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Amid the sound of firecrackers all over the city, the 20th year of Jian'an has finally arrived. This year, the New Year in Yedu is still as low-key as in previous years. The government has not organized any celebrations, and all New Year celebrations are carried out independently by the people. Cao Cao's reason is very simple, advocating frugality and opposing extravagance and waste. In his opinion, organizing New Year activities by the government is an unnecessary expense.

However, in order to be frugal, Cao Cao even canceled the New Year's court meetings, which is a bit confusing. After all, this was the only opportunity for the Han emperor to contact the ministers. Many people speculated that Cao Cao's frugality was just an excuse. The key was that he wanted to completely undermine the Han emperor and deprive the Han emperor of any opportunity to meet with the ministers. This was Cao Cao's real purpose.

However, the cancellation of the New Year ceremony is also welcomed by most officials because they have time to hold tribal festivals well, unlike in previous years.

On the second day of the first lunar month, according to custom, you cannot go out on this day, and every household cannot make fires, eat cold food, drink cold water, and reunites to send the spirits of the ancestors away.

The street was also deserted and there was no pedestrian. Only by chance a team of patrolling soldiers walked by. At this time, the sound of chariots and horses came from afar, breaking the quiet morning. Soon, a carriage drove quickly, followed dozens of driving guards on both sides.

The patrol soldiers recognized this as the eldest son's carriage, and lined up to watch the carriage. The carriage rushed past and drove out the north gate.

Cao Pi sat alone in the carriage and pondered without saying a word. For him, the New Year was meaningless. He handled government affairs and summoned his subordinates to discuss solving problems. Just like usual, he was busy every day.

However, Cao Pi not can get all power. He only has government power, and important things such as military power, supervision power, official appointment and removal power, etc. are still firmly in the hands of his father Cao Cao.

Although he was cautious and tried his best to satisfy his father when dealing with every government matter, until today, he has not yet become a worldly being in power and has not obtained the inheritance of his father.

His brother Cao Zhi was not rich and did not spend money. He worked very hard and was highly valued by his father. His father sent him to inspect the Wei State and act as the monarch of Wei State. The symbolic significance of this power is even greater than that of Cao Pi's government power. Cao Pi had never received such treatment before.

Cao Pi was very worried about this. As the eldest son, he should have been named the emperor, but his father refused to announce it for a long time, which implies that his father actually wanted Cao Zhi to inherit his career.

Another thing that made Cao Pi feel upset was that his father refused to be promoted to King of Wei, and he rejected the initiatives of his ministers for consecutive times. One veto was modest, and two vetos were gestures, but the matter was, he did not want to.

Cao Pi also knew why his father was unwilling to be promoted to King of Wei. The key was that Liu Jing. Liu Jing clearly opposed his father's promotion to King of Wei. He warned him more than once, and his father was uneasy, which shows that his father was a little afraid of Liu Jing.

This made Cao Pi deeply confused. If his father refused to be promoted to King of Wei, it would affect his future status of Cao Pi and make it difficult for him to take the last and most critical step.

Cao Pi couldn't help but sigh softly. No matter what, he must let his father accept the initiative of his ministers and be promoted to King of Wei, but today, Cao Pi did not come for this.

The carriage slowly stopped in front of the Tongque Palace. A guard stepped forward and opened the car door. Cao Pi walked out of the carriage and walked quickly into the palace gate. He said to the guard: "Please report to the Prime Minister, just say I have important things to ask for my opinion."

The guards went in. Soon after, his sister Cao Xian greeted her and smiled, "My father was still talking about why the elder brother didn't come to the party, but the elder brother came by himself."

It was only a few days since Cao Xian returned to Yedu. She was severely scolded by her father and was imprisoned for a month. Although she was scolded, it was not because she went to find Liu Jing without her father's consent, but because she went out alone without her father's consent. It was very dangerous for a single woman to go out. Once she was robbed by thieves, the consequences would be unimaginable. Cao Cao was furious about his daughter for this.

Cao Pi smiled and said, "My little sister has been resting for two days and looks much better, but it's still reassuring for her family."

Cao Xian stepped forward and held his brother's arm intimately and smiled: "If you have time, I will tell you about my experiences. My brother must be very interested in Liu Jing's life. My father is most interested and asks me every day."

The two walked into the palace, and Cao Pi smiled and said, "It seems that my father really plans to marry you to Liu Jing. You have to be mentally prepared."

Cao Xian blushed and said coquettishly: "Who told you to say this? I don't want to marry him."

