Chapter 243: Zhou Muhuwei [Subscription Request]

The Cui family originated from the Jiang family and is a descendant of Duke Tai of Qi. It is divided into two branches: the Qinghe Cui and the Boling Cui.

During the late Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period, the Qinghe Cui family had Cui Yan, Cui Lin and others who were famous in history. The family reached its peak from the Southern and Northern Dynasties to the end of the Tang Dynasty. It was ranked among the "Seven Surnames and Ten Families" and produced twelve prime ministers.

At present, the Cui family is not yet at its peak. It is not as good as the Yuan family, the Yang family, the Xun family, and the Chen family.

Cao Cao started a killing spree, starting from Wei County and advancing from south to north.

In other parts of Jizhou, even Bingzhou and Qingzhou, a large number of land-occupying nobles were also being cleared out simultaneously.

By the end of July, a total of twenty-seven aristocratic families in Jizhou had been uprooted.

An uncontrollable feeling of panic filled all the nobles.

Cao Cao’s meaning is very clear. Under my rule, everyone should keep their tails between their legs and bend their backs, otherwise they will die!

Qinghedongwucheng.

"He's going north along the road and will soon reach my Dongwu."

"So what? If he dares to touch my Liu family, my entire clan will fight him."

The ruler of the Qinghe Liu family, Mr. Liu, is sixty-three years old this year. His hair is half white, his brows are deeply arched, and his eyes appear somewhat gloomy.

He coughed softly, "He won't last long if he keeps doing this."

"As Dong Zhuo taught us, the result of being an enemy of everyone is a miserable death!"

"I used to watch Cao Cao in Yanzhou and Yuzhou and thought he was a man who could weigh things and knew how to advance and retreat."

"So he defeated the Yuan family, and with the Yu family acting as a guarantor, I was the first person to support him in coming to Jizhou. I never thought that he would repay me by turning around to deal with the various families in Jizhou with such brutal means."

"Then the Yu family will stand with him. I want to see how the Yu family will cope after Yanzhou is defeated."

"Do you regret it?"

The head of the Cui family is Cui Yan's uncle Cui Bo, who is nearly sixty years old. He is dressed in a dark blue robe and has a graceful demeanor.

"I regret it. Every family has written to me and asked me how I plan to deal with it. Sigh... How dare he kill so many people?"

Cui Bo also sighed.

Cao Cao had previously summoned Cui Yan to serve as an official in Yanzhou.

Now it seems that Cao Cao might have been bluffing, sending them the signal that he was ready to coexist peacefully with some of the nobles in Jizhou.

Now that they have suddenly turned hostile, I was totally unprepared.

"What do you think we should do next?" asked Mr. Liu.

Cui Bo remained calm and tested him secretly: "How about... we take a step back, try to save our own situation first, and then see what he can do later?"

Neither of them mentioned a head-on confrontation with Yanzhou, although they had many private soldiers.

But Cao Cao fought his way up from the south, and there was not a single aristocratic family along the way that had the slightest power to resist.

Can't beat it, can't beat it at all.

The sharpness of Yanzhou’s military force is an indisputable fact.

This time, Cao Cao brought twenty cavalrymen to sweep away the gentry, which further made people realize how powerful the troops under his command were.

Whoever stands out will suffer greater losses.

"It's better to take a step back and hand over some land to ease the relationship with Yanzhou."

Mr. Liu said bitterly, "There will always be a chance to settle things with him in the future."

The two companies agreed to work closely together and advance and retreat together.

Liu left.

Cui Bo sat for a long time, took out a secret letter from his sleeve, and read it word by word in the sunlight outside the window.

The letter was written by Cao Cao himself, asking the Cui family to hand over the large amount of land they occupied, otherwise they would be wiped out from Qinghe.

The letter also mentioned Tobu Castle, and it was impossible for two clans to exist there.

Even if the land is handed over, one of the Cui and Liu families must die.

The remaining one can survive only if it cooperates with Yanzhou and sincerely devotes itself to the company.

What does it mean to be truly devoted to the country?
The powerful thing about this letter is that it puts the Cui and Liu families on opposite sides.

Let them fight each other and pledge their allegiance to each other.

Cui Bo thought that Liu must have received the same letter from Cao Cao.

And Liu would also think the same of Cui.

Because of a letter, the two will lose trust under the pressure of life and death.

Yanzhou forced the Cui and Liu families to oppose each other, otherwise they would have to confront Yanzhou head-on.

