Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1212 Chaos
Xu Chu's eyes were red, and the hand holding the long knife was shaking slightly. In front of him, Xu Yi kowtowed desperately, holding on to Xu Chu's clothes tightly, and cried, "Father, father, I know I'm wrong, can you bear to kill me?"

Xu Chu kicked Xu Yi in the chest and yelled, "You beast, I'll kill you!"

The kick was so powerful that Xu Yi flew up into the air. He flew several feet horizontally and hit the wall, then rolled heavily to the ground.

Xu Yi lay on the ground gasping for breath in a very embarrassed manner, but there was a hint of joy in his heart. If Xu Chu wanted to kill him, he would have done it just now. It seemed that he was still reluctant!
He rolled and crawled to Xu Chu's feet, crying and saying, "Father, father, I won't dare to do it again next time. Please forgive me this time!"

Xu Chu said angrily: "There will be a next time!"

"How dare you do such a thing?"

In addition to the Four Friends, the backbone of Cao Zhi's faction also includes the Qinghe Cui family. The daughter of the Cui family will soon marry Cao Zhi, so the Cui family will naturally support Cao Zhi vigorously. Against this background, Xu Chu received a hint from the Yingchuan faction to eradicate the Cui family.

However, Xu Chu did not put the captured clansmen of the Cui family into the official prison, but imprisoned them in his own mansion. The reason for this was that he needed a legitimate reason to eradicate the Cui family.

So Xu Chu followed the Yingchuan faction's strategy and sent spies to pretend to be traitors sent by Cao Zhi and secretly let Cui escape. Then Xu Chu would appear at the right time and kill all of them on the pretext that Cui was guilty and had escaped for rebellion.

Even if Cao Zhi's faction knew that there was something fishy going on, if all of Cui's people were dead, who would stand up for them?

This plan was thought up by Zhong Yao and Sima Yi. It was originally flawless, but for some reason an accident occurred.

Originally, Xu Chu planned to take action that night. Just when he sent out spies to lure Cui into the trap, Cao Cao sent someone with an imperial edict.

Even though Xu Chu was unwilling, he did not dare to disobey Cao Cao's order and had to go to the prison to release the person. However, the second accident happened at this time.

It was not until Xu Chu arrived at the prison that he learned that more than an hour ago, his only son Xu Yi had secretly ordered the guarding servants to release the girl from the Cui family from the prison and took her away!

Xu Chu had a bad feeling, and when he hurried to Xu Yi's room, he saw the body of the girl from the Cui family who had been tortured to death.

Seeing this scene, Xu Chu almost fainted on the spot. He mentioned Xu Yi, who was trembling beside him, and after some questioning, he finally understood the whole story.

It turned out that when the Cui clan members were brought in, Xu Yi was peeping from the side. Seeing the beauty of the Cui girls, he had already been drooling over them. Moreover, Xu Yi overheard Xu Chu's plan and knew that the Cui clan members would die tonight, so he started to have ideas.

So he took advantage of Xu Chu's inattention, sneaked into the prison, threatened the servants, and forcibly brought the girl from the Cui family into the room to play with him.

The girl from the Cui family was confused at first, until Xu Yi showed his true face, then she fought back desperately. However, Xu Yi inherited Xu Chu's strength. Although he was less than fifteen years old, his strength was much greater than that of an adult. Cui was unable to resist at all.

However, Xu Yi was too careless and accidentally broke Cui's limbs during the torture. Cui was originally weak and died. Xu Yi was in high spirits and by the time he reacted, Cui's body was already cold. He then realized that he had gone too far.

But Xu Yi didn't care much at that time. After all, all the members of the Cui family would die tonight. He just had to dress the bodies of the Cui family and throw them back into the prison. When the members of the Cui family were executed later, the bodies would be mixed together. Who would investigate the cause of death?

At this time Xu Chu rushed in. After seeing this scene, he felt as if he fell into an ice cellar. He wanted to kill Xu Yi to apologize, but then he changed his mind and thought that if he did this, either his whole family would not be able to escape or they would be suppressed by the Yingchuan faction. Moreover, his health was not good and his future was uncertain. If Xu Yi died, who knew if he would still have a son?

So Xu Chu let the Cui clan members go, and at the same time sent his confidant to secretly take the Cui girl's body out of the city and abandon it. He kept the matter a secret. If the other party investigated, he could just claim that the Cui girl died of fright.

But there is no wall that is impenetrable. Although Yuan Xi's Procuratorate did not place spies in Xu Chu's house, Xu Chu, as a pawn of the Yingchuan faction, affected the situation in the city with his every move, so the Procuratorate had been ordered to send spies to monitor the movements of the Xu family at all times.

Xu Chu's trusted servant drove the carriage out of the city and abandoned Miss Cui in a remote place. However, he did not expect that the spies from the Procuratorate who followed him would take away Miss Cui's body after the servant left.

After an autopsy by a spy with expertise in medicine from the Procuratorate's Office, combined with the information gathered from Xu Chu's mansion, the Procuratorate's Office quickly deduced the truth.

They were tasked with disrupting Yecheng, so they naturally told the news to Cao Qing, who had already cooperated privately with the Procuratorate, so that Cao Qing could tell Cao Zhi the truth.

At this time, several days had passed since the incident, and Xu Chu did not know that the truth had been revealed. He just instinctively felt that things were getting worse.

