Xun Yu was still very diligent in his work, even though he only learned the news in the evening that this mysterious great sage defeated Mi Heng and gave guidance to Kong Rong.
He immediately got on the carriage and went straight to the palace construction site. It took a lot of effort to force Kong Rong back after he had escaped.
Kong Rong was very depressed. He didn't want to be as aggressive as Xun Yu, but his official position was higher than his, so there was nothing he could do if he was caught working overtime.
It was getting late, and many processes on the construction site had been stopped. It was not until dawn the next day that the workers came back to continue working. Now there are only a few small boats on the newly excavated river tributaries transporting giant trees mined from Songshan Mountain.
Although Xun Yu didn't know much about building coordination, he was still better than Kong Rong - after all, he was an existence whose political value was always no less than 98 in the Three Kingdoms games.
The so-called expert knows the way. After a little inspection, Xun Yu concluded that the new construction coordination method that the mysterious sage thought of for Kong Rong could indeed save a lot of building materials transportation workload.
After all, the cost of water transportation is one-twentieth of that of land transportation. Moving such huge wood a little further on the ground is a cost.
Excavation and ramming of earth to build the palace walls was a workload that already needed to be done. According to the calculations of the new coordinator, after switching from digging soil randomly to digging trenches casually, the total transportation distance of rammed soil has also been greatly shortened, which is also a lot of work.
"This person must be a great talent who is good at planning. Brother Wenju, can you tell me his name? Is he sent by you from Qingzhou?"
With Kong Rong's knowledge, his understanding of Zhuge Jin's value was not as thorough as Xun Yu's.
Seeing that Xun Yu attached so much importance to him, he could only tell the truth: "This person's name is Zhuge Jin, and he is from the Zhuge family in Langya. This time, he came to Beijing to present himself to the capital on behalf of Zhendong General Liu Bei."
When Xun Yu heard the name Liu Bei, a trace of alertness flashed in his eyes.
But in this life, he has never had in-depth contact with Liu Bei, and it is impossible for Liu Bei to come to Xudu to join Cao Cao as a capital official.
Therefore, Xun Yu's alertness only passed away for a moment, and he murmured lightly:
"I don't know when this person was recruited by Liu Bei. With such talent, it would be great if he could stay in the capital and serve the court directly."
Xun Yu knew that he could not solve the problem by just thinking, so he hurriedly said goodbye to Kong Rong and returned home. Then he asked Geng Ji to bring Liu Bei and Lu Bu's seals over, so that he could study them carefully.
Xun Yu also read these seals the day before yesterday, but he was not in a hurry to approve them. He still had to ask Cao Cao for instructions on some issues. Now that I know about Zhuge Jin, of course I have to deal with it urgently.
Xun Yu thought carefully and re-wrote his supplementary opinions, preparing to hand them over to Cao Cao tomorrow, asking Cao Cao to order to receive the pilgrim envoy from Xuzhou.
…
In the first year of Jian'an, Cao Cao would still go to court on the day of the court meeting.
Historically, Cao Cao did not dare to go to court until he killed Yilang Zhao Yan and completely offended Liu Xie.
But this day was not the official day of the fifth day, so early in the morning, Cao Cao just took care of daily government affairs in Sikong Mansion.
Those who wanted to see him came directly to Sikong Mansion to speak.
At the beginning of the morning, Xun Yu arrived at Sikong Mansion.
With his status, of course the guards outside would not stop him and let him in directly.
Xun Yu went straight into the front yard until he reached the last courtyard door away from Cao Cao's study, and then turned to the signing room on the left.
Sima Lang, who was working in the side room, immediately stood up and greeted him.
Xun Yu signaled that there was no need to be polite and asked in a low voice: "Does Sikong have some free time?"
Sima Lang replied respectfully: "We are dealing with daily seals, and there are no outsiders. Please wait a moment, and I will pass the message to someone."
