My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 60: Departure to Yuzhang
Bu Lianshi followed Zhuge Jin back to her new home obediently.

The decency of Zhuge Jin's mansion made Bu Lianshi, who had lived a hard life for several years, feel surprised. However, she had to be very careful for fear of breaking anything.

This was only Zhuge Jin's second meeting with Bu Lianshi, and for Bu Lianshi, it was only their third meeting (the first time, Bu Lianshi hid behind the curtain of Bu Zhi's house and peeked in one direction).
Fortunately, the little girl was still very ignorant and didn't know anything about the relationship between men and women. She just thought that since Brother Zhuge was willing to take her away and raise her as his sister, she should also do some housework.

"This will be your new home from now on. I'm going out soon. How good are you at swimming? Will you get dizzy riding a boat on the river?" As soon as Zhuge Jin got home, he asked some very practical and ordinary questions.

Bu Lianshi was a little nervous at first. She was too shy to say a word along the way and she also imagined various possibilities.

Seeing how attentive Brother Zhuge was, she quickly calmed down:

"I can swim. I don't dare to swim in the big river, but I can swim across the canal. When I was a child, I often took small boats in the canal. My family had some businesses in Huaiyin and Guangling.

Unfortunately, my father passed away at the beginning of the year before last, and then the thief Zuo Rong looted the entire county, and most of our property was lost. We have been living in Guangling and have not moved. We have not left by boat in the past two years."

When Zhuge Jin heard her mention "father's death", he felt a little uneasy, and suddenly wondered if he had disrupted the Bu family's mourning period?

Later, I calculated carefully and realized that it was the end of this year. The three years of mourning in the Han Dynasty was actually twenty-seven months. It happened at the beginning of the year before last, and it has been overdue for half a year now.

No wonder the Bu family has recently been willing to push Xu away and let her remarry Chen Dao.

It is estimated that in the past two years, the uncle of the Bu family has supported Xu Shi, and for the sake of the family's reputation, he must keep the family in good condition. After the expiration of the term, he is unwilling to subsidize the extinct family. Now it is just right to give it to others as a favor.

Thinking of this, Zhuge Jin felt more at ease. It seemed that he had done a good thing.

In history, Bu Lianshi lived a worse life than she does now. Because of the war in Guangling, she was almost a prisoner when she fled to Wujun.

In this life, Zhuge Jin resolved the war in Guangling, allowing Liu Bei to quickly establish his basic situation.

It also avoided the tragedy of "famine and cannibalism" in Guangling due to the tug-of-war - perhaps many of the other relatives of the Bu and Wei families had already died in the original history?

After all, in history, after Liu Bei finished fighting this battle, his remaining soldiers had to boil the bodies of their dead comrades. If the soldiers were starving like this, what about the ordinary people in the local area?
A speck of dust in troubled times, falling on the heads of ordinary people, is an unbearable burden.

……

Nothing more to say that night.

When she got up the next day, Zhuge Jin did not let Bu Lianshi do housework immediately. She could continue to live her life with servants cooking porridge for her as soon as she got up.

Zhuge Jin looked at the little girl and felt a little uncomfortable.

From now on, a woman will live in my house again. I hope life can be organized again.

Ever since his uncle and stepmother were allowed to set up their own households, the family didn't even have a housekeeper, and Zhuge Jin felt quite uncomfortable for a while.

Although the specific housework was done by servants, a busy man like him was not used to giving direct orders to the servants.

While the other person was drinking porridge, he said a few words: "We will leave in a few days. You should stay at home and take care of your body in the next few days. Don't let yourself get tired when you are on the road."

Bu Lianshi put down the bowl of porridge obediently and stared at him with her big eyes: "Brother Zhuge, do you have anything else to do? I'm about to go out, you should rest more."

Zhuge Jin stroked her hair and said, "I could have rested, but now I can't with you. I originally promised Lord Xuande something, saying that I would help him figure out a way to make the Mi family's sand boat sail more steadily and not be easily bumped by wind and waves.

I originally thought that my second brother was more creative than me, so I went to Yuzhang to meet him and asked him to give me some ideas. Now that I want to take you with me, I have no choice but to personally offer some suggestions. If we don’t have enough time, we can just change our own boat and try to make it more stable when we set off.”

