Chapter 922 Zhengyin
Cao Cao fled into Mengshan, and his destination was Pengcheng.
This time he finally lost. He had nothing, lost all his territory, honor and subordinates, and ran away in the mountains like a lost dog.
But Cao Cao did not feel that his military fortune was over. As long as he could go to Pengcheng, where there were still the coalition forces of Chen Deng and Sun Jian, there would be a final decisive battle.
With his participation, Chen Deng and Sun Jian may not be unable to win.
After all, in Cao Cao's heart, he did not feel that this failure was due to himself, he just lost the bet.
In the three-sided encirclement of Taishan Army, he had tried his best to increase his chances of winning, but God did not favor him and allowed Guan Yu to find his own camp.
Guan Yu.
Thinking of this man, Cao Cao couldn't help but think, how nice would it be if this man belonged to him?
Why is Zhang Chong so popular? Why can a farmer's son command the loyalty of so many heroes?
Zhang Chong, Zhang Chong, it’s not unfair for me to lose to you.
But this is far from over.
In such a dilemma, Cao Cao thought of Emperor Gaozu and how he stood up again in Xingyang after his defeat in Pengcheng.
At this time, Cao Cao did not know that when Yuan Shao fled southward in a hurry last year, he was inspired by the story of Emperor Gaozu's defeat at Pengcheng and his ability to regain his strength.
If he knew that Yuan Shao thought the same way last year, he might not think about Emperor Gaozu anymore.
But unlike Yuan Shao, Cao Cao had a strong belief at this time. He knew that he could not die.
He must live.
Enough people have died for him to live, and he cannot let these people's deaths be in vain.
Thinking of this, Cao Cao once again thought of what happened last night.
When Guan Yu's two thousand cavalry appeared in the valley, Cao Cao knew that he had completely lost.
Even if two thousand cavalry faced five times more infantry, they could defeat them. What's more, at that time, Cao Cao only had field soldiers who had lost their fighting spirit.
So when everything was irreversible, Cao Chun stood up.
This cousin of the same family had no hesitation in wearing his own clothes and attracting the attention of the Taishan Army on his behalf, so that Cao Cao could escape smoothly.
Then Xu Chu also stood up. This good man like a mountain cried and apologized to Cao Cao, forgiving him that he could no longer serve Cao Cao.
To make the enemy believe that Cao Zhang is Cao Cao, it is useless to rely on clothing alone.
Everyone knows that where Duke Cao is, Xu Chu is also there.
When Cao Cao thought of the scene when he and Xu Chu parted, he burst into tears as Xu Chu held his hand sadly.
Listening to those words "Lord", Cao Cao felt that his heart was about to break.
Maybe at this moment, they have all died in the battle.
But in his heart, Cao Cao hoped that they could be captured by the Taishan Army. According to the Taishan Army's policy, they could at least survive.
And as long as they survive, they will eventually be able to meet again.
Thinking of the Cao family, the civil and military officials like Xu Chu and Xi Zhicai, and Xiu'er and Pi'er, Cao Cao felt filled with guilt.
He Cao Cao escaped.
After running away day and night, Cao Cao was sure that he was completely out of the pursuit of the Taishan Army, and he was going in a direction that the Taishan Army would never have imagined, to the west.
But why was Cao Cao able to escape?
Wasn't it the people above who listened to Cao Cao's order and asked them to break out to the east?
How smart people like Chen Qun and Xi Zhicai are. Why don’t they know that running eastward seems to be a way to survive, but it is a complete dead end.
But they obeyed their orders without hesitation and broke out to the east.
They all understood that the real way to survive was to break into Mengshan Mountain in the direction from which Taishan's army came, and then sneak along Mengshan Mountain until Pengcheng.
But this way of survival requires everyone to take the road of death.
Only when everyone breaks out to the east, the Taishan Army will subconsciously pursue eastward, so that Cao Cao can escape to the west.
That night, Cao Cao was indeed despicable.
But there are still so many people willing to die for him.
Cao Cao has always been very strong in his heart. He has enough faith to make his behavior self-consistent. Even if he is burdened with eternal infamy, he can still have his own reason.
But regarding what happened last night, even now, Cao Cao is suffering from moral torture.
No matter how hard he makes excuses in his heart, he understands that he feels sorry for these people.
Even more so, Cao Cao had only one thought in his mind:
“I want to reach Pengcheng alive.”
The road from Mengshan to Pengcheng, If you are an ordinary person, you will definitely not be able to walk there. There are rugged mountain roads everywhere here, and wild beasts appear from time to time. How easy is it to cross the mountains continuously on a single horse?
But Cao Cao was confident.
