Tiger Guards

Chapter 215: Deeply Shamed
Zhao Ji's brutal intervention was equivalent to opening up the entire map for all forces.

It's not that he is so smart, but many of his secrets and the means by which top strategists make a living are just ordinary stuff in Zhao Ji's eyes.

For example, when Cao Cao was recruiting Guo Jia, he was evaluated and Guo Jia replied that if he wanted to compete with Yuan Shao, he had to deal with Lu Bu first.

This is the key to why Guo Jia directly became Xi Zhicai's substitute. There were also people in Cao Cao's civil and military circles who held this opinion, but many people's attitudes and opinions were not firm.

Even if one has repeatedly thought about it and confirmed that it is a correct point of view, he will be influenced by authority and then waver and succumb.

As for Lu Bu, Chen Gong naturally realized this, but he didn't think Cao Cao could destroy them quickly.

As for Yuan Shu's side, he was always thinking about occupying Xuzhou and counterattacking Cao Cao.

In the eyes of Yuan Shao and Cao Cao, Yuan Shu was no longer qualified.

Cao Cao defeated Yuan Shu many times and kept beating him up, so he looked down on Yuan Shu.

Yuan Shao was even simpler. He even beat Gongsun Zan to the ground. Compared with Cao Cao, Yuan Shao had a huge cavalry advantage, so he looked down on Cao Cao and Yuan Shu.

As for Lu Bu and Liu Bei, Yuan Shao did not take them very seriously at the moment, as they were no longer of the same size.

Compared with these veteran warlords, Zhao Ji was even more of a scum in Yuan Shao's eyes.

Therefore, Yuan Shao rejected the court's arrangement.

If the court forced him to be a General of Cavalry, he could reluctantly accept it.

As for asking Zhao Ji to become the General of Chariots and Cavalry against his will, that was wishful thinking; and asking Gao Gan to voluntarily withdraw from Shangdang and give up the post of Governor of Bingzhou was even more impossible!
Yuan Shao's envoy Yuan Xu came to the Zhongdu camp again, met with Yang Biao, and conveyed Yuan Shao's attitude.

He also said: "Zhao Yuansi wears a noble name, but in reality he is just a brave soldier. How is he any different from Lü Bu and his ilk?"

Yuan Xu couldn't find any harsh words for his uncle Yang Biao, so he added in a relatively gentle tone, "Zhao Yuansi commands his own troops and acts with arrogance, and he is even more disrespectful to the imperial court. If the Right General tolerates this, it will only encourage his viciousness and stubbornness."

Yuan Xu lowered his head as he spoke, not daring to look Yang Biao in the eye.

He also knew what the court wanted to do. While taking Shangdang to strengthen the court's influence, he also wanted to show his influence to Zhao Ji by controlling Hebei in order to suppress Zhao Ji.

If Yuan Shao refuses to cooperate, what else can Yuan Xu do?
The Yuan family of Runan, just the line of Grand Tutor Yuan Wei, had twelve brothers, and Yang Biao married Yuan Wei's sisters.

This does not include the two main branches of the Runan Yuan family. The lineage of Yuan Jing's eldest son basically does not interact with the lineage of Yuan Tang, the youngest son. Yuan Tang has four legitimate sons and eight illegitimate sons, which constitute the huge legitimate branch of the Yuan family.

There is also the lineage of Yuan Jing's nephew Yuan Xu. Yuan Xu's son is Yuan Yi. Yuan Shao sent Yuan Yi, the governor of Shanyang County, to seize Yangzhou. Yuan Yi was expelled by his cousin Yuan Shu and cousin He Kui, and was killed by the rebels. This branch was considered finished.

The lineage of Yuan Jing's eldest son is currently led by the Yuan Zhong brothers, who would rather flee to Jiaozhou to avoid the chaos than get involved in the civil war among the main branch of the Yuan family.

In the struggle between the two Yuans, the core force was the twelve sons and descendants of Yuan Jing's youngest son Yuan Tang, as well as Yuan Tang's son-in-law and grandson's in-laws, who were basically spread across all the counties and were all families of prominent status.

