Volume 3: The Land of Jingchu Chapter 281: Offering the Seal
"Hua Qing has suffered a lot along the way!" Liu Xie helped Hua Xin up with emotion.
At this time, outside the gate of Xudu, Liu Xie and hundreds of civil and military officials, including Cao Cao, were there to welcome Hua Xin who was returning the jade seal.
Of course, in theory it was to welcome the "Imperial Seal" rather than to welcome Hua Xin.
"I am here on the orders of the great general to deliver the sacred weapon to our Han Dynasty. It is such an honor, how can it be hard?" Hua Xin said with full emotion.
"Hahaha, Lord Hua's character of not taking credit for himself is very similar to your general."
The man with his hair slicked back, who was walking beside the emperor but seemed to have some distance from him, spoke with a smile.
“Prime Minister, you are joking. My lord is really a man who does not take credit for his contributions, but I…” Although it was the first time Hua Xin met him, he could still tell his identity.
Before Hua Xin could finish, a middle-aged man with a round face and a small mustache appeared from behind Liu Xie, interrupting him and saying, "Lord Hua, you are wrong. The whole world belongs to the king. There is only one master for all the people in the world, and that is the current emperor. We are from the Han family, but which family are you from?"
Hua Xin was stunned when he heard this, and looked at his neck specifically, thinking to himself: Your neck isn’t long either?
"Uncle! Don't be rude." Liu Xie scolded.
Hua Xin suddenly realized that this person should be Dong Cheng - Hua Xin had done his homework along the way. Although there was another uncle Fu Guo in the court, his temperament was obviously not as flamboyant.
Dong Cheng was originally a general under Niu Fu, and Niu Fu was Dong Zhuo's son-in-law, which means... Dong Cheng was originally from the Liangzhou warlord faction.
Originally, this was the identity that was most difficult for Liu Xie to accept, but Dong Cheng had another identity, that is, the nephew of Empress Dowager Dong - Empress Dowager Dong refers to the mother of Emperor Ling, who is also Liu Xie's grandmother, and Liu Xie was raised by Empress Dowager Dong.
Dong Cheng's relationship with the royal family made him more easily accepted by Liu Xie. That is why Jia Xu chose Dong Cheng to instigate rebellion when he was planning for Liu Xie.
As expected, Dong Cheng eventually became the key figure in Liu Xie's escape from Guanzhong, and gained more trust from Liu Xie. Dong Cheng's daughter also married Liu Xie.
However, it is hard to say that Dong Cheng was loyal to Liu Xie, but it is also hard to say that he was disloyal...
If it was said that he was disloyal, Dong Cheng really had no ulterior motives, but... Dong Cheng's loyalty was not because he hoped Liu Xie and the Han Dynasty would get better and better, but because he hoped that he himself would get better and better!
Even though he was surrounded by enemies on all sides, Dong Cheng still wished that he was the only loyal minister in the world, and that Liu Xie would only trust him, so that he could achieve great things...
Now hearing Liu Xie actually scolding him, Dong Cheng suddenly became anxious - could it be that someone was slandering me?
Immediately, Dong Cheng looked at Liu Ai accurately, but Liu Ai... continued to look at Liu Xie and Hua Xin, ignoring him completely.
"Yes, it's such a happy day, why is Uncle Dong so nervous? Besides... I wonder what Uncle Dong called Niu Fu and Dong Zhuo in the beginning?" Cao Cao sneered.
He ignored Liu Xie and Dong Cheng, whose faces had already turned purple.
Liu Ai didn't understand why there would be such things as "thunder god breaking the bridge" and "God clearing the path", but deep down in his heart, Liu Ai didn't believe in the so-called celestial phenomena, or he didn't believe that this strange phenomenon could really represent the celestial phenomena!
He was not the only one who had this idea. After all, among the top counselors and wise men, there were only a few who would blindly believe in the celestial phenomena. However... it didn't matter whether they believed it or not. The important thing was that they couldn't explain it to others.
