Change (2)
Zhou Shen took another sip, his face flushed from drinking, occasionally letting out a belch, and thick alcohol fumes emanating from his mouth. Seeing Gao Fei's bewildered expression, yet intently listening to his words, he reached out and gently patted Gao Fei's back, laughing and saying: "Younger brother, if Lu Zhi were honest with you, he wouldn't have secretly taken credit for your achievement of beheading the Yellow Turban bandit leader Zhang Jue."
Gao said: "The beheading of Zhang Jue was the result of Lord Lu's wise command, let alone I am his general and have received 500 catties of gold, which is already satisfactory."
Zhou Shen smiled and said: "Younger brother, the path of being an official is a perilous one. Do you know how much the imperial court has offered as a reward for Zhang Jiao's head? It's a figure that would scare you to death!"
Gao Feng saw Zhou Shen stretch out five fingers and thought: "Five thousand catties?"
Zhou nodded heavily, his slightly drunken self feeling irritable on this early autumn night, no longer caring about his usual image. He pulled off his top and casually threw it to the ground, continuing with a swagger: "This is just one part of the reward... there's another reward that you probably can't even dream of..."
Gao Fei saw Zhou Shen deliberately hanging his stomach and asked in accordance with his intention: "What is it?"
"Whoever beheads Zhang Jue, the leader of the bandits, will be rewarded with 5,000 kilograms of gold and enfeoffed as a marquis of 10,000 households!" Zhou Shen spoke out word by word, and each word was louder than the last.
Gao Fei was also shocked after hearing the news, he never thought that killing Zhang Jue would bring such a rich reward. If he had known earlier, why bother to lead troops to attack Xiayang, just relying on his merits, he could have become a marquis of ten thousand households, and gained fame and territory. In a fit of anger, he slammed the table heavily, almost shaking off the wine and dishes, and shouted loudly: "This old fox!"
After scolding, Gao Fei thought for a moment and seemed to realize that no one in the army knew about this reward, and Lu Zhi was not even enfeoffed as a marquis of ten thousand households. He glanced at Zhou Shen, who was drunk, and asked: "Brother Zhou, what you said is wrong, isn't it? If there really was such a good reward, why didn't anyone in the army know about it? And Lu Zhi didn't even get enfeoffed as a marquis of ten thousand households for this achievement?"
Zhou Shen smiled and suddenly stood up, his body swaying back and forth. He stretched out his hand and pointed at Gao Fei, saying slowly: "You don't understand this, do you? This is called 'top-down communication'! The imperial court indeed issued this reward, first issuing the imperial edict to General-in-Chief, who then had someone make a copy of it. He sent the copy to Lu Zhi, who was fighting against Zhang Jue, in order to boost morale. As long as Zhang Jue died, the Yellow Turbans would lose heart. But Lu Zhi didn't issue this command and instead suppressed it, so only people from General-in-Chief's residence and Lu Zhi knew about it."
"Why wasn't Lu Zhi granted a marquis title?" Gao Fei hastily asked, as gossip news was his favorite thing, he naturally wanted to get to the bottom of this unknown gossip of the era.
Zhou Zhen said, "At that time, because Lu Zhi was proud and thought that he could look down on others after receiving this honor, he didn't put the small Huangmen sent by Your Majesty in his eyes. After the small Huangmen returned, they spoke ill of Lu Zhi with evil words. Therefore, Your Majesty temporarily did not grant rewards, but instead dispatched Huangmen Shilang Zuo Feng to replace the Son of Heaven to inspect Hebei. Zuo Feng, you must have met him before?"
Gao Fei nodded and said, "I've seen him, he just left today."
Zhou Zhen said, "Gao Xian, think about it, your bright future was ruined by Lu Zhi's hands. Although he gave you 500 catties of gold, that was just a show for others to see. If I hadn't accidentally discovered the imperial edict in his book, I wouldn't have known about this matter. Xian, Xian, do you still think he is sincere towards you after ruining your future?"
Gao Fei shook his head and felt relieved after hearing the inside story. Even if he had done a great job, in that situation, if he had encountered someone sent by the emperor to ask for bribes, what could he have given them? Not to mention the title of Marquis of Ten Thousand Households, it's likely that even his life would have been forfeited. Since the matter was over, he didn't think about it anymore. He always believed that what belonged to him would eventually return to his hands, it was just a matter of time.
Zhou Shen suddenly stumbled and fell to the ground, Gao Fei hurried over to help him up and said: "Brother Zhou, you've had too much to drink, let me help you get some rest?"
"No, no, no, I haven't had enough to drink yet, and I still have things to say to you..."
He let out another belch, his mouth full of the stench of alcohol, it was truly suffocating.
Gao Fei helped Zhou Shen temporarily onto the bed and said: "Alright, you speak, I'll listen!"