The Yuan family and their in-laws, plus their students and former officials, the students and former officials of their in-laws, and the students and former officials of their students and former officials, naturally swept across Guandong.

Yuan Xu was just a part of the Yuan family's civil war. He had no choice but to deal with the division and attack of such a large family.

As for Zhao Ji, not only Yuan Shao but even he looked down on him.

Among the Zhao family of Langya, only Zhao Yu looks like a gentleman. Zhao Yan has been around for so many years, but he was summoned to the court as a counselor as a governor of a small county in a remote area. He is unknown in the world. What is he?
Zhao Ji even entered the officialdom as a Tiger Guard. Although he was called a Tiger Guard, he was just a soldier.

With this level, is he worthy of being listed as a national important general together with Yuan Shao?
Deep down, Yuan Shao naturally liked the position of General of Cavalry. After all, Yuan Shu was currently the Left General, on par with him as the Right General.

This made Yuan Shao dislike the current Right General, but if being the General of Cavalry required him to recognize Zhao Ji, then sorry, Yuan Shao would rather continue to serve as the Right General.

He would rather be listed as a general of the four directions with Yuan Shu than go a step further and be in the same class with Zhao Ji.

No matter how much he hated Yuan Shu, they were the same kind of people; and in Yuan Shao's eyes, Zhao Ji was just a cow or horse in human skin.

If he accepted the title of General of Cavalry and then recommended Zhao Ji to be General of Chariots and Cavalry, wouldn't that be equivalent to accepting humiliation and being ranked and associated with cattle and horses?
Doing something like this would make Yuan Shu laugh to death.

I would rather suffer a loss than be laughed at by Yuan Shu and his relatives over there.

Yang Biao could somewhat understand the logic behind Yuan Shao's behavior, but he felt that Yuan Shao was baring his teeth at the imperial court.

After thinking about it, Yang Biao still wanted to make this happen.

After all, after the imperial court returned to Luodu, as long as it could mediate and resolve various wars and prevent them from fighting, the control of the various warlords over the army would decline.

When negotiations can resolve disputes, everyone will return to their seats to negotiate and no longer rely on the military.

After pondering for a moment, Yang Biao tentatively suggested, "If Zhao Yuansi sends an envoy to express his regards and present gifts, might the Right General be patient?"

Yuan Xu frowned: "It's very difficult. If he kills Guo Yuan in his own time, there will be many people in Hebei and Central Plains who hate him. Guo Gongze would even like to eat his flesh alive. With Guo Gongze around, I'm afraid the Right General will not forgive this matter." It's not that Guo Yuan cannot be killed. Executing him in his own time is equivalent to giving the Guo family of Yangdi a loud slap in the face.

In the future, when recruiting scholars in Yingchuan, the chief officer will subconsciously lower his evaluation of the Guo family of Yangdi.

Yang Biao was helpless and could only say, "This is a matter of great importance to the court. Allow me to persuade Zhao Yuansi. Zhongshu, you should also go back and persuade Benchu. Zhao Yuansi has gathered 30,000 infantry and cavalry in Jinyang, training daily and preparing his horses for battle. If we can't appease him, he will definitely march to Shangdang and confront Benchu when the autumn weather clears."

"Please also ask Uncle to write a letter by hand so that I can pass it on to Brother Benchu."

Yuan Xu bowed and asked Yang Biao to get up and write the letter. Such an important matter could not be done through oral communication, but had to be written down.

Yang Biao knew a lot of things, but he couldn't and wouldn't pass them on to Yuan Shao.

For example, Zhao Ji and Zhao Yan remotely controlled all parties, and the encirclement network formed to attack the Yuan-Cao alliance was about to take shape. Once Lu Bu took action in the south, Zhao Ji would definitely take action as well.

Yang Biao has his own relatively reliable intelligence network, and Zhao Ji and Jia Xu have begun to contact and instigate the bandit generals in Guanlong.

