Chapter 29 The root of the disaster is buried

The Puyang Pavilion was ten miles outside the city. At this time, some soldiers and horses had been stationed. They were teams brought by the prefects of various counties to participate in Cao Cao's military parade.They each occupy some forces, originally they didn't pay attention to this assassin who fell from the sky, but later Cao Cao broke the Yellow Turban and recruited 300,000 rebels.So when I heard that Cao Cao was inspecting troops and horses, they hurriedly brought some people to show their piety and obedience. Zhang Miao, the prefect of Chenliu, Ying Shao, the prefect of Taishan, Xu Xi, the prefect of Dongping, Mao Hui, the prefect of Shanyang, and Wu Zi, the prefect of Jiyin watched the banquet, but none of them dared to attend the banquet, and led their subordinates to hang their hands outside the post. And stand, waiting for Cao Cao's arrival.After waiting for about half an hour, I saw the dazzling banners and servants standing in a row. The great governor came riding a tall horse, with Lou Yi on the left and Wang Bi on the right. The cavalry followed closely, all of them wore helmets, pierced armor and burqa belts, and held knives and guns majesticly—is this a banquet or a demonstration?

Cao Cao was quite polite, dismounted and bowed in circles.In fact, among these people, only Zhang Miao was close to him, but no matter which faction they belonged to, they were all high-ranking officials of two hundred shi. Wan Qian, Xun Yu and the others were deployed in each county to entertain them. Cao Cao walked into the main hall of the post with a smile on his face and hand in hand with the county guards, but saw one person who had been eating for a long time—Zhang Chao, Zhang Miao's younger brother. Zhang Chao, as the prefect of Guangling under the jurisdiction of Xuzhou, should not have stayed in Yanzhou.But since he raised his troops in Suanzao, the backyard has caught fire.There is a Chen family in Guangling County, descendants of the former Taiwei Chen Qiu.In the past, Chen Gui, Chancellor of the Pei Kingdom, his son Chen Deng, and clan brothers Chen Yu and Chen Cong were all loved by the local people.Later Tao Qian, governor of Xuzhou, sent his subordinate Zhao Yu to Xijing to have an audience. Dong Zhuo was overjoyed and awarded Zhao Yu the prefect of Guangling.

In this way, the Chen family occupied the counties, Zhao Yu was appointed by the court, and the family had masters and ministers, making Zhang Chao homeless, so he had to lead soldiers and horses to station in Chenliu, guarding his brother's side.What's even more exasperating is that his right-hand man Zang Min was ordered to go to Liu Yu as an envoy, but he was hired by Yuan Shao on the way, and became the nominal governor of Qingzhou, leading his troops to fight against Tian Kai.Seeing that everyone else was promising, he felt depressed, and started drinking before everyone arrived at the banquet.

Everyone is gentle and refined, but seeing him sitting there without etiquette, they couldn't help frowning.Seeing his brother's rudeness, Zhang Miao's face was flushed, and he hurriedly scolded: "Meng Gao, you are too rude, please apologize to Mr. Cao!" Cao Cao hurriedly stopped him: "My brother, you think highly of me if you don't see outsiders." Although the words were beautiful, he had a great opinion of Zhang Chao.At the beginning of the League meeting in Suanzao County, Zhang Chao did not agree with Zhang Miao, instead supported the soldiers and refused to enter, and got mixed up with Liu Dai, Qiao Mao, and Yuan Yi. Cao Cao wanted to reprimand him several times, but because of Zhang Miao's Face is not good.Seeing how he dared to do this today, he stopped Zhang Miao and half-jokingly said, "Brother Meng Gao sits here in a big way, I thought it was some county guard."

Zhang Chao is used to making publicity, and he cupped his hands and said, "Brother Meng De, my younger brother, the prefect of Guangling, came to this banquet." Cao Cao invited everyone to the table, and said with a nonchalant smile, "I thought Brother Meng Gao had conquered Guangling. It’s a great plan! I didn’t expect to drive people homeless.” Zhang Chao's face turned from white to red, but he suppressed it for a while, and then polished it as usual: "Little brother is indeed incompetent, and he has fallen to such a low level. Please forgive me, brother Mengde."

"Brother Yu is just joking, don't mind." Cao Cao was satisfied when he heard that he was willing to speak softly, but he didn't know that he had already planted a catastrophe for himself with just one word of flirting! Everyone saw that there was a small disturbance as soon as they came in, and they hurriedly offered wine to each other to dilute the unpleasant atmosphere.Cao Cao thanked everyone for coming, and toasted them one by one. When he came to Ying Shao, he held his hand specially: "I have heard for a long time that Brother Zhongyuan is very knowledgeable, and I will ask for advice from now on."

