The Most Romantic of the Three Kingdoms

Following Jiang Qin's return, there was another person.

Jiang Qin threw him in front of Xun Zhen and said, "Mr. Xun, this is the messenger of the Shen family. We took it down more than ten miles outside the city. I asked him, and he said that the Shen family only sent him. Go to Luoyang. For the sake of safety, I left a few people behind and ordered them to continue searching in the direction of Luoyang."

"Okay!"

Xun Zhen recruited most of these light chivalrous and brave men, but not many thoughtful ones. Jiang Qin was one of the few. Therefore, Xun Zhen entrusted him to intercept the messenger. He also did a good job. Not only was the messenger arrested quickly, but the search was continued carefully. Xun Zhen motioned to Cheng Yan and Liu Deng to pull the messenger up, looked at him, saw that his hair was messy, his nose was blue and his face was swollen, and he obviously suffered a lot, and said, "Since Shen Xun has entrusted him with the important task of sending a letter to ask for help, It must be Shen Rong's confidant."

This man does not speak.

"I'm not embarrassing you, I just borrow one thing from you."

Jiang Qin thought he was talking about a letter of help, so he quickly took it out of his pocket, handed it over, and said, "Sanlang has read it, this is Shen Xun's letter of help." Saburo is one of Qingxia Chinese literate and hyphenated. . Xun Zhen nodded, took it, and without looking, asked the messenger, "Would you like to lend it to me?"

Jiang Qin said in his heart, "So it wasn't a letter of assistance." He turned his eyes and looked at the messenger. This messenger is worthy of Shen Tiao's confidant, not stupid, and has the self-consciousness of being a prisoner. He guessed what Xun Zhen meant, and his face was gray.

Xun Zhen smiled and said, "It seems that you have guessed what I want to borrow from you."

The messenger knelt on the ground, kowtowed and begged for mercy: "The villain is only under orders to deliver the letter, and he never intends to oppose the Duyou! I beg the Governor to spare the villain's life." Jiang Qin suddenly thought, "So Xunjun wanted to borrow him. Use your head!" Cheng Yan, Liu Deng and the others, with fierce eyes, pulled out half of their waist knives. The messenger became more and more frightened, and kowtowed desperately to beg for mercy.

"If you want to survive, it's easy, just answer my two questions. I'm afraid you won't answer honestly."

"Just ask the postmaster, as long as you can spare the villain's life, the villain knows everything and can't say anything."

"The first question is: How many people are in the hospital?"

"When the villain left, there were more than 60 people in the courtyard."

"The second question is: who are they?"

"There are family members of the family, there are guests, slaves, and iron officials and apprentices summoned from the market."

"Tieguan apprentice?" Xun Zhen thought to himself, "No wonder those strong men in the courtyard are not ordinary chivalrous men, but they are Tieguan apprentices."

When Shen Rong entered the house just now, he took the opportunity to take a look at the courtyard. Although the time was short, he also found that the strong men who were guarding the courtyard seemed to be particularly dead. Most of this kind of death will only appear on desperadoes who don't take life and death seriously. He originally thought that these people were dead soldiers raised by Shen Tiao, but now it seems that they should be iron officials.

Tieguan disciples, as the name suggests, are prisoners engaged in ore mining and iron smelting production in Tieguan (government-run smelting workshops).

The method of mining iron in the two Han Dynasties was to dig wells to extract ore, "digging the ground hundreds of feet deep". This kind of underground work was an extremely dangerous job until Xun Zhen traveled through it, not to mention now? They deal with danger, iron, fire, and furnace explosions all the year round. They are criminals themselves, and the court's control of them is very strict and cruel. The agility and desperation of this iron official can be imagined.

In the former Han Dynasty, in Yangcheng, there was a violent rebellion by iron officials. One hundred and eighty people "experienced the nine counties". He personally led the troops to suppress it, and only then failed.

