Volume 4 is in the ascendant Chapter 501 Retirement
"Where did you hear the news that Huang Tianji was in Jiangdong? During the Yellow Turban Rebellion, there weren't many Yellow Turbans in Jiangdong, right?" Bai Tu asked puzzledly.
It is said that during the Yellow Turban Rebellion, the Yellow Turbans in Yangzhou were basically all in Huainan. As for Jiangdong... there were only two small-scale Yellow Turban uprisings in Wu County. The uprisings in other counties were basically at the level of "causing trouble to the whole village" and were gradually suppressed by county and county officials without causing any waves.
Generally speaking, the entire Jiangdong region was the periphery of the Yellow Turban Rebellion...
"Miss Ning's hometown is in Jiangdong, and her parents are from Yuhang, Wujun. Moreover, I heard some rumors at that time and verified them. At the end of the Yellow Turban Rebellion, Huang Tianji had most likely appeared in Haiyan and Youquan, not far from Yuhang." Yu Ji told the news he had heard at that time.
Haiyan and Youquan are both county names. As the names suggest, they have been major salt-making counties "since ancient times". Later, after Chuyan of Baitu "expelled" private salt, these two counties were transformed into salt-drying fields controlled by the imperial court.
At the end of the Yellow Turban Rebellion, Huang Tianji disappeared and Zhang Jue died suddenly. The Yellow Turban Army was leaderless and lacked military discipline. Once they lost their ideological constraints, many of them degenerated into violent bandits that harmed the people!
For example, Chen Bao, the leader of the Yellow Turbans who caused trouble in the Haiyan area, started to abduct women from the people.
According to the county annals, Chen Bao wanted to rape the commoner Lu Rong, but she refused and was killed. That night, there was a violent storm...
Chen Bao, who was already superstitious, was so frightened that he kowtowed to God repeatedly, and then led his troops away overnight.
After that... there is no record of where this Yellow Turban went. As for the other Yellow Turban in Wu County, at least it was recorded that they were defeated by Zhu Zhi, but Chen Bao seemed to have mysteriously disappeared.
However, there are rumors that not long after Chen Bao left, someone found a large amount of blood on the official road, but no corpses or remnants of the Yellow Turban Army were found.
Yu Ji came to Wujun after hearing the rumor. Combining the words of the eyewitnesses and the situation at the time, he analyzed that it was probably Chen Bao's actions that provoked the real Huang Tianji...
Because Huang Tianji retains some of her human thinking and abilities, she can do things that ordinary city princesses cannot do, such as... directly commanding the Yellow Turban warriors to rebel!
It is precisely because he is sure that her consciousness as "Zhang Ning" still exists that Yu Ji wants to find her even more.
However, Yu Ji searched for Zhang Ning in Yuhang area for a long time but did not find him.
Afterwards, Yu Ji built his own Taoist temple in Jinling, constantly increasing his influence and making his presence known to dignitaries, while continuing to inquire about Huang Tianji's news.
However, it was as if Huang Tianji had never appeared in Jiangdong, and Yu Ji never found any clues.
At the same time, Zhang Lu in Hanzhong seemed to have heard about Huang Tianji's appearance in Jiangdong. Zhang Lu, who was also a Taoist and a warlord, coveted Huang Tianji's abilities and secretly sent people to Chu to gather information...
The reason why Yu Ji was looking for Huang Tianji was more because he hoped to help the daughter of "Miss Ning". To be precise, he was looking for "Zhang Ning" and was not interested in "Huang Tianji".
It's just because of Huang Tianji's special nature that she is probably quite attractive to the princes from all sides, so Yu Ji has never told Bai Tu about this.
Not to mention anything else, just the ability to "train" the Yellow Turban Warriors is very attractive to the current princes. By then, with the advantage of ruling power, official missionary work, the promotion of fanatics, and then the training of the Yellow Turban Warriors can quickly improve their strength!
As long as the "density" of the Yellow Turban warriors is sufficient, the Yellow Turban Army will be able to overcome its weaknesses.
In other words, as long as the proportion of fanatics is large enough, they can ignore the restrictions on military training, squeeze manpower to the limit, and quickly arm a large number of Yellow Turban troops!
This not only means that Zhang Ning will be completely reduced to a "tool man" once discovered by other princes, but also means... it will have a huge negative impact on the common people.
Yu Ji himself is a Taoist priest...
However, he is a very traditional Taoist priest. The "preaching" of traditional Taoist priests has always been centered around making other people think that they are very awesome, rather than making other people become Taoist priests and study Taoism.
In contrast, the Taoist school only yearns for Taoism from the perspective of governance philosophy, but does not have any religious color.
As a Taoist priest, Yu Ji also deeply understood that Taoism... especially the awe-inspiring Taoism led by "General Tiangong", was not suitable as a universal belief.
Therefore, Yu Ji always kept the news secret and did not reveal his true purpose when he used his connections to gather information.
However, after several years of observation, although Yu Ji did not dare to say that he could see through what kind of person Bai Tu was, he could at least see that Bai Tu was a very "confident" person.
Or in other words ... his confidence in himself may be a little lacking, but Bai Tu has an indomitable confidence in the development idea that he pioneered, with "industrialization" as the core, and the concept of "Bai Xue" as the core!
Therefore, Yu Ji was sure that Bai Tu must be one of the princes who "would never be tempted by Huang Tianji's abilities"...
