Chinese New Year

Chapter 595: Driving the tiger and swallowing the wolf
Wang Jun led Zao Song to the study.

There was a jade bed in the room, as long as a sleeping bed. Wang Jun sat down, then felt tired, so he lay down on it and said, "Taichan, I heard you bought a tortoise-shell bed. How is it?"

Zao Song was not afraid either, he just smiled and said, "Not like this jade bed."

Wang Jun laughed happily and said, "Be more restrained in the future and don't accept things from everyone."

Zaosong responded repeatedly.

This old lady of his is not a good person.

Over the past decade or so, the world has been in chaos, and many knowledgeable people believe that the Jin Dynasty will end and a new leader will emerge.

Against this background, Wang Jun, who once dominated Hebei, also began to have ideas.

There was a prophecy in the Han Dynasty: "The one who will replace the Han Dynasty is Dangtu Gao."

To be honest, the words of this prophecy are ambiguous and unclear. No matter how you interpret it, it seems to make sense, but it also seems to be nonsense.

At the end of the Han Dynasty, a witch explained this to Li Jue.

"Tu" is the same as "tu", and "tu gao" means a high place on the road, i.e. "que". And "kuai" is the same as "que", so this prophecy will come true for you - it's really a forced explanation.

Li Jue knew that his own strength and fame were far behind, so he ignored it.

However, there were people who were more outrageous than Li Jue. Que Xuan, a local tyrant in Xuzhou, heard about this and raised an army, gathering thousands of people and proclaiming himself the emperor. He was later suppressed by Tao Qian.

Yuan Shu learned that Que Xuan had raised an army because of a prophecy. He thought that if "Tu" means "road", then "my name is Gonglu, which is exactly in line with the prophecy"!
When it came to Cao Pi, Xu Zhi explained it again.

The gate in front of the palace is sometimes called "Xiang Wei". This prophecy should be about the Wei replacing the Han.

By the time of Sima Zhao, a new solution was invented.

At that time, a Taoist priest said that "Tu Gao" refers to the tallest person on the road, and that person must be a person riding a horse, and "Sima" is Tu Gao. Cao Wei was a pseudo-dynasty, and Sima was the contemporary Han Dynasty!

Wang Jun's father, Wang Shen, had the courtesy name "Chudao", which corresponds to "Dangtu". So Wang Jun came up with an idea and summoned his trusted aides and guests to discuss the matter.

Honestly speaking, his explanation was too far-fetched. It was purely because he had a rebellious heart and was forcing it to make sense.

Liu Liang, the former governor of Bohai, Wang Tuan, the governor of Beihai, Gao Rou, a clerk in the shogunate, and others who lived in Youzhou all tried to persuade Wang Jun to change his mind, but Wang Jun became furious and killed them.

When Wang Jun asked the famous scholar Huo Yuan of Yan about the prophecy, he refused to answer. Wang Jun was furious again and had Huo Yuan executed and his head hung up for public display.

Han Xian, a Zhonglang official, said that Murong Wei had done a good job in settling refugees and treating scholars with courtesy, and that his reputation was growing, so he used this to persuade Wang Jun. Wang Jun was angry again and killed him again.

So, why do you think the atmosphere in the Youzhou shogunate became like this?

All the loyal and upright people are dead, who dares to tell the truth? You have to follow Wang Jun? Just fool him with whatever he wants to hear, so as to avoid disaster.

After Jizhou was occupied by the Huns, some scholars were unwilling to serve the Huns, but were also not very happy to go to Henan, so many of them ran to Youzhou with their families. When they saw Wang Jun's behavior, they simply defected to Pingzhou Governor Cui Bi or even Murong Xianbei.

Everyone from top to bottom is trying to fool Wang Jun. He no longer has the support of the people and his subordinates have turned against him. He will fall if he is kicked, just like Yuan Shu back then.

There is a reason why Lu Zhigan promised Shao Xun that he would let you enter Youzhou sooner or later.

Zaosong knew his father-in-law's character very well, and he always said nice things to him to make him happy and entrust him with important tasks.

