Chapter 234: Disloyalty
After all, Zhao Wei was not too stupid. Before trying to take any action, he went to see Liu Zhang.
But even in his indirect questioning, Liu Zhang did not tell him that there was a possibility that he would be sent to Chang'an as a hostage by his father. Zhao Wei still had a bad premonition.
Who asked Liu Zhang to tell him that the two envoys had mentioned two things to him.
One of them was that Liu Qi, the son of Liu Biao, the governor of Jingzhou, came to Chang'an and took up the position of Taifu in the Chang'an court, which was the position held by Yuan Ji back then.
Among the Nine Ministers, the Taifu was in charge of carriages and horses, but in fact, a more accurate statement would be that he was in charge of the ceremonial guard of the emperor's travels.
This is a relatively leisurely position.
In Liu Yu's overly simple life, he had no chance to take part in any ceremonial trips.
In other words, a position with a high reputation but not too much trouble was arranged for the children of the royal family, which undoubtedly reflected the attitude of the Chang'an court towards the royal family.
Of course, it was Li Ru who said this, not Qi Zhou.
But Qi Zhou didn't think there was anything wrong with this statement.
This statement is made through your Majesty's attitude towards the direction of Jingzhou. As long as the governor of Yizhou can also show such performance during their attack on Yuan Shao and Gongsun Zan, they can also live in harmony and help each other and achieve win-win results.
It can also be considered as improving Liu Yu's image points.
The second thing Li Ru mentioned was——
Cao Pi, the son of Cao Cao, the governor of Yanzhou, had arrived at Leping Academy and studied there as early as last year.
When Li Ru said this, there were two meanings.
First, although Cao Cao was appointed as the governor of Yanzhou by the court in Yecheng, he actually relied on his own strength to stabilize Yanzhou. Since he sent his son to study at Leping Academy and even had trade exchanges with Bingzhou, no one could be sure that once the Chang'an court wanted to annex the Yecheng court, would Yanzhou turn from an enemy into their outpost.
This is a display of military strength.
On the other hand, why did Cao Cao send his son to Bingzhou to study? It’s because Bingzhou has great talents like Cai Yong and Zheng Xuan.
This is a display of cultural strength.
Because of this statement, Qi Zhou at that time even felt that "Li Meng" was not such a bad person. At least he did say a few human words to maintain the dignity of the Chang'an court.
But what is the reality?
According to what Li Ru said when he taught Qiao Ting, his two sentences had other meanings.
"The information we get from others is very fragmentary. We need to use various means to find out and integrate it until we catch this key clue person. The information others get from us is also fragmentary."
Li Ru explained: "So in the future, you can't expect the other party to understand all the false information you send. Give him more ambiguous information so that he can get the same answer no matter how he puts it together. This is the effective way to mislead."
This kind of effective misleading had been demonstrated when Li Ru helped Dong Zhuo escape the encirclement of the Qiang people, and now it was used against Zhao Wei.
The information Zhao Wei received from Liu Zhang not only did not make him think that the news he got from the post station might be false, but instead reinforced his judgment.
Liu Biao sent his eldest son Liu Qi to Chang'an, and Cao Cao sent his second son Cao Pi to Leping. In Zhao Wei's view, both of them sent away sons who had relatively no inheritance rights in order to make friends with the court in Chang'an.
There seemed to be some hidden meaning in these words spoken in front of Liu Zhang.
According to Zhao Wei's judgment, the story of sending hostages was probably true!
Then there is no need to worry about the authenticity of the news, just think about how to change the situation.
It is obviously not feasible to go directly to Liu Yan and tell him that even if he wants to send a hostage, he cannot send the Fourth Young Master.
Liu Zhang's weakness and gentleness were the most important reasons why Zhao Wei chose Liu Zhang. If Liu Yan himself were to make the choice, his second son, who he had sent out to do business and become a rich and idle person, would probably be more suitable as his successor than his youngest son.
Liu Yan obviously didn't like the people of Yizhou interfering too much in his decisions.
Then why not directly murder the envoys from Chang'an, making it impossible for them to complete their mission and cut off the possibility of Liu Zhang being taken away from the source?
This is impossible!
The attendants brought by the envoy from Chang'an were selected from Zhao Yun's subordinates. They were all powerful generals from Liang and Bing states. If they were to be dealt with, the commotion would definitely be quite big.
In this way, Zhao Wei would have to expose his actions to Liu Yan, and he would most likely become the target of his liquidation.
This will do him more harm than good.
Furthermore, if the envoy sent from the imperial court in Chang'an to Yizhou died, the relatively peaceful relationship between Guanzhong and Chang'an would be broken overnight.
Qiao Yan was able to defeat the invading force sent by Li Jue to Liang Province in a lightning speed, and then enter Guanzhong from Chencang. Who dares to say that she would not maintain the advantage of relying on the Taihang Mountain garrison against Yuan Shao, and use this as an excuse to launch an attack on Yizhou first.
