Can I get to the other side?

Xiapi, Xuzhou, Prefecture.

Zhou Yu looked at the information sent back from Huainan County in his hand, his body trembled slightly and he was a little unsteady on his feet.

When Lu Su on the side saw this, he couldn't help but sigh: "I have told you a long time ago that Sun Zhongmou is young, frivolous, narrow-minded, and suspicious. He is not a wise master."

"Surrendering to the imperial court was his last chance, but he did not want to repent. He actually chose to go to war with the imperial court after failing to seize Tonglingdu."

"It is entirely his own fault that he is in this situation now."

As early as a few days ago, they received the news that Tonglingdu was recaptured by Cao Cao. They thought that Sun Quan would give up, but what he did next was simply shocking.

Sun Quan actually chose to lead his troops to attack Huainan County, intending to capture Hefei occupied by Zhang Liao!

They knew then that everything was going to end.

Sure enough, just a few days later, news of the defeat came back from the front. Not only did the 30,000-strong army suffer numerous losses, but even Sun Quan himself was captured alive by Zhang Liao.

It can be described as a complete failure.

Zhou Yu clenched the letter into a ball in his hand and asked Lu Su with a pale face: "Zijing, is there any way to save him?"

"Rebellion, rebellion, rebellion against the imperial court, and false surrender will not be spared by the emperor. In the end, it will definitely be difficult to save one's life!"

Zhou Yu could already foresee Sun Quan's outcome.

Although all of this was the result of Sun Quan's failure to listen to his advice, he could not bear to watch the death of his old friend's brother and his current master.

Moreover, there is an example of Yuan Shao rebelling and being exterminated. I am afraid that not only Sun Quan will die this time, but the entire Sun family may be implicated!

Lu Su shook his head and said, "You have always been resourceful. Since you can't even think of a solution, how can I be any smarter than you?"

"Gongjin, you are upset."

The most important thing as a counselor is to stay calm when facing problems, but Zhou Yu obviously can't stay calm now. After all, caring leads to chaos.

But even calmness was useless, Sun Quan was already in a dead end, and this situation was not something they had the ability to change. "

Then he said: "Besides, before Sun Zhongmou, you should consider your next situation first and think about how to get pardon from the court."

"I think Gong Jin, you should immediately prepare to dedicate the city, take the initiative to hand over half of Xuzhou and ask for surrender."

Lu Su didn't care what would happen to Sun Quan.

He was concerned about Zhou Yu's situation.

Zhou Yu fought against the imperial court with Sun Ce and Sun Quan, and also held important positions such as governor. Even if he was dismissed, he could not erase the crimes he had committed.

If you want to get away with it, you can only take advantage of the fact that the imperial court has not recovered half of Xuzhou to offer Xuzhou in order to reduce the crime.

Moreover, as the emperor values ​​virtuous people and talents, as long as Zhou Yu is willing to plead guilty and show his willingness to serve the court, he is likely to be pardoned by the emperor or even be re-activated.

"This is an act of betraying the Lord, I can do it!"

After hearing this, Zhou Yu flatly rejected Lu Su's proposal.

He has his integrity.

Even though Sun Quan dismissed him from his position and was suspicious of him, he still had no thoughts of betrayal.

"You are so stubborn!"

Lu Su said, hating the ironclad, "All the soldiers and horses under Sun Zhongmou's command were lost in this battle of Zhefei. What else can you do if you don't surrender?"

"Moreover, the imperial troops have no time to recover the lost territory at the moment. When Zhang Liao leads his troops back to Xuzhou and finds that you have not surrendered, you will have no choice but to wait for death!"

"Have you forgotten how you promised me in the first place? Do you still want to continue to resist?"

At the beginning, he asked Zhou Yu to promise him that if things couldn't be done, he would go with him to serve the court, but now Zhou Yu is still stubborn.

How could this not annoy him?

Zhou Yu's expression was complicated. He was silent for a long time before he sighed and nodded heavily.

That's all.

…

Yecheng, Imperial Palace.

In the announcement room.

Liu Xie was sitting behind the dragon case, looking at the memorial presented by Jia Xu and Guo Jia in front of him, frowning as he read it.

These two memorials are the solutions proposed by Guo Jia and Jia Xuti to deal with the problem of aristocratic families using the pioneering policy to occupy land.

However, both of these methods were unsatisfactory. They only treated the symptoms but not the root cause, which did not satisfy him.

Although Liu Xie also knew that it was not easy to solve this matter, he was still unhappy because there was no good solution yet.

Because Zhuge Liang left Yecheng and rushed to the front line, the implementation of the pioneering policy was even less supervised, and the wealthy families took advantage of the loopholes in the policy to occupy land even more unscrupulously.

