Chapter 376 The Heart of the King and His Subjects
Chapter 376 The Heart of the King and His Subjects
Author: Glorious Little Rabbit
Chapter 376 The Heart of the King and His Subjects
Cao Cao led Dong Cheng to the front line, and saw thousands of people arrayed outside the city, as if they were facing a powerful enemy, and they were flying the banner of the Baibo Army.
Upon seeing this, Cao Cao turned to Dong Cheng and said, "General, what is going on?"
Dong Cheng secretly cursed, what else could have happened? He instantly figured out that Bai Bojun deliberately let him out of the city and then prevented him from coming back!
If Cao Cao cannot enter the city this time, he will never be able to return to the emperor again!
Thinking of this, he said with righteous indignation: "Mr. Cao, the Baibo army is so ambitious that they have already begun to kidnap the emperor!"
"Please also ask Cao Gong to make trouble and peace difficult!"
Cao Cao sneered in his heart, Dong Cheng wanted him to have a fight with the Bai Bo thieves, it was a bad idea!
Even if he defeats the Baibo bandits, his vitality will be severely damaged. There will be Li Jue, Guo Si and the Youzhou Army behind him. Will they be picked off by others?
At this time, whoever can't help but take action first will lose!
Thinking of this, he smiled at Dong Cheng and said, "I don't think the Baibo thieves are completely unreasonable people. If the two sides fight, I'm afraid the collision will frighten the emperor."
"How about if General Labor comes and says that I just went to the city to protect the Emperor and have no intention of becoming an enemy of the Baibo Army?"
Dong Cheng suddenly broke out in cold sweat from his vest. Bai Bojun was already at odds with him. Didn't he ask him to die?
He laughed dryly and said: "Your Majesty, there are a lot of disagreements between Cheng and the Baibo Army. If the other party takes the opportunity to attack, then..."
After hearing this, Cao Cao chuckled: "Since the general is afraid, then Cao Cao should just go!"
He rode straight to the front of the battle formation and ordered his men to shout: "Cao Mengde, the herdsman of Yanzhou, received the order to welcome the emperor, but why did he block the road?"
After a while, a man from Baibo's army came out on horseback, followed closely by a general. Several generals from Cao's camp saw this, and for fear of making a mistake, they all rode to Cao Cao's side to protect him.
This move made the other party hesitate. When Cao Cao saw it, he said to the person behind him: "It doesn't matter!"
He rode his horse forward for more than ten steps. He was dozens of feet away from the opposite side. He faced each other from a distance. He first raised his hands and said, "Cao Cao and Cao Mengde, may I ask who is coming?"
The first person saw it and said to the general behind him: "This Commander Cao is really brave!"
He cupped his hands and said, "My general, Xingyi General Yang Feng, left Chang'an and escorted the emperor back east."
"Now that you are coming with a large army, all the officials don't know your intentions, so we are called to lead the army to support you!"
Cao Cao took out the emperor's edict from his arms, showed it in front of him, and said: "This is the edict written by the emperor himself, ordering Cao to enter the city!"
"If the general suspects something is false, he should bring it back to the emperor to see if it is true or false!"
Yang Feng knew that the edict was most likely true, but his purpose of stationing troops outside the city was to find an excuse to prevent Cao Cao from entering the city.
Now that the White Wave Army has gained an absolute advantage in the city, it is about to defeat Dong Cheng and his group. At this time, Cao Cao appears to disrupt the situation. Who is willing to hand over the benefits to others?
Therefore, Yang Feng's appearance this time was to delay time so that other Baibo generals in the city could organize their defenses to prevent Cao Cao from launching an attack.
He winked at the general behind him and said, "Gongming, go get the edict."
The general behind him was Xu Huang. After hearing this, he rode his horse and walked slowly towards Cao Cao. When he was about ten steps away, he saw among the generals of Cao Cao's army, there was a man who looked like an iron tower, holding a pair of large iron halberds.
The horse galloped over and shouted: "Stop!"