After these people send the hostages over, Zhao Ji's retreat will be stable, and he will definitely catch the senior official and beat him to death.

It was not that Yang Biao lacked confidence in the senior officials, but that Zhao Ji's successive killings of Bai Bo's four generals had shocked him too much.

Gao Gan's small body really couldn't withstand Zhao Ji's torture.

After receiving Yuan Xu, Yang Biao went into the camp to meet Yang Qi.

Seeing Yang Qi and Yang Zhong sitting quietly in the barracks, their expressions filled with grief, Yang Biao felt a chill in his heart and thought Zhao Ji was causing trouble, so he asked, "Brother, why are you like this?"

"Read it yourself first."

Yang Qi handed a piece of official document to Yang Biao. Yang Biao took it and suddenly his body shook: "How could this be?"

This was an official document sent from Yanzhou. Zheng Xuan, who was traveling from Beihai to the court by bus, fell ill and died on the way.

Zheng Xuan's followers are spread throughout Qingzhou, and there are also many in Jizhou, Xuzhou, and Yanzhou. If Zheng Xuan enters the court, it will directly strengthen the court's control over Qingzhou.

This kind of enhancement is unprecedented and can almost reach the state before the world was in chaos!
Yang Biao looked lost and was even more sad about Zheng Xuan's death.

The road to the restoration of the imperial court was so difficult that he slumped down on the yellow earth and said: "Zheng Kangcheng's death is like the broken beams and pillars of a large building. How unfortunate it is for the people!"

Yang Qi couldn't help but sigh. "The situation in the Guandong provinces may not be what we expect. Perhaps it's true, as Zhao Yuansi said, that Yuan Shao and Cao Cao are both traitors."

Yang Biao raised his head and wiped his eyes with his sleeves rolled up: "Why do you say that, big brother?"

"I suspect that the cause of Brother Kang Cheng's death is unknown."

Yang Qi said in a low voice: "Who doesn't want him to enter the court?"

Yang Zhong and Yang Biao were both silent, so it was definitely not Zhao Yan. Instead, it was Zhao Yan who actively pushed Zheng Xuan to enter the court.

Langya is located in the north of Xuzhou and is connected to Beihai. Among the disciples Zheng Xuan brought to the court, there were many people from Langya.

Yang Biao felt suffocated, so he took out Yuan Shao's handwritten letter and handed it to Yang Qi. "Brother, this is Yuan Benchu's response. He wrote that he felt deeply ashamed to serve in the same class as Zhao Yuansi. If the imperial envoy were to go to Yecheng to pay homage, he would naturally decline. I think if Zhao Yuansi could write privately to establish a relationship, there might be some hope."

Sensing that Yang Biao was still somewhat naive, Yang Qi smiled, but without any smile on his face. "How can you and I convince Zhao Yuansi to submit to Yuan Shao? Zhao Yuansi is in his prime. Yuan Shao's refusal to write to him to establish a relationship is already very rude in the eyes of this child. Wenxian, do you still want to persuade him?"

He handed Yuan Shao's handwritten letter to Yang Zhong, which he had casually glanced at. "Since Yuan Shao is so resolute, we will wait and see how the two of them fight at Shangdang."

A fight between these two people would also be beneficial to the court.

If Zhao Ji wins, he will go to Zhao Yan and send a concubine to Zhao Ji.

The Zhao family will agree, they will not refuse the friendship of the Yang family.

Originally, Yang Qi was still very principled, but Zheng Xuan died on the way to the court, so he had to be cautious.

Compared with Guandong, Zhao Ji was already kind enough to them.

Even the rebellious soldiers of Li Jue and Guo Si, when they were fighting with bloodshot eyes, only killed the Nine Ministers and never killed them.

Life is so difficult, and having a strong son-in-law or grandson-in-law means having one more way out.

I believe that the clan members and the villagers can also understand it.

Compared with Zhao Ji, Yuan Shao and Cao Cao really dared to kill the Yang family.

(End of this chapter)