[Three Kingdoms] Burning incense and sacrificial wine

Cao Cao didn't respond directly to Cui Song's words, but only patted Cui Song's shoulder: "There is no one here, if Zi Cong has any ideas, feel free to tell Gu."

Instead, he remembered that when Chen Gong betrayed and his side was in a hurry, it was Cui Song, who had not yet joined him at that time, as a lobbyist, and successfully persuaded Lu Bu to retreat.

Cui Songdao: "Although Lu Bu is capricious, he has an advantage."

Cao Cao signaled him to continue.

Cui Song smiled slightly: "Exactly: sentimental, nepotism."

Cao Cao raised his eyebrows slightly, and just thinking about 'what kind of advantage is this', suddenly his heart moved.

He looked at Cui Song probingly, met Cui Song's unavoidable gaze, and laughed for a long while.

"It really is a good 'advantage'."

So he walked towards the high platform, took two steps, turned around, and called Cui Song to go with him.

Cui Song felt a little relieved, and also walked back.

What Cao Cao was worried about was nothing more than Lu Bu's "uncertainty".He believed that Lu Bu's "repetition" was an uncontrollable factor. In order to avoid hurting himself with this too sharp knife, he would rather destroy it.The strengths of Lu Bu mentioned by Cui Song are actually his greatest weakness, and it is also what he tried to present to Cao Cao through the layout of this battle.

If the weakness is the scabbard, Cui Song is just the one who offered the scabbard.How to deal with Lu Bu's knife can only depend on Cao Cao's will.

After all, do your best and obey Cao's orders.

Cao Cao returned to the high platform and looked at Lu Bu below him for a long time without saying a word.

Seeing Cao Cao's expressionless face, neither expressing nor moving, Lu Bu felt anxious.

Seeing Liu Bei standing aside like a wooden stake, he clearly agreed to the pleading, but he still refused to speak to Cao Cao; thinking that Liu Bei wanted to go back on his word, he shouted loudly in a hurry:

"Mr. Xuande—have you forgotten what you promised me?"

Seeing Cao Cao's eyes lightly drifting towards his direction, Liu Bei complained endlessly, scolding Lu Bu bloody in his heart.

If he hadn't known that Lu Bu had always been so "very talkative", he might not have had bad intentions, and he would have suspected that Lu Bu was trying to find someone to back him up before he died, and deliberately dragged him into the water.

"General Lu's words confuse Bei. Please make it clear, General Lu, don't let Ming Gong misunderstand."

Lu Bu knew that he had made a slip of the tongue, so he hurriedly said, "Bu has nothing to say, relying on his own kindness to Liu Xuande, I begged Liu Xuande to speak kindly in front of Duke Ming."

Forced by the situation, Lu Bu stopped covering up and confessed the little tricks he made while Cao Cao was leaving.

Cao Cao then smiled at Liu Bei and said, "What do you think of the king?"

Being disturbed by this, Liu Bei couldn't say "Ding Jianyang and Dong Taishi [1] that the Duke of Ming Dynasty didn't see the news[[-]]". It shouldn't be said, it's just..."

He heaved a long sigh, "General Lu has the kindness of 'shooting a halberd at the gate' to me, so I am going to be bold here, please raise your hand, Sikong, and spare the general's life."

Cao Cao heard this well-regulated intercession, stroked his beard and said: "Since this is the case, at the envoy's request, Lu Bu's life will be spared for the time being. Come, please invite General Lu to sit in the 'guest house', so that I can entertain you."

Liu Bei: "???"

Liu Bei didn't expect Cao Cao to save Lu Bu's life and put him under house arrest, and was a little dazed for a while.

He reassessed Cao Cao's thoughts, and the more he thought about it, the heavier he felt.

Cao Cao's move is obviously abnormal.Liu Bei couldn't figure out his intention, so he felt numbness in his back, as if he had been crawled by three or two ants, and he couldn't ignore it.

Lu Bu, on the other hand, didn't know the meaning behind it, and thought it was Liu Bei's intercession that had an effect.While being happy, he still felt that Liu Bei's pleading just now was not strong enough, so he winked at Liu Bei and asked him to plead a few more words.

