When it comes to Cao Cao's victory over Yuan Shao in the Battle of Guandu in later generations, there were some unexpected, some reasonable, and some easily overlooked factors, but the fact that he used the emperor to control the princes was definitely a decisive and important turning point.
From then on, Cao Cao was able to use the status of the Han Dynasty to do things that he had been unable to do before. He was no longer dependent on Yuan Shao and was restricted in everything. Instead, he was able to suppress Yuan Shao in government affairs.
Although a few advisers such as Ju Shou had made similar proposals to Yuan Shao before, not many people supported it, and Yuan Shao's confidants, led by Chunyu Qiong, strongly opposed it.
Chunyu Qiong has two reasons.
One is that the Han Dynasty had lost its moral character. The situation at this time was the same as that at the end of the Qin Dynasty, and the princes of the world took it over together.
Secondly, after Emperor Liu Xie was enthroned, how to deal with the edict of Emperor Xian of Han became a big problem, which would in turn hinder the implementation of Yuan Shao's policies.
Whether viewed from the perspective of the time or later generations, Chunyu Qiong's reasons were very convincing.
After Cao Cao welcomed Liu Xie to the throne, the two sides engaged in a battle of wits and courage for a long period of time. The reason was that Liu Xie was a person who refused to admit defeat, and the incident of the Yidaizhao was just one reflection of this.
Yuan Shao's advisers were not fools. They would not ignore the facts on such a critical issue for personal gain. Most of them supported Chunyu Qiong because they also agreed with these two views.
Because for Yuan Shao at this time, he had already occupied the Central Plains and the situation was set, and it seemed that he really did not need to rely on the power of the Han Dynasty.
What's more important is that someone had done this before to use the emperor to control the princes. On the contrary, from He Jin, from Dong Zhuo to Wang Yun and Lu Bu, and then to Li Jue and Guo Si, all failed, and the price they paid was their own death and the extinction of their clans.
Even Ju Su, when refuting, could only say that welcoming the emperor was a moral obligation, and if Yuan Shao did not do it, someone else would definitely do it.
There is a big problem with Ju Su's statement here.
If it weren't for the first half of the sentence, Yuan Shao might have considered it more, but the morality of the first half of the sentence made Yuan Shao very unhappy.
Welcoming and enthroning the emperor is a moral obligation, so what is Yuan Shao doing in Jizhou now?
Yuan Shao was a very face-conscious person, and judging from his performance, he might have wanted to emulate Yi Yin and Huo Guang when Liu Yu was alive, but after Liu Yu's death, he should have wanted to be independent.
Because after Cao Cao enthroned the emperor in later generations, Geng Bao, a subordinate of Yuan Shao, proposed that the Yuan family was a descendant of the Yellow Emperor and belonged to the earth virtue. Now that the Han Dynasty, which belonged to the fire virtue, was in decline, the Yuan family could take its place. This was in accordance with the will of heaven.
After hearing this, Yuan Shao summoned all his subordinates and asked Geng Bao to give a public speech to everyone. However, the result was unexpected. Everyone gnashed their teeth, accused Geng Bao of spreading false information and misleading the people, and demanded that he be executed.
Upon seeing this, Yuan Shao had no choice but to order his soldiers to drag Geng Bao out and behead him.
Judging from this incident, Yuan Shao was indeed more or less tempted by the idea of independence, otherwise he would not have allowed Geng Bao to publicly stand up and test everyone's mind. However, he did not expect that he would be met with such fierce opposition from everyone.
At the same time, after Yuan Shu proclaimed himself emperor, he was deserted by his friends and relatives and was attacked by princes all over the world. It can be seen that Yuan Shao's subordinates were indeed more clear-headed than Yuan Shao and Geng Bao.
But Yuan Shao never gave up. When Yuan Shu was at his wit's end, he handed over the usurped title of emperor to Yuan Shao, who accepted it.
It is unknown what impact this incident had on Yuan Shao's subordinates, but a year later in the Battle of Guandu, several important figures under Yuan Shao defected to Cao Cao, indicating that it is very likely that some people were dissatisfied with Yuan Shao's acceptance of Yuan Shu's imperial title.
