The streets of Xuchang are already quiet in the dead of night, but the study room of Cao Cao's mansion is still brightly lit. The four strategists gathered here to discuss a confidential matter with Cao Cao.

Cao Cao first asked Xun Yu: "Wen Ruo, has Master Guanghua made any changes in Xu Capital these days?" ”

Xun Yu shook his head and said, "The mage has only contacted the dart bureau to deal with the seized baggage recently, and there has been no abnormal movement. The soldiers and horses under his command are no different. ”

Li Ru's eyes flashed and said: "In this way, the mage is not an unpredictable prophet, if he knows that we are secretly discussing all the way, I am afraid that he will leave Xuchang at this time." ”

Cheng Yu said: "Since the mage is still unconscious, why don't you take the opportunity to kill him to prevent future troubles?" ”

Xun Yu said: "The lord can't!" We have already discussed this matter all the way, and the mage is well-known in the world and respected by the people. If the lord kills him namelessly, I am afraid that the people will be resentful. What's more, Liu Biao in Jingzhou, Ma Teng in Xiliang, Sun Ce in Yangzhou, and Liu Bei in Jizhou are all good to the master. The lord will kill the mage and settle down with the princes, and then the princes will rise up and fight, and the lord will be in danger. ”

Li Ru said: "At this time, if you don't kill you, there will be endless troubles, there is an example of Liu Bei's school, and the lord must not be soft-hearted." ”

Xun Yu said: "What merits does Liu Bei have?" How can it be compared to a mage? There are many people who don't know Uncle Liu Huang, but how many people don't know about the saints of the Great Dao? The mage beheaded Dong Zhuo, killed Li Dao, fought Yuan Shu, and punished Yuan Shao were all actions to eliminate thieves and harm for the country, and it was unkind for the lord to kill him. The mage once saved the father of the lord and helped the lord defeat Yuan Shao, and the lord killed him unjustly. If you kill the mage for no reason, the name of the lord's benevolence and righteousness will be forbidden. ”

Cao Cao thought about it again and again: "The mage has no ambition in the barren land of Jiaozhou, and he has helped me achieve things several times. Do you think you can persuade the mage to vote? ”

Cheng Yu shook his head and said: "If Master Guan acts, he is a person who is loyal to the Han family, and it is difficult for the lord to collect it for his own use. It is that the mage has no intention of fighting for hegemony, and if one day he learns about the edict, I am afraid that he will be the enemy of the lord. The lord still preemptively eradicates it. ”

Xun Yu and Xun You, who did not approve of killing Nan Ye, also fell silent when they heard the edict, maybe Master Nan Ye had no intention of competing with his lord Cao Cao, but if Liu Xie issued an edict, it was really hard to say whether Nan Ye would get rid of Cao for the Han family.

Xun Yu said: "Although the mage cannot be killed, the lord can prevent him from becoming bigger and becoming an enemy of the lord." As long as the lord stays in the court as an official, he will be sent back to the state to temporarily act as the state. After a long time, the generals under the mage must be greedy for power and refuse to return power to the mage. At that time, the mage lost his roots, and he could no longer be an enemy of the lord. ”

Li Ru said: "I see that the mage is full of loyal warriors, what if the generals serve the mage wholeheartedly?" ”

Xun You said: "The generals are more loyal and righteous, and the mage is hostage in the court for one day, and the soldiers in Jiaozhou will listen to the lord's orders for one day." If they dare to raise troops to save them, the lord will be famous for killing mages! ”

Cheng Yu said: "This plan is wonderful! If the mage resists the order and is unwilling to stay in the court, it is that he is as deep as Liu Bei, and the lord can kill him immediately. ”

Cao Cao used the tactics of the strategists, and the next day he summoned Nan Ye to the court, and ordered Liu Xie to proclaim: "The national teacher has worked hard and has high merits, except for the thief, and he has the post of the national teacher Taifu to enter the court and assist the government, and the rest of the generals in Jiaozhou will return to Jiaozhou to help the master to govern." ”

Taifu, Taishi, and Taibao are collectively known as the three divisions of the East Palace, and if the official honor is higher than the three dukes, there is no real power, just a false position to show grace.

