Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1360 Inside and Outside
When Queen Guo saw that Cao Pi agreed with her words, she couldn't help but feel relieved.

The meal was served soon. Empress Guo placed the bowls and plates filled with food on the table in front of Cao Pi. Finally, there were four plates of candied fruit and a bottle of sake. These two things were Cao Pi's favorite things and he couldn't do without them at every meal.

Cao Pi threw a few candied fruits into his mouth and took a sip of wine. Empress Guo then filled his glass. Cao Pi seemed to be in a good mood and began to recite poetry.

When Empress Guo heard this, she also made a few remarks in response. These were the results of her previous hard thinking and were quite appropriate for the situation. When Cao Pi heard this, he also made a few remarks of praise.

Over the past few days, Empress Guo gradually understood Cao Pi's temper and discovered that although Cao Pi was very vindictive about some petty things, he was very open-minded when it came to things he liked or important matters, and was not as murderous as Cao Cao.

For example, Yang Biao, the Grand Marshal of the Hongnong Yang family, had offended Cao Cao, who had always wanted to kill him but had never found the opportunity. The news that Yang Xiu had defected to the Yuan family was later known to Cao Wei, but Cao Pi did not hold Yang family accountable.

A more typical example is Liu Xie. After Liu Xie abdicated, he should have lost his effectiveness. Queen Guo speculated that if it were Cao Cao, he would definitely find an opportunity to kill Liu Xie secretly.

But Cao Pi did not do so. Instead, he sent Liu Xie away directly. From this point of view, Cao Pi was actually much softer-hearted than Cao Cao. The absurd things that had been reported about him before seemed like an act of self-destruction that was intended to oppose Cao Cao.

Queen Guo didn't know where Cao Pi's hatred for Cao Cao came from, but she also wanted to eliminate this psychological shadow as much as possible, so she advised Cao Pi to send Madam Liu away.

In Empress Guo's opinion, the biggest difference between Cao Pi and his two biggest targets in life, Cao Cao and Xiong Hu, is that he is not ruthless enough.

Not to mention Cao Cao, Queen Guo felt that no one in the world could surpass Cao Cao in terms of ruthlessness and cruelty in killing people. He was always ruthless towards people he thought were useless, just like Queen Guo's biological father Guo Tu.

Empress Guo once harbored resentment towards the Cao family and even Cao Pi because of the murder of her father, but over the days, she gradually discovered that Cao Pi was actually just a poor man who was driven insane by Cao Cao when he was alive.

Another great enemy is the ferocious tiger.

Queen Guo was very curious about Xionghu. Because of Xionghu's experience, he had become a legend in himself. When Queen Guo was helping Cao Pi deal with government affairs, she came into contact with a large amount of intelligence about the State of Jin, including what Xionghu had done over the years.

After spending quite a while reading it, Queen Guo came to a conclusion.

Xionghu is also a two-faced person.

Under the various illusions he created, Queen Guo saw a far-sighted, scheming hero who buried his true thoughts in his heart. His inner thoughts were definitely not as simple as he appeared.

He should be the most ruthless person who would do anything to achieve his goal, and that goal was definitely not as simple as becoming the emperor. Only in this way can it be explained why he was able to defeat Cao Cao, such a terrible enemy.

Whenever Empress Guo thought of this, she couldn't help but feel a chill in her heart. Facing such a terrible enemy, what chances does Cao Wei have of winning in the future?
What made her feel even more mixed emotions was that Cao Pi should have seen through all this a long time ago, but he didn't seem to be too worried when he was walking, sitting or lying down. Instead, he often called his friends, or toured the harem, drank and recited poetry, and seemed to have no regard for the future of the Wei State.

Nowadays, there seems to be an extremely pessimistic atmosphere throughout Cao Wei, because judging from the wars in recent years, the future of Wei is not very optimistic. Many people have given up resistance in their hearts, and some even think that giving up resistance and surrendering may not be the worst option.

Queen Guo sighed inwardly, straightened up, and refilled the wine jar in front of Cao Pi with wine. She thought to herself that her life was saved in the first place, so she might as well take it one day at a time.

After some time, Zhuge Liang received a letter from Cao Wei, requesting temporary peace talks and a ceasefire.

As for why it was sent to him, it was naturally because he had the highest official position on the Chang'an and Luoyang front lines, and he was also the one holding the imperial seal. All internal and external affairs had to be reviewed by him first.

Zhuge Liang was not surprised by Cao Wei's request for temporary peace talks. After all, Cao Wei was being bled so badly that it could no longer hold on.

Zhuge Liang thought of what Yuan Xi had said at the beginning: it is better to pursue the enemy with all courage. He wanted to refuse directly, but when he saw the contents of the letter, his eyes narrowed immediately. He knew that it was beyond his ability to decide on his own, so he asked someone to send it to Yuan Xi as soon as possible.

When the letter was delivered to Jicheng, it was already late autumn. During this period, in addition to uniting various forces to deal with Kobinen, Yuan Xi was planning to establish an ocean-going port on the Korean Peninsula. At the same time, he organized a fleet to try to sail to the northeast and establish a route to the North American continent.

The goal of this first step is to find the Alaska region of future generations.

