Three Caos fighting for a bride? Zhen Ji, I, Cao Zhi, will take her!

The person who came was none other than him.

It was Xun Yun, the son of Xun Yu.

With Xun Yun's status and position.

Riding out of the city alone, something big must have happened in Yecheng.

And Xun Yun's route was heading west.

It was hard for Cao Zhi not to suspect that Xun Yun was coming to see him.

Thinking of this, Cao Zhi drew his bow and shot an arrow.

All I heard was a "whoosh" sound.

The galloping Xun Yun was stopped by an arrow shot by Cao Zhi.

"Who is so bold!" Xun Yun said angrily.

But the next moment, after seeing Cao Zhi's familiar face.

Xun Yun finally let go of his anxious heart.

"Zijian, I finally found you!" Xun Yun said happily.

As soon as he finished speaking, Xun Yun's head tilted and he fainted.

Fortunately, he held the reins tightly with both hands, which prevented him from falling off the horse.

Cao Zhi and others were quick-witted and quick-handed.

The warhorse carrying Xun Yun had only walked a few dozen meters when it was stopped manually.

……

After one stick of incense.

Xun Yun woke up from his coma.

Cao Zhi considerately handed him some pancakes and dried meat.

Seeing the food, Xun Yun immediately started to eat it voraciously.

After a few breaths.

After drinking a full bag of water.

Life gradually returned to Xun Yun's face.

"What happened?"

Cao Zhi asked.

"Zijian, something big happened in Yecheng..."

As he was speaking, Xun Yun told the story of Cao Pi leading an army of 20,000 to surround Ye City and lead his troops in rebellion.

"Cao Pi is rebelling!"

Cao Pi was instinctively startled.

But after a moment, Cao Zhi's face showed deep doubt.

Based on Cao Zhi's understanding of Cao Pi.

Although Cao Pi is evil, stupid, and unscrupulous in achieving his goals...

But in Cao Zhi's view.

Cao Pi had neither the ability nor the ambition to rebel.

Xun Yun was able to go out of the city to deliver messages to himself.

It also indirectly proves that the Yingchuan gentry did not support Cao Pi's rebellion.

Could it be that there is some inside information that I don’t know?

Seeing that Cao Pi did not believe that Cao Pi dared to rebel, Xun Yun told Cao Zhi about a series of actions Cao Pi had taken after Cao Zhi left Yecheng.

After learning that Sima Lang was present throughout Cao Pi's rebellion.

Cao Zhi suddenly realized.

It seems that the driving force behind all this is the Sima family.

With the Sima family around, everything makes sense!

……

"You mean, Cao Pi is just a puppet, and the real mastermind behind this is the Sima family?"

When Cao Zhi expressed his guess, everyone was shocked.

After all, in everyone's perception, the Sima family is just a pendant of the Cao family.

If Sima Lang had not followed Cao Pi throughout the whole process.

The Sima family has never entered the public eye.

"Zijian, is this news true?"

Xun Yun said with a scorching gaze.

"It's absolutely true!" said Cao Zhi.

Then, seeing that everyone around him was looking at him with puzzled expressions, Cao Zhi spread his hands and said helplessly:

"Don't ask me how I know this. I can only say that the secret cannot be revealed!"

Got it!

Seeing Cao Zhi bring up the "Heaven's Secret" again, everyone was speechless.

But everyone present at this time.

Except for Xun Yun who was still not used to it, everyone else had already gotten used to it.

During the process of recovering Bingzhou and marching north to conquer the Xiongnu.

Cao Zhi did many things that people could not understand.

Every time, Cao Zhi used the excuse that "the secret of heaven cannot be revealed" to evade the question.

At first, everyone would ask a few questions.

But later, after discovering that everything Cao Zhi did was absolutely correct, people stopped asking questions.

……

Yecheng.

When Cao Zhi planned to slaughter all his relatives and friends, he was stopped by Mrs. Bian.

Because of anger.

Cao Pi was furious and turned his target of revenge to the families behind his three women.

The first stop was the Zhen family.

After being informed by the servants that Zhen Ji's brothers, sisters, nephews and nieces were all taken back to Cao Zhi's mansion by Cao Zhang.

