Chapter 418 Yuan Shang is captured
In the final analysis, this national letter is just a sentence.
In August, when the autumn harvest is coming, it is inappropriate to order the two dynasties to leave!
She should come to Yecheng in person to complete the great cause of unifying the world.
And now it is only more than a month away from August.
Liu Bian was so panic-stricken before he even knew the specific battle situation in Qingzhou and northern Jizhou. Yuan Shao could not imagine whether he would follow the example of King Ziying of Qin and open the city to surrender if he knew the real crisis he was facing.
No, that's not right.
He was not yet able to emulate Ziying.
His half brother had already delivered the imperial seal to Qiao Yan in that way, announcing that the Han Dynasty had been passed to the hands of the Emperor of Dayong in an extremely orthodox way.
This order of his should not have come from the other dynasty between the two dynasties, it should be regarded as a fake dynasty!
Then there is no need for Qiao Yan to accept his surrender!
After all, because of Liu Yu and Liu Xie, there was already a perfectly legitimate reason for the Han Dynasty to be handed over to her, and there was no need to add the charge of forcing and coercing them to "surrender".
We only need to rely on the people's support at this moment and with the momentum of this great victory, we can lead the troops from Henei, Luoyang, and even Chang'an directly into Yecheng and capture the emperor and all the officials of the pseudo-dynasty.
"General, what should we do?"
what to do?
If Qingzhou had not been lost and Yishui had continued to serve as a barrier to Jizhou, Yuan Shao might have been able to tell Liu Bian the five strategies for dealing with the situation. Regardless of whether they could be implemented, in this dying struggle, he should first deceive the puppet emperor and let him serve as a symbol that the Yecheng court still existed.
But at this moment... at this moment, the other party did not send troops only because they were worried about the damage to the farmland. Yuan Shao himself felt that he was surrounded by enemies and had no way out. He had nothing to say.
Perhaps the only thing that can be said to Liu Bian is that the "golden seal, purple ribbon, and red canopy" written on the letter he read out at that time seemed to have become a promise of "wealth and honor" that could no longer be realized.
He was just about to say something to Liu Bian, "Wait for him to discuss the decision with his subordinates," when he heard Liu Bian ask with rare insight, "Is the general powerless to save the situation?"
This Han emperor, who had never been a powerful emperor for many years, seemed to realize only at this moment that the four hundred years of accumulated prestige of the Han Dynasty, which he thought of, no longer existed in the hearts of the people. And the support he thought of from the people might be attributed to Emperor Guangwu of Han, who revived the Han Dynasty and turned the tide, but would never be attributed to him.
The confidence of Yuan Shao's family, which he relied on to support his family, seemed to have been dug out and collapsed amid the judgment of natural justice and human affairs and the boiling public opinion, and would eventually collapse completely under the general trend.
The noble families who can survive the reconstruction of this order are those who are upright and knowledgeable, not people like Yuan Shao.
For example, at this moment in Chang'an, Qiao Yan did not care about how much waves the letter she sent would cause, but instead discussed another matter in the public meeting -
Can the Chenjun Yuan family directly replace the emerging Runan Yuan family and make it return to its position as an ancestral branch?
"Your Majesty, do you hope to suppress Yuan Benchu again?"
"Not entirely," Qiao Yan replied, "For many years, the Leping Monthly Report has always recorded the examples of prefectures and counties, advocating the people to follow their example. Now, due to the changes in Yanzhou and Chang Yan's theory, the aristocratic families are panicking, and they have almost forgotten about it. However, the principle that everything is too much or too little has never changed. It will take time for scholars all over the world to follow suit with the help of enlightenment books, which will make the aristocratic families famous for their integrity."
"So Si Tu Yuan Gongxi held the aspirations of the Chenjun Yuan family, was pure and simple, and never criticized others even when he was at the height of his power. His son Yuan Yaoqing inherited his father's legacy. When he was the governor of Yingchuan before, he was selfless and dedicated to the public, and treated the people of Yuzhou with courtesy. Now that he has been in Yanzhou for several months, he has lived up to my expectations, which is completely different from the former Runan Yuan family, who were favored by the world and were extremely wealthy and extravagant."
"The so-called aristocratic families should follow the example of the Yingchuan Chen family's eastward journey, the Xun family's eight dragons, and the Chenjun Yuan family's upright conduct. They should not sit back and amass wealth, hold private soldiers and hide thousands of households. Once a rebellion breaks out, they will seize control of one side and consider themselves to be responsible for issuing orders, which will only cause chaos in government and make people's lives difficult."
