Sima Hui was not afraid of Cao Cao's eyes. He raised his head and said seriously: "Dedicate yourself to the great man." That tone of not fearing power instantly boosted the morale of those behind him.
"Resist the Sichuan barbarians and protect the Han people." The people behind shouted loudly.
"Are you going to rebel?" Cao Pi said sternly, looking at Sima Hui and others angrily.
"If Master must say this, even if we misinterpret our good intentions, we have no choice but to admit it," Sima Hui said.
This sentence was tantamount to a showdown. All the soldiers of the royal palace pointed their spears at the mob, and at the same time, the people behind the family also drew their swords.
Sima Hui looked at the palace guards and was already confident. This time, the troops controlled by the various tribes and clans in Yecheng gathered together, plus the private soldiers of various courtyards and palaces, there were more than 3,000 people in total. The palace guards only had a few hundred people in total, and they would definitely not be able to stop them.
Stay on the attack, as long as you control Cao Cao, great things will happen.
"Everyone." Sima Hui shouted: "Cao Cao abandoned the Han people and indulged the Sichuan barbarians. We had no choice but to rise up and kill him."
"Kill." The mob poured into the palace with various weapons and fought with the palace guards.
This palace guard is no longer the Tiger Guard of the past. It is just a selection of strong men from the army. Due to the influx of noble families in the past year or so, in order not to make the people of the noble families feel unfair, Cao Cao cannot pay too much attention to his personal guard.
The Guards are just a little stronger than the normal ones.
The huge numerical disadvantage caused the palace guards to retreat step by step.
"King Wei, we don't have any ill intentions. Please tell the soldiers to put down their weapons and we will stop attacking to avoid harming lives."
"Those who surrender will not be killed."
The mob shouted various slogans and entered the palace in large numbers. Cao Cao shouted: "Those who are loyal to me, Cao Cao, retreat to the inner courtyard."
Behind Xu Huang's palace, Cao Cao led a group of loyal civil and military officials to retreat to the backyard. Sima Hui snorted coldly: "I want to leave."
Before he could close the gate of the inner palace, the mob had already rushed in. A large number of the royal guards were killed in the battle. Xu Huang retreated step by step until Cao Cao and a group of people were unable to retreat and were surrounded by the mob in a semicircle.
"King Wei." Sima Hui shook his robes and walked out: "As I said before, we have no ill intentions. As long as you give the order to resist the Sichuan barbarians with all your strength, there is no need to resist any longer, otherwise it will be no good for everyone."
Sima Hui knew that there would be no benefit in killing Cao Cao at this time. If Cao Cao died, even if a new king was supported immediately, Hebei would be in chaos.
What the family wanted was to control Cao Cao, hold Wang Ling hostage, dilute Cao Cao's influence, and then slowly support Cao Cao's son to ascend the throne. This would ensure stability in Hebei.
Sima Hui also needs to control Cao Cao and make Sima Yi the first assistant, so that the Sima family can grow stronger. After supporting Cao Cao's son in the future and further weakening the influence of the Cao family, the Sima family can truly rise.
Therefore, Sima Hui does not need Cao Cao to die. Now there are dozens of royal guards left around Cao Cao. There are more than a dozen generals and only a few civil servants. He is alone and alone. It is time to persuade him to surrender.
But after listening to Sima Hui's words, Cao Cao had no idea of surrender. He looked at the officials who sided with the clan and asked in a deep voice: "Are you all going to rebel?"
Cao Cao was so angry that in addition to Sima Yi and other civil servants from aristocratic families, many officials from poor families also surrendered. These officials lowered their heads, but the situation was stronger than the others.
"Following the crowd" is a derogatory term, but if these civil servants from poor families had not realized this early, they would not be in the position they are in today. Those from poor families who can get into the court have basically adapted to the rules of the family.
When the outcome of the Battle of Guandu was not yet decided, they could communicate with Yuan Shao. Cao Cao later found out that the exchange letters were burned and did not pursue any further investigation.
Now, they can also surrender to the family and reach their current official position. They all know what to choose at this moment.
"Okay, okay, okay." Cao Cao said several good words in succession. Although those officials from poor families felt guilty, if it weren't for Cao Cao's meritocracy, they would not have been able to obtain such high official positions, but no matter what, they were asked to return to Cao Cao.
To die is impossible.
Cao Cao looked around. Because most of the direct generals were under Cao Zhang, there were only a dozen military generals left here, including several civil servants such as Xun Yu, Xun You, Cheng Yu, Guo Jia, and Cao Pi and Cao Zhi's two sons.
"Are you afraid?" Cao Cao asked his two sons.
Cao Pi said loudly: "My son and his father will live and die together. There is nothing to be afraid of."
