"The Sun-Liu coalition army has arrived in Xiangyang." Liu Ye sent the military report he had just received to Cao Ying, Cao Ying stopped the pen in his hand and took the military report, but he didn't open it immediately, but glanced at Liu Ye, with both surprise and loss in his eyes: "Really here?" ”

Liu Ye nodded: "According to the news received, Jiangdong has a great opinion on whether Sun Quan will be saved when he sees death, saying that he borrowed the prime minister's knife to kill Sun Ce's son. ”

Cao Ying's mouth crooked, and he smiled disdainfully: "This is probably the wind released by Sun Shao again, right?" ”

"It should be." Liu Ye smiled, and was just about to speak, Xin Bi walked in with a happy face, and said breathlessly: "Prime Minister, good news!" ”

"Good news?" Cao Ying and Liu Ye were stunned, Sun Liu's army was coming, even if they didn't work, at least they had to fight a dozen, what good news was there at this time, could it be that Cao Pi caught the fine work?

Xin Bi stopped, gasped twice, and then said in one breath: "Aurora Water Division's Su Thick Legs Turned Against the Water, Escaped from the Battle, Qingxu Water Division Annihilated Jiangdong Water Division Jiang Qin, Zang Ba killed Jiang Qin, took advantage of the victory to advance, and reached Jianye, Jiangdong shook, and the defeat turned into victory." ”

Before Xin Bi's words were finished, Cao Ying stood up with a "poof", stared at him and shouted: "What did you say? Zang Ba's counterattack Jianye? ”

Xin Bi was taken aback, nodded again and again, and casually handed over the urgent report in his hand. Cao Ying didn't say a word, he took it as if he grabbed it, checked the sealing mud on it, took the book knife from the case, cut the bundled string at once, and unfolded Jian Ce with a "bang", and quickly browsed it. This is Zang Ba's request for merit, and of course it is written in more detail than the news that Xin Bi heard from the person who sent the letter, Cao Ying's eyebrows danced, and a smile bloomed from the corner of his eyes full of crow's feet. After a long time, he slowly put down the bamboo slip in his hand, raised his head and sighed:

"Good means of erections!"

Liu Ye was inexplicable, he vaguely heard what Cao Ying meant, as if this matter was related to Sun Shao - because they often talked about Sun Shao recently, and Cao Ying always called Sun Shao a vertical son - Aurora Water Master Su Thick Leg was originally Sun Shao's subordinate, which is understandable, but since Sun Quan has divided them, it is impossible not to have the means to encircle Su Thick Legs, judging from Su Thick Legs' performance some time ago, he seems to have taken refuge in Sun Quan, and now he is suddenly backwater, is it just because of Sun Shao?

Cao Ying can't tell, this situation will happen, but it is not often, especially when Sun Shao is now on the verge of defeat, if Su Thick Leg is really that kind of loyal subordinate, he should not have betrayed Sun Shao and accepted Sun Quan's official position, but if he really betrayed Sun Shao, now is definitely not the time for him to be loyal to Sun Shao again, because Sun Shao is trapped in Wancheng and is in danger, even if he betrays and makes Sun Quan's rear unstable, he can't save Sun Shao.

Then there is only one possibility, Su Thick Leg is not betraying Sun Shao, he is the foreshadowing that Sun Shao has long been buried, and he is one of the many measures that Sun Shao has taken to solve the predicament, and Su Thick Leg has enough confidence in Sun Shao, so that he can abandon his existing interests and follow Sun Shao with all his heart.

Because of this, Cao Ying thought that Sun Shao's methods were clever, he had been forbearing, and then at the most critical time, he gave Sun Quan a hard blow. From this point of view, Sun Shao must have a back-up move, and he must make Sun Quan unable to fight back.

So what's the solution? Cao Ying was very curious, and Liu Ye and Xin Bi were also very curious.

"Will Sun Shao surrender?" Cao Ying reminded him that in his opinion, the best way for Sun Shao to get rid of Sun Quan's control was to surrender to him. If this is the case, then Cao Ying will not have any good intentions, he just used Sun Shao to attack Sun Quan and reap the benefits of the fisherman himself.

