Chapter 21 3. The conspiracy happening around me

Yuan Shu wanted to defect to Yuan Shao, but was blocked by Liu Bei and Zhu Ling in Xuzhou.It was Cao Cao's decision for Liu Bei to return to Xuzhou this time. Liu Bei was taken to Xu County by Cao Cao. Although he had the status of General Zuo, he was placed under house arrest.Cao Cao did not follow the advice of Cheng Yu and others to kill Liu Bei, but he was also very worried about him.Now, Liu Bei has regained his freedom. Regarding this matter, Hu Chong's "Wu Li" said that it was not Cao Cao who sent him, but Liu Bei himself escaped. "Wu Li" stated that Cao Cao's subordinates have always been very careful, and often sent confidantes to secretly spy on the private lives of his subordinates.

One day, Liu Bei was directing people to grow vegetables in his yard. The spies sent by Cao Cao came and looked in through the crack of the door (peeping the door), wanting to know what Liu Bei usually does at home. Liu Bei is very sophisticated, he found someone outside the door, but pretended not to notice, so what to do.After the spies left, Liu Bei said to Zhang Fei and Guan Yu, "Am I doing this kind of work? Cao Cao will definitely be suspicious, and I can't stay here anymore." That night, they opened the back door and escaped quietly from Xu County. Before leaving, they packed up all the clothes and other gifts from Emperor Xian and Cao Cao.Liu Bei escaped from Xu County and went directly to Xiaopei, where he had been operating for many years, where he regrouped his old troops and played the banner of anti-Cao.

There are also details in "Huayang Guozhi" and other books that Cao Cao sent people to spy on Liu Bei, but the main plot is different from "Wu Li".According to most historical records, Liu Bei was dispatched by Cao Cao to return to Xuzhou. Before leaving, Cao Cao invited Liu Bei to drink as a farewell party.Cao Cao said: "In my opinion, the only heroes in the world today are Xuande, you and me, Cao Cao. People like Yuan Shao can't be ranked at all!" Liu Bei was taken aback when he heard this, and the spoon and chopsticks in his hand fell to the ground. Why was Liu Bei so nervous after hearing Cao Cao's praise?Because Liu Bei is a smart man, he knows what Cao Cao thinks of him. In Cao Cao's eyes, the more heroic the greater the danger.Therefore, after Liu Bei came to Xu County, he kept a low profile, pretended to be stupid when things happened, and opened a vegetable field in the garden to grow vegetables. The purpose was not to arouse Cao Cao's suspicion and precautions.

Liu Bei's abnormal behavior aroused Cao Cao's suspicion. Fortunately, there was a thunderstorm outside, and Liu Bei smoothed things over and said: "The sage said that 'the thunder and the wind will change'. It seems to be true. The power of a shock is so powerful. !" "Huayang Guozhi" also said that after Cao Cao woke up, he consciously slipped his words, so he sent someone to investigate Liu Bei's residence to see what Liu Bei was doing.The sent person came back and reported that Liu Bei was instructing his servants to tend his vegetable field in the yard. Onions were planted in the field. He asked the servants to weed the weeds, but the servants did not straighten the onions after finishing, and Liu Bei beat them with a stick.

After hearing the report, Cao Cao was a little relieved.But he didn't know that this was Liu Bei's performance for him on purpose. Liu Bei came back from drinking at Cao Cao's place. The more he thought about it, the more he felt something was wrong. . After Cheng Yu and Guo Jia heard about it, they came to see Cao Cao again and asked Cao Cao to kill Liu Bei.Cao Cao sent someone to chase him, but failed to catch up. There are not so many vivid details in "Three Kingdoms Cheng Yu Biography", but it supports the plot behind "Huayang Guo Zhi", "Cheng Yu Biography" said that after Liu Bei was sent to Xuzhou to stop Yuan, Cheng Yu and Guo Jia immediately came to see Cao Cao, Cheng Yu Said: "The lord did not deal with Liu Bei before, and his consideration was correct and comprehensive, which is beyond our reach. But if he is allowed to have military power now, he will inevitably have a different heart."

After being reminded by Cheng Yu and Guo Jia, Cao Cao felt a little regretful and sent someone to chase him, but they failed to catch up. What is different from this record is that "Three Kingdoms Dong Zhao Biography" said that Dong Zhao, who had just served as the shepherd of Jizhou, heard that Cao Cao sent Liu Bei to lead troops to Xuzhou, and he also thought it was impossible.Dong Zhao met Cao Cao and persuaded him: "Liu Bei has great ambitions, and Guan Yu and Zhang Fei are his wings. It's hard to say what he thinks in his heart (you can't talk about Bei's heart)!" Cao Cao said: "But I have Promise him (I have already promised it)." Probably Cao Cao felt that the appointment document had been issued and it was difficult to take it back, so he did not send anyone to chase Liu Bei.

