Chapter 234

Chapter 234

Can a strategist not ascend the throne? Volume 7: Eight Hundred Qin Rivers, Occupying Guanzhong Chapter 234: The Heart of Disloyalty

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Can a strategist not ascend the throne?

Chapter 234: The Heart of Disloyalty

Zhao Wei wasn’t completely foolish. Before attempting any action, he sought out Liu Zhang.

Even though Liu Zhang didn’t reveal the possibility of being sent to Chang’an as a hostage by his father during Zhao Wei’s indirect questioning, Zhao Wei still had a bad premonition.

After all, Liu Zhang mentioned that the two envoys had brought up two things with him.

First, Liu Qi, the son of Jing Province’s governor Liu Biao, had arrived in Chang’an and taken up the position of Grand Coachman in the Chang’an court, the same position Yuan Ji once held.

The Grand Coachman, one of the Nine Ministers, was responsible for the emperor’s chariots and horses, or more accurately, the emperor’s ceremonial processions.

This was a relatively idle position.

Given Liu Yu’s overly simple lifestyle, there were few opportunities for ceremonial processions.

Thus, assigning a high-ranking but low-maintenance position to a member of the imperial family was undoubtedly a gesture of goodwill from the Chang’an court toward the imperial clan.

Of course, this was said by Li Ru, not Qi Zhou.

But Qi Zhou didn’t find anything wrong with this statement.

This was clearly a way to show, through the emperor’s attitude toward Jing Province, that as long as the governor of Yizhou could demonstrate similar cooperation during their campaign against Yuan Shao and Gongsun Zan, they could also coexist peacefully and achieve mutual benefits.

It was also a way to boost Liu Yu’s image.

The second thing Li Ru mentioned was:

Cao Cao’s son, Cao Pi, had already been studying at Leping Academy since last year.

This statement from Li Ru carried two implications.

First, although Cao Cao’s appointment as governor of Yanzhou came from the Ye City court, his actual control over Yanzhou relied on his own strength. Given that he sent his son to study at Leping Academy and even engaged in trade with Bingzhou, no one could be sure whether Yanzhou would switch sides if the Chang’an court decided to annex the Ye City court, potentially turning from an enemy into a forward outpost.

This was a display of military strength.

On the other hand, why did Cao Cao send his son to study in Bingzhou? It was because Bingzhou had talents like Cai Yong and Zheng Xuan.

This was a display of cultural strength.

Because of this explanation, Qi Zhou even felt that “Li Meng” wasn’t so bad after all. At least when it came to maintaining the dignity of the Chang’an court, he had said a few reasonable things.

But in reality?

According to what Li Ru taught Qiao Ting, both of these statements had other meanings.

“The information we gather from others is fragmented. We need to use various methods to investigate and piece it together until we find the key figure. Similarly, the information others gather from us is also fragmented,” Li Ru explained.

“So in the future, you can’t expect the other side to fully understand all the false information you send. Give them more ambiguous information, so that no matter how they piece it together, they arrive at the same conclusion. That’s effective misdirection.”

This effective misdirection had been demonstrated when Li Ru helped Dong Zhuo escape the Qiang encirclement, and now it was being used against Zhao Wei.

The information Zhao Wei obtained from Liu Zhang didn’t make him think the message from the courier station might be false. Instead, it reinforced his judgment.

Liu Biao sending his eldest son Liu Qi to Chang’an, and Cao Cao sending his second son Cao Pi to Leping, in Zhao Wei’s view, were both moves to send away sons who were less likely to inherit their positions, as a gesture of goodwill toward the Chang’an court.

When such words were spoken in front of Liu Zhang, there seemed to be some hidden meaning.

According to Zhao Wei’s judgment, the talk of sending a hostage was likely true!

Then there was no need to question the authenticity of the message. Instead, he should think about how to change this situation.

Directly telling Liu Yan that even if a hostage had to be sent, it shouldn’t be the fourth son, was clearly not feasible.

Liu Zhang’s mild and weak nature was the main reason Zhao Wei chose him. If Liu Yan were to choose, even his second son, who had been sent away to engage in business and live a leisurely life, would be more suitable as his successor than his youngest son.

Liu Yan also clearly didn’t like the people of Yizhou interfering too much in his decisions.

Then, what about directly harming the envoys from Chang’an, preventing them from completing their mission and cutting off the possibility of Liu Zhang being taken away?

That was also impossible!

The attendants brought by the envoys from Chang’an were selected from Zhao Yun’s officers, all fierce generals from Liang and Bing provinces. To deal with them would create a significant disturbance.

This would force Zhao Wei to expose his actions to Liu Yan, potentially making him a target for Liu Yan’s retaliation.

This would be all harm and no benefit for him.

Moreover, if the envoys sent by the Chang’an court to Yizhou were killed, the relatively peaceful relationship between Guanzhong and Chang’an would be shattered overnight.

