Chapter 20 Chapter Eight Thanks

His Majesty the Emperor is probably the most contradictory person in this era.He is the co-lord of the world, but almost no one cares about him; there is no king in the world, but he has no place to stand - but he still represents the highest authority. As a staff member of the Sikong Mansion, I am very familiar with the emperor's situation.To be fair, Cao Gong made the emperor really depressed.Among the emperors of my dynasties, there are many people who are smarter than him, and there are many people who are in a more miserable situation than him, but I am afraid that no one is like him, who is so miserable and sober.

Just earlier this year, the emperor staged a revolt that was easily crushed.The leading chariot general Dong Cheng and others were killed, and Liu Bei fled.Although His Majesty the Emperor didn't have to worry about his own safety, he could only watch helplessly as his pregnant concubine was killed. Right now Cao Gong and Yuan Shao are fighting fiercely, and it is understandable that His Majesty the Emperor, who harbors deep hatred, tries to collude with foreign enemies and stabs him in the back. Of course, the emperor himself will not appear in Cao Junguan's camp, he will have an agent.This agent instigated Xu Ta to assassinate Cao Cao, and it was he who wrote to Yuan Shao asking for cooperation, and then shot me in the dark—he is the one I need to dig out in the end.

Although Dong Cheng was dead and the Royalist faction dispersed, there were still many loyal Han family members.For example, Xun Yu, the most trusted minister next to Cao Gong, is the number one royalist.Therefore, I am not surprised that someone under Duke Cao will secretly work for the Han Dynasty. Most of our army's grain and grass are transshipped from Xudu. His Majesty the Emperor has placed a few internal agents in the grain transport team, and then let this agent use the grain transport team as a springboard to travel between Cao and Yuan. This is the best choice.After all, Cao Jun's patrol would not pay special attention to the grain transport team coming from the rear.

Less than half a year after Dong Chengcai's failure, the emperor planned such a big conspiracy again, and his hatred for Cao Gong is really not ordinary.I secretly sighed. "Have you thought about that question clearly?" I asked Xu Chu. Xu Chu shook his head: "I thought about it carefully for a long time. I met several groups of people on the way back to the camp that day, but I never spoke to them. I am sure that my decision to return to the camp of the Chinese army suddenly was based on intuition, not others. told me." "Silence doesn't mean anything."

Human psychology is very strange, and sometimes they are very easy to accept hints, even they themselves will not be aware of the existence of such hints, and regard it as an independent decision made by themselves, and they are sure of it. So I asked Xu Chu to write me a list of the people I met, detailing their demeanor, expressions, actions when they met Xu Chu, and even their conversations with others. This was a pain for Xu Chu. He stayed in my tent all night, scratching his head, scratching his beard, racking his brains. The next morning, I got up early in the morning.Xu Chu carefully sent two tiger guards to me, and said with a pat on his chest that both of them were from Qiao County and they were very reliable.His eyes were swollen, and he stayed up all night looking at them.

"Le Jin, Han Hao, Zhang Xiu, Xia Houyuan...everyone is a big shot in his own right." I took the list of encounters he wrote and sighed.But none of these people had any conversation with Xu Chu. The most familiar Xia Houyuan cupped his hands and said a few meaningless greetings to him, like Zhang Xiu and Han Hao, who passed by without even saying hello. I put the list in my arms and walked out of the tent.In broad daylight, I think I'm fairly safe.Since the mysterious man chose to act in the dark night, it meant that he didn't want to reveal his identity.If he dares to shoot me another arrow in the daytime, his true colors may be exposed immediately.Xu Chu's two guards followed me one after the other.

Today is the day to move the camp, and the camp is very lively.I saw Cao Gong and Xu You riding horses and riding side by side.When Xu You saw me, he just cupped his hands indifferently, but Mr. Cao held the rein and asked me with a smile, "Boda, what's the matter?" I hesitated for a moment, and replied: "I have some clues, but I just need to go into details." Regarding Xu's identity, I can't say anything yet, so as not to affect Cao Gong's mood and the situation in Qingzhou.Likewise, I cannot publicly say that His Majesty the Emperor was involved in this incident.

