[Three Kingdoms] Seven steps into wetness

In addition to literary talent, what Cao Zhi values ​​​​most is character and ideas, so all the clerks under his command are gentle and elegant, with moderate behavior.It's a pity that because of the matter of Wu Shi San, the children of the aristocratic family he made had a lot of opinions on him.After Cao Cao promulgated the "Order of Promoting Virtuous Persons without Constraining Their Conduct" for the third time, most of these people switched to Cao Pi's command, and those who remained were disciples from poor families.

Xu is because Wushi powder is expensive, and most of the poor disciples can't afford it, so they can treat it rationally, and are deeply grateful for Cao Zhi's recommendation. If this group of people can go farther, they will never leave Cao Zhi.

Cao Zhi didn't care either, the so-called seeing people's hearts for a long time, and now being betrayed is much better than giving him a blow in the back at a critical moment.

In March, when the peach blossoms in Yecheng withered, the army returned from Jiangdong.According to the usual practice, Cao Zhi brought two altars of fine wine to visit Wang Qi.

After Wang Min became his own child, Wang Qi seemed to have figured it out and finally stopped indulging in the past, and his whole body was rejuvenated like a dead tree in spring.Now Wang Min's son, Wang Xin, is also two years old. Seeing Cao Zhi, he saluted in a dignified manner, and then when he got up, his foot slipped and fell to the ground with a "click".

Wang Xin didn't cry, but got up silently and looked at his grandfather. After Wang Qi praised him with a smile and gently rubbed his sore knee, he also grinned.

Cao Zhi watched it for a while, and although he thought Wang Xin was very cute, his little monkey was cuter after all.

After drinking with Wang Qi for a long time, Wang Min finally returned from practice.Seeing that it was Cao Zhi, he smiled: "Fourth son, how does it feel to be on the battlefield for the first time?"

Cao Zhi stretched his waist: "Although he is a vanguard, he has not actually had any confrontation with the enemy. However, he came down with the army in May and gained a lot."

"Especially General Zhang Liao. You can learn a lot from watching him deploy troops."

Wang Min couldn't help but become proud: "My teacher is naturally very powerful."

Cao Zhi couldn't help laughing: "Okay, don't be so confused, just study hard—we have too much to learn."

The three drank together for a while, Wang Qi took Wang Xin into the house under the pretext of being overwhelmed with alcohol, leaving the two of them in the courtyard.

Wang Min took a sip of wine: "During your absence, no one came to see me."

Cao Zhi frowned: "The second elder brother wins over the insignificant scribes, but the most important thing is that no one has contacted you... It's a bit weird."

Wang Min raised his eyebrows: "Maybe it was because you pretended to be too obvious."

"Oh?"

"Although I don't know how Second Young Master thinks of you, Fourth Young Master, you are not like that."

No matter whether he treats military generals more favorably than others, or as long as Wang Min doesn't hinder the rest of the people, it doesn't matter, no matter how you look at it, Cao Zhi doesn't look like such a person.

Cao Zhi's frown deepened: "But in his heart, I should be very hypocritical, insidious and cunning."

"Why?"

"No matter why, I should be such a person in his heart. Do what he likes, let you see people's hearts for a long time, see my 'true face' clearly, since you can break my left and right arms, why not win you over? "

Wang Min said: "Perhaps it is because they think you are insidious and cunning enough, so...they don't believe that it is really easy for you and me to disagree."

Cao Zhi narrowed his eyes in thought.

Wang Min poured a glass of wine for both of them: "Continue?"

Cao Zhi raised his eyes: "Go on, anyway, it's up to us to pretend or not, and it's up to them to believe it or not."

Wang Min shrugged and smiled lightly.

After Cao Yu had two teachers, Cao Zhi's chances of meeting Guo Jia did not increase.After all, Cao Yu was still young, and he only went to school for an hour in the morning at most, while Cao Zhi was doing errands at that time.

But sometimes I am lucky and go home early, and I can still see Guo Jia and Yang Xiu who have not left yet.It is very pleasant to leave the two of them to have a meal together, chat about trivial matters or discuss current affairs.

Over the years, Guo Jia has lost the sharpness he had when he was young, and his actions are mostly secretive and calm.On the other hand, Yang Xiu didn't know whether he was arrogant about his talent or liked to fight against Cao Zhi, but he became more and more aggressive.

Take "Yi He Crisp" as an example, if Cao Zhi hadn't thought of it at the time, Yang Xiu would have done it, the effect would have been completely different.

——The father used it to test his own son, why are you an outsider joining in the fun?Aren't you afraid that if you can't eat fish, you will get fishy all over your body?

Guo Jia understands these things, but at this time he will not mention them to Yang Xiu, nor will he try to remind him with Cao Zhi.After all, Yang Xiuben was dissatisfied with him, and regardless of whether he could listen to the proposal, the superficial harmony and peace between the three of them might be torn apart.

Therefore, when the three of them get along, most of the time he is smiling and silent, listening to Yang Xiu teasing Cao Zhi, or meditating.When Cao Zhi asked, he replied leisurely, "I was thinking, what story should I tell Yu'er tomorrow."

So the topic inexplicably shifted to making up stories.

