The revival of the Han Dynasty must start with Dong Zhuo

Chapter 349 Volume Cao Cao's Family
"Your Majesty, I have a stomachache. I'll be back soon!"

Yang Xiu covered his stomach and ran out. His upper body remained motionless, but his legs flew up nimbly and he disappeared in an instant.

Only Guo Jia was left.

Guo Jia suddenly broke out in sweat on both sides of his face, and then he collapsed to the ground: "Your Majesty! I'm addicted! I'm addicted!"

"..."

Liu Xie glared at Guo Jia and signaled him to leave quickly.

The punishment of Liu Bei and Ma Chao involved the punishment of the two pillars of the country.

If Guan Yu is included, it would be the punishment of the three pillars of the country.

Because of the establishment of the Fubing system, the Zhuguo finally had an extraordinary status and significance in the Han Dynasty. Whether to reward or punish him has far exceeded the simple military itself.

He pinched the top of his nose with his fingers and applied a little force with his fingers, as if he was crushing some memories and mixing them together.

"Liu Bei, Ma Chao, Guo Jia..."

"I have to handle this matter myself."

……

Now that Yanzhou and Yuzhou had been pacified, Liu Xie no longer stayed in Luoyang, but left Hulao and headed south to Xu County.

Lu Bu sent Gao Shun across the Ji River to Puyang, the capital of Yanzhou, and asked Gao Shun to control the entire Yanzhou as much as possible.

Sima Yi also specifically told Gao Shun before he left: "It is recorded in Erya Jiedi that the Ji and Hejian regions have unique temperaments and are honest and humble by nature, so they are called Yan. If we control the ferry crossings of the Ji River and the Yellow River, we will completely occupy Yanzhou. I hope the general will first control all the ferry crossings and don't let Yuan Shao take this opportunity to get involved in Yanzhou!"

"Yan" is the same as "Yan".

The seal script of the character "沇" is written as "横水" placed on "允", and then changed to "六" and then to "兖". Therefore, the original meaning of "沇" is the name of a river.

The Ji River flows out of Wangwu Mountain in the east of Yuan County in Hedong as the Yanshui River, and flows east to the northwest of Wen County as the Ji River.

So the Yanshui River is actually the Jishui River, but it has two names because it is blocked by a big river in the middle.

Yanzhou is named after water, which also shows the importance of Jishui River itself to Yanzhou.

Even the so-called "Yanzhou" is essentially a large piece of land surrounded by the Yellow River and the Ji River.

Therefore, Sima Yi instructed Gao Shun to control several ferry crossings on the Yellow River and the Jishui River and not to worry about the other places for the time being.

"Don't worry, Minister."

Gao Shun took note of Sima Yi's instructions and immediately led his troops north.

Lu Bu and Sima Yi headed towards Xu County, met with the emperor, and began to discuss the next battle plan.

Just as the troops crossed the Langdang Canal and arrived at Xihua, Sima Yi suddenly signaled to Lu Bu: "General, there is something wrong with the merchant family ahead."

Lu Bu looked in the direction Sima Yi pointed and saw that it was indeed a caravan.

"Why don't I see anything wrong?"

Lu Bu looked at it for a long time but couldn't figure out its depth.

Sima Yi said: "Now that Liu Huangshu has defeated Cao Cao at Yingshui, he has not yet completely pacified Yuzhou. There is chaos everywhere. How dare merchants go south at this time?"

"And judging from the shallow horse tracks, the carts are obviously not loaded with heavy cargo. Anyway, this doesn't look like a team transporting cargo, but more like a team... protecting families?"

After hearing this, Lu Bu looked at the wheel tracks on the ground and found that there was only a faint layer.

Moreover, Lu Bu also noticed that several of the porters who were transporting the goods were big and strong, and obviously had great strength.

The times are turbulent now. If you weren't in the army or a wealthy family, how could you eat to look so magnificent?
Lu Bu immediately ordered his soldiers to go and check it out.

When the other side saw the Han army approaching, they became extremely nervous.

When he was three steps closer, he took out the blade and chopped at the Han soldiers!

But these soldiers are Lu Bu's personal guards, how could they possibly let the other side really hurt them?
After dodging slightly to the side, he caught them all in one fell swoop.

When the suspicious cargo box was opened, it was found to be filled with seven or eight pretty boys and girls and several beautiful women!
After interrogation, it was discovered that they were indeed Cao Cao's family members!
Cao Pi, Cao Zhi, Cao Zhang...

As for the women, there are Cao Cao’s current original wife, Ding, and Bian and others!
After intercepting these people, Lu Bu was ecstatic for a moment.

He laughed and patted Sima Yi on the back: "Zhongda! Now all the members of the Cao family are in your hands!"

"You kid, you are truly the nemesis of the Cao family!"

Sima Yi smiled shyly, then looked at the people in front of him.

When Cao Cao's family members saw themselves being captured by Lu Bu, a gloomy look appeared on their faces.

In troubled times, who doesn’t know what will happen to him or her?

Several of Cao Cao's wives and concubines were secretly weeping, and young children such as Cao Zhi were huddled together and trembling, obviously having anticipated their own tragic fate.

However, Sima Yi noticed that only one man and one woman did not cry, but instead looked at him with their heads held high.

"You are also Cao Cao's children. Aren't you afraid?"

The young man among them bowed to Sima Yi and said: "How can the eggs in an overturned nest remain intact?"

