Chapter 72 7. Whoever makes Cao Pi lose face, Cao Pi will make him restless for the rest of his life.

After returning to the imperial study room, Cao Pi leaned on the dragon bed and leaned against the five-clawed golden dragon mattress. The retreating golden autumn in July suddenly felt a chill from the bottom of my heart. Jia Xu, Chen Qun, Sima Yi, Xia Houshang, Cao Xiu and a group of Cao Pi's cronies sat down on a row of boxwood benches a foot away from the dragon bed, from right to left according to their official ranks. pole. Cao Pi flicked his sleeves, and said coldly: "I have something to say here today: in the future at the court meeting in the temple, even if there is something wrong with my words and deeds, you can come down and secretly advise, and you are not allowed to open it publicly again." Talk to the outside world! If anyone makes me unable to step down in front of the subjects of the world, I will let him never have a safe life for the rest of his life!"

Jia Xu, Sima Yi, etc. heard Cao Pi's aggressive words, they could only sigh in their hearts, their eyebrows were lowered, and they dared not speak. After Cao Pi vented the anger in his chest angrily, his mood gradually calmed down, and he seemed to feel that his attitude just now was too blunt, so he eased his tone and said slowly: "My dear friends, you must also understand me: the foundation of the Great Wei was created, I have ascended to the throne for the first time, and all the people are watching. How dare I allow my ministers to openly criticize and attract jokes from Sun Quan and Liu Bei? My image is the image of the brilliant Wei, and there must be no slight flaws! Please remember, love dears, remember!"

When Sima Yi heard this, he thought to himself: This Cao Pi, after all, has too little virtue, and has never been able to change the ills of "emphasizing the outside and neglecting the inside, emphasizing the virtual and neglecting the reality, emphasizing the end and neglecting the essence".If you want to maintain your "brilliant image", can you do it by sealing other people's mouthpieces?There is an old saying: "Only a great hero can show his true colors", how can you build up the appearance of a hero and the appearance of a virtuous monarch by just pretending to be serious and being soft-hearted?Back in the day, Yuan Shao was very courteous, courteous, courteous, and in the end it was difficult to achieve a great cause, but the late emperor Cao Cao was natural, happy when he heard it, and not afraid of ridicule, and finally settled in the Central Plains.It seems that it is not difficult for Cao Pi to carry on the past and forge ahead and achieve great achievements.

Cao Pi saw that all the confidants were still silent, so he said warmly: "How about it... What is wrong with me today at the court ceremony? This is all ears!" The arena was still silent, so quiet that only the sound of boiling Xiyi wine in the three-legged unicorn bronze wine bottle in the corner of the room could be heard. Cao Pi's eyes flicked across the faces of the confidant ministers in front of him one by one, wishing to hook words straight out of their throats. After a long time, Xia Houshang, the leader of the Central Committee, whispered, "Qizou Your Majesty: I thought Sima Pushe was right at the court meeting—you should take advantage of today's court meeting ceremony to detain Meng Da in Luoyang. Sanqi Changshi, he should not be allowed to return to the separatist side of Xincheng County."

Cao Pi suddenly glanced at Xia Houshang, his eyes full of suspicion: This Xia Houshang, who seems to have a good relationship with Meng Da on weekdays, why is he standing on Sima Yi's side to deal with Meng Da today? As if to see through the doubts in Cao Pi's heart, Xiahou Shang continued unhurriedly: "Your Majesty, Shang and Meng Da usually have a good personal relationship. But the justice of the court is above all, and the safety of the country is above all. Selfishness rather than justice? Xincheng County is indeed the gateway to the southwest of the Great Wei Dynasty, Your Majesty must never entrust others lightly!

