Volume 2: The King's Way Chapter 159: Marriage?
"There's new news coming from our General of Chariots and Cavalry. What do you think?" Cao Cao said with some resentment in Sikong Mansion.
Liu Ye smiled awkwardly when he heard this. Fortunately, Cao Cao only said this on purpose and did not really blame him.
Before, Cao Cao had wanted to appoint Yuan Shao as "General of Chariots and Cavalry" as a gesture of goodwill, and then make himself a "General". This would give him the feeling of riding on Yuan Shao's head, which would be simply wonderful.
However, when Liu Ye was on the diplomatic mission, Cao Cao gave .
This "General of Chariots and Cavalry" is also within the scope of doing things conveniently, and is specifically used to shut Bai Tu up!
In theory, if Cao Cao really used the "General of Chariots and Cavalry" in exchange for Bai Tu's troops, he would not have lost anything.
However, now it was all in vain, and Cao Cao could only appoint Yuan Shao as the "General", which was quite unpleasant.
Think about what Bai Tu said...
What about the saying “As long as one’s virtue is enough to convince others, the people will open their doors to welcome you”? Cao Cao is simply cursing!
Guo Jia, who had always been wary of Bai Tu, immediately suggested that this might not just be an excuse or a way to gain reputation, but there might be a deeper conspiracy.
After the autumn, Bai Tu began to guide the refugees from Jiangdong to migrate south in Xunyang, Shiting and Guazhou, which is even more suspicious... Will there really be a day when a city in Huainan will offer its services to Bai Tu?
However, this thought only flashed through his mind. Huainan was a prosperous place a few years ago. Even though it had been harmed by Yuan Shu, it was still a place where "the tiger dies but the frame remains intact."
The people who have migrated south now are just wild folks outside the city. The real wealthy and powerful families still have some ability to resist natural disasters. As for the people in the city... there must be stored food, it’s just a matter of how much.
The fact that Shu Shao opened a warehouse in Guangling is enough to illustrate this point.
Want to offer the city voluntarily?
Haha, unless the drought continues this year!
However, Bai Tu's act of relocating the people of Huainan to the south made Cao Cao's camp somewhat uneasy - although it could be explained by "caring about the people", but... it would inevitably make people associate it with "ambition".
Cao Cao himself is sensitive and suspicious, and there is also Guo Jia who persists in suspecting Bai Tu...
Fortunately, most of Cao Cao's advisers, led by Xun Yu, still believed that Bai Tu was not an ambitious person.
However, Bai Tu's request to the court once again divided Cao Cao's advisers.
"Should we temporarily take over the Yangzhou salt tax from the General of Chariots and Cavalry's Office?" Xun Yu also saw Bai Tu's request at this time.
In fact, everyone knows that the so-called "request for instructions" is just a procedure. Even before the Yellow Turban Rebellion, the salt tax that the court could collect was already seriously insufficient . Even now, the various princes cannot collect much salt tax. The one with the largest proportion... should be Gongsun Du from Liaodong?
Gongsun Du was a hot-tempered man to begin with, and there were no powerful families in Liaodong at that time. Most of them were ordinary people who had sought refuge there, so he had a strong control over salt and iron. However... he couldn't get much benefit from the entire Liaodong.
Xuzhou and Yizhou also produce salt, the former is sea salt and the latter is well salt. Although Bingzhou also has pond salt, the output is not high at that time.
However, both Liu Bei and Liu Zhang could only drool over the salt tax, and no matter how envious they were, they could only take their time. When Liu Bei entered Shu in later generations, relying on his basic base of soldiers from Jingzhou, he boldly turned the salt tax revenue from Yizhou into official property.
But now, Liu Bei and Liu Zhang can't mess around in their own territory...
Especially the wealthy and powerful Gu Que in Jiangdong, the situation will be even worse than that in the Central Plains and Sichuan!
Even the salt tax collected by local princes was not handed over to the court.