Fifteen-year-old Cao Zhi wanted to say a few strong words, but his lips pursed twice and he didn't say a word. His face already showed that he was scared.
Cao Cao did not blame Cao Zhi. Cao Zhi was more of a literati. He usually only knew how to dance and write, recite poems and write poems. He had never encountered this kind of battle. It was good to be able to stay by the side and not make a fool of himself or say anything that ruined the family tradition.
.
Cao Cao glanced at Cao Pi with relief: "Pi'er is good. I originally thought you would be scared, but your actions today show that I misjudged you. It's my father's fault. You are worthy of being my son. We, father and son, will be together today."
Let’s get rid of these gangsters.”
"Yes, father." Cao Pi responded loudly.
"Destroy us? Does King Wei still have the strength?" Sima Hui frowned when he saw that Cao Cao was actually willing to resist. He was worried that Cao Cao was not afraid of death, so he stepped forward and said.
"Cao Mengde, I know you are not afraid of death, but you have to think about your family. You have thirteen wives and concubines, and more than a dozen children. Your wives and concubines also have relatives. Don't you care about their life and death?"
"Threatening your relatives? Have you, the hypocrites who talk so much about justice, finally shown your true colors?" Zhang Liao shouted loudly, his originally rosy face now turning red with excitement.
Sima Hui ignored Zhang Liao, just snorted disdainfully, and said to Cao Cao: "Cao Mengde, if you don't even want the lives of your relatives, you can also don't want the civil and military officials who follow you. You can't want to don't want one person's life, right?
Lu Bu's daughter, Lu Lingju, you have been keeping secret, keeping her in a deep palace, and not allowing the ministers of civil and military affairs to talk about it. Do you not want the world to know about your scandalous affairs with Cao Cao?
We will do whatever we can to keep the big man away. Today I will tell you that if you are willing to accept our conditions now, we will never hurt Lu Lingju even a hair, and we will not talk about her in the future.
But if you must fight to the death, then Lu Lingju’s fate may not be too good. How the Sichuan barbarians treat the female relatives of our family, then we will treat Lingju the same way. You should think about it yourself."
Cao Cao slowly clenched his fists. What Cao Cao hated most in his life was for others to make excuses for Lingju, let alone use Lingju to threaten him. At this moment, Cao Cao was really angry.
"Chong'er, what are you waiting for?" Cao Cao roared.
Except for Guo Jia, Zhang Liao and others, everyone else was bewildered. The clansmen were also startled by this roar. At this moment, the sound of a large number of armors shaking was heard.
The doors and windows of the houses around the inner courtyard were open, and countless soldiers surrounded them from all sides. The sound of their footsteps on the ground was clearly that of well-trained elites.
There are about two thousand people, all of them are old subordinates that Zhang Liao and Xu Huang have led for several years. They are the best among the best.
Although there are more than 2,000 people, which is less than the army of the family, but these elite soldiers are not comparable to a mob. More than 2,000 people can completely defeat the 3,000 army of the family.
Sima Hui, Zhuge Ci and others changed their colors instantly.
An eleven or twelve year old child walked out of a door, it was Cao Chong.
The moment Sima Yi saw Cao Chong, his pupils shrank. No wonder he didn't expect that Cao Cao actually asked Cao Chong to lead the army as a child.
Sima Hui, Zhuge Ci, all the family members and officials were so frightened that their faces turned pale, and they began to surrender. Those poor civil servants felt regretful and blamed themselves for being obsessed with betraying Cao Cao. Have they forgotten Cao Cao's previous domineering attitude? Guandu surrendered once.
Forget it, surrender again now.
Judging from Cao Cao's angry face, and this was not an exchange of letters, but a real surrender in person, would he have a good ending?
The moment Cao Chong led his troops out, the outcome was clear.
Before Cao Cao ordered the attack, Sima Yi walked out from the crowd and bowed to Cao Cao: "King Wei, the situation is reversed now. Although you control the overall situation, we account for 90% of the officials here. Without us, the Wei army would
It cannot function at all, do you want to kill us all?"
After listening to Sima Yi's words, all the officials immediately raised their hopes. Yes, since ancient times, the law has not punished the public. Even if the dynasty changes, as long as the officials of the previous dynasty surrender, they will rarely be killed. They will still be officials. What's more, Cao's army is in danger now, how can he kill like this?
Many officials.
The fear just now was really unfounded. After the Battle of Guandu, Cao Cao did not kill the internal officials because he wanted to maintain stability. It must be the same now.
Cao Cao looked at Sima Yi's dead face with a pair of shrewd eyes, and said solemnly: "Zhongda, you are a great talent, but you are the watchdog of the family. You have squandered your talent. I cherish your talent and don't want to kill him."
