To say that Cao Cao defeated Yuan Shao in the Battle of Guandu in later generations, there were some factors that were accidental, reasonable, or easily overlooked, but it was definitely a decisive and important turning point when he used the emperor to control the princes.
From then on, Cao Cao was able to use his status in the Han Dynasty to do things that were inconvenient for him before. He was no longer dependent on Yuan Shao and had his hands tied in everything, but instead suppressed Yuan Shao in government affairs.
Although a few counselors such as Ju Shou had made similar proposals to Yuan Shao before, not many people supported it, and Yuan Shao's confidants, headed by Chun Yuqiong, strongly opposed it.
Chunyu Qiong has two reasons.
First, the Han Dynasty lost its virtue. At this time, its form was the same as that of the late Qin Dynasty, and all the princes in the world took it.
Second, after the emperor Liu Xie was appointed, how to deal with the edict of Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty was a big problem, which would hinder the implementation of Yuan Shao's decree.
No matter from the perspective of the time or later generations, Chunyu Qiong's reasons were very convincing.
Because after Cao Cao ushered in Liu Xie, both sides fought wits and courage for a long time. The reason was that Liu Xie was a person who refused to admit defeat, and the issue of the clothing and belt edict was one of the profiles.
Yuan Shao's counselors are not idiots. They will not ignore the facts because of personal selfishness on such a key issue. Most of them support Chunyu Qiong because they also agree with these two views.
Because for Yuan Shao at this time, he had already occupied the Central Plains and the general situation was established. It seemed that he did not need to rely on the power of the Han Dynasty.
And more importantly, people have done it before to coerce the emperor to command the princes. On the contrary, from Dong Zhuo to Wang Yunlu Bu, to Li Jue and Guo Si, they all failed, and the price was death and the destruction of the clan.
Even Ju Shou, in his rebuttal, could only say that it was morally right to welcome the emperor, and if Yuan Shao didn't do it, someone else would.
There is a big problem with Jushou's statement here.
Without the first half of the sentence, Yuan Shao might have thought more about it, but the morality of the first half of the sentence made Yuan Shao very unhappy.
It is moral to welcome the emperor, so what is Yuan Shao doing in Jizhou now?
Yuan Shao is a very face-saving person, and judging from his performance, Yuan Shao may have wanted to imitate Yi Yin Huoguang during Liu Yu's lifetime, but after Liu Yu's death, he should be independent.
Because in later generations, after Cao Cao ushered in the emperor, Yuan Shao's subordinate Geng Bao proposed that the Yuan family was a descendant of the Yellow Emperor and belonged to Tude. Now that the Huode Han Dynasty was declining, the Yuan family could replace it. This was in compliance with the destiny of heaven.
After Yuan Shao heard this, he summoned all his subordinates and asked Geng Bao to publicly preach to everyone. What he didn't expect was that everyone gnashed their teeth, accused Geng Bao of deceiving the public with his evil words, and demanded that he be executed.
When Yuan Shao saw this, he could only order his soldiers to drag Geng Bao out and behead him.
Judging from this incident, Yuan Shao was indeed moved by the idea of self-reliance. Otherwise, he would not have allowed Geng Bao to stand up publicly to test people's opinions. However, he did not expect that he would encounter such fierce opposition from everyone.
At the same time, after Yuan Shu became emperor, everyone rebelled against his relatives and was attacked by the princes of the world. Judging from the fact that Yuan Shao's subordinates were indeed more understanding than Yuan Shao and Geng Bao.
But Yuan Shao never gave up. When Yuan Shu was at the end of his rope, he handed over the imperial title to Yuan Shao, and Yuan Shao accepted it.
It is unknown how this incident affected Yuan Shao's subordinates, but a year later in the Battle of Guandu, several important figures under Yuan Shao defected to Cao Cao, indicating that some people may be dissatisfied with Yuan Shao's acceptance of the title of Emperor Yuan Shu.
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Therefore, regarding the matter of welcoming the Han Emperor, Yuan Shao was caught in a contradiction. On the one hand, the time was not ripe for independence, and on the other hand, he was unwilling to please Liu Xie, thus interfering with the Yuan family's steps to conquer the world.
