Three Kingdoms

I have to say that Cao Cao chose the timing of his action this time relatively well.

The situation that the children of Jizhou gentry are now facing is to choose to support or betray Cao Cao.

Especially after Cao Cao had just promoted a group of Jizhou disciples headed by Cui Yan, this situation became quite subtle.

On the one hand, the children of the Jizhou gentry have gained certain benefits from Cao Cao's promotion to prime minister. On the other hand, these people also felt fear during the process of the Yingchuan officials being investigated and executed. This made the children of Jizhou start to hesitate, not knowing what they should do is the most correct thing.

In fact, Jizhou is not peaceful at this moment.

The war in Youzhou in the north has not been completely subsided. There are still many people who have moved south. There are also refugees in Qingzhou and Xuzhou in the east. The number of people pouring into Jizhou is no longer a small number. The counties in Jizhou are busy resettling these refugees. On the other hand, they are also busy with the autumn harvest, and at the same time, they have to organize the land to prevent plague. Officials at all levels are actually very busy.

For these officials in Jizhou, they do not have various types of instruction manuals on hand. They often rely on personal experience and family inheritance to do things. Therefore, things progress slowly and there are collisions from time to time. Understand the current situation faced by Jizhou officials.

For them, what Jizhou needs most now is stability, not rekindling the war, let alone easily getting involved in the quagmire of Yingchuan.

Therefore, most officials in Jizhou tend to watch the fire from the other side. As long as Cao Cao's fire does not come to Jizhou, then everyone will still be good comrades and good friends, and there will not be any extra "sense of justice" just because we are all nobles.

Cao Cao chose this time to launch, obviously after careful consideration. With his current strength, it is obviously impossible to completely defeat the Yingchuan system. His real purpose may still be for money and power.

In other words, this is one of the important purposes.

Although Cao Cao and Fei Qian have a temporary truce, everyone knows that the situation in Shandong and Shanxi cannot remain in such a stalemate forever. Although it is a confrontation stage, the gap between Shandong and Shanxi is evolving over time.

Obviously, for Cao Cao, only centralization, a high degree of centralization, can he have a way to fight Fei Qian.

This is recognized by everyone.

And if he were in Cao Cao's position, he would probably do the same thing.

A real man should never be without power for a day.

Therefore, it is not uncommon for Cao Cao to fall out.

In the past few years, although the Yingchuan Party has provided significant support to Cao Cao, Cao Cao has also been restricted within the framework of Yingchuan. No matter what he wants to do, he is always short of money and food. Even to resist the attack of Jiangdong soldiers, we need to consider the influence of Yingchuan and other powerful places. It is quite difficult for the ambitious Cao Cao to endure until today.

In Jizhou, the people headed by Cui Yan can obviously see this clearly. Although they also face the risk of being suppressed by Cao Cao after he controls Yingchuan, after all, this risk is in the future, and the current situation is The benefits freed up after the Yingchuan faction was suppressed are immediate.

What's more, it is obviously impossible for Cao Cao to continue such high pressure for long, otherwise it will harm the spring plowing of the next year. By then, he will be short of money, food, and people. On the one hand, he must resist Fei Qian's invasion, and on the other hand, there is Youzhou to the north. There is Jiangdong in the south. How many days can it be sustained with just the little money accumulated before?

If Cao Cao still wants to invade Jizhou, it will obviously be more difficult and dangerous for Cao Cao now. Therefore, Cao Cao obviously has only one choice, which is to rely on the people in Jizhou to suppress Yuzhou, and then wait for the people in Yingchuan to obey before he can move towards Jizhou. People show their claws. Therefore, for people in Jizhou, now that they know Cao Cao's strategy, they can respond and prepare early.

At that time, what advantage can Cao Cao take?

You must know that when Yuan Shao wanted to conquer Jizhou, even Zang Hong made Yuan Shao disgraced, and then he could only let it go...

Also, didn't Cao Cao want to take action against the people in Jizhou last time?

What was the result? Wasn't it pushed back?

This can only mean that Jizhou has more bones, while those in Yingchuan, Yuzhou are weak...

