People in the Three Kingdoms: Starting from Preaching

Chapter 385 Eldest Brother
After Liu Xie left, the room fell silent. However, not long after, the door of the adjacent secretarial room was opened and Cai Yan handed in a paper document with the words "Records of Conversations with the Prime Minister - Xu Chen" written on it.

Xu Chen took the record and looked through it. The latest page recorded the entire conversation with Liu Xie. Below the conversation, the year, date, weather and location were clearly marked.

All of Xuan Xia's work has been standardized and institutionalized, and of course more modernized. These documents will record his conversations and experiences of relatively important events during his time as prime minister.

Although these contents are confidential now, after a considerable period of time, they will be gradually decrypted and eventually known to the public.

Cai Yan couldn't help but glance towards the door, her expression a little complicated for a moment. After all, she was once a member of the Han noble family, and it was inevitable that she felt a little sad about the current situation of Emperor Liu.

"In fact, he is just a poor man. It is a good thing for him to live a peaceful life in Xuanxia." Cai Yan did not rush to leave, but helped Xu Chen tidy up the desk.

Xu Chen nodded, but his expression was not very moved: "He is indeed a tragic emperor, but compared to the millions of people who are sinking in misery, he is lucky enough."

After taking up his official seal and stamping it, Xu Chen handed the record of the conversation back to Cai Wenji.

As he spoke, he sighed: "Compared to sighing over his fate, I am more concerned about the plague in the south. The people are already suffering from difficulties, and they are also suffering from the plague. I don't know how many lives this disaster will take."

At this point in the conversation, Cai Yan also sighed. Thinking about it this way, Liu Xie's tragedy was indeed not worth mentioning.

The severity of the plague in the south reminded Cai Yan of the disaster in the two capitals that she had witnessed. She was afraid that the damage caused by this plague would be no less than that in the two capitals.

Xu Chen stood up and looked toward the south outside the window. His voice was a little low: "The plague was caused by the war. To be honest, I, Xuan Xia, am also responsible. Unfortunately, we have no way to prevent this disaster."

Cai Yan shook her head and said, "My husband, why do you have to blame yourself? The southern nobles enslaved the people and were stubborn. They are the ones who are primarily responsible for the plague. What we can do is to end the battle as quickly as possible and liberate the people of the world."

"It's time to end it," Xu Chen said in a deep tone, but then he said helplessly: "We had a chance to win this time, but we still fell short. But it won't be too far away."

Cai Yan said: "Speaking of which, the generals should be here soon."

Xu Chen snorted: "They didn't fight well in this battle. I have to give them a good beating."

Cai Yan knew that Xu Chen was joking, and then she smiled: "This battle actually achieved a lot. Not only did we bring back the Emperor of the Han Dynasty, but we also occupied a large area of ​​land in Yanzhou and Xuzhou. These achievements are enough to be rewarded."

Xu Chen glanced at Cai Yan and said with a smile: "The most outstanding player in this battle is Zhao Yun. I will have to praise him when the time comes."

While they were talking, someone outside reported that it was Wang Dang and other generals who had arrived.

Xu Chen smiled immediately: "Speak of the devil and he will appear."

Cai Yan was stunned for a moment: "Cao Cao?"

"I don't want to eat it, it's so disgusting!" In the simple earthen-walled house, a four-year-old child pushed away the food in front of him, his eyes full of disgust.

There were some boys and girls sitting at the table. The oldest was only thirteen years old, and the younger ones were eight or nine, or three or four years old.

In fact, it was not only this child who hated the food, everyone else also looked disgusted.

No one touched the food on the table. The atmosphere was silent. Only the oldest boy was silently eating the rice porridge and wild vegetables. Although it could be seen from his cold face that the food should not taste good, he still finished it very quickly with a huff.

The rest of the children stared in disbelief. They couldn't understand why the second brother could eat such disgusting food. Even their own cats and dogs wouldn't even look at these things.

"Don't want to eat? If you don't eat, you'll starve to death!"

The person who spoke was the oldest boy. After he finished eating, he wiped his mouth and sneered. He glanced at his younger brothers and sisters around him, and finally his gaze fell on the face of the four-year-old child who pushed the food away.

That was his half-brother Cao Chong, who was also the one his father loved most among all his brothers.

Feeling his gaze, Cao Chong, who was only four years old, shrank his neck.

The eldest brother Cao Ang had died on the battlefield long ago, so the second brother Cao Pi naturally took over his eldest brother's position and majesty. Cao Chong was still afraid when Cao Pi got angry.

"Do you think we are still at home? We are all prisoners, and prisoners should have the awareness of being prisoners. Now there is no one to serve you. If you don't eat, you can only bear it when you are hungry."

At this time, Cao Pi paused, as if he remembered something, and sighed.

