Silver Fox of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 260 Great Changes in the South

In late November of the 13th year of Jian'an, more than ten days later, Jizhou and Yecheng.

Cao Cao took Yecheng last year, so he moved his Sikong mansion to Jizhou, leaving only a few officials in Chendu to look after Liu Xie, and almost the entire court moved to the north.

Since then, the government orders in the north have come from Yecheng.

In history, he completed this progress in the ninth year of Jian'an. In the original time and space, he has already stationed troops in Wulin, and he will be burned to Chibi next month.

But now he has just taken Yecheng and started to sweep the north, which also means that he is at least four years behind this time point in history, and it may not be as smooth as in history.

Because in history, he was able to go north to destroy Yuan Shang and Yuan Xi in a stable manner, and then ran all the way to Bailang Mountain in Liucheng. The prerequisite for the surprise attack on Tadun was that he had no enemies in the north.

At that time, only Wuhuan, the three prefectures with which the Yuan family had a good relationship, were left in the Yuan family's power. Gao Gan had been eliminated by him the year before. At war, no one can threaten him.

Therefore, in the 12th year of Jian'an in the original time and space, Cao Cao was able to lead his troops northward to Liaodong swaggeringly, and even dared to raid Bailang Mountain, rushing thousands of miles, cutting off the border troubles in the north completely.

And now?

Although there were civil strife in the south, the protagonists of the civil strife were not Liu Biao and Sun Quan.It's people like Liu Bei, Liu Qi, and Shen Chen, and at most one more Sun Quan who is eyeing them covetously.

But Cao Cao didn't think Sun Quan would be Liu Bei's opponent.

Therefore, once Liu Bei, Liu Qi, Shen Chen and the others get Jingzhou, Cao Cao may have to toss and turn and cannot sleep.

At that time, not to mention personally leading the army to destroy Tadun, even whether to go to the west of Youzhou to attack Yuan Shang and Yuan Xi, I am afraid that I have to consider it.

So now Cao Cao has indeed been paying attention to things in the south.

Even now that Yuan Tan fled to Bohai Sea, Cao Cao only sent generals Xia Houyuan, Yu Jin, Xu Huang, Zhang Liao, and the newly formed elite cavalry tiger and leopard cavalry led by Cao Chun.

He himself has been in Yecheng.

The sky in Yecheng is gray today. Although there is no snow, just like last winter, it is raining continuously. Can freeze.

When the cold evening wind slowly blows into the hall, the wind chimes under the eaves outside the corridor sway with the wind and jingle.Cao Cao sat at the table in the small hall of the Yazhu in the backyard of the Sikong mansion in Yecheng, carefully reviewing the documents from all over the place, and giving instructions on the latest official documents from all over the country.

There are some important instructions that need to be sent to Xiahouyuan Yujin and others on the front line, some diplomatic documents to be sent to all parts of the country, and some are to be conveyed to the frontier generals guarding Chendu, Yingchuan, Runan, etc. some military orders.

Now Cao Cao's main energy is indeed in the north, not only grabbing territory, but also defending it.

In addition to the more important military, diplomatic, food and grass conditions in various places, trivial matters such as people's livelihood, government affairs, public security, etc., large and small, all fell on his shoulders.

In the past, he didn't need to worry about these things, Xun Yu would help him do it well.

But for the past six months, he only wanted to deal with government affairs every day.

As long as you can keep yourself from being idle, even reading a few more official documents is much better than staying alone and doing nothing.

Therefore, Cao Cao often sent the documents from Shangshutai to Sikong Mansion. Even if Xun Yu had already written the document, he would often give the document a second time, or even several times.

Not to grab Xun Yu's power.

but.

"Cangshu."

Cao Cao was criticizing, and suddenly threw the brush in his hand on the table, and fell down in the desk and cried bitterly.

Six months ago, Cao Cao's favorite son, Cao Chong, died of illness.

And at that time, Cao Cao was leading the army to fight outside, and he didn't even see his son for the last time.

