The Most Romantic of the Three Kingdoms

Cao Cao and Yuan Shao had their own fortunes. After hearing that Yuan Shao was promoted to General Hu Benzhong, Xun Zhen sent him a letter to express his congratulations.

At the end of April, with the weather getting warmer, Xun Zhen's prefect's mansion was also lively.

But it wasn't because the summer harvest was approaching, or because Cheng Jia, Wei Guang, etc. collected evidence of the Zhao family's illegality in Ye County, making the prefect's mansion lively. Most of them were the parents of various big families in the county and the names of the county. A Confucian and local official of the dynasty who made official careers.

There may be various reasons why they came to pay homage to Xunzhen. Some of them came to congratulate Xunzhen in the name of the summer harvest this year, and some were to thank Xunzhen for stabilizing the situation in Wei County. In the name of thanking Xun Zhen for "rehabilitating and prospering Wei County's literary style", Xun Zhen ordered Shang Zheng and other county officials to repair the school and re-run education last year. In the past six months, many students have entered the school. However, no matter what banners they play and what names they entrust, in fact, their goals are the same, and they all come for the same thing, that is: honoring filial piety and integrity.

Last year, Xun Zhen was the "guardian" of Wei County. He was only acting as an agent, and he had not yet been converted. It was not the real 2,000 stones. In other words, it was a fake 2,000 stone. However, this year's situation is different. Xun Zhen was converted by the imperial court in February this year, that is to say, he now has the power to honor filial piety.

Because of this, these well-heeled people in the county came one after another, wanting to take a path from Xunzhen.

The official career of the Han Dynasty is mainly divided into two categories. One is the official entry of the sword and pen, that is, starting from the county and county officials, and getting promoted step by step, may eventually be valued by a noble or a minister, and can be promoted. There is no shortage of precedents for this way of promotion in the Han Dynasty, especially the former Han Dynasty. The advantage is that even if you are a humble scholar, you still have the opportunity to become two thousand stone. The disadvantage is that the opportunity for this promotion path is too high. It is small, and its promotion is too slow. There are more than a dozen prefectures and more than a hundred counties in the world. How many counties and counties expect to be promoted through this route. Ability and opportunity are indispensable. It can be said that there are very few people who can stand out because of this. less.

Another category is the entry of filial piety and integrity. The filial piety of the Han Dynasty is like a scholar in the Tang and Song dynasties. Once a filial piety and integrity is like a fish leaping out of the dragon gate, the value of the person is immediately different. If there is a shortage of jobs, if you take a walk, you may start out as the county magistrate, or even if you are famous and have a strong voice, you will start out as Qianshi, or even the prefect of two thousand stones.

Therefore, compared with the official entry into the official, from the filial piety into the official is a shortcut to the official career.

It is also for this reason that the annual filial piety in the county is fiercely contested every time, especially for the right surnames of the Guan clan in the county, this annual county filial piety is the top of the clan. In a major event, if the children of the clan can be named as Xiaolian, it will firstly benefit their family reputation, and secondly, being Xiaolian will have the opportunity to enter officialdom, and it will also help to consolidate or enhance their clan's local power.

For this reason, every year when filial piety and integrity are held, it is an excellent time for the governor of the county to make a fortune, or sell favors. Offer large sums of money, bribe the governor of the county, or ask for letters from the dignitaries in the court, forcing the governor of the county to sell his face, and even more despicable, even at the expense of ruining the reputation of the competitor, - Handan Rong is How did you become Xiaolian? Isn't it because of Xun Zhen's request? This is the case in Zhao County, and there is a tendency to ask for entrustment, and so is Wei County. In fact, as early as February and March, when the news of Xun Zhen's conversion by the imperial court reached Wei County, this dark tide began to appear. The fermentation of time finally reached its climax at this time.

Moreover, compared with Zhao County, Wei County's request for entrustment is more popular.

