This is the residence of Cao Cao, one of the eight captains of Xiyuan. Today, the entire Cao Cao mansion is in a wartime state. All Cao Cao's guests, brothers, and generals have all armed themselves with weapons and are ready for battle.
The reason for this is that Cao Cao came to Yuan Shao's house immediately after Yuan Shao's death, then pulled out the Yitian Sword and returned to Cao Mansion with Yuan Shao's wife and children.
This was not because Cao Cao had an attack on his wife and Yuan Shao came to comfort his wife as soon as he left, but to ensure the lives of Yuan Shao's wife and children.
Although He Jin said that he would ensure the inheritance of Yuan Shao's lineage after Yuan Shao's death, but just listen to what he said. Who knows how sincere He Jin was when he said this?
To take a step back, even if He Jin thinks so from the bottom of his heart, who can guarantee that He Jin's subordinates will not secretly do evil things?
Yuan Shao is a role model in the minds of many young scholars. He has a great reputation, offends many people, and has many enemies. Who is willing to let Yuan Shao II appear?
It's better to take advantage of Yuan Tan's young age and send him directly downstairs to meet Yuan Shao, which can be regarded as a family reunion.
So, without saying a word, Cao Cao took Yuan Shao's wife and children back to Cao's mansion. That night, Yuan Shao's original mansion was burned down.
At this moment, Cao Cao is patrolling the palace with his Yitian Sword, making a full gesture. This is to tell the world that Yuan Shao's wife and daughter have been saved by me, Cao Mengde. If you have any objections, you can come and fight with me first. If I fail,
, you can take action, but don’t do it before you cross my line.
Due to his status, Liu Bei couldn't come directly to help, nor could he come to the platform. He could only ask Guan Yu and Zhang Fei to come with a large group of tough men to help.
At this moment, Cao Cao and Guan Zhang were sitting outside the door of his wife's house, chatting. Suddenly Cao Cao looked at the sky, and then he was greatly shocked.
Seeing the shocked look on Cao Cao's face, Zhang Fei said loudly: "What's wrong? What's wrong? Is Yuan Shao dead? Is the emperor deposed? What did Dong Zhuo do? What is the situation in the world like?"
Although Guan Yu didn't yell like Zhang Fei, he still squinted his eyes and waited for Cao Cao's story.
After all, among the three, only Cao Cao was good at both martial arts and spiritual training, and he was successful in both.
Cao Cao touched his head blankly, and then he realized that there was a trace of cold sweat on his forehead: "This fourth time is amazing. It says that Li Wenyou recommended Wolong again, and Dong Zhongying visited the thatched cottage three times..."
"Wolong? Who is Wolong? The lying dragon? What's the matter with a good dragon lying on the ground instead of flying in the sky?"
Before Cao Cao could finish speaking, Zhang Fei asked a series of questions, directly interrupting Cao Cao. However, Cao Cao didn't take it seriously. After all, Zhang Fei had this character for many years.
"This fourth chapter is relatively long and can be roughly divided into two parts. The first half is about Dong Zhuo deposing and establishing the emperor. Then I went to assassinate Dong Zhuo in the name of sacrificing a sword. However, the assassination failed. I accidentally killed my uncle's family on the way to escape.
, and also said that I would rather betray others than others betray me."
At this moment, Cao Cao felt that the whole world was full of malice. Why? Why did you slander me so much?
What is it about me, Cao Cao, that deserves your slander?
When did I become so bad?
Besides, with my level of cultivation, how could I not even hear clearly about killing a pig? I am an accomplished expert in refining gods. I scanned my mental power and didn’t know everything?
How could he accidentally kill his uncle's family directly because of this?
absurd!
It’s really ridiculous!
Zhang Fei also nodded repeatedly: "That's the truth. Although you are not as powerful as me, you are still considered to be the best in the world. With one person and one sword, he can easily kill through a hundred-man army. Your uncle's family is simply not enough for you to kill alone. "
Guan Yu, on the other hand, stroked his beard: "Mengde, what's next?"
"Next is the second half of the plot. This second half says that after Dong Zhuo was assassinated by me, although he was fine, he was frightened, so he called the military advisor Li Ru to ask him for advice."
"Then Li Ru said that the current situation is essentially that the Kanto scholars are dissatisfied with him, a warrior from Kansai, ascending to a high position."
The Kanto scholars could tolerate their own people being powerful ministers, they could also tolerate generals and other relatives being powerful ministers, and they could even tolerate the sons of aristocratic families from other places being powerful ministers, but they just could not tolerate the Kansai scholars being powerful ministers.
