【224】Set aside disputes and build harmony together
Summary of the previous chapter: Whether in modern society or in the late Han Dynasty, if you want others to be loyal to you, personality charm alone is not enough. Therefore, Ma Xiaoquan set aside a part of the income from Xuanwu Pond to reward him.
These men...
The sun was three poles high, and the shadow was in the right position. When Ma Xiaoquan opened his eyes, he happened to see Hua Yuexin's back facing him.
Ma Xiaoquan suddenly became lustful. He got up secretly and struck Hua Yuexin from behind with his claws on the chest.
"Yeah" Hua Yuexin called out shyly and turned her head to take a look.
"Dead ghost...stinky man...dead man...stinky man..." Hua Yuexin shyly hit Ma Xiaoquan's chest with her show fist.
Ma Xiaoquan chuckled and took Hua Yuexin into his arms, murmuring: "It was so comfortable last night."
Hua Yuexin bit her lower lip, blushed prettyly, stood up and got out of Ma Xiaoquan's arms.
"Why are you so unruly?"
Ma Xiaoquan waved his hand: "It's just the two of us, how can I pretend to be serious?"
"you"
Hua Yuexin picked up a piece of clothing and was about to throw it at Ma Xiaoquan when someone outside reported: "Master, Mr. Cao is visiting!"
"Huh?" Ma Xiaoquan frowned, "What is Xiao Cao doing here again?"
Ma Xiaoquan took the clothes and pants from Hua Yuexin, quickly dressed them up, opened the door and walked out.
"Where is Xiao Cao now?"
"In reply to the master's words, we are waiting for you in the main hall now."
Ma Xiaoquan nodded and walked towards the main hall with his hands behind his back.
In the main hall, Cao Cao was sipping tea and meditating. Ma Xiaoquan stepped in and called him twice, but Cao Cao didn't respond.
"Cao Mengde!" Ma Xiaoquan shouted again.
"Ah?? Oh" Cao Cao finally came back to his senses.
"Lord Immortal!"
Ma Xiaoquan hummed: "What are you thinking about?"
Cao Cao smacked his lips twice: "Master Shangxian, someone down below is encouraging me to become emperor. I..."
Before Cao Cao finished speaking, Ma Xiaoquan interrupted impatiently: "Do you have the courage to be an emperor? Look how old you are?"
Cao Cao blushed and stopped talking.
Ma Xiaoquan said: "Xiao Cao, I know your thoughts. In fact, you don't dare and don't want to be the emperor, right?"
Cao Cao nodded.
"Let's do this, or you can become the prime minister!"
Cao Cao was stunned for a moment and said: "The post of prime minister has been abolished for a long time. Now that the prime minister system is restored, I am afraid that others will hate it."
Ma Xiaoquan explained: "Then you can become a general!"
Cao Cao said: "The general only has military power, but not much political power."
"Aren't you still leading Jizhou Mu?"
Cao Cao smiled bitterly and said: "Even so, it sounds like he is just the governor of a state."
Ma Xiaoquan said: "After all, don't you still want to be the highest officer of the Han Dynasty?"
Cao Cao blushed and stopped talking.
Ma Xiaoquan said heartily: What are you pretending to be? It was your boy who restored the prime minister system, and you are still pretending to be a big-tailed wolf in front of me. How nice of you.
Ma Xiaoquan said nothing and looked directly at Cao Cao.
After a while, Cao Cao slowly spoke: "Master Shangxian, do you think this prime minister..."
Before Cao Cao finished speaking, Ma Xiaoquan stood up immediately and said loudly: "Send off the guests!"
Cao Cao was stunned for a moment, but soon he came to his senses, laughed and walked away.
Not long after Cao Cao left, he immediately sent someone to deliver a letter. Ma Xiaoquan opened it and took a look. It turned out to be Cao Cao's letter soliciting opinions on employment.
The content of the letter is very simple. It mainly involves Cao Cao asking Ma Xiaoquan who should be used to help him select talents if he becomes prime minister.
Ma Xiaoquan immediately wrote a reply and wrote the names of two people: Cui Yan and Mao Jie.
The moment he stopped writing, Ma Xiaoquan suddenly thought of his apprentice Mao Gang who was far away in Jingzhou.
Ma Xiaoquan accepted Mao Gang at the end of October in the third year of Chuping, 192 AD. It is now 208 AD, the 13th year of Jian'an. At that time, Mao Gang was still a boy of thirteen or fourteen. Ten years have passed since he ordered Mao Gang to go to Jingzhou.
It has been five years, and after all calculations, Mao Gang is almost 30 years old.
"Well!" Ma Xiaoquan breathed out and said to himself, "It's time to go to Jingzhou to see it."
At the end of May in the 13th year of Jian'an, the Xuanwu Pond project in charge of Ma Xiaoquan was nearing completion.
In ancient times, unlike modern times, it only took a few months to dig a large pool. The excavation work of the entire Xuanwu Pool started from the first month and lasted for more than 3 months. After it was dug out, it was responsible for filling the dam with water, back and forth, almost 5 months.
months.
Ma Xiaoquan invited Cao Cao to inspect the work, and Cao Cao happily agreed.
Arriving at the Xuanwu Pond, Cao Cao was extremely excited. Cao Cao's original intention was to spend half a year or even ten months digging and tidying up the Xuanwu Pond. Unexpectedly, Lord Shangxian took over and the construction was almost completed in less than five months.
"Great!" Cao Cao clapped his fleshy hands, swallowed, and thought to himself: This way I can train the navy next month, and then Jingzhou...
