Chapter 3 3. Some people love to play cool

After the establishment of the capital in Xu County, Cao Cao recruited talents wildly. In addition to some people who took the initiative to defect, Cao Cao also recruited everywhere in the name of Emperor Xian. He welcomed anyone who had the ability. Quite a lot of talent, but the job has not been easy.Cao Cao once recruited Guan Ning to avoid the chaos in Liaodong, but Guan Ning failed to come because of Gongsun Du's obstruction.He also appointed Liu Bei's father-in-law and main assistant Mi Zhu as the prefect of Yingjun in the name of Emperor Xian. Liu Bei was unwilling to let him go, so he had to let it go.

There is a person who is more famous, but he comes as soon as he is called up, and he is not reserved at all. This person is Kong Rong. Kong Rong, two years older than Cao Cao, was born in the state of Lu (now Qufu, Shandong), and is the twentieth grandson of Confucius.His father, Kong Zhou, was the captain of Taishan County.Kong Rong was famous for making pears when he was young, and he became a model for children in that era to learn from.When he grew up, Lingdi Liu Hong's teacher, Yang Ci, who was then Situ, conscripted him, and he entered the official career. In the first year of Emperor Xian's Chuping (190), Dong Zhuo was in power. Kong Rong was very unhappy because he did not cooperate with him.At that time, the Yellow Turban Army was very prosperous in the Beihai Kingdom of Qingzhou Governor's Department. Dong Zhuo deliberately wanted to make things difficult for Kong Rong and appointed him as the Prime Minister of Beihai to fight the Yellow Turban Army, so Kong Rong was later called "Kong Beihai".

Kong Rong was a literati, but he was not as versatile as Zhu Jun and Lu Zhi, and he was really a layman in war.He was attacked by the Yellow Turban Army's Guanhai Department in Beihai, so that he "could not protect the four territories and abandoned the county." Finally, he sent his general Tai Shici to seek help from Liu Bei, the prefect of the neighboring Pingyuan County, to resolve the crisis. Kong Rong was close to Gongsun Zan, Liu Bei, and Tao Qian, so he belonged to the hostile camp of Yuan Shao and Cao Cao.He couldn't stay in Beihai country any longer, so he ran to Tao Qian to seek refuge.When Tao Qian died, Kong Rong was in Xuzhou. He was the most active person who persuaded Liu Bei to take over as Xuzhou Mu.After Liu Bei took charge of Xuzhou, Kong Rong returned to Qingzhou, and Liu Bei appointed him as the governor of Qingzhou.At this time, Yuan Shao sent his eldest son, Yuan Tan, to replace Zang Hong as the governor of Qingzhou, and competed with Gongsun Zan for territory, and Kong Rong became the target of Yuan Tan's attack.

From the first year of Jian'an, Yuan Tan led his troops to attack Kong Rong. From spring to summer, Kong Rong had only a few hundred men left. This old man was still studying there with a few cases, talking and laughing as usual Sit comfortably, read and discuss freely).The city was captured, Kong Rong's wife and children were all captured, and he escaped by himself. Kong Rong could have gone to find his old friend Liu Bei, but Liu Bei himself was having a hard time at that time. He was being tricked by Lu Bu to wander around, and he almost led a group of people to become fishermen in the East China Sea.

Kong Rong became a homeless person. At this moment, when he heard that the imperial court had recruited him, he naturally rushed to Xu County and was appointed as the Minister of Construction (will be a master craftsman). When Kong Rong arrived in Xu County, he not only had a new job, but also a new family.When Kong Rong escaped, his wife and children were left with Yuan Tan.When Kong Rong was killed twelve years later, his son was nine years old and his daughter was seven years old. According to their ages, they should have been born in Xu County. Kong Rong always felt that others were inferior to him (he thought that no one could match him at the time), but he was actually a person with great aspirations and talents. In the final analysis, firstly, the hat of being a famous family harmed him, and secondly, he became famous too early.Cao Cao accepted Kong Rong, and Kong Rong should appreciate it, not only because Cao Cao gave him a way out when he was desperate, but also because Cao Cao took a certain risk in accepting Kong Rong.Previously, Kong Rong met Yuan Tan with swordsmen and was Yuan Shao's enemy. Cao Cao was a member of Yuan Shao's camp, so he should have arrested Kong Rong and sent him to Jizhou, but now he is made a minister. Kong Rong should really be grateful to Cao Cao.

Kong Rong seemed to be aware of this, so he cooperated very well with Cao Cao at the beginning, actively expressing his opinions on issues such as the court's deliberation on the resumption of corporal punishment and whether to organize the funeral of the late Taifu Ma Ri, and his work attitude was quite serious. Kong Rong also recommended many talents to Cao Cao, the famous ones are Xie Gai, Sheng Xian and Mi Heng. Xie Gai was a famous Confucianist in the world, he was good at governing "Zuo Zhuan", Kong Rong recommended him with a letter from a sage, and Xie Gai was worshiped as Yilang by Emperor Xian.Sheng Xian used to be the prefect of Wujun, but later resigned due to illness. Kong Rong had a good relationship with him.At that time, Sun Ce occupied Jiangdong, and successively punished the heroes of Jiangdong. Kong Rong was afraid that Sheng Xian would be killed, so he wrote a letter to Cao Cao to strongly recommend him. , Sheng Xian was killed.

