Johime Three Kingdoms

Chapter 605 The situation in Chang'an (two in one)

"What do you think of these two pieces of news?" Bai Tu had already shared the secret report from Wancheng to Jinling with other great scholars in the palace.

"Folk rumors are that Liu Xie held a Hongmen Banquet to frame Qi Hou Liu Bei, and Zheng Hou and Sai Hou rescued him, so he attacked Chang'an? Well... Although we know that this possibility is very small, we must pay attention to the reason why 'folks The rumor is that this is because Zong Zheng's government, including Zong Zheng, are now accusing Liu Xie."

Lu Su didn't believe any rumors, but he cared about the reasons for the rumors!

This is not a deception, but including the current Zongzheng, many clan relatives in the court "support" the news released by Zheng Hou—but the strength of support is not clear.

In the past, the Zongzheng was Liu Ai, but later expanded his real power. Liu Ai, who was trusted by Liu Xie, held multiple positions in the court and the Yulin Army, so he resigned as Zongzheng, and another "reliable" emperor uncle, He served as Zongzheng.

Of course, "reliable" refers to Liu Xie's senses. In fact, this reliable uncle had previously expressed support to Liu Bei for his "succession"!
Was it temporary persecution?Or had he secretly communicated with Marquis Zheng for a long time?
And what is the basis for the cooperation between these clans and Zheng Hou?Are you being bewitched by him, are you using the power of Marquis Zheng to eliminate political opponents, or are you being forced by Marquis Zheng?

It's a pity that Bai Tu didn't know that the clan members secretly supported Liu Bei's succession. After all, Liu Bei didn't publicize it everywhere, especially in order to reassure the clan members, he swore not to leak it.

Otherwise, you may be able to guess that these clans are the basis for cooperation with Zheng Hou...or in other words, with Sima Yi!

We are planning to abolish the legislation, but the parties concerned do not agree. At this time, as long as we promise them not to leak it, can we feel at ease?
Obviously these people were still worried, and just when they were on tenterhooks every day, Sima Yi gave them another choice...

He was able to easily break into the city wall because Zhong Yao introduced him to the city gate order, and he was able to blow open the palace gate and easily break into the Chang'an Palace because a part of the clan rebelled!

"The second news is obviously not to be believed. Regardless of whether Liu Xie is dead or not, if Liu Bei is really taken into custody by Zheng Hou, whether it is to contain Qing Xu and Long You, or to make a fake show, all the previous There is no need to declare to the public that the rescue failed." Yu Fan frowned at the information.

Indeed, if the two news channels are exchanged and "Liu Bei's death" is reported from within the palace, it may be true...

After all, if Liu Bei really dies, although Qingxu Province and Longyou will be greatly shocked, Zheng Hou, or Sima Yi, will face fierce revenge from Qi Hou's troops.

At this time, it was announced that Liu Bei was still being detained, which could serve as a "delay strategy."

However, on the other hand, if Liu Bei was really captured alive, why would he announce that he was dead?

Of course, this does not mean that there is something wrong with Catching Wind Guard. After all, the latter is only news "from insiders in the palace."

The people in the palace at that time may not have known the actual situation. What was spread was only the news that was available at his level!

But looking at the two together, Liu Xieliang is not cool, he is still between [-] and [-].
As for Liu Bei, it is possible that he is really dead, and it is more likely that he escaped for some reason, and most of the court officials are detained in the palace and are still being deceived by "fake news", so there is a need to punish those detained By spreading false news to deceive the public, they try to slander Liu Xie as much as possible!

The reason why the news of Liu Xie's death was disseminated among the officials in the palace, after all, has the effect of screening and testing. The channel for the news of Chu State is not the core of the court, but only a few who can barely enter the palace at the beginning of the new year. He is just a humble official in the capital.

"It seems that everyone has the same idea, so... from now on, the members of the Enlightenment Department will also treat this matter as a Level B priority. Even if they bear the risk of exposing their identities and needing to evacuate, they will send back the news! In addition, the information will be sent back! Immediately send an order to Hanzhong to prepare... troops to leave Ziwu Valley at any time!" Bai Tu decided.

Ziwu Valley is the place where Wei Yan wanted to send troops in history. According to Wei Yan's imagination, he could quietly pass through Ziwu Valley and go straight to Chang'an...

That's right, the northern end of Ziwu Valley is very close to Chang'an, only thirty miles away, which is closer than Wancheng to Xucheng.

Therefore, the biggest obstacle for troops leaving Ziwu Valley is whether they can avoid being discovered.

Gao Yingxiang's uprising in the late Ming Dynasty was an attempt to get his troops out of the Ziwu Valley. However, he was ambushed and killed in the Ziwu Valley by Sun Chuanting, the governor of Shaanxi at the time and an important minister in the late Ming Dynasty.

It can be seen that Ziwu Valley is not conducive to attack, but it is easy to be ambushed.