Nan Ye saw that Cao Cao really showed the fox's tail as Guo Jia expected, and did not resist the order, and received the order at that time. Cao Cao also rewarded Nan Ye with more than 50 beauties, attendants, and guards, which was called taking care of Nan Ye's daily life, which was actually meant to be surveillance. Nan Ye pretended not to know, accepted it all, and thanked Cao Cao.

Cao Cao saw that Nan Ye was obedient, and a stone in his heart finally landed. He thought that as long as Nan Ye was hostage in the court, he would lose control of Jiaozhou, but he didn't know that Nan Ye's subordinates had long been accustomed to him not being in Jiaozhou, even if Nan Ye did not return, he could perform his duties and let the government decree pass. This is also the benefit of Nan Ye's deliberate weakening of the monarchy.

Although the emperor will not be abolished in Nanye's jihua, it will limit the imperial power to the law, and transform the current monarchical dictatorship into a virtual monarchy republic. Let the emperor be a law-abiding spiritual leader, not a dictator who can do whatever he wants. Therefore, Nan Yecai has always delegated power to his subordinates, and used an effective and reasonable supervision mechanism to make various departments check and balance each other, forming the situation in Jiaozhou today.

After Nan Ye received the order, he returned to the mansion to gather the generals and said: "Cao Mengde has already ordered the Son of Heaven to make an order to keep me as an official in the court. You wait and return to Jiaozhou first, I have my own way out. ”

Dian Wei was the first to object: "I won't go!" How can a mage be left unguarded? ”

"I'm not leaving!" Zhou Cang then said. As soon as the two of them spoke, Yang Xiong, Ma Yunluo, and Zhang Baiqi also clamored to stay, while Zhao Yun, Xu Huang, Zhang Liao, Zhang He, and Gao Shun didn't make a sound, and listened to Nan Ye's orders.

Nan Ye said: "Today's event Fengxiao has long been expected, and I also said in advance, you just do what you are ordered, don't worry about me." ”

Dian Wei said angrily: "Cao Cao'en will take revenge so shamelessly, what if he assassinates the mage? If you want to go back to Zilong, Gongming and others, it is to stay with Yuanfu to shock Xiaoxiao. ”

Nan Ye smiled: "Hong Fei doesn't have to worry, I have someone to guard, could it be that you forgot who lives next door?" Not to mention that I still have Bai Zhen with me. ”

Dian Wei heard Nan Ye mention it before he remembered that Guan Yu lived next door, and it turned out that Cao Cao arranged Guan Yu's house and Nan Ye's house in one place in order to facilitate surveillance. Guan Yu's martial arts are no worse than Dian Wei, and he is good friends with Nan Ye, according to Guan Yu's temperament, he will never sit idly by when Nan Ye is in trouble. If you add Bai Zhen's guards, Nan Ye really has nothing to fear.

After Nan Ye persuaded Dian Wei, he let Guo Jia lead the ten generals first, leaving only ten mage guards and ten female soldiers to take care of daily life. Cao Cao didn't care when he learned about it, thinking that it was reasonable for Nan Ye to leave a few cronies, as long as all the generals left, the twenty guards couldn't make any waves.

Cao Cao treated Nan Ye the same as Guan Yu, he also had a small banquet for three days, and a big banquet on the fifth day to win over Nan Ye. Nan Ye was not idle, and took advantage of the several times he entered Cao Cao's mansion for a banquet, and opened a lot of star records, mainly Cao Cao's cronies. Cao Pi, Cao Zhi, Cao Xiu, Xia Houen and others are among them. Nan Ye also met Yang Biao's son Yang Xiu and Sima Yi's eldest brother Sima Lang, but unfortunately he didn't see Sima Yi.

Among these people, only Cao Pi 91's politics added a general star to Nan Ye, bringing the total number of general stars of Nan Ye to 795, and the rest of the people just opened the general star record.