Based on the above records, we can roughly see the outline of this matter.Yuan Shu wanted to cross the border from Xuzhou to join his nephew Yuan Tan in Qingzhou. Cao Cao could not just sit idly by and wanted to send people to join the local garrison in Xuzhou to stop Yuan Shu.Liu Bei, who was planning to leave Xu County, heard about it, and tried to persuade Cao Cao to let him agree to complete this task, and Cao Cao agreed. The reason why Cao Cao agreed was that Liu Bei's combat ability and his influence in Xuzhou area were fancy, and Liu Bei took the initiative to invite Ying, so it was inconvenient to dampen his enthusiasm, so he agreed.

More importantly, Cao Cao probably decided that there would be no risk in sending Liu Bei here. He thought it was impossible for Liu Bei to rebel now. Liu Bei's current strength was incomparable with Lu Bu. Lu Bu let himself be wiped out, let alone Liu Bei. .If Liu Bei dared to rebel, it would be a dead end.Cao Cao believed that Liu Bei was a smart man, he would not lose sight of this obvious situation, and it was impossible for him to get out of a dangerous game. Cao Cao would not have made such a major decision if he had not thought it through carefully, so it is unlikely that Cao Cao regretted it as soon as he gave the order.At the same time, it is impossible for Liu Bei to escape from Xu County. He should have driven to Xuzhou with Guan Yu, Zhang Fei and others, as well as the troops assigned to him by Cao Cao.The place he went would not be Xiaopei, but Xiapi. Liu Bei did raise the banner of rebellion, and that was after he arrived in Xiapi.

The reason why Cao Cao misjudged Liu Bei was because he ignored two things.One is the contacts between Liu Bei and some officials in the central court during his stay in Xu County, and the other is the relationship between Liu Bei and Yuan Shao. After Liu Bei arrived in Xu County, although he was under the close surveillance of Cao Cao's secret agents all day long, as a Zuo general who was at the same level as Jiuqing, it was impossible for Liu Bei to have no social activities.In fact, Liu Bei also had close contacts with some people in the court. Several of these people were plotting to overthrow Cao Cao's rule and formed a small anti-Cao group, the core of which was Dong Cheng.

Dong Cheng's identity is very special, he is the nephew of Empress Dowager Dong, the biological mother of Ling Emperor Liu Hong, so Dong Cheng is Liu Hong's cousin, the uncle of Emperor Xian Liu Xie, and the real "Uncle Dong". When Empress Dowager Dong was related to Dong Zhuo, Dong Cheng and Dong Zhuo became nominally distant relatives. Later, Dong Cheng went to Liangzhou Army to develop.During the process of Emperor Xian's eastward move, Dong Cheng has been loyal and escorting him around. He is the only person who holds military power and can be trusted by Emperor Xian.

