The 39th chapter: Pengcheng has Cao's family

  Zhongping 1st year of the Great Han [AD 184], June.

  Zhang Kuang walked in the middle of the team, looking at the long queue on the road, feeling very proud.

  After a fierce battle in the county town of Danfu, the Tianping Army set off quickly, leaving this place of right and wrong, and also kept away from Sun Jian's troops who went to besiege "Bo Cai Shuai". Along the way, since there were no powerful and unscrupulous warlords or Han army coming to disturb them, the journey was quite smooth. The front border is Pengcheng Prefecture in Xuzhou.

  Report!

  A lone horseman came galloping from the front. It was a scouting party responsible for reconnaissance. The soldiers of the Heavenly Army on the main road temporarily left the road and hid on both sides, guessing in their hearts whether another enemy had appeared.

  Na Ji Hou arrived in front of Zhang Kuang, dismounted his horse, saluted with a simple military salute, and loudly reported:

  "Report to the commander, there are Han troops blocking the road twenty miles ahead!"

  Zhang Kuang raised his eyebrows and asked:

  "How many people? Who is the commander?"

  "There were about three or four thousand men, but the general was unknown, only seeing a 'Cao' character written on the commander's flag!"

  A sudden flash of inspiration in Zhang Kuang's mind. Upon hearing the word "Cao", his first reaction was to think of Cao Cao, also known as Mengde, who was called the "Number One Man of the Three Kingdoms". However, Zhang Kuang immediately came back to reality and thought that Cao Cao should still be entangled with the Yellow Turbans' "Boyi" division in the area of Yan Province.

  Thinking of this, Zhang Kuang's courage was suddenly born. Except for Cao Cao and his clan, there were no famous generals among the other people with the surname Cao in the Three Kingdoms. Since it was Xuzhou, shouldn't he have met that person who is commonly known as "Grass Bag" Cao Bao in later generations?

  "You've worked hard, go take a rest!"

  Zhang Kuang comforted the scout who was drenched in sweat and said to his personal soldier beside him:

  "Order upon Bai Zhang [Yu Jin], have him proceed with caution and report immediately if he encounters the enemy!"

  As the Imperial Guard departed, the Tianping Army resumed its advance. However, this time the advance was slower, and soldiers were not allowed to put down their weapons. Even elite warriors who had been issued armor had to have it ready, able to quickly don it for battle within half a moment.

  In the scorching sun of June, the sun was like a fire, and people were so hot that they wanted to peel off their skin to cool down. Zhang Kuang looked up at the sky and thought:

  In such weather, there are still people who want to fight?

  Let's not mention anything else. As long as you wear the armor on your body for an hour, nine out of ten people will get heatstroke. Does this Han general still want to consider the morale of his troops?

  Twenty miles away, the commander of the Han army sat under a large tree, enjoying the manual fan held by his attendants, picked up a bowl of lotus seed soup cooled with well water, took a sip, and asked his subordinates:

  "How's it going? Is everything still quiet downstairs?"

  Several military officers heard this and looked left and right, but in the end it was the most senior one who spoke up and replied:

  "The soldiers are complaining a lot, saying that this weather is too hot and it's really impossible to wear armor. To be honest with the General, when I was in the Southern Army before, whenever we encountered such weather, we would never go into battle..."

  Han Jun's servant looked to be around thirty years old, but his delicate skin made him look whiter and more refined than the two young maids by his side. He put down the lotus seed porridge with a slightly anxious expression, twirling the three strands of clear whiskers on his chin as he said:

  "Am I making things difficult for you? But that 'Tianping Army' is heading towards Xuzhou!"

  The name of the "Tianping Army" had already spread its reputation in the surrounding areas after a fierce battle with Sun Jian, the "Fierce Tiger of Jiangdong", at Single Father City. Especially near Wu County, those who knew about Sun Jian's bravery were amazed by his heroic strength and had long been wary of this Yellow Turban army that could withstand Sun Jian's attacks.

  Moreover, the Han army Sima from a large clan also learned some details about the battle with the Tianping Army from a letter from Bao Xin, the chief of Yanzhou. With such information, the Han army Sima naturally became extremely vigilant.

  The words of Han Jun's Sima sparked a flurry of discussion among the military candidates below. A slightly younger candidate couldn't help but shout out loud:

  "Director Sima, we are the Dan Yang soldiers. When have we ever been afraid of the enemy? If these 'bandits' don't come, then that's it. But if they dare to come and make a racket, we will annihilate them. What's the need for so much thought?"

  Facing the rudeness of his subordinates, the Han army's Sima was somewhat annoyed, but he quickly calmed down. He felt depressed in his heart:

  He is a direct descendant of the noble Cao family, and has been appointed as "Filial and Incorrupt" in the province. He was originally supposed to go to Luoyang for the imperial examination as one of the country's top talents!

  Just for a Yellow Turban rebel, now he has to comfort his subordinates in this humble military camp.

  Moreover, if it weren't for having two thousand private soldiers by their side, these barbarians from Danyang would probably still look down on the humble title of "Regional Military Governor" or "Military Commander".

  Thinking of this, Cao Zhen couldn't help but feel some regret for accepting the governor's recruitment and taking on the position of "state administrator". He made up his mind that after this war was over, he would resign from his position as military administrator to Governor Cao Pi and let his younger brother Cao Bao, who loved to wield a spear and swing a staff, take over the position.

  "Don't underestimate them. The Heavenly Balance Army, after all, is under Sun Sima's command. Those who managed to escape with their lives are not ordinary incompetent thieves, and you absolutely cannot take them lightly!"