His hometown is Peijun, and the Yimeng Mountain District is not far from his hometown. He used to travel around the world and visit his friends, and he passed by it more than once.
Even though he used to live in groups, this time he was alone.
In fact, Cao Cao does have this ability.
In another time and space, after he failed to assassinate Dong Zhuo, he ran all the way back to his hometown from Luoyang. That journey was farther and more dangerous than what he walked now.
But in the end, Cao Cao still completed this journey and successfully returned to his hometown to raise a banner and raise troops to rebel against Dong.
It can be said that the beginning of Cao Cao's career started from this road of escape.
And this time, in this plane, will Cao Cao's comeback also start from this escape?
Does history really have its destined destiny?
......
For several days, Cao Cao went into the mountains and forests. When he was thirsty, he only drank mountain spring water, and when he was hungry, he only ate what he knew.
Fortunately, it was spring now, everything was recovering, and Cao Cao was able to survive. If it were winter, there would be only death waiting for him.
But even so, Cao Cao became much older during the period of fleeing in the mountains.
The sun and moon are unknown in the mountains, and he has no idea how long he has been in the mountains. Even the direction, Cao Cao could only roughly estimate based on the direction of the branches and leaves of the forest.
After appraising the direction in his mind, Cao Cao was not sure whether he had reached the Lanling area.
Lanling has already arrived in the Donghai County area. Going further south, he can reach Pengcheng.
But Cao Cao still needs to go out to determine the specific situation.
At this time, Cao Cao's physical condition was not very good.
Cao Cao contracted dysentery because he always ate wild fruits from mountain springs in the past few days. Coupled with the days of hard work and lack of rest, Cao Cao's body had reached its limit.
He must go out of the mountain while his physical strength is still there, otherwise if he falls ill in the mountain, his life or death will be uncertain.
Using a branch from the forest as a walking stick and wearing rough clothes, Cao Cao climbed over the last slope and finally saw the smoke from the cooking pots.
The peak water here gathers into a stream. There is a small castle beside the stream, and there are wooden houses and nests scattered outside the castle.
Cao Cao looked at the mountain wall and thought for a moment to make his hair more messy, and then stumbled down the mountain.
The further he walked towards this dock wall, the more Cao Cao could feel the poverty of this place.
Most of the places here are shacks and huts, and there are very few shanties, let alone wooden houses.
But Cao Cao didn't take it seriously. He was lucky to be alive in troubled times. How many people are not as good as these people. It's just that Cao Cao has lowered his expectations in his heart.
Originally, he wanted to ask for a bowl of porridge, but now it would be nice to ask for a sip of water.
Suppressing the discomfort in his stomach, Cao Cao did not forget that the most important task of his trip was to determine where this place was.
So Cao Cao did not go directly to the shack there, but walked directly to the small fort in the middle.
Only there will be the answer.
This settlement was indeed too dilapidated. When Cao Cao walked to the door of the dock wall, he didn't see anyone coming to stop him, nor did he see a sentry nearby.
In troubled times, isn’t such a dock wall afraid of being robbed by bandits?
When Cao Cao walked to the flat area in front of the dock wall, a middle-aged man stuck his head out and shouted:
"No one is accepted here, go back."
< br>Cao Cao did not leave, but shouted:
"Unfortunately, I ended up living here. I don't know where I am?"
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But I didn't expect that when Cao Cao finished saying this, the middle-aged man disappeared directly. .
Cao Cao was confused and didn’t know what was going on.
But suddenly, he thought of what he said, and he didn't dare to stay any longer, so he walked away directly.
But it turned out that he wasn't paying attention and subconsciously replied to the person in Kyoto's authentic accent.
And it was this Kyoto Masayin that exposed his identity.
Kyoto Zhengyin is also called Yayan, which is the language among their aristocratic families and has been passed down since the Zhou Dynasty.
At that time, the king of Zhou made Luoyang his eastern capital. In the later period, he moved the capital directly to Luoyang. Therefore, from that period onwards, Luoyi's pronunciation became the standard Mandarin at that time.
But don’t think that Yayan is the local dialect of Heluo area. In fact, Yayan is a unique language system and has nothing to do with Qianshou.
Therefore, even the people of Luoyang today cannot understand the elegant words that have been handed down.
How did this language spread?
In fact, it depends on learning this way.
In those days, the king of Zhou entrusted the princes to all four directions, and they were all from the south and the north. I don’t know how many generations had passed in the meantime.
And every year when these princes' sons go to Luoyang to see the King of Zhou, how do relatives from all over the world communicate with each other?
You have to rely on this standard elegant language to communicate.
The most important Yayan learning material at that time was the Book of Songs.
