Chapter 48: Jia Yu Makes His Move (Part 2)

  Cai Yan seemed to have forgotten the humiliation she had just suffered at Qin Xu's hands, her expression calm and peaceful, as if chatting with him on an ordinary day. She recounted the events of their first meeting in detail, but what was hidden beneath the surface left Qin Xu stunned, almost completely overturning his understanding of the records in the historical books of the Three Kingdoms.

  It was from Cai Yan that I learned Dong Zhuo, this villain nailed to the pillar of historical shame, was actually the guardian minister entrusted by Emperor Ling before his death? No wonder, although Emperor Shao was young and foolish, it was easier for a powerful minister with ambitions for the throne to control him. If Dong Zhuo had been willing at the time, he wouldn't have needed to replace Emperor Xian, who was then considered wise by all the courtiers, and would not have earned himself a bad reputation, nor would he have created a strong enemy for his own future.

  Because Emperor Ling of Han thought that Liu Bian, the son of Empress He, was frivolous and lacking in dignity, Empress Dowager Dong repeatedly advised him to establish Liu Xie as his successor. However, at that time, the power of the He family had grown beyond the control of the ailing emperor. Fearing that after Emperor Ling's death, Liu Bian would be made emperor by He Jin, leading to another instance of an imperial consort clan dominating the government, repeating the mistakes of Empress Lü Zhi during the early Han dynasty, Empress Dowager Dong persuaded the emperor to secretly leave behind a large number of loyalists among the officials. The leaders were Shizong in the inner court and Dong Zhuo outside. A list of contacts was also left behind, divided into two parts, each held by one person.

  After Emperor Ling's death, He Jin indeed forged an imperial edict to install Liu Bian as emperor. Empress Dowager He took control of the government and He Jin, along with the eunuchs led by Zhang Rang, assisted her in governing. Their power and influence were unmatched at the time. However, a plot was formed by Emperor Ling's trusted eunuch, Jian Shuo, to kill He Jin, but it was leaked by another eunuch named Guo Sheng, who had He Jin execute Jian Shuo instead.

  Yuan Shao, then serving as Colonel of the Central Army, suggested killing all the eunuchs to prevent them from abusing their power. However, he did not realize that He Miao, He Jin's brother, was also on the list. After Jian Shuo's death, the list fell into He Miao's hands. He Miao then deceived He Jin by telling him that the eunuchs were planning a coup and convinced him to invite Dong Zhuo into the capital to eliminate the eunuchs.

  However, He Jin had bad luck and was also cowardly. The eunuchs forged an imperial edict in Empress Dowager He's name, summoning He Jin alone to the palace. He Jin entered the palace and was killed at the Jiade Hall.

  He Miao's luck was also not good, being sensitive to identity and having an extremely secret mission, he was suspected by the court officials, and even people on the list were suspicious of him. In the end, he died under Wu Kuang and Dong Zhuo's brother Dong Min's sword. The list he held had been passed around several times, and it eventually ended up in Cai Yong's hands.

  After Dong Zhuo took control of Luoyang, he not only deposed the young Emperor Shao and enthroned Liu Xie as Emperor according to the will of Emperor Ling, but also followed Emperor Ling's will to grant a general amnesty and reappoint those who were wrongly accused in the Party Purge. At first, he really wanted to be a virtuous minister like Huo Guang and Yi Yin, serving the Son of Heaven with loyalty!

  To avenge the death of Empress Dong, Dong Zhuo used the same method to kill Empress He, and in order to ensure that the young Emperor Liu Xie's throne was not threatened, he even killed the young Emperor Liu Bian. The officials were intimidated by Dong Zhuo's power, and not one person dared to oppose him.

  The emperor's gratitude and the ministers' fear, once again controlled all the power in the court, gradually making Dong Zhuo's ambition bigger and bigger, his actions more and more unscrupulous, not only starting to bully and tyrannize, but even putting his eyes on some people who had helped him stabilize his current status, but were dissatisfied with Dong Zhuo's behavior, a large number of bloody purges, a large number of massacres.

  Dong Zhuo knew that he only had half of the list in his hands, while the other half was nowhere to be found. He then established a special organization called "Dark Shadow" which was controlled by his trusted subordinates.

  The members of the Dark Shadow are scattered all over the world, responsible for investigating half of the list while also planting informants everywhere. After several months, they finally found out that the other half was in Cai Yong's hands.

