Chapter 648 Cao Cao
Two thousand brave warriors appeared in Luoyang City like the wind.
Then on an ordinary morning, the sun rose and the morning light shone, and these brave warriors left here again like the wind.
There were many carriages in the horse team. Naturally, they carried not only Diao Chan, but also Cai Yong and his little daughter who was less than ten years old, as well as many collections of books, mainly those rare and very valuable books, all of which had to be taken to Zhaocheng.
Naturally, they did not wear armor during the march. Their tied hair was blown back by the wind, revealing their capable faces.
Many scholars from the Imperial Academy called their friends to come and see, as this might be the only chance in their life to see a brave warrior.
Diao Chan lifted the curtain of the carriage and looked at the city where she had lived for many years but had never taken a good look at it. She didn't know if she would be able to return here in the future.
The scholars in Luoyang City only felt a flash before their eyes, and then they saw a woman who was as beautiful as if she had walked out of a painting leaving, causing waves of restlessness and exclamations.
Luo Shu led the brave warriors out of Luoyang, looking at the towering city in front of them and listening to the surging sound of the Luo River. All the Luo family members and brave warriors dismounted from their horses. Diao Chan looked at this scene with some curiosity.
Everyone knelt on one knee facing Luoyang and Luoshui, with their hands crossed and their heads lowered. Luo Shu raised his hands high above his head, while the others pressed them on their chests with solemn expressions.
Diao Chan immediately knew what these people were going to do. This was a gesture of praising the emperor that had been passed down since ancient times and was the oldest of all the ways of praising the emperor.
She hurriedly got off the carriage, not caring about the dust on the ground, and knelt on the ground with her head bowed and her hands folded in front of her chest. Her posture was very standard.
Luo Shu saw this scene out of the corner of his eye and smiled barely perceptiblely.
"The spirit of the Su King is in heaven!"
Luo Shu's voice was like thunder, and then thousands of people shouted in unison, shocking the people gathered in Luoyang City.
Countless people heard this chanting voice, looked at each other in bewilderment, then knelt on the ground like a tide, and scattered voices rang out, "Su Wang is above."
After so many years, except for special sacrifices, even the words of praise were gradually shortened to four words, but in the end they were unified into one cry: "The spirit of the Su King is in heaven!"
"The glory shines upon Shen Luoyang!"
The brave warriors sang a complete hymn to the emperor, which shocked the people of Luoyang a little before they mounted their horses. Diao Chan stood up from the ground and gently brushed the dust off her knees.
Luo Shu walked up to Diao Chan and asked with a smile: "Miss Diao Chan, do you know why you have to do this?"
"ah?"
Diao Chan's cold little face was full of surprise when she heard this. Isn't this the fixed procedure of the Luo family?
Then she suddenly remembered that according to the rumors, the Luo family usually would not sing a whole hymn of praise. The line "The spirit of the Su King is in heaven, and his glorious name will last for thousands of years" was enough.
She thought of the words "The glory shines on Shen Luoyang" again, and her eyes lit up like moonlight as she asked, "Is it to warn the people in the city not to destroy Luoyang?"
Luo Shu smiled but his voice was chilling, "If someone really wants to destroy Luoyang, they can't be stopped. This is to tell everyone that if they destroy Luoyang, they should wait for Luo's revenge."
Now there is a very realistic problem. The Luo family is very strong, but many people don’t know how strong the Luo family is, and the Luo family cannot tell others how strong the Luo family is. So some people think that the Luo family is very strong, some people think that the Luo family is just so-so, some people are in awe, and some people don’t care.
Diao Chan heard the murderous intent in Luo Shu's words, and then saw Luo Shu regain his gentle and elegant demeanor and said, "Miss, please get in the car. We are ready to return to Zhaocheng."
Diao Chan nodded and got on the carriage.
…
"Luo is gone?"
This question was raised in many places in Luoyang City.
There are countless meanings in this question. Some people breathed a sigh of relief, some sighed slightly, and some began to feel fear.
In the palace, Luo Kong listened to the faint chanting and followed along to finish singing. When everything was over, he stood up and thought about what he could do.
Of course he did not want to sit in the palace waiting to die, but the palace was now mainly controlled by Dong Zhuo, and 70% of the palace guards were Dong Zhuo's men. Even the emperor's guards, although wearing the clothes of the imperial guards, were basically Dong Zhuo's Xiliang Army.