With that said, Sima Lang went in first to ask for instructions, and soon came out and asked Xun Yu to come in with him.
In the room, there was a short, fat, middle-aged man with a beard in his early forties, sitting on a short couch with a golden sword and a brush in his hand as powerful as a sword and a halberd. He was reviewing the watch and seals in a dense manner. It was Cao Cao.
After Cao Cao finished giving his instructions, he threw the things on hand aside and casually motioned for Xun Yu to sit down and talk: "Wen Ruo came early today. Let me guess, maybe he found some great sage who asked you to I can’t sit still and am eager to recommend you.”
As soon as Xun Yu sat down, he quickly stood up and bowed in praise: "Sikong Mingjian, your guess is really accurate."
Then, he kept the story short and reported all the news he had learned from Kong Rong yesterday, as well as Zhuge Jin's other performance.
Cao Cao stroked his beard. The order in which he listened to the report was different from what Xun Yu heard from Geng Ji yesterday.
Geng Ji wanted to vent his anger on Xun Yu, so he first reported Zhuge Jin's victory over Mi Heng. As for helping Kong Rong save money and effort, in Geng Ji's eyes it was just an added bonus.
Xun Yu came to report today to promote talents for the country, so he gave priority to Kong Rong's contribution, and finally mentioned Zhuge Jin's pioneering work in Confucian classics.
But it was precisely this reporting sequence that gave Cao Cao a hint of improvement first and then suppression.
Cao Cao stroked his beard and said: "Can he be good at building planning and saving manpower? This is a good thing. He should really be allowed to assist Kong Rong in his work. But the fallacies behind it are not justified..."
Xun Yu was puzzled for a moment: "Why did Sikong say this? I can't understand it. Zhuge Jin's theory has clear outline and purpose, and clear essence and function. It is indeed something that no one has seen before. It has blocked the way since Dong Zhongshu and Gongsun Hong." The past mistakes and omissions can also serve as a warning to others to put the people first..."
Cao Cao raised his hand and said: "I don't believe that no one has noticed Dong Zhongshu's mistake even after three hundred years of Han Confucianism. The so-called sage Confucianism was also created by the times. When Dong Zhongshu and his like rose up under Emperor Xiaowu, they naturally had no choice but to cater to Xiaowu. The 'virtue' one wishes to believe in.
If during the Wen and Jing Dynasties, Confucianism was respected in advance, perhaps the great sages at that time, such as Jia Yi and others, would not explain it like Dong Zhongshu did.
Emperor Xiaowu was just as violent as Qin Shihuang. If Dong Zhongshu told Emperor Xiaowu that "the purpose of the world is to benefit the people of the world, and not to let the emperor use the money and food saved after the day to do other great things," then he would still be regarded as Emperor Xiaowu. Reuse?
Therefore, this theory may be useful in governing the world, so that when the world is at peace, people will not forget their original aspirations and put the people first. But in today's troubled times, it is of no use at all. All the money and food in troubled times should be used to strengthen the army and feed the princes. His great principles are still too far! "
Xun Yu was refuted by Cao Cao, and suddenly felt desolate in his heart. At the same time, he was surprised by Cao Cao's quick reaction. He actually understood the interests behind the academic attitude in an instant. He was really cunning.
He knew that Cao Cao's words were extremely practical. It could be said that his admiration for hegemony was on the same level as that of Qin Shihuang's Xiaowu Emperor.
But I don’t know, if the world is reunified in the future, can Cao Cao recall his original intention, save the internal friction of Legalist politics, and spend it on the "people" again?
"That's all, this issue is too far away. Let's take it one step at a time. Why bother to argue with Meng De?" Xun Yu thought to himself and decided to suppress the argument.
Perhaps even he himself didn't know that his doubts about Cao Cao's "why to unify the world" stemmed from this moment.
Some people regard unifying the world as a means to stabilize the people. Stabilizing the people is the final and fundamental goal and the original intention.