  Cao Bao's elder brother, the heir to the leadership of the Pengcheng Cao clan, and a renowned scholar of Xuzhou, Cao Hong, suppressed his discontent and earnestly exhorted his subordinate officers. Due to Cao Hong's limited understanding of military affairs, he usually adopted an extremely cautious approach when commanding battles. This behavior earned him great disdain from the heads of the Danyang troops under his command.

  However, contempt is contempt, but the other party was a famous Confucian scholar who had been awarded the title of Filial and Incorrupt. If they really wanted to take someone in, even the governor would not dare to offend them. So, although they were disdainful in their hearts, the several military leaders still nodded repeatedly.

  After discovering that the Han army was stationed ahead, Zhang Kuang naturally had no interest in advancing and instead wanted to go back and have a good talk with them. He brought the Tianping Army all the way east precisely to avoid the intense battlefield of the Central Plains.

  Although the possibility is small, Zhang Kuang still chose to detour and head northeast from a place more than ten miles away from the Han army's camp, in order to avoid the Han army which had an advantage in both military strength and equipment.

  In order to ensure the safety of the troops, Zhang Kuang not only released all the scouts under He Qiu's command but also sent Yu Jin, who had the strongest commanding ability, to open up the road in front.

  In addition, General Dianwei led his heavy cavalry to the rear of the army's baggage train to protect the entire army's food and supplies. With Shen Fu, who was steady in temperament, leading his troops to guard the rear, Zhang Kan felt that such an arrangement was absolutely foolproof.

  After rushing for half a day, the Han army, which was closely monitored by Zhang Kuang's scouting team, did not react at all to the movement of the Tianping Army. This made Zhang Kuang feel somewhat bewildered and unable to understand what was happening. However, no matter how you looked at it, this powerful Han army of several thousand people seemed to be selectively blind, allowing the enemy to slip away right under their noses.

  Could it be said that my reputation has reached a point where enemies dare not act rashly?

  Zhang Kuang was thinking wildly without any bounds, and he himself knew that this was impossible. If the original "Bo Cai Shuai" had a reputation of ten, then the current "Bu Ji Shuai" had a reputation of seven. As for the Tianping Army with only about 2,500 people, it's unknown whether their reputation even reached three...

  Actually, on this road, Zhang Kuang had many opportunities to quickly expand his troops. After all, the Central Plains are now filled with war fires and refugees can be seen everywhere. Many poor people who have nowhere to turn to are willing to follow any army just to get a meal.

  However, Zhang Jue, who knew the final outcome of the Yellow Turbans, had no intention of expanding wildly.

  Not to mention the refugees who were recruited, most of whom are old, weak, sick and disabled, which will greatly slow down the progress of the Tianping Army. The problem of increasing food for personnel alone is enough to drive people crazy. Moreover, with more people, the combat effectiveness of the army will not increase significantly, but rather attract more Han troops to pay attention to the originally low-key Tianping Army.

  At this scale, it's just fine. High mobility, strong combat power, but the scale is not large. In a situation where there are tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of Yellow Turbans everywhere, their own small team of only two or three thousand people would be embarrassing to report to local officials.

  Due to the sweltering weather, the Tianping Army is now marching at dawn, getting up early and walking for a while before temporarily settling down at noon until the evening when the heat dissipates, then taking advantage of the coolness to hurry along another stretch. As a result, the soldiers are more likely to become exhausted. Therefore, it is necessary to stop and rest for a day after every three days of marching.

  It was noon. The troops of the Heavenly Army were preparing to stop and cook, but saw dark clouds gathering in the sky, and in an instant it turned dark. In a moment, big raindrops started pouring down from the sky!

  Although I knew that at this time, such a heavy rain would appear, the Tianping Army was caught off guard from top to bottom. Zhang Kuang secretly cursed the treacherous sky while being surrounded by his personal soldiers, and ran towards the big tree on the side of the road.

  Just then, sudden change!

  Filial piety and integrity

  From today's perspective, "Holding Filial Piety and Integrity" is a rather annoying talent selection system. As long as someone has the reputation of being well-learned, filial to their parents, and having integrity in their behavior, they can be selected to become an official. However, when Emperor Wu of Han first implemented the "Holding Filial Piety and Integrity" system, it was actually a pretty good talent selection system.

  The key lies in the earliest "Holding Filial Piety", which has a joint liability nature. If the recommended person is unqualified or commits a crime, the recommender will be held responsible. Therefore, in the early days, high-ranking officials who were qualified to "hold filial piety" often had unused quotas for filial piety names.

  However, in the later period, for some reason, the joint liability of the recommender was cancelled. As a result, the filial and incorruptible persons recommended by the recommender only had advantages and no disadvantages. In this way, "recommending filial and incorruptible persons" to become officials immediately became an activity with huge benefits. All kinds of fake and hypocritical people also found a place to use their skills.

  Finally, similar nursery rhymes such as "Raise the talented but don't know books; raise the filial and incorrupt, father lives separately." began to spread widely. The loss of impartiality in the selection of filial and incorrupt officials eventually led to their replacement by the seemingly more reasonable "Nine Ranks Middle Just" system.

  Person - Cao Hong

  Origin: "(Tao) Qian's humble and tolerant way of governing: Zhao Yu, the governor of Guangling, was a famous scholar from Xuzhou, who was ostracized for his loyalty and straightforwardness; Cao Hong and others were treacherous and evil people, whom Qian trusted. The penal system became unbalanced, many good people were harmed by them, and as a result, chaos gradually arose."

  His relationship with Cao Jiao is purely fictional.