Liu Bei was speechless.Fortunately, Lu Bu was taken away quickly, and the soldiers pressed Chen Gong up.

"Gongtai, long time no see."

Chen Gong straightened his back and did not answer.

Cao Cao asked again: "Do you have something to say?"

Chen Gong snorted coldly: "I just want to die."

Xi Zhicai received the hint from Cao Cao's eyes, and said:

"If you die, what will happen to your wife and children?"

"The crime is not as good as his wife and children. With Mr. Cao's wisdom, how can he care about women and children, the old and the weak?"

Cui Song could guess one or two thoughts of Chen Gong.

There are two main reasons why he refused to surrender and decided to die generously.

One is for his own sake: he betrayed Cao Cao at the beginning, and brought Cao Cao a severe blow that was almost extinct.It would be an exaggeration to say that his behavior at that time could be called "throwing a knife in Cao Cao's back, so that he almost fell to the street on the spot and could never get up again".The consequences are so serious that even if Cao Cao is willing to let go of the past and accept him again, he will inevitably have some ideas.And Chen Gong himself couldn't get over the hurdle in his heart.Why bring shame on yourself.

The other is for his family: if he is alive, even if Cao Cao is re-activated, he will secretly be on guard and have a grudge, and his family, along with his past, will be under his shadow for the rest of his life.That being the case, it would be better to exchange his death for the safety of his family.When a person dies, hatred disappears. Once he dies, with Cao Cao's temperament, no matter how many secret grievances there are, he will put them all down and take care of his family for him.

What Cui Song can guess, Cao Cao who has been with Chen Gong for many years can naturally guess it too.

If Cao Cao hadn't received Cui Song's assistance, according to historical records, he would have needed four more months to capture Xiapi when his soldiers were exhausted and food and grass were almost exhausted.

At that time, Cao Cao must have beheaded all the unstable factors Lu Bu, Chen Gong, and Gao Shun in order to stabilize the situation earlier and avoid extra problems.

But now, Cao Jun's energy and morale are high, and food is sufficient, Cao Cao can't help but have different ideas about Lu Bu and others.

Therefore, after Chen Gong finished the half-begging, half-provoking words, Cao Cao didn't respond, but instead showed an expression of unknown meaning.

"What if I have to care about it?"

Chen Gong: ? ? ?

Faced with this unexpected script, Chen Gong was dumbfounded, and wanted to continue to use his words to persuade Cao Cao, but Cao Cao waved his hand to call for soldiers.

"Shut up and pull it down." Cao Cao admired Chen Gong's ever-changing expression, and slowly added, "Take me to the 'guest house', and stay with Gao Shun in the same room."

Chen Gong and Gao Shun have always looked at each other and hated each other, so Cao Cao's move is not harmless.

The gagged Chen Gong let out a "woo woo woo" sound, kicked his feet and was taken away by the soldiers.

Liu Bei, who watched the whole scene, vaguely felt Cao Cao's intentions, not knowing whether it was joy or worry.

After Cao Cao dealt with the surrendered ministers, he briefly rewarded the meritorious ministers, and then kindly pulled Liu Bei and let him sit in the same car with him.

Liu Bei, who was given "special treatment" by Cao Cao again, was so terrified that his clothes almost pushed up his back.

He knew very well that Cao Cao's move was part of pressure and temptation, even though he was extremely calm, facing the sugar-coated poison from time to time, he could not help but feel a little irritable.

Realizing this, Liu Bei's heart trembled, and he secretly said:

Cao Caoguo is very human.With such a mind, if he is a little careless, he will force him to lose his sense of proportion, so he needs to be more careful.

But I don't know that Cao Cao is also lamenting Liu Bei's difficulty.After persecuting him secretly for so long, he just waited for Liu Bei to reveal his flaws and get rid of him with one blow.Unexpectedly, Liu Bei is like a cowhide water bladder, which can't be broken no matter how much you press it, and it can push his strength back a little bit.

