Cao Zhi heeded Cheng Yu's advice and decided to do his best to buy Cao Wei time, and he learned from Hua Xin that his brother had secretly negotiated with Liu Jing twice, but without success, because Liu Jing's conditions were too harsh and he even asked them to abolish the newly established young son of heaven.

However, the shape is changing rapidly, when the Empress Dowager Fu issued a decree in Chang'an, not recognizing the new emperor of Yedu, in fact, this step of Tianzi chess has lost its meaning, and the new emperor is abolished, and the people of the world basically no longer take him seriously, and even the prime minister of the Han dynasty of the Cao family has no summoning power.

Now that Cao Zhi no longer has the political capital to negotiate with the Han army, Cao Zhi's only hope is to beg Liu Jing for the sake of his sister Cao Xian, and the Han and Cao families will truce for half a year, of course, nominally to let the people of Hebei have a peaceful New Year, and let the farmers of Hebei complete spring ploughing.

Cao Zhi knew that Liu Jing was not in Chang'an, but in Taiyuan, so he immediately sent Situ Dongzhao to Taiyuan with his handwritten letter to meet Liu Jing.

Liu Jing was indeed in Taiyuan, just when he was preparing to lead the army to pass through Guò Jingcheng and march into Hebei, he got the news of the coup d'état in Yedu, which made Liu Jing temporarily change his plan, he ordered Wei Yan to lead 20,000 troops to defend Jingcheng, and he himself sat in Taiyuan to watch the changes in Yedu.

Early in the morning, Sima Yi hurriedly walked through a long corridor and came to Liu Jing's temporary official room, he saw that the door was closed, and there were several guards standing at the door, so Sima Yi stepped forward and asked in a low voice, "Is it convenient now?" ”

The guard smiled strangely, "Your Highness is resting, don't disturb Xiangguo for the time being." ”

Sima Yi knew in his heart that His Royal Highness had a few more drinks last night, and there were a few dancing girls who accompanied him, and it was estimated that he would go to bed very late, and at this time, Liu Jing's voice came from the room, "Is it Sima Xiangguo?" ”

"Yes! The prime minister has something to ask to see His Highness. ”

"Please come in!"

The guard pushed open the door, Sima Yi walked into the room, but saw Liu Jing sitting in front of the desk to review the text, full of energy, he glanced at it, but he didn't see the figures of the dancing girls, Liu Jing knew what he was looking for, so he smiled and said: "I sent it away in the middle of the night, Xiangguo doesn't need to look for it." ”

Sima Yi smiled, and didn't persuade Liu Jing not to get close to women or anything like that, he knew that King Han was also doing it occasionally, so there was no need to delve into it, then Liu Jing put down his pen and asked, "Is there any news over there in Yedu?" ”

"Your Highness, Cao Zhi has sent Dong Zhao as an envoy to Taiyuan to ask for a meeting with His Highness, and it is estimated that he will arrive tomorrow."

This was expected by Liu Jing, but he was no longer interested in this kind of negotiation now, and asked, "How is the recruitment situation in Yedu?" ”

"It is said that there is still some effect, Li Fu said that the initial information they have has collected about 30,000 people."

Liu Jing smiled contemptuously, "It's only 30,000 people, not much, I thought they could recruit at least 100,000 people." ”

"Your Royal Highness must not underestimate the other party, Xiahoudun is a fierce general of Cao Wei, his strategy and experience are second to none in the Cao army, and there are also famous generals such as Zhang Liao and Xu Huang, although we have won the Central Plains War, but if we take it lightly, once Hebei loses, the Cao army will also turn over, Your Highness, be careful!"

Liu Jing nodded, he accepted Sima Yi's advice, he really couldn't be careless, pondered for a while, Liu Jing asked again: "What does Zhongda think Cao Zhi sent Dong Zhao to Taiyuan for?" ”

"Wechen has considered this problem, and Wechen thinks that Cao Wei needs the most time at the moment, and they must want to buy time and prepare for the final stubborn resistance."

Liu Jing sneered and said: "I won't give them time, in the past, I was able to reach a compromise because the shape was not urgent, and I also needed to let the soldiers rest, but now there is no need, and I, Liu Jing, will not become the second Song Xianggong." ”

"Then how is His Highness going to reply to Cao Zhi?"

"You don't need to reply, just detain Dong Zhao, this person is a talent, I can let him be used by me in the future."

Dong Zhao never dreamed that he had just arrived in Taiyuan and became a prisoner of the Han army, he did not see Liu Jing, and was directly placed under house arrest by the Han army in Taiyuan City, which made Dong Zhao sigh in his heart, compared to Dong Zhao's bad luck, Cheng Ke, who rushed to Taiyuan on the same day, was a different scene, and he was personally received by Liu Jing, the king of Han.

In the military office of Taiyuan City, Cheng Ke knelt down respectfully and bowed to Liu Jing, the king of Han, "Xiaomin Cheng Ke, meet His Royal Highness the King of Han!" ”

Liu Jing met Cheng Ke, of course, because of his grandfather Cheng Yu, Cheng Ke did not come on behalf of himself, but on behalf of his grandfather, Liu Jing waved his hand and smiled: "Cheng Gongzi, please take a seat!" ”

"Your Highness!"

Cheng Ke sat down on the side, and Sima Yi and Zhuge Liang sat on both sides, he took out his grandfather's letter, raised it above his head and presented it, "This is a handwritten letter from my grandfather to His Royal Highness, please take a look at Your Highness." ”

The guard next to him turned the letter shaft to Liu Jing, but Liu Jing was not in a hurry to open it, and asked with concern, "How is Ling Zu's health?" ”

Cheng Ke's expression was gloomy and he shook his head, "My grandfather has been bedridden since he came back from Xuzhou, and we don't know if his old man can survive this catastrophe, so we can only pray for God's blessing." ”

Liu Jing opened the letter scroll, but he was slightly stunned, only to see that the scroll was densely filled with small characters, he slowly unfolded it, only to find that the front and back were full of words, roughly estimated, at least tens of thousands of words.

