279. Cao Cao's Political Move

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Liu Yao's family let out mournful cries and wails as they saw Liu Yao fall onto the ground with a large amount of blood coming out from his mouth, when the doctors were called and saw this they knew that they couldn't help Liu Yao so they shake their head toward Sun Jian, who in return wave his hand to say that it was okay and look up to the sky tho king that if Liu Yao's words will come true that the Sun Clan will never become a great power or even a hegemon of this land, not knowing that in the original timeline, it does come true but at the cost of his and Sun Ce's death.

Since Liu Yao chose to kill himself, Sun Jian doesn't need to be afraid of the political ramifications against him, since many people not just him, Liu Yao's family, and Sun Jian's men saw this, but the commoners that hid inside their houses also saw this scene.

Huan Jie at Sun Jian's side told him to bury Liu Yao's body with honor befitting of his station, and that Liu Yao's family be given accommodations that would ensure they stay there safely and without any political implications implicated to them.

Sun Jian nodded his head and ordered his men to do as Huan Jie had just said, and he felt that since Yuzhang was too close to Liu Biao and Jing Province, he decided to relocate his capital to Jiangle, the capital of Jiangle County.

Huan Jie felt that Sun Jian's concern made sense so he supported his decision, and with that, it was decided that Sun Jian relocate his capital to Jiangle, while the decision was being made, Sun Ce and Zhou Yu managed to pacify Lean and Jiangping County.

Sun Ce and Zhou Yu have shown each of their advantages in this war, Sun Ce with his bravery and might while Zhou Yu with his intellect and guile, making the two of them undefeated in their battle.

When they finally regrouped after specifying Lean and Jiangping County, a messenger from Sun Jian arrived and informed them of his decision to relocate the Capital from Yuzhang to Jiangle, and ordered them to escort the Sun Clan and its retainers household from Yuzhang toward Jiangle.

They received the order and with that Sun Ce alongside Zhou Yu and his army consolidated Sun Clan's control over Lean and Jiangping County, after that, they headed toward Yuzhang to inform and escort the entirety of Sun Clan & its retainers household.

Soon the news of Liu Yao's defeat and his passing by suicide spread across the land, marking him as the third Imperial Scion joining Liu Yu and Liu Yan which shocked the land, as they didn't expect that another Imperial Scion would die so soon.

Of course, some Han Dynasty diehards blamed Sun Jian and put him as Liu Yao's killer, including Liu Biao who actually didn't care about the Han Dynasty, but just wanted to sprinkle oil onto the fire as he had a grudge against Sun Jian.

So the pressure was once again mounted on Cao Cao who held the Emperor in his palm, while the people slowly forgot and abandoned their loyalty toward the Han Dynasty, it's not fading that fast even though the matter of Yuan Shao killing all Gongsun Zan's male relative above 10 years old have made the people abandon its loyalty.

In Xuchang, Cao Cao gathered all of his advisors for an emergency meeting to discuss this matter, if he let it ferment just like the Gongsun Zan accident, not only Han Dynasty prestige be impacted, but his prestige in the eyes of the Warlord would also be impacted.

Except for the commoners, everyone who has at least a slight interest in the current political situation, knows that he controls the Emperor, and whatever edict comes outside is under his approval.

Cao Cao: "Everyone should have known about the news of Liu Yao's death, while he is the Imperial Scion with the least amount of prestige even Liu Bei has much more than him, he is still an Imperia Scion so what suggestion do you have to handle this matter?"

Cheng Yu: "My Lord since we have just passed a large amount of pressure due to Gongsun Zan's accident, if we stay silent now and don't respond, your prestige will be harmed, and according to the rumor and information I received, it was true that Liu Yao choose to kill himself."

Cao Cao: "I see, how of his body and his family? Liu Yao at the end of the day is an Imperial Scion, he needs a burial befitting of his station at least the minimum level, and his family has to be safe and not implicated."

Xun Yu: "According to the information of our spies My Lord, Liu Yao's body was given the proper burial and was treated with respect, he was buried at his Capital, and as for his family, they were treated with respect they deserve, and out on a large mansion, in which they was put into a house arrest."

Guo Jia: "Of course even though those were the facts that were said by Master Xun Yu and Master Cheng Yu, many people were flaming the flames to force My Lord to move, one of them was Liu Biao which gave the fake news more legitimacy."

Cao Cao: "Humph that bastard Liu Biao, an old food that only dared to hide in Jing Province, taking Xinye from me, and now he wants to have me burned?! Since he thought like that, I think we can release not just one but several edicts."