Xun Zhen originally planned to ask only two questions, but was aroused by the word "Tie Guan Tu", so she couldn't help asking more. He asked again, "How many iron officials are there?"

"More than twenty."

"In the entire Yingchuan County, only Yangcheng has iron officials, and there is only one iron official. There are only more than 20 iron officials and apprentices?"

"No. The villain heard from Jiajun that there are more than 2,000 officers, soldiers, and apprentices in the Tieguan, who are divided into two smelters."

"I heard that Shen Xun also opened a smelting workshop. How many people are there in the smelting workshop he opened?"

"There are also nearly a thousand people."

"Then why did he only summon these twenty people?"

"Neither Tieguan nor the smelter opened by Xiaorenjiajun are in the city. Tieguan's two smelters are located in 'Negative Millet Ju' and 'Yingli' respectively. The smelter opened by Jiajun is twenty miles outside the city. There is only a small iron smelting workshop in the city, and these twenty people were summoned from that workshop."

"Tieguan and the self-opened smelter are both outside the city... These more than 20 people were summoned from the workshops in the market." Xun Zhen's heart skipped a beat, her face changed slightly, but she quickly recovered.

He turned his head to look at the inner door, and asked the messenger again, seemingly casually: "Shen Xun's self-built Yefang is twenty miles away from the city. Where is Tieguan? How far is it from the city? Shen Xun sent it to Tieguan. Shouldn't the person who sent the letter from Zikaiyefang already arrived?"

The messenger answered honestly: "Tieguan is not far from the county seat. The 'Busumi Ju' is about thirty miles away from the city, and the "Yingli" is nearly forty miles away from the city. Jiajun sent it to Tieguan and Zikaiye. The person who sent the letter to Fang went out of the city with the villain, and estimated the distance, and the person who sent the letter to Tieguan should not have arrived yet.”

"In other words, the person who sent the letter to his self-opening workshop should have arrived?"

"almost."

When Xu Zhong, Jiang Qin, and Cheng Yan heard the words, they all lost their color. Cheng Yan grabbed the messenger by the collar and shouted, "Shen Tun also sent people to the iron official and the self-opened smelter outside the city?"

Xi Zhicai said: "This Shen Xun, do you think he is brave or timid?" , did not hesitate to arbitrarily transfer iron officials and their own smelters. It can only be said that the extreme will be the opposite, and the timid to the limit is crazy. Or maybe Shen Xun was born as a businessman, and he didn't know how serious it was to arbitrarily transfer iron officials to the city.

Li Bo said in a trembling voice: "He, he, how dare he arbitrarily transfer the iron officials and their own metal workers into the city? Once hundreds or thousands of iron officials are brought into the city, who can control them? ..., he will Aren't you afraid that the incident of Shengtu Sheng will happen again today?" Sheng Sheng was the leader of the Yangcheng iron official's riot in the former Han Dynasty.

When she heard that Shen Xun had sent someone to Luoyang to deliver the letter, Xun Zhen was not too nervous because she had the worst plan of "a big deal", but now, she unexpectedly asked that Shen Xun still sent the letter. After people went to Tieguan and self-opened smelters to assemble Tieguan's apprentices and their own ironworkers, his hands clenched tightly.

Of course, there is still Tieguancheng in Tieguan. When Tie Guancheng is away, Tie Guancheng is the highest official. This Tie Guancheng may know the seriousness of the matter and will not follow Shen Tiao's orders, but what if he does not know the seriousness? Or even if he knew the seriousness and didn't send iron officials to come, but Shen Xun's own smelter sent someone? The messenger said that there were more than a thousand officials, soldiers, and apprentices in the Tieguan, and nearly a thousand people in the smelting workshop opened by Shen Xun. What Li Bo said is by no means sensational. If one is not handled properly, it will really lead to chaos. Not only would Xun Zhen die, but the people of the city would also suffer from it.

