Early the next morning, everyone came outside the city and worshiped in front of Qu Yi's curtain.
Zhao Yuntian Yu, Guo Jia Jushou, and even Gao Shun came with the sergeants trapped in the camp.
Qu Yi was the oldest general under Yuan Xi. Yuan Xi made a lot of efforts to secure his posthumous title and secured a title for Qu Yi in the Han court, which was noticed by his other subordinates.
Yuan Xi read out Liu Xie's seal, and then burned it in front of Qu Yi's tomb. Although Yuan Xi's subordinates knew that this was inappropriate, they did not say anything.
Yuan Xi pulled Lu Lingqi and bowed three times. Lu Lingqi whispered: "I worship the master. In what name do you use as the master?"
Yuan Xi said helplessly: "I'll just follow your seniority."
He immediately turned his head and sighed: "Brother Qu has gone to Jiuquan to serve as a pioneer for our couple. Let's meet again in a hundred years."
He raised the wine bowl in front of him, bounced it three times against the sky, the ground, and the tombstone, and then sprinkled it in front of the Qu Yi Curtain before everyone stood up.
Yuan Xi turned around and said to the generals: "I know that in the days to come, no one can guarantee that they will return from the battlefield unharmed."
"But I still hope to see you all return safely and triumphantly every time."
After hearing this, all the generals shouted: "No!"
The sound echoed in the mountains, rivers and fields, startling a group of wild geese. They flapped their wings and flew towards the distant sky.
When everyone returned to the city, Yuan Xi asked Lu Lingqi to go back to the mansion to rest first, and then he went to the city lord's mansion to redistribute official positions with Zhao Yun.
Xu You's escape was a surprise to Yuan Xi. He originally wanted to use Xu You to lay a surprise for Yuan Shang, but he didn't know why the other party actually ran away secretly. It can only be said that things are unpredictable.
For Yuan Xi, Xu You was both important and unimportant. He was important because he played a key role in the Battle of Guandu and provided Cao Cao with the strategy to raid Wuchao, which turned the tide of the battle.
It is said that he is not important because the Battle of Guandu was both accidental and inevitable.
When Yuan Shao's army attacked Cao Cao, they fought across the river. The battle locations were all in Yanzhou, including Wuchao where grain was stationed. In this way, Yuan Shao's front line supply was very problematic. Even if Wuchao could prevent one raid, it might not be able to prevent the next one.
To take a step back, even if Cao Cao loses the battle of Guandu, he can retreat to Yuzhou, or even push him into a hurry and disperse to Jingzhou Sili to consolidate his troops, which Yuan Shao may not be able to take for a while.
Of course, the losses to Yuan Shao in the Battle of Guandu were relatively limited. Although Yuan Shao suffered a defeat, he had the four northern states at his back. As long as he held on to the Yellow River line, he would definitely be able to attack within three years.
But God did not give him this opportunity.
What really had a decisive impact on the outcome of the Battle of Guandu was Yuan Shao's death two years later.
This is what Yuan Xi is most worried about. Faced with this outcome, he has not come up with any good ideas until now.
His initial idea was extremely naive, and he wanted to have the three sons fight to determine the winner before the Battle of Guandu, thereby avoiding the tragedy of the brothers' feud. However, it turned out that his idea was still too simple.
Yuan Tan and Yuan Shang, with the help of major advisers, are not paper men who will fall down at once. On the contrary, they will grow in adversity, and will adopt strategies based on their own positions to continuously strengthen themselves.
This made Yuan Xi deeply feel that no one who could sit in front of the chessboard in the world and play chess was like Yi. If he had a slight contempt, he might be in trouble.
So so far, the situation of the three sons fighting has not changed. On the contrary, the dispute has become more complicated. This gives Yuan Xi a headache. The time left for him is still too hasty!
He now needs to find an opportunity to break the situation. The conflict between Cao Cao and the Yuan family is irreconcilable. Sooner or later, the two parties will turn against each other until one party is completely defeated.
So Yuan Xi could only look for other allies, including Lu Bu, Liu Bei, and... Sun Ce.
Yuan Xi didn't know if Sun Ce could listen to Sun Ce's letter and not kill Xu Gong, thus escaping the disaster. However, according to his style of always charging forward in every battle and killing the whole family of the nobles at every turn, I'm afraid it would be too late. It's only a matter of time before we make enemies in Jiangdong, right?
On that day, Taishi Ci sent a secret letter written by Sun Ce to Yuan Xi. It was nominally a thank you for saving Qiao Rui and allowing her to serve as the emperor's envoy and issue an edict to Sun Ce. However, the meaning was quite interesting and even contained a warning.
Sun Ce's letter is full of awkward hints, asking Yuan Xi not to do anything that crosses the line.
This is related to several previous letters from Yuan Xi. When Yuan Xi had no other option, he still used some hints to let Sun Ce understand that Mrs. Wu might be in Yuan Xi's hands.
After Sun Ce received the letter, he quickly guessed the truth and became furious, but there was nothing he could do, because Yuan Xi's method of concealing Mrs. Wu's whereabouts was the best result for Sun Ce.
Once the incident came out, the blow to Sun's reputation would be devastating, so both parties wisely chose not to mention it.