Xi Zhicai: "Several Edicts My Lord? Hmm, I think My Lord is using the Emperor to change some of the political landscape, is one of them to promote Sun Jian as the Governor of Yang Province?"

Cao Cao: "Haha Zhicai knows me best, yes that's true one of them is an edict promoting Sun Jian as the permanent Governor of Yang Province, and to calm the backlash we will receive of this, we will confer all the death Imperial Scions the rank of Duke to calm down the people."

Dong Zhao: "An excellent idea My Lord! By doing so we should confer that it was a hereditary title and would be passed down to their families, we don't lose anything but gain the pepper respect!"

Jia Kui: "My Lord I propose for them to be conferred Duke of Yi, Duke Of Yang, and Duke of You to unstable this region, and since My Lord has planned to promote Sun Jian and confer Han Dynasty peerages, that means other Warlord will also receive them."

Cao Cao let out a loud laugh and praised both Dong Zhao and Jia Kui, he was satisfied with these two men who had recently entered his service, while they were not on the level of Guo Jia, Xi Zhicai, Xun Yu, and Cheng Yu, they were powerful in their own right.

Jia Kui was from Xiangling County in Ji Province, after becoming an adept scholar at 18 years old, he entered the Government offices under Yuan Shao's rule, but due to him coming from a humble background, he wasn't trusted and just became a small clerk.

After 3 years of service being mistreated and used, he heard of Cao Cao's fame and love of talent so he resigned and came to enter Cao Cao's service at 21 years old, in the original timeline, all of this was different but Lie Fan's butterfly effect has changed many things.

As for Dong Zhao, like in the original timeline he served Yuan Shao as a military adviser and then fled for his life as he was being slandered in which Yuan Shao believed those slanders, and decided to flee to Chang'An to Emperor Xian.

But he was captured by Zhang Yang and served him for some years before managed to flee and join Emperor Xian, where he proposed for Emperor Xian to welcome Cao Cao and thank him for saving him.

After serving Emperor Xian for some time, he was satisfied and finally entered Cao Cao's service as an adviser and this is his first appearance as Cao Cao's adviser on an emergency meeting.

Xun Yu, Guo Jia, Cheng Yu, and Xi Zhicai actually knew what Cao Cao was thinking, but they wanted to evaluate both Dong Zhao and Jia Kui to see if they had the talent and they weren't disappointed.

While Dong Zhao was much older than them, it doesn't mean he was much better and more talented than them, back to the topic after Dong Zhao and Jia Kui said that, Cao Cao laid out his plan.

He also promoted Yuan Shao as the Governor of both Ji and You Provinces letting him have skirmishes with Zhang Yang, Zhang Yan, and Gongsun Du, while also conferring him the title Marquis of Pingyuan.

Liu Biao received the title Duke of Jing, and Liu Bei received the title Earl of Beihai, where other than the title they didn't receive any other things, they should have received a pension but the Han Dynasty was without a treasury and didn't have control over its land so no pay.

Ma Teng and Han Sui were promoted to Governor and Inspector of Liang Province, and lastly, Lie Fan received the peerage of Marquis of Xu and was elevated from General of The Left to the General Who Pacifies The East.

As for the rest who wasn't being named by Cao Cao, he didn't take them as a threat and they weren't players who could influence the chessboard, and after Cao Cao laid out the promotions and conferred titles, Xi Zhicai, Guo Jia, and Xun Yu sees the advantage of his plan clearly now.

By doing this Cao Cao basically handed pieces of cake to all these people, while it didn't come with the pay they should have received and households they could have under them, the prestige they revived is numerous which could stabilize their force and processes what they have received and at the same time, they owed Cao Cao's a favor by doing so.

This also elevated Cao Cao's prestige but on the other hand, revived the Han Dynasty's stained prestige, which was a small price to pay to keep other forces guessing what Cao Cao meant by giving them these titles and promotions, which bought Cao Cao time to finish his intrigue battle with Liu Bei over Qing Province and prepared himself for the inevitable battle with Yuan Shao on his north while also eying Hongnong, which was under Zhang Ji's rule.

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Name: Lie Fan

Title: Three Heroes Who Defeat Lu Bu

Age: 28 (195 AD)

Level: 16

Next Level: 2,462,000

Renown: 725

Cultivation: Yin Yang Separation (level 9)

SP: 1,071,700

ATTRIBUTE POINTS

STR: 936 (+20)

VIT: 598 (+20)

AGI: 583 (+10)

INT: 587

CHR: 93

WIS: 509

WILL: 397

ATR Points: 0