Chapter 305: The Mightiest Man in the World, Surrender to Cao Cao [Subscription Request]

Around Onoze, the shouts and training of the naval and land forces rose and fell.

War horses galloped on the road.

Ships are traveling back and forth on the lake.

In front of one of the boats, a majestic figure stood there in an unobtrusive manner.

The small boat was driven by its energy and was as agile as a fish. It shuttled back and forth between other ships, shouting and showing its majesty.

The figure at the bow was the naval general Gan Ning.

On the lake and on the road, there was military might and the military training was in full swing.

On a boat in the middle of Daye Lake, Cao Cao stood by the window.

Jia Xu and Guo Jia stood on both sides.

Guo Jia was yawning. After arriving at Daye Lake, Cao Cao sent four soldiers to supervise his self-discipline at all times.

Guo Jia now takes medicine on time every day and gets more sleep.

"You two come with me to check out the preparations."

Caoying is preparing to expand the third and fourth construction camps.

The location was chosen to be Daye Lake and the north bank of the Yangtze River, which would be more convenient for shipbuilding and launching.

A number of craftsmen were transferred here for this purpose.

When Cao Cao, accompanied by Jia Xu and Guo Jia, arrived at the shore, he saw a small boat boarding his ship from the side.

There was a young girl on the boat, her dress fluttering, and she was extremely charming. She was Zhen Mi, the beauty of Jizhou.

Cao Cao suddenly remembered that someone had summarized that there were two Qiao sisters in Jiangnan and Zhen Mi Qiao in Jizhou.

Zhen Yan came out from the awning behind him, and when she saw Cao Cao coming ashore, she waved her hand from a distance and smiled sweetly.

Seeing the two women boarding the big ship, Cao Cao withdrew his gaze, went ashore and entered the preparation camp.

The first thing you see is someone hammering horseshoes, trying to forge an array on the horseshoes to increase the horse's running speed.

In this world, some reforms, such as those in horse warfare, appeared very early.

Other than that, there are not many changes.

Continuing to walk into the construction camp, we saw craftsmen disassembling four or five different types of plows used for plowing the fields.

Before the Warring States Period, China had already used oxen to pull plows for farming.

But the straight plow used in the early days was much less efficient than that of later generations.

By the Tang Dynasty, the curved plow was fully developed and its efficiency was greatly improved.

Earlier, Cao Cao remembered the matter of the plow pole and gave instructions. After he explained the general direction of improvement, craftsmen began to modify the plow pole.

Science and technology are primary productive forces.

The fundamental reason for victory or defeat in a war is also the relationship between productivity.

If the productive force structure is stable, all aspects will develop.

Cao Cao had been strictly enforcing farming and construction since several years ago.

His greatest achievement in defeating various armies in a row was that he combined military and civilian settlements to form a new way of farming.

While others were still worrying about food, he was the first to feed the army, which calmed people's hearts, and they fought bravely on the battlefield and remained united in their efforts.

At this time, Cao Cao came to the preparation camp and saw Zheng Xuan and his apprentice Yao Jing there.

When Yao Jing saw Cao Cao, his eyes suddenly turned away.

The master and his apprentice were watching the craftsmen assembling a piece of equipment, which was a device that looked like a crossbow, with wheels and axles underneath, like a wooden cart.

The special thing is that there are two chimney-like, upright barrel-shaped objects on both sides, about four or five feet high.

There were soldiers carrying stones and throwing them into the chimney.

The stone bullet then rolled out of the chimney and onto the trajectory below.

In the middle of the bowstring on the capstan, there is a leather bag to hold the stone bullet, and then shoot the stone bullet out like a catapult.

Its characteristic is that it can fire continuously.

The chimneys on both sides are hollow, like magazines, each capable of holding five or six stone bullets.

When the stone bullet is fired, the stone bullet in the "magazine" will roll down by itself due to gravity, and this cycle can be repeated more than ten times in a row.

Its advantages are obvious: rate of fire and continuous fire.

The weakness is that its power is not as strong as the original large and bulky single-shot catapult.

After all, it is small in size.

This thing is not powerful enough for attacking a city.

But when used to defend the city, the dense rain of stone bullets fired out had amazing effects.