Upon hearing the news of Cao Chong's death, Cao Cao, who had almost wiped out Yuan Tan at that time, rushed back, but it was of no avail. When he returned in a hurry, he could only see Cao Chong's cold body.

Once again, a white-haired man sent a black-haired man, which became the second regret in his life after Wancheng killed Cao Ang.

For this reason, Cao Cao hadn't thought about eating and drinking every day for the past six months, and burst into tears. As a last resort, he could only bury his head in government affairs to numb himself, but every time he recalled his son's face in the middle of the night, he cried so much that his pillow was wet.

Now thinking of Cao Chong again, Cao Cao couldn't stop crying.

Weeping for a while.

A servant who was entrusted by Mrs. Bian to deliver a bowl of hot chicken soup at night walked outside the hall.

As if he heard footsteps, Cao Cao raised his head, and suddenly saw the servant. The servant seemed to have never seen such a vulnerable side of Cao Cao, and was looking at him in a little surprise.

What kind of face is Cao Cao at this time?

He was wearing a thick silk down black satin robe and a gray fox fur coat. His hair was disheveled, his face was full of vicissitudes and pain, his cheeks were covered with snot and tears, and his chest and right arm were wet with tears.

"Si Sikong."

The servant hurriedly lowered his head and held up the tray in his hand, just about to say that Mrs. Bian sent him to deliver the chicken soup.

As a result, Cao Cao shouted angrily in the next second: "Come on!"

"Sikong!"

The left and right guards came in from outside the door.

"Drag out and stick to death!"

"what?"

The servant was dumbfounded at the time, and quickly knelt down and kowtowed like garlic: "Sikong spare your life, Sikong spare your life!"

But the guards didn't care about this, and dragged the servant away, and soon there were screams outside.

After finding an excuse to kill a person with a stick at random, Cao Cao felt much more comfortable.

He took out a piece of silk, wiped the snot and tears from his face, and tidied his messy hair a little.

"Ok?"

When Cao Cao was arranging his temples, he noticed that his hair was already black and gray, with white hair clustered, and he couldn't help feeling a lot of emotion.

I am also old.

"Father!"

At this moment, another respectful voice sounded outside the door.

Cao Cao quickly tied up his hair, adjusted his mood, and then said in an extremely majestic voice: "Come in."

A tall and straight figure appeared at the door.

This man is about 20 years old, with a slender figure and a good appearance. He is somewhat similar to Cao Cao when he was young. He is Cao Cao's second son, Cao Pi.

"Father."

Cao Pi walked in without looking sideways, the chicken soup was still on the ground, but he didn't even look at it, he came in seriously and bowed his hands to Cao Cao.

Cao Cao looked at him and said coldly, "What's the matter?"

Cao Pi said respectfully: "A document from the front line was delivered to the mansion just now. It happened that the boy was discussing the scriptures with Chen Changshi. I thought it was getting late and Chen Changshi would be on duty soon, so I helped him give it to my father. delivered."

As he spoke, he held the document in both hands, walked all the way to Cao Cao's desk, and put the document on the desk.

Cao Cao glanced at him, but did not read the document, but said in a deep voice: "Since you are talking about the scriptures with Chen Qun, what is the scriptures?"

Cao Pi was taken aback for a moment, and then said with a quick reaction: "The Analects of Confucius, Chen Changshi has been writing "On the Meaning of Meaning". People don't know about it, and they can't use it. It's the destiny. How can a gentleman be stunned, so it's called not stunned."

"Well, it's wonderful."

Cao Cao nodded in satisfaction, then rubbed his hands to disperse the cold air in his palms, reached out to fetch the urgent document, and skillfully tore off the outer silk rope.

Cao Pi, on the other hand, breathed a sigh of relief, and stood aside respectfully without speaking.

Since Cao Chong died of illness half a year ago, Cao Cao has been moody. Every time Cao Pi went to comfort him, he was scolded by him. He even said that the death of Cang Shu was his misfortune for Cao Cao and your luck for Cao Pi.

This sentence made Cao Pi feel very uneasy.

