Chapter 40: The Serious Consequences of Forcibly Abducting a Civilian Woman

  In the first year of Chuping, on April 13th, Guan Hai and others finally arrived in Guangwu. Li Zhong, in order to win over Taishi Ci, specially arranged for Taishi's elderly wife to live in the county government office. It is worth noting that at this time, Li Zhong had only one powerful general under his command, namely Taishi Ci, so no matter how much attention he gave him, it was not excessive.

  At this time, Guangwu County's spring plowing has been completed, and how to arrange these thousands of people is still a problem. Li Chong called Chen Lin to discuss countermeasures.

  Chen Lin smiled and said, "Don't worry, my lord. I've made preparations long ago. In mid-March, I arranged for people to open up a thousand acres of new land, specifically for these people."

  "A thousand acres of land!" Li Chong secretly calculated, and in recent days he had also learned about the situation. The soil quality around Guangwu was not good, and the yield per mu was only around 2 shi (240 jin), which was slightly lower than that of the Han Dynasty. It could just guarantee that these people would not starve to death.

  But this is already quite good. If it weren't for the continuous wars over the years, and the sharp reduction in population, there wouldn't be so much idle land available for cultivation.

  My grain supplies! Li Chong is now very worried, he currently has over 2000 dan of grain, before the autumn harvest, it can only guarantee that these people won't starve to death (one person eating one jin of grain every three days won't starve), how can they train soldiers? However, Chen Lin being able to do this is already not bad, Li Chong also cannot ask for too much.

  Everything has been arranged, and the wine is served. Liao Hua's eyes are gleaming with a mysterious light, as if he wants to say something but hesitates.

  "What's going on?" Li Chong asked in surprise.

  Liao Hua swallowed his saliva and said in a low voice: "Master, I've seized a beauty for you."

  "What?" Li Chong stared at Liao Hua with wide eyes, and seeing Chen Lin staring straight at him, he hastily said: "I didn't ask you to help me snatch the beauty, Zi Yi can be my witness."

  Tai Shi Zi was also confused and hastily said: "Yuan Jiao, don't talk nonsense, when did the master ask you to rob a beauty?"

  Li Chong glanced at Guan Hai and said in a low voice: "It's like this..."

  It so happened that Liao Hua returned to the mountain stronghold and met with Guan Hai. They immediately set off on their journey. However, considering Tai Shi's old wife's physical condition, they decided not to cross the river for now, as the southern weather was warmer after all. Thus, the two of them arrived at the border of He Dong Prefecture, just about to head north, when they suddenly encountered a wedding procession.

  What happened next was a bit melodramatic, with neither team willing to give way, and verbal clashes ensued. Later, Old Lady Tai Shi spoke up, and Liao Hua's two men did not dare disobey, so they reluctantly made way.

  But Liao Hua was not a person to be trifled with, and that night he charged into the enemy's camp, saw how beautiful the bride was, and abducted her, intending to present her to Li Chong as his concubine.

  "Haha......" Li Zhongqi burst out laughing, pointing at Liao Hua who didn't know what to say anymore.

  Liao Hua hastily said: "Master, it's not that I wanted to snatch that little beauty, the key is that her mouth can talk too much, I was momentarily enraged, and then..."

  Li let out a sigh and said helplessly: "Alright then, ask that civilian woman's name, if there's an opportunity, send her back home."

  Liao Hua hastily said: "Don't worry, my lord, I've already asked about it. The woman's name is Cai Yan, also known as Cai Shaoji (later changed to Cai Wenji in the Jin Dynasty to avoid tabooing Sima Zhao). Her father's name is... uh... Cai... Yong, Cai Bogui... it's really hard to remember!" After finishing speaking, Liao Hua lowered his head and wiped away sweat, clearly having exerted great effort to recall the information.

  Just then, Liao Hua suddenly felt that the atmosphere was not quite right. He looked up to see Li Chong's mouth twitching, Chen Lin's face pale, Taishi Ci with his mouth agape, and Guan Yu staring at everyone in surprise.

