I did it all for the Han Dynasty!

Chapter 164 Is it possible that Liu Miao was truly a loyal minister?
Upon hearing Zhang Xun's plan, Yuan Shu finally managed to suppress his anger.

"No! If we can capture him alive, we must bring Liu Miao to my side!"

How could killing Liu Miao possibly quell the hatred in my heart?
Yuan Shu glanced at the silk scroll he had thrown on the ground and snorted coldly, "Bring me a pen! I want to ask him how many of his words were sincere!"

It was Han Yin who delivered the letter to Liu Miao.

Unlike his previous eagerness, Han Yin kept a cold face after handing the letter to Liu Miao, not even glancing at him.

"Brother Han, why do you ignore your foolish younger brother?"

Han Yin glanced at him sideways: "You still consider me your elder brother?"

"I will never forget Brother Han's help in the past!"

As he had done before, Liu Miao treated Han Yin with the same courtesy, placing the fattest meats on Han Yin's plate, serving him the sweetest wine, and presenting him with the most precious gifts. He showed no prejudice against Han Yin because of the difference in their social standing.

Seeing that Liu Miao still insisted on cutting his own flesh, Han Yin sadly grabbed Liu Miao's hand: "Zhongshan! You didn't say that to me before!"

"You clearly said that His Majesty is ordained by Heaven! You clearly said that he is ordained by Heaven and will live a long and prosperous life! Have you forgotten all of this?"

Liu Miao did not show any embarrassment or awkwardness, but immediately shook his head: "I just say some drunken things in my daily life, how could Brother Han take it seriously? If you took it seriously, that's fine, but how could you tell the General of the Rear?"

"Zhongshan! How could you do this!"

Liu Miao simply placed a cup of wine in front of Han Yin.

The movement was so large that the hops inside were stirred up and bounced onto the table.

"Brother Han, I'm not just making excuses."

"If General Yuan is truly the chosen one, then as soon as he ascends the throne, the whole country should be at peace! Wouldn't Liu Bei, Lü Bu, Cao Cao, and others all bow down in obeisance?"

"Brother Han knows that I, Liu Miao, am not a capable person. If the general were to declare himself emperor and truly command the submission of the feudal lords, would I, Liu Miao, be the one to be an outcast and oppose the general?"

"But what about now? None of the various warlords are willing to submit to General Yuan! Put yourself in his shoes, if you were me, would you follow the general at this time?"

Han Yin was furious: "Zhongshan, what do you mean? Are you going to blame everything on me and His Majesty?"

"That's right, the blame is on you."

Liu Miao's face was flushed from drinking: "If General Hou is truly the chosen one, worthy of the world's respect, then why should I, Liu Miao, be fighting him here?"

"Brother Han, now that General Hou has had his fill of being emperor, why not have him quickly relinquish the title and then submit a letter to the emperor to apologize? Perhaps that can preserve the reputation of the Yuan family of Runan!"

"Liu Miao! You scoundrel!"

"Brother Han, think about it yourself, and you'll know whether I'm saying this to anger you or truly for your and General Hou's good!"

"Humph!"

Han Yin angrily snatched the letter: "Farewell forever!!!"

Upon returning to Yuan Shu's camp, Han Yin presented Liu Miao's letter, and Yuan Shu inquired of Han Yin, "What did Liu Miao say to you?"

Han Yin relayed Liu Miao's words to Yuan Shu, who, as expected, also let out a cold snort!
"Bright words!"

Upon opening Liu Miao's letter, Yuan Shu let out a soft exclamation.

This time, the letter Liu Miao sent was no longer written on expensive white silk, but on paper.

Since the reign of Emperor He, Cai Lun had improved papermaking technology, but it was not convenient for writing.

It wasn't until Zuo Bo from Yexian County, Donglai, improved the paper that it became a prized item for scholars and writers, and gradually became more widespread. For example, the great Confucian scholar Cai Yong would "never put pen to paper other than Zuo Bo's when writing."

Yuan Shu naturally recognized paper, but because of the Han dynasty nobility's preference for silk and satin books, he did not like to write on it. Other warlords were also often of noble birth and did not like to use paper to write letters to him, so this was the first time Yuan Shu had received a letter written on paper.

Liu Miao's sudden switch to writing on paper was certainly not to flaunt his wealth. After all, white silk was far more valuable than paper, and to flaunt his wealth in front of Yuan Shu would be truly presumptuous.

The reason for switching to paper was that Liu Miao wrote an unusually large number of letters to Yuan Shu this time! Several thick sheets of Xuan paper were crammed with tiny characters, and at a rough glance, there were probably as many as ten thousand words!
Even the Analects, written by sages, is only 12,000 characters long, yet Liu Miao was able to write a letter of 10,000 characters. This made Yuan Shu curious: "What is Liu Zhongshan up to?"

However, Yuan Shu was currently in the army waiting for the upstream dam to be built to store water, and since he had nothing else to do, he started reading the long letter Liu Miao had written to him.

At first, Yuan Shu thought it was just some nonsense written by Liu Miao, so he didn't read it carefully.

But after glancing at it twice, Yuan Shu frowned slightly.

The contents of this letter are not the same as those previous ones, which were devoid of any substance.

Quite the opposite.

This was actually a piece of advice directed at Yuan Shu!