"The banquet has been prepared in the palace. Hua Qing, please come with me." Liu Xie said in a somewhat cold tone because of Cao Cao's interruption.
"Wait a minute... Your Majesty, now that I have the audience of Your Majesty, there is no reason for the imperial artifact to remain in my hands. Please take back the artifact first, and I will dare to follow you to the banquet." Hua Xin said as he took out the jade seal.
Originally Hua Xin refused, and Liu Xie thought that he was trying to retreat in order to advance and seek some benefits for himself or Bai Tu. However, after hearing Hua Xin's words, Liu Xie was so moved that he almost cried.
"There's no need to worry, Hua's department. There will be a chance to present the jade seal later." Cao Cao interrupted again, completely ignoring the fact that Hua Xin was talking to Liu Xie now, and deliberately addressed Hua Xin by his official title in the General's Mansion.
He even took a step to the side to block Liu Xie from view. For a moment, the ministers and guards around him seemed to feel the stagnation of the situation and became a little nervous.
Especially Liu Bei, who was standing on the periphery and had some estrangement from the officials in the court and the staff in the Prime Minister's Office, stared at Cao Cao with burning eyes, and then immediately retracted his gaze.
What the palace had prepared was indeed not only a banquet, but also the etiquette of handing over the imperial seal - there was actually no fixed etiquette for this kind of thing, after all, the seal had been passed down from generation to generation, and it was an accident that the local princes intercepted the seal and presented it to the emperor.
But Cao Cao still prepared a plan, which in itself made Liu Xie extremely unhappy.
Naturally, he didn't know that this was Guo Jia's suggestion. His purpose was to "intercept" as much of the Han Dynasty's growing fortune as possible after the jade seal was returned, and... kill several birds with one stone.
"Prime Minister, you may not know that when the general came here, he instructed his subjects that if they saw Your Majesty, they must present the jade seal as soon as possible." Hua Xin said as he held the jade seal in his hand, raised it above his head, and saluted deeply to Liu Xie.
At this time, Hua Xin acted as if he must make the emperor take over, which made Cao Cao's arrangements in vain - if the person who came was just someone who happened to obtain the jade seal, Cao Cao would even dare to take the seal himself on behalf of Liu Xie.
Although he would definitely have to hand over to Liu Xie in the end, this handover would further suppress Liu Xie's reputation and intimidate the ministers. At the same time, it would also allow him to observe who among the court officials were the hidden diehards of the Han Dynasty and who could be coerced or bribed.
For Guo Jia, this "ritual" helps Cao Cao "digest" the fortune of the Han Dynasty.
In the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Cao Cao even deliberately borrowed the Han emperor's ceremonial bow and arrows and shot a deer during the hunting at Xutian. When the officials saw the deer shot to death by the emperor's ceremonial arrows and came to celebrate for the emperor, Cao Cao rode out on his horse to accept everyone's cheers... This incident also happened in the fourth year of Jian'an.
In the novel, Liu Bei and his two brothers were retainers of the Prime Minister's Mansion. Upon seeing this, Guan Yu wanted to kill Cao Cao directly, but was stopped by Liu Bei. The reason was that Cao Cao was too close to the emperor at the time, and was surrounded by Cao Cao's confidants. If they acted rashly, Cao Cao might kill them for disturbing the emperor.
The ministers were even more afraid of Cao Cao. Although they were "all shocked", they did not have any substantial reaction. They just let Cao Cao show off his power.
And now... in the world of Cheng Ji, the Xutian Hunting in the novel did not happen, and Cao Cao's preparation to receive the seal on behalf of the emperor was also prevented from happening due to Hua Xin's determination.
Although Liu Xie hated and feared Cao Cao, when he saw Cao Cao being humiliated, he understood that Cao Cao would definitely not dare to forcibly take the jade seal in front of the people and ministers. After all... the jade seal was still in Hua Xin's hands, and behind Hua Xin was Bai Tu.