"According to the minister, it is not very possible." Liu Ye shook his head, although his tone was tactful, the meaning was very clear. "Anyway, Sun Quan and Liu Bei led the army to arrive, Sun Shao's situation has improved, he didn't surrender before, and now he shouldn't surrender."

Cao Ying looked at Liu Ye: "Even if Sun Quan comes, will he really attack?" Su's thick legs are against the water, which will only increase Sun Quan's killing power, how can he still help Sun Shao? ”

"It's one thing to kill, it's another thing to help." Liu Ye shook his head again and again: "Even if Sun Quan wants to kill Sun Shao, he will not take this opportunity." If Sun Shao is really forced to surrender, what good will it do him? ”

Cao Ying stroked his beard, pondered for a moment, and suddenly smiled bitterly: "I understand, this vertical son is playing the trick of the fox and the fake tiger, and now none of us has an absolute advantage, whoever he joins, whoever has the upper hand, so no one can offend him, plus the edict of the Son of Heaven, this ...... It's a little hard to deal with in a hurry, and our three tigers were all played by him and a fox. ”

Liu Ye just nodded and didn't speak, what he was going to say had already been said by Cao Ying, and there was no point in showing his cleverness again. Although Cao Ying is very generous and has a mind to advise, he is no longer the humble Lord Sikong he used to be, and it is better to keep a low profile. Xin Bi also thought so, he twisted his beard, and echoed Cao Ying's words: "It's still the prime minister who is wise, and he can see through this son's trick at one point." The minister was ignorant, and only now did he discover his sinister intentions. Now it seems that he has always been unclear about the matter of harmony, probably waiting for Sun Quan and Liu Bei's army to arrive. Now that he has Tianxian in his mouth, I can't wait for it to be reckless. ”

Cao Ying smiled bitterly and shook his head, put his hands behind his back, and slowly paced in the tent. He has been using people all his life, and suddenly he was taken advantage of, it is really not a taste, he thought about it for a long time, hoping to find a flaw and not let Sun Shao have the opportunity to use them, but after thinking about it, weighing the pros and cons, it seems that it is better to unite with Sun Quan and Liu Bei than with Sun Shao.

Politics, in the final analysis, is still interests, and how to do the most is the best strategy. Cao Ying hesitated, frowning and thinking for a while, and then shaking his head and laughing secretly. Liu Ye and Xin Bi didn't dare to say a word, and watched with bated breath.

"Prime Minister, the messenger of the Son of Heaven is here." Xu Yu opened the tent door and said softly. His voice was soft, but it was clear to everyone, as if he were speaking in your ear.

Cao Ying was stunned for a moment, his hand twisting his beard stopped, he looked at Xu Yu for a moment, then turned his head, looked at Liu Ye, and then looked at Xin Bi, the corners of his mouth tugged, as if he was smiling, but there was no smile on his face.

Liu Ye and Xin Bi glanced at each other and smiled helplessly. Things are just as they expected, the edict of the Son of Heaven is late, too late, and this time is coming, obviously, there must be Sun Shao's shadow behind this.

Cao Ying was a little embarrassed, should he accept the edict or not? If you accept the edict, then you can't talk about besieging the city again, you can only unite with Sun Shao and become the tiger behind Sun Shao's fox, but if you don't accept the edict, it will be tantamount to taking the initiative to declare that you are rebellious, and Liu Bei and Sun Quan will definitely take this opportunity to attack him. Of course, he can also state that this edict is not the original intention of the Son of Heaven, just like Sun Quan and Liu Bei did not accept the edict issued by him before, but there is a premise, he wants to ensure that Sun Quan and Liu Bei can't help him.

And now, he doesn't have this certainty, his strength is not far from the total strength of Sun Quan and Liu Bei, if he loses this name again, who can guarantee that he will not be defeated, who can guarantee that Yecheng and Luoyang will not have another accident?

Just when Cao Ying was embarrassed, Xu Yu said again: "With the edict of the Son of Heaven, there is also the queen's edict." ”

Cao Ying was stunned for a moment, and immediately understood. In Xu County, there is not only the Son of Heaven, but also his four daughters, as well as many of his cronies, all of whom are the eyes and ears he placed beside the Son of Heaven. These people must have been controlled by Sun Shao now, and if he refuses to accept the edict, then his daughter and these cronies will all die. Even if he could abandon these people, what about Cao Ren? What about full of pets? Did he abandon them all?