Qiao Yan had swiftly defeated Li Jue’s invading forces in Liangzhou and then advanced into Guanzhong from Chencang. Who could say she wouldn’t use this as an excuse to attack Yizhou while maintaining her defensive advantage in the Taihang Mountains against Yuan Shao?

Given the geographical conditions, this wasn’t an impossible scenario.

This made things even worse for Zhao Wei.

His dissatisfaction with Liu Yan’s favoritism toward the Dongzhou faction didn’t mean he wanted Yizhou to fall into someone else’s hands.

Liu Yan’s status as a member of the Han imperial family and his governance of Yizhou were still beneficial to the people of Yizhou.

If not for this, after Liu Yan executed Yizhou’s powerful families on trumped-up charges and suppressed the rebellion led by Ren Qi, the people of Yizhou, led by Zhao Wei, wouldn’t have continued to support Liu Yan.

Therefore, he couldn’t use overly drastic measures to make Yizhou a direct target of the Chang’an court.

Then he had to consider another approach.

He thought of the message he received from the courier station.

The message stated that compared to Yuan Shao and Gongsun Zan, Liu Yan was relatively cooperative and had no disloyal intentions.

Was there a way to slightly increase Liu Yan’s threat to the Chang’an court without crossing the line, making the originally lenient hostage conditions more stringent?

Zhao Wei fell into deep thought.

He wasn’t just a brute-force general.

Before following Liu Yan into Yizhou, he had served as the Grand Minister of Agriculture’s subordinate in the Luoyang court.

This was a legitimate civil official position.

But if it weren’t for his limited intellect, Li Ru wouldn’t have chosen Zhao Wei as a tool.

From the perspective of increasing Liu Yan’s threat to Chang’an, Zhao Wei first thought of stirring up some trouble with Zhang Lu.

However, Zhang Lu, or rather the Taishi Path, was completely unpredictable in their actions.

Even though they were both from Yizhou, they pursued different interests.

In Zhao Wei’s view, Zhang Lu likely wanted a territory for his own religious activities rather than achieving mutual benefits with the Han imperial family’s governor of Youzhou.

If things went too far, it could bring disaster to Yizhou.

Then he had to try another method:

Provide the envoys from Chang’an with some ambiguous information, then destroy the evidence!

At most, Chang’an would become somewhat wary of them, but there would be no concrete reason to hold them accountable.

As long as they didn’t cross the line too much, it would be fine.

After all, the current Minister of Works, Huang Wan’s aunt, was the mother of their Yizhou governor, Liu Yan. There would surely be some mediation.

Thinking this, Zhao Wei felt a sudden clarity.

He immediately called for his trusted aides and set his plan in motion.








The subordinate, suddenly receiving such a bizarre order, was startled and quickly asked, “This… this really won’t cause any trouble, will it?”

Zhao Wei replied firmly, “What trouble could there be? If anything, we’re actually helping the lord by eliminating a potential threat.”

Without further doubt, the subordinate immediately set to work.

Thus, on the eve of Liu Yan’s appointment as the Grand General, the originally peaceful night was suddenly disrupted by the clamor of a fire.

Qi Zhou, staying at the posthouse, was awakened by the commotion and quickly got up to investigate. He saw the eastern sky glowing red, clearly indicating a large fire.

And the east was where Liu Yan’s Provincial Governor’s Office was located!

Even though it was the dry winter season, how could a fire suddenly break out, especially at such a time?

Qi Zhou instinctively felt something was wrong. Hearing Li Ru, who was also startled, ask from the other side, “What’s happening?”

The two exchanged a bewildered glance and, driven by the desire to avoid any issues with the imperial decree, decided to go and check it out together.

Fearing that Yizhou might be experiencing turmoil like the previous years, they took half of their guards with them.

Fortunately, upon arriving at the scene of the fire, they found that the situation was not as troublesome as they had speculated. It was merely a fire at the Yizhou government storehouse.

However…

Qi Zhou looked at the raging fire and couldn’t help but ask, “Governor Liu, did you store a lot of outdated furniture and decorations in the storehouse? Why is the fire so intense?”

The fire was as fierce as if it had been fueled by oil, something an ordinary fire could never achieve.

Surely, Liu Yan wouldn’t be so courteous as to set his own house on fire before the ceremony to appoint him as Grand General, just to liven things up, right?

Seeing that the fire might spread, Qi Zhou quickly ordered people to assist in putting it out.

He didn’t notice that on Liu Yan’s face, mostly hidden in the night, there was more anxiety and wariness than urgency to extinguish the fire.

After the fire was successfully put out, everything in the storehouse had been reduced to ashes.

Liu Yan, while lamenting his losses, also felt that this unexpected fire might be a warning against his complacency.

But what he didn’t know was that the next day, after he successfully received the imperial appointment from the Chang’an court under the watchful eyes of various prefects, a piece of silk was secretly delivered to the posthouse.

It stated that the reason the storehouse fire was so intense was because it contained a thousand carriages, which Liu Yan had built with ulterior motives, as symbols of his overreaching ambition.

