According to the information, there are already more than a hundred Taiping Dao believers among the eunuchs inside the palace alone, and most of the others are people who have a favorable impression of Taiping Dao.
In the public eye, the reputation of Taiping Road is actually very good.
In the eyes of the common people, Zhang Jiao, a great virtuous teacher, has the feeling of rescuing the suffering Guanshiyin Bodhisattva, and he has a remarkable reputation.
Taiping Dao believers will help some people who are in dire straits, give away some rice, or use strange talisman water to treat people who have no money to treat diseases. For this reason, they have gained a lot of popularity.
In the eyes of powerful officials, Zhangjiao and Taiping Road seem to be regarded as a fashion style.
They are very willing to make friends with Taiping Taoists, and even join Taiping Taoism, using the identity of Taiping Tao believers as a special social identity, and this social identity is quite popular in social situations.
According to Cao Cao, in recent years, the development of Taiping Dao has been booming, and the number of believers has been increasing, especially in the core areas of the empire.
Moreover, Cao Cao still felt a little strange.
"It wouldn't hurt to say that Taiping Dao only developed among civilians, but the problem is that many officials and powerful people believe in Taiping Dao."
Cao Cao frowned and said: "My hometown, Qiao County, has powerful people who believe in the Tao of Taiping. In order to please these powerful people, some people will deliberately get close to and even believe in the Tao of Taiping, so as to gain the favor of these powerful people and gain some benefit.
They may not necessarily believe in Taiping Dao, nor do they value their morality very much, but as long as they have this status, it will be easier for them to seek more benefits for themselves and their family. "
Liu Bei was silent for a while and then spoke slowly.
"If this situation only stayed at the civil level, it would not be a big deal, but once it involves power, the problem becomes bigger. Given the political ecology of the Han Dynasty, if the governor of a county believes in Taiping Dao, what do you think of that county? How many county officials do not believe in Taiping Dao? Or as you said, although they do not believe in it, they will never oppose it."
Cao Cao thought for a while and nodded worriedly.
"What Xuande said makes sense. Not to mention a county, as long as a county magistrate or a county official believes in Taiping Dao, it will have a very serious impact. They are very likely to collude through Taiping Dao and advance and retreat together."
"Yes, it would be better if the time is shorter. If the time is longer, a county may be filled with Taiping Dao people."
Liu Bei shook his head and said: "At that time, will they follow Zhang Jue's orders or the orders of the Han Dynasty? Zhang Jue and the Han Emperor will give orders together, who will they choose? And I estimate that the reason why Taiping Road can spread in Hebei, the Central Plains and even the With the large-scale development in Luoyang City, this situation must not be rare."
Cao Cao nodded upon hearing this, agreeing with Liu Bei's view, and then, he suddenly looked at Liu Bei.
"Xuande, why are you suddenly interested in the affairs of Taiping Road? At present, the eunuchs are rampant and the East Garden is fierce. Many scholars have been taken to the East Garden and tortured. I heard that many people are worried. Why do you seem completely not give a damn about?"
"I care, but it wouldn't be wise to confront the eunuch head-on."
Liu Bei said: "The eunuchs are doing things for the reason of investigating the emperor's assassination. Anyone who obstructs will be labeled as an assassin or a traitor. This is not a good name. This is very unfavorable to us, so I thought, a head-on confrontation If you are not an opponent, you should find another way.”
"oh?"
Cao Cao looked at Liu Bei with a smile on his face: "The method Xuande found is related to the Tao of Peace? Then..."
The smile on Cao Cao's face froze.
He seemed to realize something.
"What did Meng De guess?"
Liu Bei looked at Cao Cao with a smile.
Cao Cao had a look of realization on his face.
"Many of the eunuchs in the inner palace believe in Taiping Dao. If Taiping Dao is used as the entry point, we can hit the eunuchs, but there must be a prerequisite..."
"The Taiping Rebellion."
Liu Bei nodded: "Yes, this method is very dangerous. The premise is that Taiping Dao will rebel. When I was in my hometown, I heard that Zhang Jiao had made trouble, so I didn't trust this person. I always felt that he had evil intentions. He has done many things. There are Taiping Taoists in every state and county, and the more people there are, the more worried I am."