"Since I have been captured by you generals, it is up to you to decide how to deal with me. What's the point of crying now?"

The girl was equally calm: "My father taught us since we were young that we must respect the emperor and protect the Han Dynasty... Now the person who captured us is a general of the Han Dynasty, what do we have to be afraid of?" Sima Yi: ...

Although neither of them cried, the reason was completely useless.

The boy meant that crying was useless anyway, so he might as well just give up...

The girl's words made Sima Yi a little curious.

Cao Cao actually taught his daughter to respect the emperor and safeguard the Han Dynasty?
Why does this sound so different?
But now that things have come to this, the other party must be telling the truth. Sima Yi just thought that Cao Cao was still so unpredictable.

"What are your names?"

"Cao Pi!"

"Cao Jie!"

Sima Yi nodded slightly, and ordered the soldiers to place Cao Cao's family on the carriage, record the conversation between the two, and send it back to Xu County, so that the emperor could decide how to deal with Cao Cao's family.

"Um……"

"hiss……"

Liu Xie was also surprised when he received Sima Yi's letter.

How could we actually block Cao Cao’s family on the road?

And looking at the list, Sima Yi obviously caught all of Cao Cao's descendants in one fell swoop!
Except for Cao Ang, Cao Cao's eldest son who followed him because of his age, all of Cao Cao's descendants were captured by Sima Yi...

"Horse trough! Could it be that Sima Yi is here to collect debts from the Cao family?"

Liu Xie complained a few words inwardly, then temporarily detained Cao Cao's family, planning to send them to Chang'an later.

Although capturing Cao Cao's family is a good thing, there are important things to do right now and there is no time to worry about other things.

On Liu Xie's desk, in addition to the letter Sima Yi had just sent, there were three other expedited documents with red feathers attached to them.

They came from Chang'an, Western Xianbei and Southern Xiongnu respectively.

Fa Zheng of the Western Xianbei and Meng Da of the Southern Xiongnu somehow got the news and both sent letters to plead for Ma Chao.

In the letter, the two even expressed their willingness to exchange the merits of this mission to the Western Xianbei and Southern Xiongnu for Ma Chao's life, which made Liu Xie both angry and amused.

As for the letter from Chang'an, it was naturally from Ma Chao's father Ma Teng.

Unlike Fa Zheng and Meng Da, Ma Teng's letter did not plead for Ma Chao. Instead, it was a letter of confession and requesting the emperor to severely punish Ma Chao!
His words were so vicious that he almost wanted to remove Ma Chao from the family tree and no longer acknowledge him as his son...

But the more this happened, the funnier Liu Xie found it.

"How pitiful are the parents in the world. I have always thought that Ma Teng was a rough man who did not understand strategy. I did not expect that he could see things more clearly than Fa Zheng."

If Ma Teng also came to plead for his son, Liu Xie might feel annoyed and think that Ma Teng was blackmailing him.

After all, when Ma Teng belonged to the imperial court, he was actually considered a semi-independent prince.

If Ma Teng insisted on opposing the imperial court and made the entire Liangzhou an enemy of the imperial court, it would add insult to injury to the imperial court at its most difficult time, and the imperial court might really not be able to take Liangzhou.

Since the imperial court failed to take Liang Province at that time, it naturally had no war horses to exchange with Liu Biao, the governor of Jingzhou at that time, for a large amount of food to survive the natural disaster.

From this point of view, although Ma Teng is terribly low-key, his achievements are astonishingly great.

When Ma Teng gets older, it is not impossible for him to be directly promoted to one of the Three Dukes.

It was also because of this that the imperial court not only granted Ma Teng the position of Nine Ministers right away, but also appointed Ma Chao, who had just come of age, as the youngest general of the state.

The more harshly Ma Teng scolds Ma Chao now, the more the emperor will miss Ma Teng's past achievements. This is the purpose of Ma Teng writing this letter.

……

"I almost forgot."

In addition to the three letters pleading for mercy to Ma Chao, there was also a letter from Chang'an.

It is the current Shang Shu Pushe Xun Yu.

This letter from Xun Yu was actually also a letter of plea.

But Xun Yu was ultimately smarter than Ma Teng, and understood the emperor's temperament better than Fa Zheng.

In the letter, Xun Yu only hinted that he had not returned to his hometown of Yingchuan for a long time and hoped that the emperor would allow him to go to Yingchuan as well.

At the same time, Xun Yu also begged the emperor to try his best to maintain order in Yingchuan and not let Yingchuan be disturbed by thieves. On the one hand, it was to prevent the local people's livelihood from being disrupted, and on the other hand, it was to prevent him from being moved to tears after seeing his ruined hometown.

On the surface, he did not want Yingchuan to be harmed, but in fact he still hoped that the emperor would show mercy.

Now Zhang Liao, Zhang Xiu and others who were originally supposed to resist Henan have all gone to Taiyuan. The imperial court is now seriously short of troops in Henan and can only ask the Jingzhou troops under Liu Bei to help suppress the rebellion.

If Liu Bei was punished too severely, it would cause the morale of the Jingzhou army to drop, which would not be a good thing.

After all, these soldiers are innocent.

He thought he had won a battle and was happily waiting for a reward, but in the end he received an order of punishment from the court. Who could bear this?
Even for the sake of overall stability, Liu Bei and Ma Chao should not be punished...

At the very least, we cannot punish them severely while there is still a battle in Hebei.

(End of this chapter)