Cao Rui did not return to Luoyang.

Instead, they went directly through Yuzhou and Yanzhou, crossed the river and entered Yecheng in Jizhou.

The reason is that Cao Yu, the king of Yan, who grew up with Cao Rui when he was young and stayed in Yecheng to look after the princes and princes of the clan and is now in Luoyang, sent a secret letter.

No one knows what he said.

But as soon as Cao Ruifu saw it, he ordered the imperial troops to pack their bags and rush back.

The trip was so hurried that when Hu Zhi, who learned the news, rushed back to take over Wancheng, Cao Rui's troops had already entered Yuzhou.

This also made all the generals who stayed in Jingzhou feel uneasy.

If it was an ordinary matter, Cao Rui would not be in such a hurry.

However, after Hu Zhijing thought about it, he could roughly deduce what it was about.

If there is no accident, it should be Li Shu in Jizhou who gathered together to rebel.

Because after Luoyang's Chinese army entered Guanzhong and stationed there, Guanzhong could not afford their grain, so the Wei State had always asked Li Shu from Jizhou and Sizhou to be transferred.

The corvee work lasted for more than a year, and Li Shu was naturally overwhelmed.

Now that the decisive battle in Guanzhong is about to begin, corvee labor has become more severe, and it is the time when the people are about to be busy with the autumn harvest, it is not surprising that conflicts have intensified and triggered civil unrest.

In other words, compared with shaking the morale of the army, the slight civil unrest was not enough to make Cao Rui rush back to deal with it personally.

But these are extraordinary times.

The Wei State, which had gathered all its soldiers in Guanzhong, could no longer assemble the troops to fight the rebellion!

In order to prevent the civil unrest from spreading like wildfire and affecting the decisive battle in Guanzhong, it was the best choice for Cao Rui to rush back in person.

Anyway, Jingzhou's deployment has been completed, and everything should be done step by step.

There is not much difference whether Cao Rui is in charge or not.

Therefore, after Hu Zhi entered Wancheng, he wrote a letter to Wang Chang, Xia Houxian and other tribes, claiming that Emperor Cao Rui rushed back to Yecheng to supervise the supply of grain, fodder and baggage for the decisive battle in Guanzhong, so that they would not have to worry about anything later.

It's a barely plausible reason.

In this regard, Wang Chang, Xia Houxian and others did not say anything.

Although they, like Hu Zhi, could vaguely guess the reason for Cao Rui's return, under the anxious war situation, the reason given by Hu Zhi was the best explanation.

At least, it can calm the morale of their troops.

And they didn't have much worry about Cao Rui's return.

Because Wei's northern border is now very stable.

The Gongsun clan in Liaodong was destroyed, Xianbei in the north was no longer in trouble, and even the fighting in the Hetao Plain in Bingzhou temporarily stopped.

However, it is said that since Liu Bao of the Southern Xiongnu and the Tuoba tribe of Xianbei formed an alliance, the territory of Wei State's Bingzhou was reduced to Yunzhong County. However, due to the limitation that Wei State used all its troops in the war with the Han Dynasty, there were no soldiers and horses. When rushing to help merge the prefectures, Tian Yu once had the idea of ​​​​abandoning Yunzhong County and using Dingxiang County and Yanmen County, which were surrounded by mountains, as a line of defense.

no way.

The terrain of Yunzhong County is flat and flat, and with the free-flowing fighting style of the Southern Xiongnu and the Xianbei Tuoba Tribe, even Tian Yu, who has guarded the northern border for many years, is a skilled woman who cannot make a meal without rice.

But these worries have temporarily eased.

For some reason, the Southern Huns Liu Bao and Xianbei Tuoba Liwei, who had been working together sincerely, actually turned against each other!

Not only did they return to Shuofang and Wuyuan, but they also frequently sent small-scale rangers to rob each other, burning and killing each other constantly, which is really surprising.

Perhaps it was because those barbarians practiced the law of preying on the weak.

