Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1224 Candidates

Zhong Yao knew that Cao Cao was talking about the news about Cao Qing and Cao Zhi, so he answered honestly, "No."

After hearing this, Cao Cao first looked a little disappointed, then his face was filled with rage and anger. He slammed his palm on the table fiercely, "How dare they betray me!"

"I never thought that the people who dared to openly betray me over the years would be my children!"

Cao Cao slammed the table so hard that it made loud bangs, as if he felt no pain at all. Mrs. Bian, who was standing by, was also frightened and dared not even breathe.

However, Cao Cao's next words made her face change drastically, "Send people to capture them. If they dare to resist, kill them directly!"

When Madam Bian heard this, she knelt down hurriedly and kowtowed without saying a word. Sima Yi also knelt down, but Zhong Yao and Xun You did not move. They thought to themselves, by doing this, aren't you forcing the king to change his mind?

Do you think you can interfere in the king’s family affairs?
Cao Cao became even more furious when he saw the two men kneeling down. He glared at Madam Bian and shouted, "These are the good sons and daughters you have raised!"

"If I don't give them the courage, they will betray Cao. It's all because of you that they are so brave!"

Madam Bian lay on the ground and said sadly, "They were confused for a moment. I hope the king will give them a chance to come back."

Cao Cao became even angrier, "Confused?"

"Have they ever thought about the consequences of their rebellion at this time?"

"Are they going to help the evil tiger destroy the Cao family?"

"Get out!"

After hearing this, Mrs. Bian had no choice but to crawl out backwards, leaving Sima Yi kneeling with his head down, extremely embarrassed. Zhong Yao and Xun You did not even look at him, but just lowered their heads and kept silent.

Cao Cao ignored Sima Yi and turned to Zhong Yao, saying, "If you have something to say, just tell me."

Zhong Yao quickly shared his three guesses, and finally said: "There is news that Black Mountain is ready to make a move. If they send troops south and cut off the road from Yecheng to Guanzhong, Yecheng will be completely surrounded. I hope the king can respond as soon as possible."

Cao Cao asked, "How is the situation in Huaicheng?"

Zhong Yao said: "The Jin army marched south from Bingzhou. Gao Gan personally led his troops to attack Huaicheng. Han Sui led the Xiliang army to block them, but the situation was very bad. Bingzhou had been integrated by Xionghu. There were many Xiongnu, Qiang and Hu people in Gao Gan's army, and they already had the advantage in numbers."

"Therefore, Yao and others hope that the king will move to Guanzhong and temporarily go to Luoyang to take charge, and then plan a counterattack."

Cao Cao's face turned pale. "Yuan Chang means that Yecheng can no longer be defended?"

His voice became louder. "I have spent all my efforts to seize this city from the Yuan family and have worked hard to manage it for many years. Am I going to give it up again?"

"Besides, it's easy to retreat to Guanzhong, but it's hard to get out again. By then, will we have to attack Yecheng and lose lives under the city wall?"

Zhong Yao glanced at Xun You, who quickly said, "I discussed an idea with Zhong Da earlier."

He lowered his voice and explained the plan of attacking Yecheng with fire. Finally, he said, "Kerning oil and other ignitable materials are buried in hidden places throughout the city. Moreover, as winter is approaching, every household has a large amount of firewood. If they are ignited together, Yecheng will be turned into a sea of ​​fire."

"If the timing is right and we start a fire when the Jin army breaks into the city, we can cause heavy casualties to them and change the balance of power between the two sides."

"You have to sacrifice to gain. Using Yecheng to exchange tens of thousands of casualties for the Jin army and destroy the enemy's main force in one fell swoop can be said to be extremely cost-effective."

"If the Jin army is seriously injured by then, we can turn around and attack, and maybe we can turn the tide of the battle in Jizhou in one fell swoop."

Cao Cao thought for a while before shaking his head and said, "How can things go so smoothly? How could the other party be so easily fooled?"

"When Xionghu attacked Yuan Tan in Xuzhou before, he used the strategy of setting fire to attack the city. He buried firewood underground and killed more than ten thousand of Yuan Tan's men in one battle. Their understanding of fire attack is much deeper than yours!"

"If the Jin army enters Yecheng, they will certainly be on guard and search for the remaining Wei soldiers. It is unknown whether they can successfully set fire to the city at that time!"

"And if they only sent a thousand men into the city, would you have burned the city as well?"

Xun You was stumped by the question. Although the idea he came up with coincided with Sima Yi's, his original intention was that Yecheng was surrounded by plains and was difficult to defend. It would be better to retreat to the west to defend Luoyang, freeing up most of the troops to concentrate on dealing with the ferocious tiger.

In Xun You's view, burning Ye City was just a bonus. This fire attack strategy was really difficult to work, so it was indeed unconvincing to use it to persuade Cao Cao.

He looked at Sima Yi who had been kneeling on the ground and didn't get up. He found that he had been lying on the ground motionless. He couldn't help but feel a headache. He could only say to Cao Cao: "Zhongda has some unique insights."

Cao Cao snorted and said, "Tell me about it."

Sima Yi knelt on the ground and said, "Your Majesty, the Jin army is indeed cautious, so if we want to lure the Jin army into the city, we need some bait."

"For example, first spread the news of retreat, then light some small fires to block some of the people in Yecheng, and let the fierce tiger army outside the city know." "The fierce tiger army's slogan is to recapture Yecheng and rescue the people of Jizhou. Now that the people of Yecheng are in danger, they will not sit idly by and will definitely rush into the city to put out the fire."