Under this guiding ideology, some people in Jizhou even felt that Cao Cao's move this time was a good thing for the purge of Yingchuan officials in Yuzhou. And I am very eager for the vacant position, and I think it is a good opportunity to take advantage of it.

But at the same time, some people expressed a certain degree of vigilance, saying that others did not understand Cao Cao, and it was simply a dream to hope that Cao Cao would stop.

Cao Cao will definitely deal with Yingchuan and then turn around to deal with Jizhou!

Therefore, we cannot take a step back at all, and we must join forces with the people of Yingchuan to fight against Cao Cao!

But those who are alert are always in the minority. Most people prefer to lie flat.

The reason why opinions cannot be unified is that personnel cannot be unified.

Because now the people in Jizhou have dispersed...

With Cui Yan being stranded in Yuzhou and Li Pan and others arriving in Yanzhou, the close relationship between the people in Jizhou was naturally different from the previous close relationship.

"Prime Minister Cao will definitely not do this!" "Someone seemed to be defending Cao Cao, but also seemed to be reassuring himself, "Youzhou has suffered great disasters in the past few years. Now it is not self-sufficient. It needs money and food support from Jizhou. If there is a slight change in Jizhou, Youzhou will definitely be shaken! If the state is lost, Jizhou will have no barrier!"

"To take a step back, even if Prime Minister Cao rectifies the officialdom, it is just a formality, nothing more! The world is uncertain. If Yingchuan is lost, how can we compete with Guanzhong? 』

In the eyes of these people, they are relatively optimistic. Moreover, these people believe that if they speak up for Yingchuan at this time or do something, they may fall into Cao Cao's "treacherous plot."

Or it could be the "treacherous plot" of the Yingchuan people.

Yingchuan itself has made enough money in the past few years, and a little blood is not a big deal.

If the people of Jizhou go to support Yingchuan in Yuzhou, Cao Cao may have no choice but to be forced to stop. This will be of no benefit to Jizhou and will only make Cao Cao hate Jizhou even more. Therefore, the best way at the moment is to let Cao Cao and the Yingchuan people fight. It is best to have a close fight, and then the Jizhou people can take the opportunity to take over.

Unlike these people who feel that the matter has nothing to do with them, Xing Yong and Tian Chou are undoubtedly relatively calm people...

"If we don't take any action, it will be too late..." Xing Yong said.

Tian Chou shook his head and sighed: "I'm afraid it's already too late!" In order to rectify Yuzhou's officialdom, Prime Minister Cao must prepare more soldiers to prevent chaos, but these additional soldiers also need to eat food and grass! The autumn harvest of Yingchuan in Yuzhou has been damaged, and the number of soldiers has increased. Where does this money and food come from? It must be from Jizhou! Now, although Prime Minister Cao once ordered to transfer grain and grass to Jizhou, Yingchuan is stable..."

"Prime Minister Cao must have known clearly that if he wanted to obtain money and food from Jizhou, he would not be able to do so by just relying on words. He is recruiting soldiers for Yingchuan now, but also for the sake of increasing Jizhou in the future! The matter of money and food is an important weapon of the country, how can it be left in the hands of others? 』

Xing Yong pondered for a moment, then nodded and said, "It's true. I want to use money and food to threaten the court... Haha, now the backlash is coming... It's coming..."

"Now that Prime Minister Cao is angry, I'm afraid..."

The two looked at each other, then sighed in unison.

"Now if you want to avoid losses for Jizhou, I'm afraid you have to make peace with Prime Minister Cao first..." Xing Yong said, and then his eyes slanted to the side, "Or maybe..."

Tian Chou was silent for a while, "There's something wrong." 』

Slightly inappropriate.

The slightest clue is that the new Tianzheng implemented in Guanzhong is, so even if you vote in Guanzhong, is it possible to escape the knife from the other side?

Tian Chou and Xing Yong looked at each other and sighed.

Today's predicament is not the same as that of Yuan Shao's time, but it is somewhat related.

At that time, because of the northern expedition to Youzhou, the repeated failures and repeated requisitions of money and food caused people in Jizhou to complain, and in the later period, there was inevitably a lot of rift between him and Yuan Shao. You know, when Yuan Shao first arrived in Jizhou, almost everyone in the city greeted him!

