My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 329: Death of Yuan Shao - Part

Lu Su and Zhou Yu had been drifting on the sea for more than half a month and were already out of touch with the news.

But even if they were allowed to reconnect and synchronize version information with Zhuge Jun, they would only synchronize the version of the Langya local area network. There is still a big gap between the progress of the latest version in Hebei and the actual situation.

In order to see the overall situation clearly, we have to go back the timeline for more than half a month, back to the end of February in the seventh year of Jian'an, which was the point when Lu Su and Zhou Yu in the south just boarded the boat to the north - our sight also moved to Jizhou, Yecheng, which was Yuan Shao's old nest.

As early as February 24, Yuan Shao had fallen into a coma and never uttered a word.

That noon, when Liu personally fed him soup, Yuan Shao groaned in pain, which should have been his last words.

At that time, the soup also flowed all over his collar, and at least eight out of ten mouthfuls flowed onto the ground, and at most two mouthfuls were drunk. The panting and embarrassed look was ten times more real than the one Sima Yi acted in front of Li Sheng in the parallel universe.

After Liu had fed Yuan Shao his last bowl of soup in public, she openly ordered all the servants and maids to leave and not disturb the general's rest. No one dared to disobey her, and no one questioned her.

He was a great hero, but he didn't recognize the situation till the end. He didn't expect that he would end up like this one day. Even his last words couldn't be passed on. It's really sad.

But on this point, no one has given Yuan Shao an aura of stupidity, nor has anyone discredited him.

Because Yuan Shao and Liu Biao, in the original history, were typical examples of "being isolated from the outside world in the final stage, resulting in the inability to make a public will."

According to the official statement in "The Three Kingdoms", Shen Pei and others later supported Yuan Shang because Yuan Shao "wanted to make him the successor but had not made it clear." This was also confirmed in "Dianlun", which means that he preferred Yuan Shang but never expressed it formally.

It is surprising that a person would leave such a messy account of what would happen after his death. No matter how ambitious he was during his lifetime, he could only be said to be afraid of illness and "not caring about the disaster after his death."

Many people who have a high opinion of themselves, cannot afford to be wronged, become emotionally unstable when they suffer a loss, and like to give up everything have this common characteristic.

Those who are resilient and can get up again after falling basically won’t make this mistake.

Even if they lose, they will still want to turn the tables. Even if they reach the end of their lives and know very well that they cannot turn the tables, they will still leave some plans behind, hoping that future generations can turn the tables. No matter what the result is, at least they will give it one more try and continue to fight.

……

After a night, Yuan Shao fell into a coma forever and completely from the next day, and could no longer drink a drop of water.

In history, Yuan Shao passed away around the end of April or the beginning of May in the seventh year of Jian'an. If we calculate the date now, it is only two months earlier, so the change is not that big.

Considering that the setbacks he suffered in this life were even greater, after the disastrous defeat in the Battle of Guandu, he lost two major battles in a row, the Battle of Dong'a and the Battle of Cangting.

The Battle of Dong'e did not happen in history, but he was still defeated even after he "reformed himself, accepted advice with an open mind" and listened to Tian Feng's advice. The psychological blow of this extra defeat made his mental breakdown more complete and more desperate. He died only two or three months earlier, which was already a tough fate.

It was the evening of February 26th, when Yuan Shao had been in a coma for more than two days and two nights without eating or drinking. Liu called her son Yuan Shang and asked him to tell her something.

When Yuan Shang came in, he was in a very heavy mood, thinking that his father had passed away. However, after meeting, Liu Shi opened her mouth and Yuan Shang was slightly surprised.

Liu actually wanted to borrow some reliable guards from the General's Mansion from him.

After all, Liu was a woman, and unlike Cai, who was on Liu Biao's side, she had no military power, so she had no foundation at all. As the wife of the general, she could not even command the guards outside the general's mansion, and could only command the maids and servants.

In this regard, we should still say something fair to Yuan Shao. Until the last moment, Yuan Shao at least did not let his women or their family members get involved in military power, even if it was just to command a small-scale guard. If he had to give military power, it was to his son.

Compared with Liu Biao, Yuan Shao did much better in this regard, as Liu Biao's central military power was also in the hands of his relatives by marriage.

But what Yuan Shang found strange was that his elder brother was still in Nanpi. Although he had tried twice to go back to western Jizhou from Youzhou, he was blocked by Su You and Yin Kui from Changshan and Zhongshan. In this case, who would his mother use the guards to defend against?

