Chapter 493: True and False Gunpowder (2)

In the fourth year of the Han Dynasty, that is, March 16 of the fourth year of Cao Wei Taihe, it was a good day for spring flowers to bloom, but Sima Yi did not have the leisure to enjoy such a good scene, although he was Cao Wei's Sikong and Fujun general, and at the same time, Cao Hong, the actual ruler of Cao Wei's regime, the general, the governor of the Chinese and foreign military, and the secretary of the book, also obeyed him, but now his heart is uneasy, because today he wants to test the gunpowder in the dense forest with Cao Hong. ↖，

Ever since he learned that all the fine works he had deployed in the Han Dynasty had been cleared, he felt that the secret recipe for gunpowder he had obtained before should be a conspiracy of the Han Dynasty, but now that he was driven by Cao Hong to put a duck on the shelf, he also had to cheer up and come here, hoping that a miracle would appear.

Cao Hong actually did not prepare for failure this time, but watched the huge power of the gunpowder explosion with great interest, in order to let the eldest son Cao Fu also have more knowledge and make some preparations for taking over his position in the future, he also brought him.

Sima Yi saw that Cao Hong even brought his son, and secretly shook his head and smiled bitterly, it was obvious that Cao Hong came this time to appreciate the power of the gunpowder explosion, but how did he know his hidden hardships?

However, Sima Yi also had to follow behind Cao Hong and Cao Fu, and the two high-ranking officials watched the craftsmen carefully put together hundreds of catties of gunpowder piled up, and then lit the fuse.

After that, these craftsmen quickly hid 200 paces away, and Sima Yi and Cao Hong, father and son, hid even more than 300 paces, until they could not see the place where the gunpowder was detonated when they retreated further.

Then, everyone stared at the distance ahead with heavy breathing, while some of the timid ones covered their ears tightly for fear that the thunderclap-like explosion would shake their ears.

Sima Yi's mood was even more nervous, and his heart had been waiting for the resounding explosion, because that sound would allow him to make great contributions to the country. And this heavy credit will definitely be of great help to his future great cause.

But when he waited for half a column of incense, he still didn't see any abnormal reaction to the gunpowder detonation, and his heart couldn't help but sink, because according to the information he had obtained before and the experience of many wars, the gunpowder only needed half of the time to explode, and he couldn't help but secretly smile bitterly when he saw this scene: "It seems that this is really Pang Tong's plan." In this way, this is a loss to Cao Hong's test explosion, otherwise, once it is used on the battlefield, I am afraid that our side will definitely be taken advantage of by the Han army because of negligence. ”

At this time, Sima Yi suddenly saw Cao Hong opening his mouth in front of him, as if he was saying something, but he found that the other party was just moving his tongue, but he couldn't hear the sound, and he couldn't help but be stunned, and then reacted that he had stuffed silk strips in his ears in advance. Suddenly laughed dumbly, took out the strip of cloth, but saw that Cao Hong had already walked towards the gunpowder detonation, and at the same time waved his hand to let the nearby craftsmen who developed gunpowder also go to find out.

Cao Fu saw his father walking forward, and he didn't know if it was out of filial piety or because he was interested in gunpowder, so he followed him anyway.

Sima Yi didn't notice what Cao Hong said before, and because he instinctively felt that Pang Tong's conspiracy would definitely not be so simple, he hesitated and didn't follow.

Cao Hong was anxious to know why the gunpowder did not explode. So he walked very quickly, and in the blink of an eye, he came to gunpowder. Gesturing and commanding those craftsmen, Sima Yi didn't hear Cao Hong's specific instructions, but he could guess that he must have asked those craftsmen to check again to see what happened to them.

Sure enough, the craftsmen came to the gunpowder and grabbed a handful of gunpowder. I thought about something, but there was obviously no answer.

Soon after, one of the craftsmen changed his complexion, pointing to a bit of gunpowder and saying something loudly, and then he saw the other craftsmen change their faces at the same time. Then he ran around as hard as he could.

At this time, Cao Hongzheng was staring at the gunpowder with a nervous face, and when he saw the craftsmen running away, he shouted and asked, but saw several craftsmen shouting at him, and then saw that he also spread his legs and ran away.

But Cao Hong only ran a few steps away, and then he heard a loud sound coming from nearby, and Cao Hong was immediately enveloped in flames, and before he could let out a scream, the whole person had turned into a piece of flying ashes.

At the same time that Cao Hong was killed, although the craftsmen not far away from him ran a few steps in advance, they still did not survive, all of them were swept to the ground by a huge wave of air, and then they were all blown up.

Seeing this scene, Sima Yi was already stunned and speechless, hundreds of people in their group, after this strange scene, only he and more than 100 guards around him were left, Cao Hong's father and son and the craftsmen were all stunned on the spot, and none of them survived.

