Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1304 Great Change
Everyone present, the Cao Wei officials in the audience, and Cao Pi, who had been smiling and looking complacent just now, were all in a trance at this moment, thinking that they had hallucinated and had heard the voice wrongly.

However, when Liu Xie's clear voice echoed in the sky around the abdication platform and even sounded, everyone looked around at each other in panic, and finally confirmed a fact in a very short time.

The two words Liu Xie said were indeed King of Jin, not King of Wei!
Their bodies began to tremble and they struggled to look up at the top of the platform. Under the dazzling sunlight, Liu Xie, with his head tilted towards the sun and his arms outstretched, repeated his words again.

"Pass the throne to King Jin!"

The echoes among the tall buildings around the Abdication Platform immediately rang out, "Pass the throne to the Prince of Jin!"

"How dare you!" Cao Pi roared in anger. He never thought that Liu Xie would dare to go against him at this time!
Isn't he afraid of death?
Wu Zhi beside him said quickly, "Don't worry, Your Majesty. It's useless for him to say anything. The abdication is based on an imperial edict, not words. The abdication edict has the seal of the Han Dynasty. No matter what he says, it's useless!"

Cao Pi finally calmed down. With a gloomy face, he approached Liu Xie and said, "Your Majesty, I will give you a chance to repeat the edict."

Liu Xie turned around and said sarcastically: "What if I don't say it?"

"Are you going to kill me?"

"You can throw me down from here to show the power of Wei!" He opened his hands, "Come, I'm waiting!"

Everyone in the audience could hear clearly what was said on the stage. Xun You, Chen Qun and others looked unhappy. Something bad had happened!
We must find a way to remedy this!

At the back of the crowd, Zhong Yao, who was dressed in cloth, closed his eyes in pain.

It’s over, it’s all over. No matter how hard we tried, we still couldn’t prevent it!

Liu Xie actually had the courage to gamble his life!
Zhong Yao was certain that what was happening now was 100% related to Dong Zhao. Although he had no evidence and it was purely personal speculation, Zhong Yao was certain that he was absolutely right this time.

But the more this happened, the more aggrieved Zhong Yao felt. He always felt that Dong Zhao's actions were relying on civil strife or sabotaging the abdication ceremony. He never imagined that Dong Zhao was actually taking advantage of the emperor himself!

He was able to deceive Liu Xie and make him regret his decision at such an important ceremony. This not only required Liu Xie to risk his life, but also violated Liu Xie's previous promise to Wei. In other words, the emperor broke his promise, which was a violation of the Way. Liu Xie was not afraid.
Zhong Yao suddenly figured it out. Yes, what is Liu Xie afraid of?

He has lost his country and his people, what else does he have to be afraid of?

Looking at the panicked Cao Wei officials, Zhong Yao glanced at his clothes and suddenly seemed to have lost his strength. He had done what he should do, and left the rest to these useless people who only knew how to fight among themselves.

Sima Yi was kneeling in the crowd over there. Unlike the others, he felt a sense of joy of enlightenment in his heart.

It turns out that you can still play like this!
If even the emperor can break his promise, then what is the point of an oath?

This is getting interesting. I have to watch carefully to see how this ends!

Over there, Xun You and Chen Qun had taken advantage of the chaos to go around to the back of the abdication stage, but the platform was surrounded by people and people were watching everywhere. If the two of them went on stage now, it would be tantamount to disrupting the ceremony, so they had no choice but to quickly make gestures to Zhu Shuo behind Cao Pi.

Zhu Shuo had been following Cao Pi and knew that he needed to make a quick decision, otherwise things would end badly. He caught a glimpse of Chen Qun and Xun You making gestures in the audience, and after carefully identifying the gestures, he quietly walked to Cao Pi and said, "Your Majesty, end the ceremony as soon as possible and don't let him talk anymore."

Cao Pi listened and said gloomily: "You two take him away."

After hearing this, Wu Zhi and Zhu Shuo stepped forward from the left and right, grabbed Liu Xie's arms respectively, and were about to take him off the platform.

What the two did not expect was that Liu Xie struggled with more strength than they had expected. He struggled to break free, walked to the edge of the stage, and shouted with all his might, "I have been in office for ten years and have accomplished nothing. I have always been held hostage by treacherous officials who covet the Han Dynasty!"

"You, the treacherous officials of Cao Wei, have held me hostage, killed my queen, and seized my kingdom. You also want me to speak against my will in front of thousands of people. You are simply dreaming!"

"The insignificant people below the stage are all opportunists. They eat the salary of the Han Dynasty but do things that betray the Han Dynasty. Do you still have any sense of shame?"

"What's even more ridiculous is that you Cao Wei are pretending to be gentlemen, while the King of Jin is openly rebelling. He is much more courageous than you villains!"

"Now I am giving the kingdom to the King of Jin. If you, the traitors of Cao Wei, have the ability, you can take the kingdom back from the King of Jin!"

"Go and take it back. Don't you dare?"

"Hahahaha!"

His crazy laughter echoed between heaven and earth. The officials of Cao Wei turned pale. It was over, all over. Why could the emperor, who had always been weak and vulnerable, be so fearless and brave? Who gave him the courage?

Zhu Shuo and Wu Zhi rushed forward and held Liu Xie down. Liu Xie still shouted, "What? Are you finally going to attack me?"

"If you are brave enough, throw me down from here. I will not commit suicide. I am waiting for you to kill me. If you have the courage, I will admit that you are qualified to seize the Han Dynasty!"

"Come on!" Cao Pi's lips trembled with anger. Liu Xie must have said this at the instigation of someone, otherwise he couldn't have said it so flawlessly. These few words had squeezed him into a position where he couldn't move forward or backward. It was really disgusting!

