Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1252 Original Intention
While Sun Quan was summoning his ministers to discuss how to launch a surprise attack on Yuan Xi and Liu Bei, Zhang Zhao was negotiating with the State of Jin at Wankou on the north bank of the Yangtze River.

Previously, Zhang Zhao was ordered to go on a diplomatic mission to negotiate a ceasefire with the State of Jin on behalf of the State of Wu. The apparent reason was that the State of Wu did not want to be an enemy of the State of Jin anymore because of the unfavorable battle with Liu Bei's army, so it sent Zhang Zhao to find a way to create a gap in the situation of the alliance between Liu Bei and Yuan Xi.

Of course, only Sun Quan knew the real reason. He did not even tell the diplomatic envoy Zhang Zhao all the details. However, with Zhang Zhao's intelligence, he could guess it a little.

However, since Zhang Zhao was here, he decided to make the best of it. Because of his different political views from Sun Quan, he had been unwelcome in the past two years. Zhang Zhao also had a stubborn temper, so he was quite at ease with the situation. However, the person he was negotiating with was a little unexpected for him.

He raised the tea bowl in his hand and saluted Lu Su from a distance, "Zi Jing turned a disaster into a blessing. Now he holds a high position in Jin State. Maybe Zhao will need Zi Jing's support in the future."

Hearing this, Lu Su smiled bitterly and said, "Zi Bu, please stop making fun of me."

"Is this something glorious?"

Zhang Zhao said seriously, "I'm not making fun of Zi Jing."

"Compared to the King of Jin, I think the King is the one who can't see the situation clearly."

Lu Su quickly glanced around and found that Zhang Zhao's followers were all far away, but he still said anxiously: "Zi Bu still speaks without considering the occasion!"

"If this word gets to the ears of the great king, the King of Wu, how will you deal with it?"

Zhang Zhao took a sip of tea and said leisurely, "Words cannot change the situation on the battlefield."

"Or do you think, Zijing, that if I offer better conditions, the King of Jin and the King of Hannan will break up?"

Lu Su smiled bitterly, "From the perspective of the King of Wu, Zi Bu shouldn't have said this."

"It's really strange. At the beginning, Zibu and I argued about whether to surrender to Cao. In the end, Zibu won, but I was detained by Jin. By chance, we two sat on opposite sides."

"Has Zibu's thoughts changed now?"

Zhang Zhao said calmly, "Of course it has changed."

"Before I came here, I advised the king to completely side with King Jin."

Lu Su was startled, then smiled bitterly: "This really looks like Zi Bu's style."

"But I just can't understand this. When Zi Bu persuaded Wu to join Cao Cao, his most powerful reason was that Cao Cao was nominally supporting the Han Dynasty and commanding the princes through the emperor, so he had a righteous reputation."

"Now Zi Bu thinks that the King of Wu wants to betray Cao Cao. What is his reason?"

Zhang Zhao said, "The reason is very simple. First, after Cao Cao became king, he has lost the qualification."

"He held the emperor hostage and claimed the throne. All the etiquette and rituals were only half a step away from being an emperor. Everyone in the world could see his ambition, so naturally he had no legitimate reason."

"Second, Cao Cao has been defeated by the King of Jin and has almost lost the possibility of conquering the world. With the strength of Wu, if it is still tied to Wei, it will end up being destroyed sooner or later."

"Before I left, I had already told the king these reasons, but the king did not comment, which clearly showed that he did not agree with my opinion."

Lu Su asked in confusion: "Why?"

"Why couldn't it be that the King of Wu agreed with Zi Bu's opinion and therefore sent Zi Bu as an envoy to negotiate peace?"

Zhang Zhao shook his head and said, "No, the king is a man of integrity. How could he be so willing to be inferior to others?"

Lu Su smiled bitterly and said, "Zi Bu, do you know that just based on these few words, I can guess a lot of things?"

"I am now on the side of Jin. If someone with ulterior motives spreads this, Zi Bu will be in trouble."

Zhang Zhao said calmly: "It doesn't matter."

"Zijing should know that I am a capitulator."

"I've never denied that."

Lu Su shook his head and said, "Zi Bu, why do you have to belittle yourself? If you were this kind of person, you wouldn't have joined the King of Wu in the first place. Wouldn't it be better to just join Cao Cao?"

Zhang Zhao laughed and said, "Zi Jing, have you ever thought that maybe I have secretly joined Cao Cao a long time ago, and now I am saying that everything I did was to destroy the Wu Kingdom?"

Lu Su shook his head and said, "I'm not stupid. If Zi Bu surrenders to Cao Cao, what I should do now is to provoke a war between Jin and Wu, so that Wei can reap the benefits."

Zhang Zhao laughed loudly, "Zi Jing is indeed a man of wisdom and strategy. If Zi Jing had not left the king, there would be no chance for Zhuge Jin and Lu Ji!"

"Yes, I have my own stance. I am not on the side of Jin, nor am I completely on the side of the king."

"My position is that I don't want the people of the world to suffer unnecessary war disasters."

"Now that the Xianbei have entered the Pass, if the four nations still go to war, it will only benefit the foreign races in vain."

"Especially if Jin is defeated, Youzhou and Jizhou will be occupied by Xianbei, and the Han Dynasty will become even more miserable."

"When the time comes, all the people will be devastated and the land will be devastated. All the forces that started the war will be blamed." Lu Su's eyes widened slightly, "Zi Bu, is actually supporting the Han Dynasty?"

"This, this." Only then did he figure out the logic behind Zhang Zhao's actions over the years. He could only find a reason to explain why Zhang Zhao acted this way.

