Wait, please don't call me Emperor Zhaolie

Chapter 361 Cao Cao’s Heart
Seeing that Guo Jia was about to be led astray, Liu Bei immediately punished Dian Wei with three months' salary, and if he dared to speak out of turn again, his salary would be exempted for three years.

Xun Gongda also seemed to be thinking about something and wanted to offer some advice.

Liu Bei quickly stopped talking and said bluntly: "The two people recommended by Fengxiao to go to Jiangdong are very much to my liking. In this case, I will immediately have someone write an official document to let Bao Yuncheng set off from Jizhou, and let Xijun go to persuade Bian Shi to send her son Cao Zihuan to Qiao County by boat. After meeting Bao Xin, they will go to Jiangdong together."

Xun You was about to say something when he was interrupted by the King of Han. He immediately shook his head and laughed.

Then they bowed to Guo Jia and said in unison, "Yes!"

……

Just when Liu Biao of Jingzhou was in a state of panic due to the attack by Zhang Xian, Cao Mengde of Jiangdong was also gathering everyone to discuss sending troops to Jingzhou.

Cao Cao sat in the hall, gazing at the many officials below. There were Cheng Yu, Chen Gong, Zhang Hong, Xin Pi, Gu Yong, as well as the talented Danyang man Dai Qian who had just been discovered and employed, and Xie Ying from Shanyin, as well as the sons of the four surnames Gu, Lu, Zhu, and Zhang from Wu county who were serving as state and county officials.

Today, the powerful families of four counties have been integrated, including the Tao clan of Moling and Liyang, the Lei clan of Yuzhang and Poyang, the Chen clan of Xingan, the Xiong clan of Nanchang, the Xu clan, and the Gongsun clan of Wuxian.

Even if Xiahou Dun and Cao Chun left for the north, he still had generals such as Xiahou Yuan, Cao Ren, Zhu Huan, Zhu Ran, Ling Cao, and Pan Zhang under his command.

Unfortunately, compared with King Liu Xuande of Han, he was already far behind.

But facing Zhang Xian or Liu Biao, the governor of Changsha, would be a piece of cake.

"My lords, Zhang Xian of Changsha has raised an army to attack Liu Jingsheng for the Han Dynasty, and has sent someone to invite me to join him. What should Jiangdong do?"

Cao Cao looked at the people gathered in the room, clapped his hands and asked with a smile.

Jiangdong still has many talented people, but due to the terrain limitations and the frequent troubles caused by the Shanyue people, it is difficult to give full play to their advantages.

If we had been able to pacify Jiangdong a few years earlier and then lead the army to capture Jingzhou and Yizhou, we wouldn't be so restricted as we are now.

Especially recently, there have been calls for surrender everywhere, and even he was slightly shaken. He could only draw attention to Jingzhou first to stabilize people's hearts a little.

Although Cheng Yu and Chen Gong were good at planning, they were unable to calm people's hearts. Whenever this happened, he could not help but envy Liu Xuande. Xun Yu, the talented king's assistant, was clearly invited by him to come to Dongjun of Yanzhou, but ended up going to Pingyuan and never returned.

After waiting for a long time, what I finally received was a letter of apology.

If Xun Wenruo had helped him, he probably wouldn't have to spend so much time reorganizing Jiangdong and would have been able to fight out the defeat earlier.

"Lord Cao, Liu Jingsheng does not know the will of heaven and is unworthy of being a relative of the Han Dynasty. It is a great pleasure for the people that Governor Zhang has raised an army to fight him. We are all Han officials and should invite him to make an agreement, send troops to Jiangxia County to defeat Huang Zu, and then follow the Yangtze River to take Nan County directly."

Zhang Hong was the first to step forward, he stood up and bowed.

For a moment, many officials stroked their beards and nodded.

We are Han ministers and have never been against the King of Han. The reason why we have not yet surrendered the four counties of Jiangdong to Luoyang is that we are waiting for the King of Han to come and offer official positions and titles to persuade us to surrender, right?

Rather than serving as officials in Jiangdong, they would rather serve as clerks in Luoyang.

Compared with the northern scholars who fled from Huainan and Xuzhou to Jiangdong, they all wanted to return to their hometown as soon as possible.

The descendants of the clans in the Jiangdong counties who had more arable land could not help but frown quietly.

Cao Cao glanced at the people below, and then expressed his agreement with Zhang Hong's words, "Zi Gang's heart to support the Han Dynasty is precious. I wonder if you have any good ideas? You can all tell me." Xin Pi, who was sitting on the table, heard that he arched his waist and bowed, saying, "Meng Degong, now the King of Han has the merit of flattering the ancestral temple. I heard that all the states and counties in the world are writing letters to persuade him to ascend the throne. I wonder what Meng Degong wants to do?"