Considering the geographical conditions of the mountains and rivers, this is not an impossible thing to do.
This was even worse for Zhao Wei.
His dissatisfaction with Liu Yan's favoritism towards the Dongzhou scholars did not mean that he wanted to hand Yizhou over to someone else to rule.
Liu Yan's reputation as a relative of the Han royal family and his methods of governing Yizhou were still profitable for the people of Yizhou.
Otherwise, after Liu Yan executed the Yizhou tyrants on trumped-up charges and suppressed the rebellion caused by Ren Qi, the people of Yizhou, led by Zhao Wei, would not have maintained such a supportive attitude towards Liu Yan.
Therefore, he could not use overly drastic measures, which would make Yizhou a thorn in the eyes of the Chang'an court.
Then let’s think about it from another perspective.
He thought of the news he received from the post station.
The other party said that compared with Yuan Shao and Gongsun Zan, Liu Yan was relatively cooperative and had no intention of being disloyal.
Is it possible to slightly increase Liu Yan's threat to the Chang'an court, but not to the point of crossing the line, making the originally not-so-harsh conditions for sending hostages become more demanding?
Zhao Wei fell into deep thought.
He really can't be considered a general who relies purely on brute force.
Before he followed Liu Yan into Yizhou, he served as Taicang Ling in the Luoyang court.
As an official under the Grand Minister of Agriculture, this was a serious civil service position.
But if it weren't for his limited brain power, Li Ru would not have chosen Zhao Wei as an object of exploitation.
In order to increase Liu Yan's threat to Chang'an, Zhao Wei's first thought was to let Zhang Lu make some more trouble.
However, Zhang Lu, or the Tianshi Dao, was completely unpredictable in his actions.
Even though they are all from Yizhou, they are pursuing different interests.
From Zhao Wei's point of view, Zhang Lu probably wanted to get a missionary territory of his own rather than reach a win-win situation with the Youzhou governor who was of Han origin.
If we go too far at that time, it may bring disaster to Yizhou.
Then there is only one way -
Provide some ambiguous information to the envoys who came to Chang'an, and then destroy this handle!
By then, Chang'an would at most be somewhat wary of them, but would have no actual reason to hold them accountable.
As long as it doesn't cross the line too much.
The aunt of the current Sikong Huang Wan is the mother of their Yizhou Mu Liu Yan, so she must mediate.
When Zhao Wei thought of this, he suddenly felt enlightened.
He immediately called his confidant and asked him to do the operation.
The subordinate was shocked by this bizarre order and asked hurriedly, "Will this...will there really be no trouble?"
Zhao Wei replied firmly: "What could possibly happen? If anything, we have eliminated a future trouble for you, Your Majesty."
The subordinates did not suspect anything and took action immediately.
So on the eve of Liu Yan's appointment as general, the originally peaceful night was suddenly broken by the clamor of firefighting.
Qi Zhou, who was in the inn, was awakened by the noise. He quickly got up to check, and saw that the sky in the east was illuminated red, which clearly showed that there was a big fire.
And to the east is Liu Yan’s provincial capital!
Even though it was a dry winter day, how could a fire suddenly start, especially at a time like this?
Qi Zhou subconsciously felt something was wrong, and heard Li Ru, who was also startled, ask from the other end: "What happened?"
The two looked at each other blankly, and because they didn't want anything to go wrong with the proclamation, they agreed to go over there and take a look.
In order to prevent any unrest or incidents in Yizhou like the situation in the past two years, the two men brought half of their guards with them when they went there.
Fortunately, when they arrived at the site of the fire, they discovered that the situation was probably not as troublesome as they had speculated. At most, the Yizhou treasury was on fire.
only……
Qi Zhou looked towards the boiling sea of fire and couldn't help asking, "Liu Yizhou, did you put a lot of outdated furniture and ornaments in the treasury? Why is the fire burning so fiercely?"
This is really not much different from a fire with the help of oil. An ordinary fire cannot achieve such an effect.
But Liu Yan would not be so polite. Before the ceremony of announcing the decree to confer the title of general, why not light a fire in his own house to cheer everyone up?
Seeing that the fire might still spread, Qi Zhou quickly asked people to help put out the fire.
However, he did not notice that on Liu Yan's face, which was mostly hidden in the night, there was a kind of vigilant anxiety rather than the anxiety of putting out the fire.
Fortunately, after the fire was successfully extinguished, the things in the treasury were completely burned to ashes.
While Liu Yan felt sad about his loss, he also felt that the accidental fire might be a warning to him for his lucky mentality.
But what he didn't know was that when he successfully received the imperial title from the Chang'an court under the watchful eyes of various governors on the second day, a piece of silk letter was stuffed into the post station.
It was written that the reason why the treasury that caught fire last night was burned like this was because there were thousands of chariots stored in the treasury, which were usurped objects built by Liu Yan with evil intentions. 1
The messenger also mentioned that the reason he told this matter was because he was an old friend of Ren Qi, the former governor of Qianwei. He was dissatisfied with Liu Yan's harsh treatment of him, so he forced Ren Qi to rebel and then killed him.