Therefore, Yuan Shao was caught in a dilemma about the issue of welcoming the Han Emperor. On the one hand, the time was not ripe for him to establish himself as emperor, and on the other hand, he was unwilling to please Liu Xie, which would interfere with Yuan's efforts to seize the world.
Therefore, Yuan Shao's final choice was to put the matter of welcoming the emperor on hold.
Yuan Shao's failure was due to his being both a powerful and a weak player. Unlike Cao Cao, he would never miss any opportunity and could make decisions promptly. In the face of interests, he would ignore all hatred.
Cao Cao could even let go of the fact that Zhang Xiu and Jia Xu killed Cao Ang and Cao Anmin, accepted Zhang Xiu's surrender and married him, let alone tolerate Liu Xie's interference in his own affairs.
Of course, this is also related to the situation of the two at the time. Yuan Shao had many more choices than Cao Cao, but Cao Cao had no way out.
After Cao Cao supported Liu Xie, the two fought evenly at first. Later, Liu Xie acted too hastily and made stupid moves, which led to him being caught and gradually marginalized, and finally losing power completely.
If the king wants to kill his subjects, the subjects will naturally have an excuse to be disloyal.
From this point of view, Cao Cao completely replicated his experience as a thug under Yuan Shao, enduring in secret while cultivating his own followers, and he is worthy of being a man who can do great things.
Yuan Xi sorted out the events of later generations. Indeed, if no one knew about the variable of Cao Cao, no one would have thought that he would turn the tables and defeat Yuan Shao.
Ju Shou's intuition at the time was just that, but his idea was very much to Yuan Xi's liking, that is, even though it might be useless if he got it, he must not let the enemy get it.
Just like Emperor Liu Xie.
At the beginning, Yuan Xi had two plans.
One is to send assassins directly to kill Liu Xie.
Yuan Xi struggled for a long time before giving up this idea. Not only would it be extremely risky to do so, it would also harm others and not benefit himself. The Han Dynasty could just establish another emperor.
But if the truth came to light, his reputation would be ruined, and the Yuan family would not be able to protect him. From then on, he basically said goodbye to the fight for world domination.
The second is to compete with Cao Cao for the ownership of Liu Xie. Even if he cannot take it away completely, he must get a share of it.
Because this went against Yuan's plan, Yuan Xi decided to set up his own family, and this was the biggest reason why he wanted to be adopted.
In this life, he made many operations and won three more years, but at the same time, history began to accelerate, and the movements of the various princes also changed. Although Yuan Xi had conquered some territories at this time, the gap between him and other princes was still quite large.
Therefore, Yuan Xi must seize this opportunity of the emperor's return to Luoyang to gain the greatest benefit for himself!
The most important point is status!
Status is morality, what could be more legitimate than the emperor's edict?
From the very beginning, Yuan Xi thought clearly about every step.
Adopted—established his own family—took charge of Youzhou—opened the Black Mountain Passage—entered Hanoi—participated in currying favor with the emperor.
Leading Lu Bu into Hanoi was also based on the idea that even if he failed, he could not let Cao Cao take all the benefits. In this way, Cao Cao would not be able to do whatever he wanted.
In order to realize this plan, he sent Dong Zhao as a hidden chess piece in advance, and then placed key figures under his command, and absolutely no mistakes could be allowed.
Because the matters involved were too secretive, Yuan Xi could not even reveal the complete details to Guo Jia and Zhen Mi, in order to avoid threatening the lives of Dong Zhao and others.
Yuan Xi felt a little lonely. Fighting for world dominance meant that he was destined not to be able to fully trust anyone.
When he said goodbye to Guo Jia and returned to his mansion, as soon as he entered the yard, he was stopped by Cai Zhaoji who had been waiting for him.
Yuan Xi knew that Cai Zhaoji must have something to talk to him about, so he went up to her, took her hand and said with a smile, "Is it business or personal?"
Cai Zhaoji blushed slightly, "There are both official and private matters, but private matters are not mine."
The two walked into the study, and Cai Zhaoji took out a bamboo tube sealed with wax and said, "This is a secret letter from Jicheng."
Yuan Xi took out the bamboo tube, scraped off the sealing wax with a knife, unscrewed the bamboo tube, and revealed a roll of silk inside.
He opened it, looked up, and said, "It was sent by Zhao Yun."
Cai Zhaoji leaned over and saw that it was about the recent situation in Jicheng.