Jiang Qin gritted his teeth and said, "How dare this Shen Tung act so boldly! Xun Jun, please give your order, Qin please be the pioneer, so he will be sent to the hospital, his head will be taken, and the tower will be hung! Dare to enter the city half a step!"

Xi Zhicai said: "What Bo Qin said is very true. This iron official and disciple must never be put into the city. The only way to do it right now is..." He glanced at the messenger, and then said, "There are only two ways. ."

"Which two ways?"

"One way to live, one way to die. The way to live is to persuade Shen Xun to send someone to Tieguan and the self-opened smelter to cancel the transfer order. The way to die is what Bo Qin said, to invade the Shen family and take down the sinking. Tame the head, hang the gate tower, and block those who come back."

"In Yiqing's opinion, which method should I use now?"

"Let's try the living method first." Xi Zhicai glanced at the Shen family's house, so it was difficult, and said, "There are more than 60 people in the Shen family house, with high walls and strong gates, it is not easy to attack. , it is better not to attack.”

Jiang Qin, Cheng Yan, Liu Deng, and Xu Zhong were all dissatisfied.

Liu Deng shouted angrily: "What if there are more than 60 people, and there are high walls and strong gates? If you don't hurry up and knock down the Shen family, take down Shen Ting's head, hang the tower, and threaten the people who come. Are the thousands of iron officials and disciples entering the city?"

Xi Zhicai ignored him and gently pulled Xunzhen's clothes. Xun Zhen knew that what he said must have deep meaning, and thought about it: "Shen Tiao wants to send a Tieguan disciple into the city, but he seems daring, but when he analyzes his mentality, he is still timid. It's not that he didn't know this. Since he knew this, but he still said that, he should have wanted to let Shen Xun know that we didn't want to force the attack through the mouth of the messenger. ... But why did he want to mislead Shen Tun?" He quickly guessed Xi Zhicai's intention, "..., it's nothing more than trying to paralyze him, make him careless, and then launch a surprise attack."

Xu Zhong did not speak, but when he spoke, he was astonished.

He pointed to the firewood piled up outside the Shen family's house, and suggested: "Xun Jun, I'm afraid this Shen Tun will not be easy to be persuaded. However, what Jun Xi said is not bad. There are people guarding the Shen family, and there are high walls outside. It's not good to fight quickly. In my opinion, there is no need to persuade him, and there is no need to attack, it is better to collect some firewood, light it together, throw it into the wall, and set the Shen family on fire. "

The messenger was frightened and almost shouted to stop it.

His family also lived in this house, not too far from the Shen family. It hasn't rained for more than ten days in a row, the weather is dry and the things are dry, and today the sun has just been in the sun for a whole day. When a fire is set, it is not only the Shen family who is unlucky, but the whole place will probably fall into a sea of ​​fire.

Li Bo took this into consideration and hurriedly spoke out to stop it. Liu Deng said angrily: "There are no more people in the li, even if the whole li is burned down, it is still better than waiting for thousands of iron officials and disciples to enter the city, and ten of us are trapped here!" "Xunjun, please order!"

Xun Zhen looked at Liu Deng, then at Xu Zhong, Jiang Qin, Cheng Yan, Li Bo and others, and finally at Xi Zhicai, and was surprised to find that he was smiling at the corner of his mouth, calm, and could not help but admire him. Thought: "I know that the Yellow Turbans are going to cause an incident, so I am not afraid of the revenge of the eunuchs. Zhicai is just a cold family scholar, just to repay my 'confidence', he followed me with his head to rectify the north of the county. As soon as I arrived in Yangcheng, and not long after I started, I encountered sudden changes one after another, even Xu Zhong and Jiang Qin couldn’t hold back their anger, and even I was a little scared, but he still didn’t care about anything. How dare you!”