If we discuss it carefully, we can write a more or less touching poem about why we fell in love with each other at first, and then ended up hating each other...

Therefore, there is still two words, benefit.

The reason why Cao Cao is more bullish now, or the reason why he is more daring to be ruthless than Yuan Shao, is because Cao Cao has more field soldiers than Yuan Shao did at the time.

Field soldiers are not a rare thing. Before the hussar generals were created on a large scale, sages had already taken the first step in the early Han Dynasty. It's just that at that time, most of the field soldiers were concentrated on the border.

It was precisely because of this difference that Cao Cao had the courage to fall out with the Yingchuan gentry and rectify his officialdom. However, Yuan Shao could only endure it because at that time, most of Yuan Shao's sources of money and food had to rely on a single, traditional The Jizhou gentry system was provided.

The soldiers in the field dispersed the authority of the traditional farming and manor owners...

And this dispersion of authority, just like the current dispersion of the people of Jizhou, cannot have such a rapid rallying effect on the Yingchuan matter.

Now Xing Yong and Tian Chou feel that not only Jizhou, but also the entire Shandong, including Yuzhou, has reached a point of no return. Anyone who takes a step back will fall off the cliff, and the best way is to work together to overcome it. Move forward with the pressure from Guanzhong, but...

They can’t get along again!

From a certain perspective, maybe Cao Cao also saw this and found a way to integrate and eliminate those guys in the queue who only thought about themselves.

Tian Chou thought of this and suddenly trembled, "What if... what if... all the things happening now are all calculated by Prime Minister Cao?" ! 』

Xing Yong was startled for a moment, "What do you mean by this?" 』

……(⊙o⊙)(O_O)?……

On the other side, Chen Qun in Ye City also said to his disciple Chen Guang: "This is the lord's strategy..."

Chen Qun can think of what most people think of, but what Chen Qun thinks of may not be possible of most people.

There are some differences in people's visual angles.

Maybe some people just saw the corrupt officials in Yingchuan and felt that they deserved to be killed, so they shouted "good" and cheered.

But some people saw Yuzhou from Yingchuan, and then saw Jizhou, and felt that Yingchuan was not only Yingchuan, but also the future of Jizhou.

However, Chen Qun saw something more profound.

Just like this time, when he dealt with Lu Hong, he did not take action himself, but used Xia Houyuan.

That wandering Taoist priest was not actually a real Taoist priest, but Xia Houyuan's concubine.

After all, Xia Houyuan has been in the military camp for a long time, and he has some needs. If he can solve them in this way, it is always better than letting Xia Houyuan use military expenses to take a bath... uh, or go to a brothel to drink wine, right?

At least the concubine belongs to Xia Houyuan. No matter how you calculate it, he used his own money to replenish the value... Well, it is entertainment, although such entertainment is not very suitable in the military camp.

Therefore, Xia Houyuan was naturally very angry about Lu Hong's investigation of the "Wandering Taoist Priest".

Unfortunately, even after Lu Hong left, the problem still has not been completely solved.

Leaves fall, swirl, then rise and fall.

Just like the current situation.

"Domestic dolphins are fat..." Chen Qun sighed.

Chen Guang tilted his head. He heard Chen Qun sigh, but he failed to connect what Chen Qun said with the scene in front of him, so he felt a little disconnected and somewhat unclear.

"It's a little early..." Chen Qun sighed again.

"..." Chen Guang became more and more confused.

Chen Qun was silent for a while, then stood up, took out a wrapped envelope, put it on the desk, pressed it gently with his hand, stayed silent for a while, and then pushed it in the direction of Chen Guang .

Chen Guang's eyes widened, "Brother, this is..."

"This is the seal..." Chen Qun said slowly.

Normally, there is direct delivery from Yecheng to Xu County.

But this time, Chen Qun wanted Chen Guang to send him off in person.

Because Chen Qun is worried that the post station is not qualified, bah, there is no way to deliver it...

Especially after seeing Lu Hong sniffing around like a mad dog, Chen Qun became more and more worried. If the mad dog could not be restrained properly, something would happen sooner or later.

Chen Guang's eyes fell on the watch seal, "Brother, is this an impeachment... about School Lu?" 』

These days, Lu Hong is hanging around Yecheng with a chicken feather and everyone is annoyed. It seems natural for Chen Qun to impeach Lu Hong.

