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Cao Zhi followed Cheng Yu's advice and decided to do his best to buy time for Cao Wei. He learned from Hua Xin that his brother had negotiated with Liu Jing twice, but neither of them succeeded because Liu Jing's conditions were harsh and he actually asked them to abolish the newly established young child.

However, the situation changed rapidly. When the Hou of the Han Dynasty issued an imperial edict in Chang'an and refused to recognize the newly established emperor in Yedu, in fact, this move of Tianqi had lost its meaning. Whether to abolish the new emperor or not, the people in the world basically no longer took him seriously, and even the prime minister of the Cao family had no power to summon him.

Now Cao Zhi no longer has the political capital to negotiate with the Han army. Cao Zhi's only hope is to beg Liu Jing for the sake of his sister Cao Xian, the Han and Cao families will be in a quit for half a year. Of course, in name, it is to let the people of Hebei have a peaceful New Year and allow Hebei farmers to complete spring plowing.

Cao Zhi knew that Liu Jing was not in Chang'an, but in Yuan, so he immediately sent Situ Dong Zhao to Yuan with his handwritten letter to meet Liu Jing.

Liu Jing was indeed in Yuan. Just when he was preparing to lead his army through Jingxing and march into Hebei, he received news of the Yedu coup. This news caused Liu Jing to temporarily change his plan. He ordered Wei Yan to lead 20,000 troops to defend Jingxing, and he himself took charge of Yuan and watched the changes in Yedu.

In the early morning, Sima Yi hurried through a long corridor and came to Liu Jing's temporary official room. When he saw the door closed and several guards stood at the door, Sima Yi stepped forward and asked in a low voice: "Is it convenient now?"

The guard smiled strangely, "Your Highness is resting, the Prime Minister should not disturb you for the time being."

Sima Yi knew in his heart that His Highness drank a few more drinks last night, and there were several dancers who were sleeping with him. He probably went to bed very late. At this time, Liu Jing's voice came from the room, "Is it Sima Prime Minister?"

"Yes! The Prime Minister asked to see Your Highness for his affairs."

"Please come in!"

The guard pushed open the door and Sima Yi walked into the room, but saw Liu Jing sitting in front of the case to review the certificate, full of energy. He glanced at him, but no one could see the figures of the dancers. Liu Jing knew what he was looking for, so he smiled and said, "I sent it away in the middle of the night, so the prime minister doesn't need to be found."

Sima Yi smiled and did not advise Liu Jing not to get close to women. He knew that the King of Han also did it occasionally, so there was no need to go into it. At this time, Liu Jing put down his pen and asked, "Is there any news in Yedu?"

"Your Highness, Cao Zhi has sent Dong Zhao as an envoy to come to see Your Highness. It is estimated that it will be here tomorrow."

This was as expected by Liu Jing, but he was no longer interested in this kind of negotiation and asked again: "How is the recruitment of troops in Yedu?"

"It is said that there is some effect. Li Fu said that the information they had initially obtained had been raised by about 10,000 people."

Liu Jing smiled contemptuously, "There are only ten thousand people, not many, I thought they could recruit at least 100,000 people."

"Your Highness must not underestimate the other party. Xiahou Dun is a powerful general of Cao Wei. His strategy and experience are beyond the reach of the Cao army. Besides, there are famous generals such as Zhang Liao and Xu Huang. Although we have won the Central Plains Battle, if we take it lightly, if Hebei loses, Cao's army will also turn the tables. Your Highness, be careful!"

Liu Jing nodded. He accepted Sima Yi's advice and could not be careless. After pondering for a moment, Liu Jing asked again: "What is Zhongda's purpose of Cao Zhi's sending Dong Zhaolai?"

"I have considered this issue. I think Cao Wei needs time the most at the moment. They must be trying to get time to prepare for the final stubborn resistance."

Liu Jing sneered and said, "I won't give them time. I was able to reach a compromise in the past because the situation was not urgent and I also needed to let the soldiers rest. But now there is no need, and I, Liu Jing, will not become the second Duke Xiang of Song."

"How will your Highness respond to Cao Zhi?"

"No need to reply, just hold Dong Zhao directly. This person is a talented person and can be used by him in the future."

.........

Dong Zhao never dreamed that he had become a prisoner of the Han army as soon as he arrived at Yuan. He could not see Liu Jing and was directly under house arrest by the Han army. This made Dong Zhao sigh in his heart. Compared with Dong Zhao's luck, Cheng Ke, who arrived at Yuan on the same day, was a different scene. He was personally received by King Liu Jing of Han.

In the yamen of the original city army, Cheng Ke knelt down respectfully and bowed to King Liu Jing of Han, "Little Min Cheng Ke, pay homage to His Highness the King of Han!"

Liu Jing met Cheng Ke, of course because of his grandfather Cheng Yu. Cheng Ke did not represent himself, but his grandfather. Liu Jing waved his hand and smiled, "Please sit down with Mr. Cheng!"

"Thank you, Your Highness!"

Cheng Ke sat down on the side, and there were two prime ministers, Sima Yi and Zhuge Liang, who took out his grandfather's letter and raised it over his head to present it, "This is a handwritten letter from his grandfather to His Highness, please check it out."

The guard next to him transferred the letter to Liu Jing, but Liu Jing was not in a hurry to open it and asked with concern: "How is Lingzu's body?"

Cheng Ke looked sad and shook his head, "My grandfather was bedridden after he came back from Xuzhou. We don't know if he can survive this disaster, so we can only pray for God's blessing."

