I did it all for the Han Dynasty!

Chapter 284 Zhang Xiu, you piece of trash!

south.

Gu Yong, Zhang Xiu, and others returned to Jingzhou as quickly as possible and informed Zhou Yu of what had happened.

After hearing this, Zhou Yu reassured everyone, saying, "Cao Cao is a cunning and ruthless man in troubled times; he won't make things difficult for us because of something like this."

“Even if something really happens, he would go to find the lord first, and you know what kind of person the lord is…”

Whenever Zhou Yu mentioned Liu Miao, he would shake his head helplessly.

Gu Yong and Zhang Xiu exchanged knowing smiles.

Liu Miao never let himself suffer a loss from beginning to end.

If Cao Cao really went to find Liu Miao, we probably wouldn't even know who was throwing a tantrum!
Gu Yong and Zhang Xiu continued to escort Cai Yan, taking a boat from Xiangyang, entering the Yangtze River at Xiakou, and heading eastward along the Yangtze.

On the way, Cai Yan also clearly felt that the atmosphere after entering Jingzhou was completely different from that in the north.

Guanzhong had just suffered from the chaos caused by the Western Liang army, and the population of Nanyang had been relocated to Jingzhou by Liu Miao. Xuchang was known as the capital of the Han Dynasty, but Cao Cao obviously did not have the financial resources to build Xuchang as prosperous as those large cities, so it did not seem particularly impressive.

But Xiangyang was completely different.

The establishment of the Wenchangmen School and the trend of "reviving the Hundred Schools of Thought" spontaneously attracted famous scholars and Confucianists from all over the country to this north-south center.

Improvements in water-powered textiles and iron smelting drainage systems also led to a surge in Xiangyang's population.

The prosperity of Xiangyang also moved Cai Yan.

When Cai Yan heard merchants say that Jinling in Jiangdong was even more prosperous than Xiangyang, she would unconsciously cover her mouth in amazement.

"So, what kind of person was Liu Miao, Liu Biaoji?"

Cai Yan then took the initiative to ask Gu Yong.

“I have seen Generals Yuan Tan and Zhang Xiu, as well as Commander Zhou Yu, always speak of General Liu Biaoqi with concern; yet I have also heard people say that General Liu Biaoqi is frivolous, but I do not know what kind of person he really is.”

Gu Yong didn't know how to explain, so he simply told Cai Yan to wait and see.

Fortunately, the Yangtze River is fast, and they soon arrived in Jinling from Jingzhou.

Unlike Cao Cao, Liu Miao did not act with the same self-importance, but instead waited at the dock early on.

Gu Yong, Zhang Xiu, and others came before Liu Miao and bowed.

Zhang Xiu's beating of Liu Qubei was somewhat impulsive.

Now that he had calmed down, Zhang Xiu was somewhat afraid to face Liu Miao. He simply called him "My Lord" and then lowered his head to reflect on his actions.

"Hey! Isn't this our General Zhang?"

Liu Miao had naturally heard about the things Zhang Xiu had done in Xuchang long ago.

Therefore, seeing Zhang Xiu cowering in front of him, his tone was full of sarcasm.

"He slapped the Right Wise King of the Xiongnu in front of the emperor and all the high officials... Good! Good!"

Zhang Xiu thought Liu Miao was being sarcastic, so he lowered his head even further.

"Let me ask you what you have to say."

"Please speak, my lord."

"you……"

Everyone held their breath, wondering what Liu Miao was going to say.

"you……"

Liu Miao paused deliberately, and seeing that Zhang Xiu was sweating nervously, he immediately laughed loudly: "Let me ask you, when you were fighting that Right Wise King of the Xiongnu, did you kick him in the groin and pinch his nipples?"

"Ok?"

Zhang Xiu thought he had misheard and looked up in surprise.

"Don't look at me like that! I'm asking you a question!"

"No, no..."

"Incompetent bungler!"

Liu Miao clicked his tongue in regret.

"You know, since you've already started fighting, why not just kick his manhood to pieces, leaving him without a successor? Then the Xiongnu will definitely be in turmoil over the position of Right Wise King!"

"What can I say to you? You can't fight a war, and you can't even fight a brawl?"

Liu Miao genuinely disliked Zhang Xiu!
As he said, if Zhang Xiu were to kick Liu Qubei's genitals to pieces, completely severing the lineage of the Dugu tribe, that would be truly formidable!
Even with a Right Wise King who was unable to have children, Liu Miao couldn't help but wait to watch the grand spectacle of the Southern Xiongnu!
Moreover, if Liu Miao remembered correctly, Liu Qubei seemed to have a great-great-great-grandson named Helian Bobo.

If Zhang Xiu had kicked it, it would have been a kick that changed history!

Utter trash! Absolutely utterly useless!

Zhang Xiu, who was tense all the time, never expected that Liu Miao would blame him from such a unique angle!

At the same time, Zhang Xiu was also annoyed!
"Oh yeah! How could I forget to kick him?"

"He was only wearing a pair of animal skin trousers at the time. If you kicked him, you'd kick his testicles right out!"

That's why I called you trash!

Although he was being scolded by Liu Miao, Zhang Xiu was laughing very happily!
He knew that Liu Miao had already moved on from this matter!

Gu Yong stared helplessly at Liu Miao and Zhang Xiu, then coughed a few times, indicating that there were still women present! He added, "Please don't speak so rudely!"

Liu Miao then remembered that there was indeed such a thing as Cai Yan.

Cai Yan had just overheard Liu Miao and Zhang Xiu's shocking conversation.

However, Cai Yan was a woman who had seen a lot, so she quickly composed herself and bowed to Liu Miao.