So he cautiously reminded: "If mother is worried about big brother, perhaps there is no need... I heard that after Cao's army discovered that big brother had made unusual movements a while ago, Cao Hong launched a new offensive from Dongguang to Nanpi. Big brother has now been squeezed out by Dayi and is entangled in military affairs, so he will not pose a threat.

By the way, how is father's condition today? Has it gotten worse?"

Liu refused to listen to his explanation and said angrily, "Your father is still the same, but the doctor has said privately that he will never wake up again. He is just in a coma. I borrowed the guards for other purposes, but you want to control this?"

Yuan Shang hesitated for a moment, but considering that his mother had no other sons to support and that lending the guards would not be harmful to him, he finally lent them.

As a result, that night, Liu couldn't wait to take action. Yuan Shao was still hanging on, so she started by killing all of Yuan Shao's concubines.

As was the historical habit, they were first disfigured and then killed, with the guards chopping their faces off one by one, to prevent them from reuniting with Yuan Shao in the underworld and recognizing each other, or from seducing Yuan Shao with their beauty.

The next morning, Yuan Shang learned all this and was shocked, but it was too late for him to care about it.

Because in the afternoon of that day, Yuan Shao finally breathed his last, and everyone in the General's Mansion immediately mourned, and the entire Ye City fell into a solemn state overnight.

Yuan Shang wanted to act like a filial son, so he had no time to care about his mother's ugly behavior. He wanted to make a big deal out of a small matter, so he urgently called Shen Pei to discuss how to deal with the aftermath and cover up the incident.

Shen Pei was also shocked when he heard about it, and realized that such a thing as "killing all the concubines of a general just after his death" was really not decent and would easily lead to people's separation.
He suggested that Yuan Shang announce to the public that those concubines loved Yuan Shao too much and volunteered to be buried with him, and that they should be burialed with honor so that outsiders would not be able to see any abnormalities or flaws in the bodies.

After all, there is no such thing as someone who would commit suicide and be buried alive with his family. How could someone commit suicide to the point where his face was chopped to pieces? If this face was seen by outsiders, no one would believe it no matter how he explained it.

Yuan Shang thought it made sense, and the situation was urgent. If the news was not dealt with, it would be out of control. He did not have time to discuss it with his mother, so he made the decision on his own.

Yuan Shao's favorite concubines were reburied and the news was released.

When Liu found out about this, she became annoyed. On the one hand, she felt that those lowly women should not be given a decent funeral. On the other hand, she was worried about the families of those who favored her concubines. So she called her son and asked him why he made such a decision without authorization.

Yuan Shang felt extremely anxious, but he couldn't do anything to offend his superiors, so he just tried to persuade her: "Mother, why do you have to be so hard on the dead? You have already ruined their appearance. Even if you give them some honors, even if father knows about them in the afterlife, he won't know who they are.

Now the most important thing is to unite the people. If I want to take over, only Shen Pei and Feng Ji are my loyal followers, and Tian Feng is also worth looking forward to. The rest of them are waiting for me to make a mistake. Why would mother disregard the reputation of our Yuan family for such a small matter? These are all emergency measures, so I'd better bear with it."

Liu said something else: "You are magnanimous, but the deed has been done, so you should go all out! So many people have been killed, at least dozens of guards have seen it and participated in it, how can you keep the news secret in the future?
Once it gets out, even if they don't say that I killed them, but only say that I forced them to 'voluntarily' be buried alive with your father, how will their families hate our Yuan family?

At that time, these people will still live in Yecheng, and we can't tear our faces apart and deal with them. If your eldest brother finds fault with you, people's hearts will only become more unstable! At this time, we must do it once and for all, cut the grass and root it out to prevent future troubles! Why pretend to be a good person! "

Yuan Shang was speechless and stunned for a long time, finally realizing that his method of "pretending that the father's concubines were willing to be buried alive" was indeed not strict enough. And he couldn't kill the guards who took action to silence them. If that happened, it would be like you didn't kill those who had a grudge against you, but killed those who helped you to silence them. Once there was a little disturbance, the loyalty of his subordinates would only collapse further.

This kind of disgraceful thing has gone to the end.

"Shen Pei misled me! What kind of idea did he come up with? Change your words immediately. Instead of saying that these people were buried alive, just say that they were convicted and killed!"

Yuan Shang finally made up his mind to help his mother wipe out the rebellion. Yuan Shang led the troops himself and killed the families of his father's five concubines that night. He then changed his mind within a day.

