Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 980 Who else would you rather me?
Nowadays, it is clear that Cao Cao is more powerful in the world, and Yuan Xi is obviously slightly weaker. What's more, Jiang Dong has actually turned to Cao Cao. The two sides have joined forces to deal with Yuan Xi, putting considerable pressure on Yuan Xi.

In particular, Cao Cao adopted the strategy of sticking to Jizhou and Yuzhou, while harassing Yuan Xi's territory on the borders of several states, and then focusing on attacking Jingzhou. Everyone could see that as long as Cao Cao captured Jingzhou, he would definitely take advantage of the situation to attack Shouchun and join forces with Jiangdong. , completely driving Yuan Xi out of Jianghuai.

But only Cao Cao himself knew that he was just pretending to be like this. Now he felt very guilty. Only he and a few people knew how serious internal and external troubles were inside Cao Ying.

In the direction of Jingzhou, Liu Bei's tenacity in resistance was far beyond Cao Cao's expectations. A quick attack on Jingzhou became a joke. He failed to defeat it for more than a year, and it only made Liu Bei stronger and stronger.

If Yuan Xi hadn't encountered Xianbei when he was attacking Bingzhou, and his plan to quickly attack the southern Huns failed, causing the capture of Bingzhou to be delayed for a year, Cao Cao might have lost his Sili.

At that time, Cao Cao actually couldn't spare any effort to rescue Bingzhou, because on the one hand he wanted to maintain pressure on Jingzhou, and at the same time, he also wanted to prevent Sili from being attacked by Yuan Xi, so he only asked Zhong Yao to symbolically send a small infantry. The army went to support the Xiongnu in the south of Jinyang.

This move was considered by other forces as a sign of Cao Cao's ruthlessness, but the fact is that Cao Cao could not spare any extra troops. A considerable part of his main force was actually guarding against Xiliang.

Because Zhang Lu of Hanzhong unexpectedly surrendered, Cao Cao captured Hanzhong in advance, which made the Liangzhou generals suspicious, thinking that Cao Cao's next plot was them.

Fortunately, Ma Teng and Han Sui fought first, which made Cao Cao relieved, but he still did not dare to be careless. At this time, he was in a critical period of negotiations with Jiangdong. If he showed any signs of being fierce and weak, I'm afraid Jiang Dong would not agree to join forces with Cao Cao, and would even be willing to encourage Cao Cao.

For this reason, Cao Cao painstakingly staged a drama in Xudu where all the ministers presented themselves with the title of Duke. He used the emperor to grant him the title of Duke to show to the world that he was now strong and popular, and he forced Yuan Xi and Sun Quan to join him. , work together to build momentum for themselves. Anyway, the opposite side is far away from Xu Du, and what they say is what they say.

Yuan Xi was naturally indifferent to this undisguised shit, and expressed his attitude with practical actions, that is, going to war with Cao Cao and attacking Yuzhou.

But Sun Quan's reaction was different. He needed this title right now, so he ate it happily, and cooperated with Cao Cao to start an all-out attack on Jingzhou.

In fact, Sun Quan was also deceived by Cao Cao's performance. He had not yet realized that Cao Cao might not be as powerful as he seemed. But at this time, something unexpected happened again. Guan Yu made a good move on the Fancheng front line under pressure from Cao Cao. He left Fancheng to Pang Tong to defend, while he attacked the Jiangdong navy along the Han River. The situation in Jingzhou, which was about to become a dead end, was revived!

After Cao Cao heard the news, he broke out in a cold sweat. He was not afraid of Liu Biao. Even if Liu Biao had two Jingzhous, they would be in his pocket sooner or later, but what Cao Cao was really afraid of was Liu Bei.

In Cao Cao's eyes, for someone like Liu Bei who has been defeated and defeated repeatedly, but who always stands up every time, he should not be given the opportunity to establish a foothold here. He must try his best to suppress his Territory, directly consume it to death.

Previously, he thought he was doing a good job. He kept suppressing Liu Bei and beat him from Xuzhou to Yuzhou, and then fled from Yuzhou to Nanyang to serve as Liu Biao's guest general. As long as Liu Bei was blocked in Jingzhou, he would let him fall sooner or later. Destroyed together with Liu Biao.

But now things have taken an unexpected turn. Liu Bei is indeed still foolishly guarding Xiangyang, but Guan Yu seems to have enlightened and avoided Cao Cao's siege. Instead, he used the superiority of the navy to attack Jiangdong, which was relatively weaker, and opened up a new territory. A new battlefield, and took advantage of the situation to capture several large cities in Nanjun and Jiangxia.

If this continues, Guan Yu may seize Nanjun Jiangxia. The combined population of these two counties exceeds two million and is rich in products. If Liu Bei uses it properly, it will be no less than seizing Xuzhou!

Cao Cao was very worried about this. He himself knew how many internal and external troubles there were in Cao's camp. At the moment, he could not expose any unstable factors and uneasiness to his enemies or even allies, otherwise they might turn into ferocious beasts in an instant and turn around to deal with him. Suck your own flesh and blood dry and eat them all!

So what he has to do now is to kill the chicken to scare the monkeys, and show the world that he doesn't look down on Jing Xiang, Liu Bei, Guan Yu, or ferocious tigers!

The first thing he did was to accept the emperor's letter naming him Duke of Wei.

In June of the sixth year of Jian'an, Cao Cao accepted the title of Duke of Wei from the emperor Liu Xie. His seal was gold and red. He traveled far and wide, had a crown, and set up a palace. His status was above that of the princes and kings.

