Chapter 211 I Don’t Want to Be a Loyal Servant!
In order to protect himself, Cao Jing wanted to kill a chicken to scare the monkeys, so he used extremely cruel methods. However, he did not expect that the more ruthless his methods were, the more hostile those court officials became to him, and everyone even felt insecure.
If we say that the initial confrontation between Cao Jing and the court officials was due to the emperor's deliberate provocation and balancing, the conflict of interests led to the confrontation between the two camps.
Now Cao Jing was arbitrarily framing people and using cruel means to kill entire families in the imperial prison, which made people feel their lives were threatened.
The court officials only felt that if they didn't kill Cao Jing, they would be killed by Cao Jing sooner or later on false charges.
As a result, Cao Jing had more enemies, but fortunately the emperor was still on his side.
If it were a peaceful and prosperous time, the emperor standing on Cao Jing's side would be enough for Cao Jing to rest assured.
But now is not a peaceful and prosperous time. Uprisings are emerging one after another in various parts of the country, and the rebellious forces make the emperor panic and distressed.
All the civil and military officials in the court were disheartened to see that the emperor supported Cao Jing in persecuting court officials. So, those officials who had not yet contacted the rebels actually began to contact the rebels in various places in order to leave a way for their families to survive.
Those rebels who they thought had a high chance of success and victory were secretly contacted by court officials.
Lin Shu, a great lord who had suppressed several rebellious forces, received several letters of surrender from important civil and military officials.
Looking at the cooperation conditions described in the letter, Lin Shu raised his eyebrows and smiled: "It seems that this emperor is unpopular. I'm afraid that few of his courtiers are truly loyal to him."
The more the emperor feared that his courtiers would collude with the rebels, betray him and sell him out, the more he trusted and valued Cao Jing, and sent Cao Jing to monitor these courtiers.
Cao Jing had just experienced the situation where the court officials joined forces to force the emperor to execute him. How could he report the results of his surveillance to the emperor objectively and fairly? Of course, if you can use public power to settle personal grudges, then do so.
Once Cao Jing used public power to take revenge on his personal enemies and framed the innocent, other court officials would inevitably feel grief for their own kind and become wary of Cao Jing and the emperor who supported him.
It was foreseeable that the court officials would become alienated from the emperor.
Fang Yuan, who was responsible for delivering these letters of surrender to Lin Shu, heard Lin Shu's words and guessed that the contents of these letters were roughly about surrender.
Fang Yuan bowed to Lin Shu and said with a smile: "Congratulations, my lord. Great things are in sight!"
As Lin Shu led his troops to capture cities and territories and won great military victories, and as he conquered more and more territory, Fang Yuan became more respectful towards Lin Shu.
In the past, he could call him by his name because of the friendship they had established when they were young, but now he has to call him Lord respectfully.
At most, when Lin Shu smiled and said that there was no need to be formal, he would be more intimate and unrestrained when talking to him in private, but in formal occasions, Fang Yuan always called him "Lord" in a serious manner.
Lin Shu could also sense that Fang Yuan and he were drifting further and further apart. After all, their relationship had changed from friends to that of lord and subordinate, and the friendship they once had could no longer remain pure.
Before Lin Shu started the rebellion, Fang Yuan could still rely on their friendship and pay less attention to the distinction between superiors and subordinates. But now that Lin Shu has started the rebellion, Fang Yuan can no longer be as presumptuous as before, even for the sake of maintaining Lin Shu's dignity.
Lin Shu felt both disappointed and relieved at Fang Yuan's change of attitude.
The reason for the sadness is that as his status gradually increases, he will slowly move towards the supreme position of a lonely man. Friends who once dared to play and laugh with him will become respectful and dare not be presumptuous at all, and the friendship will deteriorate.
He was relieved because it was time for this friendship to deteriorate. If Fang Yuan still treated him as a friend after he started the rebellion, Lin Shu would be very troubled. After all, such disrespectful treatment by his subordinates would make it difficult for a young lord to establish his authority. But if he took the initiative to ask Fang Yuan to change his address, people would think that he didn't even recognize his past friends once he gained power, and he would be in a dilemma. Lin Shu was really relieved that Fang Yuan was able to consciously change his attitude and not make things difficult for him.
This is also a common problem for those in a high position. When dealing with friends they made when they were at their lowest point, after their friends’ attitude becomes respectful, they will feel sad that the other party can no longer treat them with the same attitude as before, and lament that they have become alone and lonely; but if their friends’ attitude remains unchanged, they will mutter in their hearts that the other party is disrespectful, has no respect for the elders, and does not take their status seriously, which gradually turns into fear and resentment.
Lin Shu is in this pretentious state now.
Lin Shu looked at Fang Yuan, who looked respectful and spoke respectfully, and after following the procedure in his mind, he said nonchalantly, "Haha, then I'll borrow your auspicious words!"
Lin Shu walked to the desk, took out a piece of letter paper, picked up a pen and wrote a reply, then put it in the envelopes with the letter in good faith, handed it to Fang Yuan, and instructed: "Send these letters back. To show our sincerity, the envelopes and letter paper they sent should also be returned intact."
