My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 413: The world is divided, please place your bets

After hearing about the latest move by Liu Bei's camp, Cao Cao was so angry that he threw the bowl of chicken soup.

After all, in Cao Cao's eyes, this was pure slander! He was just using Chen Lin's nonsense and rumors to throw dirty water on him!

Cao Cao did indeed act on his own throughout his life, not fearing what others said, but that was also based on the premise that "I did do bad things, but I don't care about what the world thinks of me."

If you ask him to take responsibility for a bad thing he didn't do, Cao Cao would not be so good-tempered.

If anyone spread such a rumor on his territory, he would have sent Xu Chu to chop him to death long ago.

That’s right, it’s true that Cao Cao sent people to rob tombs in order to make money.

It is true that the tomb robbers under his command did rob the tomb of King Xiao of Liang and took its gold and treasures, and Cao Cao even acknowledged it personally.

It is true that he granted official positions and titles to those powerful people who donated food and money to support the army.

But this does not mean that he really set up the two specific official positions of "Fa Qiu Zhong Lang Jiang" and "Mo Jin Xiao Wei".

Cao Cao was not a mentally retarded person, so how could he openly set up such an official position?

So the truth of the matter is: when he was fighting the most fiercely with Lu Bu, the army had no money or food, and had to rely on Cheng Yu to make special meat jerky to keep the army from starving to death.

So Cao Cao made up his mind and offered a reward: no matter where the money and food came from, as long as someone sent money and food to help the army, he would be given an official position. The amount of money would be exchanged for the rank of the official position, and the price was clearly marked.

This was just a continuation of the tradition of selling official positions since the reigns of Emperors Huan and Ling, and was not much worse than the reigns of Emperors Huan and Ling. The problem was that it was later revealed that the money of several generals in the army was obtained by robbing the tomb of King Xiao of Liang. After the news of this spread, Cao Cao still did not punish them and insisted on giving them the titles of "General of the Central Army" and "Captain of the School".

This is just like in the 20th century, during the years of warlords' civil war, when Sun Mouying robbed a tomb and was caught, he stuffed the stolen treasures into the three major families, letting them take the lion's share while he took the smaller share, and then he got away with it, without being punished and even getting promoted.

Therefore, when Chen Lin wrote about this crime, he used a little bit of the Spring and Autumn style of writing and omitted some modal particles. "Fa Qiu Zhong Lang Jiang" was not really the official name of a certain Zhong Lang Jiang, but rather "someone openly relied on the money earned from Fa Qiu to become Zhong Lang Jiang."

But as a manifesto against rebellion, you can't say Chen Lin spread rumors. The facts are exactly what they are, not a single element was fabricated, Chen Lin just slightly embellished the wording.

Now, Yuan Shao, the original master who wrote this manifesto to attack Cao, has died, and even his son Yuan Shang has been destroyed. Cao Cao thought that the matter of Chen Lin was a thing of the past.

Who would have thought that before Yuan Shang's downfall, Chen Lin surrendered to Yuan Tan, and it seemed that he would definitely be pulled away and used by Liu Bei. This matter continued to be picked on and criticized. How could Cao Cao not be depressed?

Will it ever end? It's like a thorn in the flesh, and I can't get rid of it.

……

After realizing Liu Bei's intentions, Cao Cao certainly did not dare to be careless.

Cao Cao knew very well that Liu Bei's courage to summon Liu Biao and Liu Zhang to send people to watch the ceremony this time was clearly an attempt to use the opportunity of rebuilding the Mausoleum of King Xiao of Liang and paying homage to him to demonstrate that he was the leader of the Han royal family and the "new leader" of the world's crusade against Cao Cao's forces.

Three years ago, Yuan Shao once held the position of leader. Now, Liu Bei will officially take up the banner.

Faced with such an imminent threat, how could Cao Cao dare to retreat?
If he took even half a step back, he would immediately become an important publicity selling point for Liu Bei's camp.

People all over the world would think that "Cao Cao could only defeat Yuan Shao but not Liu Bei. He was defeated in the few battles with Liu Bei and lost land continuously."

