Volume 1 Jiangdong Fengyun Chapter 22 Yangzhou Mu
The straight-line distance from Xudu to Xiaopei is only three hundred miles.
So Bai Tu just showed off his achievements yesterday, and the angel has already arrived today!
At the grand court meeting, Liu Xie asked Cao Cao for his opinion. Cao Cao thought hard and finally recommended Yangzhou...
Firstly, Yuan Shu had been too active recently, and Cao Cao would feel itchy if he didn't step on him a few times. Moreover, even Liu Xie had reached the end of his patience with Yuan Shu - his uncle Yuan Wei died because of his rebellion against Dong Zhuo, and this incident had completely destroyed the good impression Liu Xie had of the Yuan !
Secondly...Cao Cao also wanted to divide the relationship between this unknown "Bai Tu" and his rival Lu Bu.
Although it is still unknown what the relationship between the two is, it does not prevent Cao Cao from tricking them.
Normally, it would be unrighteous to alienate other princes in this way, but Cao Cao had sufficient reasons for Bai Tu - with Bai Tu's achievements and fame, it was normal to make him a governor.
Moreover, Cao Cao was very vicious and later let the "General Fenwu" Lu Bu take the position of "General Pingyue".
This is reasonable. It is true that the Shanyue in Jiangdong have not been very honest recently. What's wrong with asking Lord Wenhou to go there?
But if you combine the two, this is quite vicious - the General of Pingyue was posted in Yangzhou, and the Mu of Yangzhou could theoretically control the military and political affairs of a state!
In other words... according to the court's appointment, Bai Tu is Lu Bu's superior.
Regardless of their previous relationship, Cao Cao felt that once this appointment was made, Lu Bu would definitely be furious...
How could Lu Bu, who had killed two of his adoptive fathers, be willing to be under the command of a great scholar?
If they really dared to take office, this pair of governors and generals would definitely fight more fiercely than Liu Yu and Gongsun Zan!
Of course, Cao Cao also understood that the most likely scenario was that Lu Bu would simply ignore him and only Bai Tu would take office.
But even so, at least the unpredictable combination of Bai Tu and Lu Bu was broken up, and what could a mere scholar with only fame and knowledge accomplish?
Kong Rong was also a great scholar of the time, but what happened? He still lost the Beihai, fled back to his hometown in disgrace, and was recruited by himself as a mascot...
When Liu Xie heard what Cao Cao said about "Yangzhou", he was stunned for a moment, and then he strongly agreed - obviously he still remembered Yuan Shu's arrogance!
Moreover, during the grand court meeting, all the ministers, including Liu Xie, thought that Bai Tu was the prefect of Pei County appointed by Cao Cao, so they naturally thought that this was a signal that Cao Cao wanted to go to war with Yuan Shu.
After the grand court meeting, the ministers including Kong Rong gradually understood from all aspects - it turned out that Bai Tu was not Cao Cao's man at all!
But now that we are all in Xudu, it is not a good idea to blame Cao Cao for this matter.
After all, in name, no matter who appointed Bai Tu, he was a Han official, so there was not much difference...
It was only last night that Cao Cao finally figured out who Bai Tu was - a young man in his early twenties. When Liu Bei submitted the memorial, he naturally also wrote down Bai Tu's basic information.
When Cao Cao first learned about this, he was also stunned. He had just been imagining the white-bearded old man for a long time!
But this does not affect his plan...
So today, there came an angel who came to Xiaopei and was appointed as the Governor of Yangzhou and the General of the Central Army of Pingyue.
Moreover, this angel was not an unknown person, but none other than Kong Rong, a great Confucian scholar and descendant of Confucius!
It was he who begged Cao Cao and took the initiative to enthrone Bai Tu, and hoped to work with Bai Tu to perfect "Qieyun" in the future.
At this time, Kong Rong did not have and even had some respect for him. Not only did he respectfully call him "Ming Gong", but also when he gave advice and admonitions he always compared Cao Cao to "Duke Zhou".
Although Kong Rong did not really regard Cao Cao as a sage and virtuous person like Duke Zhou, he at least hoped in his heart that Cao Cao could take Duke Zhou as his goal.