However, this uneasiness was quickly dispelled. Cao Cao only hated Cao Pi for a short period of time because of Cao Chong's death, but he was a rational person and would not take his anger out on the remaining heirs because of Cao Chong's death.

Among the scholars, Cao Ang and Cao Chong were the best. After the two died, only Cao Pi and Cao Zhi were left to choose.

So Cao Cao began to vigorously train the two. For example, he valued two young juniors at that time, one named Yang Xiu and the other named Sima Yi, so he recruited Yang Xiu as a doctor and asked him to accompany Cao Zhi, and recruited Sima Yi as Cao Yi to accompany him. Cao Pi.

At the same time, he would occasionally call Cao Pi and Cao Zhi to come over and take them to deal with political affairs together.

The reason why Cao Pi came to deliver the document at night was that Shi Chenqun, the new Chief Sikong who has a good relationship with Cao Pi, guessed that this document should make Cao Cao very happy, so he immediately called Cao Pi over and asked him to send it. Brush favorability.

Although it is far from the time for Cao Pi and Cao Zhi to compete for the right to inherit, it has actually begun to germinate. At least Cao Zhi is expressing himself every day, hoping that Cao Cao can value him more.

At this moment, Cao Cao opened the document and glanced at it. Sure enough, his face gradually showed joy. This made Cao Pi, who had been watching the words and expressions, heaved a sigh of relief, and his mood relaxed a lot.

Although Cao Pi and Cao Zhi have not yet started to fight for the heir apparent, Cao Cao's words and Cao Zhi's outstanding literary talent also made him feel a lot of pressure.

Therefore, to please Cao Cao has become a very important strategy for him.

"Father."

Cao Pi saw that his face was gradually full of smiles, so he pretended to be curious and asked, "Is the war on the Bohai Sea going well?"

Cao Cao said with a smile: "Miaocai attacked Nanpi in three days and five hundred miles. Yuan Tan was caught off guard and was defeated. When he fled to the north, he was beheaded by Zi and his tiger and leopard riders!"

Cao Pi hurriedly said: "Congratulations, father. In this way, Hebei will be completely pacified, leaving only Yuan Shang and Yuan Xi from Youzhou, and high officials from Bingzhou."

"This generation of children, nothing to worry about."

Cao Cao waved his hand, his mood became more and more comfortable, and he said with a smile: "In less than a year, I will be able to pacify the north. By then, there will be [-] states in the world, and I will have eight states in my hands. The rest will only be Xiliang. , Yizhou, Jingzhou, Jiaozhou and Yangzhou."

The thirteen prefectures of the Great Han Dynasty, Henan has Yan, Yu, Xu, and Qing four prefectures, Hebei is Jizhou, Yandi is Youzhou, Jindi is Bingzhou, and now he has actually controlled a part of Chang'an in Guanzhong, and Sili is also in his hands .

So as long as he wiped out Yuan Shang and Yuan Xi's high-ranking cadres, and got Youzhou and Bingzhou, at least in terms of territory, Cao Cao did control eight of the thirteen states of the Han Dynasty, and his strength was very strong.

More importantly, these places are also centers of population and high-quality land resources. After a few years of recuperation, his army will expand to unimaginable levels.

"Father."

Cao Pi immediately hit the rails while it was hot: "Recently, people in the court often say that although Sikong is one of the three princes, he still can't gain weight and has made mistakes. He wants to persuade my father to add the position of prime minister."

"Well"

Cao Cao pondered. Historically, he had not only been promoted to prime minister at this time, but he was almost burned by the fire of Chibi.

But now he has not acted for a long time, because his progress is much slower.

The north is not peaceful, so how can you dare to be the prime minister?
However, although it has not been settled yet, Yuan Tan is dead, and the entire territory of Qingzhou and Jizhou has been brought into his hands. Right now, only Youzhou and Bingzhou are left, and it will be a matter of time.

Therefore, there have been more voices to persuade him to add a prime minister recently.

Of course, behind this is not that those people are making troubles on their own initiative, but Cao Cao himself is building momentum for the addition of a prime minister.

