Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1211 Rebellion
Mrs. Wu's plan to meet Sun Quan was approved by Yuan Xi. Although he had some concerns, fearing that Sun Quan would really go crazy and that would be bad for Mrs. Wu, he still agreed at Mrs. Wu's insistence.

After all, from Mrs. Wu's point of view, she doesn't want Yuan Xi and Sun Quan to fight to the death in the future, to the point where neither side can resolve the situation, and there is a high probability that Sun Quan will lose. By then, if the Wu Kingdom has too much blood debt of the Jin army on its hands, Yuan Xi will have to give an explanation to his subordinates. Even if Sun Quan saves his life, he will probably have a hard time in the second half of his life.

So when Mrs. Wu heard that Wu was mobilizing troops, she wrote a letter to Yuan Xi, asking to leave Jicheng and go to Jianghuai. Seeing her firm attitude, Yuan Xi had no choice but to agree.

Of course, Yuan Xi also made precautionary preparations and warned Mrs. Wu to go as far as Wankou. If Sun Quan did not want to meet her, she could write a letter to him. This would be the most she could do.

He made this decision in order to reduce the number of casualties. After all, if the hatred between the two sides could not be resolved, more people would die when they attacked and destroyed the State of Wu in the future.

However, from beginning to end, Yuan Xi did not regard the current Wu State as a real opponent. After three major wars between Jin and Wu, the current strength of Wu State is far inferior to that of later generations. If it were not for the Battle of Jizhou, Yuan Xi transferred most of the Jianghuai soldiers to Yuzhou, and Wu State could not even reach the Yangtze River.

Now Yuan Xi's main attack direction is completely focused on Jizhou. At the same time, he mobilized troops from Qingzhou to launch a fierce attack on the border of Yanzhou. Zang Ba Changxi and others attacked the eastern part of Yanzhou from the Qingxu border and were about to meet up with Yuan Xi.

Yanzhou was the birthplace of Cao Cao, and like Yuzhou was also the Cao family's base camp. However, its collapse was so fast that even Yuan Xi underestimated it and felt that he had been too conservative before.

Only at this moment did Yuan Xi truly realize that apart from the fact that he had famous generals such as Lu Xun and Wei Yan along the way, and the fact that Zhuge Liang and others had tied down most of Cao's forces in the battle of Jizhou, Cao's army was probably really at the end of its rope!
At this rate, in less than a month, he would be able to reach the Yellow River, join forces with Chunyu Qiong in the east, and completely complete the encirclement of Weijun. Cao's army would then have little room for retreat.

At that time, Cao Ying would face a difficult choice: to defend Yecheng to the death, or to retreat into Guanzhong?
If the former is chosen, if the Jin army marches out from Heishan and cuts off the Guanzhong passage, the hundreds of thousands of Cao troops will be completely trapped in the huge city of Weijun!
To make matters worse, cities in Wei County, including Yecheng, began to show signs of instability. Not only were rumors spreading, but people in several cities had already begun to rebel!

This caused great headaches for the Wei generals defending the city. While they were trying their best to quell the riots, they sent emergency letters to Yecheng.

When the Wei officials in Yecheng learned about this, they were also extremely anxious and rushed to the prime minister's residence to see Zhong Yao.

A few days ago, Cao Cao's health improved a little, so he immediately forced himself to go to court, rearranged personnel appointments, handed over military power to Zhong Yao and Xiahou Dun, and appointed Cao Hong, Cao Ren, Xun You and Sima Yi to assist in resisting the offensive of the Jin army.

Of course, there was another person Cao Cao wanted to entrust with the task, Chen Qun, but he had been in Xu Du, so his appointment was put on hold.

After that, Cao Cao never attended court again, because although he forced himself to stay awake that day, he had actually exhausted his strength and was bedridden again when he returned.

At this time, the Wei officials all vaguely guessed that Cao Cao might really be in trouble this time, because in such a critical moment, if Cao Cao could show stronger performance, it would be better than any strategy to stabilize people's hearts. Now it seems that he is really powerless!
So now Zhong Yao can be said to have monopolized power. On the one hand, he integrated government affairs, and on the other hand, he began to clear out unstable factors in the city.

In terms of political affairs, Zhong Yao, with Sima Yi as his deputy, began to crack down on dissidents and officials who tended to lean towards Cao Zhi, suppressing them so that they could not raise their heads in the court, thus ensuring the smooth flow of political affairs. Now Zhong Yao's decrees were unimpeded and no one dared to oppose them.

In terms of military force, it was naturally Xu Chu who was pushed out to do the evil. Although his legs were disabled, he still had enough strength to kill a few civil officials. Under the house-to-house searches led by his private soldiers, many suspected aristocratic officials were thrown into prison.

Among them was even Cui Yan. As a family that was going to marry Cao Zhi, they were naturally the first to bear the brunt. Cui Yan and many of his clansmen were imprisoned by Xu Chu.

After hearing this, Cao Zhi ran to Lady Bian and cried to her. In the end, it was Lady Bian who pleaded with Cao Cao to save Cui Yan's life.

However, when Cao Qing saw Cao Zhi, she saw him sitting in the courtyard, facing the wall in a daze, his face pale and absent-minded. She couldn't help but asked in surprise: "Brother, what's wrong with you?"

Cao Zhi turned around and showed an expression that was uglier than crying, "Sister, haven't you heard about the Cui family?"

Cao Qing was stunned and asked, "Cui family?"