When the civil and military officials in the city heard this, they were all shocked:
At noon it was said that the general's concubines were willing to be buried alive with him, but the next day it was changed to "these people hindered the general's recovery during his serious illness, causing the general's condition to worsen, and they deserved to be put to death", and the entire family was exterminated.

(Note: There is no fabrication here. The original text of "Records of the Three Kingdoms" wrote "Shang also wiped out the families of the killed people." In the official history, the families of the five concubines were exterminated. Of course, the details of the process and the inner thoughts of the parties involved are created by myself, and the impact caused will be different from history. I think it is still reasonable)
The actions of the Madam and the Third Young Master made many people feel that the future of the Yuan family was cast a shadow again. Many people began to waver and were unwilling to work for such people who went back on their words, killed innocent people indiscriminately, and did not care about the consequences.

Especially in this life of the Yuan family, Yuan Tan's moral image, governance achievements and military merits are more obvious, which makes him more attractive to the neutral and wavering factions around Yuan Shang.

When Shen Pei heard this, he shook his head helplessly. He knew in his heart that the best way for Yuan Shang was to keep the news of Yuan Shao's death a secret for a few days, and then officially announce it after Yuan Shang had handed over his work and made more preparations to take over power.

But Liu was so eager to kill that the incident made such a big fuss that it could not be covered up from the beginning, causing Yuan Shang to lose the buffer period for handover.

They could only launch the campaign hastily, and there was no time to win over many people, which led to even more people running away.

In a hurry, Shen Pei spent all his energy on keeping an eye on Tian Feng to ensure that Tian Feng, like him and Feng Ji, would absolutely support Yuan Shang.

Shen Pei had no time to care about anyone other than Tian Feng.

However, the situation inside and outside Yecheng was still firmly controlled by the local faction of Jizhou, and the faction of Yuzhou could not make any waves. Guo Tu had no choice but to flee in a hurry, sneaking to Youzhou first, infiltrating Yuan Tan's territory with a light load, and surrendering to Yuan Tan.

In history, Guo Tu also successfully surrendered to Yuan Tan, and there was no need for cheating.

But in history, there were other officials who were not from the Jizhou faction and did not have time to escape when Yuan Shang first took power, such as Xin Ping. So later Xin Pi was appointed by Yuan Tan as an envoy to Cao Cao, and after he surrendered to Cao, he came back to fight Shen Pei. Only then did Shen Pei kill all of Xin Ping's family members who were left in Yecheng.

But in this life, Xin Ping took advantage of the fact that Shen Pei was too overwhelmed to manage the situation and ran away with Guo Tu, and even his entire family ran away.

Shen Pei was unable to find evidence of Guo Tu and Xin Ping's guilt in such a hurry, and he was also afraid that if these people stayed in Yecheng, they would hinder Yuan Shang from taking power, so it would be best if they were willing to leave.

Therefore, Shen Pei did not send troops to pursue the matter further, but instead had people discredit Guo Tu and Xin Ping in public opinion, claiming that they were traitors to their master, saying that they saw Yuan Shao's death and felt that the Yuan family had no future, so they wanted to become fickle villains.

Similar to Guo Tu and Xin Ping, there were other strategists who were affected by the butterfly effect of Yuan Shang's perverse actions.

For example, Cui Yan of Qinghe. In history, when the two Yuans were fighting, he could not stand such unfilial and unrighteous tricks, so he chose to resign from his official position due to illness and did not help either side.

He was even imprisoned by Yuan Shang for this. Later, considering Cui Yan's great reputation, he admitted that Cui Yan "was indeed ill and did not deceive his master", and was quickly released from prison. He was unemployed until Yuan Shang lost Yecheng, and then he was appointed by Cao Cao.

In this life, Cui Yan saw Yuan Shang's atrocities and of course resigned from his post as per historical inertia. However, because Feng Ji Shenpei's control was weaker than the same period in history, he was unable to catch those who abandoned their posts in the first place, so Cui Yan found an opportunity to run away.

Originally, when Cui Yan came to Yecheng five years ago, his biggest weakness was his mentor Zheng Xuan. He escorted Zheng Xuan to Yecheng as a disciple, and it would be inappropriate for him to abandon his mentor and leave, as that would be unjust.

But Zheng Xuan had died of illness in the fifth year of Jian'an, the year before last, during the Battle of Guandu, at the age of 74. Cui Yan had no soft spot, so he wanted to escape back to the Buqi Mountain in Beihai County, where he had studied with his mentor.

As for whether Liu Bei's people would treat them with courtesy and win them over after arriving in Beihai County, that is another question.

