Tiger Guards

Chapter 265: Ambush

In Luodu, the nobles gathered together again.

Under the moonlight, it was obvious that none of them were in a good mood and their faces were gloomy.

Han Rong was originally sent to Hedong to invite Zhao Yan to Luo and assist in the administration.

As a result, Han Rong was persuaded by Zhao Yan and wrote a letter urging the Minister of the Interior Zhong Ji to go to Anyi to discuss politics together and participate in the administration of the Menxia Province.

Han Rong was a kind and honest elder. Dong Zhuo sent a large number of officials to persuade the heroes in Guandong to surrender, and only Han Rong saved his life.

The imperial court moved eastward, and all officials and palace ladies were captured. It was Han Rong who stepped forward to negotiate with Li Jue and demand their return.

The favor was owed to Han Rong and Li Jue, and the good words were also said by Han Rong and Li Jue.

As a result, the imperial court had only had a few days' meal when, seeing that Li Jue and Guo Si were no longer able to fight, they began to call for war and killing.

It would be fine if it were anyone else, but Han Rong was a corrupt scholar who was steeped in the classics.

Even a good person needs to save face, so he simply stayed with Zhao Yan. After all, only by staying there could he find a way to repay Li Jue's favor.

An honest elder has his own principles in life. It turns out that he had no chance and was fooled around by people like Yang Qi.

Now Zhao Yan applied to him to join the partnership, and Han Rong gladly accepted it.

So, when Zhao Ji's military order was sent to Luodu, the ministers immediately became restless.

If no action is taken, Zhao Ji will definitely deal with them if he turns around and returns to Luodu.

Things like the stablemasters and the landowners cannot be concealed for long.

Chen Ji, who had just arrived in the court, was even more frightened and felt that he was doomed.

Zhang Xi from Runan was forced to death, and Han Rong from Yingchuan fled... Who is Han Rong? He is the son of Han Shao, one of the four chiefs of Yingchuan.

Who is Chen Ji? He is the eldest son of Chen Shi, one of the four chiefs of Yingchuan.

In terms of popularity, although Chen Ji has been in opposition in recent years, his reputation is no less than Han Rong's.

Han Rong found a chance to run away, so would he stay and wait for Zhao Ji to come and knock on his leg?
Who is Zhong Yao? He is the great-grandson of Zhong Hao, one of the four chiefs of Yingchuan... Zhongli Mo's descendants are relatively long-lived and fertile. Zhong Yao was born before Zhong Hao died.

The eldest son and the eldest grandson's son have children faster, which leads to this strange situation.

The chief of the four chiefs of Yingchuan was Xun Shu, who had eight sons, known as the Eight Dragons of the Xun Clan.
In terms of age, Zhong Hao is the second of the four elders in Yingchuan. Xun Shu and Zhong Hao are of the same generation, and Chen Shi and Han Shao are of the same generation.

As for Xun You, he was from the lineage of Xun Shu's nephew and was not one of the Eight Dragons of the Xun family.

Although Xun You's grandfather Xun Tan and Xun Yuanzhi were both governors of Guangling County, and his brother Xun Yu was both prime minister of Pei but died due to party-affiliated persecution... in terms of achievements, they were higher than most of the Eight Dragons, but there was nothing they could do, as the Eight Dragons were brothers and debuted as a group.

After Xun Yu was killed, Xun Tan's official career was over. He died young due to depression, and his son also died early.

This made Xun You mature very early and become a member of the family's side branch.

The death of his cousin Xun Yu also frightened Xun Yu's father, so he arranged a marriage with Tang Heng, a fellow townsman and the eunuch, and betrothed Xun Yu to Tang Heng's daughter.

It is normal for eunuchs to have children. The official career is very tight, and many children from poor families and powerful families cannot have a normal official career. But they want to become officials to protect their clans. What should they do?
They had no choice but to cut themselves into pieces. Often they would get married and leave their children behind, then cut one piece into pieces and bring it into the palace, imitating the old deeds of Sima Gong.

Therefore, the struggle between the scholars and the eunuch party was essentially an internal struggle over imperial power.

