Thousand-year-old family: its rise began with Shang Yang’s reforms

Chapter 377 Funny Things
This incident was not glorious, and could even be considered a major scandal of Cao Wei.

But precisely because this was a major scandal of "Cao Wei", this matter has been passed down, because at that time Cao Han was not the only orthodox dynasty in the world.

Of course, the three history books have different records on this matter.

Ever since Liu Bei and Cao Cao established two different Han dynasties with Emperor Shao of Han "Liu Min" and Emperor Xian of Han "Liu Xie" respectively, there are always slight differences in the "facts" about the same period of history recorded in the three different history books.

This point was concluded by later generations after spending countless "blood and tears".

Because the historical book "Guan Han Ji" was not passed down in the beginning, there are only two historical books circulating in the world, one of which is "Han Shu", which is almost regarded as an orthodox historical book.

The second book is "Records of the Grand Historian: Book of Han". These two volumes of Book of Han were written by Chen, but Chen did not sort out this history book at the beginning, but placed it in Chen's Zhuoshen Building.

This is understandable.

Because there are so many books and history books in my building.

China has a history of five thousand years, and the Chen family has existed for more than two thousand years. A history of China is half of the Chen family book. How could the descendants of the Chen family have so much free time to sort out all these things one by one?

The reason why this book was found out from the pile of old papers was because of the excavation of "Guan Han Ji".

Guan Han Ji was unearthed from Sima Kang's tomb. The discovery of this book confirmed this absurd and distorted period of history. Since the discovery of Guan Han Ji, historians have begun to view the history of the Three Kingdoms period with a "questioning" eye.

Because there is "historical data" to support it.

Some historical records in the Records of the Han Dynasty are different from some historical records in the Book of Han.

The biggest difference is the historical record about the ownership of "Jingzhou".

At that time, the Liu family of Pei County and the Cao family of Langya, two great families that had also been passed down for hundreds of years, were madly criticizing each other, saying that it was all the fault of each other's ancestors.

Because of the existence of "Han Shu", the Langya Cao family has been ridiculed by the Pei County Liu family for more than a hundred years. This time, the Cao family got the serious historical materials such as "Guan Han Ji" to prove that their ancestor, the founder of the Cao family, "Cao Cao" Cao Mengde, was not the kind of person recorded in the Han Shu, so they stood very straight.

But Liu's historical evidence is also very real.

The Book of Han has been passed down from the end of the Han Dynasty to the present day, and it is an indisputable historical document.

The two great families were in great turmoil, and even said something like: "Either you or me, either me or you."

This is the record of that incident.

The records in the Book of Han are as follows.

"The twelfth month of the winter of the fourth year of Chengtai."

"Langya pretended to be cunning and deceived the lord of Jingzhou, the wife of Liu Biao, a relative at that time, and obtained Jingzhou."

"When Meng De was young, he had a reputation for being a good wife. He often said to his friends: The beauty of young women is unknown to those who have never tasted them."

"I have this good thing, so I take care of it."

"In the winter of the fourth year of Chengtai, the emperor invited the virtuous king and the false prime minister to go to Jingzhou to discuss important matters. As night fell, the false prime minister stole Liu Jingzhou's wife, Cai, and conspired with him."

"The night deepens, the candlelight shines brightly."

"At that time, the sky was dark. The attendants outside the house closed their eyes when they heard the noise. The fake one was six feet tall and looked like Lao Ai. He might have been plotting against Cai Shi in the same way that Lao Ai was plotting against Zhao Ji. As the night deepened, the noise inside the house grew louder and louder until it was almost inaudible."

"I heard subtle sounds from both sides."

"The false prime minister said, 'Madam, are you willing to help me with my plan for Jingzhou? If it succeeds, then Madam, I will share the bliss with you.'" When the people around heard this, they were terrified."

"This man is Cai's confidant, and he was favored by Liu Biao in the past, so I listened carefully to their plan and wanted to foil their plot."

"I only heard Cai's words: "If you don't abandon me, I will follow you." In the back room, the spring sounds are still there, like lotus flowers emerging from water."

"After a long time, the noise in the house gradually died down."

"The attendant quietly went to Prince Liu Cong and informed him."

"Liu Cong was furious and said: 'How dare Cao the thief bully me like this?'"

"He wanted to kill Cao the thief, but was stopped by his attendants."

"The attendant said: It is easy to kill Cao thieves today, but where should Jingzhou go? I hope you will think twice."

"Liu Cong was furious, but he listened to it, thought about it carefully, and said with emotion: "My plan is far inferior to that of my father and brother. Since my father and brother have both surrendered to the emperor's uncle, the emperor's uncle must be a reliable person." After thinking about it, he wrote a letter to the wise king for advice."

