Chapter 40 Father and son compete for the hero

"Did he go to Zhuya?" Cao Yan twisted a beard on his lips, looked at the glittering Xuanwu pool, and seemed to ask casually.

Cao Pi arched his hands and stood aside. Just as he was about to speak, Cao Zhang had already grinned and said happily, "Yes, after calming Yizhou, he went straight to Zhuya."

Cao raised his eyelids and glanced at Cao Zhang angrily and funnyly: "He calmed down Yizhou. What are you happy about?"

Cao Zhangyan smiled twice, sipped his lips, rubbed his big hand and said nothing, but his expression had shown his idea bluntly. Cao Xiu smiled and glanced at Cao Pi and Cao Zhi, who was silent on the other side. He picked up the corners of his mouth, withdrew his eyes to the lake again, and asked faintly, "What's the matter, are you greedy? Do you also want to be a general of Fuyi?"

"My son... I dare not." Cao Zhang's cheeks were ** and he hurriedly said, "I just feel that now there are four kings in the Han Dynasty, and the king of Yue is the worst, but he has the most popular in the past two years. According to this trend, I'm afraid that Wu Shu will be overshadowed by him in two or three years. In a few years, our State of Wei may also..."

"Will I be overshadowed by him?" Cao Cao interrupted Cao Zhang's words, the corners of his eyes **, and suddenly exhaled two breaths.

"Yes, I'm worried about this."

"Hmm..." Cao Hen hummed twice and raised his hand: "Zihuan, what do you think?"

Cao Pi said respectfully, "I don't think that the king of Yue can overshadow my father's limelight. My father has fought for the Han Dynasty for 30 years, helped the building in generals, and calmed down more than half of the world. Is such a credit comparable to that he can pacify a few small islands and bring down a few Yi people? The emperor was more and more sealed, and the minister thought that his intentions were not good, and he was suspected of being rewarded indiscriminately. I thought that I should remind your majesty.

"What do you remind your majesty?" Cao Shen sneered, "Can you let your majesty take back your order?"

Cao Pi heard Cao's bad voice, licked his lips, and swallowed the words that came to his mouth again.

"Zijian, what do you think?" Cao Wei turned his eyes to Cao Zhi.

Not long after Cao Zhi came back from Hanzhong, before he could enter Ye City to have a rest, he was called to Xuanwu Pool. When he arrived here, Cao Zhang and Cao Pi had already arrived. Cao Jian showed him the newly arrived Han communique that Sun Shao asked the emperor to turn Yizhou into Yizhou into the Yizhou County of Yue. The emperor issued an edict to make Sun Shao a Fuyida. General's news. He could see that Cao Zhen attached great importance to this matter, and the summoning of him and Cao Zhang to Ye City may also be related to this matter.

Cao Zhang showed the same desire to conquer the barbarians, and Cao Pi seemed to be indifferent, but Cao Zhi knew that Cao Pi was cheated by Sun Shao and Yang Biao once and stated in the Han Communique that he wanted to conquer the barbarians. He must also have this idea, but he was not as direct as Cao Zhang. He wanted to test Cao's intention first. Then just say it.

"The minister thinks that the king of Yue is committed to foreign expeditions, public and private, which is something we should follow. Even if we can't follow it, we should not obstruct it, giving people the impression of jealousy and ability." Cao Zhi said quietly, "Although the four kings have different surnames, they are all the people of my big man. They are the four pillars that support the big man. The four pillars should support each other, not each other."

Cao Pi's face was a little ugly. Cao Zhi's words were obviously aimed at him. He just wanted to say something, but he saw Cao Wei nod silently. He seemed to agree with Cao Zhi's opinion, and then closed his mouth again. After a moment, he explained, "I'm not jealous. For the king's credit, I just feel that your majesty is a little too hasty. Then he took one Yizhou and was promoted to General Fuyi. Then he took another Yizhou. Why should he be promoted? Besides, the barbarians don't know etiquette, and it's easy to move. Today, it's said to be a rebellion, and today's big reward. What if the Yi people rebel again? Is it possible to deprive him, the general of Fuyi, again? The name is the important weapon of the country. How can it be such a joke?