The remaining 30% were the original imperial guards, and the Taiping Army led by Bu Cai and others were also among them. Although their power could not be compared with Dong Zhuo's Xiliang, it was impossible for them to completely abandon Empress Dowager He and the emperor.
"The Taiping Army and Yuan Shao's Army are the key to solving the current problem. If Wenhe were here now, he would definitely be able to come up with a way to make a small profit with a big one."
Luo Kong thought hard, hoping to find an opportunity that flashed by in this anxious state.
…
Not all of the loyal princes at that time were able to make a comeback as quickly as Yuan Shao. Cao Cao was even worse off than Liu Bei, and he fled with his brothers to his hometowns in Yanzhou and Yuzhou.
Yanzhou and Yuzhou are also populous states, not much inferior to Jizhou. Although they have experienced more wars than Jizhou, the time span is not very long, and most importantly, there is no large-scale epidemic, so Yuzhou and Yanzhou have great potential for war.
Cao Cao's visit to the throne destroyed a lot of the Cao and Xiahou families' assets, but the families' support for Cao Cao did not decrease.
After all, Cao Cao was not the only one who failed. As long as he could gain reputation in this campaign to support the king, he would have everything in this world if he had reputation.
The war between Yuzhou and Yanzhou has never stopped.
The Lanling Xiao family and the Huaiyin Han family are both in Xuzhou, and the Xinzheng Zhang family is no longer in these two states. These three families are busy suppressing bandits in their own areas. Only Ying Hou is suppressing the banditry in Yuzhou and Yanzhou, which seems to be a single-handed effort.
It was not until Luoyang gradually settled down that the situation in the world seemed to gradually become clear.
The bandits in various places felt that the imperial court seemed to have freed up their hands, and they became increasingly frightened and uneasy. More and more of them were subdued by the imperial court, and the rebellions between these states and counties seemed to be showing signs of being put down.
Qiao County.
Cao Cao returned to his hometown, and all the elders of his clan attended this extremely important meeting to discuss the family's future business for the next few decades.
The first question is whether the family should simply be a noble family, or continue to be princes!
Being a member of the gentry is relatively safe. At most, the family power will decline, but generally the whole family will not be wiped out. Being a prince means turning the family into a country. The benefits gained will increase dramatically, but the risks will also increase greatly.
Even so, which family doesn't want to turn their family into a country?
The emperor of the Han Dynasty lost his throne, which suddenly ignited the flame of ambition in the hearts of countless people.
How could there be no emperor in the world ruled by God?
The Han Dynasty did not state that it had lost its destiny, so no one knew who would bear the fate of the Han Dynasty.
"Meng De, what do you think?"
In the end, the problem fell on Cao Cao. As the most outstanding child in the family, children of this level could no longer be controlled by the opinions of the clan elders. Instead, the clan elders had to cooperate with these children to do things.
Cao Cao pondered for a moment, then said decisively: "Of course we want to be princes. Our Cao family has always been hovering between the powerful and the aristocratic.
If you want to be a noble family now, you will always have to follow other families and eat leftovers.
During the early Han Dynasty, the family was very prominent in Qiao State. However, there was a great chaos at the end of the early Han Dynasty, Qiao State was turned into a county, the King of Qiao was stripped of his title, and the family fell into decline.
If we don't dare to fight for wealth even in troubled times, then for the next hundred years, we will still be a third-rate family like we are now.
No matter how rich and well-stocked you are, you will still be looked down upon by others. If you can become a vassal, you will be able to turn your life around overnight.
Even if we fail, as long as we get through the most dangerous stage, it will be a leap forward for the family’s reputation.”
Cao Cao's words made everyone nod their heads. That was the truth. Fighting for the world was naturally an extremely dangerous thing, but once it was accomplished, one could instantly become the number one family in the world.
In the pre-Han period, there was a saying that "Luo and Liu share the world."
This sentence praises both the Luo family and the Liu family. On the surface, it talks about the great power of the Luo family, but in fact it is also secretly elevating the status of the Liu family.
Yuan Shu called himself Zhong because he felt that after excluding the Luo family, the Yuan family was the most prominent one besides the Liu family. This shows the nobility of the royal family's surname.
Moreover, even if they fail, as long as the one who conquers the world is not a mortal enemy, the family's reputation will also rise, and it will not be a problem for them to get a high position in the new dynasty.
There is no habit of wiping out competitors yet.
"Since you have decided to become a vassal, you must choose a good place to start your army."