"Didn't mother ask father to pardon Cui the day before yesterday?"

Cao Zhi couldn't help crying after hearing this, "But, but the girl from the Cui family was not released!"

Cao Qing realized that this girl named Cui was Cao Zhi's fiancée. They had met several times in private and were quite in love with each other. It seemed that they would be getting married in a year or so. However, after this incident, he was imprisoned along with Cui.

She frowned and said, "That's impossible. Father clearly pardoned the entire Cui family. Did he make a mistake?"

Cao Zhi cried, "It should be true. All the members of the Cui family have been released, but there is no news about her. It has been several days!"

"Cui Yan's grandson Cui Liang was the same age as me. He was imprisoned with me and later released. He didn't see the girl from the Cui family, so he asked someone to secretly inform me. That's how I learned about this!"

"Sister, what do you think I should do? Should I go and ask my father for help?"

Cao Qing thought for a while and said, "Father has already let me off the hook. If you bring it up again, I'm afraid he will be unhappy. You haven't completely withdrawn from the fight yet, so you should be patient for now."

Cao Zhi shook his head, "Sister, please stop comforting me. Xu Chu must have done this with my father's permission. How could he be so bold?"

"I no longer care about the Crown Prince. I only want to marry Miss Cui, become an idle marquis, and spend the rest of my life reciting poems and discussing scriptures every day."

Cao Qing laughed angrily, "How old are you to say that?"

"Do you really think that if you don't fight, you can live the rest of your life in peace?"

"That man is vindictive, how can he tolerate you?"

"Fourth brother, you are too naive!"

Cao Zhi just shook his head and said, "I don't care. The rise and fall of the Cao family has nothing to do with me. Even if the Wei Kingdom was destroyed by the fierce tiger, he can't kill all of my Cao family, right?" "As long as my hands are clean, I won't be held accountable. At most, my sister can speak for me based on her relationship with the fierce tiger."

Cao Qing raised her eyebrows when she heard this. "Fourth brother is really a jerk. What does he have to do with me?"

She turned around and walked away angrily. After walking a few steps, she heard Cao Zhi sobbing again. Finally, she couldn't bear it anymore and turned back and said, "Wait a minute, I'll go find someone to get some information."

Cao Zhi was delighted when he heard this. He pulled Cao Qing and said, "Sister, you still love me!"

"When I marry Cui, I will definitely thank you, Sister!"

Cao Zhi waited for two days with great hope, but there was no news from Cao Qing. Cao Zhi became more and more anxious. While watching Cao Cao fall asleep, he told Madam Bian that he wanted to take a nap and secretly went to Cao Qing's room.

He slipped into Cao Qing's room and walked along the corner to the window, only to see Cao Qing sitting in front of the window in a daze. Seeing that the maids were not around, Cao Zhi quietly stood up and said, "Sister, it's me!"

"Any news about Miss Cui?"

Cao Qing was startled, but she calmed down when she saw that it was Cao Zhi. When she heard Cao Zhi asking about the Cui girl, her face suddenly became very ugly. After a long while, she said, "There is no definite news yet. Please be patient and wait for a few more days."

Cao Zhi was anxious when he heard this. "She is young and locked up alone in prison. She can't stand it at all. How can I wait?"

"Sister, if you can't get any information, I have a few officials over there who can tell you. If that doesn't work, I'll ask them to investigate!"

Cao Qing opened her mouth and finally said dejectedly: "Fourth brother, you... should just forget about her."

Cao Zhi was smart to begin with, and when he heard Cao Qing's words, it was like a bolt from the blue. He staggered, and couldn't help but reach out his hand, grabbing Cao Qing's collar, and cried in a hoarse voice: "Sister, is there something bad going on?"

"Is she tortured, or is she ill?"

Seeing Cao Zhi's distorted face, Cao Qing could not help but hold Cao Zhi's arm and whispered, "Fourth brother, calm down. What can you do in this state?"

Cao Zhi still didn't let go, "Sister, why did you hide this from me?"

"What happened to her?"

"Say it!"

Cao Qing grabbed Cao Zhi's wrist and said in a low voice, "You will know sooner or later. I won't hide it from you, but you have to promise me that you will not lose your composure."

Cao Zhi had a bad feeling in his heart, but he still held on to a glimmer of hope and nodded, "I agree, sister."

As a result, Cao Qing's words almost made him lose his mind on the spot.

"Ms. Cui is dead."

“I heard he didn’t make it through the night he was jailed.”

Cao Zhi's eyes went dark. He held Cao Qing's hand tightly and said, "Ah, sister, what happened?"

"Why is this so?"

"why?"

"Say it?"

Cao Qing spoke with difficulty and told the information she had found out.

Originally, the Cui family members were to be executed that night after being captured, but Cao Zhi got the news in time and asked Madam Bian to inform Cao Cao, and the Cui family members were pardoned late that night.

But unfortunately, the girl from the Cui family was taken to a separate room. No one knew what happened within a few hours. When Cui was about to be executed and the order of pardon came, she was already a corpse with incomplete clothes, and was quickly thrown out of the city and abandoned.

Cao Qing had spies keeping an eye on Xu Chu's residence, so she was able to know the whole story.

After hearing this, Cao Zhi let out a beast-like growl from his throat, "Sister, who on earth did this?"

Cao Qing said softly, "Xu Chu's son, Xu Yi."

After hearing this, Cao Zhi's eyes turned red and he screamed, "Kill, I'm going to kill him!"

"kill him!"

(End of this chapter)