"You haven't experienced what it's like to be hungry, right? I have. When I was a child, I was naughty and my father punished me by fasting me. It was only for one day, but I felt so miserable that I wanted to go crazy. I wanted to chew the table. It was worse than death. Do you want to experience this?"

All of a sudden, whether it was the eight-year-old Cao Zhi and Cao Jie, or the even younger Cao Chong, they all shivered.

They were so young that they had never experienced any hardship. Even now, they found it difficult to adapt to the hardships of being captives. They were about to vomit from eating coarse rice and vegetables boiled in plain water all the way. They simply could not endure this kind of life.

But Cao Pi's words finally made them all sober up. Cao Chong was confused, but he also vaguely understood that now he could no longer let himself act as willfully and recklessly as before.

Soon, all the brothers and sisters fell silent, and then silently picked up the food in front of them. The food tasted like chewing wax, and they all had bitter looks on their faces, but they gritted their teeth and swallowed it.

In fact, although the food they eat is crude, it is the daily diet of the common people. After all, not many years ago, even having enough food was a luxury.

The Yellow Turbans naturally would not consider whether the pampered aristocrats could accept these foods. Captives like the Cao family could only grit their teeth and bear it.

Seeing that his younger brothers and sisters had become obedient, Cao Pi also breathed a sigh of relief.

The adults captured by the Cao family, both men and women, needed to undergo labor reform, so the children naturally had to take care of themselves. At this time, as the eldest brother, I had to take on the responsibility.

Fortunately, although the Yellow Turbans were harsh towards the gentry, they were very rational and did everything according to the regulations. The captives only had a harder life here, but at least they did not have to worry about their personal safety.

“When the Yellow Turbans teach you, no matter whether you understand or not, you must show that you understand and accept what they teach you.

Moreover, you all need to put away your young master attitude here and don’t cause any trouble. The sooner we finish these transformation courses, the sooner we can regain our freedom…”

Cao Pi gave earnest instructions, but most of his younger brothers and sisters were confused and obviously didn't understand these things, which made Cao Pi feel helpless.

But after being helpless, he couldn't help feeling aggrieved and sad.

Although he, the second brother, appeared calm and strong, he was actually just a thirteen-year-old boy.

He would also feel uneasy and afraid, but he had no choice but to act like a good eldest brother in front of his younger siblings.

After a while, many children finished their food with bitter looks on their faces. It must be said that although they were pretentious, they still ate the hard-to-swallow food very cleanly after knowing the seriousness of the situation.

"Second brother, when will father come to save us?" The slightly older Cao Zhi had slightly red eyes and looked like he wanted to cry.

All of a sudden, the rest of the brothers and sisters looked over, and they all fixed their eyes on Cao Pi with expectant expressions.

Children are mostly naive. In their world, their father is the omnipotent hero. No matter what difficulties they encounter, their father will definitely help them.

However, the teenage Cao Pi was already half an adult and had long passed the stage of naive fantasies. He had a clear understanding of this matter.

Will my father come to save me?

Cao Pi shook his head and did not lie to appease them. Instead, he told the cruel truth without reservation.

"Father won't come. Or rather, he doesn't have the ability to save us. These Yellow Turbans are very strong, the strongest in the world. Father would have to use up all his strength to fight them, and he would have no energy left to save us."

These cold and cruel words tore their fantasies apart in an instant. For a moment, the eyes of several children turned red.

Although Cao Pi felt sad, there was no expression on his face. He could certainly use lies to make them happy, but when their hopes were dashed it would be even more painful and uncomfortable. Instead of disappointing them, it would be better not to give them hope in the first place.

When the atmosphere was dull and gloomy, a series of bell sounds suddenly came from outside the house.

Cao Pi then stood up and said in a deep voice: "It's time for class. Remember what I said. Cooperate and listen to the instructor and don't get yourself into trouble."

After saying that, Cao Pi turned and left. The others looked at each other and could only follow him awkwardly.

The Yellow Turbans' reformation classes for children were not actually very strict. They only taught them the most basic naturalistic doctrines. Whether they were children like Cao Pi who were already well versed in worldly affairs, or children like Cao Chong who were ignorant, their thoughts could be slowly changed through the reformation classes.

Even if this change of mind may be pretended, it doesn't matter. Even if they are forced to pretend, they will have to pretend for the rest of their lives in Xuanxia. Then the fake will become real, and the ideology of the general environment will force them to obey.

Just like Confucianism, no matter whether Confucian scholars truly agree with and practice it, at least they cannot violate it on the surface, and they must even shout out the ideals of Confucianism.

The clever Cao Pi knew how to disguise himself. In today's class, he could still be the most obedient student in front of the instructor.

But when he walked into the simple classroom, he saw a new "student", which made his eyes widen.

It's him!

In the middle of the classroom, there was Liu Xie, wearing a coarse linen shirt.

(End of this chapter)