"All the students in the world are from the public, not from the private side. This is what I wish for."
It was not difficult for the people present to hear that this sentence, "All the disciples in the world come from you", was probably what she wanted to achieve most.
Even though Qingzhou and Jizhou were at war one after another, in June of the first year of Yuanzhao, the selection in Hongwenguan, which Qiao Yan named "Imperial Examination", was finally carried out without delay.
This year is the first year since Emperor Yong ascended the throne. Officials in various places have been in a relatively vacant state due to the wars in the past few years. It is precisely because of the need to fill idle positions as soon as possible that this long-prepared examination is strict, and the number of officials selected is more than in previous years.
Since the Hongwenguan was proposed to be established by Qiao Yan when she was still the Grand Marshal, and since the second round of interviews in this examination was presided over by her personally, these officials who were selected through the examinations can indeed be called disciples of the emperor.
And this obviously won't be the only one.
Just as the officials selected through this examination set out for their new posts, the lucky ones who participated in the first imperial examination received a piece of news:
Because the world had not yet been unified, this policy of selecting scholars through literature was used to screen out a group of available people before the detailed rules were completely perfected.
However, there will be a second round of assessment one year later. Whether they will be replaced by newcomers by then will depend on whether they can protect the country and the people and perform their duties conscientiously in their respective posts.
Yueli's intimidation of the aristocratic families meant that few people dared to test Qiao Yan's bottom line in this examination of scholars, intending to strive for the best for their children. However, after the world was pacified, Qiao Yan did not dare to guarantee whether such a situation would happen, or even whether cheating in the imperial examination would occur. Therefore, the only thing she could do at this time was to use the Yuan family of Runan as a negative example and suppress them into the ground with the attack on Yecheng, and at the same time, to pull the upright and famous scholars represented by the Yuan family of Chenjun to the forefront.
And if the period for training a person is ten years, then in her Leping Academy, not only those with the most outstanding talents should stand in front of the stage. By next year, more people should join this assessment and further safeguard this "rule" for her.
Prior to this, those who had served under her should have already received promotions for their meritorious service in conquering Jizhou and Qingzhou.
But speaking of the battle situation in Qing and Ji states...
When she received the news that Qingzhou was conquered east of the Weishui River and that Beiping County was conquered by Lü Lingju, Lü Bu and others, although this was not what she had expected, it made her feel an unexpected joy.
As the Queen of Dayong, what she needed to do was not to plan out all the rules and regulations, just like after this somewhat hasty imperial examination, Xin Pi and others who were responsible for this matter had each submitted a proposal to her, which was like a surprise given to her by the battle situation in the two states.
These talented subordinates have their own way of bringing victory to her.
This is the result of hard work that has come to fruition today!
They also did not violate the restrictions mentioned in Qiao Yan's instructions to reduce the impact on the autumn harvest.
The lower-class people in the Qingzhou army who were once from the Yellow Turban Army valued the harvest from the fields in Donglai and Beihai more than anyone else.
The battle on the Jizhou border also formed an almost overwhelming advantage with the rapid capture of Peking and the thundering attack from Quanzhou.
In the face of these two great victories, what made her feel gratified was not only that Gao Shun had returned to the hands of "General Lu" as if in accordance with some historical trajectory, and Yuan Shao had lost another capable general, but that this founding team was showing her an increasingly prosperous appearance.
This is far better than Yuan Shao and Liu Bian in Yecheng who were at their wit's end and could only wait until August to die. It also makes her feel that life is filling the earth again.
When Yecheng received the letter, the border of Jizhou also received an imperial edict written by her.
He promoted Lü Lingju, the commander of the Protectorate of Wuhuan, to the rank of Lieutenant General of the Protectorate of Wuhuan, and promoted Sima Yi, the magistrate of Zhuo County, to the rank of Assistant Governor of Yuzhou. He was to go to Yuzhou after the war in Jizhou was settled, and then assist Cui Jun in governing Yuzhou.
This is the benchmark she set with the students of Leping Academy!
As for Lu Bu...
He originally had the title of Pingbei Zhonglang Jiang, and was also given the title of Tiger Tooth General. We can only reward him with money and goods first, and then calculate his total contribution after Jizhou is pacified.
