Three Kingdoms: I am not Cao Rui

After hearing Hu Zong's words, Sun Quan loosened his right hand slightly, but the intimidating look and oppressive momentum did not stop at all.

Lu Mao panted heavily, "Your Majesty, Your Majesty has acted inappropriately. Since I cannot advise Your Majesty, someone has to take care of state affairs, so I have no choice but to advise the Crown Prince."

"Your Majesty, I really don't know what I have done wrong."

"Why are you instigating the prince to rebel against me! Don't say these empty words to me!" Sun Quan became even angrier.

Lu Mao replied: "I am loyal to the Great Wu and have no selfish motives!"

"You are using the name of loyalty to commit disloyal acts!" Sun Quan was so angry that he gnashed his teeth. "If you change your words now, it's not too late to mend the situation. I will give you one last chance."

Sweat beads appeared on Lu Mao's forehead, but he did not pause for a moment, nor did he ask for mercy. Instead, his bones became even harder: "If a country with a thousand chariots has three contending ministers, then the country will not be in danger! If a family with a hundred chariots has two contending ministers, then the ancestral temple will not be destroyed!"

Sun Quan seemed to have forgotten Hu Zong's advice, and pressed hard against Lu Mao's throat again, his eyes wide open, furious. In Sun Quan's opinion, Lu Mao was about to die, but he was still harboring sinister thoughts!
The sentence Lu Mao just said comes from Xunzi, which roughly means that Confucius and Zigong discussed what loyalty and filial piety are. Confucius asked, "Is it filial piety for a son to obey his father's orders? Is it loyal for a minister to obey the orders of his ruler?"

Zigong answered yes, of course, but Confucius disagreed, saying that if a son blindly obeys his father, can this be considered filial piety? If a minister blindly obeys his monarch, can this be considered loyalty?
Before this evaluation of loyalty and filial piety, Confucius' original words were: "In the past, if a country with ten thousand chariots had four contending ministers, its borders would not be reduced; if a country with a thousand chariots had three contending ministers, its society would not be in danger; if a family with a hundred chariots had two contending ministers, its ancestral temple would not be destroyed."

"Zheng" is the same as "zheng", which means to advise.

Sun Quan heard three layers of meaning from Lu Mao's mere two sentences.

The first level is to accuse Sun Quan of being wrong, saying that if he only blindly obeys the king's words, he cannot be considered loyal.

The second level only mentioned the countries with a thousand chariots and the families with a hundred chariots, while the countries with ten thousand chariots were omitted, silently downgrading the State of Wu!
Regarding the third meaning, Sun Quan directly scolded: "If I don't listen to you, will the ancestral temples and the country of Wu be destroyed?"

Lu Mao's face gradually turned red and purple, and he squeezed out two words: "Maybe not!"

Sun Quan could no longer tolerate Lu Mao. He did not move his right hand which was against Lu Mao's neck. He reached for his waist with his left hand but felt nothing. He took a quick glance and suddenly pulled out Hu Zong's sword and thrust it straight into Lu Mao's chest.

Once, twice, three times, and then threw the sword to the ground of the prison. Scarlet blood flowed out in streams, soaking the back of Sun Quan's feet.

Lu Mao was no longer able to speak at this time. He stared at Sun Quan's face, and soon he died, spitting blood foam.

Sun Quan slowly loosened his hand and watched Lu Mao's body sliding limply along the wall, an expression of disbelief on his face.

Hu Zong, who was standing by, had long since stopped watching. He moved his throat slightly, said nothing, and avoided Sun Quan's gaze.

"Wei Ze, I..." Sun Quan's chest was heaving, and he lowered his voice to say to Hu Zong: "Lu Mao... Lu Mao is indeed hateful. I was so angry just now that I killed him..."

Hu Zong bowed and said, "Your Majesty, the best way to cultivate virtue is to cultivate it, and the best way to eliminate evil is to eliminate it completely. Lu Mao committed suicide in prison out of fear of punishment. The entire Lu family should be arrested as soon as possible, and no one should escape!"

