Chapter 387 Funeral
Zhang Chong, who is in charge of Handan, has received good news from southern Julu and northern Zhao these days. The main bandits in the two places have been wiped out, and various ministries are cooperating with local civil officials to handle household registration.
But this joy did not dilute Zhang Chong's sadness. It turned out that a huge change had occurred in Guangzong, which caught Zhang Chong off guard.
What happened at Julu that made Zhang Chong, who was still on all sides, so distressed?
……
Zhang Jiao, a great virtuous teacher, the eldest of the three Julu Zhang brothers, a doctor who travels all over the world to save lives and heal the wounded. What kind of person is he?
Different people have different answers to this answer.
For ordinary Taiping Taoists, the Great Master is Huang Tian's will in the world and a real god in the world. To the Han Dynasty, this person was a real traitor and evil person who would never be redeemed. But to the attendants around Zhang Jiao, Zhang Jiao is just an ordinary old man, with a rotten old man's smell about him.
But now, this decayed old man is thinking about his own aftermath and his next successor.
Although today's Taiping Dao, or more specifically the Yellow Turban Army, is at a low ebb after the Great Uprising, its overall strength is still strong.
Taipingdao now has its own armed forces in Changshan, Anping, Hejian, Qinghe, and Bohai. In Qingzhou, it occupies most of Qingzhou. As for Bingzhou, there are more than 100,000 Taoist disciples. Then there are also people from the Yellow Turban Army in places like Yizhou and Yangzhou.
Therefore, their Yellow Turban Army is still as powerful as a country.
But unfortunately, Zhang Jiao felt that he could no longer lead Taiping Road. He has been living in the palace since last year. Even when the Wei family was purged during the Guangzong Incident, he never showed up.
It's not that Zhang Jiao is pretending to be mysterious for the sake of mystery, but that the arrow he shot at Yecheng last year was much more serious than anyone thought.
Zhang Jiao was dragged down by the arrow wound and his vitality was severely damaged. How could he still have the energy to deal with Taiping Road? Without Zhang Jue's plan, Taipingdao has been hunkered down in Guangzong in the past two years, missing many opportunities.
So Zhang Jiao is thinking about the heir.
Originally there was nothing to say about this matter. Among the three brothers, the third died on the battlefield and he was no longer able to survive. The position must have been passed on to Zhang Bao, the general of the land.
But in Zhang Jiao's opinion, the second child has a big flaw, that is, he is too mediocre. In his opinion, the person with leadership qualities is his third brother, who has a unique personality charm. It's a pity that in the end, it is God's will to bring peace and justice, so that the public will regret his death.
But the words of Han Gou, the close servant, made Zhang Jiao finally choose Zhang Bao. That sentence is:
"The general is kind and kind."
Yes, the second brother is kind.
It turned out that Zhang Jiao's two favorite concubines, Jia and Pang, were pregnant. For Zhang Jiao, this is simply the last hope.
Because of problems in his early years, he has been childless. He thought he was destined to serve Huang Tian alone, but he didn't expect that within one year of Guangzong's life, he would miraculously have two of them.
So Zhang Jiao’s answer is to give Zhang Bao a secret edict:
"I see two of my concubines who are pregnant. If there is a man among them, he should be made the second wife. If they are all men, choose the one who can be made pregnant."
In other words, Zhang Jiao believed that Zhang Bao was honest and kind, and would be able to guard the peace path for his son in the future, and pass it on to his son when the time comes.
Therefore, before Zhang Jiao died, he passed the position of great sage and mentor to his second brother Zhang Bao, and he died in Lutaizhong of Guangzong not long after.
The whole city mourned.
Zhang Chong, who was far away in Handan, got the news that Zhang Jiao had passed away.
For Zhang Jiao, Zhang Chong is complicated. This person, Junlu Lanlu, founded Taipingdao, but he became overbearing and sensitive in the taste of power.
But it is undeniable that Zhang Chong’s success is inseparable from the support of Taiping Dao and Zhang Jiao.
Therefore, due to emotions and reasons, this time Zhang Jiao passed away and he wanted to express his condolences. In fact, Guangzong did invite him to participate.
But Zhang Chong refused again. There was no other reason than that he felt unhappy because of the death of his master Zhang Liang.
However, Zhang Jiao's funeral would not be slowed down by Zhang Chong's absence. On May 20, three days after Zhang Jiao's death, his funeral was held as scheduled.
The new great virtuous teacher Zhang Bao personally carried the coffin, and Qushuai from various places, such as Ma Yuanyi, Zhang Niujiao, Guo Daxian, Zuo Zhuanba, etc., carried the coffin and escorted Zhang Jiao's body to be buried in a well-selected auspicious cave. .
