Shu Chen

Chapter 581

Cao Rui did not return to Luoyang.

Instead, they directly took Yuzhou and Yanzhou, crossed the river and entered Yecheng in Jizhou.

The reason is that Cao Yu, the king of Yan who grew up with Cao Rui and stayed in Yecheng to take care of the clan princes who are now in Luoyang, sent a secret letter.

What was said no one knew.

But after Cao Ruifu saw it, he ordered the imperial army to pack their bags and rush back.

The itinerary was so hasty that when Hu Zhi came back to replace Wancheng after hearing the news, Cao Rui's army had already entered Yuzhou.

This also made all the generals who stayed in Jingzhou uneasy.

If it was an ordinary matter, Cao Rui would not be in such a hurry.

However, after Hu Zhi thought about it, he could roughly deduce what was going on.

If there is no accident, it should be that Li and Shu in Jizhou gathered a crowd to rebel.

After Gein entered Guanzhong with the Luoyang Central Army, Guanzhong could not afford their food and fodder, so the state of Wei always let the Li Shu of Jizhou and Sizhou transfer.

Li Shu was naturally overwhelmed by the corvée that lasted for more than a year.

Now that the decisive battle in Guanzhong is about to start, the corvee will increase again, and it will be the time when the people will be busy with the autumn harvest. It is not surprising that conflicts will intensify and cause civil unrest.

In other words, compared to shaking the morale of the army, a little civil unrest is not enough for Cao Rui to rush back to deal with it himself.

But these are extraordinary times.

Gathering the soldiers of the whole country in the Guanzhong, the Wei State has already been unable to piece together the soldiers and horses to fight against the rebellion!
In order to prevent the civil unrest from sparking a prairie fire and affecting the decisive battle in Guanzhong, it is the best choice for Cao Rui to go back in person.

Anyway, the deployment in Jingzhou has already been done, and everything can be done step by step.

It doesn't make much difference whether Cao Rui is in charge or not.

Therefore, after Hu Zhi entered Wancheng, he wrote letters to Wang Chang, Xia Houxian and other ministries, claiming that the emperor Cao Rui rushed back to Yecheng to supervise the supply of food and fodder for the decisive battle in Guanzhong, so that they would not have to worry about the future.

It's a barely plausible reason.

In this regard, Wang Chang, Xia Houxian and others have nothing to say.

Although they, like Hu Zhi, could vaguely guess the reason for Cao Rui's return, but in the tense situation of the war, the reason given by Hu Zhi was the best explanation.

At least, it can calm them down.

And they didn't have much worry about Cao Rui's return.

The northern border of Geinwei State is very stable now.

The Gongsun clan in Liaodong was destroyed, the Xianbei in the north was no longer infested, and even the fighting in the Hetao Plain in Bingzhou temporarily stopped.

However, since Liu Bao of the Southern Huns and the Tuoba tribe of Xianbei allied together, the territory of Bingzhou in Wei State was reduced to Yunzhong County.However, due to the fact that the Wei State used all its troops in the war with the Han and had no troops to assist and merge the prefectures, Tian Yu once gave birth to Dingxiang County and Yanmen County, which are dominated by mountains, to give up Yunzhong County. The line of defense.

no way.

The terrain of Yimapingchuan in Yunzhong County, under the free-flowing fighting style of the Southern Huns and the Xianbei Tuoba tribe, even Tian Yu, who has guarded the northern border for many years, is a skillful woman who cannot cook without rice.

But now this worry has temporarily eased.

For some reason, Liu Bao of the Southern Xiongnu and Tuoba Liwei of the Xianbei, who had originally cooperated sincerely, turned against each other!
Not only did they return to Shuofang and Wuyuan, but they also frequently sent small-scale rangers to plunder and kill each other, which is really surprising.

Perhaps, it was because the Hulu followed the law of the jungle.

If the benefits are the same, they will unite;

Wei Guo asserted so, and still guarded Yunzhong County as the border.

But what they didn't know was that Zheng Pu's contribution to the sudden drop in the pressure on Wei's northern border was for Wei to launch the decisive battle in Guanzhong with peace of mind.

In Zheng Pu's original strategy, he planned to use the Tuoba Xianbei tribe to kill Liu Bao, the Southern Huns.

However, things changed as the Han army occupied Longdong and most of Youfufeng.

The Han army used Zhang Yi and Liu Zhong (Li Mangtang) to appease the four counties in the northern part of Guanzhong, and helped Gao Jun and Jujiu, the survivors of the Han family in the north, to plant Qiang. Tuoba Liwei felt that if he killed Liu Bao according to the previous agreement, he would usher in the Han army's "end of slander, good bow, cunning rabbit death, lackey cooking".