He desperately wanted to resolve the matter.

At this time, the eunuch on the side reminded him in a low voice: "Your Majesty, it's almost time. The officials have already entered the court to wait. It's time to go to the morning court."

"knew."

When Liu Xie heard this, he just rubbed his eyebrows and said calmly: "Let them continue to wait, and I will go over after handling these things."

There is still a thick pile of government affairs on the table that needs to be dealt with.

But this is just an excuse. The main reason is that he now resists going to court. He feels irritable every time he faces the courtiers in the court.

So these days, whenever he meets with a court meeting, he just delays it as long as he can, and it passes half an hour or an hour late.

The eunuch heard this and had no choice but to agree.

Liu Xie then asked him: "Is there any progress in the frontline war recently? Or is there any new news?"

He has been busy with government affairs recently and has not paid attention to things on the front line for a long time. The last time he received news was the surrender of Sun Quan.

The eunuch said respectfully: "Your Majesty, there is no new battle situation reported yet. If there is any new battle situation, I will definitely report it to Your Majesty as soon as possible."

"However, Duke Wen and General Zhang are both fighting hard on the front line. With the bravery of the two generals, I think it won't be long before news of success comes."

Liu Xie felt a little disappointed when he heard this.

The previous war progressed so smoothly that he felt that the progress was slow now that there had been no new news for more than half a month.

Thinking of this, he suddenly lost the energy to deal with the memorial.

"Forget it, let's show off to Tai'an Palace."

Liu Xie calmed down these thoughts, threw down the memorial in his hand and said, giving up the plan of going to court after finishing the memorial.

What needs to be faced will eventually have to be faced.

Soon Liu Xie arrived at Tai'an Palace.

All civil and military officials gathered in the palace, but because the court meeting started too early, they waited in the palace for a long time, so many people were a little drowsy.

But as Liu Xie entered the hall, the ministers cheered up and did not dare to show the slightest disgrace.

Court meetings are usually very boring.

The things that were reported and discussed were neither big nor small, and the process was very boring, so after discussing several things in succession, Liu Xie was ready to announce his resignation.

But at this time, Yang Xiu suddenly came out and said: "Your Majesty, I have something to report."

Liu Xie turned his attention to him, because Yang Xiu seldom spoke in the court on weekdays. Usually, his father Yang Biao spoke more.

"Dezu, what do you want to report?"

Yang Xiu looked respectful, bowed his head and said with lowered eyebrows: "Your Majesty, I recently checked the family's acres of land and found that the family property has thousands of acres of fertile land.

"So I sent people to investigate carefully and found that these fertile fields were developed by my Yang clan by using the pioneering policy promulgated by Your Majesty."

"And a large number of fertile fields are in the names of slaves and tenant farmers within the clan, in order to circumvent the quota of cultivated land set in the policy."

All the ministers in the palace were shocked when they heard this.

All major aristocratic families are doing this to circumvent the quota for pioneering through affiliation. Is Yang Xiu crazy?

Is it possible to say this on the table?

Even Liu Xie's eyes flashed with surprise, but he did not choose to ask immediately, but waited for Yang Xiu to continue.

"Your Majesty, I am guilty!"

Yang Xiu ignored the looks from the ministers and said with a heavy expression: "The pioneering policy is a good thing that benefits the country and the people, but I failed to restrain the tribesmen and let them compete with the people for land. This is my fault. !”

"I have severely punished all members of my Yang clan who participated in this matter, and confiscated all the fields they gained through pioneering."

"I, the Yang family, are willing to hand over all the land gained from pioneering to the state treasury, and also ask your majesty to govern the ministers and restrain the clan members from lax crimes!"

Yang Xiu's face was full of guilt, and then he knelt down heavily towards Liu Xie, took out a thick stack of land deeds from his sleeves, and presented it with both hands.

But it's not over yet.

After Yang Xiu's words fell, Yang Biao also knelt down and said with great self-blame: "Your Majesty, I am also guilty!"

"I have actually known about the Yang family's occupation of land for a long time, but I chose to turn a blind eye due to family ties."

"If your Majesty wants to punish me, please punish me. You really don't know what the dog is!"

Yang Biao cried bitterly, with tears streaming down his face.

Yang Xiu was shocked when he heard this. He was shocked and angry and said: "My Yang family has been favored by the country for generations, how can my father do such a thing to protect me?"

"Father has betrayed His Majesty's trust in me, Yang!"

His tone was full of sorrow, but in the end he couldn't bear it anymore. He looked up at Liu Xie and said with red eyes: "Your Majesty, my father is old. It is my son who should take the responsibility for his father. Please come down. It’s my fault!”