However, a few years later, Kong Rong realized that Cao Cao not only did not want to be Duke of Zhou, but even Huo Guang could not satisfy him . He wanted to be Wang Mang. So he began to oppose Cao Cao in every way. In order to attack the foundation of Cao Cao's rule, he even made some remarks that violated filial piety. In the end, he was executed by Cao Cao and his entire family...
Now that Cao Cao agreed to let him come to find Bai Tu, it actually saved his entire family to some extent!
If Cao Cao's troops were approaching, they might not be able to enter Xiaopei even after fighting for several months, but Kong Rong was labeled an angel and had only a small number of people with him.
Therefore, Lu Bu did not make things difficult for him and directly invited him into the city - this was also what Chen Gong had expected yesterday, and Xu would not have failed to react!
When Kong Rong saw Bai Tu, even though he had already known Bai Tu's real age from Cao Cao and Lu Bu, he was still stunned for a long time.
Like Cao Cao, Kong Rong also had a blank picture before, imagining himself as a great scholar older than himself!
Bai Tu looked at Kong Rong a few more times, but his expression was somewhat reluctant. Yangzhou Mu? Yes, he was promoted in name, but... was it his turn to be the Mu of Yangzhou?
"I am Kong Rong of Lu County, on behalf of thousands of students in the world, I would like to thank Mr. Bai for his great kindness." After a brief moment of daze, Kong Rong stood up and saluted Bai Tu.
Bai Tu also looked at Kong Rong carefully at this time. He could be said to be the person who was dressed most like a "Han Dynasty scholar-official" that he had ever seen. From his clothes to his hair crown and beard, everything was meticulously groomed.
This is supposed to be normal, but in this abnormal world, the normal Kong Rong is extremely precious!
And Bai Tu knew it very clearly that although Kong Rong was a descendant of Confucius and looked very serious, he was by no means a corrupt scholar. On the contrary... Kong Rong had a strong scholarly spirit, or was a very subjective and emotional person.
Everyone in later generations knows the story of "Kong Rong giving away pears", and he can be said to be a representative figure of filial piety. However... if the historical context continues, Kong Rong would make the shocking statement more than ten years later that "there is no affection between father and son, only desire in the ears; the relationship between mother and son is like things in a bottle."
Directly stepping on the core of filial piety - even if Bai Tu can't stand blind filial piety and loyalty, he still finds it difficult to agree with such crazy remarks.
The reason why Kong Rong had such a change was not because he was possessed, but because Cao Cao was advocating filial piety at that time. So Kong Rong, who recognized Cao Cao's true face, began to blindly criticize what Cao Cao advocated...
Seeing Kong Rong bowing to him, Bai Tu hurried forward to support him and said, "Master Kong, you are too polite. I just felt sorry for those children who have no books to read and cannot be educated, so I did something insignificant."
Kong Rong was even more moved after hearing this, while Lu Lingqi on the side curled her lips, feeling that this was not modesty at all!
"Mr. Bai is so righteous! I admire you... His Majesty has also learned of your great talent and appointed you as the governor of Yangzhou. However... Yangzhou is now in turmoil, and His Majesty has also said that if the road is blocked, you can come to the court first. I am willing to work with you to perfect this "Qieyun" first." Kong Rong said.
"No, no, no, if that's the case, how can I watch the people of Yangzhou suffer? Even if there are thousands of difficulties and dangers, I have General Lu to accompany me..."
"snort!"
Bai Tu immediately refused. No matter how bad Yangzhou was, it was still better than going under Cao Cao's nose.
Unexpectedly, Lu Bu interrupted at this time. Seeing Lu Bu's angry look, Bai Tu was a little confused.
In fact, Kong Rong had seen through Cao Cao's plan before, but in his opinion, Bai Tu should be a great scholar like himself, who was devoted to studying. It would be better for him to draw a clear line between himself and a tiger and a wolf like Lu Bu as soon as possible, so he didn't say much.
At this time, he also said: "General Lu and Mr. Bai may have something to say. I have a pain in my lower abdomen. Go and rest for a while."