This kind of artifact is called a crossbow machine. In later Western countries, it was called a crossbow cannon. It was not developed until 800 years later than in China.

The prototype of Cao Cao was discovered in a manuscript of Mozi.

It took nearly a year of repeated attempts to finally produce a crossbow machine that was close to a finished product.

Everyone tested its power and found that its range was less than a hundred feet, much smaller than the attack range of a powerful crossbow.

But the stone bullets were shot out like heavy hammers, with amazing lethality to people and horses.

Once hit, ordinary soldiers cannot stop it even with shields and armor.

After seeing it, everyone talked happily and went to see other preparations.

Compared with the crossbow, what moved Zheng Xuan and his disciples more was the improvement of the plow.

Compared with the previous plow, the curved plow used in later generations first changed the long plow into a curved and short plow, and installed a rotating plow disc at the plow head, making the plow frame smaller and lighter, and more flexible to operate when turning and turning, saving manpower and animal power.

After Zheng Xuan saw it, he shook his head and said:

"The King of Wei is a man of great talent. His literary talent and military prowess are unmatched throughout history."

Yao Jing turned his head to the side, pretending to look at the scenery. He could not praise his master's blatant flattery.

Zheng Xuan was very excited:

“I didn’t expect you to have unique ideas on farm implements. This new plow is smaller and has more directions of rotation.

Its lightness and ability to continuously till the soil are far superior to previous plows, and it will surely produce more grain.

All people will benefit.”

Cao Cao thought that when traveling through time, improving the plow was a necessary skill for almost everyone, and it was nothing to brag about.

"How is the preparation for the Imperial Academy going? Will it be possible to select scholars to study there in the spring of next year?" Cao Cao asked.

Zheng Xuan said complacently: "My students are rushing to Yecheng from all over the country, including Jiangdong, Jingxiang, and even Yizhou.

I obeyed the king's order and posted notices in the local prefectures and counties to recruit talents to serve in the Imperial College. In the spring of next year, the selection of students will not be a problem. "

Cao Cao's thoughts were in turmoil.

Under the current circumstances, it is almost impossible to fundamentally solve the gentry’s monopoly on educational resources, and the root cause is still the problem of productivity.

Only by lowering the threshold of educational resources can more people have the opportunity to learn. This involves the most basic things such as papermaking and printing.

Restoring order in troubled times is not easy, as there are internal and external troubles.

It is said that people were in chaos at the end of the Han Dynasty, and a large part of the reason was that the gentry wanted to take advantage of the chaos to profit.

Cao Cao wanted to turn them around, restore order to the turbulent world and stabilize people's hearts. This was just the beginning.

Zheng Xuan suddenly said, "I recently discovered a strange phenomenon and I think I should tell the King of Wei."

"I cultivate myself by communicating with heaven and earth, and it seems to be getting much easier than before!"

"King Wei, look!"

Zheng Xuan spread out his hands, and the spiritual energy of heaven and earth gathered in his palms, emitting a faint light.

This is the magical power of Confucianism, which cultivates the noble spirit and is the art of governing a country and cultivating oneself.

When the gathered energy reaches the point where it can be seen by the naked eye and emit light, it is the level of supernatural power.

"In the past, even I couldn't use my noble spirit to make the heaven and earth shine so easily."

Zheng Xuan: "But in recent months, cultivation... seems to have become easier."

Cao Cao knew the reason.

That is the result of the heaven and earth boiling, and the tide of luck pushing the spiritual charm to increase.

It can also be understood as the restoration of peace from troubled times, and the accumulated national fortune is gradually rising.

After sunset, he returned to the ship and asked again, "Is there any news from Xiangyang?"

"Not yet, but it should be soon. The Liu family has gathered in Xiangyang."

……

Liu Biao had three sons.

They are Liu Qi, Liu Xiu and Liu Cong.

In his early years, the eldest son Liu Qi was the most favored. Later, Liu Biao's wife died early, so he married Cai Mao's sister Cai.

Cai's niece married the youngest son Liu Cong.

As a close relative, Cai dotes on the youngest son the most.

Over the years, Liu Biao often whispered in his ear, and he became more and more fond of his youngest son.

Liu Biao is fifty-five this year, and his eldest son is already over thirty.

