Chapter 28 119 The ancestral boat hits the boat in the current

Since the Xiongnu occupied the Central Plains, many people from the north took refuge in the south.Liu Kun's good friend Zu Ti also brought hundreds of family members to the Huaihe River Basin.In the fleeing ranks, Zu Ti took the initiative to command, and gave his chariots and horses to the old, weak and sick, and his own food and clothes for everyone to eat and use.Everyone respected him very much and recommended him to be the leader. When they arrived at Sikou (now north of Qingjiang City, Jiangsu Province), Zu Ti already had a group of strong men. At that time, Sima Rui had not yet become emperor.Zu Ti crossed the river to Jiankang, and persuaded Sima Rui, the king of Langya, to say: "The great chaos in the Jin Dynasty was mainly due to the fact that the royal family killed each other, and the Hu people took the opportunity to attack the Central Plains. Now the people in the Central Plains are brutally persecuted by the enemy. People want to rise up and resist. As long as the king orders troops to be sent to recover the lost land, then the people in all parts of the north will definitely respond."

Sima Rui had no intention of restoring the Central Plains, but hearing what Zuti said was reasonable, he couldn't refuse, so he reluctantly agreed to his request and appointed him as the governor of Yuzhou (in today's eastern Henan and northern Anhui). The food and three thousand pieces of cloth, as for the troops and weapons, let him figure out his own way. Zu Ti took hundreds of fellow villagers who came with him to form a team and cross the Yangtze River.When the boat arrived in the middle of the river, Zu Ti took the oars and slapped the side of the boat (the classical Chinese is "the middle current hits the oar"), and swore to everyone: "If I, Zu Ti, can't wipe out the enemies occupying the Central Plains, I will never pass this place again." A big river. "His passionate tone and heroic spirit moved and excited all the accompanying warriors.

When they arrived in Huaiyin, they stopped to manufacture weapons and recruit troops. Gathering more than 2,000 horses, they headed north. Zuti's army got the support of the people along the way and quickly recovered many lost ground.At that time, there were still many powerful landlords in the north of the Yangtze River. Taking advantage of the chaos in the Central Plains, they occupied fortresses and competed with each other.Zu Ti persuaded them to stop the civil strife, followed him in the Northern Expedition, and resolutely attacked those who did not obey orders and cling to the enemy.Zuti's prestige is getting higher and higher.

Liu Kun was also very happy when he heard that his old friend Zu Ti launched an army in the north. He said: "I sleep with my weapon on my head until dawn, and I just want to destroy the enemy. Now Zu Ti has gone ahead of me." In 319 A.D., after the surrender of Chen Chuan, the mighty landlord of Chenliu, Zhao Guozhu Shi Le, Zu Ti decided to send troops to attack Chen Chuan.Shi Le sent 50,000 troops to rescue, but Zu Ti was defeated.Later Zhao's general Taobao and Zuti's subordinate Han Qian competed for the city of Pengpi (near Kaifeng, Henan).After fighting for forty days, they were at a stalemate, and the rations of both sides were in difficulty.

One day, Zu Ti filled a cloth bag with soil, sent more than a thousand soldiers to carry it, and transported it to the Jin camp, pretending to be a grain transporter.Finally, a few soldiers were sent to carry a few bags of rice and transport them halfway, deliberately stopping to rest. Taobao was naturally envious when he saw so much rice brought by the Jin soldiers in the Zhao camp, so he sent a large number of soldiers to grab it while the Jin soldiers were resting.The Jin soldiers left the rice bag and fled.Zhao Yingli had already run out of food, and had grabbed a little rice, which could barely last for a few days, but everyone saw that the army rations in the Jin Yingli were so abundant, the morale of the army was shaken.Tao Bao hurriedly sent someone to ask Shi Le for help.

A few days later, Shi Le sent a thousand donkeys to deliver grain to the peach leopards.Zu Ti had detected the information a long time ago, set up an ambush on the road, and intercepted all the grain of Hou Zhao.As a result, Tao Bao couldn't hold on any longer, so he gave up his position and ran away overnight. Zu Ti led the Jin soldiers to fight hard and regained all the territory south of the Yellow River. Many soldiers of Later Zhao surrendered to Zu Ti one after another.After Emperor Jin Yuan ascended the throne, because of Zu Ti's great contributions, he was named General Zhenxi.

In the difficult environment of the battle, Zu Ti shared joys and sorrows with the soldiers. He was very frugal in his life and tried to help his subordinates with the money he saved.He also rewarded farming and recruited newcomers.He treats even those with whom he is estranged and of low status with equal enthusiasm.The people in the habitat supported him very much. Once, Zuti held a banquet to entertain the local elders.People were singing and dancing for joy.Some old people shed tears and said: "We are all old, today we can see our loved ones when we are alive, and we can close our eyes when we are dead."

While training soldiers, Zu Ti expanded his army, preparing to continue the Northern Expedition and recover the land north of the Yellow River.Unexpectedly, the mediocre Emperor Jin and Yuan could not feel at ease with Zu Ti, fearing that Zu Ti would be too powerful to be controlled, so he sent Dai Yuan to be the general of Zhengxi, in charge of the military affairs of the six northern states, and asked Zu Ti to be under his command.Zu Ti worked so hard to regain the lost land, but was restrained by the court, and felt very uncomfortable. Soon, Zu Ti heard that his friend Liu Kun was killed by Wang Dun in Youzhou, and that Emperor Jin Yuan was fighting openly and secretly with Wang Dun. He was worried and angry, and finally fell ill and died.When the men, women and children in Yuzhou heard the news of Zu Ti's death, they were as sad as their own relatives.

Although Zu Ti did not complete the cause of restoring the Central Plains, his heroic spirit of hitting the boats has been passed down by future generations.