In addition, Yu Ji recently discovered that there seemed to be someone in Hanzhong who was looking for Huang Tianji's whereabouts, so after Bai Tu's "hint", he chose to speak frankly.
After all, Zhang Lu's words can be said to be one of
If it was Zhang Daoling, the first Heavenly Master, Yu Ji had heard from his master Nanhua that he was a true Taoist who was also full of passion. He went to Yizhou to preach in order to rectify the evil worship in Bashu and left behind a good story in Taoism. If it was him, Yu Ji would naturally not worry about anything.
However, the Tianshidao in Hanzhong today has changed its philosophy after experiencing Zhang Xiu's chaos and Zhang Lu's reconstruction, and has also incorporated military and political affairs under the sect. If Huang Tianji is obtained, I am afraid that he will be the prince who transforms into "Yellow Turban Army 2.0" the fastest!
Although Hanzhong is relatively stable compared to other places, Yu Ji has a "Zhang Lu ptsd" mentality and cannot trust people like him.
After Bai Tu learned the reason, he also promised to let the Fengbuwei pay attention to the news in this regard, and would inform Yu Ji if there was any situation.
He also promised that after finding Zhang Ning, what to do would be entirely up to Zhang Ning herself, and he would not let her take the blame for the Yellow Turban Rebellion - Bai Tu now had no reason to use Huang Tianji to show goodwill to the Han court.
In short... Bai Tu’s bottom line is that Zhang Ning is not allowed to assist other princes, especially Zhang Lu in Hanzhong!
Judging from the fact that Zhang Ning has been missing, she should not have such thoughts. Otherwise, wouldn’t it be easy for her, a city girl, to go to Hanzhong?
Even if there is no access to the Han Dynasty's "network" and no way to directly appear in the Chengji Mansion in Hanzhong, what danger would there be in walking there step by step?
Even when bandits were everywhere before, weren't most of them remnants of the Yellow Turbans? Was she, the "ancestor of thieves", still afraid of thieves?
Since Zhang Ning was not found by anyone, nor did she go to find any princes, or even contact the remaining Yellow Turban Army, it was obvious that she had no intention in this regard.
It can be seen from the fact that Zhang Ning punished Chen Bao in Haiyan that she was also indignant and disappointed with the actions of the Yellow Turban Army in the later period. Not to mention now - the two largest Yellow Turbans, Yang Feng and Zhang Yan, are dancing happily with the Han Dynasty, the target of their initial rebellion.
If Bai Tu were to put himself in other people's shoes, he felt that Zhang Ning wouldn't want to bother with them either...
Haiyan and Yuhang areas are places with many salt fields. The Chu State’s confidentiality measures here are very strict. There are "undercover" agents from the Fengwei among the salt workers - they are specifically responsible for investigating whether there are any important salt field backbones who are colluding with the enemy. I believe that it is impossible for Zhang Lu to find her earlier than the Fengwei!
…
Although the issue of Huang Tianji has not been resolved, after Yu Ji revealed the truth to Bai Tu, Bai Tu was confident that he could resolve it or at least not make the situation worse.
At the New Year's Eve banquet, Bai Tu resolved one of his worries. However, after the banquet, Bai Tu had another worry.
After the New Year's Eve banquet, Lu Kang specially asked to see Bai Tu in private - considering Lu Kang's age, he would have gone home long ago. But after a good sleep, he came to see Bai Tu again at daybreak!
The reason why Lu Kang came was for something Bai Tu had already prepared for - retirement.
Lu Kang was born in the first year of Yongjian. According to the Han people's custom of calculating age by lunar calendar, when the fourth year of the Chu calendar arrived, Lu Kang was exactly eighty years old.
In the Book of Rites, it is called the "age of using a cane to attend court meetings". Regardless of one's social status, at this age, one can use a cane even when attending court meetings.
The Chu State did not specifically emphasize the Book of Rites. For example, Lu Kang... had already enjoyed this treatment in the early years. In the core government office "Jiangshan Garden" in Jinling, only foreign carriages were banned, and there were "shuttle buses" between various yamen. After all, the entire Jiangshan Garden was not small in area.
This point is also criticized by young officials - it's not that the young officials of Chu are so rigid, but... every day there is a chance to be in the same car with the "big guys", which is a bit tormenting...
Once or twice you can show off your "cleverness", but if it happens too many times there is nothing to say, so... Later, Bai Tu customized a batch of shared bicycles in Jiangshanyuan, which became the favorite of young officials.
But then again, at Lu Kang's age, he has to go to Jiangshan Pavilion every day, even if he doesn't need to be on duty, and go home to rest in the afternoon. He also has to have a physical check-up at the medical school once every six months... He really can't afford it!
This was the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty.
No matter how green the mountains and clear the waters are, or how much exercise (labor) one does, for ordinary people it is not considered premature death if they reach 40, and it is rare for them to live to 70.
After a generation of efforts by the Chu State, the average life expectancy will definitely be greatly improved, thanks to the improvement in nutritional basis and medical level, but for middle-aged and elderly people, the effect is not so obvious.
Lu Kang was born into a noble family. Although he did not enjoy fine clothes and delicious food when he was young, he had enough nutrition. However, at the age of eighty, it was already a miracle.
Lu Kang had actually revealed this intention before, and this time he came to Bai Tu privately, obviously he had made up his mind.
After all, there are still some procedures to go through, and after three resignations and three concessions, the retirement procedures will take half a year...
