Instead, they went directly through Yuzhou and Yanzhou, crossed the river and entered Yecheng in Jizhou.
The reason is that Cao Yu, the king of Yan, who grew up with Cao Rui when he was young and stayed in Yecheng to look after the princes and princes of the clan and is now in Luoyang, sent a secret letter.
No one knows what he said.
But as soon as Cao Ruifu saw it, he ordered the imperial troops to pack their bags and rush back.
The trip was so hurried that when Hu Zhi, who learned the news, rushed back to take over Wancheng, Cao Rui's troops had already entered Yuzhou.
This also made all the generals who stayed in Jingzhou feel uneasy.
If it was an ordinary matter, Cao Rui would not be in such a hurry.
However, after Hu Zhijing thought about it, he could roughly deduce what it was about.
If there is no accident, it should be Li Shu in Jizhou who gathered together to rebel.
Because after Luoyang's Chinese army entered Guanzhong and stationed there, Guanzhong could not afford their grain, so the Wei State had always asked Li Shu from Jizhou and Sizhou to be transferred.
The corvee work lasted for more than a year, and Li Shu was naturally overwhelmed.
Now that the decisive battle in Guanzhong is about to begin, corvee labor has become more severe, and it is the time when the people are about to be busy with the autumn harvest, it is not surprising that conflicts have intensified and triggered civil unrest.
In other words, compared with shaking the morale of the army, the slight civil unrest was not enough to make Cao Rui rush back to deal with it personally.
But these are extraordinary times.
The Wei State, which had gathered all its soldiers in Guanzhong, could no longer assemble the troops to fight the rebellion!
In order to prevent the civil unrest from spreading like wildfire and affecting the decisive battle in Guanzhong, it was the best choice for Cao Rui to rush back in person.
Anyway, Jingzhou's deployment has been completed, and everything should be done step by step.
There is not much difference whether Cao Rui is in charge or not.
Therefore, after Hu Zhi entered Wancheng, he wrote a letter to Wang Chang, Xia Houxian and other tribes, claiming that Emperor Cao Rui rushed back to Yecheng to supervise the supply of grain, fodder and baggage for the decisive battle in Guanzhong, so that they would not have to worry about anything later.
It's a barely plausible reason.
In this regard, Wang Chang, Xia Houxian and others did not say anything.
Although they, like Hu Zhi, could vaguely guess the reason for Cao Rui's return, under the anxious war situation, the reason given by Hu Zhi was the best explanation.
At least, it can calm the morale of their troops.
And they didn't have much worry about Cao Rui's return.
Because Wei's northern border is now very stable.
The Gongsun clan in Liaodong was destroyed, Xianbei in the north was no longer in trouble, and even the fighting in the Hetao Plain in Bingzhou temporarily stopped.
However, it is said that since Liu Bao of the Southern Xiongnu and the Tuoba tribe of Xianbei formed an alliance, the territory of Wei State's Bingzhou was reduced to Yunzhong County. However, due to the limitation that Wei State used all its troops in the war with the Han Dynasty, there were no soldiers and horses. When rushing to help merge the prefectures, Tian Yu once had the idea of abandoning Yunzhong County and using Dingxiang County and Yanmen County, which were surrounded by mountains, as a line of defense.
no way.
The terrain of Yunzhong County is flat and flat, and with the free-flowing fighting style of the Southern Xiongnu and the Xianbei Tuoba Tribe, even Tian Yu, who has guarded the northern border for many years, is a skilled woman who cannot make a meal without rice.
But these worries have temporarily eased.
For some reason, the Southern Huns Liu Bao and Xianbei Tuoba Liwei, who had been working together sincerely, actually turned against each other!
Not only did they return to Shuofang and Wuyuan, but they also frequently sent small-scale rangers to rob each other, burning and killing each other constantly, which is really surprising.
Perhaps it was because those barbarians practiced the law of preying on the weak.
If we have the same advantages, we will unite; if we have exhausted the advantages, we will disperse. When the situation is strong, we should not be shy to repeat ourselves; when the situation is weak, we should not hesitate to bend our knees.
Wei State asserted this and still used Yunzhong County as a border garrison.
But what they didn't know was that it was Zheng Pu who reduced the pressure on Wei's northern frontier so that Wei could safely launch the decisive battle in Guanzhong.
In Zheng Pu's original plan, he planned to use the Tuoba Xianbei tribe to kill Liu Bao, the Southern Huns.
However, things changed as the Han army occupied Longdong and most of Youfufeng.
The Han army used Zhang Yi and Liu Zhong (Li Mangtang) to pacify the four northern counties of Guanzhong and help Gao Jun and Jujiu, the remnants of the Han family in the north, to cultivate Qiang. They planned to revive the momentum of the "good families in the six counties" to fight for the country.