Lu Su stammered, "Zi Jing defected to Jiangdong at the beginning."

Zhang Zhao smiled and said, "Zijing finally figured it out."

"That's right. At that time, the Central Plains was in turmoil. I fled to Jiangdong because Jiangdong was the most likely place to support the Han Dynasty."

"Cao Cao was attached to Yuan Shao at the time, and Yuan Shao secretly wanted to support Liu Yu as emperor. Obviously, both of them were rebels against the Han Dynasty."

"Not to mention Liu Bei. He first attached himself to Tao Qian, who was a staunch supporter of Yuan Shu's camp. Later, Liu Bei attached himself to Yuan Shao. No matter how you look at it, he doesn't look like someone who would support the Han Dynasty."

"But I didn't expect that he would receive the imperial edict and attack Xudu several times in an attempt to rescue the emperor. It was not easy for him to act in accordance with his words. I was wrong."

"At that time, I saw that the people in the world were all mediocre. Some were ambitious rebels, while others lived in a corner and had no ambition. There was not even one or two people I could trust."

"At that time, I thought again and again, but I remembered that although Sun Hou Sun Wentai was attached to Yuan Shu, he was the only one of the two in the Guandong coalition who dared to attack Dong Zhuo, sweep away the Han Dynasty's ancestral temples, and feed him with Tailao. It can be said that he was one of the few pillars of the world who supported the Han Dynasty at that time."

"Although he later deviated from his original intention, he was already the best among the Han officials in the world at that time."

"So of course when I fled across the river, I also considered the three places south of the Yangtze River, Jingzhou, Yizhou and Jiangdong. In the end, I chose Jiangdong because Lord Sun was there."

"But he didn't expect Sun Hou to die when he attacked Liu Biao, so he took refuge with his son Sun Bofu, betting that he could become the second Sun Wentai."

"Even if he wants to be independent, I will do my best to persuade him."

"But what happened next was beyond my expectation. Although Sun Bofu treated me very well, he also died young, and all my ambitions were wasted."

"Jiangdong seems to be cursed, so I can only place my hopes on the king. However, I didn't expect that the king's ambition is far greater than that of his father and brother."

"At the beginning, I advised the king to join Cao Cao because Cao Cao had a righteous cause. Jiangdong's actions were acts of rebellion and were criticized by the world."

"My real idea is for Cao Cao and Jiangdong to join forces to first eliminate the biggest and most obvious rebel, the Yuan family, and then find a way to reconcile the relationship between the Sun and Cao families, so that they can jointly support the emperor and revive the Han Dynasty."

"But I didn't expect that the world is unpredictable. Instead, Cao Cao couldn't help but establish himself first, and the King of Jin and the King of Hannan received the secret decree of the emperor. However, the king insisted on his own way and insisted on relying on Cao Cao and becoming an enemy of the two."

"At that time, my original plan had already been declared a complete failure."

After listening to this, Lu Su's face was still full of surprise. He sighed and said, "Today I finally understand Zi Bu's thoughts!"

"Zi Bu must have been suffering a lot these years."

Zhang Zhao said calmly, "So I took the initiative to request to be an envoy this time, just to remind Jin. After all, in my opinion, the internal strife among the four countries is internal, but with the external enemy at hand, hundreds of thousands of Hu people have entered the pass. If we still hinder Jin at this time, it will go against the foundation of the Han Dynasty."

Lu Su looked around and said, "I now fully understand what Zi Jing meant. Zi Jing has such great ambitions. He is not the same as the Xuzhou nobles I imagined."

Zhang Zhao said calmly, "I know what Zi Jing wants to say. I have also heard about the King of Jin killing the Xuzhou nobles before."

"But in my opinion, I can only say that the killing was a good thing. Xuzhou is a place with developed business, and there are many people who forget their principles when they see profit and are ruthless. I also took prudent actions to protect myself, and I am not much smarter than them."

"But I am not much better than them, but I still know the priorities and the righteousness. If Jin cannot stop the barbarians outside the Great Wall, not only will the people of Central Plains suffer, but Xuzhou will also be affected, so I must come here to remind Zijing."

If Yuan Xi was present, he would be surprised at Zhang Zhao's foresight. The State of Jin in later generations failed to stop the Hu people outside the Great Wall, which led to the loss of half of its territory and forced it to migrate south. The country collapsed, the people were treated like grass, and the Han people were almost wiped out.

Zhang Zhao finally said: "Of course, I didn't say anything. How I think is Zijing's business, and it doesn't count as betrayal to the king."

Lu Su smiled bitterly and said, "I understand what Zi Bu is thinking."

"The shallow people in the world all think that Zibu is selfish and only cares about himself. I even thought so at first. Now I think it's really ridiculous."

"I would like to thank Zibu on behalf of the king."

He tried to test him: "After Zi Bu returns, he will certainly be suspected by the King of Wu, and I heard that there were many conflicts between Zi Bu and the King of Wu before, so why not let him stay?"

Zhang Zhao shook his head and said, "No, Zhao always does things to the end. Although the king and I have different political views, I will never betray him."

"Everyone says I am indecisive, but I am who I am. I still have things I should do on the Wu side."

"Zi Jing, I'm leaving now."

Lu Su tried to persuade Zhang Zhao to stay, but seeing that he was determined to leave, he had no choice but to send him to the dock.

Zhang Zhao didn't say much. He immediately climbed onto the bow of the boat, bowed to Lu Su from a distance, and then sailed away.

Lu Su looked at the sailing boat in the distance, feeling mixed emotions in his heart. Who can tell who is right and who is wrong in this world?

(End of this chapter)