Cheng Ke hurriedly said: "This letter has been written by grandfather for more than three months, and he implores His Highness to read it carefully." ”

Liu Jing only read a little bit and understood the content inside, which turned out to be the lesson of Cao Wei's decline summarized by Cheng Yu, and he hoped that he would avoid repeating Cao Wei's mistakes.

It can be said that every sentence is Cheng Yu's painstaking condensation, which makes Liu Jing feel inexplicably moved, although Cheng Yu also has a little bit of trust to the family, but it is more Cheng Yu, as a minister, regret that he has not been able to realize his ambitions and his expectations for Xinhan.

Liu Jing carefully put away the letter shaft, he wanted to read the precious legacy left by Cheng Yu carefully, and he said to Cheng Ke: "I understand Ling Zu's hard work, please go down to rest first, I will make arrangements." ”

Cheng Ke saluted, and slowly retreated, Liu Jing walked to the window with his hand, stared out of the window for a long time, and after a long while, Zhuge Liang smiled slightly: "Does Your Highness feel it in your heart?" ”

Liu Jing nodded, "People are dying, and their words are also good, and Cheng Yu's hard work in the end will help me a lot." ”

"But does Your Highness understand Cheng Yu's intentions?"

"I know he wants me to be kind to his children and grandchildren."

Sima Yi next to him smiled and said: "Weichen Jian Yì can let him do six things first, if he is really capable, he will be released as a county order after a year, step by step, what does His Highness think?" ”

"This plan is feasible, and this matter will be handed over to Sima Xiangguo."

After a pause, Liu Jing said to Zhuge Liang again: "Now there are ten days before the New Year, temporarily rest in Bingzhou, and wait for the New Year, on the fifth day of the first month, the western, eastern and southern lines will march to Hebei at the same time!" ”

The time gradually came to the end of December, at this time Luoyang was besieged for nearly half a year, Luoyang has long been without the prosperity of the former Han Dynasty capital, the chaos at the end of the Han Dynasty brought disaster to Luoyang, the former prosperous Han capital Luoyang, has become a dead city with smoke cut off and a group of rats and snakes.

After Cao Cao unified the Central Plains, Zhong Xuan gradually led the population of Guanzhong and Bingzhou back to Luoyang, so that Luoyang gradually regained a little vitality, and by the twentieth year of Jian'an, Luoyang had become a large city with a population of nearly 50,000, although it was far from being comparable with the previous Han capital, but finally there was a glimmer of life.

And this time the Han Cao War, but also brought a heavy blow to Luoyang, Xu Huang led 20,000 Cao troops to defend Luoyang, and 100,000 Han troops in the outer city, Luoyang near Xu, Ying, Chen, Hong and other places have been occupied by the Han army, making Luoyang a lonely city.

Nearly half a year of siege, Luoyang City, like all besieged cities, also faced the most severe food crisis, Cao Jun's stock in Luoyang is not much, only 30,000 stones, this is Xu Huang prepared to fight for two months of food, but did not expect that this trap is half a year.

Although Xu Huang tried his best to mobilize the military and civilians to grow easy-to-grow black beans in the open space in the city, and implemented a strict food rationing system in the city, the daily ration of ordinary people was reduced to less than one heta, and they could only barely survive.

Despite exhausting all the methods, after entering mid-December, the Cao army still slowly fell into a situation of running out of food, ordinary Cao soldiers only had half a grain every day, and the war horses and livestock had already been killed, and even Xu Huang's beloved horse was killed to the soldiers.

Ordinary people have no rations, so they can only peel tree bark and catch mice, and the elderly and children face the threat of death.

But the reinforcements that Xu Huang was looking forward to never heard from him, not even the pigeon letters, and even Xu Huang began to despair.

This morning, Xu Huang was sitting in the big tent and was silent, when suddenly, there was a 'boom! Xu Huang raised his head in surprise, followed by a few more muffled sounds, Xu Huang suddenly realized, could it be that the Han army began to attack the city?

He stood up and walked briskly out of the tent, and was stunned for a moment, only to see that the sky was full of fluttering pieces of paper, and almost every soldier had grabbed a piece of paper and was gathering together to whisper.

Xu Huang also floated a piece of paper in front of his eyes, and he reached out and grabbed the piece of paper, the piece of paper was only the size of a palm, and two lines of words were written on it, 'Ye is all surrounded, Cao Wei will be destroyed, Luoyang will surrender, and grain will enter the city.' ’

Xu Huang stared at this piece of paper blankly, the last news he got was that Cao Pi had died, and Cao Zhi was the prime minister, but now twenty days have passed, and he has no more news, is Ye really broken by the Han army?

No way! If Ye is all breached, why not escort Cao Zhi to call the city to surrender, Xu Huang took a closer look, only to notice that Ye was besieged, and Cao Wei would perish, which meant that it had not perished yet, which made him breathe a little relieved, Xu Huang immediately ordered: "All pieces of paper are confiscated, no preservation is allowed, violators will be beheaded!" ”

At this time, a soldier rushed over, bowed and saluted: "General Qiyu, the Han army has sent a messenger!" ”

Xu Huang pondered for a moment, then nodded, "Take him to my big tent." ”

After a short time, the soldiers of the Cao army led a scribe to Xu Huang's big tent, and the scribe saluted and said: "Join the army under the tent of Zhang Xin and Zhao Dudu." ”

"Zhang joined the army, but he came to persuade me to surrender?" Xu Huang said coldly