Xuchang, the Imperial Palace, the Jiade Palace, and the Great Dynasty Meeting are underway.

Han system, three days and one dynasty. Major festivals or the end of the year, there are also large pilgrimage meetings; For example, the New Year's Day Festival, or the New Year's Day Festival. Of course, in the event of a major emergency, the court meeting will inevitably be held.

Today's court meeting encountered a major emergency.

First thing, Gongsun Chan died.

Well, to be precise, it doesn't matter whether Gongsun Chan dies or not. The important thing is that Gongsun Zhan dominated Youzhou, but now he was destroyed by Yuan Shao, so far, Yuan Shao has ruled Qingyou and Ji Sizhou, and has become the strongest prince today.

There is one more thing, that is, the spy reported that Yuan Shu was ready to defect to Yuan Shao.

Yuan Shu's defection to Yuan Shao, literally speaking, should not be a big deal.

However, Yuan Shu was a usurper and a pseudo-emperor, and he had a jade seal in his hand; And Yuan Shao has become the strongest prince in the world, if the two of them are in the same stream, is there any meaning to the son of heaven in Xuchang Palace?

At that time, not only will the Son of Heaven be coerced to make the princes an empty talk, but I am afraid that the world will also fall apart immediately.

This was not in the interests of the imperial court, nor was it in the interests of Cao Cao's group.

Therefore, it is necessary to convene a court meeting to discuss how to solve this matter.

To be honest, Cao Cao could actually discuss these two things behind closed doors with the military generals Wencheng under his command, but he still discussed them at the court meeting. This is actually already respect for the Son of Heaven and the imperial court.

On the jade steps, the Son of Heaven sits high; In the main hall, the hundred officials are seated in two columns, left and right; Cao Cao sat at the head of the hundred officials and led the court.

Cao Cao was not the prime minister at this time, and he could not sit on the jade steps, on the side of the Son of Heaven, and lead the government.

Hundreds of officials paid homage to the Son of Heaven, and after taking their seats, Cao Cao came out and said: "Your Majesty, the general Yuan Shao, Cheng Tianwei, led the royal division to exterminate Gongsun Zhan, and the court should be rewarded." The minister asked for a decree to crown Yuan Shao as the Marquis of Ye and lead the generalissimo of the world's soldiers and horses! ”

This reward is not insignificant.

Now, Cao Cao dominates the dynasty, and his title is only Marquis of Wuping, and his official position is only commonplace.

Marquis Ye and Marquis Wuping are both marquises, and they are both county marquises. However, the two are not the same. This is like, the king of Han and the king of Hanzhong, which title is more noble, you can see at a glance just from the title of the title.

Therefore, Yuan Shao's title of Marquis Ye must be a little higher than Cao Cao's Marquis Wuping.

Moreover, Cao Cao's official position is Sikong, one of the three dukes.

Yuan Shao, the generalissimo of the world's soldiers and horses, must surpass the three dukes in his official position.

Therefore, when Cao Cao's voice landed, the Son of Heaven was surprised, and some people among the officials were surprised. They couldn't understand why Cao Cao wanted to give such a high reward to his rival.

Dong Cheng stood at the foot of the jade steps and asked: "Dare to ask Cao Sikong, after Yuan Shao annexed Youzhou, he dominated Qingyou and Hebei Sizhou, which has become a big trouble for the imperial court, Cao Sikong doesn't think about how to exterminate it, why do you want to seal it?" ”

Cao Cao glanced at Dong Cheng and asked, "Otherwise, what does Uncle Guo think?" ”

"Yuan Shao's annexation of Youzhou has become a fact; The court issued an edict to reprimand, will he spit out the fat that he eats in his mouth? ”

"In that case, we might as well reward him with everything we have taken from him!"

Of course, there is another sentence that Cao Cao will not say, showing weakness to Yuan Shao like this, presumably Yuan Shao is very proud and complacent, right?

……

Among the hundred officials, even the henchmen of the imperial party felt that Yuan Shao's matter could only be handled like this at this time.

Otherwise, would you want to force Yuan Shao to rebel immediately?