  Cai Yong was a renowned scholar in the world and a great Confucian within the seas. If he had used his power, with Cai Yong's temperament, Dong Zhuo might never have known who the other half of the person was, and could only promote Cai Yong in every way, even promoting him to Shangshu Ling, Yushi Daifu, and Zhaoye Pushe within three days, enjoying unlimited honor and prestige for a time.

  After Dong Zhuo was killed by Lü Bu, the list disappeared without a trace. Wang Yun put Cai Yong in prison, one of the purposes being to obtain the list from Cai Yong's hands.

  "Is the list in Wei Xun's hands?" After listening to Cai Yan's words, which seemed as ordinary as a family conversation, Qin Xu felt as if he was listening to a heavenly book. The few lines of ink on historical records couldn't compare to the accounts of those who had experienced it personally. When Cai Yan spoke up to this point, Qin Xu asked.

  "Dong Zhuo was killed by General Lü, and it was Wei Xu who took Dong Zhuo's body, so it must be in his hands! Wang Yun, the old thief, couldn't get the list from my father's hands, so he put my father in prison. I wanted to use the list in Wei Xu's hands as a bargaining chip to make Wang Yun release him!" Cai Yan's eyes flashed with a hint of coldness, and she said in a low voice: "But Wei Xu is indeed cunning, although I don't know what the purpose of the list is, he used it to blackmail me. I wanted to get the list and then kill him, but I didn't expect you lazy guy to mess things up."

  "That list doesn't seem to be in your hands yet?" Qin Xu couldn't figure out what Cai Yan was talking about and how it related to Ou Ji, but he still patiently asked on.

  "Wei Xun was lucky to be alive that day, I didn't kill him because of the list, but I also found out that he didn't have it on him." Cai Yan's mouth curled up into a smile as she said, "Thanks to you for rescuing my father from the imperial prison, I got a more useful piece of information from him and finally found out where the list was! And we even caught someone!"

  "Arrest someone? You? Who is it?" Qin Xu looked at Cai Yan with a face full of suspicion, causing Cai Yan's face to suddenly flush red.

  With a glance of anger and shame at Qin Xu, Cai Yan said: "Don't ask me how I caught him, but this person is someone you highly admire! It was also this person who saw through Feng Ji's scheme. Originally, I wanted to give you a surprise, now it seems... Hmph!"

  "Who do I admire?" Qin Xu was taken aback by the words, having not spent many days with Cai Yan. Out of fear of being considered crazy, he had never made any comments about Three Kingdoms characters before. Now, Cai Yan's sudden words left Qin Xu stunned, but soon a name appeared in his mind, making him ecstatic!

  Jia Xu! During the time in Chang'an, in order to make Lü Bu attach importance to the remnants of the Western Liang outside the city, Qin Xu exaggerated Jia Xu's abilities, but Cai Yan was indeed present.

  But how is this possible? To capture someone from Chang'an City, which is guarded by 100,000 Western Liang soldiers like an iron barrel, how can it be done?

  "Yan sister, good sister, stop joking and tell me who it is?" Qin Xu looked at Cai Yan uncertainly, with a flattering expression. If it was really that big brother, then the problem of Lü Bu's army having no strategist, which had been troubling Qin Xu, would be solved instantly. Since this person could inform Qin Xu of Feng Ji's conspiracy through Cai Yan, he must have good feelings towards Lü Bu's army and at least did not want to see them being strangled by a trap. It was very likely that he could become the strategist for Lü Bu's army. Poisonous scholar, ranked at least top three among all strategists in the world, if it was really possible to have him serve Lü Bu's army...

  "Come with me!" Cai Yan said with a smile, covering her mouth.

  In a corner of the house, in a room of only over ten square meters, under the faint light of a lamp, a middle-aged scholar dressed in casual clothes was holding a bamboo scroll, reading it with great interest. It seemed as if the few hundred words written on the bamboo scroll were all pearls of wisdom. The scholar read for almost half an hour, still looking like he was savoring every word.

  "Mr. Wen, Zhaoji has come to see you, is the accommodation here satisfactory?" Cai Yan led Qin Xu to look outside the door for a long time, but didn't see Mr. Wen move at all, he was indeed very patient. Cai Yan had no choice but to push open the door and enter, speaking with a smile.

  "Jia Yu can be considered a prisoner of the lower classes, how dare he claim to be on par with Miss Cai?" The middle-aged scholar stood up and said. His slender figure, clear and gaunt face, were quite ordinary in appearance, but his deep eyes showed the demeanor of an extraordinary wise man.