Cao Ying only hesitated for a short time, then made up his mind, and without a moment's delay, he waved his hand: "Take the edict." ”

Sun Quan and Liu Bei received the edict of the Son of Heaven almost at the same time, although they were dozens of miles apart, their expressions were very similar, stunned, and then smiled bitterly.

Sun Quan was so angry that he gritted his teeth, and Su's thick legs unexpectedly turned back, which not only made him lose Jiang Qin, a general, and lost thousands of sailors, but also put Jian Ye in a crisis, and the previous good situation of being left and right, advancing and retreating freely suddenly came to naught. Although he had no evidence that this incident was related to Sun Shao, he was sure that Sun Shao played a role in determining the surname. Originally, he didn't understand why Su Thick Leg would rather give up the interests of reality, make such a self-defeating move, and follow Sun Shao with all his heart, but now that he received the edict, he understood that Sun Shao had long planned to break away from his reading power, but he had been waiting for an opportunity.

If you look a little further, when he was determined to dismantle the Aurora Sailor, Sun Shao was ready, so he left Su Thick Legs, not for anything else, just because Su Thick Legs had enough strength to make trouble behind him, if it was replaced by Cui Qian or Yue Hai, they would not have this strength even if they had the heart. The funny thing is that at that time, he thought that this was Sun Shao's kindness and a manifestation of loyalty, and he couldn't help but accept Sun Shao's proposal happily, only to find out in the end that Sun Shao had dug a pit for him. And he thought he had a plan, and jumped in with great interest.

He wanted to clean up Sun Shao, but before he could think of a good idea, he found that he had no ability to clean up Sun Shao at all, Sun Shao hid behind the Son of Heaven, taking advantage of the moral advantage of the Son of Heaven, relying on Cao Ying's strong strength behind him, as long as he revealed a little unfavorable mentality to Sun Shao, Sun Shao might throw himself into Cao Shao and become Cao Shao's vanguard - of course, there is an edict from the Son of Heaven.

I'm afraid that at that time, everyone will stand on Sun Shao's side, thinking that Sun Quan forced Sun Shao to embark on this road, the reason is very simple, Sun Quan will not save him when he sees death, and he will disobey the edict of the Son of Heaven later, whether it is the clan or the generals, they will sympathize with Sun Shao.

For Sun Quan, the Son of Heaven issued an edict to call out the army and truce, if he resisted, he would be a traitor, not only to face Cao Ying's army, but also to face Sun Shao's attack, Sun Shao has the banner of the Son of Heaven in his hand, as long as an edict, he can rightfully replace him as the lord of Jiangdong, there is a foreshadowing in front, I believe that many people will sympathize with Sun Shao, and then support Sun Shao and accept Sun Shao.

After Sun Quan weighed the pros and cons, he discussed with Gu Yong and others and decided to accept the edict.

For Liu Bei, the situation is similar, he used to not accept the edict of the Son of Heaven, because the Son of Heaven was in the hands of Cao Ying, and now the Son of Heaven is in the hands of Guan Yu, Guan Yu is his cronies, his brothers, and his ministers, does he want to say that Guan Yu is a thief? He couldn't. What's more, now that the three parties are facing each other, no one can eat anyone, Cao Ying is certainly a behemoth, and Sun Quan, an ally, is not a trustworthy object. Sun Shao and Guan Yu coerced the Son of Heaven to order the princes, and they have become the key chess pieces that affect the situation of the war, you can ignore the edict, but you must have the strength to deal with the attacks of the other two sides.

And now no one has this strength, Cao Ying doesn't have it, Sun Quan doesn't have it, and Liu Bei doesn't have it.

What's more, the edict of the Son of Heaven also carries a big hat, for the sake of the people of the world, with an unstated benefit, as long as everyone sits down to talk, then the three of them can justifiably divide the existing territory.

It is only necessary to nominally revere the Son of Heaven.

Cao Ying can not want the Son of Heaven, Sun Quan can also not want the Son of Heaven, but Liu Bei can't, he has always regarded himself as a royal nobleman, knowing that the Son of Heaven has become an ornament, he can't ignore it, even if he wants to be the Son of Heaven very much, but Liu Xie doesn't die for a day, he can't show this meaning for a day.

