Chapter Thirteen: Infighting Within the Clan

  The fragmented and scattered historical records, hidden behind the concise texts and multiple accounts, have finally been pieced together. It turns out that Tao Qian had indeed sent troops to escort Cao Song, but Cao Song's eventual murder was not Tao Qian's intention, nor was it an accident. Instead, it was Zhang Kan or some other military officer who coveted Cao Song's wealth and harbored malicious intentions at the time. Behind this incident, there was a hidden black hand - none other than Cao Hong, who is evaluated by history as a "treacherous and cunning little man".

  But why did Cao Hong want to kill Cao Xun? Was it to prevent the alliance between Xu State and Yan State? If so, why didn't Chen Deng mention that Cao Hong opposed his plan? It seems that Cao Hong was still a supporter of Cao Cao's harmonious relationship. What kind of evil was hidden in his "heart"?!

  Xuanyi was shocked and stunned, unable to speak for a long time. Cao Hong's astonishing words had just left his mouth, but his expression suddenly became calm, he picked up the cup and took a light sip of water, quietly waiting for his future nephew-in-law's next reaction.

  Xī Zhēn was stunned for a long time, his mind racing with countless thoughts. Finally, he regained his composure and asked: "Honorable ancestor, I don't know which county in Pei State you reside in?" Cao Hong replied: "Qiao County." Xī Zhēn asked again: "Could it be that... could it be that you and Cao of Yan Province are of the same clan..."

  "Hahaha," Cao Hong burst out laughing, "Indeed a clever child, Uncle Yuan has found an excellent son-in-law, which is also comforting." Putting down his cup of water, he said in a deep voice: "That's right, we are all descendants of General Cao, so Taifu Cao Shuang, in terms of age, is my elder brother..."

  The so-called "Cao Xiangguo" refers to Cao Shen, the second prime minister of the Western Han Dynasty, who was enfeoffed as Marquis Pingyang. According to Cao Hong, he had also undergone some brain supplementation and had a large family with many branches, among which the branch of Cao Hong and Cao Jiao was the main one, while Cao Shuang belonged to a smaller branch. Let's not mention Cao Shuang for now, but talk about his adoptive grandfather Cao Jie. Although the main branch of the Cao family was wealthy and had a lot of land, they were just a local notable family in Qiao County, but when it came to the smaller branch of Cao Jie, they only had enough food and clothing.

  What's even more tragic is that during the great plague in the Guandong region, Cao Jie and his first three sons all died of illness, leaving behind only two young sons, Cao Teng and Cao Ding. Cao Teng was only seven years old at the time. The clan was unable to provide for them, so they had no choice but to follow their uncle to Luoyang to seek refuge. Immediately after that, his uncle had him castrated and sent into the palace as a eunuch - it's really unthinkable, if he were truly the eldest son of a prominent family, how could he be forced to become a eunuch?

  As a result, Cao Teng was reused by Emperor Shun of Han because he had served the crown prince since childhood. He was eventually appointed as the Grand Commandant and enfeoffed as the Marquis of Feiting. After Cao Teng rose to prominence, he bore a grudge against his clan for not taking care of him when he was young. Therefore, he chose an adopted son from outside his clan (his own brother Cao Ding had no children). He picked one from the Xiahou family, which had intermarried with the Cao family for generations and had also helped him in the past. The child's name was changed to Cao Song - who would become the father of Cao Cao.

  Cao Song relied on his foster father's power to enter officialdom, and smoothly climbed the ranks all the way to becoming the Commandant of the Capital Province, the Minister of Agriculture, and the Grand Herald. He even spent a huge sum of money to buy the position of Grand Marshal, wielding great power and possessing enormous wealth. However, despite bearing the "Cao" surname, due to the resentment passed down from Cao Teng, he never cared about his own clan or relatives, and refused to take care of them. This led to an unresolvable feud between Cao Hong's branch of the family and Cao Song's branch.

