The elite did not migrate south

Chapter 486 Going all out because of respect

"Huchuquan greets His Majesty."

The Southern Xiongnu Khan, who once led his cavalry across the Three Rivers, is now very old.

He was hunched over, leaning on a cane, with cloudy eyes, and almost buried in the ground.

Many ministers were worried about whether the old man could make it from Yecheng to Chang'an alive. After all, considering his age, more than 30 years had passed since he was forcibly detained in Yecheng.

He had not returned to his tribe for many years, and perhaps even the Huns had forgotten that they had such a Chanyu.

The various tribes of the Southern Xiongnu only obeyed their own leaders. Huochequan could not be said to be a puppet. He was just a decoration, the kind that no one cared about.

But Cao Mao still had great respect for the Xiongnu Khan.

In order to show his importance, Cao Mao specially invited his trusted ministers to welcome him together.

The person who came was naturally the newly appointed Shangshu Pushe Zhong Hui.

Zhong Hui was standing not far away at this moment, looking at the Xiongnu Chanyu in front of him with a smile. He couldn't help but slightly raise his head, unable to hide his inner pride.

After all, the Wei State was established on the basis of the Han Dynasty, and it was actually very tolerant of the elderly. For example, Gao Rou was originally too old, and the ministers thought it was not suitable for corporal punishment, so they gave him poisoned wine to kill him.

Huochequan was a surrendered king at this age and had been very honest over the years. There was no need for Cao Mao to humiliate him.

Cao Mao chuckled and returned the greeting, asking Hu Qunquan to sit down.

He then spoke, "Knowing that the Chanyu was coming, I specially asked this person to come and greet him with me."

Cao Mao pointed at Zhong Hui standing beside him.

"This is the son of Dingling Chenghou!"

As soon as these words were spoken, Huochequan's eyelids twitched, and he bowed to Zhong Hui again.

In fact, Huochequan was not as content as he is now when he was young.

When Huochequan launched a rebellion and colluded with Guo Yuan, Gao Gan, Han Sui, Ma Teng and others to launch an attack, the person responsible for resisting him was Zhong Yao.

Zhong Yao immediately sent his confidants with his letters to lobby Han Sui and Ma Teng, successfully instigating them to rebel. He then used their power to defeat the invading army, beheaded Guo Yuan, and forced Gao Gan and Huochequan to surrender.

Oh, by the way, the person Ma Teng sent to help Zhong Yao was his son Ma Chao.

Anyway, Huochequan never rebelled again after that.

Later, both Cao Cao and Cao Pi were very polite to him. Cao Cao even appointed him as the Minister of the Interior for a time, hoping to make him a Han official.

Huochequan has been in the Central Plains for so long that even his dress and appearance are no different from those of the Central Plains people. The people around him are all arranged by Cao Cao. He looks no different from those retired ministers.

He even knew some classics.

Cao Mao first greeted him, and the two of them talked about the major events in the world.

But when Cao Mao talked about the situation in various places and even the rectification of officials, Huochequan looked a little confused.

It seems that Huochequan has not paid attention to what happened outside these days.

Cao Mao suddenly laughed.

He no longer hid it and said it directly.

"Shan Yu, the commander of the right wing, Liu Meng, has evil intentions and is plotting a rebellion. I have ordered the General Zhenbei to arrest him."

"The Xiongnu have been vassal states for many years, yet this situation still occurs. I believe this is a problem of education. I have dismissed the official who was originally in charge of education and have put a wise man in charge of this matter."

"The reason we invited the Chanyu to Luoyang this time is so that he can help us with the important task of enlightenment."

Huochequan no longer cared about these things. He had lost his appeal in the Xiongnu tribe and no one cared about him. He also had no intention of regaining control because he was already very old.

He would be very content if he could live peacefully in his own mansion in the future.

He said, "I obey your command."

This was said very skillfully, and Cao Mao then explained many things.

Then someone was sent to take him to rest.

After the old Chanyu was helped away, Zhong Hui finally spoke up, "Your Majesty, this man seems to have no interest in important matters and is of no use."

Cao Mao looked at him in surprise, then said calmly, "I thought I could use him to dismiss and dispose of the commanders of various divisions, but it turns out he's of no use."

Zhong Hui suddenly woke up, "No, it is still somewhat useful, but not very useful."

Cao Mao didn't say anything more. It seemed that Zhong Hui was indeed very busy recently and didn't pay much attention to the affairs of the Huns.

Sure enough, Zhong Hui then started talking about the Kingdom of Shu.

He suppressed a smile. "Your Majesty, our plan has been a resounding success. I heard that Liu Chan has appointed Zhuge Dan as General of the Guards and has also appointed him as the Minister of State to oversee the military operations in and around Chengdu. I suspect he will soon be heading to Hanzhong to replace Jiang Wei."

"The people we sent also met with Huang Hao. Huang Hao accepted the gift but didn't say much." "The only flaw is that Zhuge Zhan wrote several letters saying that he had no combat experience and couldn't succeed Jiang Wei. I suspect Jiang Wei wrote to him, urging him to stay in Chengdu and not take any risks."

