Volume 4 is in the ascendant Chapter 380 Zhang Song
When talking about handsome men in Chu State, four people must be mentioned - Sun Ce, Zhou Yu, Zhao Yun, and Bai Tu.
At least Bai Tu himself has always felt so. The reason why no one calls him "Bai Lang" like they call Sun Lang and Zhou Lang is mainly because of respect and love.
It is difficult to tell who is the most handsome among the four . Men should be more attracted by Sun Ce's looks, middle-aged and elderly women like Zhao Yun more, and young girls should prefer Zhou Yu and Bai Tu (Zhou Yu: hehe).
but……
If we have to rank the ugliest one, Pang Tong, the only one of the five "hereditary successors" in Chu State, the Minister of Works, and the Marquis of Shandu who was praised by the King of Chu as the heart of Chu State... can hold on to the title of champion!
But in the same period, there was another civil official who was also known for his ugliness and could rival him in appearance, that was Zhang Song, the Beijia of Yizhou.
Later generations have very divided opinions about Zhang Song. The only thing that everyone agrees on is that Zhang Song is really ugly and really short!
The most famous thing about Zhang Song in history was that he handed over all the secrets of Yizhou, such as its topography, weapons and military deployment, to Liu Bei...
Later, after Liu Bei entered Shu, he kept persuading Liu Bei to turn the tables. Eventually, his letters to Liu Bei were discovered and reported by his brother Zhang Su, and he was killed by Liu Zhang.
In the novel, Mr. Luo staged a large-scale double standard scene without hesitation, and created the image of Zhang Song as very righteous and heroic. The character poem "A glance at the world is rare, who knows that the letter reveals the secrets of heaven, before seeing Xuande's rise to power, he first went to Chengdu and stained his clothes with blood" also fully expressed the regret...
There is absolutely no gloating when describing Xu You: "It is laughable that Xu You from Nanyang wanted to rely on his status to look down on the princes, without considering that Cao Cao was as fierce as a bear or a tiger, and still said that I was able to get Jizhou."
After all, "respecting the king and expelling the barbarians" is the main theme of the novel, and it has also been the main theme for a long time in later generations. Therefore, Zhang Song can be regarded as a very small number of traitors who did very unkind things, and his reputation has not been unanimously blackened.
Of course, there are also many people who are very disdainful of Zhang Song.
Firstly, Zhang Song was under Liu Zhang's command, at least he was an assistant to the governor, and Liu Zhang had done nothing wrong to him. Secondly, Liu Zhang was not a tyrant, so the only one who could hate him so much should be Zhang Lu.
Compared with his father Liu Yan, Liu Zhang was undoubtedly not a qualified leader. He had many flaws as a ruler. Even if he was annexed by others, it could only be said that he was "attacking the weak and the ignorant." However... this was not a reason for a subject to rebel against him.
Even if you feel that you have different goals and ideas and that your talents have nowhere to be used, you can probably help if you can, or change jobs if you can't. It's really too much to sell them right away.
but……
This is for Liu Zhang.
Bai Tu is looking forward to Zhang Song's arrival...
If Zhang Song is willing to help himself like he helped Liu Bei in history, then he will be a hero of the Great Chu!
Although the Chu State has no military strategic plan in recent years, it will invade Shu sooner or later. How many casualties of the Chu army can this volume of "Topographic Map of Xichuan" reduce? How much suffering can it reduce for the people of Yizhou?
Should we talk about morality in war? Of course we should!
But when it comes to war, what is morality?
Keep your word? Loyalty, filial piety, brotherhood and integrity? Bai Tu felt that the most important moral principle in wartime was... to reduce the number of deaths!
Reducing your own losses and, while ensuring victory, also reducing losses to the enemy's troops and civilians is the greatest moral obligation in war.
If Zhang Song's "hereditary succession" could really allow the Chu army to advance into Xichuan with less damage, Bai Tu would be the first to acknowledge it. Even if Zhang Song later pointed at the Chu flag in front of the gate of Chengdu and said, "Without me, the Chu State would not have reached here," Bai Tu would respond to him with a smile, "You are right."