The Son of Heaven bowed his head, which can be regarded as a recognition of Cao Cao's recital. But Cao Cao did not return to his seat, but took out another note: "Your Majesty, the minister still has something to play." ”

"Usurped Yuan Shu, and made the people miserable and resentful in Huainan. Recently, the spies received a report that Yuan Shu was preparing to lead the remnants to detour to Qingzhou and go to Jizhou to defect to Yuan Shao. The minister thought that it was impossible to let the traitor Yuan Shu and Yuan Shao join forces. ”

The Son of Heaven was surprised and asked, "So, Cao Aiqing thinks that it is appropriate to send which general to exterminate Yuan Shu?" ”

Compared with Yuan Shao and the traitor Cao Cao, for the young son of heaven, Yuan Shu is even more hateful.

As the saying goes, there are no two days in the sky, and there are no two masters in the country. Yuan Shu usurped the throne as emperor, which was a blatant attempt to overthrow the Han Dynasty, and for the entire Han family, Yuan Shu was the number one enemy and must be exterminated.

Previously, when Yuan Shu usurped the throne as emperor, Cao Cao sent troops to exterminate him.

At that time, after many battles in Runan, Yuan Shu finally lost his armor and led the remnants to flee to Shouchun.

It stands to reason that Cao Cao should be brave enough to chase after the poor.

But the problem is that Cao Cao is short of food, and there are endless troubles around him, coupled with the Huaishui barrier, so he can only let Yuan Shu temporarily survive in Huainan. In Cao Cao's mind, sooner or later he would still send troops to destroy Yuan Shu's gang.

It's just that no one expected that the situation would change so quickly, and Yuan Shao would unify the north so quickly, and Yuan Shu was willing to bow down to Yuan Shao and want to join forces with Yuan Shao. This matter, not to mention that the court will not agree, and Cao Cao does not want to see it.

Now, when the Son of Heaven asked, Cao Cao gave up his hand and was about to transfer troops to send generals, one of the hundred officials came out of the ranks, bowed down and bowed: "Minister Liu Bei, I implore you to lead the troops to go out and exterminate the traitor Yuan Shu, so as to serve the court and your majesty." ”

With Liu Bei's official position, he was naturally able to attend the Great Court Meeting. When discussing the reward of Yuan Shao just now, Liu Bei sat among the hundred officials, looking at his nose and nose, and his nose and heart, and he did not make a sound. At this time, he had to dispatch troops and recruit Yuan Shu, and he couldn't sit back and watch anymore.

If Liu Bei wanted to escape from Xuchang, he had to obtain permission from the imperial court, or rather, he had to obtain Cao Cao's consent.

The problem is that Cao Cao will never agree to Liu Bei's unauthorized departure from Xuchang!

However, leading troops to the expedition is different.

At this moment, Cao Cao has many generals under his command, but most of them are stationed outside at this time.

Some are stationed in Qingzhou, some are stationed on the border of the Yellow River, and some are in Wancheng and Luoyang Xiahou Yuan and Xiahou Dun brothers, now one is in Wancheng and one is in Luoyang, they need to guard against Jingxiang Liu Biao, and also the enemy in the middle.

Right now, in Xuchang City, there are only Xu Chu and Zhang Liao, as well as some Cao clan generals.

Xu Chu has good combat power, but he can't take charge alone, so he naturally can't lead the troops to the battle; Zhang Liao is a new general, although he has the ability, but Cao Cao dares to rest assured that he will lead the troops to the battle? Even if Cao Cao dares, I'm afraid that Cao Cao's several military advisors won't dare!

Therefore, at this time, Cao Cao was actually a general with his own side!

Of course, to exterminate the remnants of Yuan Shu, Cao Cao casually sent a general, and there was no problem, it was nothing more than crushing it with a large army.

However, now that the summer harvest has not arrived, Cao Cao has military rations, so it is impossible to send a large army, and at most 50,000 troops can be dispatched.

Most likely, Cao Cao could only send 30,000 troops.

So, here's the problem. No matter how remnant Yuan Shu is, he still has generals around him, and he still has tens of thousands of soldiers and horses under his banner. In this way, an ordinary general with 350,000 soldiers and horses may not be the opponent of Yuan Shu's remnants.

And this is the time Liu Bei is waiting for.