Chapter 206: Not following the routine, a truly wonderful person Cai Mao received the order and left the mansion, heading towards the inn. As for Cai Mao, he is a complete clown in the novel. As soon as he appeared, he was a villain who framed loyal people in various ways. Later, he defected to Cao Cao, but was killed by Zhou Yu's counter-espionage plan. But the real Cai Mao was not as stupid as portrayed in the novel. In fact, Cai Mao was quite smart. After he defected to Cao Cao, he was not killed, but had a good end. Now that he was walking on the street, he was thinking about how to break Qin Zhen's delaying strategy. Judging from the current situation, Qin Zhen probably realized that it would be embarrassing to attend the banquet, so he was hesitating and not showing up. In this situation, if Qin Zhen continued to cheat him, it would be really difficult for him to fight back. The reason why Kuai Liang went back to the mansion to report first was because he had anticipated this situation. Now it is his turn to deal with Qin Zhen, what should he do? After thinking for a while, Cai Mao sent a message to Zhang Yun to dispatch some troops.

He was prepared to break Qin Zhen's plan with violence! Because the purpose of Qin Zhen's visit this time was to discuss the two families' strategies of advancement. Their purpose was to shut Qin Zhen up, but Qin Zhen's purpose could only be to persuade them to mobilize the army. Under such circumstances, if the two families develop grudges, Qin Zhen will naturally not be able to achieve his goal. He thought that Qin Zhen wanted to delay, so he would force Qin Zhen to go. If Qin Zhen resists, they will be able to achieve their goal of not wanting to send troops. It would be even better if Qin Zhen did not resist. I would humiliate him first and then see if Qin Zhen would still have the dignity to ask for anything. With this thought in mind, he walked all the way to the entrance of the inn. As soon as I arrived here, I saw servants from the general's mansion waiting here, and there were several soldiers standing guard outside the inn. Seeing this, Cai Mao frowned and scolded the servants: "A bunch of good-for-nothings, I don't know why the Lord keeps you!" "Since you are here to see Mr. Qin, why haven't you invited him into the mansion yet?" After being scolded by him, the servants lowered their heads in grievance and said: "Please forgive me, sir. It is because the master has not yet finished bathing that we cannot invite him!" When Cai Mao heard this, he glanced at the gate of the inn and said, "It is now three quarters past the hour of the twilight. Even if it is slaughtering a pig and scalding its hair, it should be cleaned up. Why are you still bathing?" "I don't believe that there are such rude people under Envoy Liu's command. Let me go and take a look!" Having said this, he walked towards the main entrance of the inn. As soon as he reached the door, he was stopped by Qin Zhen's personal guards and said: "Wait a minute, my dear, my master is staying here temporarily, you are not allowed to enter without permission!" When Cai Mao heard this, he became furious and said: "How dare you! This is the inn of Jingzhou, not Huainan. How dare you stop me!"

"Retreat immediately, or don't blame me for being unfriendly to you!" Upon seeing this, several bodyguards looked at each other, all of them remained silent, and refused to retreat. Cai Mao was about to attack when he saw a man coming out. When he saw it was him, he bowed and said: "I didn't expect that the Lord would come here. I am Kong Ming, and I am honored to meet Lord Cai!" When Cai Mao saw that it was Zhuge Liang coming, he frowned. If it were Wang Can, he would probably just scold them and then force his way in. But Zhuge Liang is different, this guy is related to him. I would like to add one more thing here. Although the Zhuge family was an outsider, under Zhuge Xuan's management, they had already established connections with all the gentry in Jingzhou. There is no need to talk about Zhuge Liang's two sisters. Zhuge Liang himself also had close relationships with the Cai and Huang families. Because Zhuge Liang's fiancée Huang Shou (Huang Yueying) was the daughter of Huang Chengyan, a famous scholar in Miannan. Cai Mao had two sisters, one married Liu Biao as his second wife, and the other married Huang Chengyan. Therefore, Zhuge Liang can be considered the son-in-law of Cai Mao's eldest brother-in-law, and also the nephew-in-law of Cai Mao. Therefore, when he saw Zhuge Liang coming forward, Cai Mao said in a deep voice: "Why is Kong Ming here?" When Zhuge Liang heard this, he said politely: "I went to Huainan to study under a teacher at my elder brother's order, and I have become a disciple of Cai." "Now I know that you are going on a diplomatic mission to Jingzhou, so I followed you." In fact, Cai Mao didn't know that Kong Ming had become Cai's disciple. He didn't even know that Zhuge Liang had joined Liu Bei's army. After all, he was just a niece's husband, so he didn't have the energy to care too much about it. Now seeing that Zhuge Liang was helping Qin Zhen, he was furious: "Your Ge family really has a wide range of friends. You married a girl from Jingzhou, but you also went to Huainan to work as an official!" "Now that you are here, are you trying to block my way into the house?" Seeing this, Zhuge Liang shook his head and smiled: "How dare I block your way? Actually, Master was afraid that someone outside the house would block your way, so he sent me to greet you." "I didn't expect that they didn't know you and had such a misunderstanding. I hope you can forgive me!" Seeing that he was not here to block the way, Cai Mao's expression eased a little, and he said in a deep voice: "Since you are here to welcome me, please lead the way. I am here on the orders of the envoy to invite Qin Zixuan to the banquet!"