  In the sixth year of Zhongping, Dong Zhuo entered the capital and Cao Cao fled. He was wanted by the court controlled by Dong Zhuo and his portrait was posted everywhere. When the news reached Pei State's Qiao County, the Cao family immediately scattered and fled with their belongings - because of previous conflicts, Cao Hong and Cao Song did not take the same route. Cao Hong and his brothers fled to Donghai and took refuge under the governor, Bao Xin. Later, they gradually established themselves in Xuzhou; Cao Song, on the other hand, fled to Langya and found a quiet place to live in seclusion by the sea. Although they had taken different routes, through common relatives and friends, they occasionally still communicated with each other. Especially when Tao Qian planned to make peace with Cao Cao, Cao Hong secretly wrote to him to gauge his intentions, but Cao Cao ignored him. He then tried to get close to Cao Song, who said, "We are all family, what great grudge can we have? Let bygones be bygones." However, there was one thing - I cannot control my unfilial son, you want to make peace with him, go talk to him yourself.

  After finishing the family tree, Cao Hong said: "If we just make peace with Meng De, there's no harm in that. However, upon closer inspection of Chen Yuanlong and your intentions, neither of Tao Miejun's two sons is worthy of assistance. In the future, won't we have to hand over Xuzhou to Meng De? Everyone else can rely on Meng De, but why can't my brother and I?"

  He is indeed a despicable person, not easily made. Without some political wisdom, he can only be a clown, not a villain. Look at this guy thinking so far ahead and grasping the small thoughts of Chen Deng. He immediately asked: "Is it because Cao Pi, the governor of Yan Province, was unwilling to treat his brothers with kindness due to past grievances, so he wanted to kill the former Taoyu Cao Gong and cut off the alliance between Xu and Yan? However, if this is the case, the two provinces will have a deep feud. What if the army of Yan Province comes to attack?"

  Cao Hong smiled and said: "If Hong Fu were not the son-in-law of my Cao family, I would have sent someone to kill Cao Song. But now that the four families of Cao, Chen, Mi, and Cao are related by marriage, one loss will affect all. Even if Cao Cao enters Xuzhou, I reckon he wouldn't dare treat me and my brothers poorly. This time Hong Fu is on a mission, go take a good look at Cao Cao, see if he has any intention of changing his mind, or whether Yongzhou's military is strong enough - if Cao Cao remains stubborn, or if Yongzhou's army can't withstand a battle, then we can kill Cao Song and put an end to the alliance!"

  I understand, everything is clear. It's precisely because of the grudge between these two Cao families that Cao Hong feared Cao Cao would intervene in Xuzhou affairs to his disadvantage, so he plotted to murder Cao Shuang and dash Tao Qian's hopes. Perhaps in real history there was no such alliance as Chen, Mi, Cao and others, plus the envoy sent by Tao Qian returned without saying anything good about the Yanzhou army - it's said that he saw the newly recruited Qingzhou Yellow Turbans? Those refugees didn't look like they could fight very well... so Cao Hong's plot was able to be carried out.

  Wow, Chen Yulung is really a god! If he hadn't agreed to the marriage with the Cao family first, history would have taken a different turn. Can't the troops of Yan State fight? Don't be ridiculous! Cao Cao's two expeditions to Xuzhou, killing Tao Qian and forcing him to hide in the city of Tancheng without daring to come out, even if Liu Bei arrived with reinforcements, it wouldn't have made much difference, if not for Lü Bu's surprise attack on Yan State, Cao Cao wouldn't have retreated, he would have taken Xuzhou!

  No, I must make peace between the two states myself — it was then that Xun realized this. As for what happens later, we'll talk about it later. For now, I have to rely on Cao Cao and can't put my hopes on Liu Bei. Liu Bei getting Xu Zhou was after Cao Cao killed him in Xu Zhou, with blood flowing like rivers. The war is perilous, if I'm not careful and die in one of those battles, what's the point of talking about whether it's Cao or Liu in the future?

  So he said to Cao Hong: "The four families join forces to protect Xuzhou, this is the best strategy; making enemies with Cao Yunzhou is the worst of the worst strategies. I will definitely reconcile your differences with Cao Yunzhou and not let him have any intention of harming you."