In his letter, Liu Miao began by writing, “General, your birth was the envy of everyone. Back then, apart from Marquis Shi and Marquis Dong, probably no young man in the world could be more wealthy than you. So why are you now trapped between the Huai and Liang rivers, feeling frustrated and unfulfilled?”

Liu Miao meticulously analyzed Yuan Shu's rise to power, detailing each event and suggesting potentially better ways for Yuan Shu to handle the situation at the time.

For example, when the former general He Jin was murdered by the eunuchs, Yuan Shu directly set fire to the palace, forcing Duan Gui and others to lead Emperor Liu Bian and Prince Liu Xie of Chenliu to Xiaopingjin, where they eventually encountered Dong Zhuo...

In his letter, Liu Miao advised, "Wasn't there a better solution back then? If you had discussed it with the Empress Dowager and allowed yourself to enter the palace, wouldn't you have been able to easily succeed He Jin and become a powerful figure second only to the emperor?"

Later, when Yuan Shu attacked Dong Zhuo, he listened to slander and feared that Sun Jian would be unable to control Luoyang after taking it, so he cut off Sun Jian's supplies. This caused Sun Jian to miss the opportunity to fight, allowing Dong Zhuo to escape to Chang'an, and the allied forces gained almost nothing...

In his letter, Liu Miao further advised: "If you had trusted Sun Jian back then and marched with him to capture Luoyang and kill Dong Zhuo, wouldn't you now be a pillar of the restoration of the Han Dynasty?"

Including later events such as sending Sun Jian to attack Liu Biao but dying in Jingzhou, attacking Cao Cao but having his rear blocked, and the recent hasty declaration of himself as emperor, Liu Miao provided the optimal solutions in his letter!

Finally, Liu Miao said, "I have always believed that with your background and abilities, you will eventually become a hero who will pacify the world. But why have things come to this? I am truly baffled. I hope you can think about this carefully and answer my questions."

Ten thousand words.

It's long, but actually very short; you can finish reading it in a short while.

It's actually quite long, as it almost covers the entire life of Yuan Shu.

After reading it, Yuan Shu was speechless for a long time. After a while, he burst into tears and almost fell over because he couldn't stand up straight!
"I regret that I did not meet Zhongshan sooner."

"I think... Zhongshan still thinks of me, doesn't he?"

Zhang Xun: "???"

Qiao Rui: "???"

Han Yin: "??????"

Yuan Shu held the letter in his hand, examining it repeatedly, over and over again…

In fact, Lu Su was by Liu Miao's side when Liu Miao wrote this letter.

Even the answers to many of the above questions were not Liu Miao's ideas, but rather Lu Su's own interpretation of Yuan Shu's situation, using the "hindsight Lu Zijing" approach to deduce the optimal solution at the time.

After helping Liu Miao finish writing this long letter of ten thousand words, Lu Su asked in bewilderment, "Why did our lord write such a letter to Yuan Shu?"

“Every piece of advice here represents a mistake that Yuan Shu actually made. If Yuan Shu were to change according to our lord’s words, then I’m afraid…”

"Zijing is overthinking it!"

Liu Miao flexed his wrist, which ached from writing for so long: "Zijing, do you know what the most painful thing in life is?"

Lu Su guessed, "No clothes or food? No relatives or friends?"

"It's regret."

Liu Miao spread out the papers and waited for the ink stains on them to dry.

"Now that Yuan Shu has declared himself emperor, he must be living a good life."

"If I'm not mistaken, Yuan Shu must still have the leisure to listen to music, watch dances, and live a carefree life."

At this moment, Liu Miao even envied Yuan Shu's carefree nature.

"But he probably doesn't realize that it is because of him that countless people in the Han Dynasty have suffered undeserved calamities."

“Those common people are either still suffering from hunger and cold, or they have long since passed away... yet Yuan Shu can still live such a carefree life. Zijing, do you think this is fair?”

"Moreover, given Yuan Shu's personality, even if you tell him all this, he won't care, and he won't feel guilty... To those aristocratic families, ordinary people are just waste materials, and no matter how many die, it's just a number."

"In that case, I will tell him all the decisions he made in the past that could have changed his fate, so that Yuan Shu will be constantly filled with regret for the past from now on, and he will never be carefree again."

Although Liu Miao was somewhat exhausted, his eyes still shone brightly.

Sure enough! People never get tired of doing bad things!
The thought that Yuan Shu would be so anxious about this letter that he couldn't sleep every night made Liu Miao genuinely happy!
"As for correcting his ways... if it were before he became emperor, he might have had a chance to correct his ways, but he has already blocked his own way out, so how could he correct his ways?"

"By the way, this also buys us some time; I've had a bad feeling about this lately."

Liu Miao looked at the sky, where the sun, which he hadn't seen for several days, was hidden behind the clouds.

On the fifth day of the first lunar month, as Liu Miao was walking out of his tent as usual, a drop of water hit him hard on the tip of his nose.

Liu Miao's expression instantly turned serious, losing its usual composure.

It's raining in Guangling!

　Wishing all high school students taking the college entrance examination the best of luck! I would also like to thank Yanbao Dawang, as well as my readers Yao Xipai, Feixiang de Dante, Ying Ziqing, and Sofa Li for their generous donations. Thank you!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)