Bu Lianshi was immediately moved: "Brother Zhuge, are you worried about this because you are afraid that I am too young to handle the bumps? I am actually not afraid of bumps."

Zhuge Jin: "It's okay. I have to do it sooner or later. I don't like procrastination."

Bu Lianshi's eyes were slightly moist, and she pulled her sleeves and asked, "What is the purpose of going to Yuzhang this time? And you have to bring so many soldiers with you."

Zhuge Jin smiled calmly, "Isn't this a coincidence? That bastard Zuo Rong, after wreaking havoc in Guangling, ran off to Yuzhang and almost pushed my uncle into a desperate situation. Now that I have borrowed troops from Lord Xuande, of course I am going to take his head!"

Master Bu Lian was very excited: "So powerful? I remember that dog thief was very grand and deceived many people. If we can really kill it, it will be revenge for everyone."

Zhuge Jin comforted Bu Lianshi and no longer paid any attention to her.

In the following days, he was mainly busy improving the boat that was about to be used.

Because time was too short and too little work could not be done, Zhuge Jin simply instructed the Mi family to urgently assign him a few boat builders.

Then two long but not thick solid wooden boards were nailed to the sides of the hull below the waterline.
The front and rear ends are sharpened as much as possible to make them streamlined to reduce frontal resistance and imitate the stable fin structure of later ships.

The stabilizing fins do not bring much sailing resistance and have little effect on the speed, but the additional roll resistance they bring is very large, which can greatly suppress the roll - this is something that players who have played with assembling model airplanes and seen the bottom of the hull in later generations will not be unfamiliar with.

After finishing all this, it was already the sixth day of December. The departure time was delayed by three or four days than originally expected, mainly because of a series of minor troubles such as Bu Lianshi, but it was not a big problem.

Zhuge Jin calculated that he could still reach Poyang Lake before his brother.

Early that morning, the civil and military officials of Guangling, led by Liu Bei, came to the dock on the Yangtze River to see Zhuge Jin off.

He brought a total of 2,000 Danyang soldiers and Chen Dao's 300 elite cavalry guards, and set sail on dozens of large and small warships.

The largest one was only a streamlined fast fighting ship that could carry 300 people, and the rest were warships that could carry between 50 and 100 people, all of which were small boats of the first class.

At most, they only brought a few light patrol boats for communication and message delivery, but they were all placed on the deck of the fighting ship, or tied to the stern of a large warship and towed, and did not need to sail on their own.

Liu Bei held Zhuge Jin's hand, repeatedly told him to be careful, and toasted him three times before setting off. Liu Bei stood on the dock, watching the fleet finally disappear on the surface of the river upstream, feeling very melancholy.

The feeling of confidence that I had been accustomed to for three or four months was suddenly gone.

This made Liu Bei feel guilty no matter what he did, and he always felt that he would make a mistake if he didn't listen to Ziyu's advice.

If Liu Bei was a time traveler and had knowledge of later medical knowledge, he would definitely know that this symptom is called obsessive-compulsive disorder - unfortunately, he was not a time traveler and could not diagnose himself.

Liu Bei is now like a guilty person who has to go home to turn the doorknob again and make sure he has locked it every time he goes out.

Liu Bei was accompanied by two other people, one was Mi Zhu,

The other was Chen Deng, who had just found an excuse to come over from Lu Bu a few days ago to "maintain friendly relations."

Chen Deng had not yet dared to surrender to Liu Bei openly, because he found that the situation with Lu Bu was still quite complicated. If he left now, Lu Bu might immediately wake up and turn against Liu Bei.

So Chen Deng decided to stay undercover with Lu Bu for another half a year and continue to undermine the relationship between Lu Bu, Cao Cao and Yuan Shu.

He was also afraid that Liu Bei did not trust him, so when he knew Zhuge Jin was leaving, he found an excuse to come over for a meeting and show his loyalty.

Of course, Liu Bei did not show any distrust from beginning to end. He only said, "Yuanlong has always seen things clearly. You can stay undercover as long as you think you should. There is a reason for it."

This made Chen Deng even more moved, and he was eager to take the time to help Liu Bei with some ideas to repay his kindness.

