"Zhou Li" says: To the east of the Central Plains, the natives live in Shaoyang. Its color is green, so it is called Qingzhou.
Qingzhou borders the Bohai Sea to the east, Xuzhou and Yanzhou to the south, and is adjacent to Jizhou and Youzhou to the northwest. It has a total of six commanderies and 65 counties. The governor's seat is Linzi, Shandong.
Jinan Kingdom is located in the south of Qingzhou and has 14 counties under its jurisdiction. It is named because it is located in the south of the ancient river "Jishui". At this time, Liu Kang, the son of Hexian King Liu Li, was granted the title of Kingdom.
"According to common sense, it is impossible for a feudal country to let an outsider become the prime minister. If we want to make an analogy, this position is like the prime minister of the imperial court, the shopkeeper of a merchant, or the general manager of a noble family. Generally, they will arrange candidates they trust." Before rushing to Jinan.
On the carriage, Cai Wan was pointing at a map of Qingzhou on the table to give Cao Cao and Yuan Shao a general introduction to the situation in Jinan.
"Because Mengde was recommended by the gunman Xun, so the king trusts him very much?" Yuan Shao guessed casually.
"Although the name of the 'Eight Dragons of the Xun Family' is big, it is nothing to the emperor's relatives," Cai Wan shook his head and turned to Cao Cao: "Meng De, do you guess why?"
"Hmm... Although there is a suspicion of bragging, the king may want to use my and Ben Chu's 'power' to compete with other kings." Cao Cao, who had already learned the general information about Jinan through his "substitute", carefully reasoned out the situation.
.
"Although it's not a hit, it's not far off." Cai Wan continued.
Right...wait? No?
Cao Cao and his "double" stared at Cai Wan, thinking that she just made a slip of the tongue.
As a state capital with fertile land, rich products, good public security and numerous scenic spots, Qingzhou has been the Liu family's favorite place for enfeoffment in the past. Four of the six counties are enfeoffments, and the villages and towns under its jurisdiction are even smaller.
The feudal states and fiefdoms were fragmented.
Although those kings had the same surname of Liu, they were not in harmony. They would often have conflicts over trivial matters such as your farmers building embankments upstream to block water, or my hunters crossing the border while hunting. When it got heated, they would even gather people to fight.
, but in order not to spread it to the ears of the emperor, both sides often used non-lethal blunt weapons, and the number of people was controlled to less than a thousand. A group of people played ping-pong in a lively manner, and in the end there might not even be anyone seriously injured.
, nicknamed by the people as "the village chief fighting with weapons."
In this "battle of weapons", if one of the participants is suddenly replaced by a veteran who is battle-hardened and murderous...
"You only saw their small-scale conflicts, but you didn't see the real reasons for these conflicts." Cai Wan shook his head, his hair accessories jingling: "These feudal lords want to hand over the feudal country's income in proportion.
It's given to the emperor, although it's not called 'taxation' - so what he values is not your mere five thousand soldiers, but your ability to build Dunqiu from a remote rural area into a wealthy town."
"..." Cao Cao's expression became even weirder.
Although she contributed her own efforts in the first half, due to the expedition to Xiliang in the second half, the development of Dunqiu was completely left to Cai Wan, so Zhenji was... bragging?
————
Qingzhou, the Prime Minister's Mansion of Jinan.
Unlike county magistrates and governors, who are frequently transferred, at the level of prime minister or prefect, the frequency of transfers is very low, so they often merge their private residences with those of the prime minister or prefect, working in the front and living in the back.
Can save some guards.
Xun Nu was promoted to the Third Duke, so he naturally left after being fully prepared. The mansion he left behind had also been tidied up. Cao Cao's concubines, Ding Yi and Bian Ling directed the servants brought from Dunqiu to tidy up the house again.
No need to worry, on the night of taking office, the Prime Minister's arrival banquet was held at the residence. Cao Cao met with the officials in the front, and they received the families of those officials in the back house.
When the new Prime Minister arrived, all his officials came to see him. Liu Kang, the leader of Jinan Kingdom, maintained his identity and would not come to see him in person. He only sent a general manager to the scene, expressing his support for all Cao Cao's decisions.
It means unconditional support.
However, when the old manager had the opportunity to communicate with Cao Cao in private, he also implicitly expressed the hope that he could "create a few more Dunqiu" in the counties under the jurisdiction of Jinan Kingdom.
Zhenji really got it right, people simply looked down upon the five thousand soldiers and horses he brought... Cao Cao felt a little emotional and said that he would live up to the trust entrusted by the king.
"It's none of my business, and I can't read minds," the "substitute" clarified: "The king himself doesn't talk about this matter at all, and his subordinates and other local officials all guess that the king will treat you as a thug.
'."
"It doesn't matter, this incident is a wake-up call for us." After Cao Cao sent the old manager away, he responded to the "substitute": "It's okay for you to investigate specific things, but if the other party doesn't tell the specific plan at all, then
What should we do? We can’t expect everyone to layout like Youruo.”
"Speaking of Youruo, alas..." The "substitute" sighed deeply in the middle of his words.
"We lack civil servants," Cao Cao concluded.
At this time, Cao Cao's two brothers Xiahou Dun and Xiahou Yuan, as well as Dian Wei, whom he nicknamed "Elai", expected them to eliminate the bandits around Jinan, but they would not be able to help at all in political affairs.
