Tiger Guards

Chapter 136: Clean up the tail
Zhao Ji drove to Beiguo Military Camp.

The frozen military camp seemed to thaw immediately and regain its vitality.

In the camp, Jia Xu was observing the sand table and doing deductions with Xu Huang, Qu Bei and Pei Xiu.

Qubei played the role of the coalition forces of the Xiongnu, Xu Huang played the role of the Li-Guo coalition forces in Guanzhong, and Pei Xiu played the Hedong army.

Apart from not participating in the subsequent battles around Anyi, Pei Xiu was the person who understood Zhao Ji's combat style best.

Jia Xu was acting as the referee. While he was deducing, he heard the guards outside the gate announce: "Minister Zhao has entered the camp."

"That's all for now."

Jia Xu stood up and covered the sand table with a five-foot square piece of cloth. Xu Huang and the other two also had serious expressions.

There are too many unstable and uncontrollable factors when going to war.

On the battlefield, we can still find a way to save the situation.

The most difficult part is outside the battlefield. For example, how many days can Zhao Lian hold on to Puban?
The timing and attitude of the Hanoi army's intervention in the front battlefield.

As for whether the various Hun tribes would send troops to rob the gold, Qu Bei was still confident about this matter. No one knew the various Hun tribes better than him.

Just because your subordinates are loyal and obedient to you today does not mean they will continue to be loyal to you tomorrow.

Today's troops may not survive until tomorrow.

The chiefs and leaders of each tribe will not refuse to exchange their troops, whose number may change at any time, for a stable supply of gold.

The tribesmen may not be able to pass on their power smoothly, and they may not continue to obey orders when they are old.

But gold is different. If you control gold, you will have additional mobilization capabilities and a stronger ability to fight risks.

Nomadic life is just like that anyway. If you have nothing to do, why not have a fight?
If you win, everything is fine. If you lose, you have fast horses and warriors to protect you, so you can just escape back to the tribe.

Tribal leaders are naturally enthusiastic about profitable wars.

When a few people went out, Zhao Ji's chariot had already stopped in front of the courtyard gate.

Zhao Ji jumped off his horse and bowed to Jia Xu, "Mr. Wenhe."

After briefly signaling to Xu Huang, Qu Bei, and Pei Xiu, Jia Xu asked, "How was the court meeting?"

"Bingzhou Governor Gao Gan sent an envoy, Guo Yuan, to present a memorial praising his uncle Yuan Shao's achievements and requesting a reward."

Zhao Ji followed him inside and took off his heavy helmet. "Seeing that everyone in the court was pretending to be friendly towards Guo Yuan, I listed the crimes of Yuan Shao and Cao Cao. They have killed more people than Dong Zhuo, Li Jue and their generals. So I ordered the warriors to behead Guo Yuan."

"There's one more thing I forgot to mention last time, and now I think about it I feel a little regretful."

He said that killing Guo Yuan would definitely not be a smooth process. How could the court agree to kill Guo Yuan and directly offend Gao Gan and Yuan Shao?
Therefore, there will be no legal procedures, and the person will be killed immediately to create a fait accompli.

If the ministers and officials in the court did not object, it meant they acquiesced and forcibly changed the external image of these people.

Pei Xiu was not surprised. The arrival of a high-ranking official's envoy at the critical moment of the Northern Expedition was a problem in itself.

It’s easiest to just kill him directly.

If Gao Gan has the ability, he can bring the troops from Shangdang, Taiyuan and Yanmen to fight!
Yuan Shao himself had just begun to put Jizhou under control, and the senior officials actually controlled only a small half of Shangdang, which served as a front-line barrier against Zhang Yan and the Black Mountain Army.

As long as the imperial court does not recognize it, Gao Gan will have no chance of issuing formal laws to Taiyuan, Yanmen, Daijun, Dingxiang and Xihe counties.

The current high-ranking officials are only the scholars in Shangdang County who maintain superficial cooperation with them because of Yuan Shao's military power.

If we really acknowledge the appointments of Gao Gan, Yuan Shao, Yuan Tan, and Yuan Xi, disaster will immediately follow.

Therefore, Zhao Ji felt justified in killing the high-ranking official envoy. Even if Yang Qi and his gang of old men were brought out and put in the court, they would tacitly allow him to take action.

No matter how incompetent these old men were, they still had the enthusiasm and courage to uphold the authority of the court.

Unlike the large number of Hedong officials who were recently recruited, these country bumpkins mistook the envoys of high-ranking officials for envoys of Yuan Shao, and they wanted to kneel before them and become teachers and friends.

Only Xu Huang reacted a little slowly. Even though he felt humble, he felt that this high-ranking envoy must be killed.

Even though he was just the Right Wise King, he had fought in many places and cooperated with various warlords. His cognitive ability was better than that of most officials and Xiongnu nobles.

As for Jia Xu... Zhao Ji only killed Guo Yuan. If he took action, Guo Yuan's guards would also have to be executed together. This would eliminate the hidden dangers as much as possible and delay their outbreak.

At this moment, Jia Xu would not suggest that Zhao Ji send people to hunt down the guards. Instead, he asked, "What is the regret that the Minister mentioned?"

As they were talking, they had already arrived at the hall and sat down. There was a large table made up of eight low tables put together.