If we have the same advantages, we will unite; if we have exhausted the advantages, we will disperse. When the situation is strong, we should not be shy to repeat ourselves; when the situation is weak, we should not hesitate to bend our knees.

Wei State asserted this and still used Yunzhong County as a border garrison.

But what they didn't know was that it was Zheng Pu who reduced the pressure on Wei's northern frontier so that Wei could safely launch the decisive battle in Guanzhong.

In Zheng Pu's original plan, he planned to use the Tuoba Xianbei tribe to kill Liu Bao, the Southern Huns.

However, things changed as the Han army occupied Longdong and most of Youfufeng.

The Han army used Zhang Yi and Liu Zhong (Li Mangtang) to pacify the four northern counties of Guanzhong and help Gao Jun and Jujiu, the remnants of the Han family in the north, to cultivate Qiang. They planned to revive the momentum of the "good families in the six counties" to fight for the country.

Tuoba Liwei felt that if he killed Liu Bao in accordance with the previous agreement, he would face the Han army's "death of all the birds, the hiding of good bows, the death of cunning rabbits, and the cooking of lackeys."

Therefore, no matter how Huang Chong urged him, he delayed it for various reasons and did not take action against Liu Bao, who was completely unprepared.

After Huang Chong guessed his intentions, he wrote a letter and came back to inform Zheng Pu.

After claiming that Tuoba Li had failed to fulfill his previous agreement, he offered the next best thing.

The plan was to seek Zheng Pu's approval and ask Deng Zhong to rebel against the Southern Xiongnu tribe, inform Liu Bao of the agreement between the Xianbei Tuoba tribe and the Han army, and provoke a war between the two tribes. In order to prevent the Wei army from withdrawing from the Hetao Plain, Liu Bao of the Southern Xiongnu tribe

Still advancing and retreating with Tuoba Liwei, they eventually became a hidden danger for the Han army to regain control of the four central and northern counties.

There is no danger in letting Deng Zhong rebel and join the Southern Huns.

Deng Ai and Liu Bao had crossed paths before. Although there was no friendship, it was true that Deng Zhong's father died in battle and the Wei Kingdom brought disaster to the family. It was true that he was forced to serve Qiu Yu. Now that he had found a way to advance to the imperial level, he turned to the Southern Huns.

It was enough to dispel Liu Bao's doubts and accept it.

Therefore, Zheng Pu agreed without hesitation.

Quan should think it was for the benefit of inducing Wei to launch the decisive battle in Guanzhong without any worries.

It's just that Zheng Pu, the hidden man hiding in the Hetao Plain, can give orders, but he is beyond the reach of Li Jian, who has escaped into the death realm in the heart of Wei State.

In the situation where the news could not be delivered, everything was decided by Li Jian himself.

It was inevitable that he would make actions that were inappropriate for the situation.

However, he said that when the Chencang War was about to begin last year, he felt that it was the best time to enter Wei Dynasty and began to implement it.

Because he always remembered the mission given by Zheng Pu when he was far away from his hometown. When the Han army pointed its sword at Guanzhong and launched the battle to return the old capital, he should try his best to disrupt the rear of Wei State and plunge Wei State into internal and external troubles.

Let the big man's dream come true more smoothly.

However, Jiangdong's betrayal of the alliance ended the war between Han and Wei, and the Han army began to attack Wu, which caught him by surprise.

At that time, he had already deliberately made some unusual signs to attract others' attention, and he had to shoot like an arrow missing from the string.

This put him in a dilemma.

If he continues to implement it, it will not be of much benefit to the Han army's entry into Guanzhong, and his many years of efforts to enter the Wei Dynasty will be in vain; but if he does not continue, it will also end in failure because it will arouse the vigilance of others.

After hesitating for a few days, he decided to proceed.

But unlike the original plan, which was similar to the "witchcraft disaster" during the reign of Emperor Xiaowu of the former Han Dynasty, involving countless officials and causing turmoil in the government and the public, he planned to alienate the relationship between Cao Rui and Sima Yi.

