When the crown prince was in ye, the Marquis of Yanling did not arrive. The scholars and people worked hard and had disease, so there was a commotion in the army. Qunliao is afraid that the world will change, and wants not to lose heart. Kui suggested not to be secretive, but to mourn, so that both inside and outside the arrival, the arrival, each of them can’t move. The Qingzhou army is good at beating drums to attract each other. People think it is appropriate to prohibit it, and those who do not follow it will demand it. Kui thought that “Fang Da was buried at the funeral, and the heir king was not established, so it was appropriate to comfort him”. It is to make a long call and tell the place to give it food.
Notes of Pei Songzhi in volume XV of the annals of the Three Kingdoms – Wei Shu – Biography of Jia Kui
In the 25th year of Jian’an, 220 A.D., Cao Cao died of illness in Luoyang. The mourning minister is Jia Kui. During this period, the Caowei group was temporarily idling. Cao Cao, the eldest brother, died, the crown prince Cao Pi was still in Yecheng, and Cao Zhang, the Marquis of Yanling, was also in Chang’an.
The dominant power of the Caowei group temporarily fell to Jia Kui, the funeral minister. The situation faced by Jia Kui can be said to be intractable. None of the family members in charge came, but the people in the Central Plains suffered from a series of hard labor by Cao’s group, which may change at any time. Just at this time, there was a plague, which made the situation worse, and the situation was grim. Civil and military officials are afraid of changes in the world, so most of them advocate keeping secret and not losing heart.
Qingzhou soldiers want to break up
Jia Kui fully showed his ability to control the situation in this extraordinary period. He stood out all opinions and advocated public mourning. Moreover, both internal and external ministers would come to Cao Cao’s coffin to pay tribute. Let everyone know that Prime Minister Cao has passed away, so as to avoid suspicion, and then effectively control the members participating in the memorial service. After Prime Minister Cao mourned in front of his body, everyone took their places and did not act rashly.
However, the situation does not necessarily follow the steps set by the funeral minister. There are always some unplanned factors, which are Cao Cao’s direct force – Qingzhou army.
At Cao Cao’s memorial service, the ace army actually sounded the war drum and shouted everywhere, “Prime Minister Cao is not here, let’s break up and quit.” From officers to ordinary soldiers, they told each other, called friends, and disintegrated in an uproar.
It is conceivable that such a large army suddenly announced its dissolution and return home without authorization, which had a bad impact. Qingzhou army can be said to be the main force for Cao Cao to pacify the north. When Cao Cao suppressed the Yellow turban uprising, he fought all the way to Jibei, Shandong, and was surrendered by more than 300000 yellow turban troops, plus millions of family members. Cao Cao reorganized this team into professional soldiers. Young and middle-aged people followed him to fight on the front line, and their families planted fields in the rear, forming a military system integrating soldiers and farmers.
Conduct effective counseling
Qingzhou soldiers are Cao Cao’s most powerful horses. They are brave and loyal to Cao Cao. Of course, they are only loyal to Cao Cao and have made immortal contributions to Cao Cao’s reunification of the north. Unexpectedly, as soon as Cao Cao died, the team felt that their loyalty had lost an object, so they rolled up their packages and said goodbye.
Tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of people beat war drums and said goodbye. What was the scene? Members of the Caowei group panicked, not to mention Sun Quan in the South and Liu Bei in the West. So everyone suggested that it should be stopped immediately, and even be done by military justice: “people think it is appropriate to prohibit it, and those who do not follow it will be punished.”
Jia Kui, the funeral minister, believed that the situation at that time was not suitable to use force. Cao Cao had just died, and Cao Pi had not yet succeeded to the throne. At this time, shouting and killing might cause more trouble. If the Qingzhou soldiers and the complaining northern people were intertwined, the consequences would be even more unimaginable. It would be better to appease this group of people, so that they could get together and disperse well, so as to stabilize the situation. So the Qingzhou army was allowed to break up, and the local government was notified to treat them properly and distribute rations along the way. In essence, it acquiesced in the collective retirement of the Qingzhou army.
Jia Kui’s actions won benign consequences. The Qingzhou soldiers were demobilized and returned to the field in a peaceful atmosphere, and Cao Pi succeeded to the throne smoothly. Jia Kui’s brilliance lies in that he can deal with some new elements in the season of the alternation of the old and the new according to the new trend, rather than staying in the old thinking, so he can adapt to the changes and stabilize the original situation at the same time.