Three Kingdoms

Cao Cao put down the Zuozhuan in his hand and sighed softly, "When Master Cai taught the Zuozhuan of Zhengxi, I was still puzzled. Now that I think about it, I can understand its meaning... Zhengxi, Zhengxi..."

Xia Hou was sitting aside. His single vision caused a lot of inconvenience. Even to see people, he had to turn in a larger arc than others. When he heard Cao Cao sigh, he turned his head and asked, "Why did my lord say this?"

Cao Cao raised his head and laughed twice, and said: "Do you know, Yuan Rang, that a certain man once made up his mind to make a marquis as a general who conquered the west? He inscribed on his tomb said, 'The tomb of Cao Hou, the former general of the Han Dynasty who conquered the west'. This is enough..."

Xia Hou was stunned for a moment and said: "Now that your majesty attaches great importance to the lord, entrusts you with important tasks, and your grand plan is carried out, so what if you conquer the west?"

Cao Cao still laughed twice, narrowed his eyes and said: "Your Majesty, haha, your Majesty may not completely trust us... The court proposed to move the capital, and instead of looking for someone, he looked for Xunhuangmen..."

Cao Ren nodded and said: "Brother, regarding this matter... moving the capital to Xu County, Yingchuan will inevitably become more powerful..."

Cao Cao stroked his beard, lowered his eyelids, and remained silent. m Most things in the world are like this. It's easy to think about things in hindsight. Everyone can say a few words. But at the moment when you really have to make a choice, who can grit your teeth and withstand the pressure, eliminate all interference, and make the absolutely right decision? Options?

"Everyone, get out!" Cao Cao waved his hand and ordered all the attendants to exit the hall, leaving only Xiahou and Cao Ren.

"Brother..." Cao Ren realized that he had been somewhat reckless just now, but he was also a little surprised by Cao Cao's caution. He looked around at the retreating servants and his eyes were cold, "Why is this? Could it be..."

Xiahou also looked at Cao Cao and said, "This person in the mansion..."

Cao Cao laughed a few times, relaxed his posture, and said: "Yuan Rang, Zi Xiao, don't you two confiscate some singers, dancers, maids, and attendants? If you keep it secret, it will be done. I have my own considerations about this matter. No need to worry.”

"There are five reasons for moving the capital to Xu County..." Cao Cao lowered his voice and explained, "Firstly, it can recruit talents from Yingchuan, secondly, it can capture the hearts of party members, thirdly, it can avoid the attack of Jizhou, and fourthly, it can capture Yuzhou Land, these five..."

Cao Cao laughed twice and did not continue, but changed the subject and said, "Yuan Rang, Zi Xiao, do you know why the imperial court has been in turmoil in the past ten years?"

"First there were the rebellions of the Western Qiang and the Yellow Turbans, and then there were the Donghu and the Xiongnu. During the Zhongping period, Dong Zhuo brought trouble to the imperial court. Until today, the world has collapsed, and each has his own power..." Cao Cao sighed, "What can I say about the king's first month?" Unification... But now we look at it, when will we be able to unify?"

The word "big" in "Great Unification" does not mean the bigness of the big or small, but the greatness of respect. Most of the time, Yitong is interpreted as the meaning of "Yuan Shi", which is the ontology of all things, so in "Great Unification" In its original meaning, it just means that political society relies on a metaphysical ontology from bottom to top, so that this political society obtains a transcendent existence value, rather than conducting politics from top to bottom with a supreme power as the center. Centralization of scope.

So what Cao Cao means here also refers to bottom-up.

But now in the Han Dynasty, the bottom-up foundation has begun to shake, causing the prestige of the entire royal family to be shaky. What does the court need most? The imperial court hoped for the absolute majesty of the Han law, the execution of orders and prohibitions, the supremacy of monarchy based on the effective checks and balances of imperial power and prime ministerial power, absolute loyalty to the emperor and the court, and the people's ability to live and work in peace and contentment, etc.

But now, none of them can be done.

This is an extremely bad signal...

"Nowadays, there are many people from Shandong in the court..." Cao Cao sighed and said, "If this is the case, if it is... so it is the lesser of two evils..." Cao Cao couldn't help but think of Wei Jian, and closed his eyes. Eyes, shook his head.

Cao Ren nodded and said: "So, I know...but the Xun family is in power, so the lord has to guard against it..."

Cao Cao pondered, neither nodding nor shaking his head. The cold wind was howling and snowflakes were flying. Cao Cao couldn't help but wrap up his clothes. It's so cold this winter...

…………………………

Chang'an.

The lobby was warm, and there were three copper basins with some briquettes placed in them, which were smoldering, bringing plenty of warmth.

