In the ninth year of Jian'an, nine years have passed since the emperor moved east, but the world is still far away from realizing the meaning of the original establishment of the year name "Jian'an".

The Han Empire was still in a state of falling apart.

Fortunately, in this chaos of heroic separatism, the trend of unification of the northern country gradually became clear: Yan Xing, Guanxi, who defeated Yuan Shao and annexed half of Jizhou, jumped into the most powerful force in the north. Even if Yuan Tan, who survived the Northern War and Cao Pi, once again united, was no longer the enemy of Guanxi's troops. The balance between the three families also changed and it had become the situation where Guanxi's dominance.

Cao Pi in the Central Plains, Yuan Tan in Qingzhou, and various forces that separatist Youzhou were doing their best to accumulate grain to train troops, prepare for war, and were highly vigilant about the Guanxi troops that invaded Shandong, for fear of becoming the next target for forced annexation by General Yan Xing of the Cavalry.

However, to everyone's surprise, the Kansai soldiers who were sharpening their knives and rushing toward the pigs and sheep suddenly stopped all military operations this year.

The troops in Guanxi, occupying half of Jizhou, strictly guarded the counties and counties, and stopped fighting. They didn't care about the Cao army that was deployed along the river, and ignored the Yuan Tan army beside them. Even the weak and easiest sectarian forces in Youzhou who were accused of the most easily annexed, and stayed in the cities they had previously occupied.

It was as if a giant beast could not wake up in front of many prey.

But all the civil and military officials of the Ba Mansion who are familiar with the inside know that the general of the cavalry to wipe out all the heroes and unify the north never stopped for a moment.

Although the military affairs stopped, the "civilized governance" of the general's shogunate was in full swing on the land of Hebei.

Last winter, the people were soothed, relief to the victims, preventing and controlling plagues, and repairing the camps involved most of the energy of the shogunate, so that General Yan Xing, the Cavalry, also spent the whole winter in Ye. After the beginning of spring, the daily military and political affairs of Hebei increased instead of reducing the rent of military land and pardons, and opening a large number of Hebei scholars, the rapidly operating generals started to recruit farmers to plant, resume production, verify and record the population land, repair and rebuild the post office pavilion, resettlement of the Black Mountain Army and other affairs.

The General of the Cavalry, Yan Xing, was tedious and met with the Heishan Qu generals led by Zhang Yan for more than twenty times. In order to solve the problem of Heishan bandits that had plagued Hebei for many years without any blood, while using both soft and hard work, and to resettle the hundreds of thousands of people in Heishan through household registration and landing, incorporation and rectification.

Zhang Yan, the "big thief" who had been in Hebei for many years, also saw the situation clearly: the Heishan troops who had been surrounded by Yuan Shao for many years and had tasted enough hard days took advantage of this northern battle to escape from the mountains and forests and follow the Xiliang army to conquer the cities and territory. The commanders of the various canals seemed to have made a lot of money, but in fact they were also disintegrated from the inside by the Xiliang army using official titles, gold, silk, women and other things. In addition, the "school affairs" that penetrated into the Heishan Mountains, it was difficult for him to bring the Heishan army whose hearts had scattered back to the mountains and forests to gather together.

Therefore, he not only was grateful to Yan Xing's high-ranking official and generous salary, but also obediently handed over the troops under his command to the general's military officials, and became his rich man in peace and complacently.

The shogunate naturally accepted the old soldiers in the Montenegro Army with the old soldiers. After the sandstorm, they would be mixed with the surrendered Hebei county soldiers, or trained them into new corpses, or supplemented them with many troops from Kansai and Sanhe.

These affairs were even more arduous than before the war, which made the shogunate civil and military officials who followed General Cavalry to enter Yecheng secretly complain. However, Yan Xing, who had always acted vigorously, resolutely issued a military order to reorganize and resettle the Heishan Army, and the surrendered soldiers from Hebei and a number of Hebei military and political affairs must be completed by the end of the year. Officials at all levels of the shogunate and counties, those who have slack and delayed will be treated as military law.

The war has never stopped in fact.

···

Yanzhou, Juancheng.

Juancheng, as an important city near the south bank of the Great River in Yanzhou, has a long history. The Battle of Chengpu in Jin and Chu in the pre-Qin period took place in Juancheng, and Chengyang to the south has Yao Tomb, Lingtai, and Lei Ze, which is said to have fought fishing in Shun. This is the name of Yao and Shun's hometown.

But none of these are enough to make Juancheng the new capital of the Han Empire. It is more than enough as a military city, but the capital of the Han emperor who acted as the common ruler of the world was too cold.

The disadvantages of pattern restrictions will gradually emerge in the future.

When the capital was moved, many court officials raised objections, but in order to reach a new "Yuan-Cao Alliance" with Yuan Shang, Cao Cao opposed the opposition and insisted on moving the court here.

As a result, the Yuan brothers collapsed too quickly in the face of the powerful offensive of the Western Liang army. In a blink of an eye, the land of Hebei changed hands. As a new capital, Juancheng, which connects the Yuan-Cao alliance, almost faces the military front of the Western Liang army. If there weren't a few cities on the north bank controlled by the Cao army, I was afraid that the courts who had traveled to many places would choose another capital.

Although there was no threat from military forces in a short period of time, the entire new building was still in a state of anxiety.

The reason is the series of crises brought about by Cao Cao's assassination.

Although the main force of the Cao army safely withdrew from Yuan Tan's territory, and Cao Pi inherited his official position and title according to Cao Cao's order, and was assisted by Xiahou Dun, Cao Hong and other relatives, Xun Yu, Guo Jia and other advisers, he also took advantage of the chaos to control several important military cities on the north bank of the river and temporarily built a river defense line against the Xiliang army, but the doubts inside the court never stopped.

