Zhong Xuan's carriage was moving fast on the street, followed by more than a dozen horseback riders with knives on both sides, and now the shape of Yedu is not very stable, and the ministers must be escorted by a family when they go out.

Inside the carriage, Zhong Xuan frowned, thinking about countermeasures, he really didn't expect Cui Lin to be impacted, Cui Lin is the head of the Cui clan in Qinghe, one of the leaders of the Shi clan in the world, his daughter is Cao Zhi's wife, Cao Pi's intention to attack him and eradicate Cao Zhiyu's party is very obvious.

Zhong Xuan was also worried about his fate, and two days ago, someone revealed that he had a secret relationship with Zhang Ji, who was currently the Jingzhao Taishou of the Han Kingdom, which was also collecting evidence that he Zhong Xiang collaborated with the enemy.

You must know that when he was the captain of Si Li, Zhang was his most effective staff and deputy, and now Zhang is reused by Liu Jing, and it is extremely normal for him to write letters to himself, but some people will chase after the wind and frame him, it is really a crime to add to it, why bother?

What worries Zhong Xuan even more is that if there is no nod from Cao Cao, Cao Pi will not dare to mess around even if he has a thousand guts, then the question is, why should Cao Cao condone Cao Pi to eradicate dissidents? Is it to maintain the stability of the Wei state, or is it to smoothly hand over power?

Of course, Zhong Xuan also admitted that Cao Pi was not qualified, in the past he issued decrees in the name of Cao Cao, and some people listened to his orders, and now he issued orders as the prince of the prison country, whether it was the court or the locality, it was Yang Feng Yin disobeyed, his orders could not get out of Yedu, and last year the Ding Decree was issued, which can be described as a violent, but in the end he returned with a feather, and no one paid attention to it at all, which dealt a heavy blow to Cao Pi's prestige.

But this does not mean that Cao Pi can launch a political purge, on the contrary, he will only make people more disdainful of him, he doesn't even have this amount of tolerance, how can he tolerate people in the world in the future?

Zhong Miao thought all the way, and after a while, the carriage drove into the Tongque Palace, stopped in front of the steps, Zhong Miao got out of the carriage, and happened to meet the military master Cheng Yu, the two smiled and saluted, Zhong Miao asked: "Cheng Junshi is here to find Wei Gong?" ”

Cheng Yu nodded, and said in a tone: "Yuan Chang doesn't know yet!" Jianye had been broken by the Han army, and Sun Quan and all the hundred civil and military officials of Jiangdong surrendered to Liu Jing. ”

Zhong Xuan was taken aback, although they all knew that Jiangdong was in a catastrophe, but he was still shocked when he heard the news that Jianye had been attacked, which meant that Jiangdong no longer existed.

"When did you hear from this?" Zhong Miao asked anxiously again.

"Yesterday! I heard that Wei Gong stayed awake all night because of this. ”

Cheng Yu smiled bitterly, "I can understand that if I heard the news last night, I would have stayed up all night." ”

Zhong Xuan nodded silently, at this moment, Cui Lin's matter suddenly became unimportant, and the destruction of Jiangdong cast a heavy shadow on his heart, at this time, a guard hurriedly came out, bowed down and said, "Duke Wei invited the two military advisors to meet in the outer study." ”

Cheng Yu and Zhong Xuan glanced at each other, and the two walked towards the inner palace together, in the outer study, Cao Cao calmly sat at the table and looked through some important places, basically all military and political affairs he transferred to the prince Cao Pi, but he was not without nothing to do, such as the appointment and dismissal of senior officials and the power to transfer the army, which were still firmly in his hands, and he would take a look at some important military and political affairs.

Although Cao Cao was not as sick as he was at the beginning of the year, his energy and body had declined, his bones had shrunk, and he had become a thin old man, and he also knew that he had reached the end of his life and could not live for a few years, how to continue Cao Wei? It became a heart disease that he couldn't get rid of.

Last night, he received an urgent express from Cao Zhen in Huaibei, the Han army had conquered Jianye City, Sun Quan led a hundred officials to surrender to Liu Jing, and Jiangdong finally perished, this news made Cao Cao extremely depressed, and also made him feel an inexplicable panic, as if the death knell of Jiangdong's demise was sounding for Cao Wei at the same time.

What should he do? If the status quo is maintained, this state of immortality will be broken by Liu Jing sooner or later, Cao Cao has discovered a terrible reality, the Red Cliff War has been over for nearly ten years, but the strength of the north has never been able to recover to the level before the war, and the situation is getting worse, until the last two years he did not realize the root of the problem.

In the thirteenth year of Jian'an, the fundamental reason why he was able to launch a war against the south was that he had strong financial, material and human resources, and these strengths were not accumulated by him little by little, but more of the war dividends after he destroyed Yuan Shao.

As a matter of fact, the land annexation in the north has intensified, the number of yeoman farmers has decreased year by year, the registered population has dropped sharply, and the taxes of the government have naturally dropped sharply, and the source of troops has decreased.

If you ask yourself, the Battle of Hefei is far inferior to the scale of the Battle of Chibi, and it has caused such a severe consequence, which shows that Cao Wei's strength has weakened to the point that he can't even afford a medium-sized battle.

It wasn't until last year that he finally understood the root cause of the crisis, which was that the yeoman farmers had been sharply reduced, taxes had been greatly reduced, and the elites had occupied too much land and had hidden a large number of people, which directly led to the decline of Cao Wei.