Zao Song was too lazy to do anything anymore, it was meaningless, so he just made money and lived one day at a time.

Therefore, there is a folk song in Youzhou: "Five out of ten bags, all go to Zaolang." Zao Song did not take it seriously, but he did not expect that his father-in-law had also heard about it. He was immediately worried. Who is the bastard who is "slandering" me behind my back?

Fortunately, the father-in-law didn't seem to want to pursue the matter.

"Taichan, I've approved the allocation of food and fodder." Wang Jun changed into a comfortable position and said, "However, how should we fight this war? Do you have any strategy?"

Zao Song thought quickly in his mind.

Fu Weng's knowledge of the outside world was limited to Shao Xun's rapid rise, his defeat of Shi Le, and his great prestige in Henan and Hebei. He probably didn't know much about anything else.

I wonder if anyone told Liu Yao about his coming to Changshan?

Does he know Shao Xun’s ambition?
In the father-in-law's mind, is Shao Xun just like Sima Ying and Sima Yue in the past, rising and falling?
Thinking of this, Zao Song even had a mischievous idea: If he said that Shao Xun admired the style of Wang family of Taiyuan because of his humble background and was willing to respect his wife as his father-in-law, I wonder if he would believe it?

After suppressing this absurd thought, Zao Song replied in a deep voice: "Have you heard about the affairs of the Duan tribe of the Xianbei?"

Wang Jun's face fell and he said, "It's Taiwanese. Why hesitate? Just say it directly."

Zao Song's heart sank, and he said, "A part of the Duan tribe of Xianbei has already gone south to Zhangwu."

Wang Jun struggled for a while, sat up, and said, "Why are they going south? To compete with me for Jizhou?"

When Zao Song heard this, he thought that Fu Weng might really want to fight for Jizhou, so he decided not to resist and followed his words, saying: "Duan's army has no ambitions and should not be able to seize Jizhou. At most, they can just plunder."

Wang Jun's face lightened up a bit, and he said with a smile, "I don't think they have the ability to do that." Zao Song observed Wang Jun's expression and followed his words and said, "There is also a woman who occupies the northern state, so they dare not act rashly."

Wang Jun laughed and scolded, "Stop talking nonsense."

Although he was scolded, it was obvious that he still enjoyed it. As he got older, he tended to become fussy and loved to hear nice words.

"But..." After making Wang Jun happy, Zao Song changed the subject and said, "I heard that the Duan tribe of Xianbei might have been lured by the Xiongnu and went south to Zhangwu. And Shao Xun's troops were also fighting with Linghu Ni in Zhangwu, and they might run into the Duan tribe."

"Oh?" Wang Jun heard this news for the first time and asked in surprise, "Shao Xun went north to Zhangwu? Isn't he still in Hejian?"

Zao Song secretly cursed the military generals of the shogunate for not reporting such important news? However, the eldest brother didn't say the second brother, he also concealed a lot of things, same with you.

"Only the vanguard went to Zhangwu." Zao Song said, "There is a general named 'Jin Zheng' under Shao Xun's command, who has already reached Gaoyang."

Wang Jun suddenly became uneasy and asked, "Why are the troops advancing so quickly?"

Zao Song was at a loss for words.

If you say that Shao Bing is a strong fighter, it might make Wang Jun unhappy. After all, with the story of Han Xian, he really doesn't dare to speak carelessly.

You said that Shi Le suffered heavy losses and could not fight anymore. This might also make Wang Jun unhappy. After all, the Youzhou soldiers had suffered losses at the hands of Shi Le. If Shao Xun had not led an expedition to the north to attack Yecheng, Youzhou might not have been able to be saved.

In short, facing the moody Wang Jun, Zao Song must speak carefully, even though he is Wang Jun's son-in-law.

"I heard that Shi Le was careless and was ambushed by Shao Xun, resulting in the loss of tens of thousands of people, leading to this." Zao Song said: "Now Shao's troops have advanced to Zhangwu and Gaoyang--"

"Haha!" Wang Jun suddenly clapped his hands and laughed.