"That's right, Lord Cai, please follow me!" Zhuge Liang smiled, bowed and made a gesture of invitation to Cai Mao, then took Cai Mao into the inn. In ancient times, a relay station was a place set up to accommodate travelers, and there were many rooms of different sizes inside the relay station. Normally this place was used to receive guests, but this time in order to accommodate Qin Zhen, Liu Biao directly cleared out the place and used it as Qin Zhen's temporary residence. Cai Mao had been to the inn before and knew the situation inside. But now, as soon as he entered the room, he was greeted by a murderous aura. There was a guard post every three steps and a sentry every five steps in the entire courtyard. The well-equipped soldiers were patrolling and standing guard, looking very serious. Seeing this situation, he sneered and said: "Qin Zixuan is so grand. When I met the three ministers in the past, I didn't have such a guard!" "Now he is visiting Jingzhou, and he has guarded the place so tightly. Is he afraid that we will not be on good terms with him?" Zhuge Liang heard this and realized the sarcasm in his words, so he smiled and replied: "Your Excellency may not know that this is not because of my careful precautions, but because of Liu Yuzhou's love for me!" "In fact, in my Huainan area, you may not be prepared for such a situation, sir." "But now that we are in Jingzhou, we don't know if there are many rogues in the city, so we must be on guard against them, but this is not set up for you, Lord." "I thought that the Lord of the Mansion is such an open-minded person, he would not make things difficult for you, sir!" Cai Mao watched Zhuge Liang talking with a frown on his face, somewhat unable to understand. Logically speaking, as Zhuge Liang's nephew-in-law and a descendant of a famous family, it would only take a matter of words for him to become an official in Jingzhou. Why would he ignore such a good foundation and run off to Huainan to be Qin Zhen's follower! Now his words are full of defense of Liu Bei and Qin Zhen. Could it be that these two people really have some magical powers? He wanted to ask a few more questions, but felt it was inappropriate. After thinking for a while, he could only say in a deep voice: "I haven't seen Kong Ming for a long time. I wonder what knowledge he learned in Huainan?" If others heard this, they would probably say something humble, but Zhuge Liang smiled and said: "If the Lord asks this, I can only answer that the Master is very knowledgeable, which is rare in ancient and modern times!" "I have been studying with him for a long time, and I feel that I have benefited a lot from just looking at the basics. I can say that I can learn a lot!" He didn't say this with any boasting, he actually really felt this way! Because he had read books from hundreds of schools of thought, he had never found one like Qin Zhen, who paid attention to the combination of dialectical thought and practice. Not to mention theoretical knowledge, things like dialectical materialism of history and macroeconomics are extremely abstract theories. Beyond that, many subjects such as physics, mathematics, chemistry, biology, etc. were unheard of. He didn't know where Qin Zhen learned so much knowledge, but he knew that what was in Qin Zhen's head was enough for him to learn for a lifetime. Therefore, in his eyes, no one in this world is more knowledgeable than Qin Zhen. Therefore, now that Cai Mao asked about this matter, he naturally respected Qin Zhen very much. Cai Mao thought that the reason why Huang Chengyan took a fancy to Zhuge Liang was because he was very intelligent and had excellent character.

