On the twelfth day of the eighth month in the seventh year of the Jian'an Era, Cao Cao, a treacherous hero of his generation, died of illness within Chang'an City at the age of forty-seven.
Yet news of Cao Cao's death had not spread beyond the Office of the Excellency of Works. After discussing it with Cao Cao's principal wife, Lady Ding, Guo Jia advised that the mourning be kept secret.
The rumor that had once circulated through Chang'an City had now become naked reality.
This was because Guo Jia had received Cao Cao's orders to handle the affairs after his death.
After Cao Cao's death, the greatest threat was Ma Chao, who remained within Chang'an City, or rather, the Western Liang army behind him.
Ma Chao might have been brave, but he was only one man. There were still twenty thousand troops in the city, so there was no need to fear him at all.
But behind Ma Chao stood Ma Teng and Han Sui, both highly prestigious in Western Liang. At any moment, they could gather more than ten warlord forces from Western Liang and march south.
Killing Ma Chao first would mean startling the snake in the grass. Once word got out, Ma Teng and Han Sui's troops would come.
Such a vast army was not something the twenty thousand troops in Chang'an, whose morale had fallen, could withstand.
The only option was to secretly summon Xiahou Dun's army southward. His own force still numbered forty thousand men.
Combined with Chang'an's twenty thousand troops, they would be enough to contend against Ma Teng and the others until Liu Bei's army entered Guanzhong.
Some might ask why Guo Jia did not directly contact Liu Bei's army and invite them north to accept their surrender.
After all, Cao Cao's