Three Kingdoms: Let Yuan Shen be great again

Chapter 11 Heeding advice leads to a good meal; this is why Yuan Yao prospered.

Yuan Yao: "I originally intended to treat you as a loyal subject and filial son, but instead I've been met with misunderstandings. Fine, I'm going to stage a coup, I'm laying my cards on the table!"

Yuan Yao stated that he planned to launch a small-scale coup, place the current Zhong family emperor Yuan Shu under house arrest, and replace him with himself to take power, thus finding a way out for the Zhong family.

How to put it? In the Han Dynasty, a country that ruled by filial piety, this plan could be considered extremely filial and disruptive.

However, although the expressions of the people present were different, they all remained seated and none of them immediately jumped up to object.

The reason is not complicated.

The most realistic factor is that the Zhong family's current state is truly on the verge of collapse, to the point that even the most outrageous plans are worth discussing.

A more realistic factor is that—there's no way around it, the contrast with Yuan Shikai is just too perfect.

As the king of clowns in the Three Kingdoms era, Yuan Shu's life was one of making a mess of things. He managed to turn a perfect start into such a disastrous mess that it's hard not to suspect that he was bound to some kind of abstract mentor system.

As a result, when Yuan Yao proposed to rebel against his father, the others didn't know what to say. They couldn't exactly praise him for having his father's style, could they?

However, after further in-depth consideration, some people still raised different opinions.

Yan Xiang sighed deeply, "Your Highness, with a formidable enemy at hand, how can we allow internal strife to arise... I will pretend I never heard these words today, and let's not mention this matter again in the future."

Yuan Yao persisted, "Lord Yan, do I truly have no hope of succeeding?"

"No." Yan Xiang shook his head: "Besides, what's the use of succeeding by chance? It would only benefit Cao Cao for nothing and make him a laughingstock."

Yuan Yao: "Hmm..."

Yan Xiang couldn't help but speak again: "Refusing loyal advice and usurping the imperial title—this is why the Yuan family declined. Your Highness once discussed this matter with me, and you never failed to lament His Majesty's arrogance. Why must you repeat the same mistakes today?"

"Alright." Yuan Yao stopped dwelling on it and nodded, "In that case, let's do as you say and let's drop this matter for now."

"Huh?" This time Yan Xiangzhen was stunned.

Can a coup be reversed so easily?

However, Yuan Yao's expression didn't seem like he was joking.

Yan Xiang had no choice but to stand up: "This old minister takes his leave." After taking two steps, he turned back: "I hope Your Highness will take good care of yourself."

Yuan Yao watched Yan Xiang leave without stopping him.

Seeing this, Huang Yi stammered, "Your Highness, I'm timid, so I won't get involved in this matter. But don't worry, I will never report you!"

After saying that, they also had to leave.

"Haha, brother-in-law, you're overthinking it." Yuan Yao laughed loudly, "Today, whoever can leave, you can't."

Huang Yi was dumbfounded: "Huh?"

Soon, two Imperial Guard soldiers arrived and arrested their nominal superior. Huang Yi dared not resist and obediently allowed himself to be taken away.

Only Yuan Yao and Cao Xing remained in the camp.

Seeing Yuan Yao looking at him again, Cao Xing grinned and said, "Young lord, there's no need to worry. I've already said before that I will follow your lead without question."

Yuan Yao nodded: "I'm never worried about that."

I'm not worried at all.

Ever since Yuan Shu broke off the engagement between Yuan Yao and Miss Lü, and repeatedly looked down on Lü Bu, Cao Xing couldn't wait for the old man to die. A coup was exactly what he wanted.

However, Cao Xing also felt that Yuan Yao's coup plan had a low success rate: "Alas, if even Yan Xiang and Huang Yi do not support the young lord, I'm afraid we will have to fight alone."

"Huh?" Yuan Yao asked, somewhat surprised. "Why do you think they don't support it?"

Cao Xing was taken aback, then suddenly realized what Yuan Yao meant.

They were planning a major rebellion. Unless they explicitly refused and immediately reported it to Yuan Shu for suppression, whether they joined directly, advised him to give up, or adopted a neutral stance of backing down, they were essentially siding with Yuan Yao.