Tuoba Liwei felt that if he killed Liu Bao in accordance with the previous agreement, he would face the Han army's "death of all the birds, the hiding of good bows, the death of cunning rabbits, and the cooking of lackeys."
Therefore, no matter how Huang Chong urged him, he delayed it for various reasons and did not take action against Liu Bao, who was completely unprepared.
After Huang Chong guessed his intentions, he wrote a letter and came back to inform Zheng Pu.
After claiming that Tuoba Li had failed to fulfill his previous agreement, he offered the next best thing.
The plan was to seek Zheng Pu's approval and ask Deng Zhong to rebel against the Southern Xiongnu tribe, inform Liu Bao of the agreement between the Xianbei Tuoba tribe and the Han army, and provoke a war between the two tribes. In order to prevent the Wei army from withdrawing from the Hetao Plain, Liu Bao of the Southern Xiongnu tribe
Still advancing and retreating with Tuoba Liwei, they eventually became a hidden danger for the Han army to regain control of the four central and northern counties.
There is no danger in letting Deng Zhong rebel and join the Southern Huns.
Deng Ai and Liu Bao had crossed paths before. Although there was no friendship, it was true that Deng Zhong's father died in battle and the Wei Kingdom brought disaster to the family. It was true that he was forced to serve Qiu Yu. Now that he had found a way to advance to the imperial level, he turned to the Southern Huns.
It was enough to dispel Liu Bao's doubts and accept it.
Therefore, Zheng Pu agreed without hesitation.
Quan should think it was for the benefit of inducing Wei to launch the decisive battle in Guanzhong without any worries.
It's just that Zheng Pu, the hidden man hiding in the Hetao Plain, can give orders, but he is beyond the reach of Li Jian, who has escaped into the death realm in the heart of Wei State.
In the situation where the news could not be delivered, everything was decided by Li Jian himself.
It was inevitable that he would make actions that were inappropriate for the situation.
However, he said that when the Chencang War was about to begin last year, he felt that it was the best time to enter Wei Dynasty and began to implement it.
Because he always remembered the mission given by Zheng Pu when he was far away from his hometown. When the Han army pointed its sword at Guanzhong and launched the battle to return the old capital, he should try his best to disrupt the rear of Wei State and plunge Wei State into internal and external troubles.
Let the big man's dream come true more smoothly.
However, Jiangdong's betrayal of the alliance ended the war between Han and Wei, and the Han army began to attack Wu, which caught him by surprise.
At that time, he had already deliberately made some unusual signs to attract others' attention, and he had to shoot like an arrow missing from the string.
This put him in a dilemma.
If he continues to implement it, it will not be of much benefit to the Han army's entry into Guanzhong, and his many years of efforts to enter the Wei Dynasty will be in vain; but if he does not continue, it will also end in failure because it will arouse the vigilance of others.
After hesitating for a few days, he decided to proceed.
But unlike the original plan, which was similar to the "witchcraft disaster" during the reign of Emperor Xiaowu of the former Han Dynasty, involving countless officials and causing turmoil in the government and the public, he planned to alienate the relationship between Cao Rui and Sima Yi.
This change seems to have no chance of success.
As one of the four friends of Emperor Wen, Sima Yi is the only remaining auxiliary minister. Cao Rui's trust in him is needless to say. And just because he is the only governor of Wei who relies on to resist the rebels from Shu and invades Guanzhong, Cao Rui makes Cao Rui come back again.
No matter how stupid you are, you would not destroy the Great Wall when the war between Han and Wei was intense.
But Li Jian is not an unintelligent person.
He had been in the Wei Dynasty for several years, and he knew from hearsay and careful speculation that Cao Rui was very intelligent and had a lot of imperial scheming.
I also know that some things seem impossible, but they are the easiest to take advantage of - there is no need to unite countless like-minded people to agree to work together like Wei Xi did in the past, and then lead the dirty water to Sima Yi; rather, he only needs to be properly guided and left behind. There are many unexplainable mysteries, just let the very smart Cao Rui think about the answers on his own.
Therefore, his method is also very simple.
Taking advantage of the convenience of being in Yecheng, he often visited the Five Dou Rice Sect to seek the way of ghosts and gods; relying on the popular documents given by Cao Zhi, the king of Jibei, he would visit the Gaoling of Weiwu every once in a while, and he would curse Cao Rui for his early death. The things were buried near Gaoling.
Naturally, this abnormal behavior cannot be hidden from others.
After more than a month of traveling back and forth to pay a visit to the Gaoling Mausoleum of Wei Wu, he was reported to the prefect of Wei County by the soldiers guarding the mausoleum.
Coincidentally, the current governor of Wei County is Xiahou Xuan, who Cao Rui felt had changed his old ways and was worthy of being used. He used his past strategy of "defeating Shu first before conquering Shu" and sent him to other places for training.