Wei County is a large county, and its population is much larger than Zhao County. A larger population has advantages. According to the rule that one filial and honest person can be recommended for a population of 200,000 people, the number of filial and honest people who can be recommended every year will be a little more, but a larger population also has disadvantages. If there are more, there will be more gentry in the county, and when there are more gentry, there will be more scholars. In addition to these gentry, there are also a large number of poor scholars who rely on their own abilities to study and become famous. For so many people, there are only two or three filial piety a year. It is conceivable that the competition for the low-ranking places is very fierce.

At the peak, within a day, Xun Zhen would meet two or three groups of people. Xun Zhen had two feelings about this.

The first feeling is tireless.

On the one hand, Xun Zhen was busy deploying officials to inspect the farmland and farmland in various places, and at the same time preparing for the upcoming summer harvest. Over there, people kept coming to ask for help, which really bored him, but he couldn't keep them out. If he did, he would definitely offend the big family in this county. He is now focusing on cleaning up the Zhao family in Ye County. I don't want to make too many enemies, so I have to see them and perfunctory them.

The second feeling is that 80% of the people recommended by the entrusting people are the children of the gentry, and the remaining 20% ​​are mostly the sons and nephews of the strong families with the right surname in the county.

It can be seen from this that the gentry has long been the dominant force today, and the situation of "common generals" when the former Han Dynasty was founded is long gone.

In fact, this is inevitable.

As a class, the gentry controlled the public opinion, criticized and praised each other, and invisibly erected a gap, which made it difficult for the humble scholar to stand out. And it was not until he was cast under the tent of Xun Zhen that he was able to serve as an official.

Most of the people they recommended were not recommended by Xun Zhen.

Xun Zhen wanted to recommend only two kinds of people.

One is a really capable person, as long as he has the ability, even if he has shortcomings, it doesn't matter, such as Cheng Jia, the other is a person who has no outstanding ability but is loyal by nature, such a person can also be, such as Cen Rong.

As for the former, Xun Zhen was not "raising talents for the country", but "seeking talents for the common people". Chaos has long been a chronic disease of the Han, and it has long been a disease in the heart. It cannot be reversed by one or two people. Unless the chaos is reshuffled, it may be cured. Therefore, for this "Han family world" that is about to fall , talents are not important anymore, but for the common people, the more this is the time, the more urgently needed talents and sages, why? Recommend a capable person, if he can become an official, not to mention the ruling party, even if he is only a county chief or county chief, it will at least be beneficial to the common people in times of war. .

A talented person is useless to the "Han family world", but to the common people, it is possible that thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions of people will survive the war. Therefore, Xun Zhen The person I want to recommend the most.

If there is no such person, or the number of such people is not enough, then Xun Zhen chooses to recommend the latter.

Regarding the latter, Xun Zhen was actually selfish, because there was a relationship similar to that of "students" between the filial piety and the "judiciary", and the county officials regarded the county governor as "the father of the king". In the same way, the filial and lian people who are promoted often regard "the Lord of the Lord" as the "Master of the Lord", and they are willing to actively do anything for the "Master of the Lord", even sacrificing their lives is not a pity.

In the final analysis, this is due to the style of scholars in the two Han Dynasties. The overall trend of the two Han Dynasties is to value righteousness and ignore death. This is the case with rangers, and the same is true of scholars. Many scholars have cultivated their reputations, and there are many people who regard their reputation as more important than their lives. exist.

In this context, if the person Xun Zhen recommends as Xiaolian is a loyal person, after the world is in chaos, this person is very likely to defect to Xun Zhen, or even if he does not defect to him, he will still be in Wei County or Jizhou, or an official in other places, but when Xun Zhen needed him, he might try his best to help Xun Zhen.

