After finally handling all important official and conferment matters, Zhuge Jin certainly didn't want to stay in Xudu for a day longer.
Everything he wanted has been exceeded, and Cao Cao has also noticed him.
It is nonsense to want to recruit talents from Xudu. We have tried and failed before. Everyone who comes here wants to be canonized directly by the imperial court, and their purpose is very clear, just like those Beidiao people in later generations who "would rather have a bed in the capital than an apartment in another place."
In this case, Zhuge Jin did not want to create extraneous problems. After leaving the palace, he planned to leave the city at noon that day.
Unfortunately, Cao Cao seemed to want to win over them with a final favor, so he had to hold a private banquet for him and Chen Dengjian in Sikong Mansion, and then ordered someone to send some gold and jewelry privately as payment.
The scale of the banquet was not large, and Cao Cao himself, plus Xun Yu, Sima Lang, and Geng Ji attended.
Zhuge Jin couldn't refuse, so he had to continue to pretend to be flattered and give in to the other party, and he drank until the afternoon.
Just as the banquet was about to end, the arrival of an uninvited guest suddenly interrupted the atmosphere of the banquet.
I saw Cao Cao getting up from drinking and drawing a big cake with official appointments and wishes. An official from the Sikong Mansion hurried in to report.
Cao Cao raised his eyebrows and looked slightly unhappy, but he still held back. He immediately stood up and straightened his clothes. He also turned to Zhuge Jin and said, "Tzuyu is so knowledgeable that he went to heaven to listen. The emperor sent Zhao Yilang to summon him. There must be something important, so I’ll just go out to meet you.”
It turned out that Liu Xie sent Zhao Yan to summon him, but he didn't know why. He had just met him during the court meeting in the morning.
Zhao Yan went to the Xuzhou County Residence just now, but did not find Zhuge Jin. After asking others, he found the Sikong Mansion along the way.
Cao Cao personally led the people out to greet him. After everyone saluted, Zhao Yan said: "After your Majesty's meeting today, I felt that Captain Zhuge was very talented and learned a lot, so he asked about it. I learned that he had actually won a debate on the classics and its meaning. Mi Heng, a famous scholar today, speaks brilliantly. Your Majesty is eager to learn and wants to deal with the rise and fall of the pre-Qin Dynasty and this dynasty."
Only then did everyone know that it was because Zhuge Jin's words of refuting Mi Heng in front of more than a hundred people seeking official positions reached Liu Xie's ears that day.
Cao Cao was surprised at first. How could this kind of civil academic debate interest the emperor?
But he reacted quickly, and then realized that Liu Xie was trying to find some spiritual sustenance and comfort - after all, the Han Confucian scholars in the previous four hundred years had always said, "Qin was virtuous first, but then lost its virtue. Han inherited Qin's virtue." , inherent in the world."
As a result, every time when the world is in turmoil, countless people will wonder whether it is time for Han to lose his morality.
When Wang Mang was able to usurp the Han Dynasty, an important reason was that the Confucianists themselves took refuge in Wang Mang, built momentum for Wang Mang, and said that Wang Mang inherited the virtues of the Han Dynasty.
However, Zhuge Jin refuted Mi Heng's remarks the day before yesterday and postponed the "beginning of virtue" from "one world" to "one world." If we dig deeper, we may find that "Qin was finished before it had time to be virtuous, so Han is the origin of virtue and the beginning of virtue."
As Liu Xie, once he learned about this political philosophy theory, wouldn't he want to dig deeper into this spiritual sustenance?
After thinking about this, Cao Cao had nothing to blame Zhuge Jin. The emperor's private chat with him was probably not about some political strategy.
As for the emperor asking for spiritual comfort, haha, what kind of trouble can such an illusory thing cause?
Cao Cao was the most pragmatic person and looked down upon the role of political philosophy the most, so he was not worried at all.
Zhuge Jin was still a little cautious and quickly accused Zhao Yan: "Your Majesty summoned you immediately? I have just had a banquet and I am afraid that I will lose my etiquette after drinking..."
Zhao Yan did not embarrass him: "Your Majesty has spoken, and you will just have to see him tomorrow morning."
The emperor summoned people at short notice, some in a hurry, but more often he made an appointment in advance. Because the emperor doesn't know when the messenger will be found, and he won't be waiting all the time. Academic discussions are not urgent business.