Zhou Shen tightly grasped Gao Fei's hand, his eyes filled with expectation as he slowly said: "Younger brother, this fate of ours is extremely rare. Lu Zhi has wronged you like this, I have here a copy of Lu Zhi's crimes, I want to ask you to join me in exposing him."
Zhou Shen then pulled out a letter from the package on the bed and handed it to Gao Fei, continuing: "Don't worry, this matter will definitely succeed. Zhang Rang and Zhao Zhong among the Ten Eunuchs have long held grudges against Lu Zhi and are looking for an opportunity to get rid of him. As long as you and I expose Lu Zhi together, with the support of the Ten Eunuchs from above, we won't have to worry about not having high-ranking officials or wealth. The Left Prime Minister's side has already been taken care of, just waiting for this letter."
Gao Fei took out the letter and read it, seeing that apart from concealing the imperial court's reward policies, everything else was fabricated, such as slaughtering prisoners of war, massacring civilians to frame them as bandits, and embezzling rations. Most of these were crimes attributed to Lu Zhi, and at the bottom, there were signatures of ten military officials under Lu Zhi's command, densely packed in the corner.
He smiled, put the letter back in his pocket, and heard Zhou Shen's snores beside him. He gently pushed Zhou Shen twice, and when there was no reaction, he confirmed that he was really asleep. He shook his head and said slowly: "Since everyone under Lu Zhi's command has signed their names, it doesn't matter if I don't sign. Although I don't like Lu Zhi being above me, I don't want to do such a despicable thing either. It seems that Lu Zhi, who went ahead to Yingchuan, will probably be dismissed and punished before crossing the Yellow River. Poor Lu Zhi, he can't escape his fate after all."
He stuffed the letter into Zhou Shen's bundle, turned around, opened the door and walked out of the room. He said to Zhou Shen's personal soldiers standing outside the door: "Your master is drunk, you go in and serve him!"
Having finished speaking, he strode away with Zhao Yun and Xiahou Lan.
In the room, Zhou Shen, who was lying on the bed, heard Gao Fei's footsteps leaving and suddenly opened his eyes, sat up straight, with a hint of murder in his eyes, and said: "Despicable Gao Fei, how dare you say that what I did is despicable and base? You wait, one day you will regret what you did today..."
The next morning, the 20,000-strong army gathered outside Xiquyang Gate. Gao Fei and Zhou Shen each led 10,000 men to march south slowly. At the time of departure, the food and grass in the army were only enough for less than ten days, while the grain ration that should have arrived early from the imperial court had not arrived yet. With no other choice, Gao Fei took away enough food and grass from the treasury of Xiquyang City to sustain them for two months.
In the process of the army's departure, although 20,000 people belonged to different school lieutenants, they still acted in unison. After all, for so many days, they had always been one entity.
Less than thirty miles south, Gao Fei and others encountered the cavalry from Julu who came to take over Xucu Yang. The first rider was the governor of Julu. He heard that the troops were leaving and hurriedly ran over to see them off. After a brief exchange of pleasantries, the two groups parted ways, one heading south and the other north.
Gao Fei and Zhou Shen walked side by side at the front of the team, looking at Zhou Shen and Yan Yuese with a smile, as if nothing had happened last night. Gao Fei didn't mind these things either, after all, he spent the price of a provincial governor to buy a remote Liaodong Taishou position, such a foolish person, I'm afraid there won't be a second one in the world, and everyone is fighting for this "fat post", so he doesn't care about going to Yingchuan to fight against the Yellow Turbans, nor is he in a hurry, leading the team south along the way, just like taking a tour.
The army marched at a normal pace every day, but it was slow and delayed for many days. It took ten days to leave the territory of Julu County and enter the territory of Wei County. When they were about to arrive in Neihuang, Gao Fei saw several horse-drawn carriages rushing from the official road in the south. The carriage had been seen once before, exactly the same as the one that Huangmen Shilang Zuo Feng had sat on.
"It's an imperial edict! Hurry up and dismount to receive the imperial edict!" Zhou Shen only took a glance forward before hastily shouting at Gao Fei.
Gao Fei hastily ordered his troops to halt, dismounted and walked forward with Zhou Shen. He noticed that although the carriage was the same, there were differences - this time, a small yellow flag was tied to the frame of the carriage, with an embroidered golden dragon coiled on it, which was not present on Zuo Feng's carriage. Moreover, on the other side, a token was also tied, which was also absent from Zuo Feng's carriage.
A horse-drawn carriage drove up quickly and stopped in front of Gao Fei and Zhou Shen. The charioteer got out of the carriage and welcomed a eunuch dressed in Han Dynasty attire, who was holding a scroll with golden dragons embroidered on it. After jumping off the carriage, the eunuch cleared his throat and shouted in a strange tone: "The imperial edict has arrived! Gao Fei, the bandit-suppressing general, and Zhou Shen, the declaration general, come to receive the edict!"
