Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1353 Suspect Soldier
Yuan Xi did not answer directly, but said to Cai Zhaoji: "I heard that when Dong Zhuo wanted to kill Lu Zhi, it was Cai Zhonglang who interceded for him and saved his life?"

Cai Zhaoji nodded and said, "My father didn't die at the hands of Dong Zhuo, but later..."

Yuan Xi was silent. Cai Yong died at the hands of Wang Yun, so the relationship between Cai Zhaoji and Lu Lingqi had always been delicate. Both of them were smart not to touch on this past. In fact, if you really count it, their fathers had both been attached to Dong Zhuo, and their pasts were not very glorious. On the contrary, Wang Yun was loyal to him.

Yuan Xi said: "Before and after Ma Rong, the nobles had always controlled the distribution of all interests in the court through the right to interpret scriptures."

"Of course, I won't say that all of this is bad. After all, governing a country requires a huge accumulation of knowledge and experience, and not all people and families can do this."

"What I oppose is that the nobles and the common people are clearly divided and cannot flow, just like a pool of stagnant water, which will sooner or later turn black and stink, because no one can guarantee that the people trained by the nobles are all people of noble morals."

"There are fifty great ways, and forty-nine heavenly evolutions. If one of them is missing, the heavenly way can start to rotate. Otherwise, the world will stop here, with no hope of moving forward."

"It is the same for the common people, the nobles, and the imperial power. If they do not change, they will die."

Bu Lianshi seemed to have become a curious baby today, "What does this sect refer to?"

Yuan Xi said: "Xunzi said that the laws of nature are constant, and human relations have their own principles. They do not exist for the sake of Yao, nor do they perish for the sake of Jie."

"Heaven and man are separate. Heaven can create life but cannot distinguish things. Earth can carry people but cannot rule them. Heaven has its time, Earth has its talent, and man has his rule."

Cai Zhaoji opened her eyes wide, "Your Majesty means"

"That's right," Yuan Xi showed a firm look on his face, "Heaven is Heaven, man is man, control the destiny of Heaven and use it, respect what is in oneself, not admire what is in Heaven, control the destiny of Heaven and shape all things, and transform them with your abilities."

"In short, man can conquer nature."

Cai Zhaoji smiled bitterly and said, "Your Majesty is going to completely abolish the theory of the correspondence between heaven and man."

"This is the argument that the nobles used when they wanted to shake the imperial power, but Your Majesty is now the common ruler of the world. If you do this, aren't you afraid of shaking the foundation of the dynasty?"

Yuan Xi said softly: "It may not be a good thing that the dynasty's foundation is too strong."

"The wind and rain will always blow it away, the only thing that never changes is the people of the world."

"If the emperor cannot lead the people to overcome natural disasters and change the world, and if he is controlled by the illusory will of heaven, he will not be able to move forward and will sooner or later be submerged by the surging tide of the times."

"At that time, what is the meaning of the dynasty's existence?"

"My wish is that in the distant future, everyone can do what they want and have this ability. This is a gift from heaven and earth, and the dynasty should not deprive it. Instead, it should open this convenient door for all people."

“Sometimes, the hardest thing is not defeating the enemy, but finding the enemy.”

“What is the common enemy for all of us?”

“It requires all of us to think together and work together to find the answer. This process is the way forward for everyone.”

When he said these things, Cai Zhaoji had already taken out a blank bamboo slip and wrote them down with a pen. When Yuan Xi finished speaking, she also put down her pen and said with a smile: "This is an important part of the daily record. I have recorded it."

"If this gets out one day, Your Majesty won't regret it, right?"

Yuan Xi laughed and said, "It doesn't matter. Life is only a hundred years long. I conquered this whole world. I say that I conquered it, but in the final analysis, I conquered it for the people. I can't bring anything with me when I'm born, and I can't take anything with me when I die. But I must leave something for future generations."

