Chapter 114: Nanxiang Incident
At about three o'clock in the morning, Heiyun, who was sleeping lightly, was awakened by the sound of footsteps.

He touched his cheek, pinched it again, and then lifted the straw curtain of the storage compartment.

I saw a small number of soldiers walking around in the camp, boiling water everywhere, and the smoke gradually filled the camp.

The camps are connected to each other, and smoke from cooking fires rises on the banks of the Xishui and Danshui rivers.

Subconsciously, he wanted to go out to carry firewood, but when he thought of Zhang Ding's warning, he returned to the storage warehouse.

This storage warehouse is used to store spare equipment. As the most trusted Zhonglei Camp of the commander, the soldiers in the camp carry armor and equipment with them in their daily lives, so they are always ready for battle.

Gan Ning said goodbye to his wife Xiong. They were an old couple now. Xiong checked the seven bells around Gan Ning's waist again and again. They seemed to be Gan Ning's spirit and must not be lost.

After leaving his wife and children, Gan Ning put on the gilded helmet with three white goose feathers, each one foot and eight inches long, on the top of the helmet.

Among the entire group, only Gan Ning and the general Lu Bu are wearing three white goose feathers.

Most other officers and soldiers who were famous for their bravery would wear slightly smaller white feathers.

White geese guard the house and are brave and aggressive towards strangers.

White goose feathers, a symbol of courage.

Gan Ning hurried to the temporary camp, where the air was filled with smoke from cooking fires, a smell that made Gan Ning excited.

When he entered the camp, Li Yi was putting on armor.

He had not accomplished anything, but because Gan Ning guaranteed him, Black Bear gave him a set of gilded Ming Guang armor yesterday, and his whole body was shining brightly with gold.

This set of Ming Guang armor made Li Yi feel warm all over, and he couldn't wait to show himself on the battlefield.

When Gan Ning entered the camp and the two were talking, Wang Wei, who was also in the Henghai Colonel's unit, also came into the camp with a dozen personal soldiers to meet him.

The three men were all wearing golden helmets and armor, and they were gathered around the campfire.

Wang Wei asked: "Captain, who is our chief clerk? Who is our military commander?"

The Chief Secretary was responsible for the application and distribution of external supplies, including the replenishment and reduction of troops; the Sima was responsible for daily training and marching and camping, reconnaissance and analysis of intelligence during combat, and assisting the captain in formulating tactics.

"I am both the Chief Clerk and the Commander-in-Chief."

Gan Ning sat still, drinking tea from a bamboo tube in his hand, and continued, "The three of us can each take care of our own camp affairs. If you need anything, please send it to me in the form of a military document and I will report to the general's office. I have already discussed with the commander last night. Today, I will be the front team, Li Yi will be the middle team, and Wang Wei, you will be the rear team."

"Set out at four o'clock in the morning, take a boat along the Dan River, and head straight for Shang County."

Li Yi didn't react after hearing this. Too many soldiers had been added to his battalion, and his was currently the battalion with the worst cohesion.

Gan Ning looked at Wang Wei and said, "Li Yi and I will go by boat, and you will use bamboo rafts. When we reach Shangxian, we will use the same method as in Longzhong Camp. We will drag the boats ashore and use the bamboo rafts to form a large horizontal row. With this kind of camp, we will not be afraid of a night attack by the Guanzhong soldiers."

"In the next few days, we will cut down trees to expand the dock and camp, and the commander will lead the masses to attack."

"After we capture Shang County, the remaining soldiers and civilians here will enter by boat one after another. Do you two have any doubts about this plan?"

"Nothing."

Li Yi spoke, and Wang Wei nodded: "I am willing to follow the captain's orders."

As long as his 700 Jingzhou soldiers were not forced to fight a meaningless war of attrition, Wang Wei would not refuse.

With 700 people to help in the battle, and if he can bring back 500 battle-hardened veterans from the expedition to Guanzhong, he will have lived up to Liu Qi's trust.

"Okay, in that case, let's set off after a full meal!"

Gan Ning looked up at the pale blue sky in the morning and said in a gentle tone: "This is really suitable weather for an expedition!"

Li Yi also looked up at the sky, blinking his eyes, and couldn't help but think of his hometown, Ba County.

At this time, the gatekeeper came quickly and said, "Captain, the commander's messenger is outside the gate."

Seeing him panic, Gan Ning frowned and turned around to see Taishi Wengong standing outside the gate on a dry horse.

Gan Ning was also frightened, and immediately walked quickly towards the temporary and simple gate.

The bamboo and wooden antlers were moved aside, and Gan Ning bowed, "Brother Wen Gong."

Lü Bu, who was controlled by the black bear, handed out a narrow rattan fruit basket. After Gan Ning caught it, he immediately rode back.

Gan Ning reached into the fruit basket, which was only big enough for one arm, and took out a blood peach.

It is midsummer now and there is no shortage of peaches on the market.

But Gan Ning knew clearly that these peaches were for him to use to rescue seriously wounded soldiers, and also to replenish his and the heavy infantry's physical strength when they attacked in battle.