Sun Quan nodded: "Okay, Wei Ze will do it!" Then he strode away from here, but there were still some bloodstains on the ground outside where Sun Quan had walked.

……

After a long journey of more than 20 days, Xin Pi and Yang Dan, the father-in-law and son-in-law, finally arrived at Qishan City, the capital of Qinzhou, under the escort of 100 cavalrymen.

When they were still several miles away from Qishan City, Xin Pi stopped the carriage and the cavalrymen who were guarding it. He and Yang Tan got off the carriage and stood by the official road, looking at the fields in the valley and the surging West Han River.

"Sir, we are only a few miles away from Qishan City. Why do we have to stop here?"

Xin Pi said: "After Cao Wenlie passed away in the third year of Taihe, His Majesty ordered me to inspect Guanxi with the imperial seal, first to the General Chencang, then to Shanggui, Qishan, Dazhong, Wudu, Hanzhong..."

"On the way, I kept thinking, every time I come to Guanzhong, I have to deal with these funeral news. Will the generals in Guanxi be unwilling to see me?"

This was the time that Yang Dan spent the most time with his father-in-law, and he gradually understood Xin Pi's thoughts better.

For a young and strong man like Yang Tan, handling funeral affairs was just following the court's orders, just like an ordinary errand, a routine matter.

But for an elderly elder like Xin Pi, every time he dealt with such a matter, it was as if he was bidding farewell to his prime and those old days. And the long journey of more than 20 days prolonged this kind of thinking and mood, which was even more cruel.

Yang Dan carefully held Xin Pi's arm and said, "Your Excellency is worrying too much. When you came here in the third year of Taihe, you were still a minister. Now, four years later, in the seventh year of Taihe, you have entered the cabinet as a minister. What else can you regret? The gentlemen in the city must have been waiting for you for many days. Please come into the city quickly."

Xin Pi nodded silently, then got back into the carriage with the help of Yang Tan.

Qishan City, as the capital of Qinzhou, has not been prosperous in the past four or five years, but it is now the most densely populated place in Qinzhou. The West Han River irrigated the fields on both sides of the river valley, and tens of thousands of Qiang people settled here. Not far from here, Lucheng produced salt, and this material flowed from here to all parts of Qinzhou. As a cabinet minister, Shangshu Zuo Pushe, and the emperor's envoy, everyone's welcome to Xin Pi was grand. After personally paying homage to Zhang He's coffin, Yang Dan, a military officer, obtained the unanimous permission of General Wei Zhen and Xin Pi, and prepared to set off early tomorrow morning to move Zhang He's coffin back to Luoyang.

For important court officials and senior officials, funerals were also a rare opportunity to discuss matters and socialize.

After the ceremony, Xin Pi accepted Wei Zhen's invitation, walked out of the mourning hall slowly, and headed for the heights of Qishan Fort. The prisoner-capturing general Chen Ping and the military officer Yang Dan also followed behind him.

Spring is the best season of the year in Longyou.

Several people climbed up to the wall of Qishan Fort, overlooking the entire Qishan City and the surging West Han River. A pavilion has been built here, and a stone tablet has been erected in the center of the pavilion. The poem written by Zhang He under the guidance of the emperor in the second year of Taihe was engraved on the stone tablet.

Wei Zhen said calmly, "Brother Zuo Zhi, His Majesty ordered you to come all the way from Shouchun. Have you made any arrangements for Zhang Junyi's funeral? Will he be given a posthumous title or a posthumous title?"

"Not yet." Xin Pi shook his head and said, "Your Majesty spoke of urgency at the time and only asked me to leave Shouchun as soon as possible. He did not mention these two things, but instead gave me many important military instructions."

Wei Zhen didn't seem surprised: "Then let's talk about it after we return to Luoyang?"

"Perhaps." Xin Pi said, "There is no precedent for posthumous awarding in the Taihe era. I guess the central government is cautious because of this."

"Well, that should be the case." Wei Zhen sighed and looked at the Xihan River in the distance, his eyes unable to move for a long time: "If so, how are the generals in Guanxi assigned?"

"What does Gong Zhen want to do?" Xin Pi asked back.