No one had any objection to Cao Cao's decision. Cao was in a position where he was neither good nor bad, and there were not many choices he could make.
"The place we choose to start our army should be easy to defend but difficult to attack. Otherwise, even a brave man like King Xiang would be exhausted in the process of traveling. Xuzhou is a place surrounded by enemies and has no natural barriers, so it is not an option."
Xuzhou was a place that military strategists would fight for, but simply occupying Xuzhou would mean certain death. There were enemies on all sides, and Xuzhou had no other mountains or rivers to block its path except for a small mountain in the core area. Cao Cao was the first one to be eliminated.
“Qingzhou is a good place to go. It was once the territory of Qi State. It is close to the sea and has a prosperous business.
The only drawback is that it is too chaotic now, and the Lu family has too deep roots in Qingzhou. The family has no connections there, so it can’t get in.”
The most crucial part of this passage is the last sentence. In this era, it is difficult to make any progress without disciples and old officials, and without good friends and relatives. It is obvious that the power of the Cao family has not yet expanded to Qingzhou.
"We have no chance in Jizhou. Yuan Shao is there and we can't possibly win over him. Youzhou and Bingzhou are even more impossible. They are the territories of the border counties and families. We, the powerful nobles in the Central Plains, can't possibly get involved."
Cao Cao sighed and said, "Is it really Yuzhou and Yanzhou?"
He recalled the scenes when he fled to Yuzhou and Yanzhou, and said directly: "If I have to choose one of these two states, I will choose Yanzhou.
But Yanzhou was also a place surrounded by wars. Before it developed, it would probably have to rely on Yuan Shao for survival for a long time.
Yuan Shao must hate Yuan Shu very much. If I can really occupy one or two counties and develop myself, I will probably be the one facing Yuan Shu’s sharp edge.”
The elder of the family laughed and said, "This is nothing. In the early Zhou Dynasty, Jin and Chu fought for hegemony in the Central Plains. I don't know how many countries in the Central Plains depended on these two countries and Luo for survival.
It is even unknown how many wars were supported by these three countries behind the scenes. For example, if it were not for the support of Luo State, how could Wu State have persisted for so many years against Chu State.
Although hundreds of years have passed, these things will not change. Accept Yuan Shao's assistance and attack Yuan Shu for Yuan Shao.
If the benefits given by Yuan Shu are sufficient, it is normal for them to turn around and attack Yuan Shao.
What else is there between the princes?
It is said that during the Zhou Dynasty, the princes formed alliances in the morning and betrayed each other in the evening. When I was studying, I thought that these people were really untrustworthy, but now it seems that we have not reached that level yet. "
Cao Cao frowned slightly when he heard this and said, "It's still not true. The situation during the Zhou Dynasty was quite different from now. Righteousness was the most important thing in the world, but at that time it was purely a struggle for hegemony.
Whenever possible, we should try to maintain our own credibility and not break our alliances easily.
Yanzhou is a populous state, and each county has a large population. The power of the family varies in each county. I would like to ask the elders to choose a county with abundant resources such as food and grass for the family. "
As Cao Cao said this, he also began to search for possible connections in his mind to see if there was anyone who could help him.
…
With the support of his family's power, Cao Cao was making intensive preparations to build up his power again. After parting with Gongsun Zan, Liu Bei's army finally arrived in Qingzhou.
Coming all the way from Youzhou, Liu Bei discovered that Qingzhou was indeed quite chaotic. Every time there was a war in the world, there was always a big commotion in Qingzhou.
"Brother, what should we do now?"
Liu Bei touched the things Luo Kong had given him in his arms, as well as the letter he had asked for from Marquis Ying, and said in a deep voice, "I came to Qingzhou with only one goal, which is to develop and expand our power and use Qingzhou as a base. To achieve this, the easiest way is to gain the support of the Lu family.
He first gradually defeated the Qingzhou bandits, gathered their followers, and finally rescued Marquis Lu and Duke Qi, gaining the support of these two families.
With these two families taking the lead, we will be able to gain the support of some of the Qingzhou gentry.
With the support of the Qingzhou nobles, we will have a base and will no longer be a wandering army. Only then can we talk about the future. "
Liu Bei's plan was very clear, and everyone agreed with it, especially Guan, Zhang and Zhao. The battlefield was the destination of these thousands of enemies, and the sharp blades in their hands were already thirsting for blood!
(End of this chapter)
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