"I heard that you were shot with an arrow by that person. It's too outrageous." Mr. Cao said annoyed, but I could tell that he was satisfied that I didn't make a fuss. generally" people. "Without Dr. Xu, it would not have been so smooth." I turned to Xu You and bowed deeply.Xu You looked much better, Cao Gong laughed: "If there is no Ziyuan, let alone you, even I will die in Guandu. We all have to thank Ziyuan." Xu You immediately said calmly: "You don't need to thank me, first thank Guo Jia." "Guo Jijiu is back?" I was a little surprised.Cao Gongdao: "He just came back from Jiangdong. He is not in good health and has been recuperating. Today he moved to the camp, and he insisted on going with the army, so he is in a cart outside the camp. You can visit him when you have time. "

After bidding farewell to Cao Gong and Xu You, I took two guards to the former Chinese army tent where Cao Gong was assassinated.Although the big tent has been dismantled, the dents and wooden stakes on the ground can still give a rough outline of what it looked like at that time. The scene was similar to what Xu Chu had described. The big tent was set up at the bottom of the only hillside nearby, which was on a reverse slope. Unless the bow and arrow could bend, it would be impossible to endanger the people in the tent. But it is different outside the tent. The area that can be covered by the hillside is only about a few feet around the big tent.Leaving this range is an open flat land.I walked slowly to the location where the third killer was shot, looked in the direction of Yuan Shao's camp, and calculated silently in my heart.

As long as Yuanying has an archery tower over ten feet high, it can easily threaten this area.I kicked the ground with my feet, still tinged with a faint red. "In those few days, Yuan Jun's bastards were very arrogant." A guard beside me sighed, "If we go out without a shield, we will die. Several brothers died like this." Another guard also interjected: "Thanks to Mr. Liu's thunderbolt car, otherwise life would be miserable." The thunderbolt car improved by Liu Ye is Cao Jun's magic weapon.The slings and stone bullets used in the thunderbolt car are custom-made, and different slings and stone bullets of different weights must be selected for the distance of the stone.Therefore, as long as the operator knows a little basics of arithmetic, it can be much more accurate than ordinary hair stone carts.