The corner of Cao Pi's eye twitched, and he had a bad feeling in his heart.

At the second stop, Cao Pi came to Cui Mansion.

I learned from Cui Yan that Cui Yao and Cui Yi went to visit Cao Zhi's house.

Cao Pi clenched his fists, feeling indignant.

At the third stop, Cao Pi arrived at Prince Zhao’s Mansion.

We learned from the housekeeper of Prince Zhao's mansion that Prince Zhao Liu She and Crown Prince Liu Gui went out at noon and never returned.

Cao Pi was furious.

He knew that no matter how hard he tried, he was still one step behind Cao Zhang.

"Before the rebellion, I couldn't deal with them. After the rebellion, I still couldn't deal with them. So, was my rebellion in vain?"

"Damn it, I can't swallow this!"

"Boda, give me some advice!"

Cao Pi suppressed his anger and said with gritted teeth.

"Um……"

Sima Lang pondered for a moment and said:

"The Cui family is the most powerful family in Jizhou, we cannot move them lightly; the King of Zhao is a relative of the Han Dynasty, we cannot move him either!"

"But the Zhen family is just a poor and impoverished family. We can use them as a target. Zhen Mi's brothers and sisters are gone, but their servants, shop assistants, and caravan managers are still here!"

"The Zhen family is a wealthy family in Hebei. Although their wealth was plundered by the Yuan family when Zhen Mi married Yuan Xi, a lean camel is still bigger than a horse. The furniture invented by the Zhen family in the past six months, such as the stir-fried tea and the Hu bed and Hu stool, has become very popular among the gentry... As long as we plunder the Zhen family, all their wealth will belong to the Second Young Master!"

"Also, those scholars in Juxian Hall are all considered disciples of the Fourth Young Master. They study the School of Mind, which is the opposite of the School of Confucian Classics. The Second Young Master can win over the disciples of the School of Confucian Classics by killing them!"

Sima Lang spoke eloquently.

"Well, you are worthy of being Boda. You are truly my Zifang!"

Cao Pi patted Sima Lang on the shoulder and laughed.

……

Just do it.

Sima Lang pointed out the direction to Cao Pi in the afternoon.

That night, these people were arrested by Cao Pi's men.

the next day.

Just when Cao Pi was about to give the order to execute all these people.

But he was stopped by Sima Lang.

"Second Master, the servants of the Zhen family have no power or influence, so we can just kill them, but we will wait a few days before killing those scholars in Juxian Hall!"

Sima Lang persuaded.

While talking.

Sima Lang then told his follow-up plans.

That is, first pick out those scholars from the Juxian Hall who are children of aristocratic families.

They used their lives to force the nobles to surrender to Cao Pi.

If they obey, these people can survive.

If they don't obey, we can kill them as a warning to the monkeys!

Of course, he was not killed on the spot.

Instead, he sent invitations to a group of great scholars of Confucian classics in advance.

For example, Hua Xin, Zheng Xuan and others played an important role in Confucian classics.

Invite them to attend the ceremony.

Through this behavior, he gained the favor of the great scholars of Confucian classics and won them over.

"Good, good, good!"

I see that what Sima Lang said makes sense and has evidence.

Cao Pi felt elated.

At this moment, he suddenly felt like he was Liu Bang.

"Although I'm not smart enough, the people under me are smart enough. However, just one 'Zhang Liang' is not enough. I also need to find my 'Han Xin' and 'Xiao He'!"

Cao Pi thought to himself.

Seeing that Cao Pi was becoming more and more friendly to him.

Sima Lang couldn't help but sneer in his heart.

The reasons he just gave to Cao Pi were true.

But its real purpose was not to attract talents for Cao Pi, but to attract talents for the Sima family.

After all, the current power structure of Cao Pi's camp is -

Cao Pi, Sima Lang and a group of Sima family members, plus some small and medium-sized nobles and low-level officials who had just defected.

The Sima family controls the army.

As long as Sima Lang wanted, he could defect at any time.

Therefore, Cao Pi was expanding his power.

In fact, it was the Sima family that was expanding its power.