Late Han Zhao Tang

"How is my brother?"

Upon seeing Liu Bei return, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei led the civil and military officials forward and asked, "Is Cao Cao willing to lend us troops?"

Liu Bei hesitated for a moment, then said, "When I asked Cao Cao to lend me troops, he did not agree. Instead, he wanted to marry his eldest daughter to me so that we could become related by marriage."

"Does the lord agree?" Li Yan asked with concern.

Liu Bei shook his head and said, "I will politely decline for now, and ask you to give me a day to think about it."

Zhang Fei asked in surprise, "This is a good thing, why does my brother refuse?"

Liu Bei said, "Cao Cao is a man of deep cunning. Now he has suddenly married his daughter to me. I fear there is more to this than meets the eye!"

“Now that the Tang army has conquered Bashu, we are facing a formidable enemy. If the enemy is gone, we will be vulnerable. How dare Cao Cao plot against us?” Zhang Fei said.

“Cao Cao controls the court, and the emperor is just a puppet. If it weren’t for you, brother, supporting the Han dynasty, how could we have formed an alliance with him? Your doubts about this are perfectly understandable,” Guan Yu said.

"Then what do you mean, brother?" Zhang Fei asked, scratching his head.

Liu Bei frowned in thought, then looked at Li Yan and asked, "What are your thoughts, strategist?"

"In my opinion, my lord might be able to agree to the marriage proposal!" Li Yan said. "Our greatest enemy is Zhang Yu. My lord was only able to establish his career by relying on the alliance with Cao Cao. Now that my lord wants to achieve great things, he cannot do without Cao Cao's help."

After a pause, Li Yan said, "But as you have said, Cao Cao is by nature suspicious. His sudden desire to make you his son-in-law is bound to arouse suspicion. Therefore, in my opinion, you should agree to the marriage first. If Cao Cao has ulterior motives, you can find another reason to politely refuse or postpone the marriage."

"Ok!"

"The affirmative side's words resonate deeply with me!"

Liu Bei said, "If Cao Cao personally proposes marriage, and I refuse, it would be a great loss of face for him. Therefore, it would be better to agree to the marriage first and then adapt to the situation. If the marriage goes through, our two families will become related by marriage and be able to unite against the enemy!"

With that, Liu Bei instructed, "Send someone to inform Cao Cao later that I have agreed to the marriage!"

"promise!"

Not to mention that Liu Bei agreed to Cao Cao's proposal to marry his daughter, Cao Cao, in order to carry out the "beauty trap," specially sent Xiahou Yuan as a matchmaker to Liu Bei's camp to discuss public and private matters.

Inside the main tent, Xiahou Yuan sat on a side seat and bowed to Liu Bei, saying, "Knowing that the Imperial Uncle has agreed to the marriage, the Prime Minister is overjoyed. Now, I, Xiahou Yuan, will act as the matchmaker and come to the tent to pay my respects to the Imperial Uncle."

Liu Bei sat up straight and asked, "What advice does the general have for me?"

"Don't dare!"

Xiahou Yuan said, "Regarding the marriage, the Prime Minister has no other requests, only that the two families should get married as soon as possible after the withdrawal of troops, so as not to delay important matters. As for the matter of borrowing troops for the western expedition, the Prime Minister has also agreed to all of them."

"Thank you very much, Prime Minister!"

Before Liu Bei could even express his joy, Xiahou Yuan immediately said, "The Prime Minister has no other instructions, but I fear the Prime Minister's wife may disagree. Perhaps you, Lord Xuande, will need to make a trip to Jiangdong to satisfy the Prime Minister's wife."

"The Prime Minister's wife?"

Liu Bei frowned and asked, "Forgive my boldness, but Lady Ding has no children. Why do you say that she is unwilling?"

Xiahou Yuan said, "Madam Ding is my cousin. Although she has no children since marrying the Prime Minister, Lady Liu has given birth to two sons and a daughter. Since Lady Liu died early, my cousin adopted Lady Liu's children as her own. Therefore, the Prime Minister's beloved daughter is seemingly born out of wedlock, but is treated as if she were his legitimate daughter."