In the center of the table was a sand table and a wooden box containing chess pieces. Low couches surrounded the table. Everyone sat down, and Zhao Ji glanced around before saying, "It's the Imperial Seal. I heard a rumor a few days ago, though I'm not sure if it's true or not. It said that when Sun Jian was the first to enter Luoyang, he fished out the body of a palace maid from a well in the palace, and found the Imperial Seal in her arms. Later, Sun Jian was shot and killed by Liu Biao, and his followers became the property of Yuan Shu."

After a pause, seeing the four of them were serious, Zhao Ji continued, "His son, Sun Ce, is about the same age as my seventh brother. He presented the Imperial Seal to Yuan Shu and only then demanded his father's troops. Sun Ce has already led his father's former troops into Jiangdong, and many people from Jianghuai have followed him."

Jia Xu sighed, "I've heard rumors about the Imperial Seal before, but I never imagined it would fall into Yuan Shu's hands."

He didn't think that Zhao Ji would joke about this matter at this critical moment, not to mention that there were rumors about this matter everywhere.

Xu Huang then spoke up: "Minister, are you saying that Yuan has the intention of usurping the throne?"

"Well, I was so focused on listing Yuan Shao's crimes that I completely overlooked Yuan Shu. Wherever this fierce demon passed, everything was left in ruins. With his arrogance, what would he do if he learned that the imperial court had moved east and its prestige was shattered?"

Proclaiming himself emperor was a huge blow to the prestige of the imperial court.

There are evil people who deceive the ignorant people and call themselves the emperor. There have been many such people in the past few decades, but they were quickly destroyed and are nothing to worry about.

But who is Yuan Shu?

As a descendant of a top-tier family with three generations of officials, his enthronement as emperor would seriously undermine the prestige of the imperial court.

Zhao Ji was also unsure. If Cao Cao and Yuan Shao could not actually control the emperor, then Yuan Shu might not necessarily become emperor.

When Cao Cao held the emperor hostage, Yuan Shu seemed to be very straightforward. He felt that if Cao Cao held the emperor hostage, it would be fine for him to claim to be the emperor.

Another factor is that after Cao Cao held the emperor hostage, he could use the prestige of the court to gradually erode and hollow out Yuan Shu's controlled area through administrative means and personnel appointments.

Lu Bu and Liu Bei couldn’t understand this, so could Yuan Shu not understand it either?

He was no match for Cao Cao in terms of military strength, and his political appeal was even less than that of Cao Cao, who held the emperor hostage.

Rather than being cut and tortured to death bit by bit by Cao Cao, it would be better to immediately proclaim himself emperor while his strength is strong and the court's influence is low.

If they could gain a firm foothold, they would naturally be able to tie the people under their rule onto the boats and resist Cao Cao's encroachment.

At worst, if he made concessions through negotiations and became a king, he could resist the imperial court's encroachment.

Therefore, Yuan Shu's declaration of himself as emperor was just a shot in the arm, a backup option for Yuan Shu, not an inevitable choice.

It’s better to hold on, otherwise you will die suddenly.

Zhao Ji was not sure whether Yuan Shu would become emperor, but Yuan Shu's actions in recent years made even Qu Bei believe that Yuan Shu would become emperor.

This was a heavy topic, so Jia Xu turned to ask, "Are there any changes to the Northern Expedition planned in three days?"

"Everything remains the same."

Zhao Ji looked at Jia Xu and said, "Mr. Wenhe, you can go into the city later to see my great-grandfather."

Jia Xu did not accept the official position from the court because he was worried that it would bring disaster to his family.

He came quietly to help the court, and Li Jue might not be aware of it.

But if he accepted the official position, Li Jue would find out and ask Duan Wei to forcibly take back Jia Xu's family.

Based on Jia Xu's understanding of Duan Wei, Duan Wei would definitely sacrifice a small number of people for the majority.

Not to mention Jia Xu's family, even Duan Wei's nephews and nephews, if it is worth it, Duan Wei can sacrifice some of them.

When it comes to being ruthless towards his own people, Jia Xu is not as good as Duan Wei.

After Jia Xu agreed, Pei Xiu asked, "The Minister killed the high-ranking envoy. Who else did he kill?"

"Counselor Zhang Shi, judging by his accent, is also from Anyi."

Zhao Ji stared blankly out the door. "He dared to publicly question the Zhao family's legacy of loyalty and bravery today. What else will he dare to do tomorrow? Over thirty of my great-great-grandfather's five generations have died for their country. How can he question that? The Emperor gifted me the Imperial Sword. Even if he doesn't respect me or the heroic spirits of the Zhao family, he should at least respect the Imperial Sword."

Zhao Ji turned around and looked at Pei Xiu: "Seventh Brother, I didn't want to kill him either. You know, I didn't want to kill Rui Dan at that time either."

"Besides, the court is where politics is discussed. He asked me about my family's private affairs. Such a fool who puts personal interests above public ones deserves death."

"You~"

Pei Xiu was helpless and said, "Killing is not difficult. You must enforce the law and kill people according to the law. I am going to go into the city to explain the cause of Zhang Shi's death and kill him. I may be back late, so I need to ask Ah Xing. After he went out, he met many people and knew some things that you and I don't know."

"Well, then I'll have to trouble Brother Seven to clean up the mess for me."

Zhao Ji smiled apologetically and turned to look at Jia Xu: "Mr. Wenhe, can you go into the city with my seventh brother? It will help us hide our tracks."

(End of this chapter)