"Ah, ah..." Pang Tong spread out lazily and pointed at the copper basin and said, "If nothing else, I'm really impressed by this... Well, in the winter, sit and watch the snow falling, raise a glass and warm the new wine, comfortable……"

Shanxi has coal, and in this era, there are still a lot of open-pit coal mines. You can get a lot of coal by just digging on the ground.

When the Little Glacier comes step by step, heating items become particularly important. If Fei doesn't dive in and stir up a stick, charcoal is the top priority among heating items. Therefore, at the end of every year, when winter comes, the price of charcoal will always soar to a quite ridiculous position, and this phenomenon will remain until the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and the royal family will even designate so-called tribute charcoal.

The price of charcoal remains high for a reason. The main reason is that it is difficult to make charcoal. In this era, most people want to keep warm. The rich burn charcoal, while the poor can only burn firewood. Although charcoal is time-consuming and laborious to make, it burns more fully and does not produce too much smoke, so it is very popular with the rich. households’ favor. But firewood is different. As long as there is even a fraction of moisture in it, it will be so smoky that it makes people unable to breathe. It is also not resistant to burning. You often have to go out of the city to cut wood, and the new wood you cut cannot be used. Waiting to dry may seem cheap, but it is actually time-consuming and labor-intensive.

So when Fei Qian tinkered with anthracite, the whole Bingbei went almost crazy. The research and development of anthracite coal did not go smoothly at first, because the mined coal contained sulfur and some other impurities. Once the sulfur was not fully burned, it was simply killing people.

Therefore, at the beginning, anthracite coal could not be spread in large quantities. However, with the large demand for iron-making fuel in Huang's workshop, the desulfurization process has gradually matured, and the technology of cleaning coal and then carbonizing it to make anthracite has gradually matured, and the output has gradually increased. Although anthracite coal also volatilizes some sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide, etc. Fortunately, the content of the deadly gas is not high, and the buildings of this era are not sealed environments. Therefore, the gas from anthracite is actually the same as burning charcoal and does little harm to the human body.

So now, the large-scale use of anthracite can, on the one hand, eliminate the need to continue to cut down a large number of trees, and on the other hand, it also provides Feiqian with a steady stream of financial resources.

Children of noble families who had money in their families naturally tended to use cheaper anthracite after discovering that there was no obvious difference between anthracite coal and charcoal-burning. Although it caused many charcoal-burning workers to lose their jobs, it also provided more coal-mining and charcoal-burning workers. From the work of burning coal, money was collected from the nobles and wealthy households to Fei Qian's hands, and then dispersed to ordinary people who wanted to make some money for their families during their leisure time, and then flowed to the market...

Therefore, unlike other princes, who like bears crawl into caves to hibernate when winter comes, Feiqian is even busier here, with the exchange of materials, the flow of money, and anthracite tightly binding Bingbei and Guanzhong together. , many Guanzhong nobles began to stare, crowding in front of the Chang'an government office all day long, wondering if they could get some benefits from this rolling tide of money.

How many people are there in Bingbei, and how many people are there in Guanzhong? Even if everyone burns a basket of coal in winter, how much is this? Moreover, these coals are dug out from the ground. After cleaning, removing sulfur and carbonization, they can be sold directly for money. It is simply a huge profit. Even if most of them are eaten by General Zhengxi, just drink some soup and you will be full!

As a result, there used to be some noble nobles in Guanzhong who spoke ill of Zhengxi. Now they are all gone. Everyone is eager to catch someone else's excuse, and then pull it off and make money themselves. In the face of interests, fair-weather brothers are nothing... …

This is true in the countryside, and it is true in the court.

Of course, when it comes to the level of the court, interest does not just refer to money.

"Why not use Huang Lao? Isn't it out of date?" Pang Tong laughed, raised his wine glass, and took a sip, "Actually, Dong Gong's method is not that good, but... well, choose the worse of two evils. It’s just light... Look, the harm in the court is now revealed..."

"Which is the lesser of two evils?" Fei Qian shook his head and said, "Actually, I feel it is overkill... You know, many people like to do such things..."

When talking about Huang Lao, many people will probably think of rule by inaction, but in fact, the "inaction" of Huang Lao's teaching is not absolute "inaction", but the king does nothing and the ministers do something under the premise of clear and clear laws.

According to the concept described in the "Four Classics of the Yellow Emperor", although Tao does nothing, Tao can produce laws. Therefore, as the supreme monarch, the behavior should also be like "Tao", after formulating a clear legal system. A kind of "inaction". In Huang Lao's theory, although the monarch can "do nothing", ministers must still "execute the rules on the left and the rules on the right" and must be active.

