In the winter of the first year of Zhongping and the early spring of the second year of Zhongping, the overall situation in the world was relatively stable.
Even Jizhou, which is most likely to have chaos, has not experienced the irreversible chaos that Lu Zhi worried about.
The fundamental reason is that Liu Bei played a major role in it.
It is not that crises have broken out in Jizhou. Due to the shortage of food and soaring food prices, a small-scale civil uprising broke out in Jizhou. However, it was suppressed by Lu Zhi in time, and he immediately sent someone to contact Liu Bei to discuss countermeasures.
Liu Bei's countermeasure is very simple.
Zhen's family.
Zhen Yan went out and contacted the Zhen family and a group of local powerful people who had a good relationship with the Zhen family. He got a more accurate grain storage figure from them, and then contacted Lu Zhi, who stepped forward to use public funds to provide money to these places. Haoqiang buys grain at a more favorable price.
With the support of Liu Bei and Zhen, both parties were happy with the transaction. Zhen also took the initiative to bear a considerable part of the transportation costs for the transportation of this batch of grain.
Lu Zhi had a lot of food to use, and local powerful people also made a small profit.
Because of this batch of food, Lu Zhi successfully appeased a large number of people who were displaced and lacked food and clothing due to the Yellow Turban Rebellion, successfully controlled their grievances, and resolved the civil uprising that had not yet occurred.
The crisis was finally eliminated. Lu Zhi lasted until the spring plowing season, and then actively encouraged farmers to cultivate, finally calming down the situation in Jizhou.
He successfully avoided the possibility of a second large-scale peasant uprising, and successfully avoided the outcome of large-scale deaths due to famine and severe cold.
For this reason, Lu Zhi was very happy and made a special request to the court to mention Liu Bei's contribution in this matter and ask the court to reward him as appropriate.
After Zhang Rang learned about it, he praised Liu Bei's achievements in an exaggerated manner, which made Liu Hong even more happy after learning about it. He repeatedly praised Liu Bei as a man who planned the country and a practical talent who could do things.
Then Liu Hong took advantage of the situation and promoted Liu Bei to the official Shangshu Pushe to perform the responsibilities of the Shangshu Ling. He trusted Liu Bei more and seemed to entrust more government affairs to Liu Bei to handle.
In this way, Liu Bei became Liu Hong's "mountain prime minister" in the true sense.
No matter what government affairs there are, no matter what Yuan Wei and Yang Ci think of them, Liu Hong will transfer them to Liu Bei to deal with them, and then use Liu Bei's opinions to the Third Duke, and let the Third Duke deal with them.
Liu Bei was like Liu Hong's external brain, handling all the things that might embarrass him, allowing him to live a relaxed, happy and comfortable life, and allowing him to enjoy the glory of the Holy Emperor.
How wonderful?
At the same time, at the beginning of the first month of the second year of Zhongping, Liu Hong publicly sold his officials and titles in Xiyuan on the grounds that the court had difficulty in spending money, and made several good and big businesses.
But it wasn't like there wasn't some business that made him unhappy.
That was the business of Cui Lie, a famous scholar in Jizhou, to buy the position of Sikong.
The predecessor of Sikong Zhang Wen unfortunately resigned due to the dispute between Yuan Wei and Yang Ci. The position of Sikong has been vacant. At first, everyone thought that this was the position reserved by Lu Zhi, but to their surprise, Liu Hong actually sold it, or sold it to Cui Lie, a celebrity who has always had a good reputation.
However, Liu Hong was very dissatisfied with this deal. Privately, Liu Hong complained to Liu Bei, saying that the relationship between people was really annoying to him, so much so that Cui Lie gave up a position that could have been sold for 100 million for 5 million. If we win, it will be a big loss.
Then Liu Bei learned that Cui Lie had gone through Liu Hong's nanny, Mrs. Cheng.
Mrs. Cheng made the case on her behalf, and she tried her best to get it done. She ran several times over this matter, and was so hard on Liu Hong that she couldn't do anything about it. Finally, she sold the position of Sikong to Cui Lie for five million yuan.
This matter made Liu Hong very worried.