"So ambitious! It is obvious that this man not only covets the profits from salt and iron, but also deliberately puts on the title of General of Chariots and Cavalry, which shows that he cherishes his reputation. He is indeed a treacherous man pretending to be loyal and a false man pretending to be true." Guo Jia still held hostility towards Bai Tu.
"This... Fengxiao is too sensitive, isn't he? If Lord Bai really had ambitions, wouldn't he have not touched the profits from salt and iron? I heard that Lord Bai was in Jiangdong and had recruited people from Huainan for help. I guess he couldn't sustain it at the moment, so he resorted to such a risky move..." Xun Yu was also very puzzled. Why did Fengxiao not seem as calm as usual when it came to matters involving Bai Tu?
Cao Cao weighed the opinions of both sides and felt that what Xun Yu said made more sense.
For the wealthy families in Yangzhou, Xuzhou and Yizhou, brine itself is their source of profit. If it were Cao Cao... he would definitely not be so stubborn, after all, the lesson he learned last time was still fresh in his mind.
"In that case, let's continue to pay attention to Jiangdong's intelligence and see if General Bai will really turn against the Jiangdong family."
After Cao Cao finished speaking, Xun You took the opportunity to bring up the last incident: "Mr. Bai seems to be still unmarried, and he didn't submit a petition this time..."
Bai Tu has now been granted the title of marquis. According to etiquette, he must submit a petition to the imperial court in advance when getting married.
Cao Cao also understood the implication in Xun You's words. When Xun You just returned from his diplomatic mission to Jiangdong, he suggested a marriage alliance and won the approval of Xun Yu and others, but Cao Cao had always refused.
"This... is a pity for Jing'er's personality... and Jie'er and the others are still young, alas." Cao Cao looked very regretful.
Xun You didn't care either, as Cao Cao had ignored his opinion before.
The recent turmoil in Xudu also made him realize that Cao Cao's eldest daughter's personality was indeed not suitable for marriage.
I've heard before that the lord's eldest daughter is extremely obsessed with looks, and Cao Cao initially wanted to marry her to Ding Yi, and they already had an engagement.
However, Cao Jing disliked Ding Yi's small eyes and recently decided to break off the engagement. In addition, Cao Pi pleaded for mercy and Cao Cao did not force her, which made Ding Jing have some thoughts recently.
Bai Gong once appeared in Lucheng which was controlled by Cao Cao. It is said that at that time... ahem, strange people have strange appearances. Now even in Lucheng, rabbit pajamas have become popular!
However, it seems that because of this incident, Cao Jing also had great doubts about Bai Tu's aesthetics and appearance, and was unwilling to marry far away.
Bai Tu is not a foreign chieftain, and marriage alliance is different from marriage of peace, and there are also very high requirements for the woman's character!
Of course, Xun You also knew that Cao Cao's other daughters were still young, and the oldest was only two or three years old...
The reason I bring this up now is because Xun You has the second half of his sentence.
"My lord, you can adopt a girl from your clan, which will show your sincerity. Otherwise... I'm afraid something unexpected will happen." Xun You reminded.
Xun You didn't finish his words, but everyone knew that he was worried that Bai Tu and Lu Bu would become even closer. By then, Lu Bu's faction, which was already hostile to Cao Cao, would have a greater say in Jiangdong and would have a greater influence on Bai Tu!
After hearing this, Cao Cao actually started to think seriously about it.
An adopted daughter is definitely not as sincere as a biological daughter, but in the absence of a biological daughter, it is also a solution...
Of course, you can't just adopt a girl from a side branch casually. The parents must also be important figures in the Cao family!
Unfortunately, the children of Cao Chun, Cao Ren and Cao Hong are not very old.
At this time, Xiahou Dun, who always slacked around and picked his nose at the Yuedan Party, secretly began to think: That brat Zilin actually fell in love with my niece Jing... I was not willing to bring it up at first, but...