There is no wall that is impenetrable. The Cui family is not an ordinary aristocratic family. Behind them are the Jizhou aristocratic families who have defected to Cao Cao, just like when Cao Cao killed Bian Rang, which provoked a collective rebellion among the Yanzhou aristocratic families. If this matter is leaked and the Cui family takes advantage of it, will the Yingchuan faction put the blame on themselves in order to calm things down?
Xu Chu had this concern because of Cao Cao's action of releasing the Cui family members. Under normal circumstances, this might not be worth mentioning, and Cao Cao would not have specially ordered the release of the Cui family. But at this critical moment of fighting for Jizhou, Cao Cao was afraid that he had to get more help from the Jizhou gentry before he ordered the release of the Cui family to appease the Jizhou gentry.

The more Xu Chu thought about it, the more scared he became. He knew Xu Yi had really screwed him over this time. If he wanted to appease the anger of the Jizhou nobles, he should kill his own relative for the sake of justice. However, the other party was his only son. Xu Chu hesitated for three days and still couldn't make up his mind.

Until today, the more he thought about it, the more he felt uneasy. So he made up his mind and prepared to kill Xu Yi with his own hands. Xu Yi would naturally beg for mercy, which made Xu Chu unable to make up his mind to do it.

He grabbed Xu Yi by the collar, lifted him up alive, and shouted angrily: "Little beast, you are doing this to kill my entire Xu family?"

"It's my son, kill him yourself before I do it myself!"

Seeing that Xu Chu really wanted to kill him, Xu Yi was so scared that he peed himself. Yellow liquid oozed out of his crotch. He kicked his legs wildly and screamed, "Father, father, spare my life!"

"I still want to be filial to my father. I don't want to die yet!"

"Father, father, please think of a way. Oh, go and ask the king for help. The king will definitely forgive me for my contribution!"

Xu Chu grabbed Xu Yi's neck with one hand and exerted force suddenly, "Do you still want to find the king?" "My Xu family is loyal to the king, how could you be born!"

Xu Yi was strangled and couldn't breathe. He said in a hoarse voice: "Ah...Father, the king...doesn't he also want to kill...Cui..."

"My child... I didn't expect this..."

"But... since my father has spoken... I will tie myself up before the king... and let the king decide... that's it..."

Xu Chu used his arms to throw Xu Yi to the ground, and shouted, "You beast, beast!"

"I have devoted myself to serving the King, I have done so many things, I have offended so many people, so many people are staring at me, and you come to take my life!"

He hesitated for a while, but finally did not take ruthless action. He just kicked Xu Yi away, then walked straight out of the mansion and went to Cao Cao's mansion.

Xu Chu sat in the carriage, feeling a dull pain in his legs. Although he had the strength to kick Xu Yi away, his legs were not completely healed yet, and he could only walk with difficulty.

Previously, he had barely crawled on crutches in front of Cao Cao, but it was just to win sympathy. Now, he had reached the end of the road and could only give Cao Cao a talisman before his death. Otherwise, he would not be able to take the blame when any faction came to settle accounts with him later.

So Xu Chu had always been careful, fearing that something unexpected would happen, but he didn't expect something like Xu Yi would happen!
When he arrived at the gate of Cao Cao's mansion, it was already dark. The gatekeeper took Xu Chu's signature and went in. After a long time, he came out and said, "The king has rested. Please come back tomorrow."

After hearing this, Xu Chu had no choice but to go back. However, he didn't know that the unconscious Cao Cao didn't receive the message at all. Menzi was Cao Qing's man, so Cao Qing naturally asked him to say this in order to prevent Xu Chu from seeing Cao Cao.

Cao Qing called Cao Zhi out and said, "Xu Chu just came. He must have come to ask for mercy from my father."

"If he comes again tomorrow, there will be no reason to stop him."

"He is now my father's most trusted subordinate, so Xu Yi will most likely be able to keep his life."

"What does Fourth Brother think?"

Cao Zhi cried and said, "I am unwilling to accept this. I want to avenge Cui!"

"It's so unfair, she shouldn't have had this experience!"

"Please help me, sister!"

Cao Qing sighed slightly, "Even if this means I'm making an enemy of my father?"

Cao Zhi bit his lip and nodded vigorously. Seeing this, Cao Qing patted Cao Zhi on the shoulder and said, "Okay, fourth brother is so loyal. I can't bear to see Cui Shi die so tragically. Let me think of a solution!"

The next day, Xu Chu was on standby at home when he heard a trusted servant rushing over and saying that last night, the streets and alleys were covered with notices, all of which were filled with information about Xu's torture and murder of Cui's girl!

Overnight, this matter became known to everyone, especially among the nobles, where it caused an uproar.

This was because the act was so disgusting that even for aristocratic families like the Cui family, it was unbearable. Even if it happened to ordinary people, it would be appalling.

What people in the court and the public are talking about now is who instructed Xu Chu to do what he did. Naturally, they did not dare to point the finger at Cao Cao, so they naturally pointed the finger at Cao Pi!

When Xu Chu heard this, cold sweat broke out. He stood up and shouted, "Hurry up and go out and dispel the rumors. These are all rumors, blatant rumors!"

"I don't believe Cui dares to identify me!"

"Do they have any evidence?"

The servant's expression changed several times, and finally he gritted his teeth and said, "General, there is news that Cui has found the body of the girl, and the coffin is in Cui's house!"

"What!" Xu Chu jumped up, grabbed the servant by the collar, and growled, "Didn't I tell you to dispose of the body?"

The confidant trembled, "It was indeed thrown into the ravine..."

"Fuck you!" Xu Chu slapped the servant in the face with his backhand, sending him flying. "You've killed so many people with me, and you still don't know to throw the bodies into the river. You're unreliable!"

In the following days, the rumors intensified and the two factions took the opportunity to attack each other. In the already unstable city of Ye, the chaos could no longer be stopped.

At the same time, the four friends also learned the news. Yang Xiu said, "The opportunity is ripe, we can take action now."

(End of this chapter)