Cao Hong is not an ordinary person, this is Cao Wei's first real power figure, such an important person died in the dense forest on the outskirts of Yecheng, and Sima Yi, who came here with him, was unscathed, if this matter is known by someone with a heart, he will definitely use this matter as an excuse to spare no effort to frame him, God knows what kind of impact it will have on him?

"This Pang Tong is really calculating, no wonder he was so kind to hand over the formula of gunpowder to Xizuo, as a result, this explosion not only killed all the craftsmen involved in the development of gunpowder, but even Cao Hong's father and son have no bones, we obtained a direct look at thousands of catties of gunpowder that exploded extremely slowly, and what we lost was the permanent loss of the ability to develop gunpowder and the death of Cao Hong's father and son, alas, this deal, I am a big loss." Sima Yi smiled bitterly in his heart, he didn't expect that he would be used by that Pang Tong again, originally he just doubted the authenticity of the gunpowder, but he didn't expect that the gunpowder itself was not fake, but the slow detonation speed would bring him countless troubles.

But since the incident has happened, Sima Yi can only find a way to clean up the mess even if he is helpless, he hurriedly ordered someone to inform the emperor and the hundred officials and ministers, and sent someone to secretly develop the secret recipe for gunpowder, and finally until the gunpowder exploded, Cao Hong's father and son and craftsmen were all killed, and told the emperor in detail.

After today's incident, the public opinion of the imperial court was in an uproar, many civil and military officials were full of disbelief, gunpowder exploded, the general Cao Hong died, and what was even more bizarre was that Sima Yi, who went to the black pine forest on the outskirts of Yecheng with him, was unscathed, such an ending could not help but make a bold guess emerge in the hearts of the ministers, that is, Sima Yi conspired to kill Cao Hong in order to seize Cao Hong's power, and blamed gunpowder for the problem in order to escape responsibility.

It was not only the ministers who had this kind of thought, but also a few officials with extreme personalities who wrote directly to the emperor, accusing Sima Yi of deliberately murdering the general Cao Hong in order to seize the military and political power of Cao Wei, which was really outrageous, so they requested that Sima Yi be stripped of all power, and that power be handed over to Cao Xiu, who was recuperating from illness, and then put Sima Yi in prison, and then be convicted and executed after the trial of the three law divisions.

The characters with such a clear attitude in the above book are naturally officials who are closer to Cao Xiu, and under the drive of these officials, more people knelt on top of the Golden Palace and begged Cao Wei, the emperor of Cao Wei.

However, there was no shortage of figures close to Sima Yi in the DPRK and China, and these people naturally took-for-tat measures. First, he wrote to the emperor to defend Sima Yi, explaining that Sima Yi and Cao Hong had a close relationship, and Cao Hong obeyed him and had no reason to harm him at all; The second is to write to the emperor, explaining that Cao Xiu was dismissed from all positions because of the defeat and accountability, and that the punishment was originally carried out after the unanimous consent of the emperor and the ministers, and now the punishment has been terminated without authorization and awarded to high-ranking officials before the punishment period has expired, which is really a bit unreasonable.

Immediately afterwards, the two sides naturally quarreled-for-tat in the court, which led to the court's loss of honor and the situation was chaotic.

Although Cao Yi was only twelve years old, he was smart and decisive, and when he saw that the ministers were arguing, he immediately said: "Sima Yi is an important minister of the country, and he has no two thoughts about the imperial court, and it is even more impossible to assassinate the general, but the general was suddenly killed, and Sima Yi could not escape the blame, not to give the order to remove him from the post of general of the army, and still retain the position of Sikong, and the general died suddenly, Cao Xiu was guilty, and he could not be suddenly activated, it is better to elect another important minister of the country to assist the government, and Cao Xiu as the military adviser and join the army, In this way, we have not violated the previous intention of asking Cao Xiu for his guilt, but also can give him a chance to make meritorious contributions. ”

Sima Yi couldn't help but sneer secretly when he heard this, how could he not know what Cao Rong was doing? This little emperor was unwilling to lose power, so he took the opportunity to deprive himself of the power to lead the army, and at the same time did not intend to hand over the power to Cao Xiu, so he was ready to find an easily controllable person in the Cao clan as a general, so as to concentrate power in his hands, this little emperor is worthy of being the emperor's family, and he will make such a clever decision quietly at such a young age, if he really grasps the power, won't his years of hard work be in vain?

However, Sima Yi knew that no matter who took over Cao Hong's power, he would never return it to the emperor easily, and as long as he looked for a suitable opportunity, such as the defeat of the Cao family, he needed to turn the tide, or even directly forcibly seized power, he could reassemble the power into his own hands.

"Hehe, the next thing is to see who the little emperor is willing to hand over the power to, but no matter who it is, it will never be Cao Zhang, Cao Zhi and Cao Xiu, the three most capable people of the Cao family are all excluded, and the rest are not worth it at all, I want to see who will have the last laugh." Sima Yi was respectful on the surface, but in his heart, he had already made plans for himself. (To be continued.) )