After two years of experience in Xixiang, whether it is shrewdness, courage, perseverance, and self-confidence, he is far from what he used to be when he first entered the office. He thought: "..., hehe, I am doing Fanyang Pavilion. For a long time, I dared to go out to attack thieves in the middle of the night, not to mention today? Zhicai's resourcefulness is far beyond my reach, but if I want to talk about courage, how can I be compared with him!" A decision was made.

...

"Liu Deng, do you still remember the thirteen rules I wrote on the wall of the Xixiang Courtyard last year when it was just built?"

"Remember."

"What's the first rule?"

"Without an order, even though the mountains of money and grain are seas, it won't work; if the orders are given, the mountains and the sea of ​​fire will be fine."

"Did I give you an order?"

"no."

"Aren't you getting up yet?"

Liu Deng and others have been in the Xixiang Bieyuan for more than a year. Xunzhen not only cared for them generously, but also responded to their needs, and extended his kindness and righteousness, pushing his heart into their wombs. Everyone had long been convinced by him, and they were willing to be driven by him. Hearing Xun Zhen's words, Liu Deng's face flushed red, ashamed and frightened, he hurriedly jumped up from the ground, turned back behind Xun Zhen, and did not dare to speak any more. Xu Zhong, Jiang Qin, and Cheng Yan also fell silent.

"Listen to my orders. Bo Qin, go to the county chief and county lieutenant in this county now, and tell them that Shen Xun wants to send iron officials and disciples into the city, and ask them to immediately close the city gate, and lead the county officers and officials to defend the city. Don't let an iron official into the city. . . . If they do this well, I can no longer pursue their past wrongdoings. If they don't do it well, I will ask them to wait for me to visit."

"No!" Jiang Qin was the one who rode a horse into the inside, and immediately got on the horse and galloped away.

"Ayan."

"exist."

"Bring a group of people to collect some firewood. Wait for my order and prepare to set fire to the house."

"promise!"

The messenger would rather die than burn down his home, endure seeing his wife and parents displaced. He bowed his head and begged: "Don't set fire! I beg the rafters for mercy. The villain is willing to persuade the lord to cancel the transfer order for the rafters!"

Xun Zhen looked at him for a moment, and said: "Alright, I will trust you once. If you tell Shen Rong that sentence, you can say: "I can change myself, and I hope it will be like Du Zhiji's story, and I will not cure what happened before." Please watch Yi Zong eagle strike, the fire is coming. . . . Do you know who Yi Zong is?"

"No, I don't know."

"Your master may know. Remember, I said 'fire is coming', not 'disaster is coming'! Xunzi said: 'Those who go astray will not come, and those who have two hearts will not succeed.' That's all, please think about it carefully."

"Yes Yes."

"If he is willing to listen to my advice, think about himself, and want to make a change, he will welcome me into the house and return the seal. If he is not wicked? Tell him again, I will only wait for him for half an hour. When night falls, he will be When it's on fire."

"Yes, yes." The messenger trotted to the door of Shen's house, knocked on the door, and squeezed in. The door closed with it.

...

Xun Zhen retracted her gaze and turned her face to meet Xi Zhicai's gaze.

"Zhenzhi, what do you want to do?"

"It hasn't rained for a few days, and the weather is dry. Ziyuan (Li Bo's word) is right. It is absolutely impossible to set fire. I asked Ayan to prepare some firewood. The meaning of...., do not set fire, and as Jun Qing said, there are high walls outside the Shen residence, and there are strongmen inside, so it is not easy to attack. .Once there is a delay, and there are really iron officials and disciples coming, it will be bad."

"so?"

"So I think that the best policy right now is to capture the thief first and capture the king first."

"Then you can't venture into the Shen residence either!"

The two of them had a conversation here, and Xu Zhong, Liu Deng, Xuan Kang, and Li Bo understood why Xun Zhen said just now, "If he has listened to my advice, he will come to his senses, and if he wants to make a change, he will welcome me. into the house".

Xu Zhong and Liu Deng lost their composure at the same time, exclaiming: "Xunjun, this is absolutely impossible!"

