Chapter 94 Between coming and going Cao Rui only rested for one day in Chenliu County. On the second day he set out to continue his journey southward towards Qiao County. As an aside, if we had to forcibly find a place to be tied to the Cao family, Chenliu County might be the most suitable one, no doubt about it. When Dong Zhuo was committing atrocities in Luoyang, Yuan Shao, Cao Cao and others left Luoyang one after another. Cao Cao even had to change his name in order to escape. When he arrived at Zhongmou, the easternmost part of Henan Yin, Cao Cao was caught by a pavilion chief and was only able to escape after being taken to the county. Cao Cao escaped from Luoyang in September and started his army in Chenliu in December. In fact, Cao Cao lived a very difficult three months from September to December. Cao Cao went eastwards and passed through Zhongmou County, which was Chenliu County. After passing through Chenliu and Liang State, he arrived at Cao Cao's hometown, Qiao County of Pei State. When Cao Cao returned to his hometown, wouldn't he be able to rely on his father and relatives? However, Cao Cao and his father Cao Song had different opinions on politics. When Cao Cao expressed his intention to raise an army, Cao Cao's father Cao Song clearly opposed it and even took his family property to Langya to avoid disaster. Without his father's care, Cao Cao's uprising was not smooth at all. First, Huang Wan, the governor of Yuzhou, wanted to murder Cao Cao, and then Yuan Zhong, the prime minister of Pei State, also wanted to bring Cao Cao to justice. In terms of clan, this Huang Wan should be the cousin of Huang Gai, the future general of the Eastern Wu. Died on the way before the army was halfway through? There was no way to stay in Qiao County. Cao Cao could only go from Qiao County to Chenliu, where he met his original shareholder Wei Zi, the father of Wei Zhen. It was in Chenliu that Cao Cao officially began his journey to dominance. Interestingly, before being enthroned by Dong Zhuo, Emperor Xian of Han, Liu Xie, was the King of Chenliu.
The last Wei emperor in history, Cao Huan, was named King of Chenliu by Sima Yan. The line of Cao, the Prince of Chenliu, continued for more than a hundred years in the Western Jin and Eastern Jin dynasties. When Liu Yu forced Sima Dewen, the last emperor of the Eastern Jin dynasty, to abdicate, he needed to submit a petition, right? He needed to submit a petition signed by all the ministers, right? The most coincidental thing is that among all the nobles of the Eastern Jin Dynasty at that time, the one with the longest inheritance and the highest title was Chenliu King Cao Qiansi. So Cao Qiansi's name was written first on the petition for persuasion. A reincarnation, an irony, it really is God’s will. Cao Cao held the power of the world, and his hometown Qiao County also naturally benefited from Cao Cao's influence. Qiao County was originally the county seat of Pei State. When Cao Cao was in power, he divided Pei State into Qiao County, which is the "Qiao" in Qiao County. The road from Chenliu to Qiao County was extremely wide and smooth. Five thousand cavalrymen plus the emperor's convoy stretched for several miles on the plain road. Of the five thousand cavalrymen, four thousand came from the Zhonglei Camp led by Cao Hong, and the other one thousand Tiger Guard cavalry came from the Wuwei Camp led by Xu Chu. There were nearly a hundred vehicles in the emperor's motorcade. This was not Cao Rui's extravagance, but he really needed so many vehicles to follow him. Even the escort troops were all cavalry, if the followers had to walk, wouldn't they have to move at a snail's pace? In addition to Emperor Cao Rui's ceremonial carriage and attendants, there were also confidential officials and review officials under the Secretariat, attendants, and other inner court officials, and even Sima Yi's Sikong Mansion clerks following behind. But Cao Rui did not ride in a carriage today, but rode on horseback. The emperor's horses were naturally the best of the best. Cao Rui had been practicing swordsmanship and archery since he was ten years old, so riding a horse was common to him, and it even contained a bit of fun. If the superiors like something, the subordinates will naturally follow suit. Sima Yi was only in his forties, and the attendants had been in the army for a long time. They had all fought in the wars during the Jian'an period, and none of them were pretentious. At this time, they were all riding horses behind the emperor. The morning sun was somewhat dazzling. Cao Rui held the whip in his hand, and his body rose and fell slightly as the horse moved. At this moment, Cao Rui suddenly thought of a line of poetry, 'brocade hats and sable furs, a thousand riders rolling over the plain hills', which seemed to be quite appropriate for the current scene. But this line probably refers to Sun Quan, after all, it is "shoot the tiger yourself, and see Sun Lang"! Sun Quan can shoot tigers, but when two armies are facing each other, what use can he be with just one horse? Wasn't it at Xiaoyaojin outside Hefei that he was rushed by Zhang Wenyuan's 800 infantrymen and almost captured? This matter was already known to everyone in Luoyang. On that day, Zhang Liao asked the surrendering soldiers of the Eastern Wu at Xiaoyaojin: "There was a purple-bearded general, with a long upper body and a short lower body, who was good at riding and shooting. Who was he?" The four words "Sun Quan is good at everything" became a joke for the dignitaries in Luoyang after drinking. If you can't catch him on the battlefield, it's always harmless to make jokes after drinking. As for Su Dongpo, who wrote this poem, it would probably be another eight hundred years before he came into this world. At this time, a burst of urgent horse hoofbeats came from behind. Cao Rui was driving his horse forward when he heard Sun Zi's voice behind him. Sun Zi is almost sixty years old now, but he can still ride a horse without any problem. It seems that working for the emperor requires a certain level of skill, and physical condition is also an important point.
