My father Liu Xuande

Chapter 4 Cao Bao's Dilemma

A child who is barely old enough to attend school actually asked him to marry his daughter.

Before Cao Bao could react, Liu Feng turned around, took the wooden box next to his seat, opened it, and presented it to Cao Bao.

"General, do you know what this is?"

Cao Bao's emotions had been completely aroused by Liu Feng. Although the other party suddenly changed the topic, Cao Bao was not angry at all. Instead, he replied, "I don't know."

Liu Feng picked up a tiny bit of the snow-white crystal with his index finger and put it in his mouth.

"This is table salt."

"salt?"

Cao Bao was shocked. At that time, salt was mostly colored. Yellow salt was considered to be of high quality. There was even a lot of brown salt, which tasted bitter and astringent.

But the salt in front of him was as clear as snow and as white as jade.

He couldn't help but follow Liu Feng's example, dipping his index finger in the salt and putting it in his mouth. To his astonishment, he discovered that the salt had none of its usual bitterness, but was even saltier and more savory.

Amidst Cao Bao's utter disbelief, Liu Feng pointed to the box of snow salt: "General, this is snow salt. I am unworthy, but by chance, I have been granted the method of refining snow salt. If you are willing to provide two thousand elite soldiers from Danyang as dowry, I, Liu Feng, am willing to offer one-tenth of the profit from the snow salt as betrothal gifts to marry your daughter."

The soldiers of Danyang!?

Cao Bao, whose mind had been dazed by Liu Feng's words, finally came to his senses.

So that's what Liu Feng was planning.

For Cao Bao, the soldiers of Danyang were his lifeline.

Although he wasn't very ambitious, he wasn't stupid either.

Cao Bao has always regarded his Danyang soldiers as the foundation of his livelihood and the key to his survival.

Tao Qian had already pained Liu Bei by transferring four thousand soldiers to him, and now Liu Bei's son was asking for another two thousand. Whose foundation would these Danyang soldiers be in the future?
Cao Bao instinctively wanted to refuse, but after a moment's thought, he couldn't bring himself to say it.

There was no way around it; Liu Feng was absolutely right.

Xuzhou was surrounded by mortal enemies, and even if Cao Bao wanted to surrender, he couldn't find anyone to surrender to.

To try to be independent is to court death.

Given his current situation, Cao Bao has no choice but to serve Liu Bei if he wants to survive; otherwise, if Xuzhou falls, he will be the first to be sacrificed.

Unless he abandons his Danyang soldiers and flees back to his hometown of Danyang to become a wealthy man.

But if he really was willing to give up the Danyang soldiers, then why couldn't he use them as leverage to surrender to Liu Bei?
Compared to Yangzhou, which has become a battlefield for Yuan Shu and Liu Yao, Xuzhou is much more peaceful and safe at present.

Moreover, Cao Bao had followed Tao Qian in Xuzhou for many years and had accumulated a great deal of wealth and land.

The world was already in chaos and turmoil. Not to mention the land that couldn't be taken away, how much wealth could safely reach Danyang, the hometown?

Even if they returned to their hometown of Danyang, without the Danyang soldiers, what would Cao Bao rely on to protect them?

On the other hand, Cao Bao was unlike Cao Hong, another big shot in the Danyang faction.

Because of his greedy nature, narrow-mindedness, and jealousy of talent, Cao Hong's reputation in Xuzhou was already infamous, and he had offended almost all the gentry in Xuzhou.

But Cao Bao is not like that.

The biggest problem between Cao Bao and Liu Bei was the succession of the governorship of Xu Province.

Whether in Romance of the Three Kingdoms or Records of the Three Kingdoms, Liu Bei's inheritance of Xuzhou seems like a natural progression, supported by the masses.

But is that really the case? Let's not forget that Tao Qian himself has two adult sons.

Given the nature of the various warlords at the end of the Three Kingdoms period, it's highly likely that each of Yuan Shao's sons had their own group of supporters. Just as the gentry from Henan supported Yuan Tan, while the local gentry from Hebei fully supported Yuan Shang, Yuan Shao's son.

