Chapter 807 Xu You
Xu You was running away, and at this time he was also separated from the fleeing people.
After running for a day and a night, he had not yet exhausted all the water and rice, and now he was resting by the stream.
Just now, he finally found a field in the valley, randomly pulled out some millet, pounded it with stones, and then walked to the stream to wash it.
Xu You wanted to cook some porridge, but there were no utensils on hand, so he could only put raw corn into his mouth and chew it.
Fortunately, he takes good care of his teeth, otherwise he would not be able to chew dryly like this.
The taste of uncooked rice is very rough, but Xu You still chews hard without wasting a grain, and he even looks like he is enjoying it.
Xu You has a strong belief. He does not want to die in this barren mountain. He has stepped from a Nanyang strategist to the present to enjoy wealth and wealth, but not to die like this.
Although he didn't know the situation of Yuan Shao and the others at this moment, Xu You knew that no matter what, everyone's destination was Runan.
The Yuan family has deep roots in Runan, and Yuan Shao's two sons are still there, so as long as they can persist in Runan, there is still a chance.
Moreover, Xu You saw deeper than others. He saw that although the Taishan Army had won this time, its southward offensive had reached the end of its strength.
Therefore, Xu You estimates that the Taishan Army will most likely not go south to the Central Plains, but will rest and regroup in the Gyeonggi area.
If so, it also gave Duke Chen a chance to breathe.
Xu You didn't think that Yuan could make a comeback, but that only by letting him slow down could he draw as much nutrients as possible from Yuan's corpse and find another opportunity.
In his opinion, after Yuan Shao fell, the only one who could compete with the Taishan Army was Cao Cao of Qingzhou.
As for the people of Liangzhou in Guanxi, Xu You used to be dispensable.
With a strong will to survive, Xu You chewed raw rice with great pleasure.
But faith is still faith, and the body has its own laws.
Xu You had a serious stomach problem before, which was caused by following Yuan Shao in the northern and southern campaigns.
Marching and fighting is not as good as being in the rear. It is common to be hungry and full. After all, the enemy will not set aside time for you to eat.
Severe stomach problems troubled Xu You, and because of this hard work, Xu You suffered even more.
Plus, he was now chewing uncooked rice, which made his stomach hurt even more.
At a certain time, Xu You thought about dying.
Whenever the reality is difficult and unbearable, death is always a tempting thing. Once it is over, there will be no more worries.
But every time this thought occurred, Xu You interrupted. Even in order to stimulate his will to live, he stabbed his forearm with his nails until it was bloody.
But this act of self-mutilation only made Xu You even more confused, and he even sucked the blood from the wound unconsciously.
This behavior is undoubtedly crazy for a strategist who is good at maneuvering.
Maybe it was because he had absorbed the salt in his blood, or maybe the madness itself had power, but Xu You's body gradually warmed up.
He began to feel the stream and walked downstream.
After that, he wandered along the waterway, eating some unknown wild fruits when he was hungry, and drinking directly from the stream when he was thirsty.
The steep mountains shrink the sky to the size of a palm, and the lush forests make the valley so humid that one hardly knows how time has passed.
When Xu You finally walked out of the forest, he didn't know how much time had passed. He stumbled and found a village.
And when he walked into the Here Club, he was surprised to find that he actually knew the Here Club.
Mi Zhongli.
This place was originally called Yuquanli, named after a mountain spring nearby.
The reason why this place is called Minzhongli is because it has something to do with Xu You.
When Yuan Shao attacked Chen State three times, he was pursued by Chen King Liu Chong in the second battle, and even pursued Yuan Shao only a stone's throw away.
Later, Chen Qin, who was approaching Yuan Shao, took the initiative to take Yuan Shao's cloak and pretended to be Yuan Shao to lure away the pursuers.
In the end, Yuan Shao survived, but Chen Qin was overtaken by the pursuers and killed in anger.
Of course, Yuan Shao showed his loyalty to Chen Qin by escaping from death. Not only did he place Chen Qin's son next to his own son as a companion, he also allowed one of Chen Qin's younger brothers to become an official.
But at that time, Xu You suggested that Yuan Shaode name Chen Qin's hometown and build a monument.
He told Yuan Shao that although the rewards for Chen Qin's brothers and sons were deserved, it could not promote Chen Qin's loyalty, nor could it make people remember him.
And if Chen Qin's hometown is renamed and a monument is erected to commemorate it, then only people who come and go can see this act of loyalty and his spirit can be promoted.
It was Xu You's suggestion that Yuan Shao changed the name of Chen Qin's hometown Yuquanli to Minzhongli. He also erected a Shinto monument for Chen Qin on the left traffic road to promote Chen Qin's loyal deeds.