Dong Cheng also has another identity - Emperor Xian's father-in-law, and his daughter is the current nobleman of Emperor Xian.With this relationship, the relationship between Dong Cheng and Emperor Xian became closer. After arriving in Xu County, Emperor Xian's heart gradually changed.At the beginning, he was also full of affection for Cao Cao. When he was in danger, Cao Cao was able to stand up, so that the court would not fall into difficulties or be separated, and the imperial line of the Han Dynasty could be maintained. Emperor Xian Liu Xie was not yet twenty years old at this time. He ascended to the throne through suffering. Although he was young, he had gone through a lot of hardships.At the same time, he is also an emperor with lofty aspirations. After escaping from the hellish Chang'an, he is more and more eager to revitalize Liu Han Jiangshan in his hands. But since moving the capital to Xu County, the flames in Liu Xie's heart have been suppressed time and time again. He has become more and more aware that Cao Cao's support for him is just for this signboard, and he has no intention of returning the power to him, and he never cares about major and minor matters. Ask yourself for advice.Liu Xie was a little resentful. In March of the fourth year of Jian'an (199), when Cao Cao was still on his way back from Xuzhou, Liu Xie announced an important personnel appointment, promoting Dong Cheng to the rank of general of chariots and cavalry.General Cheqi is equivalent to the deputy commander-in-chief of the national armed forces (the commander-in-chief is Yuan Shao), and Dong Cheng previously served as General Wei, and his status is much worse than that of General Cheqi. If you still have the impression, you should remember that Cao Cao himself concurrently held the post of chariot general at this time.Taking advantage of Cao Cao's expedition, Liu Xie suddenly appointed his father-in-law as the general of chariots, which means that Cao Cao's concurrent post has been removed. In this way, the following things are easy to understand.A few months later, Dong Cheng was reported to have planned an incident to murder Cao Cao. Others were involved in this incident, including Changshui Xiaowei Zhongji, Pianjun Wangfu and others. If you look at many things that happened during this period together, you will find that it was definitely not Cao Cao's idea for Dong to take on the post of chariot general, otherwise he would not turn his face as soon as he was promoted.This appointment should have been Liu Xie's idea, and it was precisely because of this appointment that Dong Cheng was killed. Cao Cao does not allow anyone to use his military power, let alone the emperor's father-in-law.The reason why Liu Xie appointed Dong Cheng as the chariot general is that he was angry and expressed his dissatisfaction with Cao Cao, which showed that he still had a say in some matters, but it seemed that he was too young and immature.Another explanation is that he did have a plan to rely on Dong Cheng's gang to get rid of Cao Cao. Although the latter possibility is also full of doubts, if Liu Xie really conspired, he should act quietly. Why did he promote Dong Cheng in a high-profile manner?However, there are many records supporting the latter statement, and it is unanimously believed that Dong Cheng, Zhong Ji, Wang Fu and others did conspire, and they acted in accordance with Liu Xie's secret edict.Zhong Ji said in "Hou Hanshu" that he was the captain of Yueqi, and in "Three Kingdoms" that he was the captain of Changshui, both of which belonged to one of the five battalions of the Northern Army. However, the Northern Army in Xu County should only exist in form today. The generals of the army, including the Emperor's Imperial Guard, are all served by Cao Cao's people.General Pian Wang Fu has not been recorded before, so he must not be a general in Cao Cao's main force, and some historical books say his name is Wang Zifu. Books such as "Notes on the Daily Life of Xiandi" kept some records of their secret talks, proving that they had indeed committed rebellion.Cao Cao was very annoyed by the fact that Dong assumed the role of general of chariots and cavalry, and became more vigilant towards Dong Cheng. After several months of secret investigation, he had the evidence of rebellion against Dong Cheng and others, so he ordered Dong Cheng, Zhong Ji, and Wang Fu to be arrested. Execute and destroy the three clans. There is another person in Dong Cheng's small group who has slipped through the net for the time being, and he is Liu Bei. Liu Bei, who had already arrived in Xiapi, did not rebel at first. Later, when he heard that Dong Cheng and others had been arrested, he rebelled openly. Various historical books have no objection to Liu Bei's participation in Dong Cheng's conspiracy.It seems that Liu Bei has not been idle since he came to Xu County. It is speculated that he only lived here for three or four months. He was busy growing vegetables, drinking with Cao Cao, and participating in underground activities at the same time. very tired. As for the possibility of him hunting with Guan Yu and others to accompany Cao Cao, it was summer when he came to Xu County, and hunting usually took place in autumn or spring. However, various historical books have different records about the sequence of Liu Bei's rebellion and Dong Cheng's killing. Even in the "Three Kingdoms", the two parts of "Wei Zhi" and "Shu Zhi" are also contradictory. .Some believe that Liu Bei rebelled after hearing that the Dong Cheng incident had been revealed, while others believe that Liu Bei rebelled first. Sima Guang conducted a special research on this issue. He believed that the latter statement was correct, but many people believed that the former statement was more reasonable.But in any case, these two statements deny that Liu Bei escaped from Xu County. In fact, he was officially sent by Cao Cao, and he completed the task of stopping Yuan Shu, forcing Yuan Shu to flee south. Around the end of the fourth year of Jian'an (199), Liu Bei officially announced his separation from Cao Cao in Xiapi. This incident stimulated Cao Cao as one can imagine. He couldn't figure out that Liu Bei really dared to rebel. Liu Bei had his own plans, and he also knew that to fight Cao Cao with his own strength was like hitting a stone with an egg, but he was not in a hurry because he had already found a backer for himself, and this backer was Yuan Shao. Liu Bei keenly saw that the decisive battle between Cao Cao and Yuan Shao was about to break out, and he had no reason not to be unwelcome to join Yuan Shao at this time. Yuan Shao has always been a relationship that Liu Bei deliberately managed. He once wrote to Yuan Shao to express his support for Yuan Shao's leadership. Although this time and other times, his attitude should still be effective.During his tenure as governor of Yuzhou, he did not forget to give Yuan Shao a favor and recommended Yuan Tan as a talented person. Liu Bei's idea is very simple, he is not afraid of turning against Cao Cao at all, he will fight if he wins, and go to Yuan Shao if he can't win. This time, Cao Cao was completely enraged.