It seemed gratifying to think that he had initially served under her only because the sight of her leading her subordinates to wipe out the Xiutugu Hu and returning was particularly grand, and now he had slowly learned to cooperate with the other generals during these campaigns, which was also a gratifying thing.
And Lu Bu is not the only one who has achieved such growth.
With such a vast world to explore, who can keep their mind narrow?
The person who formed a sharp contrast was probably Yuan Shang who was in Liyang.
I don't know whether I should say that he is really stupid, or that he is more confident than his father.
When he heard about the battle situation in Qingzhou, the first thing he thought of was not that losing half of the state would further weaken their morale, nor whether there would be people among his subordinates who were unwilling to fight for the Han Dynasty or the Yuan family. Instead, he thought of -
With such a defeat, his brother really wasted the trust his father placed in him when he was urgently summoned back, and also wasted the important task his father gave him by handing him even his sword!
In this way, it would be even more impossible for Yuan Tan to compete with him for the identity of the Yuan family heir!
It is not known whether the idea of being the fourth generation duke that Yuan Shao had instilled in Yuan Shang over the years had confused Yuan Shang's judgment, or whether the flattery from all sides due to his superior appearance and his father's love had already made him unprecedentedly inflated in the past few years. In addition, Yuan Shao had recovered a little from his previous half-dead state after being so angry that he vomited blood, so Yuan Shang rekindled his plan to attack Hanoi and establish his own achievements.
The news Yuan Shao had previously learned from his subordinates, coupled with the disastrous defeat in northern Jizhou, made him hastily send a letter to Yuan Shang, intending to withdraw this unreliable youngest son from the southern defense line, but he was still a step too late!
After Cao Cao announced that he and Wei Yan and Pan Zhang, who had volunteered to take the position, had not been able to get along well, Yuan Shang "acted decisively" and led his troops to attack Henei.
So it was here that he encountered a battle in which the enemy sent the least number of soldiers, but his side suffered the heaviest casualties.
Has he ever heard of dynamite? Heard of it.
Has he heard of the elephant soldiers transferred from Luoyang to Hanoi? I've heard of it too.
But he never expected that he would be attacked like this the moment he crossed the line.
Most of the defenders of Henei County were even busy in the military settlements, to ensure that this place that had newly surrendered to the rule of Dayong could store some food this year and would not have to rely on relief from Guanzhong. On the border between Henei and Wei County, explosives were thrown into the attacking team in the form of catapults, and the thunder chariots that fired stones at the same time also launched a swift counterattack towards them.
Just as the thunderous sounds had not yet disappeared, alarming Yuan Shang's horses and causing them to flee in panic, the elephant soldiers, who had been trained to be accustomed to the sounds, began to crush them like huge rocks moving on the ground.
Faced with the blood-stained battlefield, Yuan Shang finally realized how wrong his decision was to launch this rash attack.
But it was obviously useless for him to regret it now.
With his cold hands and feet, he tried to calm the horse he was riding, and at the same time, he hastily ordered his men to sound the retreat. However, before they could successfully retreat to Wei County, two cavalry teams followed the gap opened by the elephant soldiers and rushed in with the same brutal and ferocious manner, heading straight in his direction!
The most conspicuous person in the crowd is indeed him, the son of Yuan Shao!
However, no matter how much hope he placed on his soldiers' willingness to sacrifice their lives for him and bring him back to safety, the cavalry led by Wei Yan, who was in a desperate situation, arrived in front of him without much resistance and knocked him off his horse with the back of their sword.
Afterwards, Master Yuan was tied up and brought to Cao Cao.
When he came, he had great ambitions to kill Cao Cao first to avenge his father's escape from Yanzhou, and now he was in such a miserable state.
The Cao Cao in front of him didn't look like he was being restrained by rising stars like Wei Yan, nor did he look like he was upset because Qiao Yan distrusted him or his subordinates were successively separated from his team. He was only calm and composed when facing Yuan Shang.
This majestic attitude made Yuan Shang dare not accuse Cao Cao of betraying his father at this time.
The heat wave at the end of June had scorched the ground where he was forced to lie down to an almost boiling state. Coupled with the fact that his life was in danger at the moment, his forehead and back were covered in sweat.
Seeing that everyone was looking at him as if they were evaluating his worth, Yuan Shang felt even more nervous.
He didn't even know what he said at this moment, he just said subconsciously: "It's so hot... Can you give me some ice to drive away the heat?"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