"So you are Cai Yan?"

"I am Cai Yong's daughter, and my courtesy name is Zhaoji."

Liu Miao nodded, then suddenly asked Cai Yan a question that caught her off guard—

"Your first husband is dead?"

Faced with Liu Miao's rudeness, Cai Yan felt as if she had been pricked by a needle, and slowly nodded. "And then, you were abducted by Liu Bao, the Left Wise King of the Southern Xiongnu, and became his concubine?"

"..."

Even Gu Yong felt that Liu Miao had gone too far and was about to remind him when he heard Cai Yan speak up—

"What General Liu said is all true."

Cai Yan's tone was stubborn, and there was a hint of desolation in her voice.

To everyone's surprise, Liu Miao became even more unrestrained and continued to ask, "Then do you still want to get married?"

"..."

Even Cai Yan herself didn't know how to answer.

"What's there to be conflicted about? If you want to, you want to; if you don't want to, you don't want to."

"What? Have you become so used to being submissive that you can't even decide your own marriage?"

The phrase "accept one's fate" seemed to have touched a nerve with Cai Yan!

Cai Yan looked at Liu Miao earnestly: "This humble woman has no intention of taking a wedding leave!"

"it is good!"

Liu Miao agreed to the matter and immediately arranged accommodations for Cai Yan.

"I've heard that Cai Yong once collected many books, including some lost works of the pre-Qin philosophers. Do you remember them?"

“My father has a collection of four thousand volumes, but I can only remember one thousand of them!”

Seemingly in retaliation against Liu Miao, Cai Yan emphasized the word "however" with extra force!

Memorize thousands of books!
This is simply the highest honor for a scholar!

Unfortunately, Liu Miao, who was on the other side, was not a scholar.

Liu Miao nodded casually, as if a teacher were assigning homework: "Write it down and send it to me as soon as possible!"

After saying that, he directly embraced Zhang Xiu, and they had already arranged to go to a brothel in Jinling City for drinks...

Cai Yan bit her lip hard.

She couldn't understand why Liu Miao had gone to the trouble of spending money to redeem her, only to then ignore her.

Cai Yan initially thought that Liu Miao was just being deliberately cold to her in order to get her attention, which made Cai Yan feel somewhat disgusted.

However, it was only the following evening, when Cai Yan was invited to Liu Miao's family banquet, that she learned the reason.

Which of Liu Miao's wives and concubines wasn't a beauty of unparalleled grace and charm?

Especially when Zhen Mi appeared in front of Cai Yan, even though Cai Yan didn't care about appearance, she was still ashamed of herself and amazed that there could be such a beautiful and charming woman in the world.

With so many beautiful women around him, it's no wonder Liu Miao was indifferent to her.

After Cai Yan, perhaps out of spite or perhaps out of a competitive spirit, she locked herself in her room and began to memorize the books of various philosophers.

Within a month, Cai Yan had transcribed over two hundred volumes of the Spring and Autumn Annals, totaling about 300,000 characters, and handed them over to Liu Miao.

"These are the books of the Hundred Schools of Thought."

"The rest are all classical texts, as well as miscellaneous books such as the *Lunheng* and the *Shennong Bencao Jing*. They will be completed soon and presented to General Liu."

Liu Miao knew that Cai Yan was pregnant.

But little did they expect that Cai Yan was pregnant with such a treasure!
Looking through the books submitted by Cai Yan, many of them were rare, lost copies!

Even many subjects of knowledge that Liu Miao had never heard of appeared here.

Back then, Cai Yong was a model scholar, and like Chen Yu before him, he went everywhere to find and borrow books to read.

However, due to the war, most of these books were destroyed or completely lost after the original owners passed away.

Cai Yan, who has inherited Cai Yong's teachings, may not be as knowledgeable as great Confucian scholars like Zheng Xuan and Song Zhong in terms of depth, but in terms of breadth of knowledge, she is probably in a class of her own!

After all, as a former model scholar and a learned man in the central government, Cai Yong may have already collected seventy percent of the unique classics of the Han Dynasty.

Unfortunately, Cai Yong is no longer alive, and Cai Yan only remembers a quarter of the knowledge. The remaining three-quarters will probably be completely lost.

Liu Miao sighed softly, "In that case, thank you very much, Zhao Ji!"

Compared to his initial rudeness and impoliteness, Liu Miao now treated Cai Yan with utmost politeness and respect.

Liu Miao's fluctuating distance finally made Cai Yan unable to hold back and confront him directly.

"I have something I've always wanted to ask General Liu."

"But it doesn't matter."

"General Liu, why did you ransom the woman from the Xiongnu?"

Cai Yan finally asked the question that puzzled her the most.

"Neither the commoner girl nor her father had any connection with General Liu, so why did he come to her rescue?"

Cai Yan recounted her experiences in Xuchang.

"Although some scholars took pity on me at the time, they only treated me kindly because of my father's reputation."

"Now, General Liu is not greedy for anything... If General Liu cannot tell me, I'm afraid I will not be able to rest easy."

Liu Miao pursed his lips: "I thought it was something serious..."

Liu Miao patted the collection of classical Chinese texts on the table: "Isn't this exactly what I've been coveting?"

"and……"

Liu Miao also asked Cai Yan earnestly, "Do you really want to receive sympathy from others?"

"You said yourself that many people are close to you because of your father, but do you really want this kind of closeness?"

"Everyone in the world has forgotten that the one who suffered was not the so-called daughter of Cai Yong, but Cai Yan, Cai Zhaoji, who was captured by the Xiongnu and taken to the land of the barbarians for several years!"

(End of this chapter)