Everyone in the world knows about it, but no one can say it.

So Liu Bei could only reluctantly accept the edict.

Things went smoothly beyond the imagination of the Son of Heaven, and less than half a month after the edict was issued, Cao, Sun and Liu successively responded, accepted the edict of the Son of Heaven, and sent envoys to Wancheng to participate in the talks. Although the Son of Heaven who received the reward was already mentally prepared, he still couldn't believe it when the exact news reached his ears. After sighing with emotion, he said to Liu Ruo: "General Sun is clever. ”

When Sun Shao heard Liu Ruo's words of praise, he just laughed, and then said very insincerely: "Where, this is the result of the kindness of my Han Dynasty for four hundred years, the wisdom of Your Majesty, and the credit of General Guan and the pillars of the country. ”

Liu Ruo smiled all over his face, and he asked tentatively: "General, how should the next talks be arranged?" ”

Sun Shao spread his hands: "I'm not good at this kind of thing, there are many sages in the court, why don't you invite one or two to come out and preside?" He thought for a moment and then said, "I think of a person who doesn't know whether to talk about it or not." ”

"Who?" Liu Ruo hurriedly said, "Please speak up, general." ”

"So the Taiwei Yang Gong."

Liu Ruo thought for a moment, suddenly realized, and patted his thigh excitedly: "Alas, how did I forget him, yes, when it comes to presiding over this military conference, no one is more suitable than him." ”

Yang Biao came from the Yang family of the Hongjia family, and the same as the Yuan family, the Yang family is also a family of scholars, the fourth generation and the third duke, and pays more attention to morality than the Yuan family, and is the gateway of the Han Dynasty. Whether you like Yang Biao or not, you can't ignore the existence of such a family, nor can you ignore the existence of a person like Yang Biao, although he has been sick since the first year of Jian'an, but his reputation has not diminished at all.

Such a person will not have any opinion on presiding over the military conference, whether it is Cao Ying, Liu Bei, Sun Quan, or the Son of Heaven.

Liu Ruo was overjoyed, and bowed his hand to Sun Shao again and again: "If this military conference is successful, the general will be the first merit." ”

Sun Shao waved his hand disapprovingly: "Don't think too simply, even if the envoy arrives in Wancheng, it is not appropriate to talk about it for a while, now Wancheng has become the actual national capital, there are many people, and those people who are about to come to Wancheng are all intrigues, and there are many things that are unsightly in private." As a close minister of His Majesty's side, the prince must be guarded against. ”

Liu Ruo immediately understood what Sun Shao meant. Now the three parties have sent envoys to talks, but they are forced by the situation and have no choice but to do so, and they are not sincere, and as long as they make some money at this time, they may withdraw from the joint talks at any time. In order to ensure the success of the joint talks, the safety of Wancheng is the top priority, and no mistakes can be made.

"The general and General Sun are here, it shouldn't be fine, right?" Liu Ruo said tentatively.

"We?" Sun Shao's mouth crooked: "The name is not right, and the words are not good." ”

Liu Ruo smiled knowingly and understood. After a few words of gossip, he got up and said goodbye, not for long, the edict of the Son of Heaven arrived, sealing Guan Yu as the hussar general, leading Nanyang to guard, and the safety around Nanyang. Feng Sun Shao is the general of Wei, leading the Wanling, responsible for the security of Wancheng and picketing hundreds of officials, Liu Ruo is Guangluxun, responsible for the security outside the palace, and Feng Xunyun is the captain of the guard, responsible for the safety of the palace. At the same time, he issued an edict and ordered the former lieutenant Yang Biao to rush to Wancheng and preside over the battle meeting in Wancheng.

In addition to the edict, the Son of Heaven issued another edict that Wancheng was short of grain, and asked the three feudal officials to hurry up and transport grain. Cao Ying and others, who received the edict, saw that the overall situation had been decided, and they had no choice but to send food to the book, and they couldn't respect the Son of Heaven while starving the Son of Heaven. The most anxious was Cao Ying, Sun Shao sent someone to send him a letter privately, first thanking him for being the first to respond to the army conference and setting an example for Sun Quan and Liu Bei, and then threatened him and said, if you don't send food, I will cut off your Cao family's food first. Cao Ying knew that he was being used by Sun Shao, but at this point, he could only pinch his nose and admit that he was unlucky, he retreated twenty miles, withdrew the siege of Wancheng, and sent food.