The same situation also happened to Ying Shao, the former Taishan prefect who was supposed to die of illness in Yecheng the next year in history.

Historically, Ying Shao died of illness during the siege of Yecheng in 203. There is a theory that it may be due to food shortages, malnutrition, lack of medical care and medicine during the siege. So if it were not for the extremely difficult environment, Ying Shao's natural lifespan might have lasted a few more years.

After all, Ying Shao was a senior scholar-official. When he was the governor of Mount Tai, his deputy was Zhuge Gui, the father of Zhuge Jin and Zhuge Liang. He had a close relationship with the Zhuge family. Later, Cao Cao's father Cao Song and his entourage were killed by Zhang Kai when they passed through Mount Tai. Ying Shao feared Cao Cao's revenge, so he resigned and crossed the river to Yuan Shao.

So Ying Shao was already quite old, in his late 50s and approaching 60. For the past seven years, Ying Shao had only held a minor official title, studying behind closed doors, writing ten volumes of "Han Guan Yi" and several volumes of "Fengsu Tongyi". He had not been involved in specific government affairs, but had been sorting out the court etiquette and ceremonial system that had been lost since the rebellion of Li Jue and Guo Si.

This scholar-official with some moral pursuits, seeing the tyrannical behavior, of course, did not want to wade into the muddy waters again, and wanted to study behind closed doors. Moreover, he was also from Runan County, Yuzhou, and originally came here because he was from the same county as the Yuan family. Now that the Yuzhou faction was being suppressed by the local Jizhou faction, why was he still staying here?
At this time in history, none of the Zhuge family had made it big, so Ying Shao certainly wouldn't try to make friends with the Zhuge family. But now the situation is different, Zhuge Jin and Zhuge Liang are both powerful figures in the south, so Ying Shao plans to seek refuge in the south.

Finally, there is a big boss of the Yuzhou faction, Xun Chen Xun Youruo from Yingchuan County, who was also reused when Yuan Shao was alive. Now Yuan Shang relies on Feng Ji Shenpei and Tian Feng to control the situation, and all of them reuse people from Jizhou. After much consideration, Xun Chen decided to go to Qingzhou to join Yuan Tan.

Only Master Yuan would employ people from outside Hebei!

In the end, the Yuan brothers fought for power. Although Yuan Shang controlled the situation in the western half of Jizhou through terrorist killings, he also drove away most of the strategists and civil servants from other places.

Guo Tu, Xin Ping, and Xun Chen went directly to his brother. Ying Shao and Cui Yan went to Langya and Beihai to study respectively.

Historically, he only lost two prominent civil servants and one who abandoned his post, but now because of the butterfly effect, the number has expanded to five.

The only important advisers and civil officials around Yuan Shang were Tian Feng, Shen Pei, Feng Ji, Chen Lin and so on. In addition, Gao Gan and Gao Rou, who were his relatives, were not counted as they would not run away anyway.

Fortunately, the local army in Jizhou was still completely controlled by Yuan Shang, and the generals did not mutiniate or defect to Yuan Tan.

Maybe it's because the remaining generals of the Yuan family are not so morally clean now. After the three disastrous defeats at Guandu, Dong'e, and Cangting, most of the strong ones have died. Those who can survive may believe that the bigger the fist, the more powerful it is. They don't care who is righteous or not. Not all generals are like Guan Yu and Zhao Yun, who have to question their morality before making decisions.

At this critical moment of chaos and disorder, this result was acceptable to Yuan Shang. As long as he controlled the army, it didn't matter if some civil officials were lost. Why should he be afraid of no one to do the job?

While Yuan Shang was clearing up his internal affairs and seizing power as quickly as possible, the news of Yuan Shao's death spread rapidly and without any blockade to Cao Cao's occupied areas, and then took a detour through Youzhou and reached Yuan Tan.

On the eighth day of the third lunar month, Cao Cao received an urgent report from Hebei in Xudu, saying that Yuan Shao had finally died. Cao Cao was overjoyed, but also a little emotional, after all, he had known Yuan Shao for more than 30 years.

Because the road was not smooth, Yuan Tan found out about it three or five days later than Cao Cao. That day was March 12th.

Four days later, the message reached Donglai and Langya counties, where it was known to Taishi Ci, Lu Su, Zhou Yu, Zhuge Jun and others. They did not dare to neglect it, and continued to pass it back to the south to inform Zhuge Jin, Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang.

In just over half a month, the whole world was shocked.

(End of this chapter)