As a child of an aristocrat, you need to follow your teacher in reciting the Book of Songs in elegant Chinese during your elementary school years until you completely master the elegant Chinese.
In this way you will have the ability to travel around the world.
Later Confucius taught his three thousand students in Yayan.
It can be said that only by mastering elegant language can you have the ability to be an official. Otherwise, how can you make progress if you can't understand what is said?
In the Han Dynasty, the territory of the empire became larger and the mobility of bureaucrats became more complicated. Mastering elegant language became a more rigid condition.
It can be said that a person who cannot speak elegant words, even if he becomes an official because of the emperor's appreciation, will still go south in the end.
But there are also accent differences between this Yayan and Yayan.
One of the most standard elegant words can only be mastered in two situations.
One is that your family lives in Kyoto, and your daily contact is with the gentry circle, so it is naturally the standard.
Another possibility is that your family has enough influence and financial resources to recruit scholars from Kyoto and let them serve as teachers for the children of the family.
Either you are influenced by what you hear and see, or you don’t teach me step by step, otherwise you will definitely have an accent.
It is precisely this hidden condition that in the gentry circle, just the first sentence can determine the status of your family.
The more positive the accent, the more likely he is from a noble family.
Unfortunately, Cao Cao's family is such a big noble and aristocratic family in Kyoto, and the sentence he just responded to above was exactly the Luoyang Zhengyin he subconsciously said.
At this moment, Cao Cao was not sure whether he was exposed because of his accent.
After all, this is just a remote and poor Wubi, and the middle-aged man may have never heard such an accent in his life.
But Cao Cao did not dare to gamble. He ran to the mountains regardless of fatigue.
In order not to arouse suspicion, Cao Cao did not even dare to run, so he could only walk quickly.
But at this time, the wooden door on the back wall of the dock opened, and then two masters and servants ran out from inside. One of them looked like a young man. Looking at the back of Cao Cao leaving in a hurry, he shouted:
"Brother, , don’t leave.”
It was exactly this sentence that made Cao Cao determined not to leave.
It turned out that the young man also yelled at him in fluent elegant language.
And if you listen carefully to this elegant language, it still has a bit of ancient charm, and it sounds like the elegant language that was popular in the Pre-Han Dynasty.
After a while, Cao Cao decided not to run away.
He turned around, bowed deeply to the two people who were running over:
"Pei Guo and Ding Wei have met the young man."
And the man hurried over. The young man running there was sweating all over his forehead. When he saw Cao Cao saluting, he also stopped and said:
"Xiao Fan of Lanling has met my brother."
...
Half a moment later, Cao Cao had already taken a bath, put on the broad sleeves of the nobles, and sat energetically in the front hall.
At this time, the man named Xiao Fan Xiao Langjun was quite excitedly calling his servants to bring in pieces of food.
Most of them are fruits and vegetables, and some corn, not much meat.
But Cao Cao could see that this person was already very attentive.
When the food was almost ready, Xiao Fan sat upright, showing a good upbringing. And Cao Cao did not dare to let him underestimate him, and also showed the etiquette of Kyoto.
Just this time, the two of them were different. At this time, Cao Cao had mostly guessed the background of the young man in front of him.
So he asked with a smile:
"Xiao Lang, is there any dignitary from the Pre-Han Dynasty in your family? I think your etiquette and elegant speech all show the style of the Pre-Han Dynasty."
Then Xiao Xiao was very excited, especially after seeing Cao Cao's etiquette and behavior, he was even more sure that he was a high-class noble, so he said bluntly:
"To tell you the truth, Brother Ding, in my early years, my family was a prince and tutor in the Han Dynasty. Later, my family fell into decline and I have not been an official for seven generations. Now I only dare to forget these etiquette and elegant words. Now when I see the people in Kyoto, I am really... really ...."
Cao Cao felt something in his heart, probably Knowing which family this was, he also deliberately tried to argue, pretending to say:
"Could it be that Xiao Lang's ancestor is Xiao Wangzhi, the great scholar of Hongxue, the tutor of the former Emperor Yuan of Han Dynasty?"
This time, Xiao Xiao became even more excited, his face flushed, and he kept waving his hands modestly.
The atmosphere here was warm, and Cao Cao asked about the key to coming out:
"Xiao Lang, I was in trouble in the mountains. I just escaped today. I have been exiled and I don't know where I am. What's happening in the world?"
Xiao Xiao didn't doubt it and directly told him the news he got from Xing Shang. Come:
"Brother Ding , we are here in Lanling. And the most sensational thing in the world recently is that the great king Zhang finally marched south. "
Cao Cao's face was calm, but his heart was pounding:
How quickly did Zhang Thief use his troops?