  "Is Mr. Wen still blaming Zhao Ji for being rude?" Cai Yan's face turned very wronged, and the speed of the change made Qin Xu stunned, it was indeed that the more beautiful a woman is, the more difficult she is to deal with, even Jia Xun, an old fox, could grasp such a woman, but just now she was treated lightly by Qin Xu, and also agreed to let her handle it? Thinking of this, Qin Xu suddenly felt a chill on his back.

  "Hah, I don't dare to take the blame, but Lü Bu is indeed very lucky. He already has Diao Chan, and now he also has Miss Cai, such a remarkable woman, running around for him. He's truly a hero! " Jia Xu said in a very calm tone, "Unfortunately, Lü Bu is too arrogant, I'm afraid he won't listen to Miss Cai's good advice. This time, attacking the Black Mountain, I fear we will suffer defeat!"

  "Mr. Wen, don't tease Zhaoji! Sir, you're in control of the shadows, if you really want to leave, how can Zhaoji stop you?" Cai Yan said with her mouth, but her eyes were fixed on Qin Xu's reaction after hearing this, seeing Qin Xu's completely unaffected expression, a hint of disappointment flashed across her pretty face.

  Cai Yan was probably disappointed, but Qin Xu was not indifferent. After the middle-aged scholar acknowledged that he was Jia Yu, the famous poisoner, a huge wave surged in Qin Xu's heart. It wasn't just because he saw these three famous people, but also because of Jia Yu's other identity.

  When Cai Yan mentioned that secret to Qin Xu earlier, she had brought up an organization under Dong Zhuo's command used to assassinate people on the wanted list and plant spies in various places, called Dark Shadow. She didn't expect the leader to be Jia Xuan. Moreover, from what Cai Yan said, it seemed that Jia Xuan knew about the matter of Ou Ji even when he was "imprisoned" by Cai Yan. If not for his foresight, perhaps it was true as Cai Yan said, if Jia Xuan really wanted to leave, this small room without even a lock wouldn't be able to hold him back.

  Was Jia Xu really as fond of Lü Bu as he had hoped? Qin Xu found it hard to believe.

  "Is this Qin Xu, the chief clerk of Qin?" Jia Yu's gaze shifted to Qin Xu beside Cai Yan, a hint of a smile in his eyes.

  "It's Qin Xu, I've met Mr. Wenhe before." Knowing that Jia Yu didn't go out, he already knew about the previous encounter with Qiji, and Qin Xu wasn't surprised at all, and greeted Jia Yu politely.

  "It seems that I'm really old, Miss Cai's eyesight is not bad at all!" Jia Yu teased, glancing at Cai Yan who was staring tensely at Qin Xu.

  "Cough, cough!" Qin Xu had only been shocked by Jia Yu's identity and hadn't really heard Jia Yu's teasing words to Cai Yan. He didn't quite understand what Jia Yu meant, so he just cleared his throat twice and said: "Mr. Wenhe is a learned scholar with wisdom like the ocean, I wonder how he views our lord Lü Bu?"

  "Haha!" Jia Xu suddenly burst out laughing: "As for Lü Bu, I know him well. Is Secretary Qin trying to persuade me to serve that fellow?"

  Is this guy poisonous or what? This is simply venomous! Are you trying to say I'm an idiot in a roundabout way? Qin Xue had already become immune to the discrepancies between the historical records of the Three Kingdoms' characters and reality after coming to this era, but when he heard the old fox Jia Xu suddenly say these words, Qin Xue still felt somewhat unaccustomed.

  "Mr. Wen is really... truly... a joke!" Fortunately, Qin Xu had honed his temperament through business negotiations in his past life and bit back the urge to punch Jia Xiang twice to vent his frustration, forcing a smile instead.

  "Master Qin, don't be annoyed!" Jia Yu seemed to ignore Qin Xu's thoughts and looked at Cai Yan standing beside him. He suddenly said with a mysterious tone: "I wonder if Master Qin is interested in making a deal with me?"

  “……”

  Decades later, the conversation that would be called the strategy of the rise of the empire by later historians and an unsolvable mystery by others, took place under Cai Yan's witness. 15-year-old Qin Xu miraculously pulled Jia Xu onto the war chariot. No one knew what kind of promise Qin Xu had made to make this extraordinary wise man, who was known for his self-reliance, choose to join at a time when Lü Bu's army was in dire straits.

  It wasn't until many years later that Jia Yu, who had become a high-ranking official, passed away. The whole country mourned his death, but Qin Xu laughed three times in front of Jia Yu's grave and scolded him as an old fox three times.

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