Chen Qun smiled, but shook his head, "School Lu has done his duty well, what's the mistake?" Why impeach him? 』

"..." Although Chen Guang said nothing, there was some doubt in his eyes. Although I'm not as smart as you, brother, you can't fool me either.

Chen Qun said warmly: "It is indeed not about impeaching School Lu..."

"That's..." Chen Guang became curious.

Chen Qun stroked his beard and looked a little solemn.

Others think Fei Qian is a major threat to Cao Cao. Is it possible that Cao Cao himself doesn't know? In order to compete with Fei Qian, Cao Cao's side must overcome various difficulties, join forces to fight against Guanzhong, and reduce internal noise to a minimum.

So although Yingchuan is an important pillar supporting Cao Cao, is this pillar so pure?

Obviously not. Among Yingchuan, there are conscientious people and there are also corrupt and corrupt people.

Normally speaking, although Cao Cao is very suspicious, he is still very tolerant towards ordinary people. If it is a talent, he is willing to use it. If it is a dolphin dog, as long as it is not in the way, Cao Cao is too lazy to pay attention to it. Even if these dolphin dogs whine, Cao Cao will not care. Can pretend not to hear.

Just like Xu You back then, who tried to commit suicide countless times, Cao Cao also laughed it off, until Xu You really touched the core of the powerful relationship.

And now, it's time for these dolphin dogs in Yingchuan to hit the red line...

There are threats in Guanzhong, and the pressure is very high. When facing major external threats, what will happen if the internal pigs and dogs are allowed to run wild?

Of course, there are many ways to control Yingchuan, Yuzhou, and even the wider Shandong region, such as alienation, differentiation, bribery, inducements, etc., which can actually cause the power of each county to collapse. They are suspicious of each other, conquer each other, and then after weakening the power of the local powerful in the counties and counties as much as possible, they can easily clean up...

But to achieve such a goal, it takes time.

Xun Yu felt that there was still time, but Cao Cao felt that there was no time...

This is the biggest contradiction between Cao Cao and Xun Yu.

Chen Qun, as the youth version of Xun Yu, can certainly see this. Xun Yu hoped that Cao Cao could take a step back, wait and endure, but Cao Cao said that he couldn't bear it anymore and had no way to retreat, so he took out a knife and sharpened it towards the dolphins and dogs.

Should I keep the disobedient dolphin dog for the New Year?

The New Year is over, will we still treat these dolphins and dogs well?

It just so happens that Cao Cao is also poor!

Just killing and eating meat can also eliminate some public anger and at the same time subsidize military expenditures.

So Chen Qun believes that Cao Cao is actually planning many things...

But now for Chen Qun, he had to do one thing.

Impeach Xun Yu.

"You need to personally deliver this memorial to Xu County for impeachment in court!" ” Chen Qun looked at Chen Guang and solemnly asked.

Chen Guang couldn't believe it, "Why?" 』

Chen Qun smiled and said: "Yingchuan... is too fat..."

Chen Guang couldn't understand, "But the accumulation of Yingchuan is also the result of the people of Yingchuan who worked hard, how could it be like this..."

Chen Qun was still very calm, "Have you ever heard of the four words, 'wealth can rival the country'?" 』

"A small amount of wealth means you are safe. If you are "wealthy enough to be the enemy of the country"... then you are the enemy of the country. ” Chen Qun said meaningfully, “Now that Yingchuan is so rich, and it boasts of being so rich, it must be like a certain Yingchuan... Haha, it’s really...”

"Now the only way to save Xun Lingjun's life is by impeaching him..." Chen Qun sighed, "If you want to win, you must first seek defeat; if you want to live, you must seek death first..."

Chen Guang still didn't quite understand what Chen Qun meant, and found it incredible, because as we all know, Chen Qun was recommended by Xun Yu, and now Chen Qun not only failed to defend Xun Yu, but also impeached Xun Yu!

Chen Qun smiled and said, "Go and do it." Set off today, don't delay. 』

"..." Chen Guang could only nod in agreement, then carefully put away Chen Qun's impeachment form against Xun Yu, then said goodbye to Chen Qun and left.