When Zhang Jiao was buried, all the small envoys such as Chu Feiyan, Zhang Ji, and Han Gou were gathered around him. They are Zhang Jiao's confidants, and they are also grateful for the great sage and mentor's kindness to them.
But now that this god who was like a father and a king was gone, they burst into tears.
In this solemn and sad atmosphere, Zhang Bao's eyes were empty and his thoughts were divergent.
He was thinking about many things, including the posthumous children left by his two brothers and the current situation.
Zhang Baobing didn't think much about the two posthumous children. Even if it is a threat, it will be more than ten years later.
The second thing that bothered him was where the Yellow Turban Army should go.
Based on the current situation in Hebei, anyone with a discerning eye can see that the Taishan Army has taken the absolute initiative. He had invited Zhang Chong to Guangzong several times before, but he had always refused. It can be seen that if the Hebei Yellow Turbans continue to stay in Hebei in the future, they will definitely have a battle with the Taishan Army.
But this is definitely not what Zhang Bao wants. It's not that he cares about the fact that they were once a family, it's that he knows he can't beat him.
Zhang Bao knew that his military and political talents were very mediocre. This mediocrity would not matter in normal times. But in this age of great contention, mediocrity is the original sin.
So at the beginning, Zhang Bao planned to unite with the remaining Han forces in Hebei. But the opposite side obviously hates the Yellow Turban Army deeply. In the past six months, Qinghe, Hejian, Bohai and other places have often harassed the Yellow Turban Army, and several major conflicts have also broken out.
It's not that the Hebei Yellow Turbans still have some strength, and there are many generals gathered, but the opponent has not made up their mind. The two sides had already started fighting.
Because of this, Zhang Bao has already planned to move his forces south to Qingzhou. Qingzhou was originally his base camp. His disciple Guan Hai had previously occupied the eastern part of Qingzhou, where Taiping Road would develop steadily.
However, Zhang Bao only briefly said a few words in this regard at the funeral meeting the day before, but he was opposed by the generals.
Zhang Bao didn't understand how Guangzong was willing to go south to Qingzhou in despair when most of Guangzong's generals were from Bingzhou and Hebei.
More importantly, these arrogant generals under Zhang Jiao did not think highly of Zhang Bao, and felt that this man's move was too cowardly.
Zhang Bao longed for power, but he was very ignorant about its cruelty and operation. And this ignorance will eventually lead to disaster.
Because for any monarch, if you cannot be loved and feared by others, you must at least avoid being despised and hated.
Zhang Bao's weakness and mediocrity were despised by the generals. He is like an ignorant child who wants to drive a group of unruly domestic dogs to fight against external tigers and wolves. How can he not suffer backlash?
Among the group of domestic dogs left by Zhang Jiao to Zhang Bao, the most ferocious and difficult to treat was Qu Shuai, the commander of Guangzong's left-behind cavalry, Zuo Zhangba, who was also derogatorily called the "bearded thief" by the Han army.
Zhang Bao didn't know anything about this, but he didn't know that a whirlwind had already gathered around him. ……
On the day of the funeral, Zuo Zhuozhangba stood at the front of the crowd as one of the pallbearers.
Behind him are Heishan, the commander of the Zhao Army, and Zuo Xiao, the captain of the Qinghe Army.
Zuo Zhuzhangba, whose real name is Zuo Che, is a powerful man from Qinghe. When Zhang Jue was preaching on both sides of the river, they joined Zhang Jue's religious order after destroying their family in Qinghe.
Therefore, the Zuo family is also a very powerful and prestigious family in Taiping Dao. He was a brave man by nature, and he was a former personal guard of Zhang Jiao. Later, he handed over his Qinghe disciples to his clan brother Zuo Xiao, and commanded two thousand elite knights under Zhang Jiao.
As a result, the Zuo family became one of the top military leaders in Guangzong.
Zuo Beard Zhangba is indeed a brave general, as swift as the wind on the battlefield and as fierce as a bird of prey. But what matches his bravery is his unruly violence.
One time, he was a guest at someone's house. Just because the host was a little late to receive him and the wine prepared for him was not strong enough, he beat the man violently in his home and almost beat him to death.
But because Zuo Zhangba was so beloved by Zhang Jiao, the matter was dropped. But Zuo Zhangba became more and more arrogant later on. He would take possession of a good horse as his own, fight with others for women, and even dig the ancestral graves of local rich people.
Someone reported all of the above to Zhang Jiao. But they were all protected by Zhang Jiao. In the end, they were so annoyed that Zhang Jiao even asked:
"Is Zuo Zhuzhangba the only one doing things? He just stares at him and reports."
Zhang Jiao is very familiar with the matter of power, and he knows why these people are impeaching Zuo Zhuzhangba. Because as generals from Zhang Bao's line entered Guangzong, there were not enough positions. And the two thousand fine cavalry in the hands of Zuo Beard Zhangba became the weaponry that everyone was thinking about.
