Dong Zhao once asked Yuan Xi a question.
When the Han emperor ascended the throne, who was the most loyal minister of the Han Dynasty?
In Dong Zhao's heart, Yuan Xi must put Yuan Shao first.
Although Yuan Shao showed a lot of selfishness in the incident of Dong Zhuo's entry into Beijing, in the final analysis, he still considered the issue from the perspective of the Han Dynasty, and the goal of his actions was to quell the chaos of the Han Dynasty.
Yuan Shao's goal at that time may have been to become a powerful minister rather than a prince now.
It's just that in the end, all the tricks were exhausted and someone picked the peach.
When he arrived in Jizhou, Yuan Shao also supported Liu Yu, the authentic Liu family clan. It was only when he was killed by Gongsun Zan that he began to have other ideas.
However, what Yuan Xi said made Dong Zhaolei feel uncomfortable.
The top three loyal officials of the Han Dynasty that Yuan Xi considered at that time turned out to be.
Dong Zhuo.
Lu Bu.
Cao Cao.
Yuan Shao had to move back a little.
Dong Zhao was stunned on the spot.
He puzzled: "Dong Zhuo brought chaos to the country, ruined the government and the public, Lu Bu's slaves devoured his master, and was ambitious. After Cao Cao was eunuch, he killed the nobles indiscriminately. How can he be said to be a loyal minister?"
After hearing this, Yuan Xi said leisurely: "But what the three of them are doing is helping Emperor Han."
Dong Zhao was suddenly stunned. He recalled what had happened in the past few years and found that what Yuan Xi said really made some sense!
Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty had ordered Liu Xie, the current emperor, to succeed to the throne, but Empress Dowager He conspired with He Jin to kill Empress Dowager Dong who had raised Liu Xie and support Liu Bian in succeeding to the throne.
Agreeing with Yuan Shao's trick on He Jin, He Jin summoned Dong Zhuo to lead troops to the capital, but was killed by an eunuch before Dong Zhuo entered the capital.
Now no one could control Dong Zhuo. Within a few days after he entered the capital, he deposed Liu Bian and supported Liu Xie to succeed him. Isn't this a coincidence with Emperor Ling's death?
As for Dong Zhuo's subsequent rise to power and Lu Bu's execution, wasn't it also under the orders of the Han Emperor?
The same reason was true for Cao Cao's assassination of Dong Zhuo that day. Cao Cao was not a fool. Without the hint from above, how could he have done this narrow escape for no reason?
The more Dong Zhao thought about it, the more he felt that Yuan Xi's thoughts were most likely the truth, and he broke out in a cold sweat.
Yuan Xi finally said to Dong Zhao: "The Emperor of Han seemed to have no choice but to choose these three people. His vision was really extraordinary."
"I also hope to have the opportunity to meet him in the future, and I hope sir can help me."
Dong Zhao reluctantly agreed.
Yuan Xi smiled in his heart. Although this guess was very close to the truth, it was just a guess after all. However, it planted the seeds in Dong Zhao's heart that he would accompany the emperor like a tiger. If Dong Zhao wanted to have a way out, he would definitely fight with Yuan Xi. Join the group to stay warm.
This is Yuan Xi's plan, to keep Dong Zhao by the Han Emperor's side as much as possible to give him a chance.
On that day, Dong Zhao defected to Cao Cao and proposed to welcome Emperor Xian because he had no other choice.
What if Dong Zhao chooses another path?
And as Yuan Xi expected, the Han Emperor allowed Dong Zhuo to take the risk of being despised by the world and kill Yuan Wei, who promoted him as his mentor. He was by no means at the mercy of others as he seemed.
The emperor had power the moment he sat on the Dragon Throne. Especially in the Han Dynasty, many ministers were in the Cao camp but their hearts were in the Han Dynasty, which led to the backlash of the princes who wanted to stand on their own.
There are only a few successful powerful officials in Yiyin and Huoguang since ancient times.
Of course, Dong Zhao didn't know what Yuan Xi was thinking. He looked at his former teacher's daughter in front of him and was filled with emotion.
Cai Zhaoji, the daughter of the contemporary great scholar Cai Yong, is now aliased as Wu Zhao.
Ten years have passed, things have changed, but Dong Zhao, as a disciple of Cai Yong, is a teacher for one day and a father for life, so he naturally wants to keep his daughter safe.
Dong Zhao sighed to Cai Zhaoji: "The girl has suffered. If the husband were still alive..."
Wu Zhao sighed lightly: "Now that I can save my life, I am satisfied. Sir, please don't worry."
Dong Zhao hesitated again and again, and finally said: "If it were anyone else, I would still be worried, but Mr. Yuan Xi is a very human being, and the girl will be fine under his protection."
"Although he does things by unscrupulous means, he still has the ambition of the world."
