Liu Bei looked at Cao Hui's slim back and almost agreed. At this moment, Cao Hui's figure disappeared behind the screen. Liu Bei felt that his eyes were empty, and he suddenly woke up. He coughed twice and covered his face.
Feeling embarrassed, he said sternly: "Thank you, General Cao, for your kindness. It's just that the people of Xuzhou are suffering from wars and troubles nowadays. How can Liu be greedy for the personal love of his children?"
Cao Bao saw that his careful arrangement was about to succeed, and the Cao family's status in Xuzhou would continue to be maintained, and it was even possible to go one step further and become the number one family in Xuzhou. However, at this critical moment, Liu Bei actually reined in his horse.
After listening to Liu Bei's words, Cao Bao's expression froze and he said hurriedly: "I know that my lord already has a family, but my lord is in his prime, so what's the harm in having more wives and concubines? As for the people of Xuzhou, Cao has a lot of wealth.
, I am willing to donate a batch of money and food to help my lord!"
Cao Bao had heard that Liu Bei had a wife named Gan, but he didn't know that Gan Mei was just Liu Bei's concubine. His implication was that as long as Liu Bei was willing, he could even let his daughter be a child for Liu Bei.
This Cao Hui's beauty is not inferior to Ganmei. Otherwise, Lu Bu would not have married Cao Hui again despite the two beauties Yan Rui and Diao Chan in history. Moreover, he would have married her as his wife, not as his concubine. Liu Bei did have some feelings just now.
Fascinated, it's just that he is a man who plans big things. Now that the situation is unclear, he not only has to maintain his own image, but also maintains a clear head. He has long thrown all the lust out of the sky.
Liu Bei stood up, walked to Cao Bao, patted his shoulder hard, and said: "General Cao can take the initiative to donate money and food. On behalf of the people of Xuzhou, Liu would like to thank General Cao. As for the marriage between Liu and your wife, please forgive Liu."
I can’t obey my order.”
Seeing the disappointment on Cao Bao's face, Liu Bei smiled and said: "General Cao, if you can do such a righteous act, Liu will not treat you badly. Just rest in peace and recover from your injuries. After you recover from your injuries, Liu will still be there."
We must entrust you with important responsibilities.”
Historically, Liu Bei came from a humble background, but he was able to attract Cao Cao's attention. He has his own merits, but he couldn't guess Cao Bao's little thoughts. Liu Bei must firmly hold the military power in Xuzhou no matter what.
However, there are not many capable people under Liu Bei. Although Cao Bao has mediocre skills, he has been leading troops for many years and is more familiar with military matters than others. In the current situation where no one is available, Cao Bao
It can be considered a "talent".
After taking this reassurance, Cao Bao breathed a sigh of relief and said quickly: "Thank you so much, my lord, I will go to General Guan's command tomorrow to take orders!"
He originally planned to sacrifice his daughter to Liu Bei in order to maintain his status as the number one man in Xuzhou's army. Now that Liu Bei politely refused, he had to settle for the next best thing. In fact, if Cao Bao had heard of Liu Bei's famous saying "Brothers are like brothers,
, "A wife is like clothing", you will not have such thoughts.
Liu Bei walked out of Cao's Mansion with his hands behind his back and a relaxed look on his face. He saw Jian Yong hurried over with a group of soldiers.
It turned out that Jian Yong didn't think there was anything wrong when he learned that Liu Bei personally sent Cao Bao home. Doing so would be beneficial and harmless in bringing Liu Bei closer to the local nobles in Xuzhou. However, when he heard that Liu Bei had entered the Cao Mansion
He didn't come out for a long time, so he couldn't help but become worried, and hurriedly organized a team of soldiers to greet him.
Seeing Liu Bei come out unscathed, Jian Yong was relieved, took a step forward, raised his hands and said: "I am late to welcome you, I hope your lord will forgive me!"
Liu Bei knew what Jian Yong was worried about, so he waved to the carriage parked outside the gate of Cao's Mansion and said, "Xianhe, you came just in time, let's get in the carriage and talk."
After Jian Yong sat down, Liu Bei continued: "Xianhe, you are worrying too much. Cao Bao is an incompetent person, how dare he harm Liu? Not only did he not dare to harm Liu, he almost gave his daughter to him
Where is Liu?"
When Jian Yong heard that Cao Bao actually wanted to dedicate his daughter to Liu Bei, he naturally understood Cao Bao's plan. He couldn't help but laughed and said, "This is a beautiful thing. My lord, why don't you agree to it? The Cao family is also considered a big family in Xuzhou."
, with the funding from the Cao family, the dilemma of shortage of money and food can be alleviated. This is the same as when my subordinate proposed marriage to the Mi family on behalf of my lord, and this time it is Cao Bao who takes the initiative to send her, wouldn't it be more trouble-free?"
Liu Bei shook his head and said: "Mi Zhu is a gentleman, but Cao Bao is a villain. How can they be compared? If Liu marries Cao Bao's daughter, I'm afraid he will put forward many conditions, which will be harmful to the matter."
Jian Yong deeply agreed with Liu Bei's words. If Liu Bei got married to the Mi family, Mi Zhu would definitely help Liu Bei complete his great cause. But Cao Bao was not like that. He probably wanted to help Cao Bao more by getting married to Liu Bei.