I heard them talking about Thunderbolt cars, and I turned around and asked, "On September 14th, were there Thunderbolt cars set up around here?" "That's right, it even smashed down a tall building of the enemy." The guard said happily. "A tall building? Where is it?" The guard pointed to a direction, I checked it visually, and asked, "How tall is that building?" "Why is it more than twenty feet?" The guard scratched his head. "Are there any other watchtowers near it?" Another guard said: "Yes, but they are all a little shorter than that." "When did the arrow tower collapse?" "At noon. At that time, I wanted to go to Perak Che to congratulate, but soon there was news of the assassination of the lord from the tent of the Central Army. I rushed here and didn't care about it." That is to say, the collapse of the watchtower happened before the assassination.I thought to myself. Yuan Shaojun's archery towers are not uniform in height, they are different in height, some are more than ten feet high, and some are more than twenty feet high, and they are scattered in the camp. From Cao Jun's point of view, Yuan Jun's watchtowers are everywhere, and it is normal for escaped killers to be shot by flying arrows.This set-up made them ignore an important factor - only an arrow tower higher than 20 feet can endanger this area. But before the assassination, the only high watchtower had been destroyed by the thunderbolt car. In other words, at least during the noon of September 14th, Yuan Shaojun could not threaten this area.So the third killer died under Cao Ying's arrows. "Impossible." Xu Chu categorically denied my speculation, "I checked carefully, and the arrow that shot the killer belonged to Yuan Jun." "The arrow that shot me also belonged to Yuan Jun." I replied lazily, "Don't forget, Yuan Shao once sent the messenger back to Cao Ying, and he may bring some arrows with him." "But the location of the penetrating wound was obviously shot obliquely from above, which I can still tell. If I had been hiding near the camp and shot arrows, I would have discovered it a long time ago." Xu Chu argued. I said coldly: "Don't forget that our army also has archery towers." Cao Jun's camp is not a rectangle, but a nearly concave shape formed according to the terrain.The large tent of the Chinese army is located at the bottom of the concave shape, and the camps on both sides protrude forward.If the arrows were shot from one of the arrow towers on the two wings towards the big tent of the Chinese army, it would be easy to mistakenly think that the arrows were shot from outside. That mysterious person probably hid in the archery tower early in the morning, holding a bow and arrow to monitor the movement of the Chinese army tent.Once it was found that the killer had failed and fled outwards, he immediately shot him with the arrows prepared by Yuan Jun, so as to pretend that the killer died of an accidental flying arrow. It's a pity that Thunderbolt's outstanding performance exposed him instead. "I'll check right away!" Xu Chu stood up.The archery tower is an important facility of Cao Jun, and each building has a full-time staff in charge. It is not difficult to find out the list of people on duty at noon on September 10. Xu Chu's connections in the army are deeper than mine, so the investigation is more effective.Soon he got a list, but I knew from his expression that things were not that simple. In order to fight against Yuan Jun, Cao Jun built many archery towers in addition to the Perak Chariot.Therefore, around noon on the 14th, there were 230 soldiers and junior officers who confronted Yuan Jun's archers on the archery tower, and even more than a dozen senior generals had stopped. Without accurate time measurement, it is really a needle in a haystack to sift out the mysterious person from these people.You must know that the confrontation between the archery towers is extremely cruel, and everyone needs to concentrate on Yuan Jun's camp.The mysterious man secretly shot an arrow towards Cao Ying in the opposite direction. As long as he took half a breath, the people in the same watchtower might not be able to find it. At this point in the investigation, it seems to have reached an impasse. "Leave the rest to me." I picked up the list and decided to ask Sikong Jijiu Guo Jia for advice. The young man was half lying in a cart, covered with precious wolf fur.His forehead is very broad.The most eye-catching part of his body is his pair of eyes: the pupils are extremely black, as black as an unfathomable well, and if you look directly at it for a long time, you have the illusion that you will be sucked in. "Guo Jijiu, the climate in the south must be very warm, right?" I greeted.It is said that this person has done an earth-shattering event in the south, and that event has a great relationship with the situation in the Central Plains. Even the proud Xu You has to admit that the battle of Guandu must first thank Guo Jia. "Stop the pleasantries." Guo Jia raised his hand, showing a self-deprecating smile, "Let's get to the point, I don't have much time." I told him the whole story and speculations, and handed him the list.Guo Jia flicked the list with pale fingers as thin as chicken feet, and slowly said: "After Dong Cheng, there is no one available for Your Majesty. Even if Duke Cao died suddenly, he was just a lonely man who was coerced by princes from all over the world. ——Unless he can find a powerful collaborator. This collaborator can’t be so powerful that he can coerce the emperor to order the princes, but he can’t be so small as to be bullied by others. Only in this way can he be able to Make a difference. That's one of them." Then he stretched out his second finger: "This collaborator must have a reason to cooperate with His Majesty, not necessarily loyalty to the Han Dynasty, maybe hating Duke Cao. This is the second. "The plot of assassinating Duke Cao came from the elbow and armpit, and it shocked the heart. Therefore, this collaborator must come from Duke Cao's camp before it can be implemented. This is the third." Guo Jia bent his third finger. After hearing his analysis, I was completely convinced.This is the gap. "Have your own power, be in Cao Gong's camp, and have hatred for Cao Gong. It is not difficult to find people who meet these three points from this list." "However, it's difficult to judge the hatred for Cao Gong, after all, people's hearts are separated from each other." Guo Jia laughed lightly, then coughed for a while, before saying, "It's not necessarily that Mr. Cao has done something wrong to him, or maybe he has done something wrong to Mr. Cao, so he is afraid." I opened the list and clicked on a person's name with my finger.Guo Jia nodded approvingly: "Before I only knew that his marksmanship was like a god, but I didn't expect his archery skills to be so outstanding. As for the mastermind..." "I probably know who it is." I took out the wooden letter, handed it to Guo Jia, and pointed it out to him.He took it, sliding his pale fingers over the notch, and smiling strangely. "Cao Ying's correspondence should all be archived." Guo Jia said, and reminded, "I'm not asking you to check the handwriting." "I know."