In comparison, Mi Heng recommended by Kong Rong was more famous at the time and had the greatest influence on later generations. Mi Heng, styled Zhengping, was born in Ban County, Pingyuan County (now Linyi, Shandong).He was very talented and eloquent when he was a teenager, but he was strong and arrogant, and he didn't know how to deal with people. He was an angry youth and a stunned youth, and he had been avoiding chaos in Jingzhou before. When the court moved to Xu County, Mi Heng was twenty-four years old. He heard that there was an opportunity here, so he went to Xu County to travel.At that time, there were many people who came to Xu County to serve the imperial court, but Ni Heng was too arrogant and refused to take the initiative to apply for the job. He always wanted someone to come and cry and invite him, but naturally no one paid attention to him.At first he had a business card in his pocket (with a thorn in his chest), but after a long time, he didn't have a chance to use it, so that the writing on the business card was blurred.

At that time, Sima Lang, Chen Qun and others were very famous, and some people advised Ni Heng, why not go to them, Mi Heng was very dismissive, he thought Sima Lang and Chen Qun were at most a waiter in a restaurant (selling wine), or even Xun he even looked down on him, thinking that he was just a person who specialized in mourning and filial piety. Only Kong Rong and Yang Xiu were the only ones whom Ni Heng barely liked, and called them "Kong Wenju, the elder son, and Yang Dezu, the younger son".It seems that this kid is crazy enough, although he is also considered a talent, but he has a super bad temper, arrogant and weird, and he often swears at others.

It was such a person that Kong Rong highly praised. He actively recommended Mi Heng to Cao Cao, and made a mess of Mi Heng. In Kong Rong's own words, it was simply "Yan Hui never died".Mi Heng also praised Kong Rong, calling him "Zhong Ni's resurrection". Kong Rong talked a lot, Cao Cao was really curious and wanted to meet this man.But who knows that Ni Heng is still putting on airs, you want to see me, but I still refuse to see you.For this young man in his twenties, Cao Cao felt unhappy. According to the "Book of the Later Han Dynasty", when Cao Cao was a guest at a meeting, he deliberately recruited Mi Heng and asked Mi Heng to be a drummer at the banquet, in order to humiliate him.When the drummers beat the drums, they will change into special clothes in advance to show their solemnity.When it was Mi Heng's turn to play the drums, he played "Yuyang Sanluo" with a passionate and touching tone.Mi Heng stopped in front of Cao Cao, and someone next to him asked him why he didn't change his clothes, and Mi Heng said that's fine, just change it.

So, Mi Heng took off all his clothes one by one in front of Cao Cao, and then changed into his uniform. Jump. Cao Cao laughed and said, "I wanted to teach this kid a lesson, but instead let him humiliate me." Even Kong Rong couldn't stand Mi Heng's so cool. While blaming Mi Heng, he ran to Cao Cao to smooth things over, saying that Mi Heng had madness (mad disease), and regretted it afterwards, hoping to apologize to Cao Cao in person.Cao Cao agreed, and Kong Rong went to Mi Heng's work again. Anyway, Mi Heng was also willing to see Cao Cao. Unexpectedly, Ni Heng played a new trick again. Wearing coarse clothes and holding a three-foot wooden stick, he ran to the gate of Cao Cao's camp, sat on the ground, cried and cursed.Cao Cao was completely angry when he heard the news. If Cao Cao's temper had been followed, he would have ordered someone to take him out and chop him up.

But Cao Cao understood that if Mi Heng dared to provoke him, he would not be afraid of being beheaded. If he really killed him, it would make Mi Heng's reputation.Moreover, the Xu County court was newly established, and it was the time when people from all over the world came to seek refuge. No matter how many faults Mi Heng had, this kid had already fired up his popularity. If you think you can't tolerate others, it will block the way for the scholars in the world to repay you, and Cao Cao will not be fooled. According to the "Book of the Later Han Dynasty", Cao Cao thought of a trick. He wrote a letter of recommendation to Liu Biao and recommended Mi Heng to Liu Biao.When Mi Heng came to Liu Biao, at first Liu Biao appreciated his talent and valued him very much, but when the leader appreciated him, Mi Heng pushed his nose and face again. Not only was he extremely arrogant, even Liu Biao wanted to humiliate him so he humiliated him. . Liu Biao was also angry and wanted to kill him, but his idea was similar to Cao Cao's. He didn't want to be charged with killing famous people, so he just followed suit and wrote a letter to his subordinate Jiangxia prefect Huang Zu, recommending Mi Heng to Huang Zu. . When Huang Zu saw Mi Heng, he was deeply attracted by his talent and learning, so he asked him to be his secretary (in order to be a secretary), and discussed everything with him.But Mi Heng's nature is hard to change. Once Huang Zu was a guest at a conference, Mi Heng got into trouble with the leader again. He didn't even give Huang Zu face. up. Huang Zu's office director (chief bookkeeper) usually hates Mi Heng, and immediately asks people to do it when he receives an order.Huang Zu really regretted it and wanted to take back his life. He didn't have time to put on his shoes and ran out barefoot to rescue him, but Ni Heng's death sentence had been executed. Mi Heng was twenty-six years old when he died. According to legend, the place where he died was called Yingwu Island. Mi Heng is a bit too different, he is indeed talented, otherwise Liu Biao and Huang Zu would not appreciate him at first.But his personality is too strong, even a little weird, so that's not a good thing. Fortunately, there are very few people like Mi Heng. Most of the people who come to Xu County have a heart of making contributions. Whether they are coming for the court or for Cao Cao, Cao Cao welcomes them all. For him, nothing is more precious than talent right now.