In the matter of making up stories, the most talented person should be Yang Xiu.But Cao Yu is still too young, and it is too difficult to understand Yang Xiu's long speech at his age; as for Cao Zhi, he is also familiar with history, and he knows all kinds of major events and wars in it, so he can rewrite it in simple and understandable words .Guo Jia chose the most meaningful stories from them, and then dictated them to Cao Yu. He would only teach him the art of war when he was a little older.

——It's such a leisurely life as a daddy.

Of course, life cannot be so leisurely forever.Even if Cao Pi felt that he was in danger and followed Cui Yan's suggestion to restrain his subordinates to study behind closed doors, Cao Zhi couldn't relax for a long time.

In October of the 22nd year of Jian'an, the emperor ordered Cao Cao Wang Mian to use a golden root chariot for twelve o'clock, drive six horses, and set up an auxiliary chariot for five o'clock.

Soon, the plague raged.

Compared with the spotted rash on the soldiers in the 13th Jian'an Battle of Chibi, the plague this time is particularly terrifying.Whether it is the scope of the spread, or the number of infections and deaths, they are all different.

In just five days, in just five days, from the Luohe River in the south to the middle reaches of the Yellow River in the north, including the two central areas of Xuchang and Yecheng, the number of deaths has exceeded [-].And this number continues to grow over time.

On the first day of the outbreak of the plague, before everyone could react, Cao Zhi immediately ordered the closure of the city at Hua Tuo's suggestion, and ordered the streets to be cleaned and the dirty parts of Yecheng to be burned.Countless people thought it was a big fuss, and they all made irresponsible remarks.Even Cao Cao personally called Cao Zhi to inquire, and was persuaded to agree to the move only after getting Hua Tuo's preliminary estimate of the plague.

Regardless of whether the people agree or disagree, the city has been sealed off, and those inside cannot get out, and healthy people outside the city can enter the city.Under such circumstances, the number of people infected with the plague increased the next day.

Cao Zhi also ordered that all the infected and uninfected be isolated, and tried his best to treat the infected.However, once the infected person dies due to ineffective treatment, his body and everything used during his lifetime will be burned immediately.

Three days later, 200 people died in Yecheng, and the people fell into an indescribable panic.But after hearing the people who entered the city describe the tragic situation outside, and comparing the solemn faces of the soldiers here, they were calm and orderly, so they calmed down a little.At this time, most of the literati who had written articles mocking Cao Zhi also died down, and instead praised Cao Zhi for his vision.

Cao Zhi did not stop.Although Yecheng was well controlled, this time the plague still attacked the Central Plains with an irresistible attitude.Cao Cao personally returned to Xuchang to sit in town, and handed over all the north of Yecheng to Cao Zhi.

Cao Zhi was naturally very busy.Fortunately, Guo Jia has improved his health through Hua Tuo's care over the years under his supervision, so he can concentrate on his work.In addition to controlling the plague, the supply of therapeutic drugs is simply in short supply.In the beginning, he ordered the medicinal materials merchants not to raise prices, and they had to sell the medicines at the purchase price, and those who disobeyed would be killed without mercy; as for later, he simply threatened and lured the merchants to donate medicinal materials for free, and made various empty checks for this, which was finally enough. used.

After solving the medicinal materials, but also entangled in the problem of food and clothing. Fortunately, the wars in these years have not been serious, and the court still has surplus food.Moreover, Cao Zhi sent people to discover taro that had not yet been popularized in the south of the Yangtze River Basin. Hua Tuo affirmed that the latter half was used as food and half as medicine, boiled into the rice porridge distributed to the people, and it also had the effect of tonifying deficiency and stopping diarrhea.

... All in all, Cao Zhi has been so busy for more than a month that he didn't even go home a few times, let alone write a story.

In the winter of December, the plague finally subsided.

After everyone calmed down and wrote an article to record this once-in-a-century plague, it was discovered that the seven great writers of the time, Wang Can, Xu Gan, Chen Lin, Ying Yu, and Liu Zhen, had all died.And the literary world, which was once very prosperous, has the potential of all kinds of flowers!

Countless people turned to write eulogies to commemorate the five people, lamenting that life is short and the world is unpredictable.At that time, a man named Liu Jixu specially rated these mourning essays as three, five, nine, etc., satirizing the articles of the time, which attracted the disgust of the literati.When Cao Zhi heard about it, he wrote an article as a gift to a friend. In one sentence, he criticized this person with insinuation. Just a clown.

If this article was written by someone else, Liu Jixu would naturally jump up and refute it.But the signature was Cao Zhi, and Liu Jixu shrank immediately.Even if I write an article to prove my literary talent, I can't match Cao Zhi's sarcasm.

Overnight, Cao Zhi's article attracted countless people to read and appreciate it, and some even wrote articles to criticize these good people.As for Cao Pi, who was far away in Xuchang, when he heard about this incident, he wrote "Dian Lun. Essay" based on his feelings, which pushed critical literature to another peak and made it popular.

When Cao Zhi finally finished his work and planned to go back to take care of his children and accompany someone, another bad news came.

In October of the 22nd year of Jian'an, Liu Bei sent troops to Hanzhong, causing generals Zhang Fei, Wu Lan, Lei Tong and others to attack Wudu.In November, Cao Cao ordered Cao Hong to lead his army to attack.In March of the following year, Cao Cao personally led an army to conquer Hanzhong.