My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 334: It all depends on the support of peers
Compared with the great diplomatic success achieved by Yang Xiu in Yecheng, it naturally meant that Wang Ling's negotiation in Linzi was a complete failure and was just a formality.

After all, it is impossible for both Yuan Shang and Yuan Tan to have made "significant meritorious service", and only one of the two accomplices could be granted "commutation of sentence and pardon".

Fortunately, Wang Ling was the nephew of the late Prime Minister Wang Yun, and was also a loyal official of the Han Dynasty. Yuan Tan would not do anything to Wang Ling. After the negotiations broke down, he just sent Wang Ling out of the country with courtesy.

However, Yuan Tan was not so tolerant towards Yuan Shang's side.

The third brother forged his father's will to steal the Yuan family's property, prevented him from returning to Yecheng to attend the funeral, and killed his father's other concubines and their families. The incident was known to everyone in Yecheng, causing his father's reputation to be greatly damaged after his death.

As a result, important officials and advisers from outside the Jizhou faction, such as Guo Tu, Xin Ping, and Xun Chen, who were trusted by their father during his lifetime, became disloyal and fled from Yecheng. Scholar-officials or senior men of great virtue, such as Cui Yan and Ying Shao, also abandoned their third brother and retired to Qingzhou.

Each of these things is extremely disobedient and rebellious! It also shows that Yuan Tan is the hero that the people want and the former officials of the Yuan family are looking forward to!
More importantly, several days after the negotiations between Yuan Tan and Wang Ling officially broke down, Yuan Tan received another piece of important news from Yecheng and Xudu.

This piece of news was the memorial of defense submitted by Yuan Shang to Cao Cao.

At the beginning, Yuan Tan only knew that Cao Cao and his third brother had reached an agreement, that Cao Cao had withdrawn his troops and handed over the territory, and that there had been certain territorial transactions.

But what were the specific conditions and what was written when Yuan Shang surrendered? As a third party outsider, Yuan Tan could not know these details immediately. It took some time.

Therefore, the memorial written by Chen Lin was sent out at the end of April and arrived in Xudu in May. The news began to spread more than ten days later. Yuan Tan did not get the original text written by Chen Lin until the end of May.

Chen Lin's literary skills were naturally first-rate in his time. While he tried his best to write in a roundabout way, in this defense of Yuan Shang, he had done his best to conceal the crimes of Yuan Shao for the sake of the respected emperor.

All the blame that could be put on the "treacherous villains" around Yuan Shao was pushed, and the original cause of the several wars between the Yuan family and the imperial court was attributed to misunderstanding.

However, this kind of text can only deceive people in the world and the general public.

For enemies who really want to nitpick, this kind of vagueness is ineffective.

If you want to accuse someone of a crime, you can always find a pretext for it.

Yuan Tan hated his third brother so much that he was like a powder keg about to explode. If he could catch any clue of his third brother's mistake, he would not let go.

Now that he had seen this memorial, he naturally asked his best writer, Wang Xiu, to go over it word by word (Cui Yan had not yet surrendered to Yuan Tan, but had returned to Buqi Mountain to live in seclusion, so Wang Xiu was the best writer under Yuan Tan). He first made sure to understand all the possible charges against his third brother so that he had a clear idea of what was going on.

Then he summoned his subordinates and announced an indignant attack on Yuan Shang.

When he spoke, he no longer called Yuan Shang by his courtesy name, nor did he call him "third brother". He just called him by his first name, as if he did not intend to admit that this brother was a member of the Yuan family:
"The sage said: If one does not change his father's ways for three years, he can be called filial. He also said: A son should not speak of his father's faults. But Yuan Shang was disobedient and unfilial. He fawned on Cao Cao, ceded land and confessed his crimes in exchange for the four counties of Hejian, and did not even hesitate to humiliate my father.

Such a beast who has lost all human ethics is a wolf in the heart and a dog in the dog's behavior. He is a servile servile. He will be despised by the spirits of our Yuan family ancestors in heaven, and be condemned by both humans and gods! I want to enforce justice on behalf of heaven and immediately raise an army to attack him, seize the four Hejian counties that Cao Cao just launched, and then take Zhao and Wei to restore my father's foundation. What do you think?"

When Yuan Tan said this, most of the civil servants and advisers looked at each other, not knowing how to respond for a moment.

They also read the defense letter written by Chen Lin on behalf of Yuan Shang and knew that it was not as exaggerated as Yuan Tan said. The so-called "a son speaking of his father's faults" was so obscure in its wording that it could not be more obscure.

