Cao Cao asked Sun Qian to return to the post house to rest, and then he found two wise men who were currently accompanying him in Jiyin County.
There are currently two wise men here with Cao Cao.
One is Cheng Yu, the former Shou Zhang Ling. He was originally called Cheng Li. After meeting Cao Cao, he was renamed Cheng Yu by Cao Cao because of a dream he had.
Cheng Li was renamed by Cao Cao. Although he wanted to scold his mother, Cao Cao was his immediate superior after all and could not be easily offended.
Not to mention changing his name to Cheng Yu, even if he is called Cheng Maomao or Cheng Gou Gou, even if it is Cheng Daba, he will have to endure it.
Cheng Yu was from Dongjun, but he had friendship with Xun Shuang of the Eight Dragons of the Xun family, and he also stayed in Yingchuan back then. Therefore, compared to the nobles of Dongjun, he was closer to the students of Yingchuan.
The other one was named Dong Zhao. He was originally a soldier under Yuan Shao's account. Later, he was ordered by Yuan Shao to follow Zhang Yang. When Li Jue, Guo Si and Lu Bu were making trouble in Chang'an, Dong Zhao was ordered by Zhang Yang to go south to Chang'an, the imperial capital, under the name of tribute. , actually to observe the situation in Chang'an. The problem is that Dong Zhao has selfish motives. He had long believed that Zhang Yang could not achieve great things, so he took the opportunity to stay in Chang'an as Zhang Yang's envoy to wait for the right time.
Later, Cao Cao secretly welcomed the emperor, and Dong Zhao became acquainted with Cao Cao, and from then on he was entrusted with the task of being a trusted advisor.
These two men are now stationed in Jiyin County with Cao Cao.
When the two came to Cao Cao, Cao Cao was not polite. He immediately told them what the pottery envoy had told them, and then told Cheng Yu and Dong Zhao about his doubts.
After listening to Cao Cao's words, Dong Zhao and Cheng Yu each thought about it for a long time and considered it carefully.
After a while, Fang heard Cheng Yu speak: "Ming Gong, the Xuzhou pottery merchants captured the Liang Kingdom, and used Xia Houyuan as a hostage to threaten Ming Gong to retreat. This matter was already ridiculous, but he asked another question Ming Gong asked for half a million yuan, this kind of behavior is no different from a child's nonsense, but the pottery merchant has become famous in recent years, and he is probably not a mediocre person, so I'm afraid there is something fishy in it."
Cao Cao touched his beard and his face looked very deep.
He naturally knows better than Cheng Yu about the abilities of pottery merchants.
"At present, the Yanzhou nobles and Liangzhou generals are about to act. Cao has been planning for a long time, and he wants to take this opportunity to uproot them. This will be done once and for all, and the country will depend on it for all eternity. But at this time, if the little pottery merchant thief If you are planning something evil and stabbing Cao in the back, I'm afraid there will be some trouble."
After saying that, Cao Cao looked at Dong Zhao again.
Dong Zhao is a fat man with an extremely friendly appearance. He smiles all day long and looks friendly and kind. His kind-hearted appearance is like that of Maitreya Buddha, which is in sharp contrast to Cheng Yu, who has a dark face and a serious face all day long.
After listening to the conversation between Cheng Yu and Cao Cao, Dong Zhao smiled and said kindly and relieved: "Ming Gong, there is no need to worry too much. The soldiers and horses that Tao Shang captured from the Liang Kingdom were only tens of thousands, and most of them were infantry, with few cavalry. , even if he and the nobles of Yanzhou launched an attack at the same time, the troops in the hands of Duke Ming would be enough to deal with it. What we have to figure out now is what is in the mind of the little pottery merchant? Does he intend to continue to fight with Duke Ming? The enemy may have designs on Yanzhou."
Cao Cao nodded when he heard this and said: "That boy Tao Shang, to be honest, Cao admires him very much. He is young, has deep strategies and is very resourceful. This person is definitely capable, but The things he does on a daily basis are really no different from people in the market... What Cao is most unclear about right now is his ambition!"
Dong Zhao said with a smile: "No matter how resourceful the people in this world are, if they don't have the ambition and ambition to embrace all rivers and mountains, it is useless. Now, maybe it is a good opportunity to see the pattern in the mind of the little potter's thief.
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Although Dong Zhao looks like a good old man with a smile all day long, Cao Cao knows that Dong Zhao is good at figuring out other people's psychological dynamics, which is definitely not comparable to ordinary people.
At that moment, Cao Cao asked Dong Zhaodao: "Gongren, what is your opinion on how to figure out the pottery merchant?"
Dong Zhao was not in a hurry and said: "I heard that Ming Gong in Yanzhou has set up a government office specializing in investigation and assassination, which is similar to the pottery merchant's school office in Jinling City... What is the government called?