Zhuge Jin breathed a sigh of relief. After sending Zhao Yan off respectfully, he had to ask Cao Cao for instructions: When he was debating with Ni Heng that day, in order to win, he made a shocking statement for a while. He didn't know when he was in front of the emperor, he should not say it... …
Cao Cao didn't embarrass him. He set the tone a little and asked him not to criticize his predecessors too much, but to grasp the scale, and then let him go back to his residence.
Cao Cao also saw it. After Zhuge Jin heard Zhao Yan's summons, his first reaction was to delay by using the excuse of drinking too much, and then asked him for instructions.
It can be seen that there is no conspiracy in this matter. It is the emperor's impromptu decision and the discussion is Confucianism. There is no possibility of any substantial harm.
If Zhuge Jin was like Dong Cheng three years later in parallel time and space, who hurried away immediately when summoned by the emperor without asking Cao Cao for instructions, then Cao Cao would suspect that there was a secret message.
…
Interrupted by the emperor's messenger, the banquet ended in a hurry.
Because he had not summoned the right one early the next morning, Zhuge Jin hurriedly returned to Xuzhou County and packed everything up. He also asked Chen Dengming to help him take his entourage and luggage out of the city and wait at Mishui Pavilion, thirty miles east of the city.
Zhuge Jin himself only left Chen Dao and a few highly skilled guards, and fled immediately after the imperial prelude.
Everything went smoothly, and in a blink of an eye it was the early morning of the next day, October 22nd.
Zhuge Jin did not dare to neglect, so he rushed to the palace with Chen Dao and several others early in the morning, leaving Chen Dao and others at the door. He followed the eunuch in alone, and was then received by Zhao Yan and brought directly to the palace.
Liu Xie received him in the study, with only a few attendants and maids around him. It was obviously a separate meeting.
When he saw Zhuge Jin, Liu Xie had an inexplicable expectation in his eyes. He first asked Zhuge Jin a few questions about how to help Kong Rong coordinate the details of the palace renovation.
Zhuge Jin also knew everything and explained in more detail the strategy of "doing three battles in one fell swoop". Including how much labor costs can be saved by water transportation compared with land transportation, and how much backfilling after dredging can save compared with distant excavation.
Liu Xie was also very pragmatic. Two and a half years ago, when he was still under Li Jue's control, there was a severe famine in Guanzhong. Liu Xie had people open his treasury to provide disaster relief.
However, Hou Wen, the official in charge, committed fraud, so Liu Xie asked people to take rice and beans to cook porridge in front of the emperor for experiments, and then cooperated with Hou Wen to release the accounts for the relief, which proved that the other party was indeed corrupt, and severely punished Hou Wen.
It can be seen that Liu Xie's mathematical level and empirical thinking are relatively good among the emperors of the Han Dynasty. Therefore, Liu Xie listened with interest to Zhuge Jin's report on ways to save money on palace construction and detailed accounts, and once again praised Zhuge Jin as a pragmatic talent.
After chatting for a while, Liu Xie suddenly changed the topic to the debate between Zhuge Jin and Mi Heng that day:
"Zhuge Qing, there is one thing I still don't understand. I heard that you once said that day, 'One world' is not the beginning of virtue, it is just a means. 'To rule the world' is the beginning of virtue, it is the purpose. I also feel very good about it. reason.
Then you can tell me, did Qin ever obtain the "virtue" that "the virtuous in the world will live in it"? Was Qin Shihuang orthodox or stealing from the world? Is it true that I, Emperor Gao, am Yuande? Or did he inherit Qin De? "
Zhuge Jin gave a subtle smile. He knew that in order to reestablish the authority of the royal family as soon as possible from the chaos, the emperor would not hesitate to grasp any straw that could increase the sanctity of his rule.
However, if Qin De is completely denied in front of the emperor, there will definitely be trouble if Cao Cao finds out. Because Cao Cao certainly did not want the emperor of the Han Dynasty to have unprecedented sanctity.
But Zhuge Jin couldn't just go back on his word.
After a brief period of intense thinking, he finally thought of an escape plan that would not offend both parties: "Your Majesty, what I said that day was just a discussion of the classics. I am young and have little knowledge. I have just entered the official career and dare not speak nonsense about actual politics.