In addition, news came from his hometown of Qiao County. It seems that the Cao family and the Xiahou family are very satisfied with Cao Cao's contribution in this battle, and are planning to send three more generals named Li Dian, Le Jin and Cao Ren to support - these people
The name doesn't sound like a civil servant.
As for Cai Wan and Cao Cao themselves, although they are qualified for relevant official positions, Jinan is not a small place like Dunqiuna. It governs 14 counties and townships. Even if only 10% of the people among them question Cai Wan's gender issue, the number is still enough.
If Zhenji is angered, and she beats those who spread the rumors with a harpoon, the situation will become even more unmanageable.
As for Yuan Shao... this joke is not funny at all.
Then, only Zhang Jue, who was just recruited in Xiliang, is left.
In the second half of the Liangzhou War, his long-distance use of the "talisman of life and death" saved Cao Cao's troops the time to heal their wounds and the manpower to guard the prisoners, and thus gained the most military exploits.
From this point of view, he is at least smart enough, and smart people must not be too bad at handling political affairs.
Cao Cao walked back to the banquet venue and looked around, and found Zhang Jue easily. He didn't like official uniforms and always wore loose robes with all the symbols and decorations removed. To a certain extent, he was quite similar to the unparalleled military commander. At this time
As if he didn't like the noise, he hid in a corner of the hall and looked at the guests expressionlessly.
Of course, the Xiahou brothers, Dian Wei and a group of Jinan generals were the main force responsible for the quarrel. However, looking at the hall, they were all strong, powerful warriors with heroic words and deeds. There were no scholars with Eguan Bo belt and feather fan and silk scarf at all.
, Cao Cao felt his forehead began to throb with pain again.
"Speaking of which, the Guan Yu and Zhao Yun we want to recruit are all military generals." The "substitute" added insult to injury.
"They... may be called 'both civil and military'." Cao Cao sighed silently and walked towards Zhang Jue.
Specifically, what should I say? "There is no war at this time. We need to develop Jinan Kingdom. What does Zhang Zhi think?" "I have some tasks related to business, technology and agriculture here. Choose one from them.
"No, no, no, this is too reckless and direct. Only Yuan Shao is suitable for doing this.
"I've met the Prime Minister." "Master Cao is well." "Meng De! Let's drink this!"
Since Cao Cao was the host of this banquet, he would be stopped by people from time to time while walking in the hall. When he finally finished dealing with it and broke through the siege, he found that there was an unknown person in front of Zhang Jue, wearing a scribe's robe.
young people.
Naturally, he could not talk about the development of Jinan to outsiders. Cao Cao was so drunk that he found a seat nearby and sat down. He motioned to the "substitute" to listen. After all, this was the Prime Minister's Office, and it was not possible for the two parties to talk openly.
There was no privacy involved, so Cao Cao did it without any pressure.
The "substitute" responded, and began to shuttle back and forth between the two people and Cao Cao, relaying the content of their conversation. Because the speed was so fast, Cao Cao heard the conversation between the two people at the same time with almost no delay.
"Xiaosheng has met Mr. Zhang."
"Who is your Excellency?"
"Xiaosheng plays Zhicai and has an old relationship with the Xun family. When he came to visit, he found that Uncle Shi had moved to the official position, so he took the opportunity to ask for a drink."
"Oh, so what do you have to say, Mr. Xun?"
"Xiaosheng would like to ask - what does Mr. Zhang think of Taiping Road?"
Cao Cao's eyes widened slightly and he sat up straight. Zhang Jue had never burned a talisman in front of anyone along the way. Every time, he used the tea that had been prepared in the pot to cast the "life and death talisman" and deliberately misled him.
It was some kind of "unparalleled" person who used water to harm and heal, and the Taiping Taoists who traveled with him would not take the initiative to leak the secret, so how did this Xi Zhicai figure it out?
"Taiping Dao can change the common people's view that Fu Shui is a scam to cure diseases. Its Fu Shui has saved countless people, which can be said to be a great merit." Zhang Jue seemed to be shaken, but
Still responded calmly.
"Oh... Then Xiaosheng would like to ask, how would the people of Taiping Road feel if they learned that someone had transformed the things they used to treat diseases and save people into things that killed and hurt people?"
"You!" Even from a distance, Cao Cao could feel Zhang Jue's shock and anger. Looking at his expression, he seemed to want to walk away, but also wanted to hear what else this young man knew.
"Xiao Sheng's last question is, if the new Jinan Prime Minister learns that Mr. Zhang has exposed his territory to the wrath of Taiping Dao for his own selfish interests, what will he think of Mr. Zhang?"
"This...I am not..."
Seeing that Zhang Jue actually wanted to retreat, Cao Cao could no longer stand by and watch. He stood up, strode to the two of them, patted Zhang Jue on the shoulder and said, "On this special day, Zhang Sheng, why are you doing this?"
Putting on such a sad look?"
Before Zhang Jue could speak, Cao Cao continued: "But there is something wrong with your 'origin'? Don't worry, there is no trouble that I, Cao Mengde, can't handle."
"No, my subordinate is fine." Zhang Jue seemed relieved, but refused to say it directly.
"This must be Cao Jinan," said Xi Zhicai, handing over his hand: "Xun Chen, my old friend Xi Zhicai, has some questions that I would like to ask Mr. Cao for advice."
Great... This strategic way of always asking questions to others must be a kind of "strategist characteristic". It is quite complementary to Xun Chen's characteristic of "explaining all problems clearly". This person must be
To stay.
Cao Cao paused and showed a confident smile: "Excuse me, Mr. Xi."