In other words, Yan Xiang and Huang Yi opposed neither Yuan Yao nor the coup, but the failed coup.

Therefore, Yuan Yao did not force them and allowed them to hesitate some more. However, Huang Yi was a man without any guile and could not keep secrets. In order to prevent him from being passively leaked, he was detained in the military camp.

On the other hand, their attitude also made Yuan Yao realize that now was indeed not the best opportunity to eliminate insects and shoot down the sun.

Yan Xiang is right. Yuan Yao at this time is quite similar to Yuan Shu at that time. He seems to have accumulated some strength and the situation seems to be in his favor. So he gradually develops evil thoughts in his heart, thinking that he can take advantage of the situation.

However, this is not the case.

At present, Yuan Yao is not enough to convince others. Although people are dissatisfied with Yuan Shu, it does not mean that they will accept Yuan Yao's forced rise to power.

Even if Yuan Yao fought desperately and succeeded by chance, the result would only be that the already precarious Zhong family would collapse on the spot, unable to resist Cao Cao's conquest.

So we need to be patient and do some more preliminary preparations to make the timing more opportune.

Specifically, what preparatory work is needed?

First, Yuan Yao needed a reliable gun; without a gun, nothing could be accomplished.

Secondly, he needs to establish his personal prestige as soon as possible and become a potential monarch that people are willing to trust.

Finally, we must find a way to win over more people and tie as many as possible to our cause.

These tasks are not easy to accomplish. Considering that the Zhong family is in imminent danger, he doesn't even have much time to carefully plan, further increasing the difficulty.

But it's not entirely impossible.

Regarding spears, Yuan Yao already had three hundred imperial guards, plus the loyalty of five hundred remnants of Lü Bu's army.

As for enhancing personal prestige and how to get the rest of the Zhong clan to side with him, these two things would be very difficult to do in practice, but with Yuan Shu's assistance, they would be much easier.

Oh, right, there's one more little thing to be careful about: don't let something go wrong unexpectedly.

Yuan Yao gestured to Cao Xing with his eyes.

Cao Xing immediately understood: "Don't worry, young lord, I will send people to keep an eye on Yan Xiang and Huang Yi day and night."

Yuan Yao nodded: "Yes, you know what to do if they do anything unusual, right?"

Cao Xing thought for a moment, then tentatively asked, "Should we just kill them?"

Yuan Yao was filled with awe: "Do you think I'm a born killer? Of course you're here to let me know so we can run away!"

With Yuan Yao's current resources, he could find a place to eat anywhere in the world. He's only putting in so much effort now because he thinks the Yuan family can still be saved.

Over the next few days, events unfolded exactly as Yuan Yao had predicted.

Neither Yan Xiang nor Huang Yi attempted to report Yuan Yao, while the other members of the Zhong clan grew increasingly tense under the pressure of Cao Cao's impending attack, ultimately transferring this pressure onto Yuan Shu.

This caused Yuan Shu to gradually evolve into the ultimate form of Yuan Tou, an old man, who began to breathe on everyone around him equally.

First, they brought up the old grievances between Lei Bo and Chen Lan, and questioned General Zhang Xun about how he could arbitrarily recruit these two traitors. They asked, "Who is in charge here, Zhong Shi or am I?"

Seeing that Chief Clerk Yang Hong could not come up with any way to deal with Cao Cao's army and could only talk nonsense in circles, he immediately rebuked Yang Hong for being a lazy and incompetent official who had been unworthy of the emperor's favor.

Even the innocent Yuan Yao, who was passing by, was kicked. Yuan Shu criticized him for spending these days in the military camp doing nothing, and wondered how he would be a good successor of the Zhong family in the future.

The atmosphere in Wancheng was already tense, and Yuan Shu's outburst further provoked the situation, making everyone even more anxious.

Seeing Yuan Shu rushing headlong in a suicidal direction, Cao Xing couldn't contain his joy and hurriedly went to Yuan Yao for instructions.

Cao Xing: "Yan Xiang has been sighing and lamenting these past few days, seemingly regretting his actions. Even he can't take it anymore. Shouldn't we make our move?"

Yuan Yao: "No rush, let's play around with him a bit more."