Chan stammered out the reason.
Although Yin Mo is proficient in "Zuo Zhuan", his storytelling skills are not as good as Lan Tian's. The stories of the characters in Zuo Zhuan are obscure and difficult to remember, which does not arouse Liu Chan's interest at all.
"I'll ask Mr. Siqian to make it simpler. Have you practiced martial arts recently? Without a strong body, you won't be able to do anything in the future." Liu Bei asked again.
Liu Chan lowered his head and replied, "Recently it's either snowing or raining, and Uncle Zilong went to Zitong County again, so there's really no one to play football with the child..."
As soon as Liu Bei heard that he was a good guy, he asked Adou to practice some basic skills, which was originally understood as playing football for fun. Although Liu Chan is only eight years old now, he is too lazy to set an example for Liu Yong and Liu Li.
"Where's your mother?" Liu Bei looked up, but there was no sign of Gan Qian.
It turned out that Gan Qian was very strict with Adou, and Liu Bei felt that he hadn't been here for more than ten days, so why did the atmosphere here become different?Could it be that she blamed me for being too close to Mrs. Wu?
"Mother suffered from the wind and cold a few days ago, so she should rest in the room at the moment." Liu Wan replied.
"So it is."
Liu Bei was relieved immediately after hearing this, and then walked to Gan Qian's bedroom.
Gan Qian is usually very frugal, and there is no candle in the rainy room, Liu Bei pushed the door and entered the room and felt very dark.
"Who is it?" Gan Qian asked feebly.
"Mr.?"
Liu Bei walked quickly to the couch, only to realize that Gan Qian hadn't seen her for a long time, her face was pale and haggard.
Gan Qian heard Liu Bei's voice and struggled to sit up. Liu Bei strode forward to support her back and put a pillow around her waist.
"Ahem, my husband is busy with government affairs, how can I have time to come here?" Gan Qian covered her mouth with one fist.
"Xiaojun's body has always been strong, why did he get sick when it was cold in the past two years? Did you ask the doctor to come and see?" Liu Bei asked, looking up and down.
Gan Qian replied: "Maybe it's because of the rainy weather in Chengdu. After reading it, the doctor said it was just a simple wind and cold. It will be fine when the spring is warm and the flowers are blooming. It shouldn't be a serious problem."
Liu Bei frowned: "These doctors in Yizhou are still not as good as Zhongjing (Zhang Ji) and Yuanhua (Hua Tuo). I will send someone to invite them to Chengdu tomorrow."
Gan Qian hurriedly stopped: "The two genius doctors are old now, how can they work hard for a woman like me? Besides, Ziyu has just established a medical department, and Mr. Yuanhua should not be able to get away. I just need to eat a few more soups and medicines."
"Xiaojun is really my good wife. I really miss those days in Xinye and Chenxian." Liu Bei nodded and sighed, and happened to find an unfinished small garment on the table, which he hadn't noticed just now because the room was dark.
"Let others do these things, but why is this dress so small? Shu'er and Wan'er can't fit it?" Liu Bei picked up the small coat and asked curiously.
Chapter 426 Politics is really troublesome
Gan Qian shook her head and explained: "The eldest lady just came here, she wants to make a dress for Yi'er, and let the concubine check it out for her."
When Liu Bei heard that Sun Shangxiang had come, he put down the little clothes in his heart with mixed feelings, and the original wife became a concubine instead.
Although the three wives belong to Liu Bei's family, they become state affairs when they fall on the head of one party. They are not the wives and concubines of ordinary people now, and there is a huge network of relationships behind them. Sun Shangxiang's mother's family, the Sun family, competes with Liu Bei The opponent, on the contrary, became the most unpopular person.
Considering this reason, Liu Bei deliberately distanced himself for protection, but he didn't expect this proud woman to become friends with Gan Qian.
"The courtiers are very worried about Jiangdong's surprise attack on Jingzhou. Although the two families are reconciled now, the rift still exists. You should try to keep your contact with her as little as possible. After all, Ziyu made Sun Zhongmou suffer a terrible defeat." Liu Bei persuaded.
Gan Qian nodded, "The eldest lady is coming, and it is inconvenient for me to stop her. She has lost her vigor after becoming a mother, and she looks very kind. She should have parted with the Sun family. After all, she is still a poor woman..."
"Adou's academic performance has deteriorated a lot since he arrived in Chengdu. Mr. Siqian is a great Confucian in Sichuan, and his knowledge is very profound." Liu Bei changed the subject.
Gan Qian smiled slightly: "After all, A Dou is too young. I remember that my husband started school very late. A Dou said that Mr. Siqian is not as interesting as Ziyu, so he has no patience to continue learning. It will not be too late when he is older... "
When Liu Bei saw Gan Qian mentioning her studies, she couldn't help but blush in the dark. He was not a studious person when he was young, so it was really hard to impose pressure on A Dou. After much deliberation, he blamed Lantian Tai Neng, and said to himself If you don't curl, can I curl like this?
"Bei is not as good as Ziyu, and A Dou is not as good as Yuan'er and Ji'er. Don't push him too much in the future, Xiaojun." Liu Bei came to his senses at this moment, ready to return the happy childhood to Liu Chan.
Seeing Liu Bei's depressed tone, Gan Qian comforted her, "Don't underestimate yourself, my husband. No matter how smart Ziyu is, she will help you. If Yuan'er and Ji'er are talented enough, they will be able to help A Dou in the future."
"Madam's words are very true." Liu Bei felt very relieved.
Although Gan Qian came from a poor and humble background, she speaks generously and does things well. Liu Bei will feel at ease after chatting with her.
The court meeting ended the next day, and Liu Bei left Zhuge Liang to discuss Pang De's affairs.
After Zhuge Liang analyzed the scriptures together, Liu Bei realized that he was the one who put Pound on the fire. It was a very artistic act to award officials and titles. He decided to be cautious in the future.