Now that Qin Zhen is so highly praised, we can know that in addition to his wisdom and strategy, his talent and learning must also be extraordinary. But when Zhuge Liang was in Jingzhou, he studied under Pang Degong, Sima Hui and others for several years. On this basis, you still think Qin Zhen is knowledgeable, so what level is Qin Zhen at? Thinking of this, he couldn't help but feel a little curious about Qin Zhen and continued to ask: "How does Qin Zhen's knowledge compare to Pang Degong and Sima Decao?" Zhuge Liang heard this and hesitated for a while before saying: "While I may be inferior to them in classics and ancient Chinese literature, I am far superior to them in other aspects!" Damn it! When Cai Mao heard this, his heart sank suddenly. Only classics and ancient Chinese literature are inferior, everything else is far superior! This evaluation is quite high! In his eyes, Pang Degong and Sima Hui were both hermit masters, far superior to these Confucian scholars sitting in the mansion. Qin Zhen's talents far surpass those of these two people. Could it be that he is really a rare talent? Thinking of this, he already had a preliminary impression of Qin Zhen in his mind, and he became more and more wary. While thinking, Zhuge Liang paused and said: "The master has finished his bath and is discussing the Dao with you in the hall!" "Your Majesty, please come in and see it directly!" As he spoke, he came to the door again and whispered: "Sir, Mr. Cai has arrived!" Cai Mao was originally amazed at Qin Zhen's knowledge, but when he heard this, he suddenly remembered that he came to invite someone. When he heard Zhuge Liang say that Qin Zhen had finished bathing and was still discussing Dao in the mansion, he became angry and stepped into the hall and said: "Mr. Qin has already finished his bath, why are you still lingering in the room?" "Don't you know that Envoy Liu has been waiting for you for a long time, just waiting for you to come?" Having said this, he entered the hall and saw Wang Can, Fu Xun and Pei Qian sitting together, with a scholar in black sitting in the middle. The man was wearing a hat that was tilted up, was tall and handsome, holding a feather fan, and was looking at him with a smile. Seeing this appearance, even Cai Mao couldn't help but secretly praise Qin Zhen for his good looks! As soon as he finished speaking, Qin Zhen stood up, fanned himself with a feather fan and said with a smile: "From what I have seen in Jingzhou City, the only person who can be called Lord Cai is Military Advisor Cai." "Could it be Cai Degui? Brother Cai, can't you come forward?" Cai Mao frowned when he was called "Brother Degui". He thought, "We are very familiar with each other? How can we be brothers?" However, as the saying goes, don't hit a smiling person. Qin Zhen was so familiar with him, so he couldn't refute him. He just stepped forward and said: "It is Mao who has been ordered to come. I dare not call you brother because you are in front of me. It is because the envoy saw that you were late, so he sent me to urge you!"

"Why do you hesitate here when you know there is a banquet?" But although he had a cold face, Qin Zhen didn't care. He walked up to him and took his hand and said: "Brother Degui's surname is Cai, and my wife's surname is also Cai. Five hundred years ago, we were one family!" "Brother Jianzhi is a few years older than me, so why can't I call him brother?" "Since we are family, please don't be so formal. Come and sit down. I will tell you everything slowly!" After saying that, he forcibly pulled Cai Mao to sit on the seat. Cai Mao felt a little embarrassed to be treated like this by him, and when he saw that Fu Xun and Pei Qian both had helpless expressions on their faces, he knew that Qin Zhen must have forced everyone here. He was not afraid that Qin Zhen would confront him right from the start, but he was afraid that Qin Zhen would try to get married to him right from the start. This was a typical case of not playing by the rules! He thought to himself that this was not good, and didn't want Qin Zhen to take the initiative, so he simply asked again: "There is no need to say more. The envoy is waiting. How about we talk on the way?" But when Qin Zhen heard this, he sat down next to him and sighed: "Brother, please listen to me. I am ashamed to tell you this. It is not that I do not want to go, but I heard that all the great scholars in the palace have arrived. I do not know the meaning of the scriptures, and I am afraid of being embarrassed, so I dare not go!" "I was just discussing countermeasures with Gongti, Wenxing and others!" "I don't know who has such evil intentions to plot against me. It's really despicable!" As he spoke, he took Cai Mao's hand and said sincerely: "I think Brother Degui is not an outsider. Can you explain to me how to solve this situation?" When these words were spoken, everyone was shocked, and Wang Can couldn't help but burst out laughing. He thought that his senior brother was really a brilliant guy. He knew it was Cai Mao's plan, but he still mocked him for a while and asked Cai Mao to help him with ideas and grab the bamboo shoots! Thinking of this, he couldn't help but look towards Cai Mao, and saw Cai Mao sitting aside, his face having turned liver color without him noticing. (End of this chapter)