"The 30th day of the twelfth lunar month, night."

"The letter has not arrived yet, but Cao the thief has been enjoying himself with Cai every night. Cong cannot bear such a great shame, so he drew his sword and plotted against him."

If one only looks at this record, one might even suspect that this is not an orthodox history book, but something from some pornographic book, but it was actually recorded in the Book of Han.

Yes.

The Book of Han has a separate biography for Cao Cao, and the title is simple and clear.

"Book of Han·Biography of Traitors·Biography of Cao Mengde"

Yes.

In this volume of Han Dynasty records, the Sima clan member wrote a "Benji" specifically for Cao Mengde, which should have been a supreme honor. After all, throughout history, only the "King of Chu" had a Benji when he was not an emperor.

Cao Cao never proclaimed himself emperor during his lifetime, but this chronicle was written while he was still alive.

This shows the hatred that Sima clan member had for Cao Cao.

In later generations, the reason why the Cao clan felt ashamed of this matter was not because their ancestor was a good wife, but because the records in the Book of Han portrayed Cao Cao as an "adulterer" who relied on a woman from the Cai family to obtain Jingzhou.

This is why the Cao clan members cannot tolerate it.

The records in the Records of the Han Dynasty are relatively simple, but they are obviously contrary to the records in the Book of Han. In the records in the Records of the Han Dynasty, Cao Cao's image appears to be more "upright".

His record is as follows.

"In the winter of the fourth year of Chengtai, Liu Jingzhou was seriously ill and invited the Prime Minister to meet him in Jingzhou."

"At that time, the false prime minister Liu Bei in Chang'an had been plotting to seize Jingzhou for a long time and did not want the Han Dynasty to unify the country, so he moved forward in secret."

"In the winter of the fourth year of Chengtai, Liu Jingzhou passed away. Before he died, his wife entrusted Jingzhou to the prime minister. The prime minister said with emotion: Among all the heroes in the world, Liu Jingzhou should be one of them. He was a relative of the Han Dynasty and protected Jingzhou for many years. He entrusted me with his life before his death. How can I be ashamed of him?"

“So, do your best.”

"At that time, the false prime minister Liu Bei conspired with Liu Biao's son "Liu Qi" to seize Jingzhou."

"Liu Qi is the eldest son of Liu Jingzhou."

"However, although he was the eldest son, he was not favored by Liu Jingzhou, and his mother died early, so he was lonely."

"After Liu Jingzhou died, he appointed his second son Liu Cong as governor of Jingzhou and entrusted him to the position of prime minister. Liu Qi became jealous and conspired with Liu Bei to seize Jingzhou."

The previous description tries its best to portray Cao Cao as a "benevolent" person, while the latter part uses some "Spring and Autumn style" writing.

"In the fourth year of Chengtai, on the 30th day of the twelfth lunar month, at night."

"Liu Cong was deceived and wanted to kill the prime minister."

"The Prime Minister couldn't bear to face Liu Biao, so he covered his face and ran away."

These are all the records about this period of history in the Chronicles of the Han Dynasty. Just these eight words, "He was deceived by others and wanted to kill the prime minister," tell the whole story.

When the Cao and Liu families were arguing endlessly and the argument had reached a climax, even to the point of fighting to the death, someone came out to act as a peacemaker.

The Qin family in Guanzhong, the Zhao family in Shangdang, and the Li family in Longzhong all came out to smooth things over. They are all aristocratic families with many years of history. Why do they have to do this? Since they disagree with history, why not just find someone who is absolutely fair?
Therefore, this group of people whose ancestors had been rich went to find the Guandu Chen family. They hoped that they could find evidence from the Chen family to prove that the other party's "historical materials" were fake, and they wanted to clear themselves of the dirt.

As it turned out, Chen did have evidence.

However, this evidence made both Cao and Liu dissatisfied. Of course, the people of Liu were even more dissatisfied.

Because the records in "Records of the Grand Historian: Book of Han" prove that Cao Cao was indeed a hero.

At that time, when the head of the Chen family heard the reason why the heads of many aristocratic families came to him, he was actually at a loss whether to laugh or cry. The Chen family had ignored worldly affairs for many years, and this group of people were really too idle.

But because he was also very curious about this matter, he agreed to go to the "Zhuoshen Building" to look for any relevant evidence.

There are so many books in Zhuoshen Building, and some of them are rare copies that have been passed down for thousands of years, so many of them have not been digitized.

They searched for a long time and finally found a history book called "Han Shu".

When the Liu family saw this book, they were very excited because they thought that this "Book of Han" was the same as their "Book of Han".

The Cao family’s people stiffened their necks and asked, what if the version circulated in later generations was modified?
So he opened the "Book of Han".

