The elite did not migrate south

Chapter 166 It’s true!

"Your Majesty? Are you here to see the Queen Mother again? I'm afraid you won't be able to see her today."

Guo Li said with a smile.

Cao Mao fell into deep thought. How would Sima Shi kill these people?
First of all, Guanqiu Jian would definitely not take them with him when he went to war, or rather, he would leave one behind and take one away.
If Sima Shi wanted to go on an expedition, he would most likely bring Sima Fu with him and leave Sima Zhao to garrison Luoyang.

If the war went smoothly on Sima Shi's side, and when Guanqiu Jian was about to be defeated, the two idiots in front of him would probably receive orders to die of illness.

Maybe he gave himself poisoned wine?
Once he dies, Sima Zhao will be horrified and will immediately start a thorough investigation.

After investigation, he found that the person who killed him was actually someone from the Guo family, and there was an order from the empress dowager. There was a reason for this. The emperor married the daughter of the Sima family as the queen. The empress dowager was very dissatisfied and wanted to depose her, but she could not find any fault in the emperor, so she ordered his own family to poison him.

The next thing was very simple. Capture the empress dowager, execute the entire Guo family, hold a grand ceremony for himself, give him a good posthumous title, find a young member of the royal family, preferably a baby, adopt him as himself, and then let Sima Yi serve as the empress dowager and come to court.

In this way, the palace was pacified, Guanqiu Jian outside was gone, Sima Shi handed over power to Sima Zhao, and Sima Zhao just had to prepare to accept the abdication.

Because the emperor was young and unable to govern the country, the empress dowager took the initiative to abdicate the throne to the general.

In a short period of time, Cao Mao had roughly guessed all of Sima Shi's arrangements.

However, Sima Shi was probably not afraid that Cao Mao would see through his arrangements.

They are just lambs to be slaughtered. What good does it do even if they know?

Cao Mao looked at the two people in front of him again. Seeing their domineering appearance, Cao Mao only felt sadness for them in his heart, and not much hatred.

Cao Mao pondered for a moment before saying, "Of course I can see it."

"You two, please take care of yourselves."

Guo Li sneered and said, "Your Majesty, are you trying to intimidate me?"

Cao Mao shook his head and said nothing.

The two men didn't want to say anything more to the emperor. They glared at him and turned away.

Watching them walk away, Cao Mao also felt emotional. It was the first time he saw someone rushing to die like this.

Mr. Guo was standing at the palace gate at this moment and said, "The Queen Mother said that she is not feeling well. Your Majesty, please come back another day."

Cao Mao nodded and instructed Mr. Xu who was standing beside him, "Go and enforce martial law around here. Don't let anyone get close."

Mr. Xu was stunned. Before he could react, he saw the emperor rush out.

Amidst the astonishment of the crowd, Cao Mao rushed directly to Zhaoyang Palace. Mr. Guo was horrified and shouted, "No! No!"

When a guard tried to stop him, Cao Mao shouted, "Who dares to disrespect me?!"

Upon hearing this, the guards immediately retreated.

Even the soldiers under Sima Zhao did not dare to stop Cao Mao, so how could these guards dare to stop the emperor? They were not Cheng Ji!

Cao Mao quickly rushed into the hall.

The empress dowager was very surprised. Looking at the emperor who broke into the hall, her face became extremely ugly and her eyes were full of anger.

"Mother!!"

"The General wants to kill you!!"

As soon as Cao Mao opened his mouth, he retorted back the Queen Mother's reprimand.

The Queen Mother was horrified. "What did you say?"

Cao Mao gestured behind him, and the Queen Mother immediately ordered, "Close the door and don't let anyone get close!"

Cao Mao then stepped forward and sat beside the empress dowager, his expression extremely solemn.

"Mother, I learned from Sima Yan today that the central army has begun to mobilize frequently. Sima Yan's sons of noble families who were going to gild their fortunes have all been temporarily sent back. This means that Sima Shi is preparing to send troops."

"Once he sends troops, he will attack us."

"We must immediately push forward with reforms and let the great families protect us."

"My teacher has been promoted to the position of Taichang."

"I know about this!"

As the Queen Mother spoke, Cao Mao quickly retorted, "The Imperial Court sent someone directly to inform the Master, and the Master never told anyone else, much less the ministers. I learned this from the Master. How did you learn this?"

"It's General Xuande"

"Then how did General Xuande know this? From the Secretariat? Or from the General's Mansion?!"

Cao Mao said seriously, "These people are ignorant of life and death. Once Sima Shi sends out his troops, he will let them act in secret. If Guanqiu Jian is not defeated, we can still survive for a while. But if Guanqiu Jian shows signs of decline, Sima Shi will definitely let Guo Li kill the king."

Cao Mao once again truthfully told the empress dowager in front of him his guess.