Therefore, Cao Cao had to continue to stay in the frontier battlefield of Fuli, Zhuyi and Gaixia, and continue to invest heavy troops to hold the fort, regardless of the consumption of money and food and whether the soldiers were tired.

Thinking of this, Cao Cao immediately ordered Guo Jia, Cao Ren, and Xiahou Yuan:

"The withdrawal plan has been postponed. It seems that we will have to keep 200,000 troops on the front line for at least several months."

Cao Ren and Xiahou Yuan were not there just now. It was only after Guo Jia's report that Cao Cao felt the situation was tricky and quickly summoned them.

Cao Ren and Xiahou Yuan did not have much political wisdom. Their awareness and knowledge were all focused on military affairs. Therefore, they were quite puzzled after hearing the order.

Xiahou Yuan was the first to speak out: "Does Sikong want to continue attacking Liu Bei? Although we have a large number of troops now, our navy is absolutely inferior. We have been fighting with the Yuan family for several years and have no energy to train the navy. Liu Bei has retreated across the Huai River, and there are probably not many directions suitable for our army to advance..."

Cao Cao: "Don't worry, I will not attack the Huaihe River defense line. I just can't retreat. I don't know how long I can hold out. It depends on Liu Bei."

Xiahou Yuan stopped arguing, but Cao Ren still had doubts: "If we don't fight, but still keep so many troops to survive the winter, or even the spring famine, I'm afraid the transportation of food and grass will consume a lot...

Chen and Qiao have been destroyed by war for a long time, and they were besieged again this year. The food reserves are almost gone. Zhao Yun also evacuated three counties before he left, and we also evacuated some of them. The frontier has become a wasteland. With so many people stationed, I am afraid that the food reserves in Liangjun and Chenliu will also be exhausted. "Cao Cao waved his hands in annoyance: "How can I not understand these principles? But I can't retreat before Liu Bei convenes this 'alliance' of the Han royal family! Otherwise, Liu Bei will become more and more domineering!

So how long to stay is not up to me, but Liu Bei! Otherwise, I have to count on the generals to take back the entire Pei County, so that Liu Bei can't occupy Mangdang Mountain and fail to hold this alliance! That will also make Liu Bei a laughing stock in the world!"

After hearing these analyses, Cao Ren and Xiahou Yuan finally understood the deep political significance behind this incident. They were furious and said, "Since this is the case, please give the order, Sikong! We will gather the imperial army and fight Liu Bei in Xiaopei!"

The generals all rushed to the front. Guo Jia, who was standing by, saw that something was wrong and quickly stopped them: "Generals, don't be reckless! Please think twice, Sikong! Liu Bei's troops are not weak. Once Xu Huai's troops are gathered together, he can gather more than 100,000 people.

Even if we gather more than 200,000 soldiers, but we attack and the enemy defends, the enemy is well-equipped and can defend in dangerous places, and the terrain of Mangdang Mountain is narrow and dangerous and it is not easy for a large army to deploy. Isn't this exactly what Zhuge Jin and Zhuge Liang planned?

They must be deliberately trying to provoke our army! They just want to anger Sikong, and then defend where our army must attack, and consume a lot of our army. Sikong must not be provoked by them! Just to win back this face, just hold on to the stalemate!

Eat more food if you want. You can grow more food after eating it. It will be difficult to train soldiers who have been fighting for a long time if they are wasted. "

After some earnest persuasion, Guo Jia took all the blame for being a coward on himself, which also gave Cao Cao, Xiahou Yuan and Cao Ren enough way out, and they calmed down.

Cao Cao was still unhappy and felt a little embarrassed. He was eager to divert everyone's attention. After thinking it over again and again, he suddenly thought of something and quickly ordered:
"Fengxiao! Help me draft a letter immediately and send it to Xudu to Wen Ruo, asking him to report to the emperor and reappoint Liu Ai as the Minister of the Imperial Clan! And formally remove Liu Bei from his post!"

It turns out that although Cao Cao had been at war with Liu Bei for three years, he had not specifically demoted Liu Bei's official position before - this is not surprising, because when he was fighting Yuan Shao, he did not specifically use the emperor's decree to remove Yuan Shao's title of general. Because Cao Cao did not like to do such meaningless things, he knew that this move had no practical effect.

