Seeing Sun Ce's cordial invitation, Qiao Rui could not refuse and had to accept. The three of them drank happily, and with Sun Ce's brother Zhou Yu toasting him in turns, Qiao Rui got drunk in no time.
Zhou Yu took the opportunity to test the waters and found out that Qiao Rui really didn't have any extra friendship with Xionghu. He and Sun Ce looked at each other, and they both felt relieved.
Sun Ce saw that Qiao Rui was in a bad mood, so he said, "Mr. Qiao, you delivered the imperial edict to me on behalf of the emperor, I'm afraid you have offended Yuan Gonglu, why don't you stay with me?"
Qiao Rui said drunkenly: "I appreciate Bofu's trust, but I know myself well. I have messed up many times and I am not up to the task."
"Today I am delivering a letter for Bofu, but I still need to give an explanation to Yuan Gonglu."
"So I plan to leave for Shouchun tomorrow, resign from Yuan Gonglu, and then move my family to Wujun. If Bofu doesn't abandon me, I will definitely serve under him."
Zhou Yu worriedly said, "What if Yuan Gonglu embarrasses Qiao Gong at that time?"
Qiao Rui waved his hand and said, "It's okay. I think Yuan Gonglu still has some feelings for us."
"I will keep my mouth shut about the imperial edict."
"Oh, right, that fierce tiger asked me to bring a message. What was it? He told Bofu not to worry. He had no intention of plotting against Jiangdong. He wanted to make peace with Bofu."
His speech gradually became slurred, and he finally fell asleep on the table.
When Sun Ce and Zhou Yu saw this, they stood up and went to the courtyard. Sun Ce asked, "Gongjin, do you think what Qiao Gong said is credible?"
After hearing this, Zhou Yu said, "It should be possible. Otherwise, some of the steps involved are simply courting death. If you are really a fierce tiger spy, you will never be so reckless."
Sun Ce heaved a sigh of relief after hearing this. "Should we really let him go to see Yuan Shu? If Yuan Shu becomes suspicious, he might never come back."
Zhou Yu said: "Mr. Qiao knows how powerful we are. If he doesn't go back to report, Yuan Gonglu will become suspicious of us early."
"Yuan Gonglu intends to establish himself. If Mr. Qiao is suspected by him, he will be in great danger."
"But those who achieve great things do not care about trivial matters. Bofu makes decisions when necessary."
Sun Ce hesitated again and again, and finally made up his mind, sighing: "If anything happens to him, just take good care of his family."
Thousands of miles away in the heart of the Black Mountain, after a whole day of fierce fighting between the two sides without caring about casualties, the mountain roads and hillsides were littered with corpses of the Black Mountain and Jizhou armies, and the blood had dyed the mountain streams red.
Yuan Xi and Lu Lingqi stood on the watchtower and watched for a whole day until it gradually darkened, and Yuan Shang showed no intention of letting Yuan Xi participate.
Wen Chou, Zhang He, Gao Lan and their soldiers finally occupied the most important hilltop before it became completely dark.
As the sky turned completely dark, the Black Mountain Army sounded the retreat. The Jizhou Army took advantage of the situation and built camps and fortifications on the top of the mountain overnight to prevent the Black Mountain Army from counterattacking at night.
Yang Feng did not appear from beginning to end, and was replaced by a dozen Black Mountain leaders. However, they were no match for Wen Chou and others. After Wen Chou and his two companions killed two leaders, the remaining people never dared to come out again.
Lu Lingqi asked in confusion, "General Wen Chou's blow was very severe. Is Yang Feng probably dead?"
Yuan Xi thought that if it were him, it would probably happen, but if it were Yang Feng, it might not be the case.
He always felt that there was a secret about Yang Feng, and if he wanted to find out what Cao Cao did in the Black Mountain Army, Zhang Yan and Yang Feng were the key.
Yuan Xi had no idea about the future direction of the situation and the decisions of the various princes, because the general situation in the world had deviated greatly and Cao Cao was unable to independently control Emperor Liu Xie, so Yuan Xi could not predict his next plan.
He put himself in Cao Cao's shoes and realized that the best choice at this time was to secretly accumulate strength, expand territory, and wait for Yuan Shu to die.
Now almost everyone in the world knows that Yuan Shu is going to rebel, and many princes are not optimistic about Yuan Shu's prospects. This makes Yuan Xi feel strange. Where does Yuan Shu get the confidence to be independent? Does he really think he can fight against everyone in the world independently?
Or did he think that if he raised his arm, the whole world would respond like Zhang Jiao did when he started the rebellion?
Yuan Xi felt vaguely uncomfortable in his heart, but the coolness of the night made him occupied with another thing.
The weather is wrong this summer!
Compared with the previous two years, it is too cool now. It seems as if the whole summer has not come at all, and it has smoothly transitioned from spring to autumn.
The weather is getting colder?
He then thought of something and his face suddenly turned pale.
There have been two major ice ages in Chinese history. The end of the Han Dynasty was the first Little Ice Age. Although it was not as severe as the one at the end of the Ming Dynasty, we should know that the technological level at the end of the Han Dynasty was far inferior to that of the Ming Dynasty!
Severe cold weather will not only cause a massive reduction in grain production, but will also cause a large number of people to freeze to death.
No wonder the locust plague that ravaged the north last year disappeared this year. Was it due to this influence?
A few years ago, a locust plague broke out in Jizhou, Yanzhou and Yuzhou, but Yuan Xi of Jizhou warned people in advance, so although there were some losses, they were still within an acceptable range in the end.
As for the Youzhou area, because the temperature is relatively colder than in the north, the locust plague did not have much impact. In addition, with the help of water conservancy projects, there have been good harvests in the past two years.