Judging from Zhang Song's behavior, he is undoubtedly a very emotional person.
Both the Records of the Three Kingdoms and the Romance of the Three Kingdoms mentioned that Zhang Song initially favored Cao Cao. However... because Cao Cao made the mistake of judging people by their appearance, Zhang Song felt that he was not valued, so he gave up Cao Cao and chose Liu Bei, who valued him.
You have to know that at that time, although Cao Cao was defeated in the Battle of Red Cliffs, he was still the most hopeful prince to unify the world, while Liu Bei... only had half of Jingzhou.
Therefore, after Bai Tu learned that Zhang Song would be coming, he immediately assigned a task to Zhang Yang, the captain of the city gate and a relative of his adoptive father - to train all the soldiers guarding the city gates!
When it comes to battlefield prowess, Zhang Yang is not at all a top figure in the State of Chu, but he can still do some face-saving work.
Half a month later, Zhang Song and his party arrived in Wujun by boat. They did not reveal their identities immediately, but came to the outskirts of Jinling with scrutiny.
At this time, the gates of Nanjing were open - because it was not wartime, and with Nanjing being so prosperous, there was a constant stream of people coming and going through the city gates.
People from Jinling who have residence permits and are temporarily out of the city for business, tourists with luggage, merchants escorting goods... all have corresponding gates and corresponding procedures for entering the city.
Since workshops are to be strongly encouraged, Baitu has naturally lifted restrictions on population mobility long ago, but... the household registration system is only tightened and not loosened, which means that mobility is allowed, but you must be clear about who you are, where you come from, and where you are going.
In addition to the hustle and bustle, another incident soon caught Zhang Song's attention. He saw several guards at the city gate being reprimanded by their superiors.
In Zhang Song's opinion, the guard didn't do anything serious. In fact... it wasn't like he accepted benefits from merchants privately, but... he just had a bad attitude?
Are the city guards of Jinling so difficult?
Zhang Song took a few steps closer and found a painting on the city wall. It showed a short and ugly scholar standing at a broken city gate, scolding several city guards. The guards covered their faces and remained silent...
"Have you all forgotten the story of 'Yanzi's Mission to Chu' that I taught you before? You are the city guards of Jinling, and you are the face of Jinling. Do you understand? You judge people by their appearance today, but tomorrow the people of the world will think that we in Chu judge people by our appearance, and that the king judges people by his appearance. Can you afford to lose face? Go back and copy the story of Yanzi's Mission to Chu a hundred times! If you can't write, just trace it for me!" The leading general shouted at several city guards.
Yan Zi was sent to Chu.
It is said that this story happened when Yan Ying, the Prime Minister of Qi during the Spring and Autumn Period, was on a diplomatic mission to the State of Chu.
Yan Zi was famous for his short stature. In order to humiliate Yan Zi, the State of Chu dug a small hole next to the city gate and let Yan Zi enter through the small hole. However, Yan Zi retorted, "You have to enter through the dog hole to go to the dog country." The face of the State of Chu was -1...
Of course, this comes from an essay from the late Warring States period.
During the Spring and Autumn Period, the State of Chu had always been one of the highlighted targets of regional black. Bai Tu himself did not believe that the King of Chu would have opened a hole in the city wall of the capital just to humiliate Yan Zi - maybe the entire city wall would have collapsed.
However, this does not affect the popularity of this essay, and the story of "Yanzi's Mission to Chu" has also been widely circulated.
When Zhang Song saw this scene, he almost burst into tears...
Bai Tu had sent out letters of notification twice before and was able to find "signals" in Chengdu, the capital of Yizhou, which Zhang Song had also seen.
Unlike Liu Zhang’s disdain, Zhang Song felt that Bai Tu was very special at the time, and now after looking at it... What a wise leader!