Gao Fei and Zhou Shen immediately knelt down on the ground, but heard Gao Fei and Zhou Shen shouting in unison: "Your subjects have received the imperial edict, long live Your Majesty for ten thousand years!"
The eunuch said: "By the decree of the Emperor, it is commanded that the Left General Lu Zhi, in the course of pacifying the Yellow Turbans in Hebei, has committed great crimes of rebellion and impiety. However, considering his laborious efforts and achievements, he is hereby stripped of his position as Left General. All troops under his command are temporarily placed under the leadership of Right General Huangfu Song to be escorted back to the capital for trial by the Imperial Court.
Furthermore, the Breaking Bandits Colonel Gao Fei has rendered outstanding meritorious service in pacifying the Yellow Turbans, which brings great comfort to Our heart. He is hereby enfeoffed as Marquis of Douchang with a fief of 1,000 households in Chenliu and appointed as Magistrate of Chenliu, permitted to bring 50 relatives and attendants to take up his post forthwith. All troops under his command are placed under the leadership of the Manifesting Righteousness Colonel Zhou Shen to continue marching towards Yingchuan to assist Right General Huangfu Song in suppressing the bandits.
Respectfully received with gratitude! August 13th, Zhongping Year 1 of the Great Han."
Upon hearing the eunuch finish reading the imperial edict, Gao Fei was stunned and his mind went almost completely blank. The Governor of Liaodong he had been seeking had unexpectedly become the Magistrate of Chen Cang, although he had been conferred the title of Marquis of Du Xiang, it was of no use to him. He did not want to go to the northwest; he was very clear about what was going to happen in the northwest - Beigong Boyu would openly rebel, Liangzhou would become another battlefield, and the rebels would attack Sanfu, with Chen Cang being the first to bear the brunt. In his heart, he regretted and secretly cursed himself for fully believing that greedy little man Zuo Feng. Even if he was now filled with remorse, it was too late, and nothing could be done about it... He still had one way out - openly rebelling, but he knew that if he did so, probably not a single person under him would truly follow him.
Think of Lu Xun, Fei An, they are their own confidants, but at least they won't choose to be a rebel; think of Liu Bei, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun, Xia Houlan, they will only personally kill the rebels; and then think of Zhou Cang, Guan Hai, Liao Hua, Pei Yuan Shao, Bian Xi, they have just removed the name of rebel, I guess they won't follow him to be a rebel again...
"Douxiang Marquis... Douxiang Marquis..."
Gao Fei only felt that the eunuch was shouting at him, suddenly pulling him back from his thoughts to the cruel reality. He raised his head and saw the eunuch holding the imperial edict in his hands, making a gesture of handing it over to him. Then he saw the eunuch move his lips, and heard the eunuch's voice: "The Marquis of Douchun still doesn't accept the edict and thank for the grace, is he thinking of disobeying the imperial order?"
Gao Fei woke up and came to his senses, forget it, Chen Cangling is still Chen Cangling, after all, he got the title of Duke of Douchun, this money didn't go to waste, it's better than nothing. As for the Northeast, I'm still going, since I know that the Northwest is about to erupt in turmoil, then I'll fight another beautiful battle in the Northwest, and when I get merit and fame, I'll go to the Northeast later.
Gao Fei raised his hand and caught the scorching hot imperial edict, shouting loudly: "Minister Gao Fei receives the edict and thanks for the grace, long live Your Majesty, ten thousand years, ten thousand years, forever!"
Zhou Shen was very self-aware, and from his bosom he pulled out a piece of gold, privately stuffing it into the eunuch's hand. A hint of cunning flashed in his eyes, and a faint, sly smile appeared at the corner of his mouth. He stole a glance at Gao Fei, who was still kneeling on the ground, and nodded in satisfaction.
The eunuch took the gold and smiled as he got into the carriage. The coachman turned the horse's head around and drove the carriage away.
Zhou walked up to Gao Fei, helped him up and said with a smile: "Congratulations, Gao Xian Di, congratulations! Your merits are undeniable. I didn't expect you to be enfeoffed as a marquis at such a young age. In the future, your official career will be smooth sailing. Don't forget to take care of your older brother!"
Gao Fei smiled wryly and said nothing, but only he himself knew the kind of disappointment in his heart.
When dreams shine into reality, the cruel reality is like a knife that ruthlessly pierces the chest of dreams, then one by one, it grinds away at the dreams until what's left may only be reality.
Gao Fei walked back into the army step by step, holding the imperial edict in his hands, but there was no joy on his face...