Zhuge Liang in history obviously did not think that Cao Wei would be unprepared.

Not to mention now, Chang'an is the seat of the Han Dynasty court. If Ziwu Valley is not fortified, Baitu will eat the tungsten steel seal!

In fact, in Meridian Valley, the state of Chu had pulled barbed wire and dug trenches, and Chu and Han scouts had fought each other not once or twice. If there was no surprise attack effect, Meridian Valley would not be a very good place to fight.

Especially now that it’s the Chinese New Year, the weather is still quite wintery!

However, now that Chang'an is in chaos, Bai Tu thinks that instead of sitting idle, it would be good to put some pressure on him. What if he forces the opponent to make some stupid move?

In addition, there is actually another piece of bad news - the Catching Guards responsible for responding to Hua Xin failed to spread the news!

At times like this, obviously no news is bad news…

However, Bai Tu was only worried in his heart and did not bring it to the palace to report. After all, it was useless for them to worry about it. It all depended on the performance of Catcher Guard and the local Enlightenment Department.

Forcibly "trooping troops out of Ziwu Valley" also meant to deal with Hua Xin who might be in trouble.

Bai Tu and several others from the palace also had a hurried meeting during lunch. Afterwards, in order to calm people's hearts, they did not need to accompany the Han room to cause chaos, so they continued the New Year's Day ceremony and speeches in the afternoon as if in a hurry.

At the same time, in the basement of the woodshed of the mansion of a wealthy businessman with a Yang family background in Chang'an City, two people were playing chess without any embarrassment.

It was Hua Xin who "missed" at the beginning of the New Year's Day banquet, and... Liu Bei, who was still being searched in the imperial city by Zheng Jun!
Hua Xin originally wanted to take advantage of the fact that there was no curfew on the [-]th day of the twelfth lunar month and secretly left Chang'an with the cooperation of some Han officials who were instigating rebellion from the Wind Guards and the Enlightenment Department.

Unexpectedly, he caught up with Zhenghou's rebellion, failed to leave the city, and was even almost killed by the Han army who was on guard at the time!
Fortunately, at the critical moment, Major Zhaofengwei, who was in charge of the matter, urgently contacted the Enlightenment Department - the task of rescuing Hua Xin was of a very high level, and the Enlightenment Department also took the risk of exposure and hid Hua Xin in a room with Yang. It is the home of a wealthy businessman with a foreign surname who has in-laws and handles many business transactions for the Yang family.

Although Yang Xiu defected to Wei, the Yang family had nominally expelled him from the family tree. From Dong Zhuo to Cao Cao, Yang Biao had been diligent and meritorious in protecting the dragon. He was still on the list of Liu Xie's confidants, and his moral reputation was even higher. It is the level of a pillar of the imperial court today.

Even when Zheng's army entered the city, they did not conduct a thorough search of the families who were related to the Yang family.

Firstly, Sima Yi didn't want to cause any big quarrel with Yang, and secondly... Yang had no motive to protect Liu Bei!
As a "rising star", Sima Yi also wanted to eat the biggest piece of pie in troubled times. Naturally, his ideas were completely different from other princes.

Just like the Sima family in history...it's not so much "Sima usurping the Cao" as "the family usurping the warlord"!
In addition to the planning of the three generations of Sima Yi, the "big background" of the rise of the clan power itself also played a crucial role in the rise of the Sima clan.

It is precisely because the Sima family represents the powerful family, and naturally the Sima family's emperor can be said to be the least "powerful" of all the unified dynasties from Qin to Qing.

Now Sima Yi is in the mood to give it a try, and now he sets his sights on the "family"!

Naturally, a family like the Yang family, which is highly respected and not yet die-hard loyal to the Han Dynasty, can be regarded as his potential ally.

During the chaos in the palace last night, Liu Bei successfully escaped from the palace under the cover of the Zongwei controlled by Liu Ai. Later... he was sent here by chance by members of the Enlightenment Department.

If it were the Wind Guards, they would definitely not do such a thing - they were only responsible for completing the mission. Since the mission was to return Hua Xin, why should they make it more difficult for themselves?Zheng Jun's main search target now is Liu Bei...

However, the Enlightenment Department is different. Their highest mission is to "promote Chu learning", and they will have a higher degree of subjectivity when acting. When they judge that it will be more beneficial to rescue Liu Bei, or...send Liu Bei back to Jinling together, they will Act now!

When he first saw Hua Xin, Liu Bei even wondered whether Chu State was also involved - after all, if you go to Ziwu Valley, Hanzhong is not far from Chang'an.

However, when he saw the layout of the secret room here and Hua Xin's state of casual clothes, Liu Bei also gave up his suspicion...

Afterwards, the two even started playing chess because they had nothing to do.

Of course, Liu Bei is always guarded by the Wind Catcher!
Liu Bei was not good at force, and before he entered the palace, Liu Bei's military amulets had already been confiscated. Now the two gold-plated generals' wind catchers are enough to serve as "guards".

