Ji Han Grand Commander

Chapter 483. Cao Wei's Affairs
Feng Xi was not too surprised by Xiahou Shang's death. After all, although his little butterfly wings had influenced many people, there were also many people who were not affected. Xiahou Shang could barely be considered one of them.

The situation of the Cao family is now in a mess due to various reasons, such as the issue of succession.

Cao Pi was originally quite partial to Yuancheng Prince Cao Li, and almost deposed Cao Rui for this reason. However, as the old saying goes, a distant thing smells good, but a nearby one stinks. Two years ago, after Cao Rui, Marquis of Pingyuan, killed someone in the street by chance, Cao Pi disliked him and sent him back to his fiefdom of Pingyuan for house arrest, Cao Li's performance was also shocking.

I don’t know if it was because he thought the situation was set, but Cao Li simply stopped pretending and started to let himself go. He no longer looked as humble and modest as before.

This can be seen from the fact that when Cao Rui was in trouble, Cao Li could not wait to hold a banquet in his mansion to win the hearts of the people. But there was no other way before. Although Cao Rui was demoted to Marquis of Pingyuan because of the Zhen family incident, he was still the most powerful heir to the throne.

Cao Li was more or less concerned about this influence and did not dare to go too far, fearing that if he made a mistake, he would lose the chance of succeeding to the throne. He acted with some bottom line and caution.

However, Cao Li could not hold back any longer and began to reveal his true colors half a year after Cao Rui was confined to Pingyuan.

At the beginning, he openly entertained all the officials and ministers in the court. Even those ministers who remained neutral and on the sidelines towards Cao Li began to be won over by Cao Li, as if he were the crown prince - although in fact this was indeed the case.

Secondly, as for life, since there was no one competing with him, Cao Li simply stopped being frugal and reserved as before and started to enjoy a luxurious life without any hesitation.

Cao Pi naturally saw these changes, but he had just confined Cao Rui for less than half a year. If he immediately called Cao Rui back to criticize Cao Li, wouldn't that be a slap in his own face? Moreover, compared with Cao Li's problems, Cao Rui's side was no less serious. Killing people in the street and resenting Cao Pi for killing his mother were not good things.

So in the end, Cao Pi had no choice but to call Cao Li to his presence, give him some advice, ask him to be careful, and implicitly tell him that the succession to the throne had not been decided, otherwise he would be in trouble.

But since Cao Li was known for his cleverness, he was naturally no pushover. He bribed the family of another maid who had been killed by Cao Rui before, and asked them to go to Pingyuan Marquis's mansion to make trouble. He brought up the old matter that had just been settled with great difficulty, and made the people of Luoyang remember the bad things that Cao Rui had done again.

In the end, Cao Li personally stepped in and hypocritically comforted the other party. Then, very generously, he paid some money out of his own pocket to "advance" the compensation for Cao Rui, and gained some reputation. It can be said to be a win-win situation - he not only discredited Cao Rui once, but also sold his own reputation. Cao Li won twice.

What followed was that Cao Li became even more unscrupulous and deceptive. He tried to keep many things within his own control and had no chance to report them to other court officials or even Cao Pi.

For example, if they robbed a woman, they would give her money after the robbery, and the amount they gave was not small, so that the victim had nothing to say and could only take the money and admit defeat. Another example is if a servant in the mansion bullied someone, they would either give her some money to settle the matter, or they would do it to the extreme so that the victim would have no ability to file a complaint.

After doing this for more than a year, it really didn't attract much attention. Although Cao Li's reputation had declined compared to the previous competition with Cao Rui for the succession, the overall level was still relatively good, and he had won the hearts of many court officials. It seemed that there was nothing wrong with waiting for Cao Pi to ascend the throne a hundred years later. Unfortunately, under normal circumstances, no one would pay attention to these things, but Feng Xi did. Now that Xiahou Shang had died of illness and Cao Pi's life was also in the countdown, Feng Xi simply launched his own newspaper offensive, exposing the dirty deeds of Yuancheng King Cao Li, and also let the spies in Luoyang work hard to spread them.

At the moment, it is difficult to judge who is more evil, Cao Rui or Cao Li, just from their deeds and performance. After all, Cao Rui only killed three people, but according to the information collected by Feng Xi, Cao Li directly or indirectly caused the destruction of several families, but he handled the situation properly afterwards, and ordinary people did not dare to offend Cao Li, so the pressure was relieved.

When Cao Pi heard the news, he was furious and immediately ordered all officials in Luoyang to conduct a thorough investigation. The report he received made Cao Pi feel disappointed. His son not only did not behave himself after being criticized by him, but became even worse.

The key point is that these are nothing. If you do things carefully, no one can find out, it will be fine. But now it has caused an uproar in Luoyang. It is really a person who can't do anything to help, but only makes things worse.

Finally, Cao Pi had no choice but to imitate the punishment given to Cao Rui. He stripped Cao Li of his title of "King of Yuancheng" and changed it to "Marquis of Yuancheng". At the same time, he issued an imperial edict to summon Cao Rui, who was still under house arrest in Pingyuan.

It was already May 224 AD, less than two months before Cao Pi's death.

Cao Pi's physical condition has also declined significantly recently. In the past, Cao Pi had palpitations, headaches, and breathing difficulties every now and then. He was young at that time, and the symptoms improved a lot after a short rest. In addition, Cao Pi himself deliberately concealed these symptoms, so neither Cao Cao nor others discovered them.

Later, Cao Pi found a time to secretly invite Hua Tuo to treat him. Hua Tuo said that his heart was born with a disease compared to others, so he could not be overly tired or have emotional fluctuations, otherwise the qi and blood would surge up and burst his brain.

Although Cao Pi didn't quite understand, he still listened to Hua Tuo's advice. Therefore, compared to his younger brother Cao Zhi, Cao Pi seldom drank and rarely showed up in public. He pretended to be studying hard at home. This not only established his honest image, but also prevented his body from frequently getting sick due to overwork and causing flaws.

After Cao Pi had the last laugh and successfully seized the throne from his brothers, he finally breathed a sigh of relief. At least he didn't have to be so cautious anymore.

But whether it was the former King of Wei or the current Emperor Wen of Wei, it was not an easy position. Usurping the Han Dynasty, suppressing the rebellion, defending against Wu and Han... all these required Cao Pi's great energy and time. Being woken up by guards in his sleep because of urgent matters, and reading memorials until midnight, these things once again put Cao Pi's already fragile body under severe challenges.

Cao Pi's body was already beginning to fail. In other words, he was beginning to run out of energy.

(End of this chapter)