  Cao Hong nodded: "That's best. I trust you, since Chen Yulung mentioned the matter of Douchang City last time, I specifically went to inquire about it. Even such ignorant bandits can be persuaded, and with your eloquence, Cao Cao must have been convinced too. Alright, I'll tell you where Cao Song is. You go see him first, then find Cao Cao."

  The two of them talked until very late, and in the end, Xun had no choice but to temporarily stay at the Cao residence. After lying down that night, he couldn't help but think of Miss Cao's delicate face... Unfortunately, after the betrothal ceremony, Miss Cao returned to a separate mansion near her uncle's house (which was where Kuang initially arranged for his brothers to live). It seemed that if Xun really did marry Miss Cao, it would suddenly elevate him by several ranks!

  He suddenly thought, Cao Hong called Cao Shuang as brother, then it means that Cao Hong and Cao Jiao are one generation older than Cao Cao. So being the son-in-law of Cao Jiao is just like being in the same generation as Cao Cao, Cao Cao should call himself younger brother-in-law. Ah, suddenly feeling much more majestic...

  The next morning, Xun told Chen Deng that he had already found out Cao Song's whereabouts. However, he still hadn't made up his mind whether to really take Cao Song as a hostage or escort the old man back to Cao Cao's side. He was clearer than anyone else in this world that Cao Song staying in Xuzhou was like a huge barrel of gunpowder, which could explode at any time - who knew if Cao Hong would suddenly change his mind? Or what if something unexpected happened and the old man was killed by some mountain bandits or rogue soldiers? But sending Cao Song away was also not a good idea. What if history really had some kind of inertia (many science fiction stories were written like this), and it was impossible to change the overall direction, so the old man might still be in danger on the road - he wouldn't feel at ease unless he followed him personally, but if he participated in the escort himself, he couldn't guarantee that he wouldn't get implicated and have to die with Cao Song.

  Forget it, let's go see that old guy first and then think about what to do next.

  So he also told Chen Deng to speak eloquently, saying that they would act according to the situation, and only asked Chen Deng to obtain a secret order from Tao Qian, asking Zang Ba to allocate a team of soldiers and horses to listen to his command.

  Yes, since he had to go see Cao Song first, and Cao Song was in hiding on the coast of Langya Commandery, then he couldn't follow the original plan to take the southern route through his future father-in-law Cao Bao's territory. Instead, he would have to head north to Langya first, then proceed to Mount Tai, passing through Zang Ba's territory to reach Yanzhou - however, in order to protect Cao Song as well as escort him, he had to go see Zang Ba to borrow troops.

  It's okay, it's okay. Actually, I was admiring the historical figures and wanted to see that Cao Zhi and Cao Pi, as for Cao Song, seeing him is purely out of self-interest. Cao Cao can be said to be the number one person of this era, but his father Cao Song is just an incompetent bureaucrat. They say "a tiger father has no dog son", but I don't know why a useless old dog like him could give birth to a tiger cub...

  On that day at noon, Xun left the north gate of Tan City. Chen Deng, Zang Xuan and Cao Hong all came to see him off. Tao Qian also sent a horse-drawn carriage and two soldiers to escort him, making a big show of it. Xun was not used to riding in a carriage, but this time he was on an official mission, so not taking the carriage would have been inappropriate. However, after paying respects to his ancestors (the road gods) and drinking the farewell wine, he still refused to ride in the carriage, instead mounting his own horse with stirrups and setting off.

  Going north, not stopping for a day, first arrived at Kaiyang, then turned west from there and entered the state of Taishan. At the border of Taishan and Langya counties, there is a temple where soldiers and horses from Xuzhou are stationed. The guarding soldiers went ahead to show their passes and Tao Qian's documents, and immediately a small military officer led more than ten soldiers to pay their respects.

  Xun asked casually, "How should I address you?" The young officer replied with great respect, "I don't dare to be addressed as 'Your Excellency'. My humble name is Zhang Ke, sir. You can just call me by my name."

  He was so startled that he almost fell off his horse - it turned out you were Zhang Ke!