But from Yuan Tan's point of view, it is only natural for him to make a big deal out of a small matter and seize on this handle to make a big fuss. After all, how could he let go of the enemy's handle so easily?

However, now that Yuan Shang has newly acquired four counties in Jizhou and has been recognized by the court in Xudu, his strength has greatly increased on paper. It is a big question whether Yuan Tan can still defeat his third brother.

So, such a strange scene emerged, and those counselors who still wanted to work well under Yuan Tan didn’t know what to say.

To be honest, I have offended my leader.

To be honest, you will have to take the blame if you lose the battle in the future.

Especially Guo Tu, Xin Ping and Xun Chen who had just arrived. Among these three, except Xin Ping who had a younger brother Xin Pi who had been working for Yuan Tan for a long time, the others had just officially surrendered. Before that, they had only flirted with Yuan Tan and served as foreign aid in Yecheng.

Guo Tu and Xun Chen must consider how to gain a firm foothold and not come up with unreliable ideas.

Yuan Tan was a little unhappy when he saw the silent and awkward atmosphere. He asked anxiously, "Don't you have any sense of justice? When my father was alive, he treated you all with great courtesy. Now that someone is insulting his posthumous name, are you going to sit back and watch?"

After Yuan Tan said this, several counselors looked at each other in bewilderment. Then Xin Ping gritted his teeth and spoke first: "My lord, you are right. Three Lords... Yuan Shang betrayed his father and defected to the enemy. This is indeed despicable.

But since he had surrendered to the court of Xudu, I'm afraid most of the soldiers and civilians in Jizhou would be eager to stop fighting and take care of the people. Jizhou had been devastated by war for two or three years, with bones exposed in the wild and no one collecting them, and farmland left barren. The people were all conscripted as soldiers and transporters.

I am afraid that if anyone starts a war at this time, it may be detrimental to the people's hearts..."

Xin Ping has made his words as obscure as possible, but what he really wants to say is: You think that Yuan Shao's reputation will be humiliated after his death, which is a big deal, and civil officials and military generals may also think so. But middle-level officers, ordinary soldiers, and the people no longer care about these things.

They may still be loyal to the Yuan family and want to see the Yuan family continue to rule, but they will not go to the battlefield to die in vain for the Yuan family's empty name disputes.

If Yuan Tan fought Yuan Shang, even if he had a righteous reputation among the middle and upper classes, the lower-class people and soldiers would only see "the Yuan family fighting the Yuan family, fighting for the legacy".

The common people were uneducated, so how could they understand the complicated principles of filial piety? A son criticized his father's faults? Is this a serious crime? In their eyes, isn't it just a verbal dispute? The moral code of the Han Dynasty was required from the "scholars". If you are unfilial, you will die in society and will not be tolerated in this circle.

But the common people who cannot read a single word are originally outside this circle, and society will not require them to follow red tape, and "etiquette does not apply to common people."

Over the past three years, the people have been tired of the Yuan family's repeated conscription and war, and now they just want a brief period of peace.

Although this peace only lasted for a few months and was soon broken, Cao and Yuan were destined to remain in turmoil, but the people would easily resent the person who re-ignited the war.

Yuan Tan was thrown a basin of cold water and hesitated, but he still wanted to gamble, so he asked back: "Although Zhongzhi's words are reasonable, if I send troops to punish the rebels, it may not necessarily cause the people to fall into the war!

What if the four counties of Hejian, and even the rest of Jizhou, surrendered? Wouldn't that save the people from suffering for so long? Yuan Shang was so rebellious and betrayed his father, and justice was in the hearts of the people. If the generals of Hejian and other places were grateful for their father's kindness and were unwilling to resist, wouldn't the great cause be accomplished?

How can we know if we don’t try this? And once this excuse is dragged on, it will no longer be effective! I didn’t start the war when I first saw Yuan Shang’s letter, so can I still use this excuse to make things up after half a year or a few months?”

There is some truth in what Yuan Tan said. Although several advisers felt that Yuan Tan overestimated his appeal, they did not want to pour cold water on him.

Generals Guan Tong and Zhang Nan had already been persuaded by Yuan Tan and felt that they could fight. At worst, they could try to see if the garrison commanders of Yuan Shang's army, who had not yet established a firm foothold in Hejian and other places, could be moved by the righteousness and surrender immediately after being attacked.

If this surrender tide can be aroused, Yuan Tan still has hope. Expecting to fight hard battles and conquer counties one by one is wishful thinking, as the absolute strength is not enough.