Xu Huang saw the men approaching with great force, and obviously wanted to give him a blow. He had already grabbed a long ax in his hand and went forward to meet him.
The general of Cao's camp was none other than Dian Wei. Seeing that Xu Huang dared to challenge him, he immediately roared wildly, tensed up the muscles in his arms, and swung the iron halberd with both arms like wheels, and the wind seemed to hit Xu Huang to kill him!
When Xu Huang saw two bright blades coming toward him, he didn't dare to neglect him. When Dian Wei got close, he immediately thrust the long ax into the center of the opponent's arm.
There was a loud bang, the two weapons collided, sparks flew everywhere, and they both felt a strong force coming from them.
Xu Huang's body swayed suddenly, and he was shocked that the opponent was so powerful!
However, Dian Wei took advantage of his momentum and advanced instead of retreating. With his other hand, he used his iron halberd to stab Xu Huang in front of the door!
Xu Huang's long ax swung away and he had no time to retract it, so he turned the handle of the ax and blocked the iron halberd. This hit Dian Wei's heart. He laughed wildly, used his arms hard, and hooked back hard, trying to hook Xu Huang's long ax over!
Unexpectedly, Xu Huang just let go, Dian Wei's hook was free, and the halberd hook slid out along the ax handle. He was so exhausted that he almost fell off his horse, so he quickly steadied himself.
However, Xu Huang reached out and took the long ax in his hand again. This move was very clever and he also spotted the flaw that Dian Wei was not good at riding. Even Cao Ying general shouted "Hello".
After Dian Wei heard this, he was furious, brandished his halberds and attacked again, and the two sides fought together.
When the fighting was going on outside the city, Liu Xie inside the city learned of the confrontation between people outside the city and summoned someone privately.
Taiwei Yang Biao.
This was the person Liu Xie trusted the most in private, and his status was even much higher than that of Kong Rong.
Yang Biao, from Wenxian, was born in the Yang family of Hongnong. His great-grandfather Yang Zhen, his grandfather Yang Bing, and his father Yang Ci were all officials in the capital, and they were all known for their loyalty and uprightness.
The Yang family of Hongnong has studied "Ouyang Shangshu" for generations, and is as famous as the Yuan family of Runan.
Yang Biao was initially promoted as Xiaolian, and the state promoted him as Maocai. The government recruited him, but he failed. Later, he was recruited as a minister, and successively succeeded him as the general of the five senses, the prefect of Yingchuan, the prefect of Nanyang, and the young master of Yongle.
He held the positions of Fu, Imperial Servant, Wei Wei, Jing Zhaoyin, Guang Luxun, Sikong, Situ, Taiwei, etc. It can be said that he held almost all official positions, large and small.
He was a loyal and upright person. He contradicted Li Jue and Guo Si several times and was almost killed. He also protected Liu Xie several times when the Emperor's car was returning eastward and almost died, so he was highly trusted by Liu Xie.
Liu Xie asked Yang Biao to sit down and said, "Nowadays, there are several forces inside and outside the city. Which one does Ai Qing think is the most trustworthy?"
After hearing this, Yang Biao said: "The Tian family refers to Cao Cao, Marquis Wen, and Yuan Xi, right?"
"With all due respect, none of these three parties can be completely trusted."
"Although the Cao family served Huang Lao, Cao Teng started the chaos of eunuch dictatorship, and since then the Han Dynasty has gradually declined."
"Although Marquis Wen was brave, he abandoned His Majesty and ran away, which shows that he is not loyal to die and is not completely reliable."
"The Yuan family has the intention of becoming self-reliant. Yuan Xi is called the fierce tiger of the Yuan family. As a descendant of the Yuan family, he has ulterior motives and must be guarded against."
"The three of them are called to welcome the emperor, but in reality they all have different agendas."
Liu Xie heard this and sighed: "The Taiwei still wins my heart!"
"So what do we do?"
Yang Biao thought for a while and said: "It would be best if we could use three parties to defeat Li Jue and Guo Si and drive away the Bai Bo bandits."