Kong Rong and some court officials smelled a rare opportunity and had frequent secrets with the palace, hoping to take advantage of Cao Cao's death to reverse the past situation of the weak and strong rulers in the court.

They began to openly question the young Cao Pi in the temple how he could inherit Cao Cao's official position, assist the emperor, support the Han Dynasty, and restore the Han family and the country in this turbulent and chaotic world. They attempted to force Cao Pi to resign from his official position through the pressure of public opinion in the court and the Sikong Mansion to return the power that originally belonged to the Han emperor.

And all these efforts have certainly achieved little success.

After Cao Pi took over his father's business, many changes occurred in the court and Sikong Mansion: Xiahou Dun was promoted to former general, Cao Hong was promoted to later general, Cheng Yu was promoted to Weiwei, one of the nine ministers, Zhong Yao and Hua Xin served as the Minister of Shangshu Pushe, and entered the Shangshutai to be the deputy of Xun Yu...

The only thing that was not available was the news that Cao Pi resigned from his official position and returned to power by the emperor.

This made some well-informed and thoughtful people start to secretly speculate whether there would be another bloody power struggle in the court.

···

"The court will never be in chaos!"

Cheng Yu'an, who is over 60 years old, is sitting on the table, looking at his eldest son Cheng Wu, and speaking these resounding words.

"How can Kong Rong, a corrupt scholar, betrayal of the lip and tongue, shake the foundation of the court?"

"What the lord said is very much."

Cheng Wu, who had already become a family, respectfully in front of his old father, just as he looked as if he was a child when he was a child.

He also agreed with his father Cheng Yu's view. Although today, when Zi really wanted to regain power from Cao Pi, who was younger than him, Yang Biao, Zhao Wen and other veterans of the Han Dynasty who retired, were dismissed from office and dismissed from office. Zhao Yan, Feng Shuo and others who were cultivated in the past were removed from office one by one by the old Sikong. Even the foreign relative Dong Cheng died under the sword of Cao's army. Relying solely on Kong Rong, the powerless court officials who claimed to be a clear stream, would not cause much trouble in the court where the Cao family members were all involved inside and outside.

"Just let Kong Rong and others continue to clamor like this, it is not a solution."

Cheng Wu thought about it and raised his own concerns.

Cheng Yu pursed his lips and said nothing, and no light was seen from his turbid eyes, as if he had seen through Cheng Wu's thoughts, and then he slowly closed his eyes.

Although Cheng Yu has inevitably entered the ranks of aging as he grows older, and in recent years, he has grown much older because of Cao Cao's assassination, his mind is still clear, and he can see it for a long time and thoroughly than his son Cheng Wu.

Don’t bully the young Cao family in Sikong’s mansion. His methods are very clever.

When Cheng Wu was still at a loss for his situation of "the young master's country" and his family's way out, Cao Pi, who lived in Sikong's mansion, had already broken the situation.

On the one hand, he promoted his uncles such as Xiahou Dun, Cao Hong and Cheng Yu, and his old ministers in Yanzhou to consolidate their status and win over the hearts of the people. On the other hand, he began to cultivate his confidants and direct descendants...

After careful consideration, even the resourceful Cheng Yu was shocked and sweated coldly.

This young Cao Sikong arranged the personnel transfers in recent years in a very detailed manner. He not only generously delegated power, but also dispersed the autocracy that his father had decided to be the old ministers of his father, and promoted the titles of Xiahou Dun, Cao Hong, Cheng Yu, and others in order to use this group of Yanzhou civil and military officials who had been following Cao Cao for a long time and held real power to consolidate their status. He also wanted to divide the power of the old ministers of civil and military officials by mixing sand, so as not to be undermined by the ministers who were undermining the emperor.

He was highly used for the military power, Man Chong, and won over Zang Ba and Sun Guan, so that Yu Jin could lead the troops to fight against Chang Xi, who rebelled again, so that in terms of military power, foreign generals could slightly restrain the military commanders of Xiahou Dun, Cao Hong and other uncles, and used Man Chong to divide his power, use Zhong Yao and Hua Xin to divide Xun Yu's power, recall Dong Zhao from Xuzhou, and use him and Liu Ye to check and balance Guo Jia who was in charge of the secret.

At the same time, he vigorously promoted Cao Zhen, Cao Xiu, Xiahou Shang, Xiahou Ba, Chen Qun, Wu Zhi, Zhu Shuo and other young children of the Cao family and rookie officials, so that these people could surround him, in order to cultivate a loyal confidant and direct descendant from it, so that they could gradually replace their father's old ministers, so that they could be re-concentrated power in his hands step by step.

After a lot of battles, this young Cao Sikong, who chose and used people in secret, revealed the wisdom of Gu Sikong. If he had not been familiar with the methods, he would not have been able to see the young man so clearly with Cheng Yu's wisdom.

Just imagine how could this person with such a mind and means unable to deal with a corrupt scholar like Kong Rong who is ignorant of the times?

Thinking of this, Cheng Yu was also moved. All the sons of Cao Gong were outstanding. I heard that Cao Chong, the youngest son in the mansion, was even more extraordinary. Chong was young and had his talents above adulthood. If Cao Gong was still there...

Just as Cheng Yu was feeling in his heart, another son Cheng Yan, who had not yet become an official, hurried into the inner hall. He was somewhat excited to pay homage to his father and brother, and then knelt beside Cheng Yu, with his expression unstoppable excitement.
Chapter completed!