Although there has always been a saying that Cao Cao was a minister of the Han Dynasty until his death. In "Rangxian Ziming Benzhi Ling", Cao Cao also said that he only wanted to be a "general who conquered the west." But there are some things you can't read what he said. What, it depends on what he did.
In the fifteenth year of Jian'an, Cao Cao experienced a defeat in Chibi and wrote the "Order to Make the County Self-Ming". However, in the eighteenth year of Jian'an, Cao Cao became the Duke of Wei, taking the first step to usurp the Han Dynasty.
Although the original Cao Cao was said to have reestablished the position of prime minister and took charge of himself as prime minister, in essence, he had not yet broken away from the four hundred-year political pattern of the Han Dynasty.
There was a prime minister in the Han Dynasty, but later Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty abolished the prime minister system in order to strengthen centralization of power.
Therefore, although Cao Cao had the intention of reinstating the prime minister with the intention of monopolizing power, it really cannot be said to be an act of arrogance.
But the matter of becoming a public official is a bit unusual.
This is half a foot breaking through the bottom line, testing the reaction of the world's aristocratic families and various forces.
Since Liu Bang brought peace to the world, he has made an agreement with all his ministers: "If you are not Liu, you will not be a king, and if you are not meritorious, you will not be a prince. Anyone who violates this will be punished by the whole world."
Therefore, for more than four hundred years, there have been very few dukes in the Han Dynasty. At the beginning of the founding of the country, Emperor Guangwu Liu Xiu once expressed his modesty and said that his sons were still far behind the princes and kings of the Western Han Dynasty, so he gave his sons He was granted the title of Duke, but he soon corrected this mistake with the reminder of his courtiers.
Since the Han Dynasty, there has been only one recognized duke named Anhan Gong, Wang Mang, who was not named Liu.
As for the bunch of "gong" titles that Wang Mang granted after he established the new dynasty in order to win over people's hearts, people nowadays don't recognize them anyway.
But now that Cao Cao has been promoted to Duke Wei, his wolfish heart is clearly revealed.
Because of this, Cao Cao was cautious about his move.
After all, five years ago, he had just experienced a defeat in Chibi. At the beginning of the year, he went south to attack Sun Quan. Although he gained face, the advantage was that he did not have such a hasty title of Wei Gong. At the same time, he also founded the country and established the capital in Yecheng. Very adventurous.
In addition, not all aristocratic families are white-eyed wolves. The four hundred years of inheritance of the Han Dynasty have also made many aristocratic families identify with the Han to a certain height. Even though Cao Cao rectified a group of such aristocratic families in the past two years, Cao Cao didn't know what these people's real thoughts were, and whether they would oppose him becoming an official.
Under such circumstances, Cao Cao would not easily leave his hometown Yecheng and lead troops to conquer other places.
If there is another defeat in Chibi during the personal expedition, then Cao Cao, the Duke of Wei, will really become the second Wang Mang.
As long as Cao Cao doesn't come in person, then Zhuge Liang really has a way to rely on Yongzhou soldiers and horses and Xia Houyuan.
The way is to form an alliance with Zhang Lu.
Yes, Zhuge Liang wanted to send someone to form an alliance with Zhang Lu, so that he could stand up to Xiahou Yuan in Hanzhong first and buy time for his side to capture Chengdu.
As long as Chengdu is captured, the army supporting the ban will not be afraid, and Liu Bei can also send troops north to reinforce Huo Jun at Jiameng Pass and be optimistic about the Yizhou gateway.
If the chances were better, we might be able to capture Hanzhong. Even if Cao Cao came in person, it might not help.
So, after discussing with Zhang Xi, Zhuge Liang turned around and went to discuss with Liu Bei, asking Liu Bei to send people to Hanzhong to befriend Zhang Lu and discuss forming an alliance with each other.
Zhang Lu was not a man of great talent and strategy, and his overall layout was just one-third of an acre of land in Hanzhong. It would be better if he could grab a little more land to the south.