"But I am worried that if these three people join forces to control His Majesty, how will they be different from the Baibo bandits?"
After hearing this, Liu Xie expressed his deep agreement and said, "What you said is very much in line with my wishes."
"This is also what I'm most worried about."
"Is it best for me to find a way to make them fight each other and attack each other?"
"By the way, how about two peaches and three soldiers?"
"I have issued an edict as a general and a prince. Whoever can kill Li Jue and Guo Si will be granted the title!"
"This method allows them to deal with Li Jue and Guo Si, and also allows them to weaken each other and fight!"
When he said these words, his pride was palpable, and he felt that he had slowly learned to use tricks!
Unexpectedly, Yang Biao knelt down and kowtowed: "What I said just now caused your Majesty to misunderstand. It is my fault."
"Just now I said that none of the three people can be completely trusted, but that doesn't mean that they must have evil intentions."
"If Your Majesty still has the same idea as before and uses this method to deal with ministers, he will lose the support of loyal ministers like Duan Yan just like before. This is really a taboo for a king."
Liu Xie was shocked when he heard this. He quickly stood up and said, "I really don't understand what Aiqing said. Please give me some advice!"
Yang Biao said seriously: "Your Majesty was born in a deep palace and grew up with women. No one taught you how to be a king. This is not your Majesty's fault."
Yang Biao's words were actually secretly saying that Empress Dowager Dong was wrong. Liu Xie could naturally hear it. If it were him a few years ago, he would have been furious on the spot, kicked Yang Biao out, and would no longer trust him from then on.
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Now that Liu Xie has grown up and has seen more things, he has slowly come to understand that although Empress Dowager Dong who raised him was very kind to him, she did some bad things to the world.
Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty was greedy and cruel, exploited the blood and sweat of the people in the world, amassed a large amount of land, money and goods, and sold his officials and titles, which made the people miserable. He also turned a blind eye when the world suffered natural disasters, which was an important cause of the Yellow Turban Rebellion.
During this process, Empress Dowager Dong not only failed to take up her responsibility of admonishing, but instead helped the evil tyrants, sold her officials for goods, greedily amassed money, and interfered in the government affairs, causing the whole world to lose confidence in the Han Dynasty.
It can be said that apart from Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty, Empress Dowager Dong must bear a large part of the responsibility for the mess in front of Liu Xie.
Now Yang Biao reminded Liu Xie almost openly. Liu Xie was a little angry at first, but then he suppressed his anger and began to think deeply.
There is nothing to say about Yang Biao's loyalty. He could not have mentioned such a disgraceful thing on such an occasion, but since he did say it, it must have deep meaning.
Liu Xie thought for a while and then raised his head, "Ai Qing means that no one is perfect?"
A trace of relief appeared on Yang Biao's face, "Your Majesty is smart, and given time, he will be able to revive the Han Dynasty."
"If the water is clear, there will be no fish; if the people are clear enough, there will be no disciples. How many saints are there in the world today?"
"Although Cao Cao's grandfather was in power, he also served the Emperor. Although Marquis Wen abandoned His Majesty, he was helpless. Although the Yuan family's fierce tiger is a descendant of the Yuan family, he may not have no intention of loving Your Majesty."
"These three are all helpful in solving the current predicament. Your Majesty should think more about how to make them willing to serve Your Majesty, instead of thinking about plotting against them in advance before the enemy is eliminated, which is really unworthy of the emperor."
"I also ask that your Majesty be able to appreciate the strengths of your ministers and tolerate their shortcomings. This is the way to be a king."
"Just like Wang Situ in the past, he was too strict and strict and was not tolerated by the world, which led to the disaster of death. It is really sad."
"Of course, you must not be wary of others. Your Majesty needs to listen to their words, observe their actions, and be aware of them."
Liu Xie believed it and was moved in his heart. He stepped forward and held Yang Biao's hand and said: "I have written down what the Taiwei said!"