So in a word, the left beard and the foot are blocking the way of humanity.
There is another thing, that is, he has offended Zhang Bao by his left beard and eight feet.
The changes in Guangzong in the past. Wei Shou and other party members were at the front line of Julu, so Zhang Bao ordered Zuo Beard Zhangba to lead two thousand of his elite cavalry to rush to the Julu battlefield to support Wei Shou, making sure to capture Wei Shou.
But when the envoy anxiously rushed to Zuo Zhangba's military camp, he was rejected.
First, no one answered the call at the camp gate, and he was not allowed in until he took out Zhang Bao's letter from the military mansion. After entering, the man with the left beard dared to turn his back and play with the falcon when the order was given.
He simply didn't take him as an envoy seriously, no, he didn't take the general of the Earth in his eyes. So the man scolded Zuo's father-in-law for his unruly behavior in court.
This directly angered Zuo Beard Zhangba, who directly beat the falcon in his hand to the ground and cursed angrily:
"I only listen to the orders of the great sages and good teachers, and the rest do not follow the orders."
The falcon's blood all over the ground and the half-parted wings were so horrifying that the envoy did not dare to say anything more.
After this incident, Zuo Beard Zhangba and Zhang Bao became in conflict.
In fact, Zuo Zhuzhangba also felt quite regretful. In fact, he just couldn't bear to see Zhang Bao take his brother on the spot. Although Wei Tong was a member of Wei's party, he was still an old man of Taiping Dao. He had made meritorious deeds and shed blood. He was just like a pig or a dog. Killed on the spot?
This is inappropriate.
Therefore, the left beard and Zhangba also represent murderous intent. After all, which of these old people has no connection with the Wei family? You, Zhang Bao, can't treat the old man so harshly.
If I met a clever person about this matter, I would have told Zuo Beard Zhang eight steps earlier. But who knew that the messenger was so ignorant that he scolded him instead.
Do you think any pig or dog can poop and pee on his head?
Hence, the scene of killing the falcon happened.
But no matter how much Zuo Beard Zhangba regretted, he knew that his relationship with Zhang Bao was over.
But now, with Zhang Jiao's death, no one can protect Zuo Zhangba. His two thousand elite knights will also face dismemberment.
Therefore, when the eight heads of Zuo's beard are hot, he wants to abolish the establishment. After he learned that the great virtuous master had a posthumous son, he wanted to wait for them to be born, and then kill Zhang Bao and support Zhang Jiao's youngest son.
But time can't wait now. People from Zhang Bao's group have become more and more aggressive recently, and they won't give Zuo Yanzhangba and others such a long time at all.
So Zuo Beard Zhangba, his clan brother and ally Heishan conspired to cause rebellion.
Zuo Zhangba has a hot temper, but he is not stupid. He knew that in order to commit rebellion, he must at least have a banner that can stir people's hearts, and he must have the right time.
So on the day they learned about the death of the great master, Zuo Zhuzhang and his eight brothers began to discuss it. In the past three days, they really came up with the banner and opportunity for rebellion.
In today's Guangzong, the biggest contradiction is the conflict between the original Tiangong line and the Digong line.
With the transfer of power to the local prince Zhang Bao, his generals became direct descendants. All resources are given priority to these generals. Soldiers and armor are all picked first by this group of people. After the selection is completed, the remaining people will choose.
Under this situation, the Earthly Gong family was naturally smiling, but the Tiangong family was complaining. And not long after, Zhang Niujiao, who had always been powerful in the army, was promoted openly and covertly, and took away the military power.
Therefore, the generals of Tiangong's line were actually very uneasy, and Zuo Beard Zhangba planned to use this matter to sway the emperor. They have already thought of the slogan:
"The soldiers of God are also soldiers of Taiping Road, and we also have to eat millet."
As for the time, they have also decided.
Today, May 20th, is the day when the great virtuous master is buried.
But it can't be now, otherwise they will also learn from Wuming.
If these close followers of the great virtuous master captured and killed Zhang Bao at the funeral of the great virtuous master, it would really cause an uproar in the army.
So at this moment, Zuo Zhuzhangba, Zuo Xiao, Heishan and others just endured it and kept looking at the man with his back turned to them.
Just let you live for a while.
Zhang Bao, who was wandering in his mind at this moment, naturally didn't know that there were six pairs of green lights behind him looking at him with hatred. At this grand funeral, Zhang Bao didn't need to do anything. He just had to stand there and act like a new great virtuous teacher.
Also in endless reverie, this bizarre funeral ended like this.
And Zhang Jiao, this influential figure in the world, officially ended his career on this day.
The Hebei Yellow Turbans are coming to an end.
(End of chapter)