Therefore, Zhuge Liang's suggestion to Liu Bei was to hand over part of Yizhou land north of Jiameng Pass to Zhang Lu in exchange for Zhang Lu's alliance.
Anyway, these lands are not under Liu Bei's control now. They can just leave them to Zhang Lu for safekeeping for the time being.
After Liu Bei captures Chengdu and pacifies Yizhou, he will free up his hands and look for opportunities to deal with Zhang Lu, and these lands will naturally come back.
Liu Bei readily obeyed and sent Jian Yong as his envoy to Hanzhong to argue with Zhang Lu.
As for himself, he continued to be in Luocheng, preparing to besiege Chengdu.
As for Zhang Xi, after leaving Zhuge Liang's camp, he couldn't wait to return to his own camp and read the letter home from Sun Shangxiang.
It is inconvenient to send letters these days, bamboo slips are too bulky, and silk is too expensive. Even a young lady like Sun Shangxiang can only write a letter on silk, and she does not dare to write too many words.
Sun Shangxiang first informed Zhang Xi that she was safe, and then told Zhang Xi that she had given birth to a daughter in her mansion in Jiangling City. She had not yet been able to name her, so she asked Zhang Xi to quickly pick up a name and tell her.
Between the words, Zhang Xi could feel that Sun Shangxiang was still a little aggrieved, probably because he felt sorry for not being able to give birth to a son. This was not about favoring sons over daughters, but due to the limitations of this era, only men were qualified to inherit the family business. .
Zhang Xi quickly found silk and wrote a reply to Sun Shangxiang. On one hand, he comforted Sun Shangxiang, saying that his daughter was a little cotton-padded jacket and he liked it very much. On the other hand, he racked his brains to name his daughter.
No matter how incompetent the star was, he couldn't continue to use numbers instead of names for his daughter. Zhang Xi thought about it for a long time, read countless books, and finally gave his daughter a name that was acceptable.
Zhang Xuan.
Xuan means warmth.
What Zhang Xi wants to express is that her daughter is like a little cotton-padded jacket, warm and considerate.
Furthermore, these are troubled times, and even wealthy families can only solve the problem of food and clothing. Zhang Xi also hopes that his daughter will not have to worry about hunger and cold in this life.
Zhang Xi thought this name was quite good anyway, so he wrote to Sun Shangxiang and showed it off to Zhang Fei, Zhuge Liang and others.
Zhuge Liang just smiled and said nothing, but Zhang Fei clapped his hands and said yes.
Said it was better than his daughter's name, one word, easy to remember.
Only then did Zhang Xi remember that Zhang Fei had two daughters, one named Zhang Xingcai and one named Zhang Xingyi. When Zhang Xi found out, he was really puzzled. Could it be that he had traveled to a world of shame? !
After all, Guan Yu’s daughter is named Guan Yinping, right?
Of course, this is not the important point. The important thing is that the star color is still there, the memory of the star, including the silver screen, are actually all small characters, just like Sun Ren's character Shang Xiang.
The real name of Guan Yu's daughter and the real name of Zhang Fei's daughter were actually not told to anyone. According to the rules of this era, only the husband could know the name of the daughter's family.
Therefore, Zhang Xi, who always shouts that his daughter's name is "Xuan", really doesn't understand etiquette.
Zhuge Liang smiled and said nothing. That was to remain polite and save Zhang Xi from embarrassment. Zhang Fei was probably also tactfully reminding himself to quickly give his daughter a small name so that it would be more convenient to call her.
After realizing that he had made another minor joke, Zhang Xi glumly wrote another letter to Sun Shangxiang, expressing his depression towards Zhuge Liang and Zhang Fei, and then asked Sun Shangxiang to give his daughter a small name.
Since Zhang Xi, who is the father, has chosen the name, then the fine print should be left to Sun Shangxiang.