Therefore, no matter how Huang Chong urged him, he used various reasons to procrastinate, and did not take action against Liu Bao, who was completely defensive.

After Huang Chong guessed what he wanted, he wrote a book and came back to inform Zheng Pu.

After claiming that Tuoba Liwei had not fulfilled the agreement of the past, he offered a plan to retreat to the next best thing.

Instead, he planned to ask Zheng Pu's consent to let Deng Zhong go to the Southern Xiongnu tribe, inform Liu Bao of the agreement between the Xianbei Tuoba tribe and the Han army, and provoke a war between the two tribes.In order to prevent the Wei army from withdrawing from the Hetao Plain, Liu Bao and Tuoba Liwei of the Southern Huns still advanced and retreated together, which eventually became a hidden danger for the Han army to restore the four counties in the central and northern parts of the pass.

And there is no danger in letting Deng Zhong rebel and enter the Southern Huns.

Deng Ai and Liu Bao had crossed paths before, although it was not a friendship, but it was true that Deng Zhong's father died in battle, that Wei's family suffered disaster, and that he himself was forced to serve the enemy. It was enough to dispel Liu Bao's suspicion and accept it.

Therefore, Zheng Pu agreed without thinking.

Quan should be for the benefit of inducing Wei to launch the decisive battle in Guanzhong without any worries.

It's just that Zheng Pu, the dark son who is dormant in the Hetao Plain, can give orders, but Li Jian, who has escaped into the heart of Wei State, is beyond his reach.

Under the circumstances that the news cannot be delivered, everything is up to Li Jian to decide on his own.

Inevitably, he made an untimely move.

However, he said that when the Chencang War was about to start last year, he felt that the best time had come for him to join Wei Sutu, and he began to implement it.

Because he always remembered that when he was far away from his hometown, the task given by Zheng Pu was to disturb the rear of Wei State as much as possible when the Han army pointed at Guanzhong to launch the battle to return to the old capital, causing Wei State to fall into internal and external troubles, Let the big man more smoothly dream come true.

However, Jiangdong's betrayal of the alliance caused the war between Han and Wei to disappear, and the Han army began to attack Wu, which he did not expect.

At that time, he had deliberately made some unusual signs to attract the attention of others, and he had to send them like an arrow on a string.

This put him in a dilemma.

If it continues to be implemented, it will not be of much benefit to the Han army's entry into Guanzhong, and it will also make his efforts to enter Wei for many years in vain; but if it does not continue, it will also end up in vain because it has aroused the vigilance of others.

After hesitating for several days, he still decided to proceed.

However, unlike the original plan, which was similar to the "witchcraft disaster" of Emperor Xiaowu of the former Han Dynasty, which involved countless officials and caused turmoil in the government and the opposition, he planned to drive a wedge between Cao Rui and Sima Yi's monarch-subject relationship.

This change seems unlikely to succeed.

Sima Yi, as one of the four friends of Emperor Wen, is the only auxiliary minister who has achieved great success. Cao Rui's trust in him goes without saying.And it's just that he, as the second governor of the Wei State, relied on to resist the invasion of Guanzhong by the rebellious Shu, so that no matter how stupid Cao Rui was, he would not destroy the Great Wall himself when the war between Han and Wei was in turmoil.

But Li Jian is not ignorant.

He has been in the Wei Dynasty for several years, and through hearsay and careful consideration, he knows that Cao Rui is very intelligent and has the emperor's mind.

I also know that some things seem impossible, but they are the easiest to take advantage of - there is no need to unite countless like-minded people to agree to jointly act like Wei Xi in the past, and then lead the dirty water to Sima Yi; There are many unexplainable mysteries, just let Cao Rui, who is very smart, think about the answers by himself.

Therefore, his method is also very simple.

Taking advantage of the convenience of being in Yecheng, he often visits the Five Dou Rice Sect to seek the way of ghosts and gods; relying on the general documents given by the King of Jibei Cao Zhi, when he pays homage to Wei Wugao Mausoleum every now and then, he will curse Cao Rui for his premature death. The objects were buried near Gaoling.

Naturally, this abnormal behavior cannot be concealed from others.

It was only a month or so after he went back and forth to pay homage to Wei Wu Gaoling, he was reported to the prefect of Weijun by the soldiers guarding the cemetery.

Coincidentally, the current prefect of Wei County is Xia Houxuan who Cao Rui thinks that he has changed his old style and is worthy of use, and uses his old strategy of "breaking first and then controlling Shu" to send out local experience.