Liu Jing opened the letter scroll, but he was slightly stunned. He saw that the scroll was densely filled with small characters. He slowly unfolded it and found that both sides of the front and back were full of words. It was roughly estimated that there were at least tens of thousands of words.

Cheng Ke hurriedly said: "This letter has been written for more than a month, and he begged Your Highness to read it carefully."

After reading a little, Liu Jing understood the content inside. It turned out to be the lesson of Cao Wei's decline summarized by Cheng Yu. Later, I hope that he would avoid repeating Cao Wei's mistakes.

It can be said that every sentence is filled with Cheng Yu's heart, which makes Liu Jing feel inexplicably moved. Although Cheng Yu also had a little bit of entrusting his family, it was more of Cheng Yu's regret for not being able to realize his ambitions and his expectations for the new man as a minister.

Liu Jing carefully put away the letter scroll. He wanted to read the precious inheritance left by Cheng Yu carefully. He said to Cheng Ke again: "I understand Lingzu's painstaking efforts. Please go down and rest first, and I will make arrangements."

Cheng Ke bowed and slowly retreated. Liu Jing walked to the window with his hands behind his back and stared out the window for a long time. After a while, Zhuge Liang smiled and said, "Do you feel in your heart?"

Liu Jing nodded, "When a person is about to die, his words are good. I believe that the effort Cheng Yu left behind in the end will be of great help to me."

"But your Highness understands Cheng Yu's intention?"

"I know, he hopes I can treat his grandson well."

Sima Yi smiled beside him and said, "I suggest that he can be a six ministries first. If he is indeed capable, he will be released as a county magistrate in a year. What does your Highness think?"

"This plan is feasible, so let the matter be left to Sima Xiangguo."

After a pause, Liu Jing said to Zhuge Liang again: "Now there are ten days left before the New Year. I will temporarily rest in Bingzhou. After the New Year, on the fifth day of the first lunar month, the Western, Eastern and Southern lines will march towards Hebei at the same time!"

.........

It was gradually late December. Nearly half a year had passed since Luoyang was besieged. Luoyang had no longer had the prosperity of the Han Dynasty capital in the past. The chaos in the late Han Dynasty brought a catastrophe to Luoyang. Luoyang, the former prosperous Han capital, turned into a dead city with smoke cut off and rats and snakes.

After Cao Cao unified the Central Plains, Zhong Yao gradually brought the population of Guanzhong and Bingzhou back to Luoyang, which gradually restored some vitality to Luoyang. By the 20th year of Jian'an, Luoyang had become a big city with a population of nearly 50,000. Although it was far from comparable to the Han people in the past, a glimmer of vitality finally appeared.

This battle between Han and Cao brought a heavy blow to Luoyang. Xu Huang led 20,000 Cao troops to defend Luoyang, while 100,000 Han troops were in the outer city. Xu, Ying, Chen, Hong and other places near Luoyang had been occupied by the Han army, making Luoyang an isolated city.

After the siege of the past six months, Luoyang City, like all besieged cities, also faced the most severe food crisis. Cao's army did not store much food in Luoyang, only tens of thousands of stones. This was the food that Xu Huang had prepared for two months to fight, but he did not expect that this time it would take half a year.

Although Xu Huang tried every means to mobilize military and civilians to plant black beans that are easy to grow as grain on the open space in the city, and implement a strict grain distribution system in the city, ordinary people's daily rations were reduced to less than one, and they could only barely survive.

Despite all the means, after mid-December, Cao's army slowly fell into a situation where food was exhausted. Ordinary Cao's soldiers only had half a share of food every day, and all the war horses and livestock had been killed. Even Xu Huang's love horses were killed to the soldiers.

Ordinary people have no rations and can only peel tree bark and catch mice. The elderly and children face the threat of death.

But the reinforcements that Xu Huang was eagerly looking forward to had no news, not even a pigeon letter, and even Xu Huang began to despair.

That morning, Xu Huang was sitting in the tent and pondering. Suddenly, a dull sound of "boom!" came from outside the tent. Xu Huang raised his head in surprise, and then a few dull sounds came. Xu Huang suddenly realized, was this the Han army started to attack the city?

He stood up and walked quickly outside the tent. He was stunned. He saw that there were fluttering pieces of paper everywhere in the sky. Almost every soldier had grabbed a piece of paper and was gathering together to whisper.

A piece of paper floated in front of Xu Huang's eyes. He reached out and grabbed the piece of paper. The piece of paper was only the size of a palm, with two lines of words written on it, "Yedu has been surrounded, Cao Wei is about to be destroyed, Luoyang surrenders, and food enters the city."

Xu Huang looked at the piece of paper blankly. The last news he got was that Cao Pi died and Cao Zhi was the prime minister. But now twenty days have passed, and he has no news anymore. Could it be that Ye was really captured by the Han army?

Impossible! If Yedu is captured, why not escort Cao Zhi to the city to surrender? Xu Huang looked carefully and noticed that Yedu was besieged and Cao Wei was about to perish, which meant that it had not yet perished. This made him feel a little relieved. Xu Huang immediately ordered: "All pieces of paper are confiscated, no preservation is allowed, and violators are killed!"

At this time, a soldier rushed over and bowed and said, "Report to General, the Han army sent an envoy!"

Xu Huang pondered for a moment, then clicked, "Take him to my tent."

Soon after, Cao's soldiers led a soldier to Xu Huang's tent, and the soldier bowed and said, "I'm going to join the army under the tent of the governor Zhao."
Chapter completed!