This change seems to have no chance of success.

As one of the four friends of Emperor Wen, Sima Yi is the only remaining auxiliary minister. Cao Rui's trust in him is needless to say. And just because he is the only governor of Wei who relies on to resist the rebels from Shu and invades Guanzhong, Cao Rui makes Cao Rui come back again.

No matter how stupid you are, you would not destroy the Great Wall when the war between Han and Wei was intense.

But Li Jian is not an unintelligent person.

He had been in the Wei Dynasty for several years, and he knew from hearsay and careful speculation that Cao Rui was very intelligent and had a lot of imperial scheming.

I also know that some things seem impossible, but they are the easiest to take advantage of - there is no need to unite countless like-minded people to agree to work together like Wei Xi did in the past, and then lead the dirty water to Sima Yi; rather, he only needs to be properly guided and left behind. There are many unexplainable mysteries, just let the very smart Cao Rui think about the answers on his own.

Therefore, his method is also very simple.

Taking advantage of the convenience of being in Yecheng, he often visited the Five Dou Rice Sect to seek the way of ghosts and gods; relying on the popular documents given by Cao Zhi, the king of Jibei, he would visit the Gaoling of Weiwu every once in a while, and he would curse Cao Rui for his early death. The things were buried near Gaoling.

Naturally, this abnormal behavior cannot be hidden from others.

After more than a month of traveling back and forth to pay a visit to the Gaoling Mausoleum of Wei Wu, he was reported to the prefect of Wei County by the soldiers guarding the mausoleum.

Coincidentally, the current governor of Wei County is Xiahou Xuan, who Cao Rui felt had changed his old ways and was worthy of being used. He used his past strategy of "defeating Shu first before conquering Shu" and sent him to other places for training.

Xia Houxuan, who once talked to Li Jian as a commoner, had no ill intentions towards Li Jian at first.

But later, after Li Jian and Sima Zhao fell in love and praised each other, he began to have a bad feeling towards Li Jian.

Because he was extremely angry at the sudden and unexplained death of his sister Xia Houhui and the betrayal of their marriage friendship by the Sima family, he also "hated Li Jian as much as he did".

After receiving the report, he immediately sent people to follow Li Jian secretly, and successfully captured all the stolen goods.

The thing that Li Jian used to curse Cao Rui was a jade bagua tablet commonly used by Taoists, and the general meaning of the prayer to Cao Cao in the Wei Dynasty was "After Cao Rui came to the throne, he lost his troops and lost his land one after another, and his heirs withered away." , he is the king of misfortune and the king of the country's subjugation. Therefore, I pray to Wei Wu and Cao Cao's soul in heaven. For the sake of the stability of Wei's society, he will no longer protect Cao Rui's life and let Wei usher in a better monarch."

Regardless of words or actions, there is nothing else involved.

For example, which of the descendants of Wei Wu will be the king of ZTE? How many ministers who are worried about the state of Wei and the country will jointly pray together, etc.

According to common sense, for such an obvious treasonous act related to the monarch, the person in charge can directly report it to Cao Yu, King of Yan, who is currently in Luoyang, and let him and the Emperor Cao Rui deal with it. There is no need to continue to participate in it. , so as not to bring uncertain causal connections to oneself.

But Xia Houxuan felt that Li Jian must have other accomplices!

For example, Sima Zhao, the only friend Li Jian had after entering the Wei Dynasty, must be closely related to him!

He dared to make such an assertion, not only because of the anger in his heart towards the Sima family, but also because Li Jianxing's victory-hating technique could not start in a big way but end in a tail-end.

There is no other reason, because in his prayer, he claimed that the reason for cursing Cao Rui's early death was for the sake of the state of Wei.

But let me ask, isn’t the change of kings the most turbulent thing for both the government and the public?

When the world is at peace, the change of kings can trigger bloodshed in the palace, let alone now when Ni Shu frequently sends troops to attack!
To be continued...