The head is the cavalry that serves as the pioneer in the emperor's ceremonial guard, and the Zhongya is the latticework of hanging bells, decorated with wild beasts, and is also used by the emperor. This means that Cao Cao is already on an equal footing with the emperor in some aspects.

Some bright-minded people have already taken the initiative to build momentum for Cao Cao to be crowned King of Wei.

This effect was immediate. After Cao Cao sealed Wei Gong, he immediately used the power at hand to confer the title of Emperor to Ma Teng, Han Sui and the Xiliang generals accordingly. After hearing this, Ma Teng, Han Sui and others soon We stopped fighting for the time being and discussed sending someone to Xudu to congratulate him.

After the hidden dangers in Xiliang were temporarily resolved, Cao Cao was free to deal with several hidden dangers within Xudu.

One is that Xun Yu has been further ignored. Now he stays in the house all day and rarely appears.

The other one was that Xu You had made several gaffes before and was reported. The matter got worse and worse, and finally Xu You was imprisoned.

Xu You was not honest in prison. He talked nonsense all day long and asked to see Cao Cao. Cao Cao was too busy a few days ago, so he was too lazy to talk to Xu You. Now that he finally had some free time, he decided to meet his old friend. Of course, It's the last time.

Xu You, with disheveled hair, was sitting in the prison, looking at the food and wine in front of him, and smiled at the jailer: "What a good day is today?"

"Is it possible that Wei Gong was granted the title of king?"

Of course the jailer ignored Xu You. Xu You immediately started to drink. After a while, the footsteps of several people gradually came. Xu You looked through his disheveled hair and squinted his eyes. In the dim light, , and sure enough I found a familiar figure.

Xu You saw Cao Cao approaching him step by step and looking at him through the thick wooden fence, but he did not stand up to greet him. Instead, there was a trace of self-mockery on his face.

He squinted his eyes, "Did Meng De think of me today?"

Xu Chu behind Cao Cao shouted: "Xu You!"

"Since you have met Wei Gong, why don't you bow to me!" Xu You burst out laughing suddenly, "General Xu" he picked his ears, "Oh, I forgot, you are not a general yet, what are you?"

"Oh oh oh," Xu You pretended to suddenly realize, "I forgot that you are now a guard under Meng De's tent. You haven't fought in a long time."

"I heard that you have captured many assassins and will be promoted soon, right?"

Xu Chu's face turned red after hearing this, but then he calmed down and remained silent.

When Xu You saw this, he stopped talking to him and turned to look at Cao Cao. The two of them looked at each other coldly.

Cao Cao sighed, "Ziyuan, I never expected that you would reach this point."

Xu You laughed loudly, "Mengde, you were beaten by Xu Rong and Lu Bu until your family was completely ruined. In the end, you relied on Yuan Benchu's soldiers to stand up, but in the end you stabbed him in the back and killed his two sons. That's right." I never thought of it.”

"When we were young, you and Benchu ​​went to flirt with someone else's bride, but they were discovered. You sold Benchu ​​and ran away. What you did was exactly the same."

"I just said Yuan Benchu ​​was a fool. How dare he believe you again and again!" After speaking, he raised his head and took a big gulp of wine into his mouth.

Cao Cao's expression remained unchanged, "I'm afraid Ziyuan heard some rumors and took them seriously."

"Yuan Benchu ​​turned his back on the Han Dynasty and tried to stand on his own. He was a traitor. I am a member of the Han Dynasty. Han and traitors are incompatible. Although Yuan Benchu ​​and I have an old relationship, we can only abandon the old relationship before public conscience."

Xu You suddenly burst into laughter and choked on the wine in his mouth.

"Cao Ah Ma, you are still so thick-skinned!"

"If you say this, do you believe it?"

Cao Cao sighed: "Ziyuan, you misunderstood me too deeply."

"Have I ever done anything to feel sorry for you in these years?"

"You still said that!" Xu You stood up angrily, "I won't talk about Yuan Benchu's incident. I want to ask you about that incident back then!"

"In the fifth year of Zhongping, Wang Fen and Zhou Jing and I started an uprising, imitating the story of Zhang Liang's assassination of the King of Qin, and planned to assassinate the Han Ling Emperor. I thought that you were also very dissatisfied with the government, so I roped you in. I didn't even have the original intention. Go find it, it’s you!”

"But why did things come to light!"

"What do you think!"

Xu You took a step forward, holding the wooden fence tightly with both hands, "Cao Ah Man, do you dare to tell the truth to me!"

Cao Cao's expression changed slightly. He raised his head slightly and saw Xu You clinging to the cage, looking down at him. This made Cao Cao very unhappy. He snorted coldly, "I, Cao Cao, have acted with no guilt in my life. Why do I need to explain to you?"

"What a clear conscience!" Xu You laughed, "Cao Ah Man, you are still deceiving yourself!"

"But only now do I realize that you, Cao Hao, are really a loyal minister of the Han Dynasty!"

"From beginning to end!"

Cao Cao looked at the crazy-looking Xu You, took a step back, and was about to turn around and leave. Then he stopped, turned around and said, "Eat and drink."

His response was spitting.

Cao Cao turned around and walked out calmly. When he passed Xu Chu, he said, "Just do it better."

Xu Chu lowered his head and accepted the order, asked the jailer to open the cell door and walked in.

Cao Cao slowed down, but he never heard Xu You beg for mercy.

Then there was a click, and the sound of a broken neck came from afar and penetrated into Cao Cao's ears.

Cao Cao subconsciously stopped, shrank his neck, and then strode out.

In this world, no one can understand me.

The road in this world must be walked by me, Cao Cao, and no one else can!
(End of this chapter)