"Shang and Meng Da got along better and better. That's why I knew that Meng Da was not a pure minister who was consistent in appearance and inward. If His Majesty summoned him into the palace to serve as a counselor on military and state affairs, it would really be a case of 'Each ruler and minister should have their own merits.'" The best policy; if His Majesty releases him from Xincheng County again, I am afraid that if the situation changes in the future, it will be difficult to guarantee that Meng Da will not be able to change his mind..." General Cao Xiu, who was guarding the army, heard it clearly, but thought to himself: You are so cunning, Xiahou Shang!You keep claiming that you are concerned about the public and not private, who knows if you have your own "small calculations" in your heart?Perhaps you are also trying to squeeze Meng Da out and take over his power as the prefect of Xincheng?Moreover, you preemptively throw out the strategy of "seizing power in vain" against Meng Da, which is also to leave a way out for yourself in the future-if Meng Da really turns his back on you, you can get rid of the relationship because of your "foresight"; If you don't rebel, you are "worrying about public affairs and neglecting private interests", which is understandable.It's really ups and downs, and it's both right and left!

Sima Yi, who was sitting next to Xiahoushang's left, couldn't help but nodded gratefully to him when he heard his words: It seems that among the Cao clan, Xiahoushang can barely be regarded as a relatively insightful figure, but It's worth paying for. In today's state of Wei, the pillars of the capital are the Cao family and the Xiahou family in Peijun.There is a rumor that can never be extinguished: Cao Song, the grandfather of His Majesty Cao Pi, adopted Cao Teng, the eunuch of the Later Han Dynasty, as the adopted son from the descendants of the Xiahou family in Peijun.Therefore, the Xiahou family is also regarded as a lineage of clan by the Wei family.Since Cao Pi came to power last year, he never forgot the pain caused by the dispute over the establishment of an heir. He drove all his brothers and sisters out of the capital and drove them to remote and barren counties to settle down. The resident inspected and monitored, and even ordered the brothers not to communicate with each other, not to get together, "safari trips must not exceed the limit of 30 miles", otherwise they will be severely punished.While belittling his own flesh and blood brothers, he gradually began to rely heavily on Xia Houshang, Cao Zhen, Cao Xiu and other collateral clans.However, Sima Yi, Chen Qun and other "Four Friends of the East Palace" who helped him succeed in setting up an heir, were alienated by him, whether intentionally or unintentionally.Sima Yi has already felt this point, but he is very deep in the city, and has been pretending that nothing happened.Now, Xia Houshang speaks out to support his advice about Meng Da, and he can only show his gratitude to Xia Houshang slightly, and he dare not make peace again—he knows that with Cao Pi’s suspicion, he may secretly doubt it again. In private, he and Xia Houshang have some kind of "unseen" friendship.Otherwise, if Xia Houshang didn't benefit from him, Sima Yi, why should he stand up and "advocate" for him?

Sure enough, the sparkle in Cao Pi's eyes was like lightning. He looked at Xia Houshang's expression for a while, and then at Sima Yi's expression for a while. It's not that I don't understand the pros and cons. It's just that if he is forcibly detained in the capital, and his trilogy and relatives cause some trouble in Xincheng County, so what?" Xia Houshang raised his sword eyebrows, and said solemnly: "If there is an incident in Xincheng County, I am still willing to go to Xiangyang, and I will transfer 30,000 horses from General Cao, and it will be settled within ten months!"

When Cao Xiu heard this, he thought to himself: Hahaha!Xia Houshang, your "fox tail" has finally been exposed - it really is aimed at snatching Meng Da's right to be the prefect of Xincheng!So, he coughed, and interjected, "Brother Xiahou, Meng Da has 8,000 clans under his command, and all of them are brave and good at fighting. How could you be able to settle down in just ten months? , Now that the war between the Puppet Shu and Jiangdong is imminent, our Great Wei does not want to take the opportunity to make progress, but creates chaos within the border. As a general, you must have the overall situation in mind, and you must not focus on one corner!"

Xia Houshang heard the thorn in Cao Xiu's words, couldn't help but blushed, and was about to retort——Cao Pi waved his sleeves at this time, stopped the two of them, and said coldly: "Forget it! Forget it! I will treat him Meng Da, it’s just like the saying goes, ‘reflect the arrow in the wormwood’! If you don’t caress it, it will come by itself, if you don’t embrace it, it will go away, it’s like floating clouds in my eyes—that’s all!” Xia Houshang and Sima Yi couldn't help but looked at each other in surprise when they heard him tearing apart like this, and they secretly exchanged funny eyes, so they had to keep silent on this topic.