How to do?
The lesser of two evils.

Only by getting through this hurdle can one have a chance to take revenge in the future. This is the mentality of most nobles when faced with similar situations.

So they would start secretly funding Yuan Shang, the remnant of the Yuan family, in an attempt to retaliate against Yanzhou, and thus fall into another trap set by Yanzhou, waiting to be cut off in the next wave.

Speaking of the present moment, Cui Bo reacted faster.

Cao Cao wrote a letter to Cui and Liu respectively.

While Liu was still hesitating, Cui Bo left the city that night and headed west to Wuyuanpo.

This is a high ground.

A large camp was set up on the high ground.

The sky is full of stars and moon.

There were only twenty or so cavalrymen deployed around the area, and they looked scattered.

However, these twenty heavy cavalrymen had been notorious among the Jizhou nobles for more than half a month and had killed countless people.

The head of the Cui family was at the foot of the hill and seemed to be able to smell the blood on them.

Cui Bo was soon brought into Cao Cao's camp by Wei Xu.

Cao Cao was reading in his tent. It was a hot July, but there was a cool breeze on the hillside.

Cui Bo was startled when he came in.

There was a giant tiger lying in the camp, its size was extremely terrifying.

Behind a low seat opposite Cao Cao, sat a handsome young man in a blue shirt, making tea.

"Master Cui."

Cao Cao pretended to be polite and asked everyone to take a seat: "Have you thought about it?"

Cui Bo first saluted Cao Cao, and then saluted the handsome young man on the other side.

He knew that the young man was Yao Jing, a disciple of Zheng Xuan. Thanks to his fellow disciples and Cui Yan's intercession, the Cui family got the opportunity to come first.

Yao Jing also came to Zheng Xuan for help because he was afraid of the Jizhou gentry being killed by Cao Cao in recent days.

Zheng Xuan sent him to ease the relationship between Cao Cao and the gentry.

Now that he was here, Cui Bo took a breath:
"Think it over, Governor Huwei. It is us who have done something wrong. I hope you will be magnanimous and give the Cui family a chance to survive."

Cao Cao said simply and directly: "First, you take my people, plus your own people from the Cui family, and unite to slaughter the Liu family. Half of the land in Qinghe County was occupied by your two families. Kill them and let them return to the people. Do you object?" "No."

Cui Bo's heart was pounding, he knew that something bad was coming, Cao Cao was forcing him to be a traitor.

Cao Cao continued, "The second thing is that the nobles sold refugees to the Wuhuan as slaves. They must pay the price. There is no room for negotiation."

Cui Bo hurriedly said: "My Cui family has never engaged in human trafficking...

We just know that the route opened by the Ma family in Wei County will give some tribute to my Cui family afterwards. We have never been directly involved. "

Cao Cao narrowed his eyes and asked, "Can you say again that Cui Shi was not involved?"

Cui Bo opened his mouth and his eyes fell on Yao Jing who was standing beside him. He saw Yao Jing shaking his head at him imperceptibly.

"You, Cui, knew about this, but you still dared to accept the benefits. Doesn't that count as participation? Hand over all the people involved to me."

It is impossible to kill all the nobles.

Even if you kill a group of them, new nobles will emerge again, and you can never kill them all.

This is a law determined by the social structure and no one can change it.

Therefore, we must use the means of differentiation, pulling in one group and attacking another.

If we want to find someone useful now, we have to cooperate with the gentry.

Most talented and learned people, who are well-read in poetry and books, come from scholar families.

Therefore, some members of the Cui family were able to escape the disaster.

As for bullying the other party too harshly and causing it to break its tail, will the other party retaliate and sow disaster for you?

In fact, this concern does not exist. The inherent logic of things is interests and strength.

If Cao Cao is strong enough, the Qinghe Cui family will always be safe and secure.

If Cao Cao is weak, even if you fail to deal with him, he will deal with you.

Cui Bo left with a heavy heart.

In the early morning, he led Cao's army into the city and turned around to wipe out Liu's clan.

Once this letter of allegiance was submitted, more than half of the nobles in Jizhou cursed the Cui family behind their backs, forcing them to stand on the side of Cao Cao.

In the tent after Cui Bo left, Cao Cao glanced at Yao Jing:
"It's late at night. There is only one big tent in my army. Jingzhi, how about you and I sleep together in the tent tonight?"