The informant also mentioned that he revealed this because he was a former friend of Ren Qi, the ex-prefect of Qianwei, who was dissatisfied with Liu Yan’s harsh treatment and was forced to rebel and was subsequently killed.

Qi Zhou, looking at the secret letter, whispered to Li Ru, “When you think about it, Ren Qi’s case is indeed quite strange. Years ago, the rebel Ma Xiang killed the Governor of Yizhou, Xi Jian, and even declared himself the Son of Heaven in Shu. It was Ren Qi who defeated him and successfully welcomed Governor Liu into Shu as the ruler. Yet, not two years later, Ren Qi declared himself a general and launched an attack against Governor Liu…”

It was indeed very peculiar.

Perhaps Ren Qi was dissatisfied with Liu Yan’s treatment of the people of Yizhou.

So, it’s understandable that someone would come forward to express Ren Qi’s grievances.

But it’s also possible that someone is framing Liu Yan.

He called in the subordinates who had participated in the firefighting the previous night and asked if they had noticed anything unusual.

This inquiry did reveal some clues.

Someone said he could have helped extinguish the fire but was stopped by Liu Yan’s attendants and only allowed to fetch water.

Someone mentioned hearing whispers in the crowd about “what a pity those carriages were.”

Someone else said, “I’m afraid we’ve really crossed a line.”

Hearing this, it seemed that the items burned in the fire the previous night were indeed not so simple.

Considering that Liu Yan had moved his administrative seat from Mianzhu to Chengdu, and the secret letter mentioned another piece of information related to Mianzhu, Qi Zhou immediately discussed with Li Ru to investigate Mianzhu carefully on their way back after bidding farewell to Liu Yan.

This departure was somewhat hasty, which greatly reassured Zhao Wei, who had orchestrated the burning of the Provincial Governor’s storehouse.

If it weren’t for this fire, they might have taken hostages when they left.

Now, they had to hesitate first.

Unfortunately, Zhao Wei had no real intention of betraying Liu Yan, so their trip to Mianzhu would not yield any substantial evidence.

When Qi Zhou and Li Ru passed by Dong Fu’s hometown in Mianzhu, they discovered that a fire had also broken out there two days ago, burning all the manuscripts and documents clean.

This was exactly Zhao Wei’s intention.

Without any means of verification, it precisely proved that there was something amiss.

Dong Fu was one of the important ministers who followed Liu Yan into Shu. His choice of Yizhou after proposing the revival of the Provincial Governor System must have been closely related to Liu Yan. His skills in divination were also somewhat famous in Mianzhu.

Putting all these together…

Qi Zhou was greatly alarmed.

It seemed that Liu Yan was not just content with being the Governor of Yizhou!

And if he still harbored grand ambitions, only hiding and destroying related clues due to the threat from the north, he remained a significant threat.

Considering Yizhou’s resources and unique geographical conditions, it wouldn’t be difficult for Governor Liu to stab Chang’an in the back while Qiao Hou was confronting Yuan Shao!

If only they had known this earlier.

Now that the Grand General’s appointment had been announced, there was no room for regret.

Any reversal at this point would only make the Chang’an court appear ridiculous.

“Knowing earlier wouldn’t have helped,” Li Ru poured cold water on the idea. “If you had known earlier, could you have refused to announce the imperial decree?”

“With Shu’s terrain, if we had tried to stop the announcement and return to Chang’an, we would have been intercepted by Liu Yan halfway. Whether we could have stopped the decree is uncertain, but our lives would have been lost here.”

Qi Zhou asked, “So what do you suggest?”

Li Ru replied, “Don’t hesitate. We must return to Chang’an as quickly as possible before Liu Yan realizes we’ve connected the two fires and discovered his intentions, and inform His Majesty.”

Qi Zhou thought Li Ru was quite a talent, able to make running away sound so dignified and justified.

But in this unfamiliar environment, it seemed to be their only option.

He quickly put on the appearance of having purchased a few items in Mianzhu and then hurried back to Chang’an without delay.

By the time Liu Yan received the news that Dong Fu’s hometown had been burned and felt it was too coincidental, Qi Zhou had already led his men into Ba Commandery.

At this point, even if he wanted to chase and confirm some things, it was already impossible to catch up.

Qi Zhou even quickened the pace of his men within Hanzhong, and only after passing through the Xie Valley and meeting the welcoming party did he finally feel a sense of relief.

Being here, the constant fear of being pursued from behind finally disappeared.

But now was not the time for him to rest.

Before he even reached Chang’an, he had already sent an urgent request for an audience with the Son of Heaven.

This allowed him to step into Chang’an and immediately receive approval from Liu Yu to see him.

Liu Yu, still unclear about the situation, saw Qi Zhou kneel in the hall, claiming to have important news to report.

Startled, he quickly asked, “What are you doing?”

Qi Zhou, with an anxious expression, replied, “Your Majesty! Liu Yan has disloyal intentions. The position of Grand General should not be given to him!”