"Wow..." bursts of crying came from a mansion in Wanling. After that, officials from all walks of life in Yangzhou began to arrive in an endless stream. They all looked in a hurry when they arrived. Everyone who had entered the mansion was
His face was full of sorrow.
This does not seem to be the most luxurious, but it is still a large mansion that belongs to the Cao family. It is the mansion of Cao Song, the father of Cao Zhi, the current important minister of the imperial court and the cavalry general. After Cao Zhigui became a powerful minister, Cao Song was very good at it.
The Qing Dynasty gave up the county mansion where they originally lived, and bought another mansion in Wanling to live in.
To put it bluntly, this land in Yangzhou is the back garden of the Cao family. It is not impossible for Cao Song's family to continue to live in Wanling County, but Cao Song doesn't think so. His son's official career is getting bigger and bigger, so he can't stop it just because of this.
He and the legal principles occupied the county government and could not leave the county. As an old official in the officialdom, he understood that as a member of Cao Zhi's family, he should not be too arrogant and domineering at this time. He should let the officials and people under Cao Zhi's rule have a better reputation for Cao Zhi.
He should move out of Danyang County where they had been living and let the new governor and officials live and work.
But Cao Song didn't want to move further away. His health was not good, so he stayed in Wanling, not even Xu Du.
A dying person lives his life day by day. The eldest son is dead, but the second son is more promising. Cao Song's mission in this life to honor his ancestors has made him completely satisfied because of the efforts of his two sons.
On the night before the Mid-Autumn Festival in August of the second year of Jian'an, after Cao Song learned the news of Cao Zhi's victory in conquering the Zhong family emperor Yuan Shu, he passed away contentedly after falling asleep for a very normal and ordinary time. He was only killed by Er Niang and other family members the next day.
Discover.
Before the traditional day of family reunion came, after Cao Zhi ended the Shouchun Battle, he took up residence in Shouchun and began to shift his attention to Yuzhou, and even visited the Yuzhou front line to supervise the battle.
After Yangzhou's troops and horses were freed up, Cao's army had already formed a pincer attack from the north and the south, and it became only a matter of time before it won the final victory.
Cao Zhi asked the two-faced generals to capture the entire territory of Yuzhou before the Mid-Autumn Festival. However, Guo Gong was surprisingly tenacious, making it increasingly difficult for Cao's army to fight after they captured four cities. Cao Zhi suffered heavy casualties every time he attacked.
Zhi and his advisers and generals had to revise the battle plan many times to avoid unnecessary casualties.
Guo Gong and his like are already certain to be defeated, so why should they increase the casualties of their soldiers just for the sake of time?
Based on these thoughts, Cao Zhi ordered various generals to surround the remaining Yuan soldiers. He was not in a hurry to annihilate them, but he must not let them break out and besiege them to death. Cao Zhi decided to consume all the remaining soldiers who were holding on to the counties of Yuzhou.
The vigor of Yuan Shu's soldiers and the limited supplies of food and fodder forced them to either abandon their weapons and surrender, or rush out of the city for a decisive battle.
Taking advantage of this opportunity when the war has entered a relatively peaceful period, Cao Zhi is eager to solve two troublesome matters at hand: one is to hunt down the Zhong family emperor Yuan Shu. Cao Zhi's conquest cannot be considered a final victory without killing Yuan Shu. However, Yuan Shu escaped from Shouchun.
After that, he seemed to disappear. Cao Zhi sent out many troops and horses but could not find him for a while. Later, Chen Lan's subordinates who had never met Cao Zhi finally heard from Cao Zhi's subordinates that Yuan Shu had kept them there.
How many days will we spend in the military camp at Haoshan?
This made Yuan Shu's rebel generals Chen Lan and Lei Bo, who were a little disgusted with bargaining with him for a long time, now have opinions and be wary of them. Cao Zhi has been kept in the dark about this very sensitive matter, which makes him
Cao Zhi no longer trusted these two people and their sincerity in surrendering, and he handed over to them a section of the east road blocking the border between Yuzhou and Xuzhou. Cao Zhi must have been very uneasy about the two of them, and there were even people in Xuzhou
Xuyi and Huaiyin counties were still under the control of Chen Lan and Lei Bo.
The second thing is Qiao Rui and his 10,000 surrendered troops. Qiao Rui does not belong to Cao Zhi at heart. This is something Cao Zhi knows very well. After Cao Zhi captured Shouchun, Qiao Rui asked Cao Zhi many times to return
Wu Jun or Kuaiji were stationed there. Those two territories now belonged to Cao Zhi on the surface, but in fact they were still under the control of Sun Ce.
Sun Ce was already a serious problem for Cao Zhi. How could Cao Zhi be willing to watch tens of thousands of troops and generals flow into his arms?
Just when they were worried about these two things, Guo Jia and Jia Xu came to Shouchun and came to Cao Zhi. While congratulating Cao Zhi on the success of his expedition, they also brought about the corruption of Liu Bei's visit to Xudu again, and the upcoming plans for Cao Zhi.
Cao Zhi had a headache due to these two things and started to make some plans.
Since Liu Bei officially joined the Han government controlled by Cao Zhi, he has been protected by Cao Jun's troops and continues to garrison Xiaopei to confront Lu Bu. However, he has never dared to meet Cao Zhi in person in Xudu or other places, and has been sending
People communicate with Cao Zhi's people. Both parties also stationed permanent representatives to facilitate communication and exchanges.
Cao Zhi understood Liu Bei's defense very well, because as long as Liu Bei dared to leave his own territory and step into an area that he could fully control, he would definitely kill the future King of Hanzhong and avoid future troubles for his future career.