And some people just regard unifying the world as the goal itself. When they achieve this, they don't even think about what they will do next.
Xun Yu couldn't calm down for a long time, so much so that Cao Cao felt strange:
"Why is Wen Ruo distracted? Could it be that he thinks what I said is inappropriate? A little debating on scriptures is of no use. But Zhuge Jin can refute Ni Heng in public, which is enough to please people."
Cao Cao was open-minded and did not care about the issue of face when talking to superiors and subordinates. He thought Xun Yu couldn't care about face, so he would give Xun Yu face.
Only then did Xun Yu come to his senses and hurriedly begged: "In any case, please tell Sikong how Liu Bei and Lu Bu in Xuzhou should respond to the petition? Do you want to summon Zhuge Jin and Chen Deng, the envoys who submitted the petition? I thought that both of them could do it. Try to keep it.”
Cao Cao had a lot of things to do and couldn't remember some details clearly, so he asked first: "Then Liu Bei and Lu Bu asked for any official positions?"
Xun Yu came here after doing his homework and replied: "Liu Bei strongly believed that Lü Bu helped quell the rebellion of Yuan Shu's internal officers Cao Bao, Xu Dan, and Zhang Kuang, so he declared Lü Bu to be the shepherd of Xuzhou.
Liu Bei said that after completely conquering Guangling County, which was partially stolen by Yuan Shu, he discovered more evidence of Yuan Shu's disobedience, and Yuan Shu's general Sun Ce had recently defeated Wu County to pay tribute, forcing Yangzhou Shepherd Liu Yao to a desperate situation. , only Dantu (Zhenjiang) County remains.
Now Yuan Ni has been completely eliminated in Xuzhou, but Yuan Ni has become more and more violent in Yangzhou. Liu Bei asked the court to allow him to continue to pursue Yuan Ni, saying that sooner or later Yuan Shu would have a treasonous intention. He was willing to ignore his own interests and do his best to eliminate the traitors for the court. "
Xun Yu roughly reproduced the content of the memorial that Zhuge Jin instructed Liu Bei to write.
After hearing this, Cao Cao was also surprised by Liu Bei's "wholeheartedness for the country".
"How could Liu Bei be so open-minded? He only wanted to fight for Yuan for the country? Even Xuzhou, which was his foundation, was taken away by Lu Bu for two-thirds in the process of 'counterinsurgency', and he didn't care? He still wants to continue? Are you focused on courting Yuan?" Cao Cao found it unbelievable.
He had always felt that Liu Bei was a character, but he never expected that he would have such an idealistic side.
Of course, he quickly realized that this was probably just empty words and nice words made by Liu Bei after he knew he couldn't get Xia Pi back, and wanted to do a favor and make fewer enemies.
"Liu Bei's forbearance should not be underestimated. But since he is thinking about serving the country, it is better not to reward him heavily. Otherwise, how many princes from other towns are willing to comply with the decree of the Xudu court? Forget it, for the sake of a thousand gold merchants , this time Liu Bei has to be promoted to a higher rank.
As for Lu Bu... he can't be so cheap. Liu Bei wants to sell well, and the court can't sell it, but it can only sell a little. Lu Bu must still be dissatisfied with his sexual desire, so that he will resent Liu Bei and keep each other in check. Forget it, I already know how to deal with it, so I'll call Zhuge Jin and Chen Deng to see you first! "
Cao Cao also figured out that the official position was empty, and it didn't matter if he was given a higher position. In today's world, the key to how large a local territory is is whether it has strong enough troops and horses.
Otherwise, even if he gives Yuan Shao's title of general to Liu Bei, it will be useless. Liu Bei will not be able to win much territory as long as he does not have enough troops.
In this case, why should I begrudge the empty title?
After Xun Yu received Cao Cao's instructions, he immediately conveyed the order and sent someone to the Xuzhou County Residence to notify Zhuge Jin and Chen Deng to come and see him.