"Zihuan, if Sun Shao takes another Yizhou, how will your majesty seal him?" Cao Shen pondered for a moment and suddenly interrupted.

Cao Pi was silent for a moment, which made people feel that he was not casual. The minister thought that it might be the general. Other than that, there seemed to be no more suitable position.

"General?" Cao Shen muttered to himself, "Is there going to be another general who is not a relative?"

Cao Pi suddenly flashed, understood Cao's intention, and couldn't help but be furious. The Cao family is a foreign relative, and his sister Cao Jie is now the queen. According to reason, his father Cao Wei should be a general, but the emperor has never had this intention. Instead, he took advantage of Sun Shao's opportunity to conquer Yizhou to make Sun Shao a general of Fuyi, revealing that he might let Sun Shao be a general. Isn't that a slap in the face of the Cao family? A big slap in the face? Father Cao Yan has been in the Han Dynasty for more than ten years. Does he have to suffer such humiliation when he is old? Cao Wei wanted to fight back, and he wanted to fight for the position of the general, so he recalled Cao Zhang, who was the herdsman of Youzhou, and Cao Zhi, the governor of Hanzhong.

In other words, Cao Wei is not satisfied with him, and he doesn't want to give him this task.

The corners of Cao Pi's eyes ** several times, and then became as if nothing had happened. There was no difference on his face, but the afterglow of his eyes stared at Cao's face closely. From his perspective, only Cao Can's side face can be seen, and a brown old man's spot with fingernails at the corners of his eyes was particularly eye-catching. Cao Pi suddenly thought that his father was sixty-eight years old this year, and in another two years, he would enter the rare year.

Life is seventy years old. Although my father has been taking fish oil equivalent to gold for the past two years, and his health looks very good, at this age, who knows when he sleeps one day, he will not wake up again? The more Cao Pi thought about it, the more he remembered. Over the past six months, his father had more time to meditate and talk less. He often called his children and grandchildren to Xuanwu Pool, and his eyes always seemed to patrol those children intentionally or unintentionally. In the past, he had always thought that his father was enjoying the joy of family, but now it seems that this view is obvious. However, it is naive and insufficient. The father should feel that there is not much time. He is nostalgia for the last time.

Thinking of this, Cao Pi held his breath and his brain began to run fast. He suddenly regretted that Mordie had only been dealing with government affairs in Yecheng for the past two years. He mistakenly thought that his father was going to make him the crown prince soon, but now it seems that his father did not have this intention at all, and he has always been dissatisfied with him. He seemed to occupy Ye City, but he did not occupy his father's heart.

He is disappointed, he is angry, he is anxious.

Although the temperature in Xuanwu Pool is already very low, Cao Pi still feels that his hands are sweaty.

"In the view of my son, there is such a possibility, but..." Cao Zhi said faintly, "This is more like a hint from Luoyang. Your Majesty or the Prime Minister may be reminding me that the Three Kingdoms of Wei, Shu and Wu fulfilled their vows in Wancheng." He paused and said, "Wu has Shanyue, Shu has Nanman, and Wei has Beidi and Xiqiang. If everyone uses their troops on the external expedition, the pressure on Luoyang will be much less."

Cao Yan squinted and didn't say a word. He seemed to fall asleep. After listening to Cao Zhi's words, he seemed to say yes for a long time. I don't know whether he agreed or didn't think so. Cao Zhang nodded and said, "Why don't we also send troops to fight, expel the Xianbei people and the Wuwan people, and expel them from the boundaries of my Han Dynasty, so that I, the State of Wei, can also get a General Fudi or something." He turned his eyes and smiled and said, "At the beginning, the king of Yue once told me that if we conquered the Xianbei people, he could sell those sharp swords to us. Why don't we take this opportunity to strengthen our strength so that every time we buys from him, he always pushes them."

"Do you have such an agreement with him?" Cao Shen suddenly opened his eyes and looked at Cao Zhang in surprise. Cao Zhang nodded with a smile: "Exactly, this was agreed when I was in the Bohai Sea, but later he helped me take Xiangping City and then returned Qian Tang. We have not moved, and I have not contacted him again."