To Tang Heng, he could not compete with the eight dragons of the Xun family in the officialdom, but he dared to cut himself; and forced the Xun family to arrange marriage, which was considered to be a new way out for the family.

The Xun family had an engagement with a Zhong Chang Shi, and the Yuan family even had a Zhong Chang Shi.

So don't expect the Xun family to have any strong family tradition. Xun You's lineage was strong enough, but his grandfather and great-uncle served as county governor and prime minister at the same time, and died one after another.

Behind Xun You's precocity and resourcefulness lies a gloomy, sensitive and dark childhood.

As things have developed to this point, among the Eight Dragons of the Xun family, the most famous Xun Yu works for Cao Cao, and Xun Yu's brother Xun Chen works for Yuan Shao. It is reasonable to dig out a descendant of the Eight Dragons of the Xun family who faked his death and changed his name from Yuan Shu's side.

Therefore, if you want to win over the people of Ruying, since Han Rong has run away, you can only focus on Chen Ji and Xun You.

Xun You's resume was impressive. He was a Huangmen Shilang appointed by General He Jin. He participated in the assassination attempt on Dong Zhuo and was imprisoned, making him a loyal and valiant official who had been tested by Dong Zhuo. He also had experience as a prime minister of Rencheng and governor of Shu. Although he never took up the positions, he had gone through the official appointment process, so these two resumes were undoubtedly good.

It wasn't surprising that Xun You, 39 years old, was appointed as one of the Nine Ministers... but he lacked the necessary experience as a Palace Attendant.

Under Zhao's new policy, the position of Shizhong was the key to the country, so it was inconvenient to give it to Xun You. It was more appropriate to directly appoint him as one of the Nine Ministers.

Just like that, under the moonlight, a group of people gathered together to discuss how to place Xun You.

Once Xun You is properly settled, the Yingchuan battlefield will be easy to resolve.

Yingchuan has been resolved, so is Runan far away?

After establishing a border with General Chen Wang, it was possible to remotely control the Chen army to participate in the encirclement and suppression of Cao Cao.

Perhaps, there is still a chance to trap Zhao Ji and force Zhao Yan and Zhao Ji to come to the court together to assist in the administration.

After experiencing the turmoil of the past six months, keeping Zhao Yan and Zhao Ji at the table to govern together may be a good thing for everyone.

Zhao Yan proved his ability to control the overall situation, and Zhao Ji also proved his ability to lead troops in battle.

They were qualified to be ministers, to run the government together with everyone else, and to share the glory of the revival of the Han Dynasty.

In this way, after discussing in the middle of the night, a decision was made: to appoint Xun You, the governor of Shu County, as the chief architect, starting from the lowest rank of minister.

Without taking a rest, he immediately notified Dong Cheng, Chunyu Qiong and Deng Ji, the General of the Central Army of Jingzhou, and ordered the entire army to march eastward to attack Cao Cao and take food from the enemy.

To suppress dissenting opinions, the emperor announced to all armies that this time, the emperor would personally lead the army. He would join forces with the ever-victorious General Zhao at Suanzao, and the combined forces would attack Cao Cao in Chenliu. Either mobilize immediately and join General Zhao in defeating Cao Cao, or General Zhao would attack you first... your choice.

After the ministers had given the generals the choice, they came to persuade the emperor to lead the army in person again.

They were confident that they could persuade the emperor, and as they expected, the emperor was very interested in leading the army in person.

Just when the ministers were actively cooperating in sending troops under the coercion of Zhao Ji, the thing Cao Cao was most worried about finally happened.

The day after Zhao Ji crossed the river, he had already entered Xingyang to rest before the battle and wait for scouts to survey the surrounding areas.

At this moment, Cao Chun was kidnapped by scouts.

Cao Chun is twenty-six years old this year. He lost his father when he was fourteen and separated from Cao Ren.

Cao Ren led his people to Jianghuai to start a business, doing business in both black and white; most of the property was left to Cao Chun. After the mourning period ended, Cao Chun was appointed as the Yellow Gate Minister at the age of eighteen. In terms of his official career, he was twenty-five years ahead of Zhao Yan.

Compared with Cao Cao, who often killed people and caused trouble, Cao Chun was more popular with all parties in the court.

