Wei Ni

The capital, Wuyang Marquis’ Mansion.

Sima Yi, who went to the palace to meet Emperor Cao Rui as soon as he entered Luoyang, finally returned after an hour, reeking of alcohol.

Everyone in the mansion was happy and busy welcoming the man who brought the Sima family to the peak.

However, the smiling Sima Yi only responded a few times, and then made an excuse that he had drunk too much at the banquet given by His Majesty, and asked everyone to leave, leaving only the older Sima Shi and Sima Zhao to help him change clothes.

It literally means changing clothes, not going to the toilet.

In the study, when the two sons were helping to change clothes and wipe sweat off the body, Sima Shi's eyes were a little stern and worried, while Sima Zhao gave him a few words of advice in a filial manner.

"The heat is getting stronger, father, you should drink less to avoid sweating too much and hurting your body."

"How about you, Father, let me ask the servants to make some hangover soup for you? After drinking the hangover soup and taking a bath, you won't feel uncomfortable anymore."

Sima Yi said nothing.

She just smiled faintly and patted his hands to show her comfort for his filial piety.

He knew that Zhongzi was still young and of average talent, so he did not explain too much. Besides, there was also the eldest son of the family who had already taken charge and restrained him!

as predicted.

When Sima Yi changed into a dry home silk robe and sat down, Sima Shi directly instructed him, "Sir, please stop making noise. Father, don't you know how to love yourself? It's just that you can't help yourself."

This also made Sima Zhao speechless.

Seeing this, Sima Yi smiled and waved his hand, "Brothers should be friendly and respectful to each other. Zishang also has good intentions, why is Ziyuan so harsh? Zishang, bring a seat for father."

"only."

Sima Zhao responded hurriedly and took out a chair and placed it behind Sima Yi. When Sima Yi leaned back, he moved to sit in front of him, moved one of Sima Yi's feet and placed it on his knees, kneading it gently.

He knew that he had no right to interrupt the conversation that was about to begin, and he couldn't do so.

"Give it a little more strength, Zishang."

After Sima Yi took the honey water from Jingzhen and sipped it, he sighed with some melancholy, "Alas, I am old. I can't drink much and I can't sit for long."

"But Your Majesty still does not know the elders, nor does he care about the elders."

"A gentleman should be cautious when he is alone. Ziyuan, please do not slander Your Majesty."

"Yes, I'll remember that."

"Ah."

Sima Yi responded with a nasal sound, closed his eyes and drank slowly. After he finished the bowl of honey water, he slowly narrated the process of meeting the emperor and being given a banquet just now.

Processes such as the emperor and his ministers drinking and chatting happily together were naturally omitted.

He first told how Emperor Cao Rui claimed that all the ministers had recommended that the Taiwei Office be in charge of military farming according to the imperial decree, and then he roughly recounted the conversation at the table.

"Your Majesty reiterated the words of the late emperor, 'I have received the mandate of heaven and rule the country. The heroes of the country and the ministers of the country should share the wealth and honor with me and pass it on forever.' Then he told my father that he deeply agreed with the words of the late emperor and also wanted to share the wealth and honor with his loyal ministers forever."

"Father, I know what you mean."

In response, Sima Shi responded without hesitation, "Your Majesty is saying that the rich and powerful are greedy and have crossed the line in recent years. That's why you want the Taiwei Mansion to impose strict restrictions when investigating military farms."

"Your Majesty talked about the investigation of the Luoyang Department of Agriculture, claiming that Xiahou Zhiquan acted rashly, which caused a lot of controversy in the court and the public, so he was dismissed from his post. Then, he mentioned that when my father was stationed in Jingxiang and Yongliang, he developed water conservancy and encouraged farming, and praised my father's strategy of 'self-sufficiency of the soldiers and abundant financial resources for the country'."

"Alas! It is so."

Sima Shi raised his eyebrows and complained with some dissatisfaction, "Your Majesty wants to recover all the military farms that have been swallowed up, and you also want my father to be the bad guy and order those people not to gossip, in order to save the name of Your Majesty's wisdom."

"I've already said it before, a gentleman should be cautious when alone."

After making another light criticism, Sima Yi shook his head, his tone becoming more melancholy. "My father is the Grand Commandant and should be loyal to the court. How can Your Majesty ask me to be a bad guy? Besides, this was expected and it didn't make my father drunk and sweaty."

This time, Sima Shi did not respond.

Instead, he lowered his head to show that he had received training, and then waited quietly for further instructions.

He could vaguely guess that the reason why his father lost his composure in front of Emperor Cao Rui was because in recent days there had been a lot of gossips in the court and the country praising his father's achievements.

No king can tolerate a subject whose prestige is higher than his own.

For example, when Sun Ce had just pacified Jiangdong, he killed the Taoist Yu Ji, who had done nothing wrong and was curing diseases and saving lives, because all his subordinates were rushing to greet him and worship him.

In particular, his father now wanted to retire while the country was in chaos, but because the emperor Cao Rui was in his prime and was particularly concerned about his reputation, he would not allow his father to retire.

"Father, did His Majesty mention the gossip in the market during the banquet today?"

After a long silence, Sima Shi could no longer hold back and asked.

"Ziyuan is stupid." Unexpectedly, Sima Yi immediately denied it, "Your Majesty is a wise ruler, how can you let the gossip of fools in the market disturb your mind! Besides, my father is not so unbearable that he would be frightened by a mere rumor."

"Then, Father is..."

"Your Majesty has already chosen someone as the new governor of Hongnong."