Qin Shihuang may have had the idea of "completely unifying the world and eliminating foreign troubles", and then returned to "light on corvee and small taxes, and use the people's power saved by unifying the world for the common people", but this can no longer be proven.
Because he did not live to see that day, who knows what Qin Shihuang would do if he lived another ten or eight years and completely pacified Baiyue? He died during the process of "One Day Under Heaven", and the aftermath became a mystery. "
A trace of disappointment flashed in Liu Xie's eyes, but then a trace of new hope flashed. He seized the new psychological comfort and asked anxiously: "Do you think Qin Shihuang died in the process of 'unifying the world'? Didn't he unify the six countries twelve years before his death?"
Zhuge Jin knew that once he chose to respond diplomatically, more academic details would arise, but he could only keep going. So he took a deep breath and said: "It depends on how Qin Shihuang defines 'the world' in his heart. If the six kingdoms are destroyed, it will unite the world, and naturally there will be no problem.
But he continued to use troops after destroying the six kingdoms. Perhaps he regarded the Xiongnu and Baiyue as part of the world. Qin Shihuang's understanding of the world may have gone beyond the Zhou people's "Everyone outside the world is a barbarian". "
It may be difficult for later generations to understand Zhuge Jin's words. One thing must be explained: According to the Zhou Dynasty's definition of the word "tianxia", barbarians are not included in the world.
Therefore, Duke Huan of Qi dealt with the Lai Yi and helped the Yan State fight against the Shanrong. In the Zhou Dynasty, he could be regarded as "one of the liberators of the world", which "expanded the scope of the world and turned the originally barbarian areas into a part of the world."
Zhuge Jin referred Qin Shihuang's problem to "the goal is not clear before doing something, and the goal is only what it takes", thus avoiding the question of whether there is a single world.
Seeing that the emperor was not very satisfied, he added inadvertently: "Besides, if we have to say that Qin did not have a single empire, we can also say it from Minyue. Many of the Baiyue were not the last hegemons of the Warring States and after the Yue King Gou Jian, but during the Qin Dynasty The kings of Ouyue and Minyue are indeed after Goujian, and they belong to the scope of "Hua Xia Xia".
In the year when Qin Shihuang died, he successfully captured Dongye (today's Fuzhou), "took control of his ruler" and made an emergency landing. However, even after Qin's death, he failed to occupy the southern half of today's Kuaiji County (Fujian), and King Ouyue had other heirs who established themselves locally. From this perspective, it is true that Qin Shihuang was not close to "wiping out all the princes within the scope of the world." took his last breath. "
Hearing what Zhuge Jin said, Liu Xie finally found psychological comfort and looked much more relaxed.
He also noticed that Zhuge Jin was very reluctant to speak. At this moment, the other party happened to mention some historical cases. Liu Xie was moved in his heart and suggested: "Is there such a thing? It's because I'm not good at studying history, Zhao Yan."
"I'm here." Zhao Yan promised quickly.
Liu Xie ordered: "Follow me to the library and look for "Historical Records" and "Han Shu" to check in detail to confirm this statement."
With that said, Zhao Yan led the way and took Zhuge Jin to the emperor's private library.
The palace maids and eunuchs next to them wanted to follow, but Liu Xie stopped them. The reason was, "I go to the library and I need to study quietly and don't want to be disturbed by the noise."
This was very reasonable, and all the attendants had no choice but to stay, and no one thought about "avoiding Cao Cao's eyes and ears".
When there was no one else around, Liu Xie took out a volume of "The Chronicles of the First Emperor of Qin" from the Historical Records. After checking it, he sighed, took the book in his hand, and asked:
"Zhuge Qing, I still have one fear - if I say that Qin Shihuang has no Yuan De, doesn't it mean that Emperor Gao, as the pavilion chief, created Yuan De from scratch? Is it true that from now on, only one person can make the world better? By stabilizing and ending the civil war, and using the saved people's power for the people, he also gained virtue?"
Zhuge Jin was eager to get away, knowing that if he didn't give Liu Xie any more comfort, he was afraid that he would have long nights and nightmares.
So he gritted his teeth and said something that completely put Liu Xie at ease: "If your Majesty is really frightened, you might as well change your mind and think that the virtues of the Gao Emperor come from the Righteous Emperor."