"Jiang Wei is still difficult to deal with. Even in this situation, he can still cause us trouble."

Zhong Hui sighed, not hiding his love for Jiang Wei at all.

"Jiang Boyue is so difficult to deal with. I wonder how powerful Prime Minister Zhuge was back then."

This late-stage celebrity collector even collected deceased celebrities.

Zhong Hui really admired Zhuge Liang. Historically, after he conquered Shu, he went to pay homage to Zhuge Liang's tomb. He also forbade the entire army from disturbing his tomb and from grazing horses or cutting firewood around his tomb.

Unfortunately, Zhuge Liang was no longer with us, so Zhong Hui could only set his sights on Jiang Wei.

Zhong Hui continued, "In the current Shu Kingdom, there is only one person who can be called a true celebrity: Jiang Boyue. Therefore, we can increase our efforts."

"A gentleman like Jiang Wei would naturally not associate with Huang Hao and others. With just a little provocation, Huang Hao and Jiang Wei can completely fall out."

"Once the relationship breaks out, Huang Hao will devise every possible means to restrict Jiang Wei. Zhuge Zhan will become his best weapon against Jiang Wei."

"By then, we won't even need to intervene. Jiang Wei will be caught up in internal strife. Then we can gather our army and apply pressure from Hanzhong and Yong'an. Shu will be forced to gather its army to respond. We can hold our ground and maintain a stalemate."

"Our food reserves far exceed theirs. As long as we constantly change the direction of our attack and make their army afraid to turn back easily, we can make the Shu army collapse without a fight."

Zhong Hui had a longing look in his eyes, but said some words that were extremely unfavorable to Jiang Wei.

When Zhong Hui decided to do something big, he would never let personal feelings hold him back.

No matter how much he likes you, he will still mess with you. It may even be because you are too outstanding that he will use all his energy to think about how to defeat you.

Cao Mao approved of Zhong Hui's strategy.

Regardless of how to attack Shu, it is still necessary to create problems within Shu.

It’s hard to say what will happen if Jiang Wei faces Deng Ai, but if Zhuge Zhan faces Deng Ai, well, you’ll just have to hope for the best.

At this moment, the State of Wei also began to make many arrangements.

The first thing was food and fodder. A large amount of food and fodder was transported to the front lines of Yongliang and Jiangbei in an endless stream.

Du Yu from the Ministry of Works was extremely busy at this moment. He opened mines in many places in Henan, built large blast furnaces, and began large-scale smelting.

For a time, the number of smelters and mines in Wei State increased. Du Yu gathered criminals and prisoners from all over the country. These former children of wealthy families and corrupt officials were now thrown into the steel manufacturing industry.

Many mines and smelters appeared all over the Wei Dynasty, like bamboo shoots after rain. A large amount of steel was made into weapons. The central army was first used to complete the replacement, and their eliminated weapons and equipment were not wasted. The weapons and equipment of the border troops have always been behind those of the central army, and these were just right for equipping the border troops.

Those eliminated by the border troops can be directly recycled and made into farm tools and the like.

At this moment, all the officials and generals of the Wei Dynasty sensed some unusual atmosphere.

The dark clouds of war seemed to be coming.

The central army also began frequent deployments, and local troops began large-scale exercises.

Shi Ji and others stood on the warship, looking at the densely packed tents in the distance and the roars that resounded through the sky, their faces turned pale.

The treatment of the various troops of the Wei State improved, their morale was also high, and they became more serious during training. After reducing many bad behaviors in the army, the combat effectiveness of the Wei army became increasingly higher.

Wang Ji's drills did not avoid the Wu army on the other side of the river.

It's almost like telling them to clean their necks and wait, we'll be there soon.

This also frightened the Shu army in Yong'an, and they were the first to inform the court of the Wei army's unusual movements.

However, Shu Kingdom no longer had any troops to send to Yong'an because Hanzhong also needed support.

If Wang Ji here was just training, then Deng Ai in the Yongliang direction had already begun to prepare to explore the way.

Their scouts frequently went to provoke, and even tied letters of surrender to arrows and shot them into the checkpoints.

Jiang Wei now understood that a war was inevitable.

But at this time, another major event occurred in the Shu Kingdom.

The Minister of the Interior Fan Jian received news that Huang Hao had met with the Wei people and accepted their bribes.

Fan Jian was a man whose moral character outweighed his talent. After he learned about this, he immediately wrote to Liu Chan, hoping that the matter could be thoroughly investigated.

Huang Hao cried and explained to Liu Chan that such a thing had never happened. Liu Chan was very angry and wanted to remove Fan Jian from his official position.

Jiang Wei couldn't bear it any longer at this moment.

He believed that Huang Hao could do such a thing! This despicable villain, he left his confidants to watch over the army outside the pass, and personally rushed towards Chengdu.

In this line of work, we must get rid of that bastard Huang Hao!!!

(End of this chapter)