Xuankang was in a hurry, grabbing Xun Zhen's sleeve, as if he was about to enter the Shen residence now, incoherently, and said anxiously: "Xunjun, how can this work? How can this work? No! No! Absolutely not! !"

Li Bo also said: "Even if Shen Xun had to welcome you to enter the door because he was afraid of the fire, it is estimated that he would not allow you to bring too many people in. There are dozens of people in the Shen family house. How can Xun-jun be in danger?"

"In order to save his life, Shen Tun was so mad that he sent people outside the city to transfer iron officials into the city. It shows how much he fears me! There are ten such timid rats, so what is there to be afraid of? Killing chickens and dogs! How come you say that you are 'dangerous'?"

Everyone wanted to wait and persuade, Xun Zhen smiled and said: "No need to say, I have made up my mind. Shen Tung is afraid of being burned, and will open the door to welcome me. You wait and see how I kill this thief!  …, Haha, he is also asking for his own death. He actually arbitrarily adjusted the iron officials and disciples. Even if I killed him, the court would have nothing to say.

Xu Zhong followed him for a long time, knew his temper, and knew that whenever he laughed, it was his time to make up his mind. He knew that he was clumsy and could not persuade him to change his mind, so he stopped persuading him, saying: "I would like to follow him. You are with me."

Xun Zhen pondered for a while, and said, "Shen Tung is as timid as a mouse. There are more than 60 people in his house, so I shouldn't stop me from bringing one or two people in." He smiled and said to Liu Deng, "That day the prefect was on his way. Chun, when I was leaving, I saw you outside the official temple, and I wanted to choose one or two people for a test. You said at the time: 'My generation learns swords, and what we learn is the sword of murder. When a man carries a seven-footed sword, he should live happily. How can you be in front of a busker like a monkey'! Surprise the prefect, and praise you for being a really arrogant and brave person. . . . Let me ask you, do you have the courage to join Junqing and enter the house from me?"

Liu Deng didn't expect that after more than a year, Xun Zhen still remembered what he said at that time, not a single word was correct, he was moved and full of enthusiasm, and he knelt on the ground again and again: "You Ling, Deng, dare to die if it doesn't work. !"

"Okay!"

...

There were nearly a hundred Qing Xia present, and there was a reason why Xun Zhen chose Xu Zhong and Liu Deng to join him.

Xu Zhong's bravery and courage, he saw it with his own eyes. In order to save his mother, Xu Zhong once broke into the pavilion alone at night, and faced seven people without changing his face. He also fought to save the neighbor pavilion at night. Since he has the courage to contradict the prefect, he should also be full of courage, and besides being good at using swords, Liu Deng is also good at using two-handed halberds, which are all weapons that are conducive to melee combat. ——Unfortunately, Jiang Qin went to the county chief and the county lieutenant. He is also a good choice, known as "the first in hand-to-hand combat", and is also very good at hand-to-hand combat.

...

If Xun Zhen expected it, not long after the messenger entered, the door of the Shen family's house slowly opened, and one person came out, but it was Shen Rong.

Xun Zhen looked at him with a half-smile but not a smile, and said, "I thought that Shen Zhubo would never return, why did he come out?"

Shen Rong was so embarrassed that he didn't dare to look up at Xun Zhen, bowed his head in a salute, and said, "I am willing to make a change from my father and return the seal.

Xi Zhicai grabbed Xun Zhen and whispered: "Jun is admitted to the hospital today, it is a strange soldier. The strange person is dangerous. With few enemies, you can't win if you are fast. After entering, don't talk to Shen Xun more, look for the opportunity, Just take him down!" He took a step back, straightened his clothes, and said sharply to Shen Rong, "It won't take long to return the seal and cancel the transfer order. You tell Shen Xun, if you still don't see the governor after half an hour. I'll set fire to the house after it's mailed out."