Xia Houxuan, who once talked to Li Jian as a commoner, had no ill intentions towards Li Jian at first.
But later, after Li Jian and Sima Zhao fell in love and praised each other, he began to have a bad feeling towards Li Jian.
Because he was extremely angry at the sudden and unexplained death of his sister Xia Houhui and the betrayal of their marriage friendship by the Sima family, he also "hated Li Jian as much as he did".
After receiving the report, he immediately sent people to follow Li Jian secretly, and successfully captured all the stolen goods.
The thing that Li Jian used to curse Cao Rui was a jade bagua tablet commonly used by Taoists, and the general meaning of the prayer to Cao Cao in the Wei Dynasty was "After Cao Rui came to the throne, he lost his troops and lost his land one after another, and his heirs withered away." , he is the king of misfortune and the king of the country's subjugation. Therefore, I pray to Wei Wu and Cao Cao's soul in heaven. For the sake of the stability of Wei's society, he will no longer protect Cao Rui's life and let Wei usher in a better monarch."
Regardless of words or actions, there is nothing else involved.
For example, which of the descendants of Wei Wu will be the king of ZTE? How many ministers who are worried about the state of Wei and the country will jointly pray together, etc.
According to common sense, for such an obvious treasonous act related to the monarch, the person in charge can directly report it to Cao Yu, King of Yan, who is currently in Luoyang, and let him and the Emperor Cao Rui deal with it. There is no need to continue to participate in it. , so as not to bring uncertain causal connections to oneself.
But Xia Houxuan felt that Li Jian must have other accomplices!
For example, Sima Zhao, the only friend Li Jian had after entering the Wei Dynasty, must be closely related to him!
He dared to make such an assertion, not only because of the anger in his heart towards the Sima family, but also because Li Jianxing's victory-hating technique could not start in a big way but end in a tail-end.
There is no other reason, because in his prayer, he claimed that the reason for cursing Cao Rui's early death was for the sake of the state of Wei.
But let me ask, isn’t the change of kings the most turbulent thing for both the government and the public?
When the world is at peace, the change of kings can trigger bloodshed in the palace, let alone now when Ni Shu frequently sends troops to attack!
Moreover, for the Wei State, it was justifiable that Cao Rui ascended to the throne.
Regardless of his identity as the direct eldest son, or Cao Cao's love for him when he was still alive in the past, and his expectation that "I will be based on you for three generations". It would be unfortunate if he was cursed and the candidate for the "King of ZTE" in the prayer was not determined in advance. , then, how did Li Jian claim that this move was for the safety of the Wei State?
There must be an accomplice in this!
It is not reflected in the words of prayer, just because the responsibilities of this accomplice and Li Jian are different: Li Jian is in charge and hates winning, while other accomplices plan to determine the king of Ding!
Xia Houxuan, who made such an inference, did not report the matter immediately.
Instead, he used the reason of "misbehavior during the visit to Gaoling of Wei Wu" to dispel the doubts and concerns of the people at that time about the detention of Li Jian, and secretly tortured Li Jian with his confidants and forced him to interrogate his accomplices and party friends.
Li Jian, who was determined to die, did not get what he wanted.
No matter how Xia Houxuan was tortured, even if his body was completely bruised and he fainted several times from the pain, he kept repeating: "Every man is responsible for the safety of the country! The ambition to serve the country is the courage of a gentleman, so why should others be accomplices!"
After four or five days of this, Li Jian was already on the verge of death and would surely die if tortured again.
Xia Houxuan also began to doubt whether his judgment was wrong.
Because he suddenly remembered that Li Jian was just a down-and-out scholar who had no ability to restrain a chicken and had never embarked on an official career!
Such people often act based on the passion in their chest and abdomen, without any regard for the consequences.
Just like when he assassinated Zheng Pu in the past, he only wanted to repay Yin Feng's kindness, without caring that he would be executed after the assassination, and that his family, wife and children would be implicated.
Now there is no comprehensive plan and no accomplices are found. Perhaps it is because of his lamentation after witnessing the loss of countless lands in Wei and his accumulated anger of being forced to live far away from his hometown that he acted without thinking about the consequences.
Feeling helpless, Xia Houxuan found a reason to comfort himself and planned to report the matter to the police.
But unexpectedly, just as he was discouraged, things began to change.
However, it is said that after Li Jian entered the Wei Dynasty, he had been relying on writing letters to the powerful or powerful families. In line with the desire to live in poverty and enjoy the country, he could be said to have nothing. In a small bag he carried with him, he only had an old change of clothes.
Clothes and pen and ink. And after he was tortured, his clothes became tattered. It was indecent to put him in a carriage and send him to Luoyang like this.
Therefore, Xia Houxuan asked someone to get him another set of clothes to put on.
