Wait, please don't call me Emperor Zhaolie

Chapter 360 Guo Jia: I don’t think Cao Mengde is a good person

Liu Bei pondered for a moment, looked at Guo Jia, and then looked at Xun You who nodded. Seeing that both of them were planning to attack Meng De, he immediately smiled and said, "Okay, then let's follow what Feng Xiao and Gong Da said and send these two envoys to Jiangdong."

Then Liu Bei seemed to have thought of something, and said with a rather embarrassed look: "Bao Yuncheng can still order his assistant to write a letter and send him to Cao Mengde, but Cao Zihuan is only eleven years old. Who will go and persuade Bian to let Cao Pi go with Bao Xin?"

"Zhang Miao and Zhang Chao, one of the brothers was transferred to Donglai County as the governor, and the other was transferred to Yuzhou as the prime minister of Lu."

"Bian had lived in Pingyuan for several years before, but she had no contact with anyone. Last year, she moved to Luoyang and often stayed at home. Bian didn't have many acquaintances. Who could Bei ask to persuade her? Could he ask Dian Jun?"

Unexpectedly, as soon as Liu Bei finished speaking, Dian Wei beside him immediately shook his head and waved his hand to refuse, saying: "Your Majesty, please don't make things difficult for me. Although Wei has been a neighbor of the Bian family in Pingyuan County for many years, she has always followed Your Majesty to go to war. Moreover, the other party often lives in the courtyard to avoid suspicion. This woman was born in a prostitute family. It is said that she is the lowest-ranking concubine of Cao Mengde, so she is cautious in everything and never makes enemies with others."

"Bian looks weak, but in fact she is hard to approach. How can I convince her with my words? When the king was in Qingzhou, he often let the crown prince play with Cao Zhang and Cao Zhi. I think he was very familiar with Bian. How could Bian not know that an abandoned concubine could be so valued by the king?"

"If the king summons Lady Bian, she will be able to put her worries to rest in no time and send Cao Zihuan across the Yangtze River to serve as an envoy to the Han Dynasty."

Dian Wei blinked and grinned.

He felt that the relationship between the King of Han and Lady Bian was somewhat unusual. Even though he often followed the King of Han and even though he had never seen the King do anything inappropriate towards Lady Bian, he intuitively felt that their relationship seemed different.

Different from his previous relationship with Cai Yong's daughter Cai Yan, the king could make the other woman smile brightly with just a few words, and his friendship with Lady Bian was even more like a friendship between gentlemen that was as plain as water, yet could flow slowly and gently.

It was not noticeable to ordinary people. Only a careful person like Dian Wei and Bian, who came from a family of prostitutes and was very sensitive, could feel it. As a result, Bian sometimes looked strange and dared not look at the king for too long.

Cao Pi's courtesy name was Zihuan, but it was chosen by the king himself. Not only the eight-year-old Cao Pi at the time, but also the even younger Cao Zhang and Cao Zhi, were given courtesy names early on, Cao Ziwen and Cao Zijian.

All this happened after he met Lady Bian. It is expected that Cao Mengde was just a relative of Yuan Benchu ​​at that time, so he would not have the dignity to let the world-famous Lord Xuande personally choose a courtesy name for his illegitimate young son.

The only explanation is that Lord Xuande favored his mother very much, so he extended his love to others as well.

Dian Wei thought of the residence of the King of Han. Because the king was friendly to everyone, no matter whether he was a servant or a maid in the inner house, the king treated them with sincerity. He was good at understanding their difficulties and was considerate of them. He never looked down on them because of their status, but respected them as human beings, which made the servants and maids want to work hard for the king.

If this is the case with servants and maids, how could Bian, who has lived in Pingyuan for several years, not feel the king's kindness and warm affection?

If Dian Wei were a woman, he would have offered the mirror table to himself long ago, otherwise how could he repay his lord's kindness.

Liu Bei did not expect that Dian Wei said one thing but thought another in his heart. He was still harboring evil intentions and was always obsessed with matching Liu Bei with Bian, who was very good at raising children.

If he knew, he might have sighed in his heart: "Cao Mengde and Dian Wei are really doomed to fail. Could it be that they are still entangled in the affairs of Wancheng?"