The same applies to Liu Biao. Liu Qi's supporters were the outside gentry led by Liu Bei, a vassal state, while Liu Cong's supporters were the local gentry led by Cai and Kuai.

Even Cao Cao could not escape this rule. After he became the King of Wei in Hebei, the Henan gentry, who had turned from angel investors to outsiders, supported Cao Pi, while the Hebei gentry, who had transformed from the conquered into locals, supported Cao Zhi.

This law suggests that Cao Bao's previous support was most likely for Tao Qian's eldest son.

It is highly likely that local gentry members of Xuzhou, such as Chen Deng and Mi Zhu, who supported Tao Qian's second son, decisively abandoned Tao Qian's second son after Liu Bei entered Xuzhou, jumped ship at lightning speed, and supported Liu Bei.

If it were someone else, this task would likely not have been accomplished.

It could take a long time just for the two sides to reach mutual trust; such political cooperation is simply impossible to achieve in just a few months.

But Liu Bei was different; there were very hidden but crucial internal factors at play here.

The most important person in all of this is Lu Zhi.

Lu Zhi was Liu Bei's teacher, a crucial figure who became the cornerstone of mutual trust between Liu Bei, Chen Deng, and even most of the gentry in Xuzhou.

Lu Zhi had two teachers. One of them was Chen Qiu, who served as one of the Three Dukes and Grand Commandant during the reign of Emperor Ling. He was the uncle of Chen Gui, the father of Chen Deng.

This relationship made Liu Bei and Chen Deng distant fellow disciples.

Lu Zhi's second teacher was the great Confucian scholar Ma Rong, while Yuan Shao's fourth uncle was Yuan Wei.

Yuan Huai was Dong Zhuo's patron and the actual controller of the Yuan family. He orchestrated the Luoyang Incident and was the mastermind behind the scenes who orchestrated the killing of the Ten Attendants.

Yuan Wei's wife was Ma Rong's legitimate daughter, and he was also Ma Rong's son-in-law.

This relationship also made Liu Bei and Yuan Shao distant fellow disciples.

Tao Qian was Yuan Shu's traditional ally and had always been anti-Yuan Shao.

Therefore, Yuan Shao would be very willing, and even take the initiative to help Liu Bei take over Xuzhou and become his ally.

This not only turned Xuzhou from an enemy into a friend, but also weakened the power of their arch-rivals Gongsun Zan and Yuan Shu, and at the same time limited the expansionist ambitions of their unruly little brother, the widowed Cao. It was truly a triple win, a stroke of genius.

As for Liu Bei?
He only needed to part ways with Gongsun Zan peacefully to gain the vast territory of Xuzhou. How could he refuse?

Therefore, Chen Qun believed that Xuzhou was a whirlpool and strongly advised Liu Bei to stay in Yuzhou to develop his career and not get involved in these messy affairs in Xuzhou.

Liu Bei, however, was reluctant to give up such a large territory, and despite Chen Qun's objections, he took over as governor of Xu Province.

It was precisely because of these many internal and external factors that Liu Bei was able to easily and peacefully part ways with Gongsun Zan, take over the assets of Xuzhou, and then immediately form an alliance with Yuan Shao, the backer of Cao Cao, with whom he had just been fighting to the death.

All of this was something that Tao Qian's sons could not do.

Liu Bei had military strength, Chen Deng, representing the local landlords of Xuzhou, had grain, and Mi Zhu, representing the local commercial magnates, had capital.

It was precisely because these three people had money, food, and soldiers that they colluded together and were able to so easily inherit Tao Qian's "legacy," temporarily suppressing the dissatisfaction of everyone else.

But this is only temporary, and these grievances are accumulating rather than disappearing.

Cao Bao's most embarrassing situation was that the entire Xuzhou knew that the person he had always supported was Tao Qian, the eldest son of the Tao family, and after Tao Qian died, the entire Danyang faction rallied around him.

This made Cao Bao more worried than happy. After all, how could Cao Bao not know what the Danyang Sect was?

This is a gang of thugs.

(End of this chapter)