“A dynasty can only prosper if it discards the old and welcomes the new, but no one can guarantee long-term peace and prosperity, with wise rulers from generation to generation.”

"When the dynasty decays in the future, there will surely be people like me who stand up to cleanse the world and speak for the people. At that time, it will not be something that those of us who have long been in the coffin need to think about."

Master Bu asked, "So what should we do now?"

Yuan Xi smiled and said, "Of course, we should enjoy life while we can."

"Go and close the door, and let the three of us have a good talk."

After hearing this, the two girls' faces instantly turned red. His Majesty is sometimes too serious, and sometimes too frivolous!

Sili.

With a ding, Ma Chao blocked Zhang Xiu's spear and cursed, "Zhang Xiu, don't be so aggressive!" "Do you really think I can't beat you?"

Zhang Xiu glanced at Xu Huang who was helping him to clear the battlefield from behind, and said calmly: "I won't fight you one-on-one all the time."

"If I can't beat you, someone will come to help."

Ma Chao was furious when he saw that although Xu Huang did not come up, he had been aiming his bow at him. He said, "Zhang Xiu, when did you learn to be so shameless from the Jin army? You are really bringing shame to the people of Xiliang!"

Zhang Xiu shook his spear and said, "Ma Chao, you have been talking more and more nonsense in the past two years."

"A few years ago, you didn't say a word and just started beating me. How come you've become so long-winded?"

"You don't have the courage to fight anymore, do you?"

Ma Chao cursed in his heart. When he was the vanguard in the past, Cao's army was strong and he only needed to charge into battle and leave other things to the people behind him.

But these years are different from before. Cao's army went on the defensive, and as a general, Ma Chao had a lot to consider. It didn't matter if he was defeated along the way. If it implicated friendly forces, he would also be criticized. The previous few times, it was because he was defeated too quickly, which led to the collapse of Xiahou Shang and others, which made him very embarrassed in the court.

He naturally knew that the Jin army intended to target him. The pressure from Han Sui was definitely not as great as on his side. This also made Ma Chao extremely angry. Why did that fierce tiger hold a grudge so much? Didn't he just massacre a few villages in Jizhou?

It’s not like Cao’s army had massacred people before. Which of Cao’s generals didn’t have blood on their hands? Why did they target him alone?
Ma Chao was really exhausted in recent years. Whenever he went into battle, there would always be at least two generals of equal stature waiting to deal with him. Wherever Ma Chao led his troops, the Jin army would follow, and at the same time they kept sending more troops, which made it obvious that he was in trouble.

After a few years, Ma Chao's early ambitions had long been worn away by one defeat after another. Seeing the number of subordinates loyal to him gradually decrease, Ma Chao also became a little confused. If his private soldiers were wiped out in the future, would he be useless to the Wei State?
When Ma Chao thought of this, he became even more worried. Zhang Xiu was taking advantage of the situation and was getting more and more courageous. Logically, the overall strength of the two sides was comparable. Ma Chao was young and strong, while Zhang Xiu was experienced. But now Ma Chao had lost his fighting spirit and was gradually falling into a disadvantage. Seeing this, Xu Huang immediately gave an order and led his troops to encircle Ma Chao from the flank.

When Ma Chao saw this, he had no intention of fighting anymore, so he fired a feint with his spear and rode away. Zhang Xiu rushed over, but Ma Chao retaliated with his spear, wounding Zhang Xiu's hand, causing blood to flow.

Zhang Xiu was furious, but his fingers were so weak that he had difficulty lifting the spear. He knew that if he showed weakness at this moment, Ma Chao would surely advance step by step, and Xu Huang behind him might not be able to save him in time.

He immediately swung his spear, covering Ma Chao's back. Seeing this, Ma Chao thought that Zhang Xiu was not seriously injured, so he decisively retreated and fled.

Xu Huang rushed to Zhang Xiu and wanted to discuss giving chase, but Zhang Xiu said with a sullen face: "Ma Chao is not a simple man. If we chase him rashly, we may not be able to gain any advantage."