Now Zhao Yun and Qu Yi have cleared the road from Jicheng to the new city in the north of Zhuojun. Qu Yi is stationed in Jicheng, while Zhao Yun led his troops to sweep the surrounding areas and pacify the border between Shanggu and Guangyang.
Now that Zhao Yun has returned to Jicheng, he said that he needs Yuan Xi to come to Ji County in person, because the appointment of officials in the city is extremely chaotic, and some people have acted beyond the bottom line. If this continues, it will affect Yuan Xi's reputation.
Cai Zhaoji looked at the names of officials Zhao Yun mentioned and said softly, "These are all related to Xu You and Xu Zijiang."
Yuan Xi sneered: "Xu You really thinks I'm easy to bully!"
Cai Zhaoji asked worriedly, "Master, do you want to kill him?"
"I'm afraid that if we do this rashly, our relationship with Jizhou will become strained?"
Yuan Xi shook his head and said, "Kill him if you want, but Xu You is still useful, it's not time for him to die."
"But the way he jumps is too disgusting. I have to give him a beating this time."
"Tell the women in the mansion to pack their luggage in the next few days, and we will set off for Jicheng."
Cai Zhaoji agreed, and then lowered her voice and said, "My private matter is that these few days, I saw that Madam Cai was in an unstable mood. I was afraid that she would be upset for a while, so I secretly went to find medicine."
"I think you should have a good talk with her. A heart disease needs to be treated with the heart."
Yuan Xi felt something strange when he heard this.
What happened between him and Madam Cai was really an accident. The two of them, who had no feelings for each other, actually had a child before Zhen Mi, his legal wife, which made him very embarrassed.
Logically speaking, after the child is born, he can recognize Zhen Mi as his mother, but not to mention Mrs. Cai's attitude, Zhen Mi must have felt a little uncomfortable.
Yuan Xi murmured in his heart that things would easily get into trouble when he drank. Last time it was Cai Zhaoji, and this time it was Madam Cai. What kind of thing was this!
And the key point is that I was dizzy and could hardly remember what happened at that time. It's really a pity.
Thinking of this, Yuan Xi's mind emerged with Mrs. Cai's curvy figure, and he cursed himself inwardly for being so out of touch.
Seeing Yuan Xi's tangled expression, Cai Zhaoji covered her mouth and smiled, "The matter with the girl from the Mi family has not been settled yet, but you have found another way. I really admire you."
Yuan Xi sighed: "You are the first one, but I haven't given you a name yet."
Cai Zhaoji laughed and said, "Why bring this up? Could it be worse than being taken captive to the border?"
"The backyard is about to catch fire. Let's take care of Madam Cai first. It was the young master who was drunk and behaved badly."
"Based on my experience alone, Madam Cai must have suffered a lot that night."
Yuan Xi looked at the teasing expression on Cai Zhaoji's face, and thinking of what he had done to Cai Zhaoji, he couldn't help but sweat and said, "Don't say it, I will pay attention next time."
Cai Zhaoji laughed out loud: "Who will it be next time?"
Yuan Xi became furious and grabbed Cai Zhaoji, put his hand into her clothes and ravaged her, waiting for her to beg for mercy before he stopped.
Mrs. Wu sat at the table teaching her daughter to read. She wrote stroke by stroke, and the tip of her pen left traces of ink on the bamboo slips.
Whenever Mrs. Wu wrote a word, she would pronounce the syllables of the word, and her daughter would imitate her in a baby voice.
She had been in an extremely irritable mood these past few days, unable to sit still or sleep, and had to find something to distract herself, otherwise she felt like she was going crazy.
There was a knock on the door, and Yuan Xi said from outside: "Madam, can you come in?"
Mrs. Wu was startled and bit her lip before she stood up and slowly opened the door.
She bowed her head and said to Yuan Xi, "Greetings, Your Excellency."
Seeing that his tone was quite cold, Yuan Xi smiled bitterly in his heart, thinking that the other party might be holding a grudge against him.
He said aloud, "I have a few words to say to my wife. Can I go in and talk?"
As he spoke, his eyes were involuntarily attracted by the rather large ravine. When Mrs. Wu saw it, she hurriedly pulled at her skirt, but did not move away. She whispered, "What's the matter, sir?"