Zaosong was puzzled.

Wang Jun glanced at him and said, "Tai Chan, Shi Le has 100,000 infantry and cavalry, twice as many as Youzhou. I was a little worried, but now that he has been defeated, isn't this a godsend?"

Zao Song thought to himself, this is bad, Fu Weng still wants to seize Jizhou. He was puzzled, why is he so obsessed with Jizhou? If he is so obsessed, he should not have given up and left after conquering Yecheng.

Of course, the court's prestige was still very high at that time, Sima Yue was also there, and there were many soldiers and generals. It was right to withdraw the troops at that time. Otherwise, they might have been reprimanded by the court and even besieged from all sides.

Now they could openly attack Jizhou, but their own strength does not allow it.

Seeing how Fuweng is now, he is obviously stupid. Why is he still fighting for Jizhou? Now that the opportunity has been lost, we should accept our fate and find a way to maintain the situation, so as to avoid a greater failure.

If Zao Song still had some extravagant hopes in his heart before, thinking that after Shi Le's defeat, Fu Weng would be able to take the opportunity to seize the counties of Jizhou and strengthen his strength, he completely gave up this idea after returning to Yecheng.

Not to mention, the scholars and officials of the various counties in Jizhou no longer recognized King Youzhou. I sent several groups of people to persuade them to surrender, but did anyone come? Not a single one.

No one is a fool. Everyone knows that your husband is becoming more and more foolish and doing more and more evil things. They would rather join the Huns than you, because no one likes to stand on the side that is destined to fail.

Zao Song really couldn't understand why his father-in-law thought that Shi Le could get a share of the profits in Jizhou after hearing about Shi Le's disastrous defeat.

Who gave him this confidence?

Thinking of this, Zao Song sighed secretly. Perhaps, he was also responsible, as were all the people in the shogunate. From top to bottom, they were all lying and praising each other. Fu Weng didn't like to go out much now, and stayed in the city all day. The people who provided him with information were all his own group - it seemed that he was fooled!

"What the old lady said is absolutely true." Zao Song followed up on what Wang Jun said.

But he didn't want to ruin his livelihood, he still wanted to make money, so he said: "However, the repeated fighting between Shi Le and Shao Xun, with corpses everywhere, is also good for Youzhou. You might as well store up food and military supplies, train soldiers, and wait and see. Once Shi and Shao are both defeated, the time to go south will be ripe."

"Well, that makes sense." Wang Jun slapped his thigh and said with a smile, "Tai Chan is still mature enough to come up with such a plan. Let's gather military supplies and soldiers first and lure the Hu people. How about this, you go to Dai County and persuade Tuoba Xianbei to come to the meeting."

Zaosong felt a bitter taste in his mouth.

In his opinion, this matter could not be accomplished by just going to Dai County.

Dai County was given to the Xianbei by Liu Kun out of generosity to Wang Jun. It was considered a relatively good territory in the Tuoba Xianbei, but their nobles did not live in Dai County and might have gone to Shengle.

Even if he brought more horses and traveled day and night, he would arrive in less than half a month, but it was too hard and he didn't want to do this hard job that would delay his earning money.

But since Wang Jun had said so, Zao Song did not dare to contradict him, for fear that his father-in-law would be unhappy and beat or even kill him, so he gritted his teeth and agreed.

"Shao Xun is also an arrogant person." Wang Jun said, "I read the letter you brought back from Yecheng last time. You actually ordered me to fight here and there to make profits for him. It's ridiculous. Well, let him be satisfied first. When the cavalry goes south one day, I will arrest him and ask him for punishment. I want to see if he is ashamed."

Having said this, Wang Jun laughed happily.

Zaosong also laughed awkwardly.

Just when the father-in-law and son-in-law had almost finished their plan, thousands of cavalrymen moved south from the pasture south of Jixian County and quickly crossed the Juma River. Jizhou was already in sight.

The leader was none other than Duan Mobo, one of the leaders of the Duan tribe of the Xianbei people.

(End of this chapter)