Not only that, Yuan Shao also exempted Minzhongli from corvee service and taxes for three years, so that Chen Qin's hometown could benefit from him.
So when Xu You saw that this was Minzhongli, he was overjoyed.
When he thought about it, what a kindness it must be for everyone here to be exempted from three years of corvee service because of his suggestion.
Therefore, three years of millet tax in exchange for a bowl of rice porridge is not excessive.
So, reluctantly dragging his tired body, Xu You walked into Minzhongli.
But when he walked into the inner club, Xu You was shocked by the scene in front of him.
Not to mention the white flags hung on every house, they are also three steps to one side, five steps to one flag, walking in between, as straight as a ghost.
This incident made Xu You very vigilant. Could it be that the Taishan Army had already entered Yuzhou?
It was this vigilance that prevented him from knocking on the inner door rashly, but instead walked to a temple deep inside.
This temple is dedicated to Chen Qin, and there is even a temple dedicated to daily cleaning.
This temple was quite clean, but Xu You was no less vigilant. Instead, he endured hunger and hid in a corner until dark.
Then taking advantage of the darkness, Xu You knocked on the temple door.
An elderly man opened the door. When he saw Xu You, he didn't say much, but led him into a side room.
He looked at the hungry Xu You and asked:
"There isn't much food in the temple, but I can give you a bowl of rice porridge."
After saying that, he ignored Xu You and went to wash the corn and prepare to make porridge.
Xu You was resting on the wooden floor, watching the old man busy in the courtyard, and suddenly asked a question:
"Old man, I have been to Minzhongli before. It was not a prosperous and prosperous place, but it was also prosperous. Later, didn't I hear that Chen Gong was kind and exempted you from taxes for three years? It stands to reason that this The days should be getting better, but I went back to my hometown today, but I didn’t expect it to be so depressed.”
The Miao Zhu was washing rice, and he washed a handful of leeks and prepared to put them into the pottery urn. But when he heard Xu You asked this question, he poured the leeks away. He turned around and cursed angrily: "Why are you merciful, you kid?" What do you know?”
After saying that, the temple Zhuji told one by one what happened in Minzhong over the years.
It turned out that it was true that Minzhongli was exempted from three years of labor and taxes, but first Lishe was asked to build a Shinto monument on the side of the road, and then a temple was built. All these were done by Lishe himself.
These two things are actually acceptable. After all, this is also the pride of their people. After all, not everyone can be enshrined in a monument.
But what happened next became increasingly outrageous.
First, the county said it would build a post station six miles outside Lishe.
The road advantage of Minzhongli is still very obvious. It is close to the official road from Yingchuan to Daguguan, and it is the only place that Yingchuan must pass when entering Kyoto.
Therefore, it is a good thing to build the inn, and the people of the Minzhong Society will also benefit from it. After all, there are more business travelers, and they can make money just by renting some open space as a cargo yard.
But what is outrageous is that after the inn was built, all the supplies were borne by the Minzhong Society.
And as mentioned above, these are not the original labor and taxes. Mr. Chen was exempted from the previous taxes, but these carriage and horse taxes are new.
There is no way, the Minzhong Society is a group of Guizhou leaders, and the most powerful family is Chen Qin's family, which was considered a rich man.
But Chen Qin himself died, and his younger brother and son were moved to Runan to become nobles, leaving no powerful figures in the entire Minzhong.
So they had no choice but to accept whatever the subordinate officials in the county said.
In this way, after undertaking the two public projects of the temple and the inn, the labor and taxes that were originally exempted did not decrease at all, and even increased slightly.
If so, the burden has not disappeared, it has just been transferred in a different way.
If there were only these things, the Minzhong Society would not be like this, because at worst it would be the same as before. But it happened that later Chen Gong held a grand ceremony and began the Northern Expedition.
There were no warriors in the minzhong, so naturally there were no armored soldiers to go out with the army. However, almost all the men in the army were forcibly recruited and used to transport supplies.
Although Dagu Road is an official road, the road is not easy to walk. In addition, the weather is too hot these days, and the people above are pressing and urgent. People fall to death on the roadside every day.
It can be said that the Yuan army in the Yishui camp has continuous supplies because these people carried it with their lives.
But even with such hard work, Min Zhongli still could not escape the tragic fate.
During one transfer, the people in Minzhongli finally couldn't bear it and fled into the mountains. That escape caused imitation, and a large number of conscripts began to flee.
It is for this reason that Yuan Jun began to issue a series of orders. Among them, the first offender in Minzhongli, and all those involved in the family members and children were made slaves.