"Only someone like him can protect his subordinates in this troubled world."
Wu Zhao saw that Dong Zhao spoke solemnly, and thought that Dong Zhao actually spoke so highly of him?
In the end, Wu Zhao and Dong Zhao parted tacitly, and no one mentioned Cai Yong.
Although Cai Yong was a great scholar of the time, because he served as an official under Dong Zhuo and was later killed by Wang Yun, the court has not yet given an explanation. Therefore, Wu Zhao's identity is indeed not suitable to be exposed.
Dong Zhao even suspected that Cai Yong's death was probably due to his high reputation, and Wang Yun was not necessarily the mastermind.
When Dong Zhao went to Chang'an, he had to pass through Sili, Bingzhou and Hanoi. There were bandits along the way, and he was not sure that Wu Zhao could be safe, so he might as well let him follow Yuan Xi.
As for whether Wu Zhao would be asked to sleep with him or something, when Dong Zhao had this thought, he really felt that he was overthinking it.
Not to mention that Wu Zhao had now disfigured himself, there were also beautiful women among the hundreds of women who came with him, and Yuan Xi did not see her being brought into the palace.
Maybe Mr. Yuan Xi is not very interested in women?
But Dong Zhao was indeed wrong. Of course Yuan Xi was interested in women.
In fact, he is a very good pretender. He eats with the soldiers, lives a simple life, and is not close to women. Most of it is for the sake of fame.
And now his mind is full of food.
When you are full and warm, you are thinking about lust, and you can’t even eat enough. How can you be in the mood to sleep with a woman?
The biggest temptation for him now is the thousands of acres of wheat fields outside the city that are in urgent need of harvest!
Wu Zhao didn't sleep well at night. She tossed and turned in bed, feeling dazed until the middle of the night when she heard the rumble of footsteps outside. It seemed that many people were getting up.
She hurriedly got out of bed, put on her undershirt, opened the door and went out, and saw Yuan Xi talking to Sun Li and others in the yard.
Yuan Xi looked up and saw Wu Zhao coming, and said with a smile: "The girl is awake too?"
Wu Zhao saw that Yuan Xi was also wearing short-breasted trousers and said, "Master, you want to cut the wheat yourself? Do you want me to change my clothes?"
Yuan Xi asked Sun Li to lead the carriage and asked Wu Zhao to get on the carriage, saying: "No, I have other things to do then."
Wu Zhao got on the carriage and whispered: "Are you leaving the city so early?"
Yuan Xi smiled and said: "Of course, otherwise the sun would be too high and too hot, and I would lose my energy due to the sun."
After Wu Zhao heard this, he said in surprise: "I have never heard of these, I feel ashamed."
Yuan Xi smiled and said: "Everyone has their own strengths. It's very rare for you to admit your shortcomings. This reminds me of a joke."
While talking, Sun Li drove the carriage out of the mansion. At this time, there were many people on the road carrying farm tools, queuing up to leave the city. The streets were crowded for a while, and it was spectacular.
Wu Zhao was curious and said, "What's the joke?"
Yuan Xi smiled and said: "Once upon a time, there was a gentleman who took a group of disciples to the countryside and saw an old farmer lying in the shade of a tree and taking a nap."
"He then told his disciples that the reason why this old farmer is an old farmer and cannot become a scholar is because he is not diligent enough."
"Nowadays, he doesn't do farm work in broad daylight and still lies under the tree and is lazy. It's because he can't spend all his time doing farm work. Otherwise, he can harvest several times or dozens of times more food and become a rich man."
"But the gentleman didn't know that while he was sleeping, the old farmer had already gotten up in the dark and started doing farm work."
"Because people can't survive long under the scorching sun, so farmers have to avoid the worst time of the sun when doing work."
After hearing this, Wu Zhao suddenly said: "This is indeed the truth."
"This gentleman doesn't know the hardships of farmers because he has not personally experienced the hardships of farming."
"Don't laugh at other people's ignorance until they have suffered."
Yuan Xi was a little surprised and said: "It's amazing, you can think of this level."
"In my hometown, there is a similar saying."
“From the people, to the people.”
"This reminds us not to forget our origins. Only by knowing the sufferings of all people in the world and empathizing with them can we benefit all peoples."
Wu Zhao chewed on these words and was shocked in his heart.
Even her father had never spoken such insightful truth to all the people in the world.
The carriage left the city gate and headed south for more than ten miles. It was getting daylight.
What appeared in front of Wu Zhao was a large river winding eastward, with endless golden wheat fields on both sides.
People coming to harvest from the front and back of the car laughed and cheered.
When Yuan Xi saw it, he was so excited that he couldn't help but stand up in the car and hummed a song.
"A big river has wide waves, and the wind blows the fragrance of rice and flowers on both sides..."