"Lady Ding wishes to choose a suitable son-in-law, therefore, if Lord Xuande wishes to marry the Prime Minister's beloved daughter, he must personally come to Jinling to please Lady Ding!"

"Is the Prime Minister's advice useless?" Li Yan asked.

"Uh~"

Xiahou Yuan gave a wry smile and said, "Xuande may not know my sister's temperament. She is strong-willed and, because she has no children of her own, she treats her stepchildren as her own and loves them even more. Don't think that just because you are the Prime Minister, you dare to go against my sister's wishes."

"If my sister-in-law finds out that my beloved daughter is marrying Xuande, she will surely harbor resentment over various matters. If my sister-in-law does not wish for my daughter to marry, but the Prime Minister wants to marry her, she may sever ties with the Prime Minister."

Liu Bei asked in disbelief, "Is Lady Ding truly so fierce?" Xiahou Yuan replied, "To be honest, my wife and Lady Ding are from the same clan. If you, Xuande, don't believe me, you might as well ask Yide. As Xiahou's son-in-law, how could he not know my cousin's name?"

In Eastern Han society, regardless of whether one came from a humble or aristocratic family, the first choice for marriage partners was someone of similar social standing or from the same hometown. In addition, marriages with people from neighboring counties or prefectures were common, but the concept of "fellow townsmen" still applied.

When Zhang Yu married Wang Ji, one important factor that led Wang Hong to agree was that she was from a neighboring prefecture. Although she was not as close as the Wen family from the same prefecture, they at least had the generalized relationship of being from the same hometown.

As for why they prioritize marrying into the same village, most of them value the complementary resources of different ethnic groups, believing that a strong alliance will ensure the prosperity of the family.

Therefore, not only were the Cao and Xiahou families closely related in Pei County, but the Ding family, which was from the same county as the Cao family, also prioritized marriage alliances with the Cao and Xiahou families for many years.

For example, both Cao Cao and his son Cao Song had marriage alliances with the Ding family, and even though Lady Ding had no children of her own, she was treated as his principal wife. Lady Ding was both the cousin of Xiahou Yuan's wife and Xiahou Yuan's cousin. Therefore, the complexity of the relationship between the three families was beyond the imagination of ordinary people.

Historically, Ding Chong was on good terms with Cao Cao, and they lived and traveled together in their youth. When Cao Cao controlled Yan Province, Ding Chong personally orchestrated an internal affair to persuade Emperor Xian of Han to summon Cao Cao to his aid. After the success, Ding Chong was enfeoffed as a marquis and promoted to Commandant of the Capital Region.

Ding Chong's sons, Ding Yi and Ding Yi, were deeply favored by Cao Cao. When Cao Cao was choosing a husband for his eldest daughter, he included Ding Yi and Xiahou Mao in the marriage proposals. The reason why the two were killed was simply because they had offended Cao Pi in the struggle for the throne.

Another branch of the Ding family, Ding Fei and his son Ding Mi, were exterminated by Sima Yi because Ding Mi was loyal to Cao Shuang and chose the wrong side in the political struggle.

Chen Shou omitted the Ding family in the Records of the Three Kingdoms not because the Ding family refused to provide Chen Shou with a thousand shi of grain, but because the Ding family chose the wrong side without exception during the two major political upheavals of the Wei and Jin dynasties. Therefore, many of the deeds of the Ding family members, who were the most important members of the Cao family group, were erased and could not be recorded in detail.

Seeing Liu Bei looking at him, Zhang Fei said truthfully, "General Xiahou's words are true. Lady Ding is of a fiery temperament, as all relatives and friends know. If you do not win her favor, it will be difficult for you to marry her!"

"Lord Xuande, do not doubt!"

Xiahou Yuan said, "The Prime Minister said that with a formidable enemy at hand, we should work together. If our two families form a marriage alliance, we will be even closer and have no doubts about each other. The Tang people will not dare to underestimate the southeast. If you go to Jinling, you may be able to pay your respects to His Majesty on the way."