Even though he didn't know what Dian Wei was thinking, Liu Bei still glared back at Dian Wei. What did he mean by he must be very familiar with Bian? His reputation was ruined by people like Dian Wei and Jian Yong who loved to stir up trouble.

Being in a high position, it is very easy for people below him to spread rumors, and as a result, there are also people close to him who spread the rumors.

Wouldn’t this lead to rumors flying everywhere?
You have to know that at that time many scholars liked to compile their own private histories secretly. Once a rumor came out and became known to everyone, it might be recorded in countless private histories in books.

If everyone wrote like this, then the gossip would melt gold, and the accumulated criticism would destroy him. Thousands of years later, all the stories about Liu Xuande's dark history would spread around the world, and he would not even have the chance to refute them. I treated you like my brothers, but I didn't expect that you would be out of touch with me...

When Liu Bei thought of this, he felt it necessary to give Dian Wei a warning so as not to let the incident of Jian Xianhe happen again.

His face tensed, he glanced at Dian Wei and shouted, "Mr. Dian, don't talk nonsense, it will cause misunderstandings. You should know that walls have ears and words can easily leak out. You should know that Bian is Cao Cao's concubine, not my concubine, Liu Xuande."

Didn’t you see that Guo Fengxiao and Xun Gongda had already started listening to his rumors with great interest?

Although Liu Xuande also coveted beauty, he at least knew that a gentleman would not take away what others liked.

I will raise your concubine's child. It was just a joke. How could anyone take it seriously?

Liu Bei felt a headache, especially when he saw Guo Jia's understanding smile.

And Xun You turned his head as if he didn't care, but he was actually pointing his toes towards him and secretly listening with his ears perked up. Don't think he couldn't see it.

If the two of them were not interested, they would have left long ago to avoid suspicion.

Now, after being beaten by Dian Wei, I'm afraid there will be two more people who will stir up trouble in the future.

What you fear will come true. Guo Jia immediately smiled and offered his advice: "Since the king wants to avoid Bian, why not let the queen go and persuade Bian. She can put her mind at ease by speaking in a tactful and reasonable way. After all, Cao Zihuan is Cao Mengde's son. Even if Cao Mengde has taken in several concubines in Jiangdong and has several children, he will not necessarily harm his son."

Then he paused for a moment, Guo Jia considered it, suppressed his smile, and said: "As for Bian's matter, it is not impossible. This woman is not the legal wife. Besides, it is human nature to forget the old and love the new."

"Cao Mengde went to Jiangdong and formed marriages with the local nobles, which helped him to stabilize the four counties of Jiangdong. Now he has several more sons. He may have already lost his love for Bian, the prostitute. But Bian has been taken care of by the king for many years. People are not plants or trees, so who can be heartless?"

"At this point, how can we let people turn their backs on each other and be stopped because of false reputation? Even if Cao Mengde doesn't want to, Madam Ding has the right to abandon Bian. What's more, Cao Cao has repeatedly failed to return to the Han family, intending to seize a place and being arrogant."

"Now that the states are in chaos due to war, there are fewer people and more land, so restoring the population is particularly important. The king has also ordered that women be rewarded for childbearing, and that no one should stay alone in an empty room without getting married. Bian was the concubine of the rebels, so she should have married someone else and raised children. The king has been kind to her for several years, but Cao Cao remained unmoved and first worked for the Yuan family. After the Yuan family was destroyed, he still did not let down his guilt and came to Luoyang to surrender."

"Cao is so cruel that he has no regard for my safety. What else do Bian and Cao Pi, Cao Zhang, and Cao Zhi have to think about?!"

"If the king likes it, you can accept it, and leave the rest to Guo Jia."

Guo Jia bowed and spoke, his expression gradually becoming more solemn.

The King of Han has already given Cao Mengde a lot of face, but he is still hesitant and has been reluctant to surrender. He is even worse than the rice thief Zhang Lu.

It was obvious that he didn't care about Bian and his third son. In Guo Fengxiao's opinion, Cao Cao of Jiangdong was just like Zhu Ling, who was ruthless and ungrateful to his relatives.

(End of this chapter)