"After they entered the city, the armies that had pretended to retreat made a sudden comeback and trapped the Jin army in the city. At the same time, the spies who were lying in ambush in the city took the opportunity to ignite the various kerosene storage locations, turning Yecheng into a sea of ​​fire."

"The Jin army will be trapped in the city. As long as our army blocks the four gates, no one in the city will survive in less than half a day!"

After hearing this, Cao Cao snorted coldly and said, "That's easy to say. If the Fierce Tiger Army could be defeated so easily, how could they have forced Yecheng into such a situation?"

Sima Yi bowed his head and said, "I am willing to follow the army in person. If things don't go well, I will fight and die."

Cao Cao sneered, "Zhongda is loyal. If he didn't have so many servants, I would think he was an honest man."

Zhong Yao's face changed slightly. He understood that Cao Cao was referring to the previous incident in which Sima Yi became a slave and Xu Chu hunted down the four friends. In fact, Sima Yi was not to blame for this incident. It was planned by Zhong Yao himself.

He wanted to speak up to clarify for Sima Yi, but he opened his mouth and closed it again. Sima Yi had been keeping his head down, and just now he raised his head slightly, "Your Majesty, I have too many slaves because I am afraid of death."

"I heard that the evil tiger kept assassins to threaten the lives of Wei officials. Whenever I think of it, I can't sleep at night, so I hired many servants to protect my life."

"Especially in the past few days, many officials in the city have been assassinated, which has made me panic and unable to sleep or eat."

Cao Cao had also heard that Sima Yi was timid, but now that he had admitted it himself, he did not comment. Instead, he turned to Zhong Yao and Xun You and asked, "Do you all think that Yecheng can no longer be defended?"

Zhong Yao and Xun You nodded together and advised: "The remaining food in the city will hardly survive the winter without help from outsiders. It is very easy for the Jin army to cut off the food supply now. By then, the city will naturally fall without a fight."

"There has been a lot of civil unrest in the city recently, which means there are quite a few fierce tiger spies. If they all attack together and threaten the king's life, it will be troublesome."

"The State of Wei still needs Your Majesty to take charge, so I hope Your Majesty will take care of yourself."

Cao Cao's face was gloomy. "One last question."

"If they use fire to attack, and they divert water back to flood Yecheng, the fire will go out by itself, wouldn't it be a waste of effort?"

Sima Yi said, "So far, the Jin army has not made any preparations to dig a river."

"I have mapped out all the locations near Yecheng where we can dig up the river dams and flood Yecheng. There are about six of them. If we keep an eye on these locations and send soldiers to ambush them, we can defeat the Jin army's plan."

"Besides, it's almost winter now and the river water level is dropping. If we want to flood Yecheng, it will be impossible unless we dig ditches several months in advance."

Cao Cao thought for a long time before speaking: "In this case, let's defend the city first and see whether more troops from Jin or Wei have arrived in Yecheng in the past two days."

"If the Jin army has the advantage in numbers, prepare to retreat."

"When the time comes, the three of you can come to my house again and ask Shang Yuan to come and ask Zi Xiao to come."

The three of them were shocked and guessed what Cao Cao meant. This was most likely about entrusting their affairs after death.

Cao Cao waved his hand and said, "Nothing else, you can leave first. Take care of things in the next few days. Once you leave this room, don't tell anyone about your departure. Do you understand?"

The three of them quickly obeyed the order and backed out of the house.

When Cao Cao saw the door closed, he could no longer support himself and fell onto the couch.

He wiped his face, wiping off the powder that covered his face, revealing a livid face. The conversation that had just lasted for half an hour had almost exhausted all his strength. Now he was lying on the couch, without even the strength to raise his hands, but his brain was still working.

Cao Cao already had a rough idea of ​​the candidates among the relatives and officials to entrust his son to.

The external officials are the three people mentioned earlier, but their positions are very delicate. Although the three are very loyal to the Cao family, they must not be allowed to work together, otherwise if the three of them join forces, Xiahou Dun and Cao Ren will never be able to defeat them!

Therefore, the order is very important. The three people should be able to do things, but they should not be able to accomplish anything together. Therefore, Zhong Yao should be eliminated first. He is capable, has high prestige, and has made great contributions. Such a person is too likely to start a new business, so someone must suppress him.

If he died, Zhong Yao would have to resign as prime minister and become a tutor.

Xun You is not suitable either. He is a person who changes with the wind. He will go wherever the wind forces him. He can only add icing on the cake but cannot provide timely help and cannot play a role in turning the tide.

The last one is Sima Yi. Although he is young, his growth rate is amazing. Although he may be a hidden danger, he has a lot of leverage that can be used.

Keeping slaves means that this person behaves improperly, kneeling down just now means that he does not know how to be discreet, and burning down Yecheng City means that he easily offends people. These shortcomings combined mean that this person is destined to have limited achievements.

It just so happens that this man is good at fighting. If used well, he is the most likely to help Cao Wei. Moreover, he just knelt down to plead for Cao Zhi. Cao Pi must have disliked him after hearing this. It can also avoid the hidden danger of Sima Yi gaining too much power after gaining favor.

Thinking of this, Cao Cao felt that Sima Yi was indeed a suitable candidate!
(End of this chapter)