"This is a big deal."
Cao Cao whispered: "Xuande, don't talk nonsense about things like rebellion. There are too many people who believe in Taiping Dao inside and outside. If they really rebel, how many people will get into trouble? It's not just the eunuchs, Xuande, the current situation is indeed not good, but you must be cautious with this method."
Cao Cao didn't want Liu Bei to be in danger, so when he saw that he was interested in Taiping Road, he quickly explained his interests to him.
Of course Liu Bei knew the stakes, because Zhang Rang had already made it clear to him.
But Cao Cao said this out of friendship and the interests of the Cao family. What did Zhang Rang do for that?
Liu Bei did not go into details for the time being, but Zhang Rang and Cao Cao's suggestions made Liu Bei calm down and continue to think about the series of consequences of his actions.
He first thought of reporting the matter to Liu Hong, hoping that Liu Hong would pay attention and mobilize the power of the Eastern Han Dynasty court to carry out dimensionality reduction attacks on the upper levels of Taiping Road.
But facts have proven that this road is unworkable.
Unless Taiping Dao takes the initiative to expose their ambitions and start a rebellion, there will always be people who are willing to believe that Taiping Dao is not the one who wants to rebel.
This road itself naturally provokes those who believe in Taiping Dao or have connections with Taiping Dao. Take the initiative and don't provoke too many people.
Therefore, Liu Bei must not get involved in this matter and cannot let himself be trapped in it, otherwise the consequences will be very serious.
It is no longer an option to use the power of the Eastern Han Dynasty to clean up Taiping Road in advance. In this case, what else can be done?
It has to be said that as a hard-core ruthless person who has continuously crossed three levels of class barriers, only others can't think of it, and Liu could not do it without him.
He quickly thought of the cheapest and least difficult way to break the situation.
This is also the way he most wants to operate.
When all operating methods cannot solve the problem, the ultimate method is the most direct and effective. Since he lived in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, he still needed some methods of doing things that were in line with the characteristics of the late Eastern Han Dynasty.
The reason why he became a powerful man in the first place was simply because he was brave and good at fighting, getting along with the elders in his hometown, and establishing his own position. This was the characteristic way of doing things in the late Eastern Han Dynasty.
Today, when he faces a dilemma again, if he wants to take a high-level solution route, he will not work, so he should go back to the original point to think about the problem.
So Liu Bei came to the conclusion - assassinate the three Zhang Jiao brothers! End them with physical means!
Even if the Taiping Tao Uprising will eventually be launched, or it will be launched under some other name, as long as the three brothers Zhang Jiao, Zhang Bao and Zhang Liang are dead, the Yellow Turban Army will lose its vital cohesion.
In this era of substantial division of the country with counties as the country, without the great prestige of the three brothers Zhang Jiao, Zhang Bao and Zhang Liang to coordinate everything through their missionary work, the Yellow Turban Army would never have broken out as a whole in the eight states at almost the same time, heading towards A goal to move forward bravely.
No one can replace the Zhang Jiao brothers to directly command the entire Yellow Turban Army across the boundaries between counties.
In other words, no one can replace Zhang Jiao's position in this major event.
As long as the Taiping Dao uprising cannot break out at the same time at the same time, then even if the Yellow Turban Army in various places still have to fight, it will be a calabash boy saving grandpa style uprising.
An uprising of this intensity could not have a substantial impact on the rule of the Han Empire. The Luoyang court had time and room for maneuver to calmly mobilize troops and horses to deal with these matters.
In fact, this is also true. Even Zhang Jiao himself did not have the conditions to coordinate and command the various departments of the Yellow Turban Army after the uprising. After the Taiping Dao Uprising officially broke out, the Yellow Turban Army in various places actually fought independently.
It was only in the first few months that the huge energy of the simultaneous uprisings in the eight states made the Luoyang court frightened and unable to deal with it. When they came to their senses, they still tried their best to suppress the Taiping Dao uprising with the most brutal means.
Now, as long as this important energy node of "simultaneous outbreak" is broken, the deterrence and destructiveness of the Taiping Dao uprising will be greatly reduced.
And assassinating the three Zhang Jiao brothers is the best way to achieve this goal.
(End of chapter)
