Chapter 241 Encounter in a Fores (1/2)
Chapter 241 – Encounter in a Forest
February 1st, 183 A.D.
Zhongshan City.
A total of 20,000 Yellow Turban men gathered in front of the north wall, getting ready to sortie. Half of them wore blue clothes while the rest still had yellow clothes on. Tong, who also had yellow clothes, was part of the group, which he was organizing the logistic troops that would handle their supplies.
On top of the wall, 5,000 local garrison troops of Zhen Yi stood on top of the wall to send them off.
'In the end, Zhang Tong didn't take any daughter of the nobles.'
Zhen Yi stood there and pondered how he could bind this young lord with his family. He attempted to seduce Tong with his first and second daughter, but they failed.
A messenger rushed to Zhen Yi and knelt, ”My lord, we've finished gathering information about young master Zhang Tong.”
Zhen Yi turned to the spy. He had ordered his men to gather the records about Tong after the day he had declined his daughters.
The old fox took the scroll and read. Within the report, there were details about Tong's wife and concubines. It had the details about Hua Shi, Dong Bai, Xiao Wu, and He Xing.
As Zhen Yi continued reading, he was astonished by the details. Dong Bai's age was the same as Tong had told him, a six-year-old little girl. However, Tong also had a wife and two other concubines, which one of the concubines was actually the former Empress!
'Dong Bai was the granddaughter of Dong Zhuo. This little girl should have been given to Zhang Tong as a political marriage. Hua Shi should be his first wife, and Xiao Wu is Hua Shi's disguised bodyguard. But how has Her Majesty entered his family!? Did Zhang Tong force her?'
Zhen Yi read the report thrice. Still confused, he turned and asked the spy, ”Do you know how He Xing becomes Zhang Tong's concubine?”
”Reporting, it seems a minister in Zhang Jiao's ranks wanted to refuge Her Majesty from the political strife, so he put her under Zhang Tong's wings.”
”How is their nightlife? Has he done anything to her?”
”This … we don't know. Please forgive me.”
”Never mind. You can go.”
”Yes, my lord.”
After the spy left, Zhen Yi sighed.
'My judgment wasn't wrong to join this force. The real ruler of this Yellow Turban is Zhang Tong, and he's a clever young fox at that. He's good in all fields, and he's matured enough not to fall for the simple seduction or a political trap.'
'He has a peculiar taste, or should I say, standard. Hua Shi and Xiao Wu are talented in battles, while Dong Bai and Her Majesty are aristocrats. All of his women are either talented or have a high social status. Does that mean my status is not worthy enough to get his attention?'
'Then, I'll have to make my daughters talented in different fields.'
The eyes of Zhen Yi glinted with ambition. To raise his family status in Tong's force, he would do anything.
'No, that won't work. Trying to get all grown daughters to learn something will be hard. I'll bet everything on Zhen Fu instead.'
Last month, his wife gave birth to a girl. Strangely, on the day that she was born, there was a falling star. His wife also had a dream that a dragon blessed her and her daughter with fortune and intelligence, which she was so happy that she told each of her neighbors about it.
With this promising omen, Zhen Yi had high hope on this girl.
…
If Tong heard about his youngest daughter's name, he might have realized why he was familiar with the Zhen surnames because this girl had a great future ahead of her.
In 196, at the age of 13, Zhen Fu was married to Yuan Xi, the second son of Yuan Shao. As Yuan Shao was a dominant figure during the time, Zhen Yi had no problem giving his under-aged daughter to a son of the ruler.
Later in the year 204, Cao Cao Army had occupied Ye City, which led by Cao Pi. He met Zhen Fu by chance and was impressed by her humbleness and her beauty. Thus, Cao Pi took her in as his wife.
After Cao Pi took over the throne and established the Kingdom of Wei, Zhen Fu became the Empress of Wei, after which she was called by the other name.
This youngest daughter of Zhen Yi, Zhen Fu, had another name in the historical records in Tong's world.
Zhen Shi.
…
…
Zhang Bao, Bo Cai, Tong, and their 20,000 elites departed from Zhongshan and headed north, moving toward the Ji City of Liu Yan.
Zhang Liang and 5,000 garrison force stayed behind to monitor Zhen Yi and his clan as Tong had not 100% trusted this old fox yet.
Zhang Bao and Bo Cai troops consisted of 5,000 men each, and they wore blue uniforms that Tong told them. On the other hand, the 10,000 soldiers under Tong were still wearing the old yellow uniform. In addition, only Tong's legion had a cavalry unit as he was not confident in Zhang Bao and Bo Cai's ability to lead horsemen.
One thousand light horsemen separated into one hundred groups as they were used as scouts. A team of ten men would travel ahead of the main army and report back what they could discover.
Between Ji City and Zhongshan City, a dense forest blocked their path, but there was a forest road that connected both cities. Though not many people used this road anymore, Tong decided to use this as a short-cut while they gathered woods for resources.
Using many too many horsemen in a scout team would not be efficient in this situation. As the forest was filled with bushes, obstacles, and bumpy tree roots, having a thousand horsemen galloping in this forest would do harm more than good.
Thus, a team of ten horsemen was sent to secure the road while the other teams slowly cleared the path on the side road, making rooms for the infantries.
The path toward the north was still partly covered in snow as it was in the season change period. The warm weather of spring had not completely arrived yet. The melted snow turned the soil into muddy swamps which made this journey harder than the usual.