Therefore, Yuan Shao's final choice was to shelve the matter of courting the emperor.
Yuan Shao is a man who loses because of being both effective and successful. Unlike Cao Cao, he never misses any opportunity and can make decisions on the spot. In the face of interests, all hatred can be ignored.
Cao Cao could even let go of Zhang Xiu's murder of Cao Ang and Cao Anmin by Jia Xu, accept Zhang Xiu's surrender and marry him, let alone tolerate Liu Xie's interference in his own political affairs.
Of course, this is also related to the situation of the two at the time. Yuan Shao had many more choices than Cao Cao, but Cao Cao had no way out.
After Cao Cao supported Liu Xie, the two fought evenly at first. Later, Liu Xie acted too hastily and used a stupid move and was caught. As a result, he was gradually sidelined and finally lost power completely.
If the king wants to kill his minister, the minister will naturally have an excuse to be disloyal.
From this point of view, Cao Cao completely copied his experience as a thug under Yuan Shao. He tolerated it secretly and cultivated party members at the same time. He was worthy of being a man who did great things.
Yuan Xi sorted out the future affairs. Indeed, if they didn't know about Cao Cao's variable, no one would have thought that he would come back and defeat Yuan Shao.
Jushu was just intuitive at the time, but his idea was very popular with Yuan Xi. Although it might be useless to get it himself, he must not let the enemy get it.
Just like the emperor Liu Xie.
At the beginning, Yuan Xi had two plans.
One is to directly send assassins to kill Liu Xie.
Yuan Xi struggled for a long time before giving up the idea. Not only was it extremely risky, it would also harm others and not benefit himself. The Han Dynasty could have established another emperor.
But when the incident was revealed, his reputation was ruined, and the Yuan family could not protect themselves. From then on, they basically stopped fighting for world hegemony.
The second is to compete with Cao Cao for Liu Xie's ownership rights. Even if he cannot completely seize it, he still wants to get a share of it.
Because this was contrary to the Yuan family's plan, Yuan Xi wanted to set up his own business. This was the biggest reason why he wanted to adopt.
In this life, he made many operations and won three more years. But at the same time, history began to accelerate, and the movements of the princes from all sides also changed. Although Yuan Xi had gained some territory at this time, the gap between him and other princes was still quite large.
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Therefore, Yuan Xi must seize this opportunity for the Emperor to return to Luoyang to win the greatest benefits for himself!
The most important point among them is status!
Honor is morality, and what can be more legitimate than the emperor's edict?
From the beginning, Yuan Xi thought clearly step by step.
Adopt—establish his own family—take charge of Youzhou—open the Black Mountain Passage—enter Hanoi—participate in flattering the emperor.
Lu Bu was introduced to Hanoi with the idea that if he failed, Cao Cao would not be able to take all the benefits. If he did, Cao Cao would not be able to do whatever he wanted.
For this idea, he sent Dong Zhao as a secret chess player in advance, and then deployed key figures under his command. There was absolutely no room for error.
Because the matters involved were too secretive, Yuan Xi and even Guo Jiazhen Mi could not fully explain the matter in case it threatened the lives of Dong Zhao and others.
Yuan Xi felt a little lonely. Fighting for world domination was destined to make him unable to completely trust anyone.
When he said goodbye to Guo Jia and returned to the mansion, as soon as he entered the courtyard, he was stopped by Cai Zhaoji, who had been waiting for him.
Yuan Xi knew that Cai Zhaoji must have something to ask of him, so he went up and took her hand and said with a smile, "Is it a business matter or a private matter?"
Cai Zhaoji's face turned slightly red, "There are official and private matters, but private matters are not mine."
The two walked into the study. Cai Zhaoji took out a bamboo tube with fire paint sealed on it and said, "This is a secret letter from Jicheng."
Yuan Xi took out the bamboo tube, scraped off the fire paint with a knife, and unscrewed the bamboo tube, revealing a roll of silk inside.
He opened it, looked up and said, "It was sent by Zhao Yun."
Cai Zhaoji leaned over and saw that what was written on it was the current situation of Jicheng.