The man did as he was told, but soon returned and reported to Xia Houxuan, saying: "My lord, your efforts may have been in vain. The thief's other clothes were layered with new and old patches, but they were equally tattered and not covering the body. They were more ragged than those worn by the beggars in the market."
Damn, I really don’t know why he still keeps these clothes.”
Perhaps this garment was made by my wife and children from my hometown, so I didn't want to throw it away.
Xia Houxuan, who was writing a book in Luoyang, had this thought in his mind, but he didn't think about it and sent people to the market to buy some clothes for Li Jian to cover his body.
But after a while, he suddenly looked stunned.
Immediately, Huoran stood up, even knocking his knees over the eucalyptus table and scattering the inkstone as if he didn't realize it. He put his hands on his hands and smiled, "Yes! I know the cunningness of this thief!"
And immediately asked someone to bring Li Jian's damaged clothes.
Yes, he thought of something bizarre.
An old piece of clothing that is too damaged to be worn can be thrown away, but why bother to patch it up?
Isn’t this just trying to hide something?
When he found the shabby clothes and carefully took apart all the patches, he found that it was just as he expected.
There is nothing weird about the old patches, but the new patches are all attached with a layer of silk book.
In other words, the silk book is used as a patch and embroidered on the clothes.
Each silk book is not large and can only contain one or two sentences, and there is no signature.
Xia Houxuan spread out all the silk books one by one on the eucalyptus and looked at them carefully. He compared the handwriting and found that they were all written by one person, but it was definitely not Li Jian.
The book says:
"Although we have done something wrong to our father, we will never regret it even if we die for the safety of our country!"
"After "The Treatise on the Six Kingdoms", the emperor wanted to use the imperial clan, and the power of the family was about to decline, so it is not advisable for the emperor to delay his affairs."
"It is urgent for the king to go to the country, so don't worry about the affairs of the new king! The whole country's troops are in control, and the trust of the important ministers of the three dynasties is contrary to the theory of Shu Qiao and Zhou Tianming. The power of the founders of the Wei clan will be lost, and the two kings of Qi and Qin will no longer be able to succeed. Datong."
"If I don't go with you now, there will be no one to prepare for the future! If the incident happens and you die, I will make it happen even if I die a hundred times, as the surging water of Luo can swear!"
.............
The content is scattered, but Xiahou Xuanke has a general understanding.
The person who wrote the silk script must be Sima Zhao!
Because now only Sima Zhao, who had an irreversible friendship with Li Jian, was qualified to say such words as "We have the entire country's troops at our disposal, and we have the trust of the important ministers of the three dynasties."
The agreement between him and Li Jian was that after Li Jian cursed the emperor Cao Rui to death with the art of hating victory, he relied on his father Sima Yi to almost control the power of the entire country's military, so that "most of the heirs of Emperor Wei Wen died in infancy." In order to break the theory of destiny of Zhou, the Confucian scholar who rebelled against Shu, he abandoned Cao Rui's adopted sons Cao Fang and Cao Xun and established other descendants of Wei Wu and Cao Cao as kings.
Looking at the contents of the silk book, Sima Yi was not involved.
But Xia Houxuan automatically ignored this.
Indeed, Sima Yi's current status is already the most powerful person in the Wei State except for the emperor Cao Rui. He can be said to be one person below ten thousand people. There is no reason for him to be tempted to participate in such a treasonous thing.
However, what if the prerequisite for this is that Emperor Cao Rui dies?
As the saying goes, this moment is the same as that moment.
At the time of the transition between the old and the new kings, out of the desire to consolidate his power, facing Wei's situation of unresolved external troubles and internal troubles, and with the persuasion of his son Sima Zhao, would he remain indifferent?
If nothing else, he should just take advantage of the situation "reluctantly"!
Others have shouldered the blame, but the road to power over the king has also been established. In the face of countless examples of power struggles in the previous dynasties, where "advancing means peace, retreating means death and family destruction", he would not use the name Duke Zhou. Self-proclaimed!
Xia Houxuan, who was indignant towards the Sima family, immediately sorted out the matter in an orderly manner.
When writing a book for Cao Yu, King of Yan, who was in Luoyang, he also adhered to the Spring and Autumn writing method of "pointing to the end". There was no criticism of Sima Yi in every word, but the writing made Cao Yu feel heartbroken.
On the one hand, Xia Houxuan was told to keep quiet and he continued to imprison Li Jian in Yecheng for disturbing Gaoling; on the other hand, he sent someone to send an urgent message eight hundred miles away to the emperor Cao Rui in Nanyang.
After seeing this, Cao Rui could not continue to stay in Wancheng, so it was not surprising that he rushed back to Yecheng without saying a word.
While on the road, he still felt lucky and did not believe that Sima Zhao would join forces with Li Jian.
Because it was under his instruction that Sima Zhao became passionately friends with Li Jian!