After discussing with officials from the Ministry of Industry, he felt that it would be difficult to achieve the goal of reaching Central America in one go, so he decided to try to do it in several steps. After arriving at a place, he would first establish a small settlement and seaport on the spot, while continuously relocating the population. Once the local area had reached a certain scale, he would develop workshops such as shipbuilding and repair, turning it into a transit station for ocean voyages.

Then, using this transit station as a starting point, we can build several ports along the west coast of North America to minimize the risks and finally reach Central America.

Although this approach is slower, it is safer and does not affect the dispatch of fleets for exploration at the same time. With such a logistics base, the risk will be greatly reduced.

Of course, the cost of ocean voyages was very high. With the wealth of Jin, it could not produce a surplus while dealing with Wei and Xianbei. So Yuan Xi made an agreement with the aristocratic landlords, similar to the Age of Exploration in later generations. If they could contribute their property for shipbuilding or even directly provide ships and sailors, he would give them a portion of the newly discovered continental land. Since ancient times, the Chinese people, whether rich or poor, have a natural desire for land. Therefore, both the Han and the Hu people showed great interest in Yuan Xi's proposal, so the preparations for this fleet were also advancing at a very fast speed.

Yuan Xi was naturally in a good mood about this, but his mood that day was greatly ruined by the letter from the State of Wei sent by Zhuge Liang.

After he finished reading the letter, he put it heavily on the table. Xiao Qiao, who was on duty today, was grinding ink. Seeing that Yuan Xi was unhappy, she chuckled and said, "Why, is that little black guy from Wei challenging the king again?"

Yuan Xi laughed out loud at the name, and his mood improved a lot. He said, "This Cao Pi is quite capable. He can think of a way to disgust me."

"He wanted to exchange Liu for Yu Jin and other captives."

It took Xiao Qiao a while to realize who Liu was. She exclaimed, "Is this the wife of Duke Benchu ​​who was captured by the Wei army during the battle of Yecheng?"

Yuan Xi nodded. "Liu and I have always had a bad relationship. She is Yuan's biological mother. There is nothing wrong with her paving the way for her own son. But she chose the wrong time. She had to aggravate the conflict when Cao Cao was spying on Jizhou, causing the two Yuans to fight each other, which led to the disaster of Yecheng."

"To be honest, if she hadn't been causing trouble behind the scenes, Yuan Weiwei might not have died."

"Of course, the responsibility does not lie entirely with her, but her experience is somewhat disgraceful for the Yuan family, especially serving Cao Cao and his son successively. Some members of the Yuan family often complain to me that the family's reputation has been damaged."

"Cao Pi is good at negotiating prices, but it's hard for me to refuse such a request. Although I have somewhat let go of my prejudice against the Liu family, others may not think so."

"However, as the head of the Yuan family, I still have some responsibilities towards my brother Yuan Shang. Since the Wei State has brought it up, I cannot just leave his biological mother alone."

Xiao Qiao thought for a moment and suddenly said, "I remember now. Your Majesty's brother Yuan Shang seems to have a widow named Hong in the inner house, right?"

"I have heard from other ladies that Hong had lived here all these years before the mansion was converted into a palace, but when I wanted to ask more, the ladies refused to continue."

"I only heard that she was divorced before Yuan Shang died?"

"I'm afraid there is some relationship between her and His Majesty?"

Seeing the embarrassment on Yuan Xi's face, Xiao Qiao knew that she had guessed right, and became even happier, "Your Majesty is really gifted in this area."

"But it's no wonder. As the youngest emperor in history, I'm afraid there are few women who wouldn't be tempted by him, right?"

"But I find it very strange that my husband has not given me any status. Are you going to keep doing this?"

Yuan Xi coughed and said, "This is very complicated, not as simple as you think."

"She and I don't have that much unclear relationship. Maybe after I become the emperor, the world will stop discussing the entanglement here."

Xiao Qiao guessed about 70% of the inside story, and a look of wanting a beating appeared on her face. "Okay, okay, I won't mention it again in the future. Your Majesty, please do as you please. I will just watch obediently."

Yuan Xi was so angry that he took a big sip of tea, "You have been very bold recently, I will stay up late in the study tonight, you are not allowed to leave!"

Xiao Qiao's face instantly turned red, but she still pretended to be calm, "Okay, who is afraid of who? I am the one who fought with the other ladies. Can Your Majesty still withstand the battle of the seven countries?"

Yuan Xi laughed angrily, "Okay, okay, this is how you should use The Qin Theory, right? Then do you know the sentence at the end, which says, 'Strengthen the long strategy and rule the world, swallow the two Qiao sisters and destroy the princes?'"

Xiao Qiao cried out softly, quickly got up and ran away, but she had already been caught by Yuan Xi, who pulled her under the quilt and beat her up.

When she poked her head out from under the quilt, she was already out of breath, with her hair disheveled. She was about to say a few words to save her situation, but a strong wind blew outside, the sky was covered with dark clouds, and it started to rain in a blink of an eye.

As the cold wind blew, the rain poured down, and the temperature dropped sharply, Yuan Xi hugged Xiao Qiao and said, "It's not good. It looks like it's going to get cold again this winter."

"I'm afraid that this winter, the situation outside the pass will be even worse. I'm afraid that Kirby won't be able to bear it next year. If he can't find a way to solve my plan of attacking the rear, I guess he will mobilize the entire tribe and go south with all his strength."

(End of this chapter)