It was due to these repeated blows that Minzhongli, which was originally relatively prosperous, fell into ruin.
The temple that had always been enshrined by the local community was no longer sustainable. In fact, the corn cooked by the temple priests was the only food left in the temple.
After hearing this, Xu You felt a little dazed.
He somewhat understood the truth behind this. Maybe the source of the trouble in Minzhong was really because of the three years of tax exemption.
He is also clear about the local situation. In fact, every money and grain in the county is counted. If his side is short of one mile of money and grain, then the other side will be short of this money.
For local governments, it is never about how much tax they need to collect. Instead, we can use as much tax as we can collect, so local money and food have always been tight.
And if the county loses one mile of money and grain, it will break the original tight balance. If it does not take money from other places, it will not be able to do this.
In addition, Xu You probably thought that the Yingchuan nobles had some tricks on their own.
After all, these people are his political enemies, and Chen Qin was the one who initiated this incident. Chen Qin is a lowly local tycoon, but he was awarded the highest honor that aristocratic families dream of, "compassionate loyalty". That is not to beat them Yingchuan The faces of aristocratic families?
In fact, Xu You, no, Yuan Shao to be more precise, really used this incident to beat the Yingchuan family.
Yuan Shao was using this incident to set a standard of loyalty for these children of the Yingchuan family.
Look, you are loyal if you die for me!
Therefore, it is not surprising that Minzhongli was suppressed by the county.
However, Xu You did not expect that this Yiluo decisive battle would cause such a big commotion on the ground.
In his opinion, they were already thinking about the local leaders.
Originally, the grain and fodder sent from Yingchuan to Yishui Daying was sent directly, but Xu You felt that this was painful and inefficient.
Therefore, a grain platform was set up at Dagu Pass so that Yingchuan grain could be concentrated at Dagu Pass first, and then transferred northward from Dagu Pass.
So it stands to reason that this kind of labor should not be tiring. How could he die like this?
But looking at the old man's angry look, Xu You did not dare to continue asking. Instead, he helped and sighed:
“It’s really bitter!”
Sure enough, Miao Zhu felt a lot better after hearing this. He nodded and added:
"But these hard days are coming to an end. Many people have returned in the past few days. The Taishan Army has surrendered at Dagu Pass and Guangcheng Pass. Now I heard that the King Division of the Taishan Army has attacked the Lun family and It’s Zhongxiang.”
After hearing this, Xu You's expression changed.
Did Dagong Pass and Guangcheng Pass fall? Hey, that's understandable. After all, the 100,000-strong army was defeated. Who can expect that the Taishan Army can be blocked with just two passes?
But Miao Zhu's next words immediately broke Xu You's guard.
I just heard Miao Zhu say again leisurely:
"Hey, I heard that when Mr. Chen's head was sent to Guangcheng Pass, the defenders in the pass mutinied, killed the guard and surrendered. Oh, by the way, I heard that it was Mr. Chen who sent Mr. Chen's head. My brother, hey, it seems that the nobles are just as precarious as us.”
At this moment, Xu You's mind was buzzing, and he had only one thought:
"Mr. Chen is dead? Impossible. When we left separately, he had the most protection around him, and he left earlier than me. I was able to escape, so why couldn't my lord escape?"
But he also knew that there was no need for Miao Zhu to lie to him, and he was in a trance for a while.
Miao Zhu had already matured. Seeing Xu You like this, he seemed to think of something, but he didn't say anything. Xu You was left alone in a daze, and he went to take care of the rice porridge.
Soon, Xu You smelled the fragrance of rice, and his stomach couldn't bear it anymore and began to ache.
He curled up on the ground and saw Miao Zhu handing him a bowl of rice porridge.
Xu You didn't care about how hot it was, picked up the rice porridge and started drinking it.
At this time, he only felt that this bowl of rice porridge was the most delicious meal he had ever eaten in his life.
Even with the satisfaction of food, Xu You forgot about Yuan Shao's death and the possible impact of his death.
Let's wait until he's full before talking about these things.
After he finished the full bowl of porridge, Xu You sighed with satisfaction, and at this time, he heard Miao Zhu Youyou sigh:
"Xu Jun, if I were you, I would not enter this loyal house."
Xu You was so shocked that the bowl in his hand fell on the wooden board, and then he was horrified to see a group of Guizhou chiefs rushing in from outside.
They held pitchforks and hoes, swarmed up and pushed Xu You to the ground.
Xu You turned his head and wanted to say something, but a sack was placed directly on his head, followed by a heavy blow, and he fell into darkness.
Xu You was also arrested, and all the trend-setters during the party's imprisonment retired from the stage one by one.