Fei Qian smiled and said: "The decline of Huang-Lao's learning is not out of time, but because the imperial power wants to dominate the prime minister... So Dong Gong appeared... Then Dong Gong launched New Confucianism, but he certainly did not Thinking that it would be like this now, or...well, or even if he thought about it, he couldn't change anything..."

Pang Tong can be said to be the direct disciple of Pang Degong, or a close disciple, and Pang Degong can be said to be the last great Confucian in the contemporary era who mainly studies Huang-Lao's studies. Therefore, Pang Tong naturally learned a lot of relevant contents of Huang-Lao's studies from Pang Degong. Huang Lao's understanding was even deeper than Fei Qian's.

So when Fei Qian said that the main reason for Huang Lao's decline was the struggle between imperial power and prime minister power, Pang Tong couldn't help but sit up straight, then frowned and thought for a long time, then nodded slowly and said: "Well... you What he said...makes sense...it is indeed true. Emperor Wu was so talented and broad that he naturally could not tolerate anyone gesticulating from the sidelines...Speaking of which, wouldn't it mean that Mr. Huang would never be able to succeed..."

No one in power likes to be ignored, so even if Huang Lao is used in the early stage, things will eventually change.

But does Huang-Lao's learning have no effect at all?

Huang Laozhi emphasized agricultural production and believed that corresponding agricultural policies should be promulgated based on the natural laws of heaven and earth, yin and yang, and the four seasons. Once the policy is formulated, the rulers should be "respectful and frugal and do nothing", and should not carry out large-scale construction projects during the busy farming season to "go against the weather and disrupt the people's achievements", let alone plunder people's wealth so that the people can no longer continue to produce. In order to achieve this kind of "inaction" with non-interference and non-affecting the lives of the people as the main content, the emperor and officials at all levels must be "frugal and simple in life, not extravagant".

Isn't it great?

But it’s not easy to really do it well.

Relying solely on agriculture cannot meet the various needs of social prosperity. Industry, commerce, etc. are also needed, just like anthracite. If there were no anthracite, then the land of Guanzhong where Fei Qian is now would inevitably be the same as other areas. People are huddled in their houses, struggling to endure the severe cold of winter. Where can there be any rolling caravans, traveling thousands of miles in the wind and snow?

So in fact, luxury is not a big sin, it just depends on where it is used.

Why he discussed this issue with Pang Tong was because Fei Qian suddenly discovered that there were some very strange changes in Chang'an. Perhaps it was because Chang'an had never been well received by the Eastern Han Dynasty court, or because the imperial power was now on the decline, and Liu Xie was They are young and have no power, so the gentry children in the vicinity of Chang'an seem to basically keep their loyalty to the emperor and the court in their mouths. The big man is still a big man, but as for which emperor will sit as the head of the big Han, it seems that these people have no idea at all. care.

This is a signal, a signal of a change in ideological trends.

This signal shows that the status of Confucianism seems to have begun to waver along with the turmoil in the court...

The core of Confucianism is ritual. The etiquette system is complicated and many require a lot of money to implement, and the most expensive ones are weddings and funerals. The Han Dynasty ruled the world with filial piety. As a result, ordinary people could not afford to die. In order to express their filial piety, people first advocated generous burials.

The practice of lavish burials began in the Qin Dynasty and became frightening in the Han Dynasty. Burying the dead resulted in bankruptcies, selling them into slavery, corruption and corruption, and desperate people everywhere. As a result, the living were often unable to maintain their lives and were in miserable conditions. . The emperor also repeatedly emphasized the need for sparse burials and even issued edicts, but with little effect.

Because under mainstream Confucian thought, is it really possible to carry out thin burials? If you don’t want your reputation anymore, do you still want to be an official? If one person doesn’t want to be a person, it’s hard for everyone else in the family not to want to be?

Confucianism requires people to learn the classics and meanings, and then through the education and practice of morality, ethics, etiquette and knowledge, so that the daily life of the educated, including food, clothing, housing, transportation, dealing with others, etc., must be close to Confucian moral norms and codes of conduct, and in society Be a good person of benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and trustworthiness, and a gentleman who is gentle, kind, respectful, and frugal, and have the five virtues in your body.

Good is very good, but everything must be reversed.

Confucian rules and regulations that are too thin and too dense are like vines. At first, I didn't think it was a problem, but as time went by, the vines began to spread everywhere, gradually affecting the joints of the entire man, causing the man to become more and more bound. Hands and feet tied...

The various chats in the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the drug-taking and debauchery that broke through the upper and lower limits may also be an instinctive rebound. Now, Fei Qian seems to be using this signal to make this rebound in the Eastern Jin Dynasty come ahead of schedule. So The first thing to do is...

"Shiyuan, what do you think about us having another Baihutong meeting?"