Chapter 450 The Trolling Emperor (2/2)
A group of black cloth men slowly climbed down the wall of Xuchang, leaving the city. One of them was Pu Jing, who abandoned his posts to escape from Cao Cao and his men.
Several officers who did not approve Cao Cao and Tong, such as Chen Gong and Zhang Miao, took many minor officers with them and followed after Pu Jing.
A whole group of 100 men slipped out undetected.
”Lord Pu Jing, where should we go next?”
Pu Jing revealed a faint smile of confidence as he glanced at his prototype musket, which he hid from Cao Cao.
”We're abandoning this country and migrate west.”
Chen Gong was surprised, ”Are we going to serve Liu Bei?”
”No,” Pu Jing snickered as he turned to the blacksmiths, aka gunsmiths-in-training, whom he bribed with immortality promises, ”We're moving to the Roman Empire. I'll teach you about their language along the way.”
'And I'll spread firearm technologies to European countries. I wonder how those Romans and Parthians will do with this kind of weaponry.'
'Also…'
Pu Jing glanced at his clan chat menu.
'I need to get rid of this. It gives too much information about otherworlders.'
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The next day
The disappearance of Pu Jing was within Cao Cao's calculation. As the news of Pu Jing's desertion arrived, everyone could breathe a sigh of relief.
”Good riddance.”
”Yeah. It's better this way.”
Pu Jing was not crazy enough to kill Cao Cao's officers, which avoided the worst-case scenario that many of them could have died by Pu Jing's angel power.
They did not know that Pu Jing had received too many warnings from Lilim that he could no longer kill a civilian with his angel power. Had they knew, Cao Cao and others would have sent as many assassins to claim Pu Jing's life long ago.
Cao Cao later sent men to gather all blacksmiths and Pu Jing's subordinates in Xuchang, planning to squeeze all information about this former premier.
Unfortunately, their men came back with a piece of bad news.
”My lord, all blacksmiths have either died or disappeared.”
”Huh? What about the arquebus crafters or someone with the gun knowledge?”
”Aside from the guys we sent to Liu Bei and Sun Ce, no one has survived.”
”Oh?”
Cao Cao was amused. It seemed Pu Jing was in a rush that he was not thorough with his little escape-with-his-secrets-plan.
Still, having the arquebus makers were no longer important since they had decided to join forces with Tong.
”It doesn't matter. All of you stay here and pretend that you are still preparing to wage war with Zhang Tong. I'll go see the emperor and decide our next move, depending on his action.”
Cao Cao glared at Zhuge Liang, ”Silly brat, since you want to join the emperor so much, you come with me!”
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May 31st, 194 AD.
Ye Palace
Cao Cao and Zhuge Liang had an audience with Tong in the throne room with all Cao clan members and Tong's subordinates as witnesses. Cao Xian and Cao Qinghe were also there to meet their father.
Tong and Cao Cao did not care about their manner. They stared into each other eyes.
Each had different thoughts. Tong was thinking what he should say to break this awkwardness while Cao Cao just wanted to punch Tong to the face.
Since Cao Cao was so mad that he refused to start the conversation, Tong coughed and got to the point.
”Let's get it straight. Will your force surrender to us?”
”… I will surrender to you, but my force will not.”
”Oh?”
The officers and generals in the room were in an uproar as they did not like Cao Cao's attitude, but none of them voiced their dissatisfaction in the open.
”Elaborate, my father-in-law. What do you want? What's your surrender condition?”
”Three conditions. First, my family and my subordinates will still be with me after the handover. None of them won't be jailed, harmed, tortured, arrested, abducted, killed, or sold off as slaves. Their status and ranks will be the same as when they are serving me.”
”That's already two conditions-in-one. I can agree with the part that I won't harm them, but I can't allow all your men to stick around with you 24/7. I'll allocate some of them to manage battalions or cities that need protection, so I can't 100% agree to that.”
”That's fine enough. Second condition, I want the status of the Chancellor of Han. I need to be the only second-in-command.”
”Impossible. All military departments and internal divisions are separated in my government system, so there is nobody that can control all departments but me. Second-in-command doesn't exist here.”
Tong lied. Second-in-command existed in the form of Prime Minister, which Te Langpu was holding. He did not want Cao Cao to fight for this position.
”Then, I want to control your military department.”
”Impossible. Military units are under my direct jurisdiction. We can't allow an outsider to control all of my legions, can we?”
”… Understandable. Then, what about the other domestic departments?”
Tong pondered. At this moment, there were many occupied spots in his minister's ranks.