Among the three sons, the second son Liu Xiu had the weakest presence. He was dismissed from his official position early and was rarely in Xiangyang.

Because the youngest son Liu Cong was favored, he always stayed by Liu Biao's side.

Like Yuan Shao, Liu Biao planned to pass the throne to his youngest son a hundred years later.

On the issue of succession, both he and Yuan Shao did a bad job, leaving behind the seeds of division and disputes over inheritance after his death.

At this time, the youngest son Liu Cong, together with Cai Mao, Kuai Yue and other important officials of Jingzhou, walked towards the back hall together, preparing to meet his father Liu Biao.

"Uncle, what do you think of the current situation? Can Jingzhou resist the Sun family in the east and Yizhou in the west?"

Liu Cong called Cai Mao his uncle and regarded him as the person he trusted the most.

Cai Mao was Cao Cao's childhood friend.

In the past two years, he and Cao Cao often exchanged secret letters.

When Cao Cao conquered the Nine Provinces and proclaimed himself king, his power was so great that he overwhelmed all parties. Cai Mao secretly began to reserve a way out and promised to surrender to Cao.

He is in Jingzhou, but his heart is in Cao's camp. He is a high-level traitor.

You have to know that he holds great power in Jingzhou, almost the fourth in command.

Not only was he a traitor himself, he also had some confidants, and everyone enjoyed the fun of being traitors together.

When Liu Cong asked him, Cai Mao said: "It may not be difficult to resist the east and west ends, but at present, the internal strife in Jingzhou has not been resolved, and Cao's army in the north has not moved. Its military power has swept across the nine provinces in the past few years.

Yuan Shao's army of 300,000 was defeated by him, and he also defeated the Wuhuan and Eastern Xianbei. His army is unstoppable!"

The subtext was not stated, leaving Liu Cong to figure it out himself.

Liu Cong nodded, looking gloomy.

In recent years, he has also been paying attention to the movements of Cao's army.

In his early years, he was captured in Cao's camp for a period of time and was particularly wary of Cao's army.

Every time I heard that Cao's army had conquered a county, a prefecture, or a state, I was secretly frightened.

Today, Cao’s army is the most powerful in the world.

Liu Cong was even more afraid of him like a tiger.

The group entered the back hall.

Liu Bian looked haggard, lying on the couch, his spirit declining.

When he saw the young master coming in, his eyes lit up, and he waved for him to come closer. He said to Cai Mao and the others in a hoarse voice, "You wait outside. I have something to tell Cong'er."

Cai Mao and others retreated to the outer hall, and Liu Cong approached: "Father."

"You must remember what your father said."

Liu Biao said: "The southern part of Jingzhou is in chaos and is surrounded by enemies. If I leave, my son, you will not be famous enough to face the four enemies.

If you surrender, there is only one way to survive, and that is to surrender to Cao. "

Liu Cong cried and said, "My father once said that I should be most afraid of Cao Mengde. Why did he ask me to join Cao?"

Liu Biao said sadly, "If you don't surrender to Cao, you will lose your life. Other families may not be able to defeat him, and will be defeated by him sooner or later. Then your life will be in danger. If you surrender early, you can live a peaceful life in the future, be content with a simple life, and don't fight for profit. You still have a chance to survive."

Liu Biao reached out and gently stroked his son's face, his eyes full of reluctance.

The father and son hugged each other and cried bitterly, both shedding tears.

Afterwards, Liu Biao called Cai Mao and his party and gave them instructions.

The next day, Cao Cao received a secret message from Cai Mao: "Liu Biao wants to surrender."

Cao Cao thought that Liu Biao was able to see the situation clearly.

Since Liu Biao was ready to surrender, it would be effortless to take Jingzhou and Xiangyang without bloodshed.

Cao Cao immediately ordered his troops to prepare.

Dian Wei asked: "Where is the King of Wei going?"

"Go catch the big-eared Beibei."

"Didn't the King of Wei decide to send Liu Xuande to Yizhou?"

"It's true that he should go southwest, but we should not delay and attack him first. How can we not go if there is such a great pleasure?"

Cao Cao laughed and said, "Hurry up and prepare your horses. We must march quickly to Jingzhou. If we are late, we will miss it!"

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(End of this chapter)