Two people with different thoughts, on the surface they cherish each other, ride in the same car, and leave hand in hand.

The rest of the people also dispersed in twos and threes.According to Cao Cao's instructions, the relevant personnel devoted themselves to the reconstruction of Xiapi.

After two months, Xiapi was rejuvenated.Cao Cao accepted Chen Qun and his son, who were originally in Lu Bu's army, and enlisted Chen Qun as his subordinate.

In the same month of the same year, Cao Cao was recommended and called Wang Mo and Zhou Kui.

In the spring of the fourth year of Jian'an (AD 199), news came that Yuan Shao defeated Gongsun Zan and occupied Youzhou.

The imperial court appointed Liu Bei as General Zuo and gave him a gold seal and purple ribbon.

Liu Bei, who was under great pressure, couldn't bear it after being "coincidentally" met by Dong Cheng's people many times, and even once by Dong Cheng himself. He seemed to be polite to Dong Cheng, but in fact he secretly threatened:

"You act like this, aren't you afraid that I will report it to Cao Sikong?"

Dong Cheng was not afraid of his coercion in the slightest, he laughed fiercely: "If General Liu could report to Sikong, he would have gone already. Why have you been pestered by me for so long?"

Liu Bei looked back coldly.

Dong Cheng continued, "Because the general knows that once this matter is reported to Cao Cao, I will definitely drag the general into the water. And Cao Cao is worried that he can't find a name to deal with the general, so he will definitely make use of it. This kind of offering his own handle is just right. How can the general do the act of falling into Cao Cao's arms and bringing about his own destruction?"

Liu Bei said: "What do you want to do?"

Dong Cheng took out a silk belt from his bosom, and made a respectful look: "This is the blood book of the Holy Majesty, the 'clothes belt edict', General Liu still doesn't obey!"

Liu Bei didn't have time to look at the sash, and bowed to salute upon hearing the words.

Dong Cheng finished reading all the crimes against Cao Cao in the clothes and belt edict, took out his pen, and said to Liu Bei:

"General Liu, do you want to sign it?"

Liu Bei laughed angrily at this half-forced invitation: "Bei Zi is a sage, I just don't know——is this clothes belt edict true or false?"

Dong Cheng's expression changed suddenly.

As soon as Liu Bei saw his appearance, he knew that this "clothes belt edict" was really different. He was not only angry at Dong Cheng's entanglement, but also surprised at his boldness.

Dong Cheng said stubbornly: "Most of the knowledgeable people in the court know about this, how could it be false?"

Liu Bei laughed secretly.If more than half of the people in the court participated, how could Cao Cao know nothing about it?If he was so incompetent, he would have died in Lu Bu's hands long ago, how could he get to where he is today?

It's just three or two stupid people, forming a mob, jumping around here.

Although he thought so, Liu Bei knew that if Dong Cheng did not get a result today, he would not be able to let it go.

Therefore, Liu Bei did not expose Dong Cheng's lies, and deliberately made a hesitant appearance. Under Dong Cheng's repeated urging, he wrote his own name at the end of the string of joint signatures.

When Dong Cheng saw Liu Bei boarded the bandit ship, he safely regarded him as one of his own, and discussed with him the plan of "defeating Cao bandit".

Liu Beiming listened seriously on the surface, but was speechless inwardly at the naive delusion of Dong Cheng and others.

He wanted to help the emperor wash the minds of these "loyal ministers", but he thought: to do such a thing behind the emperor's back, these people are just Xiao Xiaoxiao who used the name of the emperor to fight for power for him, what kind of loyal ministers are they? ?They are not different from Cao Cao in essence, but they don't have the slightest vision and strategy of Cao Cao.

Resting his meddling thoughts, Liu Bei used the so-called "anti-Cao" plan to turn Dong Cheng's tricks around.In the end, he took advantage of Dong Cheng's contacts and influence, took advantage of Cao Cao's opportunity to conquer Yuan Shu, and slipped away quietly.

The author has something to say: [1] 15 characters are quoted from the official history "Three Kingdoms".