Xia Houxuan, who used to chat with Li Jian in common clothes, had no malice towards Li Jian at first.

But after Li Jian and Sima Zhao fell in love with each other and praised each other, he had a bad feeling for Li Jian.

Because of his unexplained and sudden death of his sister Xia Houhui, and the abandonment of his marriage by the Sima family, he was extremely angry, so he also "hated the house and black" towards Li Jian.

After getting the report, he immediately secretly sent someone to follow Li Jian, and successfully captured all his stolen goods.

The thing Li Jian used to curse Cao Rui was a jade gossip card commonly used by Taoists. He is the king of bad luck and the king of subjugation of the Wei state. Therefore, I beg the spirit of Wei Wu Cao Cao in heaven, for the stability of the Wei state, don’t shelter Cao Rui’s life, so that the Wei state can usher in a better monarch.” Yun Yun.

Regardless of words or deeds, nothing else is involved.

For example, which one of the descendants of Wei Wu is the king of ZTE, and who are the officials who are worried about the state of Wei and the country, and pray together.

According to common sense, for this kind of treasonous act related to the monarch, the person in charge can directly report it to Cao Yu, the king of Yan who is now sitting in Luoyang, and let him and the emperor Cao Rui deal with it.There is no need to continue to participate in it, so as not to bring uncertain causality to oneself.

But Xia Houxuan felt that Li Jian must have other accomplices!
For example, Sima Zhao, Li Jian's only friend after entering Wei, must be inseparable from him!
He dared to make such an assertion not only because of his anger towards the Sima family in his heart, but also because Li Jian's technique of hating victory could not be anticlimactic.

There is no other, because in his prayers, he claimed that the reason for cursing Cao Rui's early death was for the consideration of Wei Guoshe.

But let me ask, isn't the change of king the most turbulent thing for the government and the public?

When the world is in peace, the change of the king can still induce bloody changes in the court, let alone the time when Nishu frequently sends troops to invade!

Moreover, for Wei Guo, Cao Rui is the emperor is justified.

Regardless of his status as the eldest son, or the love of Weiwu Cao Cao in the past and the expectation of "I am based on you for three generations".If it is unfortunate that he is cursed, and the candidate for the "king of rejuvenation" in the prayer is not determined in advance, then how can Li Jian claim that this move is for the safety of the country of Wei?
There must be an accomplice to help!
It is not reflected in the words of prayer, just because this accomplice and Li Jian have different responsibilities: Li Jian is in charge of defeating victory, while other accomplices plan to make the king!
Xia Houxuan, who made such an inference, did not immediately report the matter.

Instead, they used "misbehavior when they visited Wei Wugao Mausoleum" as an excuse to dispel people's doubts and concerns about the detention of Li Jian, and secretly tortured Li Jian with confidantes to force their accomplices and party members to interrogate.

Li Jian, who has the will to die, is not as good as he wants.

No matter how severely Xia Houxuan tortured him, even if his body was shattered and he fainted several times from the pain, he kept saying over and over again, "Everyone is responsible for the safety of the country! The ambition of serving the country and the courage of a gentleman, why do you need other people's accomplices!"

After going on like this for four or five days, Li Jian was already on the verge of death, and he would surely die if he was tortured again.

And Xia Houxuan also began to doubt whether his judgment was wrong.

Because he suddenly remembered that Li Jian was just a down-and-out scholar who had no power to restrain himself and had never embarked on an official career!

This kind of person often acts only with the blood in his chest and abdomen, without any regard for the consequences.

Just like when he assassinated Zheng Pu in the past, he only wanted to repay Yin Feng's kindness in his heart, and he didn't care that he would be executed after the assassination, and his clan's wife and children would be implicated.

Now there is no comprehensive plan, no accomplices, maybe it is because of his accumulated anger after witnessing the loss of countless lands in Wei, and being forced to stay away from his hometown, which caused him to act without thinking about the consequences.

Feeling helpless, Xia Houxuan found a reason to comfort himself, and planned to report this matter.

But unexpectedly, just as he was discouraged, things ushered in a bright future.

However, after Li Jian entered the Wei Dynasty, he has been making a living by serving as servants to the powerful or wealthy families.In a small bag that I carry with me, there is only a change of old clothes and pen and ink.And after he was tortured, the clothes on his body were also ragged, so it would be indecent to put him in a cart and send him to Luoyang.

Therefore, Xia Houxuan asked someone to get another set of clothes for him to change into.

The man acted according to his orders, but soon came back to report to Xia Houxuan, saying: "Your Majesty may have wasted his efforts. The thief's other clothes are layered with new and old patches, but they are also ragged and naked, and they are more worn than those worn by beggars in the market." Bro, I really don’t know why he still keeps this clothes.”