-In fact, when filial piety and integrity were promoted in previous years, there were not a few county governors who had Xunzhen's consideration, and even the filial piety recommended by some county governors every year was a strong person in his prime, even an elderly person. No, why? Because if you recommend an old man, you may recommend this year, but next year the person will be old, and you won't get any reward for "calling the master". Therefore, instead of recommending an old and famous person, it is better to recommend a young and unreputable person. One day, this filial and filial piety who has been promoted will rise to prominence in the future. Not only will the "raiser" himself be rewarded, but even the younger generation of his clan will also be taken care of. This is to treat the "public weapon" of the country as a personal benefit for himself. 's "private device". But having said that, Xun Zhen was different from these "leaders" who only focused on the prime years and not the old. What Xun Zhen asked for was not "wealth and private interests", but "great military and national interests".

All in all, Xun Zhen had already set the standard for this year’s Xiaolian candidates, and considering that he was going to punish Zhao, this year’s Xiaolian might be the only opportunity for him to choose Xiaolian, so even though he was so interested in it. Many people came to ask for it, and even though he deeply felt that it was too difficult for the elites of today's world to be the only one, and it was too difficult for the humble, but he did not give up on the recommendation list sent by these people.

When it comes to the nobility and the poor family, because according to the standards of the Han Dynasty, Xunzhen was a "cold scholar" in his previous life, so he is more emotionally inclined to recommend a cold scholar than a scholar, but taking the current situation as an example, his This wish can only be a wish, no matter how emotionally inclined he is, his reason tells him not to do so.

Because according to the current era, the "benefit" that can be obtained by recommending a cold scholar is far inferior to recommending a scholar from a famous family, especially when the world is known to be in chaos, recommending a cold scholar can only get the cold scholar himself. Ability, but recommending a famous clan scholar, but it is possible to get the energy of his entire clan.

—Although Xun Zhen had appointed many cold men in Yingchuan and Zhao Guoba, he had no other choice at that time. When he was in Yingchuan, he was only a county official at the highest level. Shi's Lieutenant Zhao, but that was only a deputy, not a chief officer, so even if he wanted to recruit scholars, the children of those famous clansmen would not easily join him.

The situation is different now. He was originally "rooted in Miaohong" and was born in the Xun clan of Yingchuan. His status has also become more noble, so he is fully qualified to get the support of the children of the prestigious family in the county and the most prestigious family in the poor county.

-Emotionally, Xun Zhen prefers Han Shi, and intellectually, Xun Zhen must prefer the children of the famous clan. Between emotion and reason, Xun Zhen's choice is not difficult at all, but this does not mean that he is "willing" , He really wants to change the status quo that it is difficult for Han Shi to get ahead, UU reading www. If you want to change uukanshu.com, both are indispensable. One is power, without power, nothing can be done, and the other is the courage to overcome strong resistance. The gentry have monopolized the country's politics and public opinion, and they are a class with vested interests. Powerful and deep-rooted forces, if they want to "seize power" from their hands, the resistance must be great. If one fails, they may even be overthrown by them, so they must have strong courage. Both, courage, Xun Zhen may have , But he doesn't have power now, so he can only think about changing the status quo.

The times create heroes, and heroes create the times. Only by first adapting to the times, and after the stage of "the times make heroes", may it be possible to "the heroes make the times".

Since Xun Zhen has this standard of filial piety and integrity, he does not take things lightly in terms of "strategic" to those who come to ask for help, but he does not take it lightly in terms of "tactics". If you look closely, if he is familiar with it, he has his own judgment. If he is not familiar with it, he will ask Cheng Jia, Xun You, etc. to secretly inquire about the talents and qualities of these people after the people who have asked for the entrustment leave. Stay on the list temporarily, if it doesn't work, just exclude it.

On the one hand, he was "passively" waiting for people to ask for entrustment and recommendations, and on the other hand, he also "actively" attacked, asking Liu Bei, Chen Dao, Xuankang and other county "commanders" to find scholars and scholars who met his two requirements. Han Shi, all those who are qualified will be reported.

As for the specific candidates, I am not in a hurry to make a decision, because it is still early before the time for filial piety and integrity stipulated by the court, and there is still enough time to slowly consider and choose, as long as the decision on the candidate can be made before August or September Okay. (To be continued)