Cao Cao also knew that his son did not have the ability to break the situation, but if he did not untie this knot, once he died, the interests of the powerful would be fixed, and it would be difficult for Cao Pi to change anything, and the final result could only be the fall of Cao Wei.

It was the demise of Jiangdong that deeply stimulated Cao Cao, he knew that he couldn't drag it out any longer, and he had to do his best to break the game, but even if he wanted to break the game, he faced two major challenges, where to break the game? How much time do you have left?

Even if it is a qiē shun lì, it will take at least two or three years to transition, and another five years to recover, is it possible for Liu Jing to give them so much time? He had wasted nearly ten years, and every time he thought of this, Cao Cao was heartbroken and remorseful.

Although Cao Cao was looking through the papers, he was thinking about the Ding order, although in the eyes of most people this order has become a joke and is no longer over, but Cao Cao still wants to implement it for the rest of his life.

"Gong Wei, Cheng Junshi and Zhong Junshi are here." A guard whispered in the doorway.

Cao Cao put down the document in his hand and said with a smile: "Please let them in!" ”

After a while, Cheng Yu and Zhong Xuan walked in, and the two of them saluted together, "See Duke Wei!" ”

"You're welcome, two military advisors, please take a seat!"

Cheng Yu and Zhong Xuan sat down on the guest seat, and a maid came in to serve them tea, Cao Cao said lightly: "Zhongde already knows, presumably Yuan Chang has also heard about it, Liu Jing finally broke through Jianye City, and Jiangdong perished." ”

Although Cao Cao said it lightly, he couldn't hide the melancholy in his eyes, Cheng Yu sighed in his heart, Cao Jun has always refused to send troops to rescue, there is no suspense about the destruction of Jiangdong, and now there is no regret at all.

Although he thought so, he couldn't say this, Cheng Yu bowed and said: "Benevolence and righteousness are not applied, heavy taxes and exploitation, Jiangdong has long lost the hearts of the people, his demise is the will of heaven, the prime minister does not have to sigh, maybe this is not necessarily a bad thing for us." ”

Zhong Xuan next to him also continued: "Cheng Junshi is right, Jiangdong was originally a rich land, but it has been repeatedly destroyed in recent years, and it has long been dilapidated, Liu Jing's occupation of Jiangdong is not necessarily to get resources, but to increase the burden, to reduce the burden and reduce taxes, to help the common people, to restore the economy, at least two or three years Liu Jing's main energy is to restore Jiangdong,"

Cao Cao nodded, "This is also the main topic I want to discuss with the two of you, Liu Jing has recovered Jiangdong, when will he attack the Central Plains?" In fact, I don't think Jiangdong is a burden, as long as the low tax and the thin end, do nothing, Jiangdong will slowly recover, after all, it is a rich land of fish and rice, and only a naval army needs to hold the Yangtze River, the safety of Jiangdong can be guaranteed, the Han army can turn around and attack the Central Plains, I am afraid that it will be next year. ”

Cao Cao did not approve of Cheng Yu and Zhong Xuan's words of comfort to him, he knew very well in his heart that Jiangdong would never become a stumbling block for the Han army to attack the Central Plains, and would not become a burden, although they signed a two-year reconciliation agreement, but they all knew that this so-called agreement was meaningless, they didn't know how many armistice agreements they had signed before, and which time had they complied with them?

Cheng Yu pondered for a moment and said: "Weichen thinks that Liu Jing's next move should be to fight Jiaozhou, not to deal with the Central Plains, only by unifying the south and having no worries, he will go all out to seek the Central Plains, if the prime minister wants to delay the time to start a war with the Han army, he might as well make a fuss about Jiaozhou, maybe it can drag on for three years and five years." ”

Cao Cao nodded, then turned back to Zhong Xuan and asked, "What about Yuan Chang's opinion?" ”

"Wechen also thinks that Jiaozhou is more likely, Wechen heard that Jiaozhou's strength is restored quickly, and more importantly, Liu Bei's heart to go north is not dead, once the Han army is in the Central Plains, there will be opportunities in the south, how can Liu Bei miss the opportunity, Wechen believes that Liu Jing also knows this, so he wants to attack the Central Plains, will definitely clear the back road, but Jiaozhou is not Jiangdong, the battle is extremely difficult, the first emperor sent Tu Sui, Zhao Tuo led 500,000 troops to the south to conquer Jiaozhou, it will take four years, and Liu Jing sent 100,000 troops south to Jiaozhou, How can it be that the war can be ended in two or three years, once the Han army is trapped in Jiaozhou, maybe it will be an opportunity for us to counterattack the Han State. ”

Zhong Xuan's analysis was very thorough, which made Cao Cao nod again and again, and he happily said: "Yuan Chang's words are really reasonable, if the Han army really spent four or five years in order to conquer the state, it will be our great luck." ”

Cheng Yu added with a smile: "In fact, Liu Jing also had a strategic mistake, when Jiaozhou poured troops north, the result was almost annihilated, at that time to seize Jiaozhou was at your fingertips, but Liu Jing gave up that opportunity, now he wants to seize Jiaozhou, it will cost ten times the price, I will build a Wei Gong and Liu Bei to contact us, maybe we can still help Liu Bei." ”

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