"I'm a little strange." Cao Qian sat up, turned around and looked at the three Cao Pi brothers: "Why can the same iron in his hands turn into a sharp sword, but we can't refine it, so we can only spend a lot of money to buy it from him?"

Cao Pi and others were stunned. For a moment, no one knew how to answer Cao Yan. Cao Wei looked at them and asked, "The building ship is easy to capsize when entering the sea, but have you heard of his ship capsized? Ziwen, there are a large number of Vietnamese merchant ships between Youzhou and Yue every month. Have you heard that they have capsized?

Cao Zhang said, "I've heard of some, but certainly not many. The merchant ships in Vietnam are not only large, but also safe. Even those Yi merchants like to take the ships of Vietnam." He thought for a moment and said, "I remember that when I was in Liaokou, I once went to see the drills of Jiangdong Marine Division and Yueguo Marine Division. Although Jiangdong Marine Division had many boats, it was mainly small boats. The total number of Zhendan Marine Division ships was less than that of Jiangdong Marine Division, but there were many large ships, and there were basically no need for small boats, which made Jiangdong Marine Division to fight back. "

"The boat is stable and sharp. No wonder he is like a fish in water on the sea and beat Sun Quan in a mess." Cao Shen muttered, "Zihuan, who helped him transform the warship?"

"I heard from Zidan that it seems to be a person named Ge Heng, who has something to do with Ge Xuan. By the way, Ge Xuan is also under Sun Shao. He also wrote a letter to invite Zuo Ci and others to Zhu Ya." Cao Pi suddenly stopped. After a moment, he exclaimed, "I see, Taoist Academy!"

Cao Yan was stunned. After a while, he smiled bitterly and said, "Zihuan, we understand it too late. I'm afraid those people will not come back again."

Cao Pi also smiled bitterly and was a little embarrassed. He cooperated with Sun Shao and sent people to participate in the research of the Taoist Academy. It was he who followed Cao Zhen's advice and tried his best to encourage Cao to approve it. Unexpectedly, he inadvertently helped Sun Shao a lot.

"Hey hey, this vertical has taken advantage of me again." Cao Shen smiled twice, fell down on a few, and gently patted his legs with his big hand: "We all want land and farmers. We didn't take the craftsman seriously. Only he saw the wonderful use of the craftsman. When we didn't pay attention, we had to leave a large number of craftsmen. When we understood, it was too late."

"Those craftsmen can only do useless things. Who would have thought of it at the beginning... Who would have thought it would be like this." Cao Pi felt bitter in his mouth and a little hot on his face. He has never paid attention to these craftsmen. He is dedicated to the family, not to mention that he gave Sun Shao the craftsmen in the palace. Those people can only do some luxurious and useless things. They also make weapons, but they are mainly gorgeous, and the sharpness is not better than ordinary craftsmen, so they are very generous. It was sent to Sun Shao.

"So, he dares to leave only thousands of soldiers in Qian Tang, but he is prepared to go on an expedition to Yizhou?" Cao Zhi raised his drooping eyelids and said in surprise, "What kind of sharp weapon does he have to ensure that Qian Tang is enough to resist Sun Quan's army?"

"Sun Quan's civil strife is in turmoil. What did he take to make money to Tang?" Cao Pi smiled with a little disdain.

"I don't think so." Cao Zhang replied, "Judging from my contact with him, he is not the kind of person who places his hope on others. He does not rely on the enemy to attack, and he can't rely on me to attack. Sun Shao is the kind of person who thinks about the future in everything. He looks very adventurous in war, but in fact, he doesn't win. He is defeated first and he will never risk it. It's dangerous."

"Ziwen, do you mean that King Yue, who is famous for his boldness, is actually a cautious person?"

"If you have to say so, it's not wrong." Cao Zhang retorted rudely, "If he hadn't been prepared, could he have been so calm in Wancheng? Can you make 2,000 manuscripts in one night? It seems that we still haven't figured out how these Han communiqués came out, right?

