Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1482: The King and His Ministers Do Not Know Each Other

When Zhen Mi saw Yuan Xi asking questions, a strange look flashed across her face, "This child has been acting strangely lately. I don't see him very often. Maybe he's busy with something?"

"If Your Majesty really cares about her, why not go find her and ask her in person?"

Yuan Xi thought for a moment and said, "I'm a little afraid to face her now."

"The marriage that I promised to Madam Wu has fallen through. Although Xiang'er was the first to bring it up, I don't know how to explain this to Madam Wu in her grave."

"Besides, she is not young anymore. Previously, she was not given a status because of the marriage arrangement. Now she can only marry out. Should we give her a title of princess?"

Zhen Mi quickly said, "Since Your Majesty cares so much about her, you should understand her thoughts."

"If it really doesn't work, I'll go and test her first."

After hearing this, Yuan Xi nodded and said, "That's fine. I have a lot of government affairs to deal with these days. Next year will be the time to mobilize troops against Yizhou. This will be the last battle against Wei."

"Once Wei is destroyed, Hannan will accept reality in a few years. Whether it is annexed by Jin or coexists as a vassal ally, at least I will not leave Rui'er with an unsolvable problem in the future."

Zhen Mi smiled and said, "I heard that the Lord of Hannan has just married a girl from the Guan family. Hannan's attitude is actually mostly on General Guan, right?"

"My husband's plan is really long-term. General Guan is the brother of Lord Xuande, so he has the most reason to confront Your Majesty. However, he owes Your Majesty the most favors, so he is extremely entangled and keeps silent on the affairs of the two countries. This is already the most favorable situation for Dajin."

Yuan Xi sighed, "A gentleman deceives others with his own methods. Sometimes when I look back, I realize that I am not a good person in the strict sense."

"But as Dajin becomes stronger, I believe people will gradually realize a truth."

"The so-called restoration of the Han Dynasty is just a symbol of the people's hope for a better life. If I do better than my predecessors and let everyone in the world live a better life, then the Jin Dynasty will be the Han Dynasty in people's hearts."

"The Han Dynasty is a spirit of pursuit of happiness, not worship of the emperor's bloodline. If the emperor betrays the people, even if it is the Han Dynasty, it will lose the support of the people and be abandoned by the people."

"This is true for the country and for my family. You and I have gone through many twists and turns to get together, so I don't want to disappoint you, and I won't disappoint you."

Zhen Mi said softly, "I understand in my heart, and they all understand in their hearts too."

Yuan Xi said, "I will be patrolling the border with my generals in a few days. I will leave the affairs of the inner palace to you."

A few days later, Yuan Xi took generals including Qian Zhao out of the city to inspect the border trade and garrison conditions.

Today's Yanshan Great Wall is no longer the same as it was in later generations. As for the gaps damaged by war, Yuan Xi did not repair them, but simply turned them into city gates.

On both sides of the city gate, there were markets where both sides traded. Many northern tribes came with cattle and sheep, carrying furs to trade.

Of course, the scale of this market has not expanded in recent years. This is because many tribes outside the Great Wall saw the rapid changes in Jin State and rushed to the interior to ask to be registered as citizens.

If they meet the requirements, these people will generally be dispersed and sent to Liaodong Goguryeo, or the coastal areas of Jizhou and Qingzhou, where they will be resettled by special local government offices. While they are allocated wasteland, there will be special people responsible for teaching them Han customs, and each family will learn Chinese characters. In this way, within a few years, these people will be integrated into the local community.

When Yuan Xi's caravan left the gate of Jicheng and headed north, a tall and beautiful girl stood on the top of the city wall. She stared at the departing caravan in a daze, holding a large bow in her left hand, and her right fingers unconsciously plucked the bowstring.

Zhen Mi's voice rang out from behind her, "Xiang'er is here indeed."

The girl was Sun Shangxiang. She turned around, raised her hand and said, "Greetings, Queen."

Zhen Mi walked to the edge of the city wall, stood side by side with Sun Shangxiang, and said, "Why do you keep hiding from His Majesty?"

Sun Shangxiang gritted her teeth and said, "Who is hiding from him? I just don't want to see anyone."

Zhen Mi said slowly, "Do you want to live like this forever?"

"You know His Majesty's character. If you don't tell him something, he will never think about it."

Sun Shangxiang bit her lip and said, "There's nothing much to say, I..."

Zhen Mi said, "It would be best if you tell His Majesty directly what you are thinking."

"The key is how you think. If you can't take this step, you will never be able to look forward."

"When His Majesty comes back, find some time to have a good talk with him."

Sun Shangxiang had a complicated expression, but finally nodded slightly.

Spring came to the east, and the summer solstice arrived. The north was still peaceful, but in the south, Jin finally mobilized the whole country, dispatched a large amount of supplies and equipment, and launched a full-scale attack on Wei. Zhuge Liang was on Jinniu Road, and Lu Xun was on Micang Road to Bazhong. The two routes advanced simultaneously. At the same time, the waterway from Baidicheng to Jiangling was blocked by the Jin Hannan coalition forces, making it impossible for the Wei navy to go downstream, and Chengdu, which was about to be attacked, became an isolated place.

Because Wei focused its main military forces on the Shu-Shendu Road, there were only a few Wei troops left to defend Chengdu in three directions, and their morale was low. With the support of sufficient siege machinery, Jin was unstoppable and soon approached Chengdu.