Cao Cao was indeed afraid of the people from the General's Mansion. If Hua Xin saw him coming to receive the gift and simply stepped aside and refused to give it to him, then it would be Cao Cao who would be embarrassed. Moreover... he didn't dare to do anything to the envoy from the General's Mansion!
Just thinking about this, Liu Xie felt a little uncomfortable again.
So Liu Xie plucked up his courage, stepped forward and took the jade seal, and indeed Cao Cao did not stop him. Afterwards... Liu Xie once again praised Hua Xin for his loyalty.
If Liu Ai had not implicitly stopped him, Liu Xie would have even wanted to ridicule a certain Prime Minister Cao who wished to remain anonymous.
Liu Xie held the jade seal and looked at Cao Cao's unhappy expression. He felt that he had reached his peak. He greeted Hua Xin more enthusiastically. After handing the jade seal to Liu Ai for safekeeping, he took Hua Xin's arm and walked with him.
On the other hand, Cao Cao was even more "unreserved". He walked beside the emperor without the emperor holding his arm.
As for the ceremonial guards and escort teams, the five hundred Ji-zao soldiers were naturally not allowed to enter the city. Together with the hundred fully-equipped generals, they were stationed in the city under the arrangement of the "imperial court".
In addition, there are a hundred guards who will enter the city to protect Hua Xin - all of them are drawn from Bai Tu's guards.
This scale would neither make Cao Cao worried nor cause Hua Xin to be "bullied".
During the banquet, Hua Xin was more able to put himself in the shoes of others and feel the current atmosphere of Xudu.
Although Cao Cao was not as rude as Dong Zhuo, Li Yu and Guo Xiao, he had already openly oppressed or attacked the emperor's authority.
Most of the people in the court were mediocre or self-protective - those who were truly courageous had already been killed by Dong Zhuo, Li Jue, Guo Si and others.
They were all called Han ministers, but the way they expressed their "loyalty" was to lower their heads and look sad when Cao Cao was rude , and no one knew who they were showing it to.
Anyway, for most court officials, it is impossible to resist, and they are embarrassed to follow the enemy. If they follow, they may not be appreciated by others. They can only use their facial expressions to make a living...
As for the few people who really wanted to protect the emperor, Hua Xin had only been in Xudu for half a day, but he could already get a general idea of it. At the same time... he also began to understand why Liu Bei's presence was not as strong as he had imagined.
If Xudou is now a werewolf game, then... not to mention that the rules are too biased towards werewolves, and the prophet (Liu Xie) has his skills blocked; a Jinshui mob (Dong Cheng) is leading the pace, with an attitude of "all gods must kneel down and show their skills, otherwise they will all be beaten like wolves"; a few gods who still want to win are hanging around until their cards are exposed; the other civilians are either looking forward to being planted or are just paddling around like crazy... If Hua Xin was Liu Bei, he could only show his skills to the wolf team now.
However, for Hua Xin, the current situation is not very bad. After all, he is not on Liu Xie's side, and... Liu Xie still trusts him very much, which makes him very comfortable.
Although Dong Cheng was stupid and violent, his doubts about Hua Xin did not matter at all to Hua Xin. On the contrary, Liu Ai... seemed to be speaking for him, but Hua Xin always felt that he did not really trust him.
After that, Hua Xin would also have to stay in Xudu for a period of time, at least to represent the General's Mansion and attend the New Year's court meeting.
According to Bai Tu's instructions before leaving, if Hua Xin felt that there was "great potential" in Xu Du, he could accept Liu Xie's request to stay in Xu Du. If he felt that there was no opportunity or there was danger, he could come back after the New Year's Day court meeting.
Looking at Hua Xin being warmly greeted by Liu Xie at the banquet, Liu Bei couldn't help but think of what happened when he first arrived in Xudu more than half a year ago...