This is a matter of principle!
"Then, Li Ru said that he had no good solution to the current situation. He could only take it one step at a time. However, he had a friend who was ten times more talented than him. Even if he was still alive, he could not compare with him. He is as talented as Guan Zhong and Wei Yang."
"It is also said that this great talent called himself Wolong. He was originally an ordinary student. Later, in order to avoid disaster, he lived in seclusion on the Daqing Mountain fifty miles west of Luoyang City."
"This is what Li Ru is capable of. He is just a villain. It seems that the Crouching Dragon in his mouth is nothing more than that." Zhang Fei said carelessly.
But Guan Yu shook his head directly: "No, although this Li Ru is not good in character, he still has talent. If this Wolong is really ten times more talented than him, then he will really be an unparalleled national scholar."
Having said this, Guan Yu looked at Cao Cao: "What happened next?"
"Later, Dong Zhuo, on Li Ru's suggestion, brought thousands of guards to Wollongong in the Daqing Mountains. It was the first time he saw it, but he didn't see it."
"Then what?" Zhang Fei asked next.
"Then, Li Ru suggested that we come again next time. Li Ru also said that Wo Long is really a national scholar. He is a person who can change the general trend of the world if he gets it. He should not be treated lightly."
"Then Dong Zhuo was very unhappy, but he still followed Li Ru's suggestion. A few days later, Dong Zhuo came again. This time, he did not see Wolong himself, but saw Wolong's book boy. After the book boy knew the purpose of his visit, he took out Wolong's writing A brief analysis of the various classes in the Han Dynasty was given to Dong Zhuo."
At this point, sweat broke out on Cao Cao's forehead again: "In this book, the Han Dynasty is divided into seven levels according to status: emperor, clan, aristocratic family, powerful, good family, commoner, and slave. Analyzed what each level of the group wanted.”
"This book says that different groups want different things. If someone can cleverly exploit this contradiction, they can divide and conquer and let them fight each other. It also says that this method of ruling by dividing different groups according to their wealth and status is called horizontal rule. cut."
When talking about cross-cutting, a picture automatically appeared in Cao Cao's mind: the top is the emperor, below the emperor are the aristocratic families and clans, the third level is the powerful and poor families, the fourth level is the good families and common people, and the fourth level is the noble families and common people. The fifth floor is for tenants and slaves.
There are layers of oppression, with the emperor at the top oppressing everyone in the world.
Grain
A simple cross-section compares the emperor from being the master of the world to the slave owner of the world. It is too cold-blooded and too naked. Cao Cao dislikes this metaphor very much.
Because, any normal person, after seeing this picture, will feel that the rule of aristocratic families, powerful families, clans, and emperors is based on squeezing the people of the world.
There are some things you can do, but you can't say!
Superficial justice, superficial righteousness must still be maintained!
The most typical one is Confucianism. Everyone knows that once Confucian scholar-bureaucrats become officials, nine out of ten will be corrupt officials and villains.
But there are a few corrupt officials who are willing to say openly and honestly that I study just for the sake of greed, lust, and to become a master?
Even if all the common people in the world know, even if all the scholars in the world know, once a scholar becomes an official, nine out of ten will be corrupt officials, but who is willing to openly admit that he is a corrupt official?
No one!
And this picture is just torn apart!
"At the end, I also mentioned that if the method of governance is divided according to factors such as region, it is called vertical cutting. For example, by provoking conflicts between different regions, making the Nanyang gentry the supreme leader and the Runan Yingchuan gentry second.
and others to suppress the scholars in other areas."
Seeing this, Cao Cao couldn't help but break into a cold sweat.
Are there conflicts between regions?
It has always existed!
To be precise, since the First Emperor initiated the centralized and unified system, conflicts between regions have never stopped.
It's just that the central government has always been centralized before, and then the central government suppressed the local governments, and the local governments resisted the central government, and then the two sides continued to fight. This has been the major trend in the world in the past few hundred years.
And this guy Wolong actually proposed the method of vertical cutting in which the central government joins forces with some places to collectively suppress other places.
At that time, the central government and certain regions will join forces to suppress other places, and jointly squeeze the wealthy families, powerful people, good families, and common people in other places.
With Cao Cao's political wisdom, he quickly figured out other uses of vertical cutting: today you can use geographical division to cut, then tomorrow you can use different races to cut, and the day after tomorrow you can even use age to cut.