You, but you must die."
Sima Yi lowered his head and did not answer. Cao Cao looked at the other surrendering officials. The officials were extremely nervous and only hoped that Cao Cao would say: "Surrender without killing."
"Do you think that this king dare not kill you? Let me tell you, this king has already expected that you will force him to remonstrate, and deliberately rejected your request in order to catch you all. You will all die today, and no one can escape.
"
The hearts of the surrendered officials dropped to freezing point. Sima Hui felt that his whole body had lost strength and was trembling all over. He regretted that he was too impulsive and should not have underestimated Cao Cao, let alone lead the rebels himself.
But Sima Hui had to speak.
"Your Highness, King Wei, Cao's army is forcing us from three sides now. If you kill the people here and Chao Gang is in chaos, you will surely die at the hands of the Sichuan army. We have a common enemy, so why lose both sides?"
Facing everyone's last look of hope, Cao Cao laughed loudly and said coldly: "Sima Hui, you really have two mouths. Just now Cao Mengde has become His Royal Highness the King of Wei. Just now you threatened me with Lingju.
At that time, I never thought that we had a common enemy."
Cao Cao glanced at all the mobs, officials of aristocratic families, officials of poor families, generals of aristocratic families, and elders of aristocratic clans. When he saw these people who were usually arrogant and acted like they were gentlemen, but secretly were selfish to the point of being outrageous, he showed a look of fear.
Cao Cao felt extremely happy.
Only now did Cao Cao understand Liu Zhang's feelings after massacres several times. It felt so good to no longer be influenced by these sanctimonious people and to be his true self.
"Don't have any illusions. I, Cao Cao, have decided to surrender Hebei to Shu King Liu Zhang. I have set up this situation today to wipe out all the pests like you big man. None of you can escape."
As soon as Cao Cao finished speaking, there was an uproar in the whole place. The whole family was stunned and stayed in place. They felt that they had heard wrongly. Xun Yu, Xun You and Cheng Yu had not received the news in advance, so they also looked at Cao Cao in surprise.
Zhang Liao, Xu Huang, Cao Ren, Xia Houyuan and other generals had some regrets on their faces. They had known about this decision in advance, but they reluctantly accepted it considering the current situation of Cao's army, which was isolated, dominated by aristocratic clans and unpopular with the people.
But as a general who had followed Cao Cao for many years, he was about to surrender at this time, which was inevitable.
Sima Hui staggered back a few steps. Now he was really desperate. Not only Sima Hui was desperate, but the rest of the people were also desperate.
They didn't expect that someone like Cao Cao would surrender to others. Even Sima Yi opened his eyes wide, thinking that he heard wrongly. Thinking of his conversation with Sima Fu, when he mentioned the possibility of Cao Cao surrendering, he insisted that this was not the case.
possible.
But now that I think about it, if I had followed the idea of Cao Cao surrendering, everything would have been easily solved and became logical.
At this time, everyone was desperate. If Cao Cao surrendered to the Sichuan Army, even if Cao Cao did not kill them now, Liu Zhang would not let them go when the Sichuan Army invaded.
The execution of the clan, the mass graves in Xuchang, these frightening images lingered in my mind, and all the clans seemed to have lost their souls.
Cao Cao no longer wanted to be nagging and ordered an attack in a cold voice. Xu Huang, Zhang Liao and Xia Houyuan drew their swords and went out to fight. Those descendants of the noble clan were no match for Cao's army and were massacred one-sided. Sima Hui and other senior clan elders screamed in fear.
Seeing the blood splattering, some civil servants even fainted.
"Uncle Ren, you should also go and help exterminate the rebels." Cao Pi said to Cao Ren, who was standing with a sword.
Cao Ren laughed and said, "Don't worry, young master, the overall situation will be settled without me going. My lord has already said that the general will not face the sword directly."
"Then I'll go." A complicated expression flashed across Cao Pi's face, he clenched the hilt of his sword and shouted: "Shi A, follow me to kill the enemy."
"Yes." Cao Pi's personal guard from behind responded loudly.
When Cao Cao and Cao Ren heard what Cao Pi said, they were both shocked. They were about to persuade Cao Pi not to go out, and there was no need to go out, but something unexpected happened and Shi A slashed at the back of Cao Ren's neck with his sword.
Cao Ren felt the wind and was horrified. However, Shi A, who had learned from Wang Yue, drew his sword too quickly and struck first. He had no time to resist. The sword cut the artery in his neck and fell to the ground immediately.
Before Cao Cao could react, Cao Pi's sword had been handed over. Cao Cao had no time to pull out the Heavenly Sword and slashed at it. Cao Pi's sword was cut in pieces. Just when Cao Cao was furious, Shi A's sword had been handed over.