The more Cao Cao thought about it, the more excited he became, and he laughed involuntarily.
The subordinates who were accompanying him saw their lord laughing and laughed too.
...
Come to think of it, things have to be done step by step.
At the beginning of June, Cao Cao "expressed his gratitude" to Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty, deposed the three princes, and replaced him with the prime minister and the imperial censor.
Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty named Cao Cao Prime Minister. With the position of Prime Minister, Cao Cao had more complete control over the military and political power of the Han Dynasty.
The higher the position, the greater the ambition. At night, Cao Cao even dreamed that he had unified the country.
Ma's courtyard.
Ma Xiaoquan was sitting upright, and under his seat, his female relatives were sitting in rows.
Ma Xiaoquan said: "I have something to say, and I'm going to leave for a while."
Hua Yuexin asked: "Where is Mr. Xian going?"
"Jingzhou!"
"Jingzhou?" Ling'er interrupted, "Ling'er wants to go too!"
Ma Xiaoquan waved his hand: "You take care of all the children. This time, I will only go with Diplodocus."
As soon as Ma Xiaoquan opened his mouth, Ma Zhuzhu refused: "Brother, you take Diplodocus with you wherever you go, what should I do?"
Ma Xiaoquan chuckled: "Okay, okay, then I won't bring Diplodocus with me. I'll bring my Yecheng Eight Scholars Headquarters, right?"
Having said that, Ma Xiaoquan will not take away all the Eight Scholars of Yecheng. First of all, Ruan Hong and Yao Zhi cannot be taken away, because they are not only the full executors of the excavation work of Xuanwu Pond, but also the teachers of his son Ma Zheng.
As for other people, they either have other important things to attend to, or they have to deal with civil and military invitations.
Ma Xiaoquan thought about it and decided to pick two people from the eight scholars to take to Jingzhou. After looking around, Ma Xiaoquan decided on two people.
"Ma Yun, Ma Yu, I'll take you two with me. What do you think?"
Ma Yun and Ma Yu looked at each other and smiled, stood up, bowed their hands, and said in unison: "We are willing to go to Jingzhou with the master."
"good!"
Ma Yun and Ma Yu are twin brothers, and they are direct children.
The reason why Ma Xiaoquan chose to bring these two brothers with him was because, firstly, their home was in Jingzhou, and secondly, these two people also had the surname Ma. Generally speaking, Ma Xiaoquan and them could be considered as members of the same family.
At this moment, the two brothers Ma Yun and Ma Yu were also very excited.
They knew that the owner's surname was also Ma, but they did not expect that when they went to Jingzhou and returned to their hometown this time, the owner would take them with him.
Ma Xiaoquan said: "Ma Yun and Ma Yu, take you two back. For all this, the master has to ask you two to lead the way."
Both of them knelt on the ground: "Master, don't worry, although my Ma family is just a small wealthy family in Jingzhou, it still has some respect..."
"Well, that's good!"
...
That night, Ma Xiaoquan went to Cao Cao's house and told Cao Cao what he thought. After hearing this, Cao Cao was surprised and said, "Why don't you, Lord Shangxian, wait for me to go with you when I attack Jingzhou?"
Ma Xiaoquan smiled and said: "Waiting for you? You are just pretending now. Tell me, if you leave now, what will happen to your rear?"
Cao Cao chuckled: "Master Shangxian refers to the princes in Guanzhong, right? It's easy to say, Master Shangxian, please take a look."
Cao Cao took out a white scroll from his arms and unfolded it: "This is the list of people who threaten me. I will be wary of them one by one... Well, first of all, this is Duan Xuan, and
That Wei Duan..."
Ma Xiaoquan interrupted: "Oh, there's Ma Teng on this one. Xiao Cao, how do you plan to deal with Ma Teng?"
Cao Cao: "... Ma Teng is an official of the imperial court, but he and Han Sui have been at odds for a long time. I can send someone to lobby Ma Teng and let him disband his troops and join the court..."
As Ma Xiaoquan listened, he thought to himself: This process indeed happened in history, but how could Ma Teng easily agree to Cao Cao? Interesting...
Ma Xiaoquan asked again: "What if Ma Teng doesn't agree to enter the court?"
Cao Cao thought for a moment: "It's impossible to fight. Liangzhou soldiers are brave and good at fighting. I have two lobbyists to choose from. I hope Lord Shangxian can help me choose one."
Cao Cao handed over the names of two more people. Ma Xiaoquan took a look at it and immediately pointed to one of them named Zhang Ji and said, "That's him!"
"Uh." Cao Cao was originally going to describe the introduction of these two people, but Master Shangxian made a decision so quickly. Cao Cao was choked up for a moment.
Ma Xiaoquan smiled and thought: This is how history goes. If I don’t choose Zhang Ji, who should I choose?
Cao Cao shook his head and chuckled: "Okay, then send Zhang Ji there!"
...
The history is correct, and Zhang Ji executed it without any problems.
Ma Teng originally did not want to join the court, but as Cao Cao said, he and Han Sui had been at odds for a long time, and the most important point was that Ma Teng was not as powerful as Han Sui.
There was one point in Zhang Ji's persuasion to Ma Teng that Ma Xiaoquan passed down to him orally through Cao Cao. Zhang Ji repeated it to Ma Teng intact.
Zhang Jidao: "You and Han Sui are at odds, but your son may reconcile with him. As the saying goes, if I can't solve the problem, my son should solve it. Well, this is called shelving disputes and jointly developing...