He put it away immediately. Seeing that the military officers and old brothers on both sides were all excited, Gan Ning could not help but smile.

Although Taishi Wengong was very rude, there was really no need for him to be angry with him.

The other person understands you, but you don’t understand the other person.

After a few decades or so, I will become another 'Tai Shi Wen Gong' and be able to understand the other person's state of mind.

On the top of the wooden building, Black Bear was watching from afar in his pajamas.

Only within the line of sight can one accurately control Taoist soldiers and the like.

Turning his head, he looked at the river bank again. He saw the soldiers of the Zhonglei Camp pushing a cart, loading the spies who had been executed last night and transporting them to the nearby hillside.

On the hillside, dozens of soldiers were already digging holes and preparing to fix wooden stakes.

Zhang Ding did things more meticulously than he had imagined.

Black Bear's gaze shifted to the small camp where military advisor Liu Ye was located. He had always suspected that this guy's loyalty was not so absolute.

During this period, Liu Ye often visited Wang Can, and the two sides had close exchanges.

Then his eyes fell on the camp of Chief Secretary Chen Zhen. Gan Ning set out today, and in about three or four days, after he inspected the next batch of Cai's supplies, he would also send troops.

There were only three or four days to help Chen Zhen replenish his troops. Fortunately, the more than 300 soldiers Chen Zhen asked for were all veterans.

After adding more than 400 new recruits, there will be no internal problems.

Give Chen Zhen more than half a month and he will be able to gain a firm foothold.

It’s a pity that I can’t wait for more than half a month.

Black Bear looked towards the downstream of the Dan River again. When the next batch of Cai's supplies arrived, there would be no need to rely too much on Wang Can's group of scholars.

To be fair, the overall quality of the more than 300 people under Chen Zhen's command is higher than the quality of the team he had when he came to Jingzhou.

Nearly half of the people under Chen Zhen are capable of ordinary text copying and recording work, and most of them have the ability to read text.

Liu Bei's more than 3,000 men were not just a few hundred military officers with 3,000 illiterate people.

The literacy rate of the enemy army is over 80%!
In three years, increase the literacy rate of the troops under your command to 30%!

An army that masters writing will have a stronger will to fight and will be more efficient in adapting to the battlefield and learning about war.

He returned to the study on the second floor and picked up his pen to write in complete simplified Chinese characters "The literacy rate will reach 30% within three years."

He put the written bamboo slips into the rattan box and entered the bedroom. Zhen Mi was lying on her side on the bed with a corner of velvet quilt covering her waist.

We are so used to eating so much meat and fish that we have become aesthetically fatigued and have become accustomed to it.

He lay down again, raised his hand and flicked it, and two cards summoned two slender Taoist servants, naked.

The junior Taoist servants barely had a human form. These two were the wives of Yuan Tan and Yuan Shang, whose flesh and blood had shrunk and clung to their bones.

There are no exaggerated pectoral muscles, and like Taoist soldiers like Lu Bu, important gender characteristics have been erased.

His eyes fell on Yuan Shang's wife Liu, whom he thought could be rescued that day.

It turns out that his Godberry is ineffective against fatal heart damage.

Yuan Tan’s wife, Guo, died a very thorough death, but Liu still had a breath of hope.

He fed her three magic berries in a row, but each time it only gave Liu a brief respite, overdrawing her vital energy and restoring some of her vitality, but it was completely unable to heal the tiny wounds on her heart.

Only Zhen Mi was saved. After taking a magic berry, the bleeding wound on her neck healed and the bleeding was stopped, so she was saved.

Perhaps Shenmei could have saved Liu at that time, but he just didn't grasp the timing.

For example, if we wait a little longer to let Liu lose more blood, and then feed her the magic berry when her heart is about to stop, it may be able to repair the heart injury in one fell swoop.

Magic berry is not a panacea.

Even when fighting, they have to wear armor, masks and use shields.

These very rational methods naturally have a relatively objective understanding in the eyes of smart people like Liu Ye.

For example, swords, bows and crossbows can also kill yourself.

The black bear pondered, raised his hand and made a pulling gesture in a small range backwards, and two slender Taoist servants turned into cards and flew back, merging into the Peach Blossom Land Card.

Zhen Mi, who was sleeping lightly at this moment, frowned and suddenly opened her eyes and gasped.

After her breathing had barely calmed down, she sat up cross-legged. Noting that the light outside the window was not strong, she reached out to pick up her inner clothes that had been thrown beside the couch.

After putting on her inner garment, she turned around and leaned against Black Bear, and said to him, who was pretending to sleep with his eyes closed, "My dear, I dreamed of Liu."

"Hmm, in the dream? What did she say?"

"I don't remember what we said. In my dream, I saw her teaching me how to play the zither."

Zhen Mi was really a little scared. She always felt that the early morning was a little chilly. She moved closer to the black bear and pulled up the velvet quilt to keep herself warm.

When she was forced to commit suicide by Yuan Shang, she felt fear, coldness, and weakness due to losing too much blood, which made Zhen Mi particularly sensitive to coldness.