After the severe drought, there was a locust plague. Youzhou had abundant water and cold weather. Although it had some impact on food, it actually had a suppressive effect on the locust plague. Moreover, although Youzhou had a cold climate, as long as irrigation kept up, general natural disasters would not easily affect food crops.
But there is a prerequisite, which is the severity of the natural disaster.
If the cold weather is so severe that even the grass outside the Great Wall cannot grow, Youzhou's grain harvest in the next few years or even decades will inevitably be greatly affected!
Yuan Xi's body suddenly shook, thinking that since the Battle of Guandu, there have been few sustained wars in the north, and the struggle for power has all been concentrated south of the Yangtze River.
If the Little Ice Age had an impact, many unusual things could be explained, because at that time, Cao Cao had not unified the north, and there were often forces causing chaos on the border. The north was not completely settled until Cao Cao's death.
Cao Cao, who originally used killing to intimidate people, adopted a policy of appeasement in many areas. This should be because of the influence of the Little Ice Age in those years. There was a shortage of soldiers and food in the north, so he tried his best to avoid unnecessary wars.
In contrast, the climate south of the Yangtze River was relatively warm and less affected by the Little Ice Age. Therefore, the Shu and Wu kingdoms, with their limited territories, were able to withstand several attacks from Cao Wei in the north. Every time Cao Wei launched a large army, it could not last long, and in the end it was repeatedly beaten into a defensive position. This may not be the only reason.
Yuan Xi thought about it and decided that he had to make arrangements south of the Yangtze River. If the climate really changed, Youzhou might only be able to ensure self-sufficiency. If he wanted to mobilize a large army to fight for the world, he had to go south in advance!
Therefore, if Youzhou wants to expand in the north, its next focus should be to abandon the swampy and cold land of Liaodong outside the Great Wall and instead try to occupy the Hetao Plain of Bingzhou.
After all, the Hetao Plain is extremely fertile at this time. If we can grow cold-resistant wheat and barley, we will have more confidence in dealing with the risks of natural disasters.
Seeing Yuan Xi in a daze, Lu Lingqi wanted to hit him, but finally put her hand down because she could see that Yuan Xi was really thinking about something.
Her future husband is completely different from her father. Although he can fight in the battlefield, he is more like a wise general who plans and strategizes.
After a while, Yuan Xi came back to his senses and said to Lu Lingqi, "The winner will be decided tomorrow."
"We can't wait here any longer. Gather everyone now. No matter what Yuan Shang does, we will fight our own battle."
"It doesn't matter if we give him the pass. We can find a way to get over the mountain in the north."
Yang Feng opened his eyes and felt darkness in front of him. His heart tightened. Was he blind?
After groping for a while at the straw beneath her, she realized that this was her previous bed. Her eyes gradually adjusted to the light in the tent and she could see the vague outlines of things. Only then did she feel relieved.
It turned out to be dark.
It looked like he was knocked unconscious and was unconscious for at least a whole day?
She began to feel uneasy. What was going on outside?
I am still alive, and my hands and feet are not shackled. This means that Montenegro should not have been conquered by the enemy, right?
She fumbled to sit up and felt as if all the strength in her body had been drained away. She felt a strong sense of hunger in her stomach, and for a moment her heart felt as if it was burning on fire.
At this time, no breathing method worked. She reached into the bag in her arms with trembling hands and found that the small piece of cake was still there, and seemed to be sticky.
She stuffed the cake into her mouth without even looking at it. A strong smell of blood came over her, and then she realized that the cake was soaked in blood.
She didn't care whether the blood was her own or not. She bit the cake with her teeth desperately. Because of the blood, the cake became softer. She swallowed half of it in several mouthfuls before she calmed down a little.
After her body had recovered a little strength, she stuffed the remaining cake back into her pocket. She looked around and saw that there was no one around, so she called out a few times, hoping that her guards would come over.
As a result, as soon as she said this, a very low hoarse sound came out of her throat, and she realized that her throat was almost unable to make any sound.
Yang Feng struggled to get up and found half a bowl of water in the corner of the tent. She quickly drank it. The feeling of being alive finally returned to her.
He sat for a while, then slowly stood up. He didn't find the iron spear, so he was afraid that it had fallen on the battlefield. He stood up and walked out of the tent with difficulty. He found that there was not a single person outside the tent.
She was a little annoyed. Even at night, wasn't she too careless in her defense?
She raised her voice and shouted a few times, but because she was shouting too hard, her throat felt torn.
The next moment, several guards came out of the tent, leaning on sticks. Seeing Yang Feng, they asked in surprise, "The commander is awake?"
Seeing that several people were injured, Yang Feng couldn't bear to speak too harshly, and frowned and asked, "Where are the others?"
"Why is there no one patrolling the camp at night?"
The guards were silent. One of them looked painful and spoke slowly, "The others are all dead."
"There are only a few of us left."
Yang Feng was stunned.
The guard stammered, "The commander was knocked unconscious by the enemy general, so we went up and took the captain back."
"We were carrying the captain back to the camp. When we returned to the battlefield, none of the other dozens of brothers had returned."
Yang Fengru fell into an ice cave and could not stand steadily.
The hundreds of trusted confidants she brought from the Yellow Turban Army have remained under her command for many years.
But after three battles with the fierce tiger, almost all of them were killed or wounded, with only a few dozen people left.
Then in today's battle, I was injured and unconscious, and all the casualties were caused!
It's gone, everything is gone.
Just when she was about to give up, a messenger from the Black Mountain Army appeared and said to Yang Feng, "Captain, the Lieutenant General wants to see you."