After a while, Cao Cao murmured: "Whether it is a vertical cut or a cross cut, it is a real stroke of genius. In essence, it is to win over some people and suppress some people. Although this sentence is very simple and straightforward, it explains the essence of politics.
the truth."
This is one sentence of true teaching and thousands of false teachings!
Guan Yu let out a long sigh. Good people should not get involved in politics. Once a person has a relationship with this thing, it will be difficult to continue to be a pure good person.
As for Zhang Fei, he now only feels that people's hearts are like ghosts. He is not afraid of demons and ghosts, but has begun to be afraid of people, especially this guy named Wolong. Although the person has not shown up yet, a simple horizontal and vertical cut directly made Zhang Fei
Cold sweat.
"His grandma, this guy is not a good person!" Zhang Fei said directly after a while.
"Then what? After three visits to the thatched cottage, has Crouching Dragon come out of the mountain for the third time?" Guan Yu continued to ask.
Cao Cao raised his head, looked at the fourth chapter falling in the sky, sighed and said: "I didn't come out of the mountain even though I came out of the mountain."
"Li Ru said that Wolong was originally a student of the imperial family. Before His Majesty's death, he predicted the chaos in the world and the future of fighting among the princes, so he built a thatched cottage in Wolonggang, Daqing Mountain outside Luoyang City, and formed a knot there.
Live in a hut."
"I don't know if I can find him in Wollongong now. Take action quickly to see if this Wolong is really as talented as Li Ru said."
"However, Wolong's real name was never mentioned in this fourth chapter. The plot progressed to Dong Zhuo's third trip to Wollongong and then came to an abrupt end. It said that if you want to know what happened after the funeral, please listen to the explanation in the next chapter."
"After they met, they didn't say anything?"
"No, let me tell you. After meeting, this Wolong was very outspoken. He directly made an argument from the perspective of land transfer, tax population, and the court's finances, saying that the court was bound to collapse, no matter who came to power."
Wolong said that in order to maintain the operation of the Han Dynasty, it was necessary to support a large bureaucracy and maintain a sizable central army with acceptable combat effectiveness.
Feeding a huge bureaucracy requires money, a lot of money. Maintaining an elite central army that can number in the tens of thousands also requires a lot of money.
However, in the Han Dynasty, aristocratic families did not have to pay taxes, and the powerful paid a symbolic amount of taxes. However, a large number of people lost their land and personal freedom in the past rounds of land annexation.
Being able to work as a tenant for a powerful family will naturally not be included in the accounting books.
At its peak, the Han Dynasty could perhaps collect taxes from 40 million people. Before the Yellow Turban Rebellion, it could only collect taxes from 20 million people. After the Yellow Turban Rebellion, it could only collect taxes from 10 million people.
Tax revenue has been significantly reduced, the court's assets have been further misappropriated by powerful families, and more and more money and food are needed to maintain order in the court. No matter who is in power, he will have to face this situation.
And this situation is unsolvable for the current world elites.
"After analyzing all this, Wolong said that when His Majesty was in danger, he left Luoyang City early and settled in a cottage outside the city, because in his opinion, the Han Dynasty was hopeless."
No matter who comes to power, they will face financial ruin, no one pays taxes, and powerful families continue to suck blood from the court.
If you attack powerful families, they will rebel against you, and then the whole world will rebel, with war everywhere. If you don't attack them, you will die slowly.
"unless……"
"Unless what?" Guan Yu asked quickly. As for Zhang Fei, his eyes were as wide as copper bells and he looked at Cao Cao motionless.
They were all curious. Since in Wolong's eyes, the Han Dynasty would perish no matter what, how could he save the Han Dynasty in this case?
"Unless the emperor has great courage, with the Central Army as the core, with the momentum to conquer the world, with the courage to break all the bottles and jars, with Luoyang as the core, he can create a rebellion among the aristocratic families."
"Wolong said, since the world is in ruins, no matter how you improve it, you can't save it, so it's better to break everything and start over. Since the future is destined to be a chaotic era of feuding princes, then the emperor only needs to change his mind and gather the people of the world to still be loyal to the great nation.
People from the Han Dynasty, then the Emperor is the undisputed number one prince in the world today!"
"Then, as the first prince, adopt appropriate strategies to level the world. At the same time, in the process of leveling the world, wipe out the powerful families in the world, crush everything with strong troops, suppress everything with violence, and then conquer the land
Redistribute it to the landless people, establish a new order again, and then rejuvenate the great Han Dynasty!"