Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1456 Accident
Queen Mother Bian did not expect Queen Guo to contradict her. She was stunned for a moment before she reacted. She pointed her finger at Queen Guo and shrilly, "You, you, you are rebelling!"

"You uneducated thing, don't you have a father or a mother? Doesn't anyone teach you filial piety?"

Seeing that Cao Pi's life was in danger, Empress Guo was also desperate and said, "Of course I have parents. I have a clean background and there is nothing to hide!"

Empress Dowager Bian almost bleeds from her head. Empress Guo is secretly mocking herself for being born in a brothel. This is simply a slap in her face!
She had not expected that Empress Guo, who was usually so honest, would tear her face off and not give her face. She immediately shouted to the inner court: "Come here, drag her away and slap her in the face!"

As a result, Queen Mother Bian called out a few times, but no one from the inner guards came up. She looked around and said in a hoarse voice, "Why, don't you even listen to me, the Queen Mother?"

Empress Guo ignored Empress Dowager Bian and said to the doctor, "Do your best to save the king. If the king dies, you will be buried with him."

After hearing this, beads of sweat instantly broke out on the foreheads of several doctors, and they quickly surrounded Cao Pi to find a solution.

Empress Guo turned around again and called the guards present to her side. "Go out, and pass on His Majesty's order to seal the palace gates and prohibit anyone from entering or leaving."

"Any news about the king, if it gets out, everyone will be killed!"

"You guys do a good job. Your work today will be rewarded handsomely in the future!"

More than a dozen guards knelt down and said, "Yes, sir!"

Seeing the guards go out in an orderly manner and block the palace gates in four groups, Queen Mother Bian finally understood everything. She opened her eyes wide in shock and pointed at Queen Guo and said, "You, when did you take over the palace?"

"How dare you control the Forbidden Palace without permission!"

"I didn't expect that you already had such evil ambitions!"

When Cao Cao was alive, Empress Dowager Bian was also an expert in managing the harem. She managed the harem in perfect order and turned the tide several times when Cao Cao was away. She was also a very capable person.

But after Cao Cao became king, Lady Bian gradually faded out of the increasingly large harem because of her status and lived a low-key life.

The reason for this was that during the dispute over the crown prince, Cao Pi and Cao Zhi were both her biological sons. At this time, as long as Lady Bian acted within the rules, one of the two would definitely be the heir. If she acted in a high-profile manner and did something wrong, the crown prince would fall to the son of another lady, and that would be a loss.

So Lady Bian started to not care about the affairs of the palace. After Cao Cao's death, because Cao Pi had a prejudice against Lady Bian for favoring Cao Zhi, even though Lady Bian became the queen mother, she never interfered in the affairs of the palace, and let Cao Pi decide for himself.

But Empress Dowager Bian did not expect that when Cao Pi was seriously ill, the one who actually took over the power in the palace was Empress Guo, whom she had always despised. Judging from the way she easily mobilized the guards, she was afraid that she had already planned this for a long time!
Facing Empress Dowager Bian's questioning, Empress Guo's eyes were cold, "Your Majesty, what you said is wrong."

"I don't have the ability to make such a plan. The power to mobilize the people in the palace was naturally given by His Majesty. It is for the purpose of dealing with emergencies like this one, so as to avoid being used by people with bad intentions."

"I see that the Queen Mother is also tired, so you should go back and rest."

Empress Dowager Bian was still stunned, but Empress Guo summoned the guards and handed him a token. "Go directly to the home of General Zhenwei Wu Zhi, give him the token, and have him lead his troops to surround the Anxiang Marquis's residence."

The Marquis of Anxiang was Cao Zhi. After he was captured by Sima Yi in Hanzhong, he was sent to Chengdu and has been under house arrest ever since. When Empress Dowager Bian heard about this, she was furious and shouted, "How dare you!"

"Bitch, do you want to kill my son?"

Empress Guo turned around and said coldly, "Empress Dowager, His Majesty's life or death is unknown now, so I will naturally act according to his previous instructions."

"The crown prince is Cao Xun now. He is still young, so I must be on guard against those who are suspected of plotting to take the throne."

Seeing that the guards around her obeyed Empress Guo's orders, Madam Bian guessed that this must have been instructed by Cao Pi in advance.

She suddenly realized that she had also placed people in the army, but they were all the internal guards around Cao Pi. However, when she was investigating the Five-Stone Powder a few days ago, Empress Guo found an excuse to dismiss them all!
When Queen Mother Bian thought of this, her eyes widened and she cursed: "You, you have been harboring evil intentions for a long time, I really misjudged you!"

Empress Guo was also in a very bad mood. She didn't want to argue with Madam Bian anymore, so she ordered the palace maid, "Come here, send the Queen Mother back to the palace to rest!"

Madam Bian shook off the hand of the maid who came up to support her, turned around and went out cursing. She was born in a brothel, so she cursed very dirty, which frightened the maids around her and made them lower their heads. They dared not look at Empress Guo, fearing that she would vent her anger on them. Empress Guo, however, looked calm, thinking that it was just the barking of a stray dog. As long as she was in control of the situation, Empress Dowager Bian would not be able to do anything.

A sneer appeared on her face. If Empress Dowager Bian really supported Cao Zhi to ascend to the throne, she would surely have a miserable end in the future. Fortunately, this was also what Cao Pi did not want to see, so the two of them had an agreement long ago to deal with today's situation. If it were not for Cao Pi's endorsement, how could Empress Guo have such prestige to control the harem beyond Empress Dowager Bian?