Cao Mao's account was entirely accurate, even going so far as to provide additional details. For example, after Guo Li poisoned himself, he was caught by Sima Xun, and Yang Hu promptly stabilized the situation within the palace before reporting the incident to Sima Zhao. Sima Yan then led the central army stationed in Luoyang to attack Guo's trusted troops, seizing his military power and directly promoting him to General of the Guards. Sima Zhao then informed the court officials, and the matter was investigated by the Grand Court Judge Zhong Yu.
Cao Mao seemed to have transformed himself into Sima Shi, and he recounted the details of his own murder in detail. Cao Mao's words were much more credible than the nonsense of the Guo brothers. After all, Cao Mao was able to use various details to prove his guess.

Empress Dowager Guo was stunned and believed what Cao Mao said.

At the same time, her face became extremely frightened.

"We have to tell Guo Li and Guo Zhi!!"

"It's useless. They won't believe it. They're still dreaming of getting rich and promoted by following Sima Zhao. There's no way they'll wake up."

"So what are we going to do??"

"Mother, don't worry. Aren't all our original arrangements for this moment?"

Cao Mao said confidently, "Once Mr. Chen submits his letter proposing reforms, everything will be fine!"

"This matter cannot be delayed any longer. It must be initiated before Sima Shi goes to war. Tomorrow, I will inform Lord Chen and have him start the action."

"In the eyes of the ministers, this matter is much more important than the campaign against Guanqiu Jian. Sima Shi will have to be distracted to deal with this matter, and Sima Zhao will be unable to handle it at all."

"The two brothers had different responsibilities. Sima Zhao had a good relationship with the ministers. For the sake of his future ascension to the throne, he never took action against them. Sima Shi was the one who suppressed them. Now that Sima Shi is still alive, Sima Zhao won't jump out and fight with the ministers."

Empress Dowager Guo asked worriedly, "What if Sima Shi agrees to this?"

Cao Mao grinned and said, "Alright, I agree."

"If even Sima Shi gives in, then the ministers will have nothing to fear. The next step will be a legal reform, with officials no longer subject to punishment. After that, there will be tax exemptions and reduced taxes. The appetites of the aristocratic families are endless. If they give in once, they will face countless greedy ideas next."

"They won't be grateful for Sima Shi's concession. Instead, they'll think the Sima family is afraid of them and become even more aggressive until they're destroyed."

"For Sima Shi, this might be even more dangerous than losing to Guanqiu Jian. As long as he's alive, he won't allow this to happen."

"As long as you maintain a supportive attitude towards the ministers, we will be able to witness a wonderful showdown between the noble families."

Empress Dowager Guo was stunned for a long time and asked, "Did the prince teach you this?"

"Yes, this is all the prince's plan."

Empress Dowager Guo could not help but sigh, "The prince is truly a god."

Cao Mao agreed with this very much.

"Mother, there is one more thing, and that is the matter of the royal family."

"Please also ask Mother to issue an imperial decree stating that I am in the palace and miss my relatives terribly and wish to see them, so I have summoned the King of Pengcheng, the King of Jinan, the King of Jibei, the King of Zhongshan, the King of Donghai, the King of Yan, and others to the palace."

Empress Dowager Guo was stunned.

"How could Master Sima agree to let these people come to the temple?"

"Not only Sima Shi, but all the ministers will not allow it!"

"The Secretariat will never approve it."

Cao Mao laughed. "Mother, I've heard that merchants usually set prices very high when they trade. Even if they don't succeed in forcing the other party to bargain, as long as it can distract the general, then it's worth doing."

Empress Dowager Guo reluctantly agreed.

The two talked about many things before Cao Mao stood up and said goodbye.

Before leaving, he repeatedly warned her, "Mother, don't trust those villains. You absolutely cannot reveal these things. Otherwise, we will both die!"

The next day, the court suddenly convened another meeting.

In fact, court meetings were of little use in the Wei Dynasty. The truly important matters were often already handled within the Secretariat, and there was no need to wait for court meetings in the temple.

Generally speaking, the purpose of court meetings is to announce certain things to the ministers.

The purpose of this court meeting was to announce something very important about the scattered pieces.

When the ministers learned that Wang Xiang had officially become the Minister of Rites, they were somewhat envious, but they did not care. They smiled and nodded to him to express their congratulations.

There was only one person, Zhong Hui, who had a very ugly expression on his face. He didn't even look at Wang Xiang for a second, and was no longer respectful as before.

When the ministers learned that Guanqiu Jian was going to be the Grand Marshal, the temple suddenly fell silent.

The ministers were not fools, each one was more astute than the other. How could they not know what Sima Shi was up to? This was clearly an attempt to take action against Guanqiu Jian.

As for the conflict between the general and Guanqiu Jian, the ministers did not really care that much. Of course, the general had previously given them the fifth-rank title, formally recognizing their private ownership of land and population. For the sake of these titles, they could stand on the general's side.

But what will be the ending?
Even the ministers couldn't see through it.

When Sima Zhao finally proposed to appoint Wang Jing as the Inspector of the Imperial Capital, none of the ministers felt much. They were still immersed in the affairs of Guanqiu Jian and were unable to get out of it.

However, Wang Xiang's face was dull at this moment, and he stared blankly at Sima Zhao above him.

Wang Jing Sili Xiaowei? ?
(End of this chapter)