Qi Zhou looked at the secret letter and muttered to Li Ru, "The Ren Qi incident is indeed quite strange. In the past, the Yizhou rebel Ma Xiang attacked and killed Yizhou Governor Xie Jian, and even proclaimed himself emperor in Shu, but was defeated by Ren Qi. Only then was Liu Yizhou successfully ushered into Shu as the master. But within two years, Ren Qi proclaimed himself a general and launched an attack on Liu Yizhou..."
It's really weird.
Perhaps it was because Ren Qi was dissatisfied with Liu Yan's treatment of the people of Yizhou.
Then it is understandable that someone came to express dissatisfaction on behalf of Ren Qi.
But it is inevitable that someone may have framed Liu Yan.
He called the subordinates who participated in the firefighting last night and asked if there was anything unusual.
This question actually revealed some clues.
Some said that he could have gone to help put out the fire, but was stopped by Liu Yan's attendants, who only allowed him to fetch water.
Some people said that among the crowd running back and forth, they heard someone whispering, "What a pity for those carriages and carriages."
Some people are saying, "I'm afraid this has really violated a taboo."
Hearing this, it seems very likely that the things that were burned in the fire last night were not that simple.
Thinking that Liu Yan's seat in Yizhou was moved from Mianzhu to Chengdu, and that this letter of denunciation mentioned another piece of news related to Mianzhu, Qi Zhou immediately agreed with Li Ru that after they said goodbye to Liu Yan and left, they would pass by Mianzhu on the way and carefully investigate and confirm it.
This departure was a little hasty, which made Zhao Wei, who had burned the governor's treasury, feel relieved.
If it weren't for this fire, I'm afraid they would have taken the hostages with them when they left.
Now we have to hesitate.
Unfortunately, Zhao Wei had no real intention of betraying Liu Yan, and they would never be able to obtain any substantial evidence by going to Mianzhu.
When Qi Zhou, Li Ru and others passed through Dong Fu's hometown in Mianzhu, they discovered that a fire had broken out there the day before, burning all the manuscripts and documents there.
This was exactly what Zhao Wei wanted.
The lack of a way to verify it actually proves that there is something wrong.
Dong Fu was one of the important ministers who followed Liu Yan into Shu. He must have had an inseparable relationship with Liu Yan's decision to choose Yizhou after he proposed restarting the provincial governor system. His ability in divination was also well-known in Mianzhu.
Considering these things together...
Qi Zhou was shocked.
Judging from this, Liu Yan probably doesn't just want to be the governor of Yizhou!
And if he still has greater ambitions, and only destroyed and hid the relevant clues because he thought of the threat from the north, he is still a huge threat in essence.
Considering Yizhou’s resources and special terrain conditions, it doesn’t seem to be a difficult task for Liu Yizhou to stab Chang’an when Marquis Qiao is confronting Yuan Shao!
If only they had known the news earlier.
Now that the general's imperial decree has been read out, there is no room for regret.
Any repeated actions at this time would make the Chang'an court look ridiculous.
"It's useless to know it earlier," Li Ru said coldly, "If you knew it earlier, would you not have read out the imperial edict?"
"Given the terrain of Shu, if we want to stop the imperial edict and return to Chang'an directly, we may be stopped by Liu Yan halfway. It is hard to say whether we can prevent the imperial edict from being obtained, but our lives will be lost here."
Qi Zhou asked: "So what do you mean?"
Li Ru replied: "Don't hesitate, we must return to Chang'an as soon as possible and inform His Majesty before Liu Yan finds out that we have linked these two fires together and learns of his intentions."
Qi Zhou felt that Li Ru was a talented person, as he could make the words like "run away quickly" sound so righteous and justified.
But in this unfamiliar environment, this seems to be their only choice.
He quickly pretended to be rushing back to Chang'an after purchasing a few things in Mianzhu.
When Liu Yan finally received the news that Dong Fu's hometown had been burned, and felt that it was too coincidental, Qi Zhou had already led his men into Ba County.
If he wanted to catch up now and confirm some things, it would be impossible for him to catch up.
Qi Zhou even ordered his men to speed up their pace in Hanzhong, and only after they passed through the Xiegu Road and met the team that was waiting for them did he finally feel relieved.
Being here, the feeling that someone might chase you from behind at any time finally disappeared at this moment.
But now is not the time for him to rest.
Before he arrived in Chang'an, he had already sent someone to deliver an urgent letter requesting an audience with the emperor.
This allowed him to receive news that Liu Yu approved his audience with the emperor as soon as he stepped into Chang'an City.
Liu Yu was still a little confused when he saw Qi Zhou, who claimed that he had something important to report, kneeling down in the hall.
He was startled and asked quickly, "What are you doing?"
Qi Zhou was anxious and replied, "Your Majesty! Liu Yan has a rebellious heart. He should not be given the position of general!"
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