Early the next morning, the pottery merchant began to make arrangements, wrote orders and sent them to various places in the south of the Yangtze River to properly arrange matters after the expedition.
Yuan's tree has deep roots. Tao Shang estimates that this expedition to Hebei will be the longest battle in his life, so he must arrange everything in the rear.
One hundred thousand elite royal troops were sent by Prime Minister Tao Shang under the orders of the emperor to attack the rebel Yuan Shao in the Northern Expedition. The remaining troops were 70,000 in Xuzhou and 80,000 in Yangzhou, scattered in various dangerous places to guard them.
Tao Ying and Chen Deng led Lu Dai, He Qi, Quan Rou, Xian Yu Dan, Song Qian, Jia Hua, Hua'er and others to guard Nanchang and protect the capital of the Han Dynasty.
Han Hao, Zhang Zhao, Zhang Hong, and Sima Lang still managed important places such as Jinling, Hangzhou, and Suzhou for the pottery merchants, while Gan Ning, Zhou Tai, Jiang Qin, Xu Sheng, Ling Cao, Pan Zhang, Dong Xi, and Xu Zhong
The others, as well as the Jinling naval forces, all stayed in Yangzhou to guard against the Sanliu Group in the west.
The Pengcheng pottery merchants will be put in charge of Lu Su, and Tao Ji, Xu Rong, Zhang Xun and others will stay to assist him.
In the past, a group of Xuzhou generals headed by Cao Bao had always been responsible for guarding Pengcheng, but this time they all went on an expedition.
The rest of the matter is easy to say, but on Pengcheng's side, Xuzhou's generals were replaced and the generals who had been recruited by the pottery merchants in recent years were left to guard it, which caused a commotion in Xuzhou's gentry circle.
After learning the news, Lu You, a former general of the Xuzhou Army, ran to Cao Bao and asked him about the matter.
The old generals of the Xuzhou Army have been responsible for guarding Pengcheng and the city defense work within the territory for many years. Now the pottery merchant suddenly replaced them with Lu Su, Xu Rong and others. Everyone did not understand what the pottery merchant was up to, so they sent
Lu You acted as a representative and came to ask Cao Bao for an idea, asking him to tell Tao Shang not to let the generals of the Xuzhou Army go into battle. After all, they had not been in battle for many years and were very unskilled.
Cao Bao just smiled bitterly and didn't say anything. He gave Lu You a few perfunctory words and then gave up.
But on the next day, Cao Bao sent an order to demote Lu Youlian by two ranks and keep him in the army.
After receiving this news, the generals of the Xuzhou Army no longer dared to speculate. They just obeyed and waited for dispatch.
After learning about Cao Bao's actions, Tao Shang secretly praised Cao Bao for being sensible.
He has wanted to divide the influence of the Xuzhou gentry in the military for a long time, but has never found a good opportunity.
Now that the imperial court was newly established, Chen Deng was granted the title of Shangshu Ling. Because of this official position, Chen Deng had to stay in Nanchang City to take care of the affairs of the court, and could not spend his time worrying about Xuzhou.
However, in the absence of Chen Deng, the leader of the Xuzhou gentry, the Xuzhou gentry were in disarray, left to the mercy of the pottery merchants.
Even Cao Bao and Mi Zhu did not dare to say anything when faced with the pottery merchant's behavior.
Even Yuan Shao, the leader of the noble clan in the world, is not looked down upon by the pottery merchant now. There is no benefit in playing tricks with him at this juncture.
In particular, attacking Yuan Shao, the leader of the gentry, was not a trivial matter. Many Xuzhou gentry had actually had affairs with Yuan Shao. Tao Shang knew this in his heart, but he just turned a blind eye.
But now the situation is different. Yuan Shao cannot afford to lose anything in his Northern Expedition. The pottery merchants must completely eliminate all unstable factors and leave a clean rear area.
…
A few days after this incident happened in Pengcheng, Yuan Wan came to see the pottery merchant.
"Miss Yuan, what's wrong?" The pottery merchant was currently reading the grain and grass transportation documents submitted by the county to calculate the grain and grass needed for preparations for the Northern Expedition.
Although the current pottery merchant is very busy, when he heard that Yuan Wan was coming, he still received her in person.
After Yuan Wan sat down, she said to Tao Shang: "The Prime Minister asked Aunt Feng and I to enter the Prime Minister's Mansion. I'm afraid it's not just as simple as letting us take care of the children, right?"
This girl, not reserved at all, asked so directly.
Tao Shang raised his hand swornly: "Tao swears on my own behalf that I have absolutely no ill intentions towards you and Mrs. Feng!"
When Yuan Wan heard this, she pouted angrily.
"Who told you this? I'm full of bad ideas and think about everything else. I'm talking about other things."
Tao Shang raised his eyebrows, secretly appreciating that this girl was really smart.
"Tell me, Miss Yuan, what plot does Mr. Tao have against you when he comes to you this time?"
Yuan Wan whispered in a low voice: "If the little lady's prediction is correct, the person the Prime Minister is plotting is not my aunt, but the little girl."
The potter almost stopped laughing and became angry.
