On the streets outside the provincial capital, soldiers were cleaning the battlefield with blood flowing rivers, hurrying back and forth, busy.
After Zhen Yao left the provincial governor's mansion, he saw Qin Mi who was slowly leaving, and hurriedly accelerated his pace and chased after him.
"Brother Zijie, please stay."
Under the bright moonlight, Qin Mi turned around and saw Zhen Yao walking towards him, and asked in confusion: "What do you think of Zihe?"
Zhen Yao (from then on, his name is Zihe) showed a warm smile and said with a somewhat flattering voice: "I have no place to stay in the city. I want to go to Brother Zijie's mansion to bother me for a few days, and I hope Brother Zijie will not refuse me outside the door."
Qin Mi naturally knew this statement was an excuse. Guo Jia attacked Chengdu and destroyed Liu Yan's family first. How big is the state's palace? Even if all the civil and military officials under Guo Jia were living in, it would be easy to get crowded. Besides, Liu Yan and his sons still had a mansion in the city, how could there be no place for Zhen Yao?
It must have another purpose. Qin Mi also wanted to find out some of the truth from Zhen Yao, so he said politely: "Zihe is willing to live in a humble house for a short time, so he can make the humble house full of glory. Please, please."
The two walked side by side on the streets with bloody smell under the moonlight to talk about interesting childhood stories. The strangeness that had not been seen for several years gradually dissipated a little.
Although the Qin family is famous in Yizhou, the house where Qin Mi lives is really a humble house. Apart from the simple utensils, it can be called a house with only a few walls. Chengdu is not Qin Mi's home after all, so it must be just a temporary residence.
Seeing that the sky was about to get dark, the two of them were sleepless and knelt against each other in the room, with tea on the low table in front of them, and chatting leisurely.
After asking each other about their well-being, Qin Mi opened the point, held the teacup on his lips, frowned slightly, and asked in a low voice: "Zihe, I'm going to tell you, after Guo Jia raised his troops to capture Hanzhong, I thought he would stop his troops and accumulate strength and then go to the Yinping County of Wudu. After they fell to their hands north of Chengdu, they rushed south. However, they didn't expect that he had the strength to take Chengdu directly. But after seeing you appear by his side, I suddenly realized that everyone in the world has been deceived by you. It is fake to have a mortal grudge between Guo Jia and the Zhen family. It is true that the Zhen family secretly helped Guo Jia raise an army. As I expected, the Zhen family, the rich Zhen family, is now exhausted."
Rebellion is never enough for a passionate rebellion. There are too many short-lived rebellions, and Guo Jia's thunderous force quickly conquered Yizhou, without complete preparations, it would be absolutely impossible to accomplish anything.
Zhen Yao did not hide this point. Smart people often either humiliate themselves or pretend to be false.
With a hearty smile, Zhen Yao nodded and admitted: "Brother Zijie is as expected. The Zhen family broke the bankruptcy in order to help the lord. My two brothers even thought about selling their ancestral houses together. If it weren't for the purpose of covering up, they would have taken action."
This honest dialogue made Qin Mi frown even more. He couldn't figure out what Guo Jia was worthy of the Zhen family's investment, and even risked the risk of the whole family being buried with him to work hard for Guo Jia.
"What kind of virtue is Guo Jia? If the Zhen family assisted Yuan Shao at this time, they would definitely have a high status among the gentry. In the future, your three brothers will be recommended by the Yuan family, and the position of the three dukes and nine ministers is within reach. Why should you take risks and be together with Guo Jia? You even recognize him as the main person and surrender to your nobleness. If my words are abrupt, I hope to forgive you. In my eyes, the Zhen family's move is unwise."
Qin Mi's words were very pertinent. Guo Jia was born in a low-class family and was previously the son-in-law of the Zhen family. At that time, the Zhen family was a rich family. Although he was not as powerful as the gentry family, he was far from being able to compare with Guo Jia. In the eyes of outsiders, Guo Jia was a son-in-law. After entering the Zhen family, his status was only slightly higher than that of the slaves. He respected each other as a couple closed the door. In the eyes of outsiders, Guo Jia's status in the Zhen family was not as good as his first wife Zhen Jiang.
As for the reason why the Zhen family helped Guo Jia, Qin Mi himself had some insights in this short period of time. He dared not make arbitrarily judge whether it was right or wrong, but it made sense. Qin Mi thought to himself that if Guo Jia succeeded, the Zhen family would rise, and he would have a greater right to control the real power than the merchant Lishi. From the perspective of interests, the Zhen family was taking risks and gaining a greater family business and power. However, Qin Mi turned his heart to find that he still could not understand why the Zhen family wanted to help Guo Jia, because in order to achieve the same goal, the Zhen family could help Yuan Shao, Liu Yu, Yuan Shu, and Han Fu and other heroes. These were all legitimate heroes.
Seeing Qin Mi opposite, it seemed that there were thousands of questions in his heart that could not be solved. Zhen Yao smiled strongly and said, "As Brother Zijie said, the Zhen family had a disagreement at the time to help the lord. My eldest brother Zhen Yu wanted to help the lord because of his friendship. He had known my lord for a long time and made friends with him, and was attracted to him as a confidant. My second brother Zhen Yan was very hesitant to help the lord. Although he was a Han minister, the situation was very chaotic at that time, and the governors of various places had a tendency to be separatist. If the governors of the state were full of wings, the Zhen family would have to be slaughtered. This was a situation that my second brother would not want to see, so he could only serve the powerful lord. My lord has a strategy and a good plan. My second brother has admired him for a long time, so he could only follow the trend and serve my lord. As for what I am, haha, it would be better not to mention it."