Maybe it's because the clothes were made by the wife and children of my hometown, so I don't want to throw them away.

Xia Houxuan, who was working on writing Luoyang, thought about this in his heart, but he didn't think so, and the repatriated man went to the market to buy a suit of clothes for Li Jian to cover his body.

But after a while, he was suddenly stunned.

Immediately, he got up suddenly, without even realizing that his knee knocked over the case and sprinkled the inkstone, he clapped his hands and smiled, "Hey! I know the cunning of this thief!"

And immediately asked someone to bring Li Jian's torn clothes.

Yes, he thought of a quirk.

It's fine not to throw away an old garment that is too damaged to be worn anymore, but why bother to patch it up?
Isn't this just trying to cover up the truth!
After finding the worn-out clothes, he took a closer look at all the patches, and it was as expected.

There is nothing weird about the old patches, but the new patches all have a layer of silk script attached.

In other words, silk scripts were embroidered on clothes as patches.

Each silk book is not big, and it can barely record a sentence or two on it, and there is no signature.

Xia Houxuan laid out all the silk scripts one by one and looked at them carefully. After comparing the handwriting, they should all be written by one person, but definitely not Li Jian.

The book says:

"Although we have disobeyed the lord and father in this matter, it is for the safety of the country, and we will not regret it even if we die a hundred times!"

"After the "Six Kingdoms", the emperor intends to use the clan to use it, and the power of the family will decline, and the monarch's affairs should not be delayed."

"My lord should be in a hurry to go to the country. Don't worry about the affairs of the new lord! The soldiers of the whole country are in control, the trust of the important officials of the three dynasties, and the saying of heaven's destiny against Shu Qiao Zhou, the power of the Wei clan and the heroes will no longer be, and the two kings of Qi and Qin will definitely be unable to succeed. Datong."

"If you don't walk with you today, there is no one to plan for the future! If something happens and you die, I will die a hundred times to make things happen, and I can swear by my words!"

The content is scattered, but Xia Houxuan can roughly understand it.

The person who wrote the silk script must be Sima Zhao!
Gein is now only Sima Zhao, who has a close friendship with Li Jian, who is qualified to say such words as "the soldiers of the whole country are in hand, and the trust of the important ministers of the three dynasties".

The agreement between him and Li Jian is that after Li Jian cursed the emperor Cao Rui to death with the technique of disgusting victory, he relied on his father Sima Yi to almost control the power of the whole country's soldiers, saying that "most of the heirs of Emperor Wei Wen died young", Qiao Zhou, a rebellious Confucian in Shu, abandoned Cao Rui's adopted sons Cao Fang and Cao Xun on the grounds of defeating the Confucianist Qiao Zhou's theory of destiny, and replaced Cao Rui's adopted sons Cao Fang and Cao Xun with other descendants of Wei Wu Cao Cao as kings.

Looking at the contents of the silk script, Sima Yi did not participate in it.

But Xia Houxuan automatically ignored this point.

Indeed, Sima Yi's current status is the most powerful person in the Wei Kingdom except for the emperor Cao Rui. He can be said to be under one person and above ten thousand people.

However, what if the premise of this matter is that the emperor Cao Rui died?
The so-called this moment, that moment.

At the time when the old king was changing from old to new, out of his desire to consolidate his power, he faced the situation of Wei's foreign worries and internal troubles, and his son Sima Zhao was persuading him, would he remain indifferent?

If there is no accident, he should take advantage of the trend of "reluctantly"!
Others have assumed the crimes, but the road to power over the king is also a matter of course. In the face of countless examples of power struggles in the previous dynasty, "If you advance, you will be safe, and if you retreat, you will die and the family will perish". Self-proclaimed!
Xia Houxuan, who was indignant towards the Sima family, sorted out the matter in an orderly manner immediately.

When writing a book for Cao Yu, the king of Yan who lives in Luoyang, he also adhered to the Spring and Autumn style of "pointing to the end", and did not criticize Sima Yi in every word, but Cao Yu's heart was torn apart.

On the one hand, Xia Houxuan was kept silent and continued to imprison Li Jian in Yecheng on the charge of disturbing Gaoling;

After Cao Rui watched it, it was not surprising that he could not continue to sit in Wancheng, and hurried back to Yecheng without saying a word.

On the way, he still had luck in his heart, and he didn't believe that Sima Zhao would join forces with Li Jian.

Gain Sima Zhao became friends with Li Jian at his behest!
(End of this chapter)