After considering for a moment, Liu Bei asked, "What do you think about the matter of borrowing troops?"

Xiahou Yuan smiled and said, "If you do not mind, I am willing to lead 10,000 troops to assist you in your western expedition."

"Thank you for your hard work, Miao Cai!" Liu Bei said happily.

"I'm following orders!"

Xiahou Yuan said, "Besides, Lord Xuande has kinship ties with the Cao and Xiahou clans. Since we are friends, there is no need for such formality!"

After exchanging pleasantries, Xiahou Yuan returned to Cao Cao's camp with Liu Bei seeing him off, and reported the conversation to Cao Cao.

After Xiahou Yuan left, Liu Bei summoned his trusted confidants and asked, "Cao Cao's intention to seek a marriage alliance is genuine, and I now have a favor to ask of him. Therefore, after this western campaign, I should travel east to Jiangdong to establish a marriage alliance and jointly resist the enemy!"

"If my lord were to travel east, who would be appointed to oversee the defense of Jingnan?" Jian Yong asked.

“If I leave, Guan Yu will oversee the defense of Jingnan, and Zheng Fang will oversee the finances and provisions of the various counties in Jingzhou. This trip is merely to visit a woman, and the entire process will take no more than two months,” Liu Bei said.

"promise!"

After agreeing to the marriage, Liu Bei and Cao Cao abandoned their attack on Jiangling due to the fall of Shu. Cao Cao, citing Xiahou Dun's urgent plea for help, withdrew his troops and returned to the country, leaving Xiahou Yuan alone with 10,000 troops to assist Liu Bei's western expedition.

Cao Cao's withdrawal from Jiangling was a last resort. Besides the fall of Bashu and the inability to capture Jiangling after a prolonged siege, problems arose in Huainan.

Cao Cao ordered Xiahou Dun to defend Shouchun, while Zhang Liao was commanded to lead troops to conquer Huainan, thus diverting the strength of the major enemy in Jingzhou. At that time, Yuan Shang and Yuan Xi marched north to harass Xuzhou. Zhang Liao led his troops eastward and decisively defeated the two Yuans at Haixi, first beheading Yuan Xi. He then pursued them for a hundred li and beheaded Yuan Shang at Huaipu. Zhang Liao then sent the heads of the two Yuans to Chang'an.

After annihilating the two Yuan brothers, Zhang Liao led his troops south across the river. Taking advantage of Xiahou Dun's reluctance to engage in battle, he sent cavalry deep into Huainan to plunder and relocate the people to Huaibei. Seeing Zhang Liao's troops scattered and attacking, Xiahou Dun decided to launch a surprise attack on Zhang Liao.

Despite the attack on his camp, Zhang Liao remained calm and commanded his troops to repel Xiahou Dun. He then secretly dispatched cavalry in pursuit, and Xiahou Dun was defeated and fled. From then on, he retreated to Shouchun, and no matter how the Tang army outside the city tried to lure him out, he dared not leave the city.

With Shouchun in grave danger and the two Yuan brothers executed, they naturally sent military intelligence to Cao Cao!

Cao Cao was worried about Huainan and had no intention of staying too long; he needed to lead his troops back as soon as possible. Liu Bei, on the other hand, was eager to launch his western expedition and worried about being left alone on the north bank, so he withdrew with Cao Cao's army.

Seeing that both Cao Cao and Liu Bei intended to withdraw their troops, Li Song received a letter from Zhang Yu and adopted Jia Xu's plan, selecting elite troops and recruiting vanguard soldiers. He appointed Lü Bu and Huang Zhong as generals, ordering them to lead cavalry to provoke the enemy and repeatedly demonstrate their determination to attack.

Both armies fled in the night, and the Tang cavalry pursued them to Shakou, where they were ambushed by the Han army. When Li Song arrived with his main force, a fierce battle ensued, and the Han army was finally defeated, with three thousand killed or captured. The supplies of Cao Cao and Liu Bei's armies were also recovered and the army returned. (End of Chapter)