When the long grain truck drove into the city gate, the people who had been besieged for months were excited, and when they heard the news of the truce issued by the Son of Heaven, they all felt that the good day was about to arrive, and they ran to tell each other, and Wancheng soon became a sea of joy. Although many people feel that this matter is still a long way from the final peace, ordinary people and soldiers do not think so much, they do not want to fight for a long time, they just want to go home early, as soon as they hear the news, they believe that decades of war are finally coming to an end.

Naturally, Guan Yu and Sun Shao became the great benefactors second only to the Son of Heaven, and gradually people came to the house every day to kowtow. Sun Shao is afraid of trouble, hiding in the house and not going out, Guan Yu is not, he enjoys this feeling very much, he likes to watch countless people who don't know him bow to him, long live the mountain, he likes to patrol the city with his own guards, and enjoy the grateful eyes of the people everywhere he goes.

Wancheng, who was once panicked, gradually quieted down, Sun Shao suggested that Guan Yu release those rebels who were not strong in battle out of the city, and now it is the spring ploughing season, instead of putting them in the city to consume food, it is better to let them go back to farming, so as to reduce some of the pressure on food supply and safety management in Wancheng. Guan Yu is now obedient to Sun Shao's words, and immediately asked the Son of Heaven to leave a small part of the more than 30,000 rebels, and send the rest to the tuntian outside the city to cultivate. Nanyang is ripe, but it has been fighting in the past few years, and there is a serious shortage of manpower, so a lot of land has been abandoned, and tens of thousands of laborers have come at once, as long as it can be guaranteed that there will be no more wars, after the autumn harvest, the grain pressure can be greatly relieved.

In late March, Yang Biao rushed to Wancheng. As soon as the monarch and the ministers met, before Yang Biao could speak, the Son of Heaven got up from the throne, rushed to Yang Biao in three steps and two steps, and took Yang Biao's hand and cried bitterly. He ascended the throne at the age of nine, and the next few years were spent in bloody rain, Dong Zhuo first killed in Luoyang, and then forced him to move to Chang'an, Wang Yun easily designed to kill Dong Zhuo, Li Dao and Guo Yan caused trouble in Chang'an, until Zhongping fled Chang'an in the second year, and these years were his lingering nightmares. During this most difficult period, Yang Biao has always been by his side, supporting him like a father. After Jian'an arrived in Xu County in the first year, Yang Biao was not angry with Cao Ying's behavior, and designed to kill Cao Biao when he came to see him, but the Son of Heaven was timid and did not agree, but Cao Ying heard the rumors, and later found another excuse to put Yang Biao in prison. After this, Yang Biao was disheartened, Du Men did not come out, and the Son of Heaven had not seen him for more than 20 years.

Yang Biao is old, with gray hair, wrinkles on his face, and brown old age spots all over his face, but his waist is still straight and straight, and when he stands there, he is still majestic and inviolable. As soon as the Son of Heaven saw him, it was like seeing the backbone of the Lord, and the burden on his body was suddenly much lighter, and all the grievances and pressures seemed to be vented with tears.

In the past 20 years, the Son of Heaven has been numb, even when Queen Fu was dragged out, he never cried, but when he saw Yang Biao today, he suddenly couldn't suppress his feelings, just like a child who had suffered a lot of grievances finally saw his relatives.

Yang Biao was also in tears, he knelt down on his knees in front of the Son of Heaven, and looked at the Son of Heaven with his face up: "Your Majesty, the minister was overjoyed when he received the edict, and he couldn't wait to fly to His Majesty's side in one step." Your Majesty, the minister did not expect that in this dying year, he would have another chance to serve the Han Dynasty. ”

The Son of Heaven was full of joy and sorrow, he helped Yang Biao hard, personally helped him to the seat next to him, and then dragged his mat to Yang Biao, sat down next to Yang Biao, knees touched knees, and asked softly with tears: "Yang Gong, look at the big man...... Is there still a chance for ZTE? ”

"Yes and no." Yang Biao's voice looked tired, but calm.

The Son of Heaven was at a loss.

(To be continued)