"Although you are beautiful, in terms of maturity, I personally think your aunt's charm should be higher than that of a young lady."
Yuan Wan was so angry that she wanted to hit him.
"Who said anything about this...you are thinking about those crooked places..."
Yuan Wan paused and then said: "If the Prime Minister allows it, this little girl is willing to go to Hebei with the Prime Minister during this Northern Expedition."
The potter frowned.
"The three armies are fighting, and you don't have the means like Lu Lingqi and Xu Hanniang. What are you going to do with the three armies? Isn't it a burden?"
Yuan Wan smiled faintly: "The Prime Minister said so...could it be that he didn't think so in his heart?"
The pottery merchant was silent for a long time after hearing this, and said: "You are right, I thought so, but I gave up later. It is too inhumane and meaningless."
Yuan Wan bowed slightly to the pottery merchant and said: "Thank you, Prime Minister, for being so considerate of the little girl. However, this matter was done voluntarily by the little girl and was not caused by the Prime Minister. There is no need for the Prime Minister to blame himself."
Tao Shang took a deep look at Yuan Wan.
Yuan Wan's trip to Hebei has a certain role and significance to a certain extent.
What's the meaning? It means to criticize Yuan Shao's power and find a crack in the huge background of his being the world's largest family.
This golden signboard of the Fourth Generation and Three Dukes can attract the support of almost half of the world's nobles and has constant resources. From a political perspective, the pottery merchant can compete with Yuan Shao by relying on his reputation of supporting the new emperor and supporting the government as prime minister. However,
It is not enough to defeat the Yuan Group head-on.
They can only make a fuss about Yuan Shao's murder of Liu Xie.
But although the matter was spread, there was no real evidence after all. According to Guo Jia's words, the miscellaneous witnesses that the pottery merchant found were not enough to promote the matter because they did not have enough weight.
But Yuan Wan is a sect member of the Fourth and Third Duke Yuan Shao, and she is also the only bloodline heir after Yuan Shu's death...
It should be noted that Yuan Shu in this era did not proclaim himself emperor, and his descendants were morally qualified to criticize Yuan Shao.
Yuan Shu and Yuan Shao came from the same school, and if his descendants corrected Yuan Shao, they would definitely stab Yuan Shao in the back, making Yuan Shao unable to defend himself.
Although the pottery merchant had thought about this matter, Yuan Shao was Yuan Wan's biological uncle after all. It was too despicable to force someone to do such a thing. What was the difference between this and forcing a good girl into prostitution? So the pottery merchant finally decided to give up.
But I didn't expect that Yuan Wan would also think of this level, and would also take the initiative to help the pottery merchant.
If he took her with him during the Hebei expedition, it would have a certain targeted effect on the Yuan family, but Tao Shang did not want to force her.
"Miss Yuan, if you want to repay Tao in this way, then there is no need to do so. Tao has always been a gentleman and will never force others to do such torture to himself."
Yuan Wan shook her head gently and said: "The Prime Minister misunderstood. I did this not for others, nor to repay the Prime Minister, but for justice, and for my father..."
Speaking of this, Yuan Wan raised her head and looked at the pottery merchant, her eyes like water, filled with affection and affection, which made the pottery merchant's heart move.
"Prime Minister, the death of the late emperor was related to my uncle, right?"
Tao Shang nodded and said: "Although there is no substantial evidence, the only person who has the motive and the ability to command King Wuhuan is indeed your uncle Yuan Shao."
Yuan Wan nodded and said: "That's good. Since he has not been wronged, then the little girl will take over and fight with my uncle on behalf of my father."
Speaking of this, Yuan Wan showed a sad expression: "My father has been weighed down by his uncle for more than ten years, and he never crossed the threshold of his uncle until his death... Although it is also his personal knot, as a child
Or, it is reasonable to fulfill my late father’s unfulfilled wish.”
Tao Shang sighed and said: "Girls, sometimes being too smart is not a good thing. Life is too tiring."
Yuan Wan smiled sadly: "It's okay to be tired. The problem is that no one is willing to share the burden with the little girl..."
The pottery merchant laughed when he heard this.
This girl is quite good at subtlety.
…
A few days later, another edict written by Mi Heng accusing Yuan Shao of murdering the late emperor was once again published to all states and counties in the world.
In addition to the large seal of the emperor of the new dynasty and the testimony of pottery merchants and others, Yuan Wan also jointly accused.
Yuan Shu's only descendant came forward to accuse his uncle of betraying the imperial court, causing an uproar among the gentry in the world.
Things are a little different from the last few times!
After Yuan Shao found out about this, he was so angry that he trembled all over. That night, he stood under the moonlight and yelled at Tao Shang and Yuan Wan, a pair of bastards... Yuan Wan's dead father, Yuan Shu, was not left behind either.
The eighteen generations of their ancestors were bombarded one by one.
But in Yuan Shao's rage, he forgot one thing.
He was quite angry when he scolded Yuan Wan and Yuan Shu's ancestors, but according to the facts, Yuan Shao and their father and daughter's ancestors all had the same set of configurations.
At the same time, spies from Hebei sent news back to Yuan Shao.
Cao Cao and Tao Shang have already prepared their armies for war and began to march towards Hebei!