It was precisely because of this action that the Chinese historical community completely revised the history of the "Three Kingdoms" period.

Because this is a history book left by the first historian of the "Dayu" dynasty, and because the records in this "Book of Han" are different from the previous "Book of Han", he was probably more "fair" and did not deify either side.

Whether it is Cao Cao or Liu Bei, all the characters in that period of history seem to be more vivid.

The records in this "Book of Han" are as follows.

"In the winter of the fourth year of Chengtai, King An and Liu Biao conspired to choose a wise ruler."

"At that time, Liu Biao sent a letter to Chang'an, and secretly allowed the Cai family to send a letter to Langya."

"In the twelfth month of the winter of the fourth year of Chengtai, both of them arrived and had a banquet in Jingzhou."

"Bei declined Jingzhou and wanted Liu Biao's eldest son to ascend the throne, and Liu Biao was happy to agree."

"Then the cousin's wife, Cai, was angry. She had a son named Cong and wanted Cong to ascend the throne, so she conspired with Cao."

"In the winter of the fourth year of Chengtai, in the twelfth month, Liu Biao died of illness."

"There may be something secretive about it, or it may have been poisoned by Cai."

"At that time, Bei saw that things were not going well, so he took Qi and ran away."

"He stayed outside Jingzhou City, hoping to see what would happen to Cao Cao afterwards. But on the 30th day of the twelfth lunar month, a huge fire broke out inside and outside Jingzhou City, and Cao Cao fled."

"When the fire was extinguished, Cong met Bei in the city and said that Cao Cao had insulted his mother and he could not bear it, so he set fire to the city and killed him."

"Now that my mother is dead, I have no face to face my father, so I will commit suicide."

The records in this history book completely cleared Cao Cao of the rumor that he "relied on women" that had been circulating for hundreds of years, but it also indirectly confirmed another statement that "Cao Cao loves women."

However, this statement is much better than the rumor that he is a gigolo. At least this incident will not do much damage to Cao Cao's image as a hero.

What's wrong with liking married women?
But what is the truth?
In the long river of history, perhaps only the people at that time knew it.

In the winter of the fourth year of Chengtai, on the night of the 30th day of the twelfth lunar month.

While Liu Cong was happy and excited, he discovered something with an intuition almost like that of a wild beast.

It seemed that one of his concubines had cheated on him.

Another person who was accused of this was Cao Cao, who came to Jingzhou recently.

Concubines are involved in business, and Liu Cong would not be angry about what a concubine did. After all, Liu Cong knew this in his mind. He knew that his power and Jingzhou could only be controlled with the help of Cao Cao, so she was just a concubine.

Let Cao Cao sleep with her if he wants. He can even send that concubine to Cao Cao's bed for the title and the position of Jingzhou.

Little things.

But what made him angry was yet to come.

When he was about to go to Cai's courtyard, which was his mother's courtyard, he heard his mother's voice coming from his mother's courtyard, and along with his mother's voice there was also another man's voice.

He was very familiar with this voice.

It’s Cao Cao.

Liu Cong was furious at that time.

Isn’t it enough that you slept with my concubine? You are still here?
In a rage, Liu Cong did something very irrational.

He secretly contacted Liu Qi's old subordinates and Liu Biao's old subordinates, and the three parties conspired to set fire in an attempt to kill Cao Cao.

He made a slight mistake in this operation.

Cao Cao ran away.

But Cao Cao didn't escape completely.

He left his eldest son Cao Ang and the general Dian Wei beside him in the fire.

Mrs. Cai saw her son's gloomy eyes in the fire. She understood everything and chose to let the fire burn her to ashes.

This is the whole truth about the "Jingzhou Incident".

In Jingzhou City
After Liu Bei listened to everything Liu Qi and Liu Cong said in front of him, a confused look appeared on his face.

"what?"

He only managed to utter this one word after a long while, because this incident had such a huge impact on him.

He was a little bit unable to understand.

But that's what it is.

It was also on this day that Liu Cong "committed suicide" in his mansion.

There was only one person left to inherit Jingzhou, and that was "Liu Qi".

Guandu
Chen's Mansion
Chen Zhulou sat in the courtyard, listening to the report from his "Black Ice Platform" envoy, with a hint of helplessness in his eyes.

In fact, the "test" he designed for Cao Cao was not Cai.

Although he is not a good person, he will not involve others.

But Cao Cao's move made Chen Zhulou completely disappointed.

The emperor can be lustful, but there should be limits.

Didn't Cao Cao know what would happen if Liu Cong knew about this? He knew, but he didn't care, thinking he could handle it himself, so he lost his eldest son and a great general.

Of the three candidates, two were disqualified.

Only the last one remains.

Chen Zhulou sighed again.

(End of this chapter)