"If I can persist a little longer, this position can be sold for at least 10 million yuan. This Cui Lie is really hateful. He actually asked my wet nurse to persuade me and plead for mercy. I really can't do anything. Alas! What a huge loss!"
Liu Hong sighed. In order to save five million yuan, he couldn't even eat and kept drinking, as if he was trying to drown his sorrows.
Seeing his appearance, Liu Bei could only sigh.
The one he couldn't help was not his unlucky son Adou in history. The one he really couldn't help was Liu Hong in front of him.
Of course, Liu Bei never intended to help Liu Hong sincerely.
Liu Bei didn't care about this matter. He didn't care about Cui Lie's reputation after that, which was greatly reduced and he was restless day and night. Then he wanted to beat his son to vent his anger, but his son retorted and was speechless. He didn't care either.
What he cares about is Liangzhou.
Thanks to Lu Zhi's ability and the Zhen family's efforts, nothing happened in Jizhou and Hebei was still stable. Therefore, when the news that the Liangzhou army was revolted and that the Liangzhou army was unable to resist came to Luoyang, the civil and military forces of the Manchu Dynasty were not at a loss. , in a dilemma.
On the 28th of the first month of the second year of Zhongping, Yang Yong, the governor of Liangzhou, could no longer bear it. Regardless, he went to Luoyang to cry for help.
He said that the Liangzhou rebel army numbered 70,000 to 80,000, which was a huge scale, and people continued to join the rebels and join in the rebellion. The official army was defeated one after another and was unable to contain it. The rebels were approaching the Sanfu area step by step. He asked the court to come early. Take precautions, otherwise, it's over.
When things got to this point, the civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty finally realized that the chaos in Liangzhou was beyond control, and it had reached the point where Liangzhou would be completely lost if they did not send troops.
Faced with such a situation, Liu Hong, helpless and annoyed, stretched out his head from Rourou Township and convened a military meeting to discuss the matter comprehensively.
At the meeting, the new Sikong Cui Lie seemed to want to highlight his own status, or to restore his declining reputation, so he suggested to the court to completely abandon Liangzhou and move all Han people inward, so as to get rid of Liangzhou and avoid wasting the court's money.
This was the second time in the Eastern Han Dynasty that the official voice of abandoning Liangzhou appeared.
It is worth mentioning that this kind of thinking did not lack supporters in the Luoyang court after the Han-Qiang War.
The hundreds of years of Han-Qiang war really consumed too much money, too many people died, and too many things were changed by the Han-Qiang war. Therefore, the people of Guandong hated Liangzhou to the extreme and started to fight. He believed that Liangzhou was the bloodletting trough of the imperial court, which could only increase difficulties but not increase income.
Why keep such a broken place?
It's better to just give up and save yourself a lot of trouble.
Anyway, when the Han Dynasty was first established, Liangzhou did not belong to the Han Dynasty and was not considered the place of ancestors.
Decades ago, this voice was very loud in the court, but in the end it was not adopted.
Today, this voice has sounded again, and this time, it seems that it has really gained more supporters, because everyone can no longer accept another hundred years of war.
Hearing such a statement, especially since it had many supporters, made Liu Bei very angry.
This kind of thing started from this moment, and for thousands of years to come, it would always appear when the dynasty was in crisis. At this time, there were always officials who wanted to give up the war-torn territory out of considerations of their own interests in exchange for Come to peace.
But can concessions and compromises lead to peace?
Can't change it.
Only by fighting resolutely, fighting to the end even if we cannot win, can peace be ushered in.
Seeing that no one in the civil and military circles of the dynasty stood up to refute Cui Lie's remarks, Liu Bei couldn't help it.
With Cao Cao watching in surprise, Liu Bei stood up.
"I once read historical records and heard that the ancients once said that doing things to Qin with the land is like putting out a fire with firewood. The fire is never extinguished. The current crisis in Liangzhou is like Qin's troops suppressing the territory. How is it like doing things with the land to give up Liangzhou? Qin? By doing this, isn’t it a situation where we are saving money to put out the fire?”
(End of chapter)