She took out another token and asked the guards to take it to find Zhu Suo, instructing him to lead troops to block the city gates and streets to prevent any unrest in the city.

After arranging these things, Queen Guo ordered someone to bring Cao Xun, and the two of them waited by Cao Pi's bedside.

The streets and gates in Chengdu were soon controlled by Wei soldiers. All the nobles and common people were driven back home, and people were in a panic for a while.

The officials of the aristocratic families all knew that a major change had occurred. The smart ones quickly guessed that something might have happened in the palace, and soon they began to pass the news privately.

It is not entirely Queen Guo's fault that things have developed to this point, because preventing the news from leaking out and imposing martial law in the city are contradictory. She also did not intend to keep the news secret forever. After all, the most important thing at the moment is to prevent Cao Zhi's faction from causing chaos.

But what Queen Guo did not expect was that after all her planning, the first to cause trouble were the combination of Wu Zhi and Zhu Suo.

The one with the biggest problem is Wu Zhi.

Wu Zhi was born in a humble family and was not respected by his fellow villagers. This was why he wasted a lot of time in the beginning and thus had a very narrow mind. However, because of his broad talent and knowledge, and his good relations with Cao Pi and Cao Zhi, he secretly stood on Cao Pi's side and deceived Cao Zhi.

Moreover, in the later struggle among the crown princes, he was able to use strategies to counter Yang Xiu, and at the same time advised Cao Pi not to engage in strategies but to rely on true feelings, thus allowing Cao Pi to win the trust of Cao Cao and win in one fell swoop, thus making great contributions to Cao Pi's ascension to the throne, which shows the high level of his wisdom.

After Cao Pi ascended the throne, he reciprocated Wu Zhi's kindness by giving him very high official titles, such as General of the Central Army, General Zhenwei, and Marquis, making him the most powerful person at the time.

But Wu Zhi had a natural character flaw. Because of his previous experiences, he hated the scholar families, especially the Cao clan who had long controlled the court. He had a bad relationship with Cao Hong, Cao Zhen and even the Xiahou clan, and they often had conflicts.

However, that would have been the end of it. Wu Zhi and Dong Zhao, who were both from Dingtao, Jiyin, also had a very bad relationship. This was because the Dong family was a large local family and was responsible for recommending scholars, so they naturally suppressed Wu Zhi. As a result, Wu Zhi repeatedly targeted Dong Zhao and even Dong's clan members until Dong Zhao personally came to apologize, and Wu Zhi stopped.

Not only that, Wu Zhi also targeted Chen Qun, who was in the same camp as the Four Friends, saying that he was indecisive and not fit to be a prime minister. He offended almost all the forces in the court.

Only a few people could understand the logic behind his actions. Wu Zhi came from a poor family, so he naturally hated the clan system, especially Chen Qun, who proposed the Nine-Rank System. Only Sima Yi and Zhu Shao, who were closest to Cao Pi, understood this, so they could be considered to have a decent relationship with Wu Zhi.

But now that Empress Guo asked Wu Zhi to lead troops to suppress Chengdu, it gave Wu Zhi the opportunity to take advantage of the situation. Wu Zhi took the opportunity to arrest some aristocratic officials who did not obey the martial law order, and brought them to prison for severe interrogation, beating them to death.

Naturally, officials and nobles in the court and the public were very dissatisfied with this, and people kept submitting petitions to the court to impeach Wu Zhi. When Zhu Shao heard about it, he made a special trip to find Wu Zhi and persuade him to act more gently.

Wu Zhi sneered, "These nobles are all opportunists and ungrateful. I have shown great mercy by not executing them!"

Zhu Suo advised: "Have you ever thought that if something happens to His Majesty, will we have a way out after offending others like this?"

Wu Zhi said angrily: "If your majesty dies, we will do our utmost to support the crown prince to ascend the throne. Anyone who dares to stop us will be killed. What's the point of talking about a way out?"

"Are you afraid, or are you thinking of betraying His Majesty?"

Zhu Shuo was furious when he heard this. He drew his sword and slashed it hard on the ground, shouting, "You have gone too far in bullying me. Even I am like this, let alone others!"

The two parted on bad terms, and Wu Zhi didn't take it seriously at the time. They had quarreled before, but in the end, everything remained the same, right?
However, the news that came the next day left Wu Zhi dumbfounded.

After Zhu Shao returned home, he became angrier the more he thought about it. He also ate something inappropriate, which caused congestion in his chest and abdomen. He was bedridden that night and suffered from shortness of breath and chest tightness at night. He was actually angered to death.

At that time, after two days of rescue, Cao Pi finally regained some consciousness and was able to drink a few sips of sugar water. Empress Guo had been guarding him for two days and two nights and was extremely exhausted. She was happy to see that Cao Pi's condition had improved, but at this time, the news of Zhu Shuo's sudden death reached the palace.

When Empress Guo heard this, she secretly cried out inwardly, "Oh no!" She naturally knew that Wu Zhi was domineering, so when she used the token, she asked Wu Zhi to monitor Cao Zhi's mansion, and asked Zhu Shao, who was more smooth-talking, to block the city gates and streets to avoid any backlash.

During that period, Wu Zhi arrested people, which was actually an overstepping of the rules, but fortunately, with Zhu Suo's balance, there was no chaos in the city. Now that Zhu Suo has died suddenly and Wu Zhi has seized power, who knows what will happen?
(End of this chapter)