The New Year at the end of the third year of Yonghan was actually not a good time for Cao Cao.

Since he came back from Chang'an and started running Yanzhou, he has been surrounded by enemies on all sides and has struggled to survive. Until now, he has only managed to capture the entire Yanzhou and half of Xuzhou.

Yuan Shao, who had high hopes from Cao Cao, was finally defeated after fighting with Liu Bei for many years, but he did not develop to a strong enough level.

This was obviously a huge failure for Cao Cao.

Because at the very beginning, their initial strategy was to capture Yanzhou and Xuzhou, and then think of ways to plot the whole of Henan, and use Henan's land to fight against Hebei, and maybe there would be a chance of survival.

But now it's too late.

Liu Bei's situation was complete, but even Sun Jian couldn't deal with it, which really made Cao Cao feel troubled.

What made Cao Cao and his advisers even more desperate was that Liu Yu actually gave up the throne to Liu Bei, and no one in the court objected. This was something he could never have imagined.

From the time he heard the news years ago until the time after the Chinese New Year, Cao Cao's mood was at its lowest point, and his whole mood was very bad.

Fortunately, Mrs. Bian was smart and allowed Cao Zhi to hang out in front of Cao Cao from time to time every day. She also often took four-year-old Cao Chong to Cao Cao's study to see him. With his family by his side, Cao Cao's mental state improved a lot.

The most important thing is that he actually likes Cao Zhi and Cao Chong very much. Needless to say, Cao Zhi has been a child prodigy since he was a child. He is only eight years old this year, but he is already familiar with the classics.

favorite.

Although Cao Chong is only four years old this year, he has already shown extraordinary talent. He can read hundreds of words and can recite the "Book of Songs" and "The Analects of Confucius". Such talent made Cao Cao deeply feel that there is a successor to the Cao family. With the healing of the two

, Cao Cao finally got out of his decline and had a good year.

On the second day of the Lunar New Year, it was still snowing in Yanzhou. The entire Jiyin County seemed to be shrouded in a gray sky. What I saw when I raised my head was not a clear sky, but a gloomy gray fog.

Dingtao County, in the courtyard of Cao Mansion, the whole garden is covered with white snow. The leaves of some trees have withered and fallen. Only the bare branches have snow on their surfaces. Other trees are evergreen all year round, and their leaves are covered with snow.

A thick layer.

Little Cao Zhi likes snow. When he pushes the tree trunk, the snowflakes fall rustlingly, forming beautiful rime.

There were icicles as thick as fingers on the eaves of the courtyard. Cao Cao specially asked his servants to break them off. There were many children in the family. Except for Cao Ang, who was slightly older, Cao Pi was 13 years old, Cao Zhang was 11 years old, Cao Zhi was 8 years old, and Cao Xiong was 6 years old.

Years old, Cao Chong is 4 years old.

Historically, Cao Cao had 25 sons. In fact, due to the high mortality rate, many of his sons died shortly after they were born. Currently, only seven or eight of them survive. Among them, Cao Xiong and Cao Chong will not live for a few years.

They will also die young. It can be said that the adult rate of children is actually not high.

But now Cao Cao naturally does not know that his favorite son Cao Chong will die in infancy eight years later. He is sitting on the porch of the courtyard, smiling and looking at Cao Chong who is building a snowman with several friends of the same age in the courtyard. After having cotton clothes, winter

It's not so cold anymore.

At this moment, two people came in through the archway outside the courtyard. The tall, thin, middle-aged man with a clean face and a goatee on his chin was Xi Zhicai. His face was white and beardless, his face was delicate, and he looked a bit handsome when Chen Mu was young.

The person who looks like this is Guo Fengxiao.

Guo Jia and Xi Zhi just entered the courtyard. When Cao Cao saw the two coming, he stood up and said to the servants beside him: "Keep an eye on the two young masters."

"only."

Several servants bowed in response.

"Mr. Zhicai, Mr. Fengxiao."

Cao Zhi was also playing in the snow. When he saw the two passing by, he quickly saluted.

The two of them smiled and nodded in return, then walked towards Xiaozhu.

Cao Cao waved to them and motioned for them to enter the house, then he turned around and went in first.

A charcoal fire was lit in the room, making the room very warm.

After Guo Jia and Xi Zhi came in, Cao Cao had already sat down and waited for them. A servant brought him steaming wine.

"sit down."

Cao Cao poured himself a glass of wine and said.

"Thank you Ming Gong."

The two of them sat down on the left and right sides of Cao Cao.

After they sat down, Cao Cao said: "Zhicai, Fengxiao, it was just the Chinese New Year yesterday, why didn't you spend time with your family at home?"

Xi Zhicai smiled bitterly and said: "I thought so, but the imperial court sent an official document today."

"Official document?"

Cao Cao's face suddenly darkened and he said: "Liu Xuande has just ascended the throne and become emperor, and he is going to start giving orders to me within a day?"

Guo Jia shook his head and said, "That's not true. This is an official document from the Sangong Mansion. Let us submit last year's accounting information."

"No other orders were given?"

"No."

"That's good."