Yes? Yes, Eagle Snake Mansion! We might as well let the hawks of Eagle Snake Mansion go spy on the movements of the Tao thieves in the Liang Kingdom. My subordinates may be able to deduce their true intentions through the traces in the Tao thieves' actions."
After hearing Dong Zhao's question, Cao Cao suddenly felt ashamed.
To be honest, because of this incident, he has scolded Tao Qian, the potter's father, and his eighteen generations of Tao family ancestors more than a thousand times in his heart.
After Cao Cao took full control of Yanzhou, he ordered Xiahou Dun to select strong men from the Qingzhou Yellow Turbans and the old armies such as Bao Xin, Liu Dai, Yuan Yi, Qiao Mao, etc., and organized a strong personal infantry army for himself, led by Dian Wei.
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This elite attack infantry, just like Cao Cao's Tiger and Leopard Cavalry, which he has just started building recently, can be said to be his ace unit, one cavalry and one infantry. In Cao Cao's ideological planning, these two units will serve as his right-hand man.
Follow him for thousands of miles and bring peace to the world.
Everything is great, but there is only one flaw, and that is the name of this attack force.
I don't know why, but every time he wanted to name this army, the three words "Tiger Guards" came to Cao Cao's mind, as if this name had been predetermined by God, and it was destined to be his own.
This army is famous all over the world and has been passed down through the ages.
But the problem is that the three words "Tiger Guard" have been used by the pottery merchants for his own guards for many years in advance.
If Cao Cao now uses the same army name as Tao Shang, wouldn't it be a piracy?
Although he knew that this was the case and the reason was this, Cao Cao didn't know why, but he always felt that there was a hurdle in his heart that he couldn't overcome.
How to describe it? It's as if the three words "Tiger Guard" were stolen from him by the pottery merchant!
In the end, with no other choice, Cao Cao had no choice but to settle for the next best thing and gave his elite infantry an unorthodox name: "Liger Army."
Every time he thought of this name, when there was no one around him, Cao Cao would raise his hand and give himself a few big slaps as a punishment. The slaps made him look majestic and ruthless.
He also knew that the name Liger Army was too unpleasant, but the problem was that there was nothing he could do about it.
Tao Shang's army was called the Tiger Guards, and Cao Cao's army had to be named after lions for the last time!
In fact, it would be easier and more pleasant to name it with something like a dragon, but after all, the dragon is an auspicious thing that represents the emperor. It doesn't matter if the people randomly call ordinary talents "dragon and phoenix" and other nicknames, but if it is used for princes
The name of the regular army would be somewhat arrogant and arouse criticism, unless the emperor issued an edict to personally seal it.
Just after the incident with the Liger Army, the intelligence department organized by Cao Cao encountered difficulties again in naming it.
When Cao Cao proudly told all his subordinates the word "school affairs office", his number one schemer Xun Yu was the first to stand up and express his opposition.
"Ming Gong, I have thousands of Chinese characters, and there are words with profound meanings everywhere. Why did Ming Gong insist on stealing the name given by the pottery merchant of Jinling City? Wouldn't this be making fun of the scholars in the world?"
When Cao Cao heard this, he was confused.
My mother, when did Cao steal the name given by the pottery merchant?
When the hell!!
When Xun Yu listed in front of Cao Cao the fact that the organization under Tao Shang had been using the name "School Affairs Office" for nearly three years, Cao Cao was so sad and angry that he wished he could raise an army that would destroy the country and flatten the city of Jinling and destroy Tao.
Shang caught him in front of him and gave him two hundred big slaps on his ears as a reward.
In the end, out of desperation, Cao Cao gave his intelligence department a name that went well with the "Liger Army", "Eagle Snake Mansion", and those members responsible for spying on intelligence were named "Eagle Soldiers"
'Or 'Snake'.
The core department of the Cao Wei Group was turned into a nondescript animal circus by mistake.
Tao Shang didn't know that the hatred he had secretly waged against Cao Cao might be much more serious than actually sending people to kill Cao Song.
…
A few days later, Cao Cao's Yingsheshi sent people back to report that the pottery merchants in Liang were counting the household registrations in various counties, enumerating the population, and verifying the true status of the registered persons.
When Dong Zhao heard what his subordinate Eagle Snake said, he suddenly realized.
He immediately admonished Cao Cao and said: "Congratulations, my lord, congratulations, my lord. Although the pottery merchant is cunning and cunning, but also very resourceful, it is a pity that his pattern is not very big. He does not have the ambition and ambition to swallow up the world. My lord, you can rest assured to deal with him this time."
All the generals in the northwest have nothing to worry about in Xuzhou."
After hearing this, Cao Cao was very confused.
The pottery merchant was just doing a census of the population of Liang State. What does it have to do with whether he had great ambitions or not?