She thought about it and then asked quietly, "I heard that the chief priest Guo Tai knows the art of incantation. Can you ask Guo Tai to make a blessing speech to pray for the Liu family and eliminate disasters?"

"I see. I will give you ten dan of rice and you can make a donation."

Black Bear closed his eyes again: "Look at the smiles of children more often, and you will heal."

Perhaps it was the impending dispatch of troops to Guanzhong to border the Yuan family that triggered Zhen Mi's negative memories.

Just hearing Zhen Mi's sigh made Black Bear feel a little unhappy. He turned around to face Zhen Mi and raised his hand to pat her through the velvet quilt.

Zhen Mi understood and turned her back almost instinctively, moving upwards.

After a brief adjustment, like a screw rod connecting to a nut, the soul ring was hung up again.

The warmth gradually dispelled the coldness that had accumulated deep in Zhen Mi's body and mind.

The ice seemed to melt into water, being squeezed out bit by bit by the warmth, evaporating and dissipating into the air.

With all the negative emotions gone, Zhen Mi relaxed and regained her full energy.

After settling down, I tidied up a bit, went to the bathroom to wash off the sweat, and then started to light a fire and cook breakfast.

By the time the two finished breakfast and got dressed, the sky was getting brighter.

When they reached the roof together, they saw Gan Ning's vanguard troops going upstream against the Dan River, gradually moving away.

The residents on both sides of the Danshui River also had breakfast and took their lunch to cut bamboo and wood, or collect stones, dig ditches, and continue to build houses and huts.

The golden sunlight fell on the two of them, each observing something that interested them.

Black Bear's gaze fell on the banks of the Xishui River on the far right. The Qingzhou soldiers had already begun to train in formation, simply training infantry lines and small square formations of a hundred people; in the later stage, they would train large square formations composed of seven or eight small square formations.

As long as the foundation is laid firmly, it will be easy to combine the large array in the later stage.

Just like yesterday, in the middle of the Qingzhou military camp, another 31 Qingzhou soldiers had their heads shaved.

Each hundred-man team can only have one person who repents most sincerely every day, after all, he must be the most sincere.

The chief priest Guo Tai presided over the shaving of the captives. Unlike the rough haircut given to the captives, this was a real shaving.

After washing the hair, the Taoists shaved it clean little by little with a sharp dagger.

It seems that this method of starting over and reforming is very effective; the Qingzhou soldiers were in a clearly different state after shaving their heads.

As the leader, the black bear watched from afar and couldn't help but marvel at it.

The changes in people's mentality are really amazing.

Zhen Mi was also looking around. She saw the houses near the mouth of the Dan River. This was the small camp of more than 300 scholars led by Wang Can.

Vaguely seeing Wang Can being welcomed to sit on the wooden platform as if he was going to give a lecture, Zhen Mi secretly curled her lips and turned her head to look away.

She had secretly seen Wang Can up close a few days ago, and when she passed by, she casually glanced at Wang Can who was giving a lecture in the camp.

As her fantasy was shattered, she immediately understood Liu Biao. She guessed that Liu Biao had to choose between replacing his son-in-law or letting his daughter hang herself.

Obviously, Liu Biao loved his daughter more and made a wrong decision in the eyes of the world.

Zhen Mi went to see the black bear and saw it looking at the river mouth from a distance. She asked, "My dear, you have known Wang Zhongxuan for a long time. Many people have commented on Wang Zhongxuan's appearance and felt sorry for it. Why didn't you say anything?"

"I've seen a lot of dead people, and I've also seen people who have been dead for days."

Black Bear said calmly: "Compared to these, Wang Zhongxuan's face can talk and smile, which is already pretty good. Besides, symmetry is beauty. His facial features are symmetrical on both sides. If you look closely, they are also quite coordinated."

After thinking for a while, Black Bear continued, "People in Jingxiang say that Mr. Shuijing, Pang Shiyuan, and Wang Zhongxuan are not good-looking. I think they are all above average. Their reputations are so great that people have too high expectations of their appearance. Once they meet, the gap between their appearance and their reputations is so big that many people think they are ugly."

It’s not that Wang Can and others are ugly, but that their talent and reputation are too high, which becomes a huge burden for them with ordinary looks.

In the minds of the world, people with handsome appearance must be talented, and people with talent are naturally handsome.

At the very least, a talented person must be suave, charming, and dignified.

This is just a contrast between the common people's concept and the reality. Black Bear knows very well that he is a typical straw bag.

But it is this embroidered straw bag that makes many people feel very powerful when they meet it.

Zhen Mi agreed with what she heard, so she subconsciously closed her eyes and recalled Wang Can's face.

She remembered it very clearly. At that time, Wang Can, who was supposed to be showing his profile, coincidentally turned his head to look at her, allowing her to see his entire face.

How should I put it? It's a very strange feeling, just like a gray mouse with big eyes and protruding teeth wearing a turban.

In her opinion, even if Wang Can is not as good as Hei Xiong and Yuan Shang, he is definitely better than Liu Ye.

As a result, she felt uncomfortable for several days.

So much so that when he needed to go to the Dan River to select maids and female guards, he never looked away.

(End of this chapter)