Yang Biao was very anxious when he heard this and immediately said: "Your Majesty! This matter has nothing to do with Quanzi. Please punish me!"

The father and son argued with each other and were in a stalemate.

All the ministers in the palace were silent at this time.

Especially Fu Wan, Cui Yan, the head of the Dong family and others, although they didn't say a word, they looked at Yang Xiu and his son with eyes that were almost killing people.

This shameless father and son!

How can you be so shameless!

Everyone is using the pioneering policy to make profits, but now you, the Yang family, have jumped out to be a good guy, donated all the land, and even made a drama of father and son fighting in front of the emperor. Then what have they become?

Is it necessary to play like this?

You must know that although it is somewhat unethical to open up wasteland and occupy land, it is legal from a legal perspective. It is just taking advantage of a loophole.

If everyone does this, it will be difficult for the emperor to punish them.

But Yang Xiu not only directly told the story, but also jumped out and confessed, which was equivalent to directly assigning the nature of the matter.

It also gave the emperor a reason to punish everyone!

And how many of the ministers in the palace have clean butts?

On the dragon throne.

Liu Xie looked down at Yang Biao and his son who were crying bitterly, as well as the officials who looked as ugly as if they had eaten flies, and almost couldn't help laughing.

"Wonderful, really wonderful!"

Liu Xie gave Yang Biao and Yang Xiu a thumbs up in his heart.

Even though he knew that the father and son had sold out various major families to gain his favor and benefit the Yang family, he was deeply satisfied.

Liu Xie pretended to be heartbroken and said to Yang Biao and his son: "My dear ministers, you really disappoint me."

"You Yang family is also a wealthy family with thousands of acres of fertile land. Why do you have to compete with those poor people for land?"

Yang Biao said with tears: "I know my crime!"

Liu Xie said with a serious expression: "The national law is in front. Yang Gong protected his clansmen from occupying land, so I have to punish him."

"But considering Yang Gong's loyalty to the Han Dynasty, I will fine him one year's salary and hand over 70% of the land that Yang family has developed. This matter is over."

Liu Xie raised it high and put it down gently.

It was just a punishment of one year's salary, which was not too light or heavy, and then 70% of the land that Yang family had developed was confiscated.

Don't do things too drastically.

If he confiscated all the land of Yang family, he would definitely deal with other families in the future in the same serious way, but doing so would inevitably cause great resistance.

It is enough to confiscate 70% and keep 30%.

Yang Biao certainly understood Liu Xie's purpose of doing this, and he showed a happy expression on his face, kowtowed and thanked him, saying: "Thank you, Your Majesty, for your kindness!"

After dealing with Yang Biao, Liu Xie praised Yang Xiu again, saying: "Dezu is very righteous, and is impartial to his clansmen and relatives, which is quite Xianyi's style."

"This time you took the initiative to expose and report your clansmen, and handed over the land you occupied. Not only are you innocent, but you have made a contribution."

"I will promote you to be a constant attendant and serve me."

Yang Xiu was immediately ecstatic when he heard this!

At present, there are only Sima Yi and Zhuge Liang, the constant attendants in the court. They are both confidants who are favored by the emperor and participate in the central government!

The emperor gave him this position.

What it means is self-evident!

Yang Xiu was so excited that his face flushed, and he said in a trembling voice: "I... thank your majesty for your grace!"

The ministers in the hall looked at Yang Xiu and Yang Biao with envy, jealousy and hatred, and gnashed their teeth in anger.

They hated themselves for not coming up with such a plan earlier, selling out everyone to gain the emperor's favor and enter the central government!

Let Yang Xiu be the first to try it!

Liu Xie looked at everyone, restrained the smile on his face, and said lightly: "After you leave the court, go back and check your family."

"I believe that such things are not only happening in the Yang family. If you can't find out, I will have to let the Embroidered Uniform Envoy go to investigate thoroughly."

Jia Xu smiled slightly and looked at the ministers.

The existence of the Embroidered Uniform Envoy is no longer a secret. Now everyone in the court knows that the emperor has reorganized the Embroidered Uniform Envoy and let Jia Xu be in charge of this agency.

The ministers felt bitter, but they didn't dare to say anything more. They bowed and accepted the order.

It's one thing to hand it over on your own initiative, and it's another thing to be found out by the Embroidered Uniform Envoy. If you have to choose one of the two, you must choose the former.

At least 30% of the land can be retained.

Liu Xie was very satisfied with this. When he was about to announce the withdrawal of the court, Gao Lan hurried into the hall.

"Your Majesty, great victory in Yangzhou!"