Cao Pi was a little annoyed. Cao Zhang intentionally or unintentionally reminded him of the matter of Wancheng, and the matter of Wancheng was that he was fooled by Sun Shao. He really wanted to ask Cao Zhang if Sun Shao had figured out how to use him to fight Xiangping when he was in Qingzhou, but considering that these purely angry words were useless, he smiled faintly and avoided answering.

"Any conspiracy is not worth mentioning in the face of strong strength." Cao Qian suddenly waved his hand and said lightly, "Since we have fallen behind, don't think too much. Zihuan, you should contact Sun Shao immediately and say that the State of Wei is going to conquer Xi Qiang. I hope he can support some of our weapons."

"Xiqiang?" The three brothers of the Cao family pricked up their ears at the same time.

"Yes, Xi Qiang." Cao Qian nodded and said, "If he doesn't agree, it's not too late to change it to northern Xinjiang. However, I still hope that it is Xiqiang. It is bitter and cold in the north, and it is useless to take it down, while Xiqiang is different. If we calm Xiqiang, we can reopen the silk road. The silk business of Qingxu can't be done by Sun Shao alone.

Cao Pi suddenly realized and immediately asked, "Father, who will go to Xiqiang?"

Cao Yan scratched the corners of his mouth: "I haven't figured it out yet. The three of you will consider the strategy of the Western Expedition. At that time, I'll see who is better will go. Maybe... I'm going to recruit in person."

Cao Pi and others looked at each other and saw the enthusiasm in each other's eyes. Cao Qian said that it was just an excuse for him to recruit in person. He took this opportunity to test their level. Whoever had the ability to calm Xi Qiang down would be the general of Fuqiang, the next general, that is, the next king of Wei.

Cao Pi saw that Cao Zhang and Cao Zhi looked at each other and smiled with a clear smile. They couldn't help but sneer. They probably thought that Cao Zhang and Sun Shao's friendship would definitely win better conditions, but they forgot that Xia Hou Shang's daughter Xia Houhui is now Sun Shao's concubine. As long as he sent Xia Hou Shang, he completely We can strive for better conditions. It's really unknown who can laugh in the end.

"I'm going to Zhuya?" As soon as Xia Houshang heard this, he frowned: "Isn't this good?"

"What's wrong?" Cao Pi glanced at Xia Houshang and said, "Bo Ren, are you willing to stay at home? If Xi Qiang starts a war, half of the strength of our State of Wei will be transferred to Guanzhong. You should know that if these strengths fall into the hands of Ziwen or Zijian, we will never have a chance to turn over. And if it can fall into our hands, Bo Ren, except you and Zidan, who else can bear this heavy responsibility?

"I..." Xia Houshang hesitated for a moment and said nothing with a bitter face.

"Beren, I'm not talking about you, a man. Be careful in the world and fall in love with a woman all day long. Isn't it too heroic? Du Xi looks down on you. He really didn't wrong you.

Xia Houshang's black face suddenly turned red. He stared at Cao Pi unhappily and didn't say anything for a long time. He was an important minister in the State of Wei, not only because he was the nephew of Xia Houyuan and Cao Pi's cronies, but also because he was well-rounded in both literature and martial arts and meritorious deeds. Many people did not dare to despise him. Only Du Xi never pretend to him, and even said that he was small. Xia Houshang was very angry because of this, but Du Xi was also an important minister of the State of Wei and a famous scholar of Yingchuan, so although he was unhappy, he did not dare to do anything to Du Xi. Now Cao Pi mentioned this matter in person, which made him very unhappy.

"You and Zidan are my right-hand man. If you don't get in, who else can I rely on?" Cao Pi slowed down again and patiently persuaded, "Zi Jian recommended Yang Xiu to Zhu Ya. Obviously, he wanted to use Yang Xiu and Sun Shao's old friends to obtain preferential conditions, but no matter how good the relationship between Yang Xiu and Sun Shao is, can it be better than your relationship? Bo Ren, you have helped me so many times before, won't you help me again?