The counselors saw that the situation was getting worse and the generals had been instigated by their lord, so Xin Pi stepped out first and warned them:

"My lord, don't be reckless! Relying on the power of Lord Benchu to force the four governors of Hejian to surrender directly may be a bit... risky. Once the war starts, if the forced surrender fails, can we just stop the war and withdraw the troops? We will surely be retaliated at that time. It is better to defend the place from the beginning and wait for the other side to make other unjust actions first.

Moreover, if the lord wants to restore the great cause of the original emperor, the key is the assistance of the general of chariots and cavalry. At present, Cao thieves and Yuan Shang have ceased fighting, and it is still unknown whether Cao's army will go to war with the general of chariots and cavalry next. If we rush to attack, and the general of chariots and cavalry is held back by Cao thieves, how should we deal with it when we have no external assistance?

As an ally, if the General of Chariots and Cavalry is stuck in a tough fight, we should take a defensive stance against Yuan Shang and not get caught up in fighting on two fronts.

Because as long as we don't go to war with Yuan Shang immediately, Yuan Shang may not dare to fight us directly. He has no moral standing and no reason to go to war. Who in the world would dare to take the initiative to attack a brother who has faithfully followed the will of his father?

As long as Yuan Shang can't find a reason to rejoin the war, then it will probably be us and the General of Chariots and Cavalry who will join forces to deal with Cao Cao, and Yuan Shang will think he can just sit back and watch the outcome. As long as Cao Cao is weakened, it will be much easier to deal with Yuan Shang.

Moreover, the enemy of Benchu Gong is Cao Cao. As long as the lord can defeat Cao Cao, even if it is a small victory, it will wash away the shame of my father. Then, will he worry about not being able to win the loyalty of the civil and military officials who are loyal to the Yuan family? By then, all the counties under Yuan Shang’s rule will surely return to the lord’s command, and he can still win without bloodshed! "

The reason why Xin Pi dared to say this was naturally because he had been sent as an envoy to Liu Bei repeatedly last year, and in fact had been secretly pulled over by Liu Bei.

On the other hand, he also felt that what he said was sincere and right. He really felt that as long as Yuan Tan could win the war against Cao, even without weakening Cao Cao, it would be enough to make Yuan Tan's prestige among Yuan's former officials soar, and then the Yuan family would not have to use civil war to take back their territory.

After all, the two Yuans are brothers and their situation is special. Sometimes the appeal to the family is more effective than fists.

It was just because he didn't care whether Yuan Tan would use him or not, so he dared to tell the truth.

If he really offended Yuan Tan, he would just surrender to Liu Bei.

Only a person who doesn't care about job-hopping dares to tell his leader everything.

Unfortunately, after thinking it over again and again, Yuan Tan felt that "allying with Liu Bei on the battlefield and achieving a great victory over Cao Cao" seemed too difficult. It was much more difficult than directly attacking his third brother and taking advantage of the opportunity of his third brother humiliating his father to quickly steal back a few counties.

And who knows whether Uncle Liu is willing to use all his strength to fight Cao Cao?

It's better to pick on the weak.

Xin Ping and Xin Pi were anxious about Yuan Tan's decision, but they had no choice but to make the next best option. They advised: "Even if you insist on going to war with Yuan Shang, why not try to use courtesy first and then force? For example, contact the General of Chariots and Cavalry and win his support.

My lord, you don't have to worry that this excuse for war will be quelled soon. Yuan Shang's son's words about his father's fault will not be quelled within half a year or three months. We can use courtesy first and then force.

For example, if the General of Chariots and Cavalry does not agree with his lord to start a civil war immediately, he can also let him, in the capacity of an ally and old friend of Duke Benchu, persuade his nephew to turn back from his wrong path and let Yuan Shang cede the four Hejian counties to his lord, or express some other demands.

Yuan Shang will most likely not agree, but he rejected the mediation of the General of Chariots and Cavalry and refused to reflect on his sin of speaking for his father. If we raise an army to attack him again, we will have a more legitimate reason to do so.”

After hearing this, Yuan Tan had a flash of alarm in his mind: Could it be that Xin Zuozhi was lured over by Uncle Liu? Why does he always ask me to listen to Uncle Liu?

But what Xin Pi said made sense. After much hesitation, Yuan Tan felt that he should still respect his allies. After all, his strength was too weak. So he wrote a letter to Liu Bei to ask for instructions and ask Liu Bei to mediate, using courtesy first and then force.

Unfortunately, he didn't know that he never got Uncle Liu's formal response or mediation.

Because during this period of time, Cao Cao dealt with Yuan Shang and felt that there was no worry on the northern front. In order to give Yuan Shang more sense of security, Cao Cao took the initiative to cause trouble for his uncle Liu.

(End of this chapter)