Zhao Ji was very surprised. He looked at Cao Chun. Cao Chun was over seven feet tall and of average build. Apart from his good skin, his facial features were mediocre, not as strong as Han Shu's.

Cao Chun, on the other hand, was in a more miserable state, his hands tied behind his back with leather ropes. He also looked up at Zhao Ji and asked, "Are you the Minister of the Court, the Marquis of Pingyang?"

"it's me."

Zhao Ji waved his hand, and a guard walked behind Cao Chun and untied the leather rope.

Cao Chun rubbed his wrists and bowed: "I, your humble servant Cao Chun, greet Minister Zhao."

"I'm confused, why are you here?"

Zhao Ji took a sip from his water cup, narrowing his eyes as he pondered, "But is he here on Cao Cao's orders? Ding Chong attempted assassination, and Huan Dian deliberately provoked conflict... So, Huan Dian's leg injury should be healed."

"Don't dare."

Cao Chun bowed again and turned to look at a guard. "I, a guilty minister, come to the court to apologize and beg the court to forgive my brother."

The guard was holding a sword in his hand. He looked at Zhao Ji in confusion. When Zhao Ji nodded, he returned the sword to Cao Chun.

Cao Chun untied the copper ring of the scabbard and took out a piece of silk book from the bottom of the scabbard. He held it in both hands and said: "This is my brother's blood letter. I hope that the Minister will read it and forgive my brother."

Zhang Zan stepped forward, took the silk book, and handed it to Zhao Ji.

Zhao Ji flipped through the dark red blood letter. God knows what Cao Ren used to write it.

Fortunately, after reading and being influenced by a large number of official documents, he could interpret the blood letter at a glance. He looked around and said, "The blood letter is mottled, while the ink letter is neat and easy to recognize."

No one answered. Zhao Ji grabbed the blood letter and shook it. "I still suspect you're using the blood letter as a cover to spy. This is crucial to the success of the entire army. I can't believe it. I need to investigate further."

Zhao Ji turned to look at Zhang Zan and said, "Give him the brush and ink."

Then he looked at Cao Chun and said, "Write a letter of surrender for your brother, one that he can understand. I can assure you that if he can serve the court, his death sentence will be spared and his talents will be promoted. As for you, please go to Jinyang first. There is work suitable for you there."

"Here."

Cao Chun bowed deeply and went straight to the court to serve as an official... He couldn't stand such a drastic turn of events.

Soon, Cao Chun wrote a silk book of more than 500 words to persuade Cao Ren to surrender.

When Zhao Ji examined the letter of surrender, he asked, "Are you here to see me, or to enter the court to pay homage to Huan Dian?"

Cao Chun remained silent. Zhao Ji turned and asked the scout leader who had captured Cao Chun, "Did he try to escape or resist?"

"Yes, we waited for the faster horses and captured this man and his mounted guards."

Zhao Ji heard this and looked at Cao Chun again. "So it seems you are Cao Cao's spy, ordered to enter the court to contact Huan Dian, but unfortunately you were captured by our scouts. So you are lying to me, trying to escape from me by pretending to surrender."

Cao Chun remained speechless, just looking at the silk letter of surrender in Zhao Ji's hand.

Zhao Ji turned to look at Han Shu and said, "Send capable men to the court and order a thorough investigation of Huan Dian's collusion with Cao Cao. Tell them to hurry up and investigate. I can wait, but military intelligence can't."

Han Shu bowed solemnly: "Yes."

Cao Chun felt relieved when he saw that Zhao Ji was taking advantage of the situation to get rid of Huan Dian.

He has done what he can, and he can no longer take care of the rest.

Others, including himself, can only hope for the best.

As for longer-term issues, Cao Chun is no longer able to foresee or deal with them.

Watching Cao Chun being taken away, Zhao Ji held the blood letter and the letter of surrender together and stared at them in a daze.

For many things, ambushing in advance can save you a lot of trouble in the future.

For example, there is an opportunity right in front of you.

Although it is somewhat immoral, it is better than the death of hundreds or thousands of soldiers.

Cao Cao really can’t die.

Someone has to be a traitor to the country.

If Cao Cao doesn't take the position, should I take it myself?
(End of this chapter)