During the more than ten days of his stay in Luocheng, Zhang Xi spent his time in such trivial matters.
After resting, Liu Bei raised his troops again, led an army of 100,000, and set off for Chengdu.
It is said that there is an army of 100,000, but in fact it is only 70,000 or 80,000.
Zhuge Liang brought only more than 30,000 Jingzhou soldiers into Sichuan. Although Liu Bei initially had 60,000 troops, he suffered nearly 10,000 casualties when he attacked Luocheng. Some guards had to be arranged along the way, including Jiameng Pass. Reinforcements are about to be sent in the direction, so now Liu Bei has only 70,000 to 80,000 people in his hands, claiming to be only 100,000.
Liu Bei was quite conscientious and did not claim to have two hundred thousand. Even if he claimed to have it, Liu Zhang would not believe it.
If 200,000 troops really came to the city, Liu Zhang would not offer any resistance and would just open the city and surrender.
Now in Chengdu, Liu Zhang still has about 30,000 garrison troops.
Among them, 10,000 were troops directly controlled by Liu Zhang, and 20,000 were troops gathered together again by the powerful Yizhou families in Chengdu.
Liu Zhang took a breath of air at this.
When Liu Bei first raised his troops from Jiameng Pass, when he approached these powerful men from aristocratic families to ask for money or people, they all refused and said they had no money and no one.
With no other choice, Liu Zhang had no choice but to hand over Chengdu's garrison, which consisted of 50,000 men, to Zhang Ren and five other generals to stop the attack.
But when Liu Bei arrived in Fucheng and Liu Zhang had no troops, he asked these aristocratic families for help. These aristocratic families actually gathered an army of 30,000 people at one time and went to Mianzhu Pass to support him.
When Liu Bei arrived in Mianzhu, this group of people began to gather more than 10,000 people and asked Liu Zhang to attack Jiameng Pass.
Now that Liu Bei has arrived in Luocheng, these guys actually have 20,000 people in their hands? !
These are 20,000 soldiers, not 20,000 civilians! ! !
In other words, this group of aristocratic families hid 60,000 soldiers under Liu Zhang's nose, and these are not necessarily their entire family wealth.
Liu Zhang felt his heart go cold when he thought about it. In his heyday, he only had 50,000 or 60,000 troops stationed in Chengdu and surrounding counties, but this group of aristocratic families also had so many people.
The key is that these people keep saying that Pang Xi, Li Yi and other Dongzhou people are unstable. Now think about it, who is the really unstable person? !
Liu Zhang and his son were also outsiders entering the Shu region. They were descendants of a Shu family. Really, Liu Zhang suddenly understood why his father wanted to kill someone so cruelly.
But when things got to this point, Liu Zhang had no choice.
Liu Bei's army is approaching the city outside. If Liu Zhang doesn't want to be captured like this and has a glimmer of hope of a comeback, he must cooperate with these Shu aristocratic families.
Therefore, Liu Zhang could only hold his nose and endure these things, and then pretended to continue to be friends with this group of people and arrange for their soldiers to defend the city.
In addition, he wrote a letter to take advantage of Liu Bei before he completely encircled Chengdu. He took a detour to the north, entered the territory of Hanzhong, contacted Zhang Lu, and left Hanzhong, went up to Longyou, and contacted Xiahou Yuan.
Indeed, Liu Zhang did not want to sit still and wait for death.
Liu Zhang's thoughts are easy to understand. I have no choice now, but Cao Cao definitely has a way.
Introduce Cao Cao into Shu, let Liu Bei and Cao Cao's army fight fiercely, and trap Cao Cao in Chengdu to contain Liu Bei's rear.
With better luck, both Cao Cao and Liu Bei will suffer losses, and he can regain control of the old world.
If you are unlucky, it will just mean that Yizhou is captured by Cao Cao, and you will be able to maintain your wealth after all.
But Liu Bei, a treacherous man, would never get Yizhou even if he died.
(End of chapter)