Wei Zhen calmly responded: "I will just listen to what the Central Government has to say."

Xin Pi did not delay any longer: "Your Majesty wants Lu Boyan to come to Qishan from Dazhong, and take over Zhang Junyi's duties, and be promoted to General Zhenxi. Lu Boyan's chief secretary, Zhou Duo and Zhou Jinning, will be promoted to Protector of the Qiang, and continue to lead the Qiang troops to guard Dazhong."

"Anything else?" Wei Zhen asked, and Chen Ping, who was standing behind him, was also listening attentively.

"Yes." Xin Pi continued, "Order Lieutenant General Cao Ping to guard Wu Street. The rest have not been assigned, and Gong Zhen can handle it himself."

Wei Zhen thought for a few moments: "If it's about other things, it's nothing, but I'm stationed in Chencang, and I've continued to use Cao Zidan's seat of government here. But now that Wujie has been built, and Yongqin has no worries about food and grass for the time being, it seems more appropriate to move the seat of government to Xiabian."

Chen Ping behind him also spoke up: "Xin Gong is wise, Duke Wei's journey from Chencang to Qishan is really long. In addition, the only two places that Wei is guarding in Guanxi now are Wujie and Hanzhong, so Xiabian is indeed more appropriate."

Xin Pi glanced at Chen Ping, then looked at Wei Zhen: "This is a very good idea. Gong Zhen can draft a petition and I will sign it with you."

"Okay, I'll write it later." Wei Zhen nodded.

Xin Pi asked again: "In the fifth and sixth years of Taihe, the court has not received any news of the invasion of the Shu army for two consecutive years. Does Gong Zhen have any news from Shu?"

"Not yet." Wei Zhen shook his head and said, "In the past, there were often merchants traveling in the mountains and fields. They would spend a lot of money and get some information about Shu. But in the past two years, Shu seems to have made great efforts in this regard. Whether it is Baishui or Baxi, or the Qiang and Di territory further west, there are almost no people traveling there. The Shu Road is difficult. If they intend to seal the pass and prohibit it, it will be like completely cutting off the traffic."

"Shu is a small country with a small population. Zhuge Liang must be accumulating wealth and preparing troops there for the next invasion."

Xin Pi said: "Your Majesty said the same thing to us in the past. The Shu Kingdom used the name of the Han Dynasty to deceive the Shu people. If we don't invade the north and lose the righteousness, we will not be able to maintain it sooner or later."

"However, Brother Gong Zhen, there is one important thing I want to tell you." Xin Pi said slowly: "Your Majesty and the officials of the court seem to want to put Shu aside for the time being and concentrate the military and national strength in Yangzhou to fight against Wu."

"First Wu and then Shu?" Wei Zhen continued.

"That's right." Xin Pi said, "The fleet sent to Japan last year has returned. His Majesty ordered Prince Yongqiu to continue to be the general of the tower ship. The shortcomings in naval warfare may be gradually made up. But Gong Zhen is guarding Guanxi. Judging from His Majesty's intention, Gong Zhen will not be moved unless there is a major event. Then Gong Zhen may not be able to catch up with the war against Wu."

Wei Zhen sneered: "Brother George, I never ask for these, nor do I care about these false reputations. When you go back, you can tell Your Majesty in person that since Your Majesty wants to use troops in the southeast, I will definitely defend the territory for Your Majesty in the northwest."

"The road between Shu and Qinzhou is difficult. Wei can't attack it for the time being, and Zhuge Liang can't attack it either. Don't worry about Guanxi."

Xin Pi nodded and said, "That's what I was waiting for Gong Zhen to say. Your Majesty ordered me to inspect various places. I will go to Wuwei again in a few days to meet Sima Shuda and Xiahou Zhongquan. When Lu Boyan is summoned to Qishan, I will not go. Let Gong Zhen write to Lu Xun himself."

Wei Zhen let out a long sigh: "He is a surrendered general after all."

"Isn't Zhang Junyi a surrendered general?" Xin Pi said with a smile, "Gong Zhen is overly suspicious!"

"I hope so! I will follow your orders." Wei Zhen responded. (End of this chapter)