Lin Shu simply stuffed the reply letter into the envelope of the letter of thanks and placed it together with the letters of thanks written by the court officials. I sent them back together just to show those court officials: I have no intention of keeping the letters of credit as a handle. I have sent them all back to you. You can destroy them at any time. This shows my sincerity in wanting to cooperate.
Fang Yuan took the envelopes and asked hesitantly, "My Lord, do we really have to return all these letters of surrender to them? What if someone changes his mind or sets a trap for us..."
They don't even have any leverage over each other, so they can't rely on the other party to keep their promises, right?
Lin Shu put down the brush in his hand, smiled faintly, and said, "If someone wants to go back on his word or plot against us, these letters of surrender will be useless. After all, if it were me, I would definitely inform the emperor in advance before planning. When the other party takes out the letter of surrender, the emperor will not believe that I really surrendered to the enemy. Moreover..." Lin Shu smiled meaningfully, "Even if there is no letter of surrender, more handles can be created. With the emperor's suspicion, it is too easy to make the emperor believe that his ministers have surrendered to me."
If someone suddenly changes his mind or uses this as an excuse to plot against him, he should be prepared to suffer the consequences.
After all, a man who used the Northern Factory to monitor civil and military officials and allowed Cao Jinggong to kill the emperor in order to avenge his personal grudge, causing a river of blood to flow, was obviously a very suspicious person. Some specious evidence could take advantage of the emperor's suspicion and get rid of those who dared to plot against him.
And Cao Jiarong from Beichang...
Lin Shu thought of the information about Cao Jiarong's background that his spies planted in the capital had found out, and smiled in his heart. This Cao Jiarong was also a chess piece that could be used.
Cao Jiarong is a remnant of the Wen family, whose property was once confiscated and whose clan was exterminated by the emperor. Now he has become the adopted son of Cao Jing, the emperor's confidant. Is the emperor really not afraid that Cao Jiarong will bear a grudge against him and assassinate him?
The emperor was definitely afraid, but he didn’t know Cao Jiarong’s true identity, and even Cao Jing didn’t know.
After Cao Jiarong entered the palace, he changed his name and identity. Although he was a criminal slave sent to the palace, the palace did not make much distinction between normal eunuchs and criminal eunuchs who had been exiled, especially for a young eunuch like him who grew up in the palace. Could he really remember his parents and family outside the palace after a few years?
After Cao Jiarong gained a little power, he deliberately concealed his identity as a remnant of the Wen family. When he was adopted as a son by Cao Jing, Cao Jing did not conduct an in-depth investigation into Cao Jiarong's identity outside the palace.
After all, who would care about what his identity was before he was a eunuch who entered the palace at the age of six?
It was enough for Cao Jing to investigate whether Cao Jiarong was sent by his competitors in the palace.
In this way, Cao Jiarong became Cao Jing's adopted son, and then stood out from many adopted sons, and had the opportunity to be brought by Cao Jing and meet the emperor.
The emperor also trusted his confidant Cao Jing very much. After knowing that Cao Jiarong was Cao Jing's adopted son, he felt at ease to use him. After all, the emperor was not so suspicious as to suspect that his confidant Cao Jing would adopt an adopted son of unknown origin.
Cao Jiarong entered the palace as a eunuch at the age of six. Even if he said that he had no memory before the age of six, no one would doubt it. After all, a eunuch who grew up in the palace at the age of six must have a clean background no matter how you look at it.
But neither the emperor nor Cao Jing could have imagined that Cao Jiarong was actually an orphan of the Wen family, and that he had an extremely good memory. He not only remembered his memories before the age of six, but also clearly remembered his life experience and the enemies who caused the destruction of his family.
However, Cao Jiarong had no chance and did not dare to retaliate against the emperor for the time being. He just took advantage of Cao Jing's attempt to eliminate dissidents and settle personal grudges, and when reporting intelligence, he added the Yu family to those suspicious families.
The Yu family, his maternal ancestors, not only did not save him, but also cruelly handed him over to the soldiers. He was sent to the palace and castrated to become a criminal slave eunuch.
Although Cao Jiarong has feelings for the Wen family where he was born, his family was destroyed when he was only six years old. So how deep can his feelings be? He did not witness the tragic death of his relatives with his own eyes, so the shock was not great.
But he could never forget the hardships he had endured over the years.
Therefore, what Cao Jiarong hated most was the Yu family who handed him over, and the emperor who confiscated the Wen family's property secondly.
It was difficult for Cao Jiarong, who had been educated in loyalty to the emperor in the palace since childhood, to muster up the courage to assassinate the emperor. The emperor had many protectors around him, and it was not possible for a eunuch like him to successfully assassinate him on impulse.
But it was still easy for Cao Jiarong to deal with the Yu family by relying on Cao Jing's power.
Among the many families whose properties were confiscated and thrown into the imperial prison, the Yu family was not at all noticeable. They were all crying out for injustice, but who wouldn't be crying out for injustice? No one knows better than Cao Jing and Cao Jiarong, who wronged them, how wronged they were.
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