The family is seeking benefits. Jian Yong couldn't help but nodded and told the driver: "Send the lord back to his home."
Liu Bei waved his hand and said, "Don't rush back home yet. Xianhe, let's go to the military camp to have a look."
After this farce in Cao Bao's house, Liu Bei seemed to wake up from a dream, and all his thoughts of making out with Gan Mei just now were abandoned in Java.
In the military camp in Xuzhou, Guan Yu was seizing the time to comprehensively reorganize the army. Although the army in Xuzhou city numbered 50,000 and had nearly 10,000 horses, most of these armies were laxly trained, and the most powerful ones were led by Liu Bei from Langya.
The army that originally belonged to Zang Ba came back. However, the Langya army was somewhat dissatisfied with Liu Bei. In the battle against Cao Cao's army some time ago, the performance of this army was somewhat ineffective.
No matter how powerful Guan Yu's martial arts were, he could not improve the combat effectiveness of the entire army at once, nor could he completely bring the Langya Army back to its original focus. All he could do was to break up all the troops, reorganize them, and eliminate the old, weak, sick and disabled.
, reducing the army of more than 50,000 to about 35,000. In this way, although the total number of troops has been reduced, those who remain are the elites of the army, and their combat effectiveness will be greatly improved compared to the past.
Moreover, with the reduction in the number of troops, the burden of money and food will be greatly reduced, which is particularly important for the cash-strapped Liu Bei.
However, those soldiers who were laid off were a bit miserable. Looking at the entire Han Dynasty, only Liu Xin would provide generous pensions to disabled soldiers, and those retired soldiers would also receive better arrangements. While other princes treated their own soldiers
There is no such good treatment. Once these soldiers are laid off, it means that they will lose their source of livelihood. Although they usually receive military pay, being a soldier is a dangerous profession after all, especially in these troubled times, no one can
They knew whether they could survive the next battle, so soldiers followed the doctrine of carpe diem and few people would accumulate some personal belongings. Now, they were suddenly laid off and had no savings and no military pay income.
They are all old, weak, sick and disabled, and their futures can be imagined.
Hearing that 15,000 people were to be laid off at once, all the soldiers got very energetic. Even the Langya soldiers who looked unconvinced stopped their idle thoughts and straightened their backs.
They have already left their hometowns, and if they are included in the abolition process again, there will really be no way for them to survive.
Guan Yu looked at the refreshed soldiers in front of him and sneered secretly in his heart. These people really didn't shed tears until they saw the coffin. If they had been so energetic a few days ago, Cao Jun might have retreated long ago.
Like Liu Bei, he only thought that Cao Cao's army was unable to conquer for a long time and was out of food and fodder, so he chose to retreat. Until now, he still doesn't know that the real reason for Cao Cao's retreat was because he was threatened by Liu Xin. It can be said that Liu Xin's command at the critical moment
He took action to save them. Of course, a person like Liu Bei who is bent on great things would not thank Liu Xin even if he knew that Liu Xin saved Xuzhou at the last moment. He would consider Liu Xin more.
What is the ulterior motive behind doing it?
Guan Yu was not a soft-hearted person. Even though the soldiers in front of him had already raised their spirits, he still resolutely carried out the disarmament action in accordance with the established policy. All the wounded soldiers were not retained, and all were included in the disarmament list.
There were also some strong soldiers who were killed by Guan Yu because they did not use their full strength in the previous battle to defend the city. Most of these soldiers were forcibly pulled over from Langya by Liu Bei.
Many middle-level and lower-level officers are also being laid off. Many of these people relied on their family background to become captains and generals. There are also many people who got to their current position by treating guests, giving gifts, bragging and flattering. These people also
They were not all incompetent people, but Guan Yu himself came from a poor background and naturally looked down upon these people. No matter how noisy they were, he wanted to drive them out of his army and select a group of ordinary soldiers with high martial arts skills to serve as middle and lower ranks.
officer.
As soon as this order was given, the army was in an uproar, and the soldiers immediately started to clamor. You must know that since these people can become captains, lieutenants, and generals, how come they don’t have a few cronies around them? If these captains, lieutenants, and generals are eliminated, their cronies will
They will also lose their special status in the army, and naturally they will follow their master closely.
One of the captains could not restrain himself and came out of the crowd, shouting loudly: "The general is not convinced, you are excluding dissidents and using your confidants!"
General Cao is right, he is excluding dissidents, and we are not convinced!"
Many people in the army started shouting, and the school grounds became noisy.
Guan Yu glanced at the captain named Cao coldly, and said in a deep voice: "Who are you? How dare you yell in front of Guan!"
The captain puffed up his chest and said loudly: "I am the nephew of General Cao. My surname is Cao Mingjin. If you remove me from my official position, my uncle will definitely not agree!"
Guan Yu laughed loudly and said: "What is General Cao? Isn't he the Cao Bao who is greedy for life and afraid of death? You can continue to be a captain if you want, as long as you can catch Guan Mou's sword! Do you dare to give it a try?
?”
Cao Jin was stunned. Some time ago, Cao Cao's army invaded. Guan Yu almost single-handedly resisted Cao Cao's tens of thousands of troops. His reputation for bravery had already spread throughout the Xuzhou army. How could Cao Jin not know about it?