Zhen Yao was willing to tell him about it, which surprised Qin Mi. Since they had talked with each other with sincerity, they simply broke the blame and asked to the end. Qin Mi asked: "Why is Zihe willing to help Guo Jia? I'm willing to hear about it later."
A playful smile appeared on his face, and Zhen Yao mocked himself: "Hehe, I just want to follow my lord to go through this world with my lord. Winning, defeat, gains and losses, but in my eyes, it is just a passing cloud, not worth mentioning. What I pursue is this passionate and ups and downs."
Qin Mi was stunned, then laughed to the sky, pointing at Zhen Yao who was laughing helplessly.
Not every family's children take the rise and fall of the family as their responsibility. Zhen Yao does not want to be burdened by the family. Following Guo Jia is like breaking away from the shackles and pursuing a different life of his dreams.
After laughing, the two of them toasted each other with tea instead of wine, drank it all over the place as if they were so happy. After putting down the tea cup, the topic returned to the main business again.
Qin Mi, who restrained her smile, recalled what Guo Jia said to him and asked hesitantly: "Zihe, can you tell me the truth? What will your lord do next?"
Zhen Yao shook his head honestly and said, "Brother Zijie, I can't guess what my lord is thinking. What you and I can think of is that my lord will definitely hold the fourteen northern Yizhou counties in his palms next. I dare not guess what will happen later."
Military operations are very simple, everyone can guess. The key is administrative actions. What will happen to Guo Jia? Will the Yizhou gentry continue to control the power?
After pondering for a moment, Qin Mi asked thoughtfully: "Zihe, how many literati are there with your lord who is in Yizhou this time?"
Zhen Yao did not hide this and said casually: "There are ten military generals who stand alone, and the advisers who come up with advice are not counted as the lowest, six."
After hearing this, Qin Mi breathed a little relieved and said to herself: "I'm relieved."
Qin Mi was naturally relieved when she heard that there were only seven scholars of Zhen Yao beside Guo Jia.
The facts are right in front of you. Guo Jia can only take one way: to recruit the gentry of Yizhou.
Why? Regardless of whether Guo Jia, a civil and military man, could form an independent regime, a centralized leader of the shogunate, just the officials directly under the fourteen counties in northern Yizhou, who would Guo Jia send? Who would Guo Jia send to the 100 counties in the 14 counties?
The biggest reason why the aristocrats were able to control their careers was, in addition to the rise of the family and the way to promote filial piety and honesty, was that not everyone could receive education at this time, and whoever wanted to study could read.
There are also wealthy people in ordinary people, but their children still have no place to study. Schools? They are all private schools opened by gentry.
Take Yingchuan Academy as an example. It is full of children of gentry and wealthy families. Ordinary people want to study, but they have no way. Even if there are wise men who love to accept disciples, they will be excluded and troubled by many parties. Xu Shu is the best example around Guo Jia, and the same is true for Xi Zhicai to fail.
That's why Qin Mi was relieved. So what if Guo Jia is talented? Can one person manage the entire Yizhou well? No, he has only a few strategists and some talented people. At this time, most of the martial arts generals were ignorant, let alone the soldiers under him.
In the end, Guo Jia had to rely on the gentry to govern Yizhou, because the talents who were knowledgeable and able to govern were all in the hands of the gentry.
As if guessing what Qin Mi thought, Zhen Yao said earnestly: "Brother Zijie, although I have a general friendship with you, I can talk and laugh like friends for many years, and it can be said that I will fall in love with you at first sight. Today you visit my lord for the Qin family, which I can understand. People who are not secretly speaking, gentlemen and villains are all in one thought. I will not comment on whether the Qin family is loyal to the emperor and the country. But the Qin family does not care who is the governor of Yizhou and who is the king and domineering in Yizhou. I have no exaggeration, right?"
As soon as he calmed down, Qin Mi closed her eyes and looked sad and nodded slowly. He could shake his head and reject it, but that was too hypocritical and he disdained it. Who is the gentry who is not planning hard for his own interests today?
Didn’t the fourth generation of the Three Dukes Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu use this to gain the support of the gentry in the world?
Qin Mi said bitterly: "The situation is like this. As a child of the Qin family, how can you see the decline of the family? I had no choice but to stand up and come to Chengdu to explore your lord's intentions. It is really because Guo Jia, Yingchuan, is famous for Weihe, and the Qin family has to be careful."
Zhen Yao put away his frivolous smile, reached out to hold Qin Mi's forearm, stared at the other party's eyes, and said sincerely: "Brother Zijie, there is another reason to follow my lord, that is, my lord is not satisfied with the lord who is in peace, and my lord's ambition is the whole world! Brother Zijie, you have read classics and history and are well aware of the great righteousness. You should also know why the world is so devastated. Which is more important, the rise and fall of the world or the rise and fall of the family? Brother Zijie, you are the talent of a national scholar. If you cannot show your strengths, wouldn't it be a regret in the world? You will repay him with a national scholar, and my lord will definitely treat him with a national scholar!"
Chapter completed!