Cao Cao breathed a sigh of relief. He was really afraid that Liu Bei would immediately start to give him orders. If he didn't obey, maybe this would be an excuse for Liu Bei to send troops.

However, Guo Jia said: "This is not a good thing."

"Why?"

Cao Cao wondered, isn't the top priority now, considering whether to recognize the legitimacy of Liu Bei's court?

As long as Liu Bei doesn't take advantage of the situation, he will immediately be forced to admit it, and he will delay it as long as he can. Not expressing his position, not supporting him, not showing up, is Cao Cao's plan now.

Guo Jia said: "Although the imperial court did not force us to recognize Liu Bei, asking us to report last year's information is in itself spying on our intelligence, and it also means that the imperial court now wants to interfere in our county affairs. This is just a test."

Spying on intelligence and intervening in county affairs?

After hearing Guo Jia's words, Cao Cao stroked his long beard and fell into deep thought.

In fact, with his wisdom, this kind of thing is not something he cannot figure out.

What does shangji mean?

The accounting system originated from the Warring States Period. At the end of each year, various prefectures and counties had to report to the imperial court data such as the amount of grain stored in local warehouses, the amount of cultivated land and taxes, the number of household registrations, and the public security situation.

But now that the world is in chaos, except for the areas actually controlled by the imperial court, no one from other princes will continue to take this system seriously.

Even the princes like Cao Cao and Liu Biao, who had supported the Liu and Yu court in the past few years, often did it perfunctorily when submitting statistics at the end of the year. They would either falsify the data and report it, or simply not report it on the pretext that it was difficult to count because of the war. This system

Almost useless.

Now Liu Bei suddenly asked him to continue to complete this system. Is there a deeper meaning in it?

Cao Cao thought seriously for a while and suddenly broke into a cold sweat.

Because he found out that it was indeed not a good thing. This was more terrifying than the imperial court issuing an edict directly to force him to recognize the legitimacy of Liu Bei's court.

First of all, the Shangji system itself is a system for local governments to maintain the authority of the imperial court. If you continue to implement this system, does it mean that you continue to recognize the imperial court?

You know, in history, when Cao Cao blackmailed the emperor to order the princes, he asked Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty to issue an edict to Yuan Shao. After reading the imperial edict, Yuan Shao only said, "Is Cao Cao blackmailing the emperor to order me?" Then he threw the edict aside and discarded it.

ignore.

From this point of view, the so-called imperial power in the late Han Dynasty was no different from a fictitious one. Cao Cao only had two advantages in using the emperor to control the princes. One was that he could appoint officials everywhere, and the other was to give himself a banner of justice.

The former had little effect, because at the end of the Han Dynasty, the princes no longer needed Liu Xie to appoint officials, and they often appointed them themselves. Even those princes dared to appoint governors. For example, Gongsun Zan appointed Yan Gang as the governor of Jizhou and Tian Kai as the governor of Qingzhou.

Shan Jing was the governor of Yanzhou.

The latter played a greater role. Cao Cao used Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty to give himself a great reputation, allowing him to attack other princes in the name of attacking disloyal subjects. If other princes attack him, they will become traitors and rebels.

But now that history has undergone huge changes, Liu Bei became the emperor.

Cao Cao does not dare to recognize him now because he considers that once he recognizes Liu Bei's court, he will become Liu Bei's minister. If Liu Bei suddenly changes Yanzhou Mu, what should he do?

Raise the flag of rebellion?

You previously acknowledged Liu Bei's court, but you rebelled in the blink of an eye. You were so capricious that you immediately turned into a traitor, your reputation fell to the bottom in an instant, you lost your legal control over Yanzhou, and you became a traitor that everyone wanted to beat.

Therefore, after Cao Cao discussed with his advisers, he decided that he must not admit it, but in order to buy time for himself to recuperate and develop, he could not offend Liu Bei, who had a strong army.

Therefore, the attitude must be ambiguous, neither rebellious nor supportive, just pretend to be an ostrich and pretend that you don't know anything about Liu Bei becoming emperor.

But now Liu Bei asks him to continue to follow the above plan system, which is difficult to handle.

For other princes, the superior accounting system was an abandoned system. The imperial court asked them to hand over the information of each state and county, so there was no need to even think about it.

But Cao Cao is too close to Luoyang. If you dare to refuse, they will have an excuse to attack you and accuse you of rebellion.

And once you hand over the information, it means that you are following the court's legal system.

On the surface, it seems that Liu Bei has not been acknowledged, but it seems that he is upright. Even if he handed over the report, it does not count as recognition?

When the court gets these reports, it will either make a big splash to let the world know about it, or it will find fault with them, and they will always find excuses to punish you.

The only difference is whether the court is willing to punish him now.

So once you hand over the information, it's like a sword hanging over your head. Liu Bei can use these things to force you to recognize the legitimacy of the court.

If you don't admit it, he can say that you have fallen into the trap but don't acknowledge the imperial court, which means you are rebelling, and send troops to attack you.

After realizing the power of this official document, Cao Cao was also frightened.

If this official document had been delivered today, and Cao Cao had discovered that Liu Bei, whom he did not care about, had forced him to acknowledge the imperial edict, he might have complied with it.
To be continued...