Now Zhao Yun and Qu Yi have cleared the road from Jicheng to Zhuojun North New City. Qu Yi is stationed in Jicheng. Zhao Yun previously led troops to sweep around and pacify the border between Shanggu and Guangyang.
Now Zhao Yun returned to Jicheng and said that Yuan Xi needs to come to Jixian in person because the appointment of officials in the city is extremely chaotic and some people have acted beyond the bottom line. If this continues, Yuan Xi's reputation will be affected.
Cai Zhaoji looked at the names of officials mentioned by Zhao Yun and said softly: "These are all related to Xu You and Xu Zijiang."
Yuan Xi sneered: "Xu You really makes me easy to bully!"
Cai Zhaoji worriedly asked: "Young master, do you want to kill him?"
"Are you afraid that if you do this rashly, your relationship with Jizhou will become tense?"
Yuan Xi shook his head and said: "Kill him if he can, but Xu You is still useful and won't die before he dies."
"But it's too disgusting for him to jump like this. I have to beat him this time."
"You tell the women in the house to pack your luggage in the next few days, and we will leave for Jicheng."
Cai Zhaoji agreed, then lowered her voice and said: "It's a private matter. I see that Mrs. Cai is not in a stable mood these days. I'm afraid that she won't be able to think about it for a while and secretly looks for medicine."
"I think the young master still needs to have a good talk with her. Heart ailments need to be healed by the heart."
Yuan Xi heard this and felt it was strange.
What happened between him and Mrs. Cai was an accident. The two people, who had no feelings at all, actually had a child before Zhen Mi, his first wife, which made him very embarrassed.
Logically speaking, after the child is born, he can recognize Zhen Mi as his mother, but Mrs. Cai's attitude aside, Zhen Mi must feel a little awkward.
Yuan Xi murmured in his heart that he would easily get into trouble when he drank. Last time it was Cai Zhaoji and this time it was Mrs. Cai. What a big deal!
Moreover, I was so dizzy that I could hardly remember what happened at that time, which was really a pity.
Thinking of this, Yuan Xi thought of Mrs. Cai's exquisite and convex figure, and secretly cursed herself for being out of tune.
Seeing Yuan Xi's confused look, Cai Zhaoji covered her mouth and said with a smile: "Things with the Mi family girl are not settled yet, but the young master has found another way. I really admire it."
Yuan Xi sighed: "You are the first, but I haven't given you a title yet."
Cai Zhaoji smiled and said: "Why bring this up? What could be worse than being kidnapped outside the Great Wall?"
"There's going to be a fire in the backyard, so let's take care of Mrs. Cai first. It seems that the young master has lost his moral character after drinking."
"Based on what happened to me, Mrs. Cai probably suffered a lot that night."
Yuan Xi looked at the joking expression on Cai Zhaoji's face, and thinking of what he had done to Cai Zhaoji, he couldn't help but sweat and said: "Stop talking, I will pay attention next time."
Cai Zhaoji laughed out loud: "Who will be next time?"
Yuan Xi was so angry that he grabbed Cai Zhaoji, put his hand into the lapel of her clothes and ravaged her. He waited for her to beg for mercy before giving up.
Mrs. Wu sat at the table and taught her daughter how to read. She wrote stroke by stroke, leaving ink marks on the bamboo slips with her pen tip.
When Mrs. Wu writes a word, she pronounces the syllables of the word, and her daughter imitates her with a sweet voice.
In the past few days, she had been extremely irritable and restless, so she had to find something to distract her, otherwise she felt like she was going crazy.
There was a knock on the door, and Yuan Xi said outside: "Madam, can you come in?"
Mrs. Wu's body trembled, she bit her lower lip, then stood up and slowly opened the door.
She lowered her head and said to Yuan Xi, "I have met the envoy."
Seeing his rather cold tone, Yuan Xi smiled bitterly inwardly, fearing that the other party might have a grudge against him.
He said aloud: "I have a few words to say to Madam, can I go in and talk?"
While he was speaking, his eyes were involuntarily attracted to the large-scale ravine. When Mrs. Wu saw it, she hurriedly pulled the skirt of her clothes, but did not move her feet away. She whispered: "What do you want, Sir?"