"Don't dare to dare, so that the king has the grace to save me, so I dare not die?" "Don't mention the past again." Cao Cao pushed his hand, "I don't know what great ordinance Brother Zhongyuan has made recently?" Ying Shao was very excited when he mentioned the book, stroked his flowing beard, and said with a smile: "Now Xijing has fallen for the second time, and the imperial court has been ruined. There is no record. I intend to edit a "Han Guanyi". It can come in handy when re-establishing etiquette." Are you thinking too far away?Although Cao Cao thought so, he still held his wine high: "Students are taught in a university, and Cao Cao is hard to come by. Brother, please drink."

After a round of toasting, Cao Cao returned to his seat, suddenly remembered something, and whispered to Zhang Miao, "Brother Meng Zhuo, have you offended Yuan Benchu?" Zhang Miao was taken aback, and said vaguely: "Two months ago he wrote a letter to Chen Liu, and his words were arrogant and arrogant. I think he is too bossy, so he will refute him in writing." Cao Cao nodded and said, "That's right... I heard that he used Quyi as the vanguard to defeat Gongsun Zan in Panhe. Now that his waist is hardened, his speech is not as regular as before. He issued an edict and ordered me to When serving as the governor of Yanzhou, let me do one thing."

"What's up?" Cao Cao whispered into his ear, "Yuan Shao told me to kill you." Crash——Zhang Miao shuddered, and spilled all the wine in his hand. "Brother Meng Zhuo, why are you nervous?" Cao Cao smiled brightly, "I refuted it immediately, how friendly we are, and I will rely on my wife to support me when I go out in the future! Yuan Benchu ​​is too innocent, and you also fought with him back then. Brothers match, how many years of old friendship, just because you said a few words to him, he will kill you, this person is really..." Cao Cao felt that he was talking too much, and he shouldn't say these provocative words, so he quickly stopped .

Zhang Miao suppressed his nervousness, forced a smile and said, "Then thank you Meng De." Cao Cao seemed to be dazzled by the victory at the moment. Zhang Miao was indiscriminate with him. Now that he brought up this matter for a while, Zhang Miao felt uneasy.Instead of getting closer, the relationship between them created a gap.Cao Cao didn't realize it, and talked to himself: "I just got the news yesterday that Sun Wentai died in battle." Zhang Miao shook his head: "Sun Wentai is also considered a good general, it's a pity." "Liu Biao's subordinate Huang Zu laid out a plan to lure the enemy, and shot him to death with a hidden arrow." Cao Cao said triumphantly, and took a sip of his wine. "If he dies, Yuan Shu may not intend to go south again. You have to turn around and go north. When you leave Yuzhou to attack Hebei, you must pass through our Yanzhou, especially Chenliu, where you are, is an important place to attack, Brother Meng Zhuo, please pay more attention."