Yao Jing's face flushed red as if it was on fire. "Your Excellency, please go to bed early. I will find another place to live. Sleeping with you will be... inconvenient."

Cao Cao was surprised and said, "We are all men, so what's the inconvenience?"

Yao Jing stammered, "I've been used to sleeping alone since I was young. I can't sleep with someone." After saying that, he stood up and left, walking out in a hurry.

The butt is quite sticky... Cao Cao looked away.

He continued to lead his men northward, preparing to screen all the nobles in Jizhou from beginning to end.

Now that you have done it, you must do it thoroughly.

All those that can be removed have been cut down, and those that cannot be removed or are hidden deeper will naturally move closer to Yuan Shang.

Cao Cao smiled somewhat grimly.

At the same time, in Youzhou, at the end of July, a group of more than a thousand refugees were sent to Wuhuan by the gentry as usual.

"This is the last batch. Yanzhou entered Jizhou and suppressed our families everywhere. You Wuhuan should have heard about it. The families suffered heavy losses. We will not do this again."

The leader was called Xu Yang, from the Xu family of Bohai.

They collected refugees from various counties and prefectures, and then traveled along the Bohai Sea, heading northeast, and finally landed at the ferry east of Youbeiping County.

With a short journey by water and the cooperation of the nobles along the way, refugees have been sent to Wuhuan many times.

The Wuhuan liked to have strong laborers or young women to reproduce and expand their tribe.

"There are more than a thousand people coming this time. There will be two more boats in the second half of the night, and the people will be all here."

Xu Yang said to Na Bu, the Wuhuan general who was in charge of picking them up, "I heard that the Yanzhou army has already reached Youbeiping County?"

Nabu and Xu Yang are old acquaintances and can talk to each other.

The Wuhuan had been assimilated by the Han for a long time, and most of them could speak Chinese:
"Do you know that there is a general in the Yanzhou army who never misses his target with his arrows? Who is he?"

"There was also a general from Yanzhou who used a sword. Qi Jiang, a famous warrior of Wuhuan, fought him in battle and was killed by him with one sword. In that battle, we lost the most important city in Youbeiping County."

Xu Yang did not answer but asked: "So, you are going to lose?"

"That won't happen. We have already sent an envoy to prepare for an alliance with the Xianbei." Nabu curled the corners of his mouth sinisterly.

He was not afraid that the Han people would know the news he said.

He said it on purpose for Xu Yang to hear, as it would be better if it could spread.

Wuhuan and Xianbei often fought, but sometimes they could cooperate well, such as fighting against the Han Dynasty together, robbing and looting... Xu Yang thought.

Nabu picked up the person and exchanged him with Xu Yang using ores, animal skins, cattle and sheep.

That evening, three medium-sized ships brought the final 600 people.

When these 'slaves' came down from the boat, Nabu suddenly felt something was wrong.

The proportion of young and strong people is too high.

But it's too late.

A small man came down from the boat and leaped up like the flying bird.

But faster than Le Jin were Taishi Ci's arrows and the crossbows of the Yanzhou army behind him!
Following them came down a whole ship of elite Tiger and Leopard Cavalry.

In order to protect the Xu family, Xu Yang chose to cooperate with Yanzhou.

The Yanzhou army will rush northward from here, piercing into the border between the east side of Youbeiping County and Liaoxi County like a sharp knife, and cooperate with Huang Zhong of the central army to defeat the main force of Wuhuan.

So Cao Cao had said before that if he attacked Ma, he would at least be able to achieve a great victory.

It refers to dealing with the Wuhuan people.

At this time, Taishi Ci drew his bow and shot an arrow.

The arrow was so fast that Nabu slashed out with his sword in the air, but the arrow had already shot into his throat.

He choked with blood and fell off his horse.

Taishi Ci shot the bow continuously, his hands as fast as a phantom.

Behind them were more Yanzhou soldiers and horses, and their sharp arrows were like dense rain.

The sky was bright.

"The governor said that this time we have the hope of defeating the Wuhuan!"

Taishi Ci stood on the shore, looking towards the north:

"These Wuhuan people are ungrateful. They obeyed us and became our vassal. We gave them three counties to live in. But as soon as we have a little unrest in our Han territory, they immediately turn around and rob us of our things, food, and women."

"Kill them all."

Le Jin's eyes were cold and grim. "How many troops did the governor arrange?"

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(End of this chapter)