Sun Zi slowed down when he was a few feet away from the emperor. Cao Rui did not stop his horse, so Sun Zi had to report the secret to the emperor on horseback. Sun Zi said, "Your Majesty, I just received a message from Chenliu in the back that the Prince of Yongqiu has presented you with a memorial and is here." 'If Su Dongpo is not here, here comes Cao Zijian,' Cao Rui thought. Cao Rui did not turn around on his horse, but turned his head to glance at Sun Zi: "Prince Yongqiu? What does he want from me?" As the Minister of the Central Secretariat, Sun Zi had naturally read all the documents that were delivered to the emperor. Sun Zi paused for a moment and then said, "Your Majesty, the Prince of Yongqiu submitted this memorial to recommend himself to Your Majesty, hoping to serve in the Southern Expedition." Cao Rui's expression turned cold at this time. He gently pulled back the reins, and the white horse under him stopped intelligently. Seeing the emperor stop, Liu Ye behind him quickly signaled the entire team to stop. Cao Rui turned and looked at Sun Zi: "How did Prince Yongqiu know that I was going to march south? Who told him?" Sun Zi didn't know how Cao Zhi got to know about this, so he could only bow his hands and confess his guilt: "It is my fault. I will ask the school to investigate now." Cao Rui did not answer, but continued to ask: "I just left Chenliu this morning, and it is not even noon yet, but the memorial has been sent here from Yongqiu. It seems that someone is still ruthless and has reported the court affairs to the Prince of Yongqiu." "Pass on my order to take the regent and the defense assistant of Prince Yongqiu to the Supreme Court, and have the lieutenant general of the Imperial Guards find two new officials from Luoyang and send them to Prince Yongqiu." Seeing that Cao Rui was angry, Sun Zi bowed and nodded repeatedly. Cao Rui tapped the horse's belly with his foot, and the white horse began to move forward again, and the whole team moved forward again. The emperor did not let Sun Zi leave, so Sun Zi had to control his horse and catch up with the emperor's horse. Cao Rui said: "Sun Zhongshu, how can the Prince of Yongqiu be so ignorant? What can he do at the front? Can he lead the charge or drive a car or a boat? "The previous emperor didn't use him, so I won't use him either. Why do you have to submit petitions again and again to destroy my good impression of him?" If Cao Pi treated Cao Zhi harshly, it was understandable since he was his elder brother and had inherited the throne. Cao Rui was now rehabilitating Cao Hong and using Xiahou Ba in Liang Province, which was the right time to win over the hearts of the Cao and Xiahou families. If Cao Zhi were dealt with, wouldn't all the efforts be wasted? Seeing the emperor asking him a question in a complaining tone, Sun Zi thought for a moment and replied, "Perhaps it is because Prince Yongqiu is in his prime and has nothing to do in Yongqiu Mansion on weekdays. Naturally, he can't hide his thoughts when he is lonely." Cao Rui snorted coldly: "Nothing to do? Then I will arrange some things for him to do and keep him busy." "Sun Zhongshu?" Cao Rui said. Sun Zi quickly responded: "Your Majesty, I am here." Cao Rui asked: "Do you know why there are so few people who understand the classics nowadays?" Why are we talking about the classics? Although Sun Zi was confused, he was still trying to think of the answer in his mind. Although the emperor was not particular about details at times, he still had to be very careful when speaking in front of the emperor. Whether he answered carefully or not, the emperor would definitely be able to tell with his wisdom. Sun Zi said, "I think it may be that there are too few famous teachers of classics. When we reorganized the Imperial College in the past, it took a lot of twists and turns to recruit great scholars and doctors." Cao Rui shook his head slightly: "When it comes to learning the meaning of the classics, learning from a master only means that the explanations are more subtle. What does it have to do with whether the meaning of the classics is popularized?" Sun Zi tried his best to answer once, but he couldn't guess what the emperor wanted to say: "Then I don't know. Your Majesty, what can you tell me?" Cao Rui said calmly: "Nowadays, neither the classics nor other theories are popular. One reason is that there are too few books, and the other is that the meaning of the classics is difficult to understand." "Let me ask you, the words in the Spring and Autumn Annals are profound. If a person with mediocre talent reads Zheng Kangcheng's annotations, can he understand them on his own?" What a joke! If I could understand Zheng Xuan's annotations by myself, what would we need these doctors in the Imperial Academy for? We should just disband the Imperial Academy. Sun Zi replied, "I think it is impossible to understand it." Cao Rui said: "It is because we cannot understand that we need to change it! To promote education, can we only rely on the Imperial Academy to teach more Confucian scholars? Or should we start with the books themselves!" Sun Zi rode his horse behind Cao Rui on his left side, listening quietly to the emperor's speech. He really didn't know how to respond to his majesty's words.
Cao Rui asked: "Secretary Sun, do you think it is possible to translate the scriptures into vernacular Chinese and add detailed annotations?" Sun Zi began to get confused: "Your Majesty, what does Baihua mean? I really don't know." Cao Rui said patiently: "What I mean is that people nowadays use classical Chinese when writing letters and essays, which is concise and elegant." "Now, when we talk to each other, we can speak casually without being too picky about words. This kind of casual everyday language is called vernacular." "When the Imperial College lectured on the sutra, didn't Dr. Zheng and Dr. Gaotang also speak in vernacular?" “If the Five Classics were translated into vernacular, it would surely be easier for scholars to read on their own without a famous teacher by their side.” Sun Zi was still a little confused: "What does this have to do with Prince Yongqiu?" Cao Rui took a breath and said, "King Yongqiu has nothing to do, right? Promoting the Five Classics and promoting education, this shouldn't be unfair to him, right?" "Let him stay in Yongqiu and translate and proofread the Five Classics for me!" The second chapter will be sent out before 12 o'clock today (End of this chapter)