The other party only needs to say "This is the emperor's order issued under duress, not the emperor's original intention, and it is a forged edict" to deny the legitimacy of the edict. If such edicts are issued too often, it will be easy to prove that "the emperor is indeed Cao Cao's puppet."

But this time, Cao Cao was really forced into a corner and tried all kinds of treatments.

Back then, Zhuge Jin used the incident of Huang Zu killing an angel to help Liu Bei get the position of Zongbo, which was really fatal.

Liu Bei is now holding the banner of Zong Bo, ostentatiously influencing Liu Biao and Liu Zhang and presiding over the overall situation.

Cao Cao didn't care whether it was useful or not, he just formally removed Liu Bei's position as Zong Bo. But he didn't remove the position of General of Chariots and Cavalry, which made it more targeted and didn't expand the scope of attack.

After hearing this, Guo Jia also felt that although this trick was useless, he had to leave.

When Guo Jia heard Cao Cao say that he only wanted to remove Liu Bei from his post as the Minister of the Imperial Household and not Liu Bei as the General of Chariots and Cavalry, his eyes turned and he had a flash of inspiration. He helped Cao Cao come up with a remedy:
"I think that even if the Minister of Works does not want to remove Liu Bei's title of General of Chariots and Cavalry and his title of Marquis of Wuchang, but only wants to remove him from his position as Minister of Imperial Clan, it would be a good idea to include the request to remove the General of Chariots and Cavalry when writing the memorial."

Before Cao Cao could react, Xiahou Yuan and Cao Ren were even more confused and could not help asking subconsciously: "What's the use of this?"

Guo Jia said sinisterly, "Sikong submitted a memorial and asked for a high price. In the end, your majesty would refute two of the two items and only approve the one that says 'remove the Minister of the Imperial Household and appoint Liu Ai as his replacement'. Wouldn't it show that this decree came from your majesty's original intention and that your majesty did not completely accept Sikong's advice and made some choices."

Cao Cao's eyes lit up when he heard this: "Great! Feng Xiao is the one who made the plan! Let's do it! And when the time comes, we will make public the process of your majesty rejecting my letter!
Let everyone in the world know that Wen Ruo submitted three points regarding Liu Bei, but Your Majesty rejected two of them and only adopted one! "

No matter what the actual effect of this move is, it can at least slightly refute Liu Bei's propaganda that "the emperor is Cao Cao's puppet."

Who said the emperor was a puppet? Can a puppet have the power to oppose?

After finishing this matter, Cao Cao felt a little relieved. He sorted out his thoughts and decided to prepare for the situation in two ways:

On the literary side, first remove Liu Bei's chief minister, and then start a drama, trying to offset as much of Liu Bei's propaganda influence as possible.

In terms of military affairs, he continued to grit his teeth and station heavy troops in Liang and Qiao, regardless of money and food, and it was estimated that he would have to endure until the spring famine. But at the same time, he also let Cao Ren and Xiahou Yuan rest and prepare for battle. If the enemy army really had a flaw, he would not hesitate to launch an offensive against Xiaopei in the next few months.

Of course, this offensive target was limited to Xiaopei. Cao Cao did not even dare to think about other battlefields.

At least the battle against Xiaopei was fought in a mountainous and swampy area, so there was no need to cross a large river. The defenders had the advantage of terrain, so it was not completely insurmountable.

If we attack Huainan, the problem of the Huai River will not be solved at present. The key is that attacking Huainan has no political value and cannot break the situation that Zhuge brothers have planned for Liu Bei.

While Cao Cao was responding to the enemy's moves, envoys sent by Liu Bei also arrived in Xiangyang and Chengdu respectively, and negotiated with Liu Biao and Liu Zhang.

The plan for Liu Bei to summon clan members from all over the world to watch the ceremony was thought out by Zhuge Jin in October. It was finalized in late October. Zhuge Liang also wrote a letter for Liu Bei and sent an envoy to deliver it.

So by mid-November, Liu Biao had already received Liu Bei's letter.

As for Liu Zhang, due to the long journey, the goods were not delivered until December.

(End of this chapter)