Zhuge Liang took the fastest route because he brought Cao Zhi with him to persuade people to surrender along the way. Along the way, both the Yizhou faction and the Cao clan had lost their will to resist and opened their cities to surrender.

Zhuge Liang interrogated several surrendered officials and generals, and received news that surprised him greatly, namely, Sima Yi, the current prime minister and minister of Wei, did not return to defend Chengdu after the beginning of spring, but continued to attack and sweep the Shu-Shendu Road!
This almost made Zhuge Liang unable to cope. Could it be that Sima Yi wanted to just give up Chengdu?
Facts have proved that Zhuge Liang's idea was still conservative. Sima Yi had been fighting outside for more than half a year, and not only did he not return to defend, he also continued to transfer the last batch of reserve troops from Chengdu. Now in the city of Chengdu, not only the troops are tribal, but the morale has also reached an extremely low level.

What surprised Zhuge Liang even more was that Sima Yi took almost all his soldiers with him on this expedition, but left behind most of the court officials. Now, following Sima Yi, there were only a hundred or so generals and officials whom he trusted most.

Moreover, the Wei army led by Sima Yi had already occupied Kunming and fought to the south of Dali. It was too late to rush back.

Zhao Yun was also puzzled by this. When he heard that Sima Yi not only did not take the young King of Wei away, but even his family was in Chengdu, he could not help but ask Zhuge Liang: "What on earth is Sima Yi thinking?"

"If he really wanted to establish a stronghold in Dali and resist stubbornly, he should at least take the King of Wei and his family with him, right?"

Zhuge Liang pondered for a long time before finally saying, "Maybe in his mind, none of this matters anymore."

Zhao Yun couldn't help but shake his head. "How can there be such a person? He is such a smart person, he should know that he fought against Jin before just following orders. If he leads Wei to surrender now, Jin will not treat him badly. Why does he do this?"

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The Empress Dowager Guo in Chengdu also had the same question. Now that she heard that the Jin army was only a few dozen miles away from Chengdu, she knew that the situation was hopeless. She could not help but sigh and called Sima Yi's wife Zhang Chunhua into the palace.

When they met, she said, "Do you know that Sima Yi has abandoned Wei and you?"

Zhang Chunhua had guessed it long ago. Although she looked pale, she still managed to remain calm and said, "I guessed it not long ago, too."

"Now that the Queen Mother wants to question me, I have nothing to say."

When Empress Dowager Guo saw that Zhang Chunhua did not seem to be lying, she couldn't help feeling a little powerless. She thought to herself that she was too ambitious and thought she had tied Sima Yi to her side, but in the end, the other party didn't even care about his wife and children and left so decisively. He really tricked everyone.

Gradually, noises began to be heard from all over the city, and finally became louder and louder until they reached the ears of the two women. Soon, a palace maid came in in a panic and said, "It's not good, Queen Mother! When they heard that the Jin army was approaching, the city was in a panic and a riot had begun!"

Empress Dowager Guo said, "Who is responsible for the city defense now? Let him mobilize troops to quell the rebellion!"

The maid said, "It was General Fei Guan, but half an hour ago, he led his men to open the city gate and escape!"

Queen Mother Guo and Zhang Chunhua looked at each other, and finally Queen Mother Guo sat down helplessly and said, "Send someone over and send envoys to negotiate with the State of Jin to discuss surrender."

At the same time, heavy rain was pouring on the Shu-Shendu Road south of Dali. The Wei army, which was struggling to move forward, got stuck in the muddy road and was forced to stop and set up camp.

Du Xi entered the tent and said to Sima Yi: "General, Xu Yi said that the front army cannot move forward and asked to return."

Sima Yi listened and said calmly: "He dared to disobey the military order. He will be arrested and beheaded. The gate is open."

Du Xi was startled for a moment, then he took the order and left with the token.

After Du Xi left, Sima Yi cursed, "You bastard, I've been displeased with you for a long time."

Suddenly he started coughing violently and quickly took out a silk handkerchief from his arms to cover his mouth. After a long time, the coughing stopped. He took off the silk handkerchief, which was already stained with several dark bloodstains.

Sima Yi finally couldn't help but lose his composure and cursed to the sky, "Cao Pi, you bastard, you are really a lunatic!"

In the past two years, he was puzzled as to why his health was deteriorating. At that time, he thought that he was exhausted from fighting and had damaged his foundation, so he paid more attention to health preservation.

But his health has been fluctuating. Since the death of Cao Pi, Sima Yi's health has been good for a while, but recently he has developed coughing up blood.

Sima Yi recalled hard and finally remembered something wrong.

When Cao Pi was alive, he once went to the palace for a banquet. At that time, Sima Yi was extremely cautious. He only tasted a little of the food and did not drink any alcohol. Then when he got home, he would pick his throat and spit out all the food.

The reason for this was that he knew that Cao Pi was in poor health, so he was worried that the other party would use the banquet to secretly kill him before his death, so he took extra precautions.

However, there were two times when he was unable to stop it. That was when Cao Pi personally poured the wine in his wine cup to Sima Yi as a reward. This was a great honor, so Sima Yi naturally did not dare to refuse. What's more, Cao Pi also drank the remaining wine at the same time. What could be a problem?
However, now that Sima Yi thought back, he finally understood why Cao Pi died earlier than expected. It turned out that the other party had deceived him with his life!

While laughing at himself for being smart all his life but still being stupid enough to be deceived by someone like Cao Pi, Sima Yi was even more confused and puzzled. Where did he reveal his flaws that deserved Cao Pi to treat him like this?

(End of this chapter)