Xin Pi already had the mentality of throwing away the jar, not to mention that the former ruler of the Yuan family in Hebei had surrendered to the King of Han, so he could finally speak for the Han family without being condemned.

Not only did Xun Chen, Guo Tu, and Ju Shou surrender, but I heard that his brother Xin Ping also surrendered. Unfortunately, he only tried to make up for his mistakes, which made the Hebei nobles hate him very much and he only did things to offend others.

There has been no news of Tian Feng and Shen Pei, and no one knows what happened to them.

Xin Pi couldn't help but sigh with emotion. He knew that it was God's will. If Xin had not gone to join Lord Yuan but directly joined the King of Han, his brother and he would not have ended up like this.

And Cao Cao did not expect that Xin Pi would mention Liu Xuande at this time, which would cause panic and unrest among the people of Jiangdong before they even send troops to Jingzhou.

Thinking of this, Cao Cao's face suddenly turned cold, and he said with some displeasure: "Back then, Yuan Benchu ​​wanted to establish his relative Liu Yu as the emperor, but Cao Cao left in anger. Before leaving, he said to him: You all can go north, and I will go west to serve the emperor."

"Does George want Cao to break his promise and gain wealth, thus losing the trust of the world?"

At that time, he had spoken to Yuan Shao and others in a decisive manner. Could he be forced to go back on his word now? Besides, he had gradually realized it over the years.

Liu Xuande specifically made things difficult for Cao Mengde. Whether he was in Yanzhou or in Jiangdong, he was almost always targeted by Liu Bei.

Even when fighting with Yuan Shao, Liu Biao had to send troops to attack Jiangdong, wishing that Yuan Shao would have no place to stand.

If it were not for the natural barrier of the Yangtze River, Liu Bei would have ridden his horse and whipped his troops straight to several counties in Jiangdong when he went south to Xuzhou.

"Cao Gong's words are wrong. This is a different time and that is a different time. It is absolutely impossible to compare the two."

As soon as Cao Cao finished speaking, Chen Gong bowed respectfully, cupped his hands and lowered his eyebrows and said, "Now the whole country is urging me to ascend the throne because the country has no master. The Prince of Chenliu has the potential to seize the throne, but cannot flatter the great dynasty. Therefore, the loyal ministers of the Han family are discussing the title of emperor."

"Cao Gong is the descendant of Prime Minister Cao. His clan members Cao Hong and Cao Chun are both highly valued by the King of Han. You are also a Han minister. Why don't you write a letter to persuade the King of Han to rectify the throne and revive the Han Dynasty?"

"In those days, you saw that the world was in chaos, bandits were increasing, people were in danger, and corpses were everywhere you looked.

So he composed a poem to mourn: Bones are exposed in the wild, no roosters crow for a thousand miles, only one out of a hundred people survives, the thought of it breaks my heart. I dare to ask if Cao Gong still remembers his ambition to help the world in the past?

Chen Gong's eyes filled with tears. He bowed deeply and spoke from the bottom of his heart.

After hearing this, Cao Cao was stunned.

It seemed that he was thinking of the time when he was fighting against Dong Zhuo, when he struggled to march westward just to support the Han Dynasty. At that time, there were still many people following him, who always believed that he could stabilize the Han Dynasty and repair the world.

There are Bao Xin, Bao Tao, Wei Zi, Cao Hong...

When they set up camp at night, everyone drank and talked happily, and even imagined how to assist the emperor in governing the people and eradicate the treacherous and corrupt officials after they had helped the world.

As a result, they were careless and fell into an ambush the next day. Bao Tao and Wei Zi died on the spot, Bao Xin was injured and nearly died, and he was also hit by an arrow. Fortunately, Cao Hong sacrificed his horse to save him, so he was spared.

When he returned to Hanoi, he saw that Yuan Shao was entertaining the subordinates of Liu Dai of Yanzhou, Kong Rong of Yuzhou and Han Fu of Jizhou. The banquet was filled with flattery, sarcasm, and the sounds of musicians and dancers. Only he, with an arrow wound, returned to Hanoi to ask for reinforcements.

At that time, he looked absentmindedly at the officials from various states who were fawning on their superiors and arrogant to their subordinates, and suddenly he felt extremely amused. It turned out that these were the role models of the world, the relatives of the Han royal family, the ministers and officials, and they were far inferior to him, the descendant of a eunuch.

These people have received more favors from the Han Dynasty than he has, and they have no intention of saving the Han Dynasty. So why should Cao Mengde save the world?
(End of this chapter)