Xia Houshang looked at Cao Pi's pleading face and sighed helplessly: "Okay, I'll go to Zhu Ya, but I'm not sure whether it can be done in the end."

"Don't worry, as long as you go, you will definitely do it." Cao Pi breathed a sigh of relief and said with a proud smile, "Sun Shao, you can see that he has a lot of tricks, but he is affectionate and has such a foolishness that the world is his responsibility. As long as it is said to conquer the barbarians, he will definitely support it. What you have to do is to make him agree to support the expedition to Xiqiang, not the expedition to the north.

Xia Houshang nodded. If he was to conquer the north, it was likely that Cao Zhang would lead the army, which had nothing to do with Cao Pi. Only Cao Pi would have a chance to conquer the west.

"You bring more gold and silver. I heard that there are a lot of strange things in Zhuya. You can buy more when you go there, so as not to enter the treasure mountain and return empty." Cao Pi breathed a sigh of relief and patted his legs and said, "Sun Shao's vertical is really good. He actually robbed such a good place. I don't know how many strange things those Yi merchants brought him and made him rich."

Xiahou Shang glanced at Cao Pi, who was envious, and did not answer. Cao Pi felt Xia Houshang's unhappiness and smiled and said, "Okay, Bo Ren, don't be sad. Don't you like beauty? I can tell you that there are many Xiyi women in Zhu Ya, which have a different flavor compared with my Central Plains woman. When you arrive at Zhu Ya, how can you know that your son-in-law will not send you some singing tricks? He is so generous to Guan Yu, have you seen it? There are 2,000 war horses at a time. Oh, this boy is really a loser. How much does it cost to have two thousand war horses? Guan Yu got these horses. How comfortable he is in Shu? You are also my father-in-law. Why don't you know how close you are to him? He is the richest man in a big man nowadays. The more Cao Pi said, the more excited he became. He moved forward, half of his body lay on the case, and leaned in front of Xia Houshang and said, "Bo Ren, do you know, those barbarian girls..."

Xiahou Shang was stunned for a moment. Looking at Cao Pi, who looked greedy, he suddenly became energetic, and his originally dull eyebrows also became vivid. He and Cao Pi can talk about each other, largely because they have the same hobbies. They like rare things, beautiful women, and try all kinds of fresh and exciting and even perverted enjoyment. He has money, but in front of the endless new goods in Zhuya and the South China Sea, no one thinks that the wallet can't be empty, especially the Yi girl. Xiahou Shang has been moved for a long time, but the price of the Yi girl is too high. He hesitated for a long time and has not started, so he still doesn't know that these Yi girls are different in appearance. What are the differences? It is a kind of mysterious appearance when you hear your colleagues mention it, which has long made him greedy.

Cao Pi muttered in front of Xia Hou Shang for a while. Xia Hou Shang stared at Cao Pi in amazement. Cao Pi smiled very obscenely, and Xia Hou Shang immediately laughed very obscenely. Judging from the smiles on their faces, no one could believe that one of them was a literary and martial arts prince, and the other was A general who can fight well.

"I'll go!" Xia Houshang patted his thigh, then frowned and reminded, "Zihuan, I think the king is a little unpredictable. You recommend me to go, Zijian pushes Yang Xiu, which is clearly with his own thoughts. With the wisdom of the king, can't he see the problem here?"

Cao Pi lowered his face and sighed: "Bo Ren, to tell you the truth, I can't understand what he is thinking. Although he seems to be very energetic, I know that if it hadn't been for those fish oil, he would have been out of a long time. Sometimes, I really hate your son-in-law. If he hadn't offered such chasing wind powder and fish oil, how could things be so complicated?

This was rebellious, but Xia Houshang knew Cao Pi very well. There was no surprise when he heard this. He opened his mouth, but he didn't say anything, but Cao Pi saw it. He stared into Xia Houshang's eyes: "Bo Ren, what do you want to say?"

Xia Houshang hesitated for a moment and said slowly, "Who is in the hands of the fish oil that the king of Wei wears every day?"

Cao Pi turned his eyes, thought for a moment, shook his head and said, "No, no."

(to be continued)