Finally, the guards rushed up and half-dragged and half-pulled Liu Xie off the stage. However, this scene was unbearable to watch for everyone. With such a mess, the State of Wei had become a laughing stock in the whole world!
Cao Pi couldn't help but yell, "Kill them all!"

Wu Zhi hurried forward and whispered, "Your Majesty, please finish reading the imperial edict and the ceremony, and we will discuss other matters later!"

After hearing this, Cao Pi calmed down a little. He raised the imperial edict with difficulty and read it out with a trembling voice. He even made several mistakes in the middle. The imperial edict of just over a hundred words took him several years to read.

This was torment for Cao Pi, and even more so for the Cao Wei officials in the audience. After Cao Pi finished reading, it took a long time for the officials to come to their senses and quickly stood up to praise him.

For a moment, the stage was filled with loud music and the sound of bells and drums, but Cao Pi was so angry that his eyes turned black. He turned around and walked down the stairs in embarrassment.

The sounds of officials' praises and drums and music seemed to be getting farther and farther away from him, and Cao Pi's vision became increasingly darker, as if he could feel nothing.

The farce of the abdication of Xu Du ended in such a ridiculous way, and Cao Wei's revenge followed. Many suspected officials and scholars were arrested and questioned, and then imprisoned, including Liu and Dong Zhao.

At the same time, Yuan Xi, who knew nothing about this, finally returned to Shouchun with his fleet.

Officials in the city welcomed Yuan Xi into the city. Yuan Xi learned that Yuzhou was still not peaceful, so Madam Wu took a detour via the Huanghuai waterway, so she had not arrived yet. However, calculating the time, she would arrive in the next few days.

After hearing this, Yuan Xi ordered his men to place Sun Quan in a corner of the mansion and assigned someone to look after him. He then took Wei Yan with him to summon officials and inquire about the situation of Cao's army along the way in Yuzhou.

Liu Ye is now in charge of the defense of Shouchun. When Yuan Xi asked him about it, he answered in an orderly manner. Finally, Liu Ye said, "Thanks to Yecheng's containment of Cao's army, the pressure on Shouchun is not that great."

"The enemy's main general is Cao Hong, but I heard that he is injured. I sent generals to cooperate with the navy and suppress the enemy with warships. With the help of General Wen Pin, Cao's army did not gain any advantage and could only put the defense line on the border of Yingchuan."

"I am afraid of failure. In addition, the food in Jianghuai has not been enough to support long-distance battles in the past two years. So I will let General Wen and Cao's army form a balance of power for the time being, and take the opportunity to arrange the summer harvest in the Jianghuai area to avoid the risk of food shortage."

After hearing this, Yuan Xi was pleased and said, "You know the priorities and you did a great job."

"Last year, I fought two great battles in Yecheng and Jicheng. I fought against Cao Wei and Xianbei respectively, and I almost lost all my wealth."

"We reluctantly sent troops to attack Wu this time, thanks to the help of Hannan. Now, it is really not suitable for a major war in the short term."

Liu Ye said quickly: "My lord, you are invincible in battle. Cao Wei doesn't dare to act rashly now. The possibility of Shouchun being hit by a war is not great."

Yuan Xi nodded and said, "That's true, but the best defense is offense. Only by suppressing Cao's army can we ensure the stability of Jianghuai."

He turned to Wei Yan and said, "Wen Chang, take 5,000 infantrymen by boat and rush over to help Wen Pin maintain the suppression of Cao's army."

"We don't want to invade Wei's heartland this year, we just want to prevent them from attacking. You can prepare your army for two days and leave the day after tomorrow."

After hearing this, Wei Yan immediately took the order and went to the military camp. Yuan Xi turned to Liu Ye and asked, "How are the people and merchants in the city?"

Liu Ye briefly introduced a few sentences, and finally said: "There is a problem that is a little troublesome."

"In the past year, Shouchun has transported a lot of silver ore from the Wa Nu Kingdom and the Mi Kingdom. Now most of it has been refined and placed in the treasury."

"I and others have discussed how to use it to replace the five-zhu coin, but because there is no precedent, everyone is unsure, so I would like to ask you how to take this first step."

Yuan Xi thought to himself, I was also crossing the river in the dark, how could I know all this?

He thought for a moment and said, "Is there any official in the city who used to be in charge of currency issuance in the Han court?"

Liu Ye shook his head. Yuan Xi thought for a moment and said, "Let me think about this matter. I will come and discuss it with you tomorrow."

After hearing this, Liu Ye stood up and said goodbye, "I will also go to find someone else, so I won't bother you any more."

After seeing Liu Ye off, Yuan Xi thought that issuing currency was an extremely troublesome matter. Not only did it have a wide impact range, but the hidden dangers were also difficult to see immediately. It took hundreds of years of failure for later generations to use silver as currency before it gradually got on the right track. He had not yet unified the world, so wasn't he a little anxious?

Thinking of this, he felt a little regretful. Officials who were very loyal to the Han court, especially civil servants, did not defect to the Jin State in large numbers because they valued their reputation. Although there were royal family members such as Liu Ji, they were very professional in finance, and such people were scarce talents in the Han court. I am afraid that they had been taken away by Cao Cao during the Huaicheng Rebellion.

Yuan Xi suddenly laughed at himself. The situation in Wei State would be even worse than his own. A good cook cannot cook without rice. Otherwise, would Wei State have been forced to resort to barter as its copper coin system collapsed?
Forget it, just believe in yourself. Now that Jianghuai has settled down, let's take Shouchun as the center and try it step by step.

At this time, Mrs. Mi came in and said, "My husband, another batch of goods has arrived from Mi Country."

(End of this chapter)