Since Nan Ye stayed in Xuchang, he went to Guan Yu next door to drink and play chess, waiting for the opportunity to get out. On this day, the two were chatting in the courtyard when they heard the sound of gongs and drums outside the door of the house. At first, the two thought that someone was passing by for a happy event, but they didn't care. However, the sound of gongs and drums outside the door was endless, and it gradually became full of people, and it was obvious that many people gathered in front of the door to discuss.

Guan Yu asked Nan Ye, "But what is the joy in the mage's mansion?" ”

Nan Ye shook his head inexplicably and said, "No! I still think there's something going on in Chief Yun's mansion. ”

The two glanced at each other, and both saw the curious look in each other's eyes. Now they are all under house arrest in Xuchang by Cao Cao, and they can no longer be idle. At this time, there is a lively look at the door of the house, how can you not go out of the house to see? So Nan Ye was in front and Guan Yu was behind, and they went out of the mansion together.

When the two of them went out, they realized that the people outside the door were neither coming for Guan Yu nor for Nan Ye, but gathered in front of the mansion on the right side of Guan Yu and refused to disperse.

Nan Ye's house was on Guan Yu's left side, and he didn't know who lived on Guan Yu's right side, so he asked Guan Yu: "Yun Chang knows who the neighbor on the right side is?" ”

Guan Yu shook his head and said, "I don't know who lives here. ”

At this time, there were already onlookers who saw Nan Ye and Guan Yu leaving the mansion, and they all saluted and opened the door of the mansion, so as not to be the national teacher and General Guan.

Nan Ye returned the salute to the people in front of the door: "Fathers and elders don't need to be polite, what happened here?" Why is it so lively? ”

The surrounding people also knew that Master Nan Ye was kind and kind, and there were a few people in the crowd who lived close to him and chatted with Nan Ye. At this time, when he heard Nan Ye ask, he rushed to talk to Nan Ye.

An old man said: "If you return to the country, there is a miracle doctor named Hua Tuo who lives here. Because a few days ago, he went out of the city to cure a patient, and today the patient is cured and I have come to thank him. ”

Nan Ye's eyes lit up when he heard Hua Tuo's name, but he didn't expect that this person was in Xuchang and lived not far from him. At this time, another young man said, "I heard that the patient came to the doctor because he couldn't swallow because of abdominal pain. Hua Shen Doctor took three liters of garlic juice and poured it, and the patient spit out a snake, two or three feet long, the national teacher said strange? ”

At this time, another person said: "What is this? I heard of a man who had a tumor between his eyebrows, and it was itchy. After reading it, Dr. Hua said: There are flying objects inside. Everyone laughed, and the doctor cut it with a knife, and a yellow finch flew away, and the sick person was cured.

There was also a person who was bitten by a dog, and then he grew two pieces of meat, and the pain and itch were unbearable. Divine Doctor Dao: There are ten needles in the painful one, and two black and white chess pieces in the itchy one. No one believes. Cut it with a knife, and do what it says. ”

Nan Ye's words became more and more wicked, and he hurriedly stopped. If he spit out the snake before, Nan Ye would not be surprised. Because of the poor sanitation in ancient times, parasites often made people sick. Both roundworms and tapeworms are similar to snakes. But if it is said that birds and birds can fly out of the human body and grow chess pieces, it is estimated that it is a false rumor. However, it can be seen that Hua Tuo's medical skills are so high that he has been rumored to be miraculous.

Guan Yu had also heard of Hua Tuo's name, and said to Nan Ye: "I have also heard of this person, it is rumored that this person can not only use acupuncture medicine to treat diseases, but also open a knife to cut flesh and take out foreign bodies in the body. ”

Nan Ye thought to himself: There is an internal medicine doctor in Jiaozhou, Zhang Zhongjing, who is lacking a famous surgeon, and Guan Yu will also need Hua Tuo to contribute to scraping bones and curing poison in the future, so why not take the opportunity to visit and see if Hua Tuo can be recruited. Even if it doesn't work, he will be familiar with his face first, and it will be more convenient for him and Guan Yu to see a doctor in the future.

Thinking of this, Nan Ye said to Guan Yu: "How about I come to visit this neighbor later?" When Guan Yu heard this, he immediately nodded and said good.