After all, he is over 50 years old. At this age, no one knows how long he can live, so he still hopes to strengthen his power.

of course.

At least for now, he is still in the deliberation stage.

The main reason is that the situation in the south has been unstable, which made him hesitate whether it would cause internal forces to rebound if he became the prime minister himself.

After thinking for a while, Cao Cao shook his head and said, "Forget it, after Youzhou and Bingzhou are destroyed, let's talk about the prime minister. Now Liu Biao in the south died at the beginning of the year. Although Liu Cong and Liu Qi are in conflict, there are still 20 people in Jingzhou. Soldiers and horses, the troubles of my heart and soul cannot be pacified, high banks are valleys, deep valleys are mausoleums, it is a sign of great chaos."

"The boy knows."

Cao Pi quickly kept this matter in his heart, and the next time Cao Cao killed the high-ranking officials Yuan Shang and Yuan Xi, he brought it up again to please his father.

was talking.

The guard outside shouted: "Report!"

"Come in!"

Cao Cao responded.

The guard came in, knelt down on one knee and said, "Chen Changshi asks to see you."

"Let him in."

Cao Cao glanced at Cao Pi, and it seemed that a new official document had been sent to the Chang Shi's office in the outer mansion.

Historically, after Cao Cao became the prime minister himself, Chen Qun joined the prime minister's military.

But now Cao Cao has not yet become the prime minister, and it happens that Liu Dai, the original chief minister of Sikong, was beheaded by Shen Chen, so Chen Qun was promoted as chief minister of Sikong, and he was in charge of the documents of the Sikong mansion.

Documents from various places in the Han Dynasty were generally sent to the prefectures by Shangji, and the prefectures sent people to Shangshutai, where Shangshu ordered Xun Yu to dispose of them.

Naturally, important documents were directly submitted to the Sikong Mansion, and Chen Qun handed them over to Cao Cao.

Now that Chen Qun is here, it can only be that there are new documents.

Soon Chen Qun entered the hall, bowed his hands to Cao Cao and said, "Sikong, Sun Quan from Jiangdong sent someone to send a letter to Inspector Wen. Inspector Wen didn't dare to neglect, so he sent people to Yecheng quickly."

Although the country is in chaos now, Cao Cao still dispatched governors to various places. For example, the governor of Yangzhou was called Liu Fu, and he was stationed in the Jiujiang area of ​​Lujiang River in Huainan. Yuan Shu's original territory was ruled by the Yangtze River with Sun Quan.

Later, Liu Fu died of illness, and this year Cao Cao sent Wen Hui, his original chief secretary of Sikong, to succeed him as the governor of Yangzhou. Therefore, if Sun Quan wants to communicate with Cao Cao, he must first find Wen Hui.

Knowing that it was an urgent letter sent by Sun Quan, Cao Cao knew that something had happened in the south, and immediately said, "Submit it."

Chen Qun hurriedly handed over the box containing the letter.

Cao Cao opened the box and saw that it was not bamboo slips, but stacks of paper.

It can be seen that Sun Quan had a lot to say, but he was afraid that it would be troublesome to carry too many bamboo slips, so he sent them on precious writing paper.

Cao Cao picked up the letter paper and read it quickly.

His brows quickly frowned, and the expression on his face changed as he continued to read the paper.

It seems to hesitate, to hesitate, to frown, to be annoyed, to hesitate, to be angry!
"Call Guo Jia, Xun You, Cheng Yu!"

Cao Cao raised his head, his gaze was extremely severe, and he squeezed out a few words between his teeth: "Let them come quickly!"

Cao Pi and Chen Qun immediately looked at each other, realizing the seriousness of the matter.

I'm afraid. Great changes have taken place in the south!

　If I don’t want to update [-]D every day, I will be tortured repeatedly, with stuffy nose, runny nose, dizziness, and constant coughing. It’s really uncomfortable. Several of my author friends have stopped updating and recovering from illness. It’s not easy for me to barely update. I hope everyone can understand.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)