Sima Yi interrupted him directly, sat up straight, looked him in the eye and asked, "Ziyuan, let me ask you, were you involved in the resignation of the prefect of Hongnong due to illness?"

"Heaven and earth can bear witness! I am not someone who does not know the seriousness of the matter. How could I do something that would bring disaster to our family?"

After a slight shock, Sima Shi hastened to defend himself, but under his father's still-fixed gaze, he finally lowered his voice and said, "Father, I only learned about this matter before the Hongnong governor submitted his memorial to the court."

Sima Yi withdrew his gaze, lay back on the seat, and motioned Sima Zhao to massage his other leg.

Compared to his calmness, Sima Shi stood up and left the table tactfully, kneeling on the ground and narrating, "Father knew about it. I was in Chang'an at that time. Even if I wanted to get involved in this matter, I could never hide it from father. He never told me about this matter in a letter, and he didn't tell me anything else. I knew about it, so I ignored it and didn't reply to the letter. I just pretended that I didn't know about it."

"What?"

Hearing this, Sima Yi was somewhat surprised, "Son of the former Grand Coachman He Shulong?"

"Yes, Father."

Sima Zhao interrupted directly, "I used to be quite friendly with him, but later he became close to Cao Zhao. After my brother's warning, I rarely sat in banquets with him. My brother met him very rarely, and he wrote to him because of me."

"Don't blame yourself, Zishang. This matter has nothing to do with you."

He said this with a comforting smile, but when Sima Yi looked at his eldest son, his smile disappeared.

Sima Shi knew the reason and explained directly, "Father, Cao Zhao and Cao Shuang, Xiahou Xian and others are already in a state of disharmony, so he has made friends with many scholars. He was never close to anyone, so there is no lack of attempts to make friends with my son and his father."

Having said this, he paused, and then added, "Although He Zeng is an old friend of your majesty's, he is not valued compared to Guanqiu Jian, Bi Gui and others, so he is friendly with Cao Zhao and shares the same interests and harms."

"Well, get up."

After a brief pause and figuring out the truth, Sima Yi forgave his eldest son for acting on his own, but he did not forget to warn him, "My son's wisdom is not inferior to yours. But my son, don't forget that your father has been in the court for decades, while your son has never embarked on a career, let alone served in front of Your Majesty. There are some things that your son may not know better than your father."

"But, I will remember your father's teachings."

Sima Shi bowed respectfully, then stood up and returned to his seat. From the following conversation, he learned why his father, who was the regent, got drunk in front of the emperor.

"The day when the Hongnong Department of Agriculture completed its investigation was the day when the Hongnong governor died of illness. I originally thought that your majesty had informed me of this matter privately because you were involved, so I was worried. But now it seems that your majesty wanted to use my mouth to let him know that thunder, lightning, rain and dew are all grace from heaven~"

Sima Yi said this, his tone no longer melancholy, but rather calm.

It was just a matter of letting an unrelated prefect die of illness, and it was ordered by Emperor Cao Rui. Given his current status, it was not a big deal.

Moreover, he also found out that this matter was related to Cao Zhao.

Since Emperor Cao Rui asked him to deal with the aftermath of the matter between the royal family and the children of Qiao Pei, it can be seen that even though he holds a high position of power and is highly regarded by the whole court, he is still as steady as a rock.

"Father, let me do this for you."

Sima Shi asked, "Since He Zeng has written a letter to me, I should also write him a letter in return, which will also help him and Cao Zhao stop having such wishful thinking in the future."

"Alright."

Midsummer arrives in May.

Emperor Cao Rui issued an edict, and according to the petitions of many ministers, ordered Wei Zhen and Xiahou Hui to return to their respective posts, and let the Grand Marshal Sima Yi, who had returned to the capital five days ago, take full charge of the inventory of military farms in the counties around the capital. After discussion, the Secretariat and the Zhongshu Jian approved the request of the Hongnong prefect to resign due to illness and replaced him with Meng Kang.

Everyone in the government and the public was happy about this.

Therefore, few people paid attention to the fact that the imperial physician who was sent by the court to Hongnong for treatment said that the prefect of Hongnong was too ill to travel and had to stay in Hongnong to recuperate.

People's attention was drawn to the memorial that Xiahou Hui submitted to the imperial court when he was relieved of his duties of investigating military farms.

Xiahou Hui asked Emperor Cao Rui to have mercy on the people's livelihood and stop building palaces and conscripting people, on the grounds that the population of the scholars and people of the Luoyang Diannong Department had declined sharply in recent years due to the heavy labor in the palaces and the repeated delays in farming season.

According to past experience, anyone who dared to advise against such things would inevitably be demoted or dismissed.

But this time, Emperor Cao Rui actually accepted the advice!
Not only did he issue an edict praising Xiahou Hui for his loyalty to the emperor, his outspokenness, and his deep understanding of the current ills, but he also stopped his palace labor on the grounds that he should follow the previous emperor's style of frugality.

Then the real purpose was revealed.

On the pretext of imitating the embroidered robe envoys of the former Han Dynasty, the emperor's disciples who had been studying in the Imperial Academy in recent years were designated as "envoys to observe customs" and were sent to the local agricultural departments in counties and prefectures to inspect and prevent any illegal activities.

The decree was implemented with lightning speed.

The ministers and officials who were unable to dissuade him were disappointed, but they did not secretly curse Xiahou Hui who had facilitated this.

After all, in this investigation of military farms, only the emperor is the winner. (End of this chapter)