Not only did Cao Zhi think so, but he also prepared for it. Cao Zhi's personal guards had specially practiced the military formations to deal with Liu Bei's elite white-eared soldiers, as well as various ways to defeat them.
Liu Bei didn't know whether he knew Cao Zhi's plan, or he had already sensed that when Cao Zhi met him again, it would be a life-and-death situation. Although Liu Bei surrendered to Cao Zhi, he never met Cao Zhi once. As for the coming of corruption again,
He also followed Jia Xu to find Shouchun. It seemed that there was something that Xun Yu, Jia Xu and others could not decide, so they came to Shouchun to ask Cao Zhi for instructions.
There is nothing unexpected about the purpose of Luan Lan's visit. Liu Bei saw that Cao Zhi defeated Yuan Shu, and he also wanted to join the war with the banner of sharing the troubles for the emperor and get a piece of Yuzhou's Warring States Period. As Liu Bei, who already has the status of an orthodox Yuzhou herder, for himself
The proposal to conquer the territory and send troops to quell the rebellion is not too much, but how could Cao Zhi agree to Liu Bei's intervention in Yuzhou, which he was about to unify and pacify.
After Cao Zhi made some perfunctory remarks about corruption, he sent him to the inheritance house to rest, and then talked to Guo Jia and Jia Xu about the two difficult things at present. What Cao Zhi didn't expect was that Jia Xu was a famous poisoner.
But Cao Zhi never knew that Guo Jia also had a vicious side.
As soon as Guo Jia listened to what Cao Zhi said, Chen Lan, Lei Bo, Qiao Rui and others surrendered on the surface, but secretly they all had their own little tricks. Moreover, Yuan Shu hadn't found anything to wait for yet, and before Jia Xu could say anything in silence, he immediately
He sat down and pointed to the map on Cao Zhi's desk and said: "Yuan Shu knew that Yuzhou could not be defended, so he would not go into the encirclement. I think he must be hiding in the junction of Yangzhou, Xuzhou and other places, that is, Jiangting, Linhuai and other places.
land!"
"Oh!" Cao Zhi also asked Guo Jiadao with great interest: "Fengxiao, how can you confirm that Yuan Shu is there?"
"Because it is the closest to Qingzhou, the only person Yuan Shu can turn to in this world is his brother Yuan Shao!"
Guo Jia's casual words made Cao Zhi suddenly realize, "Yes, Qingzhou has been acquired by Yuan Shao. I have always focused on Yuan Shu hiding in places with his subordinates, but I ignored that he and Yuan Shao are brothers. They usually quarrel.
Even when they are like enemies, the brotherly love is worth Yuan Shao's action at the critical moment!"
At this time, Cao Zhi did not think carefully about the benefits of Yuan Shu's possession of the Zhong family's imperial title and the imperial seal that would trigger Yuan Shao's rescue. He just secretly lamented that his thinking was not broad enough and had been limited to a narrow way of thinking, and that he was lame.
of historical knowledge.
"Yeah!" Cao Zhi pondered for a while, then nodded and said, "What Fengxiao said makes sense. Then I will send someone to search in that direction..."
"Slow down!" Guo Jia stopped him in time and interrupted: "Master, don't be anxious, this matter can be solved together with those restless surrenderers and Liu Bei's initiative!"
"ah?"
This time, not only Cao Zhi was surprised, but Jia Xu, who was always known for his resourcefulness, also shouted out, his eyes turning frequently as he looked at Guo Jia with a half-smile, waiting for his next words.
Guo Jia's next words did not disgrace his reputation as a "talented king". He raised his finger and pointed at Linhuai, Huaiyin and other places on the map, and said to Cao Zhi: "My lord first agreed to Liu Bei's request for war, but
Instead of letting him send troops to Yuzhou, let his troops march eastward to Huaiyin, Xuyi and other places to help us capture and clear out Linhuai, Huaiyin and other three counties in Xuzhou that are still under the control of Yuan Shu's men, and let him intercept his escape to the north there.
My lord, you don’t have to care whether Yuan Shu can be robbed or killed, we will deal with Chen Lan, Lei Bo, Qiao Rui and their subordinates on the spot within this period of time!"
When Cao Zhi and Jia Xu lamented that Guo Jia knew how to respond, when they heard Guo Jia talking about solving Chen Lan and others, they asked in unison: "How to solve it on the spot?"
Guo Jiami took a sip of tea next to the desk and said with a sinister smile: "My lord, invite them to drink and then poison them to avoid future troubles forever!"
After hearing Guo Jia's suggestion of using poison, Cao Zhi took a deep breath and looked at him for a long time as if he were meeting him for the first time. His eyes sparkled and he said: "When it comes to playing tricks, tricks, and poisonous schemes, I always thought
It's Jia Xu's patented method, when did you learn it, Guo Jia?"
"Haha..." Jia Xu was amused by Cao Zhi's words and said: "I'm afraid I will have to restrain myself a little in the future. My lord said it is my patent. It is really rare that I can live to this day and still live so healthy and lively!
But Guo Jia, your solution is good, but there are still many issues to consider!"
As soon as the conversation changed, Jia Xu began to show off his talent, questioning Guo Jia Lai and analyzing the many shortcomings of Guo Jia Lai's plan for Cao Zhi.
After Jia Xulue adjusted his sitting posture, he spoke eloquently: "First of all, Chen Lan and others were bleeding and poisoned to death in front of the lord, but the lord and I were safe. Their subordinates and the world
Everyone will know that the lord is intolerant of others and killed the surrendered generals who came to surrender. This will leave a very bad mark in the hearts of those who plan to surrender to the lord in the future. It will be very detrimental to the reputation of the lord and to us.
The great plan to help the world is a stain that can never be erased!"