Cao Pi laughed and followed his sister into the inner palace. In the inner palace, Cao Cao's family gathered. More than a dozen wives and concubines, including Mrs. Bian, and more than 20 girls gathered together, surrounded Cao Cao and chatted and talked. However, Cao Pi unexpectedly found Cao Zhi sitting aside. He was stunned. Didn't Cao Zhi be on patrol outside? When would he come back?

When everyone saw Cao Pi come in, they laughed, "It's only Dalang, and now they are all here."

Cao Pi hurriedly stepped forward and knelt down, "Child Cao Pi paid homage to my father, and to all mothers."

Cao Cao smiled slightly and said, "I know you are very busy, so I didn't come to you. But since you are here, let's have a party together. I will send someone to bring your wife and children here, so the whole family will be happier."

"Thank you, but whether you can give your child some time? If you have important things to report to your father, it is related to Chengdu."

Cao Cao originally didn't want to talk about business today, but since it was related to Chengdu, it was a different matter. He pondered slightly and nodded and said, "Let's go to the inner room to talk."

He slowly got up and walked towards the inner room. Cao Pi hurriedly followed. At this time, Cao Cao said to Cao Zhi again: "Zhier comes together."

Cao Pi suddenly turned red and even called his brother. Why didn't he ask him to listen to Cao Pi's shame and anger when he reported, but he lowered his head and said nothing.

In the room, Cao Cao sat down and looked at the two sons with a smile. His ultimate successor would be born among these two sons. Emotionally, he was more inclined to Cao Zhi. Cao Zhi matured very quickly in the past two years, and was no longer as immature as he was when he was on mission to Xiangyang. He gradually became calm and grand, with a kingly style, which made Cao Cao appreciate it.

Of course, Cao Pi is also very capable. He handles government affairs properly and does not make him worry. However, Cao Pi has always disliked Cao Cao, that is, he is scheming and his biggest thing is that he needs to be scheming. However, no father wants to see his son scheming and he is also scheming. Cao Pi has committed this taboo. Cao Cao knew that the ministers have advocated him to be promoted to King of Wei these days, and Cao Pi was secretly agitating behind his back.

Another thing is Hua Xin. Although Cao Cao valued this person's ability very much, he despised his people, and he didn't like Chang to regard him as his confidant. He reminded Cao Pi several times that Cao Pi humbly accepted it every time, but never changed it. This made Cao Cao deeply disappointed. At the same time, he began to doubt Chang's sincerity to respect himself and whether he was disobedient to himself. Once he passed away, will Chang really continue to loyally implement his political line?

But the persuasion of many ministers is very reasonable. The stability is the way to take the eldest son as the heir. Yuan Shao’s lesson is still vivid in his mind, and Cao Zhi is far inferior to Cao Pi in terms of skills and abilities. He still has the romantic feelings of people in his bones.

From his inspection this time, we can see that he obviously favors the people in the struggle for profit by officials and the people. He always believes that the people are more important than the king, and that the people are the foundation of the country. Little do we know that this is actually just a statement from the ruler. However, Cao Zhi took it seriously. When inspecting Zhao County, he still beat the guard and the county magistrate in front of nearly 10,000 farmers. This kind of political naivety also made Cao Cao very troubled.

More importantly, the military generally did not support Cao Zhi, but Cao Pi, but the lower class people and the famous gentry supported Cao Zhi. It was this kind of doubt that Cao Cao could not decide his heirs.

Cao Cao said to Chang Cao Pi with kindness: "What important things do Pier have to report to his father in a hurry."

Cao Pi restrained his plan to his younger brother Cao Zhi, took out a scroll of letters and presented it to his father with both hands, "This is the Chengdu information my child received this morning. The content is very important. Please check it out."

Cao Cao was a little surprised. Dong Zhao should have reported the information about Chengdu to him. How could it be that Chang reported to him? He was surprised. But he still took the letter and opened it. He hurriedly looked at it, which immediately surprised him. The matter records of Pingzhang Platform include the Han army's plan to attack Hefei and Liu Jing's plan to move the capital to Chang'an.

The Han army was preparing to attack Hefei. As Cao Cao expected, the Han army exchanged Lujiang County, stationed troops in Wan County, and established a naval base in Chaohu. This was obviously aimed at Hefei, and it would be a matter of time before moving the capital to Chang'an. Although these two pieces of information were important, they were not enough to surprise Cao Cao. Cao Cao was surprised by this information itself. This was actually a record of the matter on Pingzhangtai. This was definitely a top-secret and important information, which made Cao Cao stunned.
Chapter completed!