In front of Shen Rong, he nominated the surname Dao to Shen Xun, which was extremely impolite. However, Shen Rong didn't have the heart to care about him. It was both the fear of Xun Zhen's courage and the threat of arson. With sweat on his forehead, he said, "Yes, yes."

Xun Zhen didn't wait for Shen Rong, and took Xu Zhong and Liu Deng along with their heads high and strode straight to the Shen family's house.

At the gate of Shen's house, the two guests at the gate seemed to want to stop Xu Zhong and Liu Deng. Xu Zhongli ignored it. Liu Deng widened his eyes and shouted loudly, "I'm a postal servant, and Shuzi dares to stop me?" The two guests were caught off guard, their legs softened, so they could not fall to the ground, watching the three of them grow into the room.

——

1. The iron officials riot/move.

Most of the riots/movements of Tieguan disciples occurred in the former Han Dynasty. In addition to the riot/movement by Shentu Sheng in Yingchuan, there was also a riot/movement led by Su Ling, a Tieguan disciple from Shanyang.

This riot led by Su Ling was bigger than the riot of Shengtu Sheng. "Han Book? Chengdi Ji" records that they "experienced the nineteenth state of the county": "Shanyang iron official Su Ling and other 228 people He attacked and killed the chief officials, robbed soldiers from the warehouse, called himself a general, went through the nineteenth state of the county, and killed the prefect of Dongjun and the commander of Runan.” "The Book of Han? The Five Elements" records that "experienced more than forty years in the county~www.wuxiaspot.com~ dealing with danger, iron, fire, and furnace explosions all the year round, and they are prisoners themselves, and the imperial court's control over them is very The strict cruelty of this iron official can be imagined.

Smelter explosion: The Han Dynasty still used charcoal as a fuel for iron smelting, but has begun to experiment with coal. "Han Book? Five Elements Chronicles" records two furnace explosions that used coal as fuel: "In the spring of the second year of Zhenghe, the cast iron and iron pins of Zhuojun Tieguan flew up", "The first month of the second year of Heping in Chengdi, Pei County Tieguan cast iron, the iron could not fall, the rumbling sound like iron, and the sound of drums, the thirteen workers were startled. The sound stopped, but the ground was sinking several feet, the furnace was divided into ten, and the iron was scattered in one furnace. Meteor, all go up, and the same sign as the sign and the two years."

3. There are more than 2,000 officials, soldiers and apprentices in the Tieguan, who are divided into two smelters.

The scale of iron smelting workshops in the Han Dynasty was not small. As early as before the monopoly of salt and iron was implemented in the former Han Dynasty, the iron smelting workshops of the wealthy merchants and merchants "gathered together in one family, or more than a thousand people". An iron smelting site in the Han Dynasty was discovered in the ancient city of Linzi in Qilin, covering an area of ​​more than 400,000 square meters. Gong Yu said at the time of Emperor Yuan of the Han Dynasty: "Today the Han family casts money, and all the iron officials are appointed as officials and soldiers to attack the mountains to obtain copper and iron, and one hundred thousand people have been paid in one year."

4. Neither Tieguan nor the smelter opened by Xiaorenjiajun are in the city. Tieguan is in the 'negative millet gathering' and 'camp', and the smelter opened by Jiajun is twenty miles outside the city.

Yangcheng County in the Han Dynasty, which is now Gaocheng Town in Dengfeng, Henan. At present, there are three iron smelting sites in the Han Dynasty discovered around Gaocheng Town: Dengfeng Gaocheng iron smelting site, Dengfeng Tielugou iron smelting site, and Yuzhou Yingli iron smelting site.

"Tielugou" is located in Duandong Village, Dajindian Town, south of Dengfeng today. This place was called "Negative Millet Jug" in the Han Dynasty. From the map, it is about 30 miles away from Yangcheng. "Yingli" is the current name, but I don't know what it was called in the Han Dynasty.