Only then did Xu Huang notice that the blood from Zhang Xiu's fingers had already stained the gun barrel. He hurriedly asked someone to call a doctor, who discovered that Zhang Xiu's injuries were more serious than he had imagined. It was unclear whether his fingers could be saved, but his future use of guns would certainly be greatly affected. After the two men discussed, they temporarily occupied the border between Hedong and Zuo Fengyi, waiting for news from the other two routes.

Ma Chao was having a hard time, and Han Sui was in an even worse situation. He was directly facing Zhao Yun, who knew that if he took Chang'an, he would have fewer opportunities to achieve success in the future. After all, as a general, most of his work in the future would be about mobilizing troops, and the tasks of charging into battle would be handed over to the new generation of young generals.

So Zhao Yun did not hold back. He joined forces with Gao Gan and Qu Bei, and fought until Han Sui's coalition forces lost half of Wuwei and were about to approach Hanyang County.

Hanyang County was renamed in the Eastern Han Dynasty. Before that, it was called Tianshui County for most of the time. To the south of here are Youfufeng and Jingzhao Yin, and Chang'an, the capital of Wei State, was located. Therefore, Han Sui could not retreat. He concentrated almost all his forces here and set up numerous defense lines to prevent Zhao Yun from threatening Chang'an.

The fact that the Jin army could reach so close to Chang'an in such a short period of time was beyond Zhao Yun's expectations, because he and Xu Huang and Zhang Xiu were originally playing a diversionary role, and the real battle was with Zhuge Liang and Sima Yi.

However, no one expected that while Zhuge Liang was still battling wits and courage with Sima Yi near Xu Du, the two routes in the north had made unexpected progress. This made Zhao Yun lament that Wei’s combat effectiveness was no longer as strong as before, and he also wondered if there was a problem with Wei’s main defense direction?
In fact, Zhao Yun's guess was correct. Although Sima Yi, who was now in Hongnong County east of Chang'an, had blocked Zhuge Liang for nearly half a year, he slowly realized that something was wrong and was secretly complaining.

Because the people of Wei had gathered intelligence about Zhuge Liang's past battle records and habits, they concluded that Zhuge Liang must be the main force among the three routes. Therefore, Sima Yi's route was the one with the most generals and the heaviest defensive troops.

However, after fighting for several months, Sima Yi gradually realized that something was wrong.

He did block several of Zhuge Liang's sneak attacks and divided troop offensives, but these battles always made Sima Yi feel a little uncomfortable. It was not until he carefully analyzed the troop strength and offensive situations of Zhuge Liang during this period that he gradually came to an unexpected result.

The soldiers led by Zhuge Liang were not 50,000 as the Wei State had expected, but probably only around 15,000!

Yesterday morning, Sima Yi learned from intelligence gathered by spies that the Jin army's logistics and baggage supply was indeed around 70,000 to 80,000 people. In addition to 50,000 soldiers, there were 30,000 to 40,000 civilian workers accompanying the army. This ratio was normal.

But after fighting several battles, Sima Yi discovered that Zhuge Liang did not deploy all his troops on the battlefield. In the largest battle, there were only more than 10,000 people.

Until one day, when Zhuge Liang learned that Zhuge Liang had carried out military farming behind the front lines and had deployed as many as 50,000 to 60,000 people, he realized that he and the Wei officials had been deceived by Zhuge Liang!
Zhuge Liang claimed to have an army of 50,000, but in fact he only deployed one-third of them into battle each time, and the rest of them were all sent to farm. On the contrary, the Wei State deployed most of its troops, ate huge amounts of food, and fought Zhuge Liang to the death!

After Sima Yi figured it out, he couldn't help but complain in his heart, "You have the advantage but you are still so cautious, what does this mean?"

Can't we just give it a quick fight and have a good fight?

(End of this chapter)