Thinking of the women around him, Yuan Xi felt ridiculous. He married Lu Lingqi and had a child with Mrs. Wu. Liu Bei also wanted to marry Mi Zhen to him. In addition, Cao Xian was nominally Cao Cao's daughter. Doesn't this mean that he Almost most of the heroes of the late Han Dynasty were related by marriage?
Is it possible that my road to world hegemony can be achieved through this method?
Yuan Xi calmed down and asked Guo Jiaju to assist Zhao Yun in arranging the appointment of Zhuojun officials, while he left the house with Tian Yu.
On the way, he whispered to Tian Yu: "Are you sure?"
After hearing this, Tian Yu lowered his voice and said, "My spies have confirmed it over and over again. It should be correct."
"After Mrs. Du escaped from the mansion the day before yesterday, she wanted to leave the city early in the morning, but she didn't have the identity to leave the city, so she was forced to come back."
"She didn't know that the moment she left the house, she was targeted by the spies I arranged."
"Young Master's residence in Beixin City is full of female relatives. How could I not arrange some protection in advance?"
After hearing this, Yuan Xi praised: "The state's affairs are handled without leakage."
Tian Yu added: "The spies knew Mrs. Du's identity and did not dare to force her, so they pretended to provide her with a place to live and arranged her in a small courtyard."
"The spies lied to her that a manhunt was underway in the city and asked her not to show her face for the time being and to wait for the opportunity. Mrs. Du was obedient and has been staying peacefully for the past two days."
"As for why he ran away, I haven't asked anyone."
Yuan Xi nodded slightly, thinking that this was a bit strange. Cao Xian also told Mrs. Du about his marriage to Lu Lingqi. Logically speaking, Mrs. Du's reaction shouldn't be that big?
Moreover, it seemed inappropriate for him to use the identity of Yuan Xi to see her. Thinking of this, he said: "I will change my identity to see her. First, I will try to find out what's going on."
"By the way, where did Guorang place her?"
Tian Yu pointed in a certain direction and said: "That day, the spies pulled her into the carriage. After driving around the city, they returned to the small courtyard half a street away from the young master's residence."
"That was originally a place where the spies could stay. If something happened in the mansion, they could rush to the Young Master's mansion as quickly as possible. But now it is put to good use."
Yuan Xi thought to herself that Mrs. Du had been running away for a long time, but her feelings turned back again?
He was speechless and could only give Tian Yu a thumbs up.
In the small courtyard in the city, Mrs. Du became increasingly uneasy when she heard the noisy sounds outside.
She found that she had thought things too simply. She escaped from Lu Bu's house that day because someone helped her, but this time it was her turn to escape, and she realized that she had not considered many things.
Such as tokens for leaving the city, such as transportation, such as the route back to Bingzhou.
Mrs. Du found that she was really incompetent. Since she got married, she had almost lost the ability to do things alone. Moreover, her escape this time was inexplicable. She couldn't understand why she ran away. She could obviously meet Lu Lingqi!
But she had a vague feeling in her heart that maybe she couldn't bear to work with Lu Lingqi?
These days, Mrs. Du has learned more or less about the fierce personality of the Yuan family through Cao Xian's mouth. She heard that Lu Lingqi's husband is the best among his peers in both appearance and talents.
Mrs. Du didn't care at first. What does this have to do with her?
But there was something Cao Xian said that made her very concerned.
In her memory, no matter how high or low a woman's status is, as long as she encounters a fierce tiger, she cannot escape from his grasp.
Combined with the previous rumors about the lecherous tiger, and the uneasy look on Gongsun Zan's widow, Mrs. Hou, every time she mentioned the fierce tiger, Mrs. Du became more and more sure that the fierce tiger was absolutely indifferent to women!
Mrs. Du is very self-aware of her appearance. She knows that if she is seen by a fierce tiger, there is a high probability that she will be taken as a concubine.
That's okay, people in troubled times can't help themselves. Fierce tiger seems to be a bad choice to become his concubine in terms of age and status.
Mrs. Du's heart is still tied to Lu Lingqi. Lu Lingqi is also the concubine of the fierce tiger. If she is taken in by the fierce tiger, how will she face Lu Lingqi?
Are the two still competing for favor?
Thinking that Lu Lingqi was arrogant and would never accept it, Mrs. Du panicked and quietly escaped. Thinking about it afterwards, she also regretted it. Did she react too much?
And she was also worried that the kind-hearted person she met would really dare to risk being accused and beheaded by harboring a woman of unknown origin?
Wouldn't that person have already filed a lawsuit?
Just when she was restless, she heard a noise at the door of the house. She was so frightened that she quickly closed the door and peeked out through the crack in the window.
The courtyard door opened, and the old man who brought him ushered the young scholars in. The old man pointed to the door on this side, then left the courtyard and closed the door from the outside.
The crack in the window could not be seen clearly, but Mrs. Du always felt that the young scholar looked familiar, as if she had seen him somewhere before, but when she saw him walking this way, Mrs. Du was so frightened that her heart pounded, and she quickly left the window.
A moment later, there was a knock on the door.
Mrs. Du hesitated for a long time, then took a bite, stepped forward, and opened the door.
Anyway, now that this is the case, where else can I escape?
When Mrs. Du opened the door and saw the young man standing at the door, she was stunned for a while and then said: "Mr. Hidden Tiger...?"
"Where's your beard?"
(End of chapter)