At this moment, Mi Zhu and Chen Deng all saw that Liu Bei was lost and at a loss.

Mi Zhu was not good at strategy, so he had to repeat the old words to comfort Liu Bei, but in the end it was nothing more than trying to find a way to form a marriage alliance.

Liu Bei was a little annoyed and signaled Mi Zhu not to repeat himself, as he understood it all.

Seeing this, Chen Deng reminded from the other side:
"Why should Xuande worry about nothing? I have seen that although the Zhuge family never pledged loyalty to their master, they still value the Han Dynasty. Didn't he accept all the appointments made by Your Majesty during the audience in Xudu last time?
In this case, you only need to concentrate on making achievements and recapture more counties in Yangzhou that have been occupied by the rebels, and the court will naturally reward you according to your merits.

Once he could replace Liu Yao as the governor of Yangzhou, the prefect of Yuzhang would naturally be your subordinate. Why would he need to submit to you privately?
As long as Your Majesty is not held hostage by the traitor, you and Ziyu will serve Your Majesty together. Once Your Majesty is held hostage by the traitor, Ziyu will obey your orders and work together to support the Han Dynasty and drive out the traitor. "

Liu Bei was originally still worried about gains and losses, but after being enlightened by Chen Deng's words, he suddenly felt that his obsessive-compulsive disorder was cured.

"Yes! Why didn't I think of that? I just need to support the Han Dynasty and drive out the traitors, so naturally I share the same ideals with Ziyu.

If I work hard for the country but the court does not appoint me as the governor of Yangzhou, it must be because Cao Cao is holding the emperor hostage and blocking the way for speech - Meng De should not be so serious. "

Liu Bei rubbed his hands excitedly, patted Chen Deng on the back, and with his other hand he pulled Mi Zhu's shoulder and whispered to him:

"Zi Zhong, you are diligent and careful in your work. But when it comes to far-sightedness, you still need to learn from Yuan Long!"

Mi Zhu was also convinced: "I am not good at planning grand plans."

"Forget it, I won't say any more. You all have your own strengths, and what Yuanlong said today should be made clear."

Liu Bei laughed loudly and pulled people back one by one to drink.

……

After Zhuge Jin set out from Guangling, he went upstream, using both manpower and sails and oars, and passed Dangtu in just three days.

Dangtu is located between Wuhu and Ma'anshan in later generations, and is also the uppermost Yangtze River port controlled by Sun Ce.

After safely passing through this section of the river, the threat posed by subsequent warlords along the river, such as Xu Qian and Zu Lang, was much smaller.

The remaining 700 miles can be driven slowly.

At the same time, Tang Guang, the messenger sent by Zhuge Jin, finally arrived in Xiangyang again.

The latest round of family letters was delivered to Zhuge Liang.

Because he had met the messenger twice, Zhuge Liang was familiar with the process and did not bother to be polite with him.

He unpacked the box right in front of everyone, took out all the things his eldest brother had given him, looked through them, and piled them everywhere. Only then did he begin to leisurely read the letter from home.

Zhuge Jun watched eagerly from the side. After his second brother finally opened the box and started reading the letter, he climbed onto his eldest brother's pile of gifts like a monkey claiming to be king, picking up things here and there and started playing with them curiously.

What's so good about the letter? It's enough for the second brother to read the letter. He just wants the novel gift from the eldest brother.

Zhuge Liang, who was standing aside, only read a few sentences and then showed shock on his face:

"What? Uncle was finally granted the post of Yuzhang governor by the imperial court? My Zhuge family finally has a legitimate claim to power! Uncle's hard days should be over!"

"Brother, you are already the Junior Craftsman of the General's Office, and you are also the Captain of the Suppression of the Enemies with a salary of 2,000 stones. You are following the imperial edict to attack the bandit Zuo Rong in Yuzhang? You have also borrowed 4,000 elite soldiers from the General of the Southern Expedition? Do you hope that I can find an excuse to get away as soon as possible and go with him to serve my uncle?"

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PS: It has already reached 19.99 words, so the third update today will not be until midnight.
It was kicked off the new book list if it exceeded 20 words. Let me stay on the list for a while longer.

(End of this chapter)