"Hey, Mr. Hua is indeed more skilled." Liu Bei was not good at talking with his hands.

"It's a small path, it's not as good as the Marquis of Qi." Hua Xin said modestly.

"Is this the sixth game already? Mr. Hua, have you ever thought about what we will do if we can't leave?" Liu Bei didn't know whether he was really anxious or deliberately testing.

"If there is no hope of escape, we have no choice but to wrong the Marquis of Qi... and die for our country." Hua Xin looked at Liu Bei very seriously and said.

This is actually Liu Bei's "guardian" mission!

Liu Bei and Hua Xin are different. Hua Xin can be "captured" by Zheng Hou alive, but Liu Bei cannot...

Even if Sima Yi catches Hua Xin, he will only treat him with courtesy for the time being, and there will be no loss to the Chu State.

As for Liu Bei... Maybe Sima Yi also hopes to catch Liu Bei alive, but for the Chu State, the first choice is to send Liu Bei back to Jinling, but the second choice is to let Liu Bei fake his death and become his real death.

In this way, even if the Chu State cannot use Liu Bei to "interfere" Qingxu and Longyou, at least the Qi army led by Guan Yu and Zhang Fei will regard Zheng Hou as their biggest enemy, and may even immediately send troops to attack them. Liu Bei takes revenge and gives Chu a chance!

"Hahaha, Mr. Hua is indeed a sincere gentleman and will not deceive me." Liu Bei was not angry, but felt very satisfied that Hua Xin did not deceive him.

Hua Xin said it openly at this time, which was actually a warning to Liu Bei not to think about leaving Chu and escaping.

At this time in the palace, Sima Yi also had a headache - his best idea was to capture Liu Bei.

It's just that Sima Yi never thought about abolishing Liu Xie and establishing Liu Bei, as he said when he deceived the Han clan clan members. Otherwise, wouldn't it make it more difficult for himself?
The reason why he wanted to control Liu Bei was simply to contain the Qi army.

Of course, this is just the "best idea". Sima Yi admitted that he was gambling, but he was not such a shallow stud. He also anticipated the possibility of Liu Bei dying in battle or even escaping.

"Zhongda, the little emperor is so angry. I'm afraid he can't be saved, and Liu Bei hasn't been found yet. What should we do next?" Zhang Yan asked the depressed Sima Yi.

"Don't worry, my lord... Could you please, lord, check Chang'an's defense first to make sure that every important place is ours," Sima Yi ordered.

"Okay!" Zhang Yan agreed quickly.

Well, although Zhang Yan is called the lord, it seems that it is Sima Yi who is "ordering" him!

After ordering the Lord to leave, Sima Yi looked at the map again, especially the location of the "upper left corner"...

After all, Qingzhou and Xuzhou are far away, but Longyou... Not to mention what Ma Chao, who had just rebelled, thinks, if Liu Bei really "disappears", Guan Yu, who is still in Longyou, will definitely be the first to be unable to sit still.

And Sima Yi's back-ups, including the high-ranking officials in Bingzhou and the Hetao Xiongnu who accepted Yuan Tan, have all made a secret alliance with Sima Yi. As long as there is chaos in Longyou, the Huns will also send troops to Liangzhou!
There is no need to worry about the Huns breaking the contract, because... if Liangzhou is in chaos, the Huns in Hetao will take action even if there is no covenant!
Sima Yi just made sure that their news was more timely.

Sima Yi has even made preparations to send an envoy to Chu and invite Longyou to send troops together - of course, what Chu is more concerned about must be in front of him, but he has not yet vacated " Mouth" to eat in Nishikawa.

As for Guanzhong and Qingxu, they were "gifts" given to Cao Wei by Sima Yi...

Not only to muddy the waters, but also because Sima Yi, like in history, once again wanted to "bet" on the family!

Unlike other famous generals who have good plans, Sima Yi's bet is no longer on a certain country.

On the other hand, Sima Yi has also seen clearly that the Chu State... can no longer compete with "Lian Heng", or in other words, by uniting the weak.

"Uniting the weak" may protect oneself for a while, but there is no way to "win" at all. The only way to break the game is to "eat" other supplies before Chu State, and not lose when "face-to-face" with Chu State too much.

This is probably what Liu Bei thought in history when he had just captured Hanzhong and when the pre-Qin state of Qi had just begun to advance eastward...

If the situation of the battle of Yiling is rewritten, Shu Han can enter Jiangdong, or Qi can swallow several surrounding vassal states like Qin, in fact, it is indeed worth fighting.

Of course, if Sima Yi had been in the State of Wei before, he might have different ideas. After all... As the military advisor of Marquis Zheng, although the lord is very convenient to use, he is weaker after all, and the source of information is limited. He knows the information of the State of Chu not enough……

(End of this chapter)