  "What...what's wrong?" Liao Hua asked nervously.

  Li Chong did not respond to Liao Hua's words, but instead turned to face Chen Lin and asked: "Gong Zhang, what should we do?"

  Chen Lin's eyes blazed with anger as she said, "What can I do? The only thing to do now is to strictly keep the secret, otherwise, Master, you'll be waiting for the world to scorn you."

  "Does anyone else know?" Li Chong turned to Liao Hua and asked fiercely.

  Liao Hua didn't know what was going on, but he could guess that he had made a mistake. He replied in a servile manner: "No one else knows about it, I went to kidnap the person myself at night. As long as you don't say anything, Master, no one will know."

  "Otherwise... we..." Liao Hua looked at Li Chong's expression and made a beheading gesture with his hand.

  "You bastard! You're going to kill someone and silence them!" Chen Lin finally couldn't bear it anymore, opening her mouth to curse. It's worth noting that at the time, Cai Yong's reputation was extremely high, he was literally an idol among scholars.

  In the fourth year of Emperor Ling of Han's Xi Ping era, Cai Yong and others standardized the texts of the Six Classics. Cai Yong believed that due to the mistakes of common Confucians, there were many errors in these classics. In order not to mislead later generations, he petitioned for their correction. After receiving imperial approval, Yong personally wrote the corrected text on stone steles, which were then carved and erected outside the Imperial Academy. There were 46 such steles, known as the "Stone Classics of the Eastern Capital". It is said that after the steles were erected, there were over a thousand carriages carrying people who came to view and copy them every day.

  It can be seen that Cai Yong has a large number of fans in the Han Dynasty, and Chen Lin naturally admires Cai Yong very much. However, he is now under Li Zhong's command and can only forcibly suppress his thoughts of rescuing Cai Yan. But Liao Hua, this bastard, actually wants to kill people and silence them. How can Chen Lin accept this? He immediately starts scolding loudly.

  If Chen Lin didn't think she couldn't beat Liao Hua, she really wanted to pin Liao Hua to the ground and give him a good thrashing.

  Liao Hua still wanted to talk back, but Taishi Ci quickly pulled him over and carefully told him about Cai Yong's situation. When he mentioned that even Dong Zhuo didn't dare offend this great Han scholar, Liao Hua finally realized the magnitude of his mistake and immediately quieted down.

  "There's only one way to do it now." Chen Lin saw that Liao Hua had softened and felt a bit more at ease, so she replied: "That is, let Cai Yan tell a lie and say that the master rescued her from the bandits' hands, then nothing will happen."

  "What kind of nonsense is this, only a brain-addled Cai Wenji would say something like that?" Li Zhong had been somewhat revitalized, but upon hearing these words he slumped down again, saying in extreme disappointment.

  At this moment, Guan Yu, who had been silent all along, suddenly said: "Use the handsome man plan."

  "What's with the 'handsome guy plan'?" Li Chong tilted his head, looking at Guan Hai, thinking that Guan Hai must have gotten this idea from some fantasy novel, wondering if he was also a transmigrator, what a ridiculous thought.

  Unexpectedly, Tai Shi Ci also nodded in agreement: "Not bad, this method has some promise."

  Even Chen Lin listened and nodded slightly.

  Li Chong turned to look at Tai Shi Ci, whose face was heroic and handsome, with a tall and straight figure, indeed the best candidate for being a pretty boy. In Li Chong's impression, little beauties generally liked heroes like Tai Shi Ci.

  Li nodded and said, "Then I'll have to trouble General Zi Yi. As the saying goes, 'a virtuous woman is a good match for a gentleman', pursuing Cai Yan's task will be handed over to you, this is a great opportunity to gain both wealth and beauty, haha..."

  Li Chonggang laughed twice, then found that Taishi Ci and Chen Lin were looking at him with a strange gaze. He felt a chill all over his body and was taken aback, hastily asking: "Zi Yi, Kong Zhang, what are you looking at me for?"

  Tai Shi Zi cupped his hands and said: "Your Excellency, the handsome man we were talking about is you!"