"No." Zhang Miao agreed casually, but didn't say any more. At this moment, Xu Tuo came in suddenly and said, "I would like to report to the envoy, four people from Qingzhou came outside, saying that they are your old friends and want to see you." "Oh? I have to go and see. Please stay with me." Cao Cao saluted and stood up, and Lou Yi and Wang Bi, who were standing there, hurriedly followed, fearing that someone would assassinate him. Cao Cao walked out of the hall and took a look, and he recognized all of them. They were the county magistrates under his jurisdiction when he was Prime Minister of Jinan, Zhang Jing, Liu Yan, Wu Zhou, and Hou Sheng.In the past, Cao Cao served as Prime Minister of Jinan, and he was exempted from corruption. Later, he appointed high-level and upright officials. He was very happy to see them today: "Masters, it is you!" "Greetings to the Prime Minister." The four knelt down and saluted, still shouting their old official titles. "Please get up!" Cao Cao laughed so hard that he couldn't close his mouth. "It seems that you are here to join me. You are welcome." Zhang Jing shyly said: "The yellow turbans are raging in Qingzhou, and Gongsun Zan sent troops to separate the regime. We are not talented, and we really can't protect the environment and the people. We lose the city and have nothing to belong to. I heard that the police ordered Yanzhou, and recruited Nashite to join us." "Okay, okay, you are all my colleagues in the past, how can there be no reason not to stay? From now on, I will ask you for help to refresh the bureaucracy here." Cao Cao is inconvenient to say more at this moment, and asks Xu Tuo to take them into the city to resettle, while he himself Go back to the hall and continue to greet the sheriffs. "What's the matter?" Although Zhang Miao had a close relationship with Cao Cao, he was afraid that he would throw a grand banquet at this moment, so he hurriedly asked. "It's nothing, a few old officials are running together." Cao Cao saw that he was quite restrained, so he personally filled a glass of wine for him, and respected everyone politely. At some point, Chen Gong walked in without making a sound. He leaned between Cao Cao and Zhang Miao, and said in a low voice, "My lords, I just got the military report. After Liu Biao defeated Sun Jian, he sent troops eastward to cut off Yuan Shu Liang said. Yuan Shu failed to go south and intends to go north. He has sent his general Liu Xiang to connect the Xiongnu to Fuluo. It seems that he will go to Hebei to attack Yuan Shao through our Yanzhou." "Well done, he's here to support Gongsun Zan." Cao Cao narrowed his eyes, "I'll fight Yuan Gonggong sooner or later. Since he's here, I'll welcome him and catch him by surprise." Chen Gong added: "Yuan Gonglu has put in a lot of effort for this step. Gongsun Zan ordered Shanjing to be stationed in Pingyuan, and Tao Qian from Xuzhou has also made moves. It seems that his troops are about to enter our territory." "Oh? This is a big siege for Yuan Shao!" Cao Cao poured a glass of wine, "Okay, Tao Qian is also involved, and there is another enemy." "No matter how much waste is waste!" Chen Gong laughed. "Well said! Letter to Yuan Shao, let's unite and defeat Gongsun Zan and Tao Qian first, and then I will fight back. We have to play with Yuan Gonglu well." But Zhang Miao interjected: "This matter is not trivial, let's go first..." "Don't worry, even if I go north first and then go south, it won't take a few days. In short, I must not take advantage of Yuan Shu." Cao Cao was quite resolute, "Brother Meng Zhuo, the reason why the sects of the families cannot be established is because they are far away and close at hand. We are different, Yanzhou and Jizhou are like lips and teeth, Yuan Shaoshi and I are fighting the enemy back to back, how can we allow others to hurt my friends behind my back." The speaker had no intentions, but the listener had intentions. Zhang Miao's heart beat like a drum: You and I are friends, and you and Yuan Shao are also friends. Now that your friend wants you to kill your friend, which side are you going to offend?Yuan Shaoke is much more powerful than me... Cao Cao didn't realize that there was something wrong with his words, he turned to Chen Gong and said, "Hurry up and discuss with Xun Yu, Zhicai, Cheng Li, and Wei Zhong about sending troops back to the mansion, and then ask Xu Tuo to draft a letter to Yuan Shao. After the banquet is over Now, Wan Qian, Bi Chen and I will go over immediately, let's discuss the countermeasures tonight." He raised his eyebrows, "Brother Meng Zhuo, come over and talk." Zhang Miao didn't dare to answer this question: "There are still some things in my county, just go back and wait for dispatch." Cao Cao was a little unhappy to hear him say that, but he didn't say anything. Seeing that Chen Gong hadn't left yet, he scolded, "Go to Gongtai soon." "No." Chen Gong cupped his fists and saluted, still not intending to leave, "There is one more thing...that...that..." "Speak!" Cao Cao rolled his eyes at him, "Why are you so hesitant?" Chen Gong said in a low voice: "Chang'an sent Jingzhao Jinshang to serve...as the governor of Yanzhou, and now he has arrived at the border of Yanzhou with his entourage." Without an official title, this is Cao Cao's weakness.He was appointed by Yuan Shao as the governor of Yanzhou, but this Jin Shang came from Xijing with the emperor's edict, and Cao Cao's name was not right and wrong in comparison.He picked up the wine and downed it in one gulp, wiped his mouth and said, "Send someone to intercept him and drive him away!" "That's not good..." Chen Gongyi frowned, "This Jin Shang Jin Yuanxiu is a man of high ideals in Jingzhao, and he has a good reputation. Can you invite him to talk about it, and everyone will make a big deal together. I don't think he will." meeting……" "Stupid!" Cao Cao glared at him, "Where should I go after he comes? Send someone to drive him away!" "No." Chen Gong was in a dilemma, because Jin Yuanxiu was very famous, together with Wei Fuxiu and Fifth Wenxiu, he was called Jingzhao Sanxiu①, he was indeed a talent, and it was too bad to drive him away, so he prevaricated: "What if he won't go?" Cao Cao was really anxious, and threw the wine cup on the case: "Then kill him!" With this shout, all the people present were terrified.They are not Cao Cao's direct descendants, and they came here with trepidation. Hearing his voice, they thought it was a Hongmen banquet, and left their seats one after another. The second time Chen Gong saw Cao Cao's ferocious appearance, he was still shocked, so he hurriedly obediently went.Zhang Miao heard the conversation clearly, his face was ashen ashes...