The revival of the Han Dynasty must start with Dong Zhuo

Chapter 415 Volume Taboo
"Your Majesty's chess skills have become more and more sophisticated."

In a palace room, Liu Xie and Jia Xu sat opposite each other, and between them was a chessboard showing the boundary between Chu and Han.

"That's natural!"

Liu Xie has his own tricks in playing chess.

If you can’t beat Go, try Gobang.

If you cannot win the game of chess, just turn the chess pieces over and play the game by "revealing the pieces".

Not to mention the secret skills of the Han Dynasty chess master Emperor Xiaojing, so Liu Xie will always be invincible.

"Flying cannon!"

The revealed chess piece flew across the Chu River and Han River and crashed into Jia Xu's neat formation, knocking Jia Xu's chess piece away and eating the "horse" in that position.

"I'm lucky!"

Liu Xie showed the chess piece to Jia Xu and found that there was a character “车” (car) on it.

The corners of Jia Xu's mouth twitched twice.

Because the "cannon" that Liu Xie flew over was actually just the character "兵".

"Your Majesty is indeed lucky."

“It’s not just luck.”

"What else?"

"I made this set of chess pieces myself. Even if I look at the back, I can tell what the pieces are."

"..."

Jia Xu looked at Liu Xie dimly, and Liu Xie also laughed.

Hearing the emperor's laughter, Jia Xu shifted his gaze elsewhere.

"Is the emperor in a good mood lately?"

"Exactly."

Liu Xie forced himself to play this game of chess with Jia Xu.

"There's basically no resistance in Hebei."

"The three newly formed imperial troops have already started training. By the end of the year, they will have a certain level of combat effectiveness... At that time, we can only mobilize the troops in Hebei to attack Qingzhou and minimize the losses to the imperial court."

"In the Central Plains, Cao Cao is also keeping quiet... According to Yunchang's report, some nobles in Xuzhou are causing trouble, and Cao Cao will most likely attack them. This is good, because when the imperial court captures Xuzhou next year or the year after, fewer people will be killed."

"My uncle also sent me a letter a few days ago."

"Now the bannerman system of the three tribes has stabilized... Those bannermen are really ruthless to their own tribesmen. Sometimes, the emperor's uncle even has to come forward in person to ask the bannermen of the three tribes not to be harsh to other tribesmen. But this is also a good thing. At least it proves that the "bannerman" system can indeed establish order on the grassland, restore stability to the grassland, and let the people of Youzhou, who have suffered from border troubles, live a stable life."

"Although there is no information from the Western Regions, Ma Chao, Fa Zheng, Meng Da, and Xu Shu are all capable people. If we hand over the Western Regions to them, we don't expect them to be able to stabilize it as completely as Ban Chao did. At least in the short term, the safety of the Western Regions will be guaranteed."

Liu Xie stretched lazily, "There are basically no problems at the central government... This is the first time I have been free since I ascended the throne. It's really comfortable!"

Originally Jia Xu was listening quietly.

But when Liu Xie said the last sentence, Jia Xu's expression suddenly changed!
"Your Majesty! Do not speak the forbidden words!"

"What's the forbidden word?"

"You can never say that you have too much free time!"

Jia Xu looked solemn.

"This is something I have personally experienced! Every time I say I am too idle, something big happens right away!"

"I hope Your Majesty will take back this statement, so as to avoid disaster!"

"..."

Liu Xie said nonchalantly: "Wenhe, you are also someone who has been reading Lunheng recently."

"The most important thing about Lun Heng is atheism. How could you say such a thing..."

But at this moment, Liu Xie's expression suddenly froze.

Because of this chess game, he was actually about to lose!
It was obvious that he invented this way of playing and even used cheating techniques, but he was still about to lose!
"What is this? A sign?"

Liu Xie shook his head in boredom.

It’s just a game of chess, what’s the big deal?
If you lose, you lose. What’s the big deal?
But at this moment, a palace maid suddenly came to report that Jingzhao Yin Du Ji came to ask for a meeting.

Like Du Ji and Zhang Ji, Du Ji was one of the first officials promoted by Jia Xu since he became the Minister of the Chancellery.

After Zhang Ji became the Minister of Revenue, Du Ji took over the post of Jingzhao Yin and began to work cautiously and meticulously.

There must be something fishy about the sudden arrival of this meeting today!
Liu Xie looked at Jia Xu in astonishment. No way?
Jia Xu also had a solemn expression.

When Du Ji came in, his face turned pale and he saluted the emperor and Jia Xu.

"Your Majesty! Secretary Jia! Something happened!"

"There is a group of merchants from Yizhou who have been bedridden since arriving in Chang'an."

"I followed Minister Zhang's advice and temporarily isolated them. I didn't expect that within three days, half of the caravan would have died!"

The bad news isn’t over yet!

"Also, because many people like to eat raw fish nowadays... Yesterday in the market, someone vomited three liters of worms and died miserably!"

……

Foreign diseases!

Eat raw fish sashimi!

Liu Xie forced himself to calm down.

With the gradual recovery of the Han Dynasty's homeland and its gradual revival, the city of Chang'an had actually long been overwhelmed and was like sitting on the crater of a volcano.

If it weren't for Zhang Ji's insight, I'm afraid this volcano would have exploded long ago! Liu Xie originally wanted to hold on for another year, until the new Chang'an was established next year, and these problems would naturally be solved.

But unexpectedly, the fragile city of Chang'an did not hold on until that day and chose to collapse prematurely.

"Wenhe, is this the taboo you mentioned?"

Liu Xie shook his head helplessly, but he remained calm and rational.

"Recruit doctors on a large scale and let them solve and deal with the disease."

"Close the passage from Shu to Guanzhong and suspend trade on this side."

"Also, that fish sashimi..."

"Go ask Kong Ming if his crystal has been polished yet? Let them see with their own eyes what is in the raw fish meat, so they won't continue to eat that stuff!"

"Here."

……

The illnesses of those Yizhou merchants were quickly diagnosed.

Fortunately, it is not a severe infectious disease.

It was only because they had been to Dianchi Lake in the south of Yizhou, where they were probably infected with miasma, which led to the death of half of them.

in fact……

After being infected by miasma, the body will inevitably feel abnormal.

If these merchants realized something was wrong, they could directly choose to seek medical treatment in Shu, which would not be a big deal.

But choosing to seek medical treatment in Shu means wasting time and not being able to make money.

Perhaps they had their reasons for moving forward, thinking that they could complete the deal despite the pain, and go home happily after earning enough money. However, they did not expect that they could not hold on and collapsed outside the city of Chang'an.

Misfortune tends to pick on the unfortunate, and a hemp rope tends to break at its thinnest point.

After hearing the doctor's diagnosis, Liu Xie was also deeply moved.

On the other hand, Zhuge Liang finally polished the "Kongming Mirror".

When the upper and lower crystal lenses that have been polished to extreme are put together, you can see some subtle things.

The appearance of "Kongming Mirror" seemed to have dealt the final blow to "The Connection between Heaven and Man"!
Through the Kongming mirror, one can see some scenes that no one has ever seen before.

The bark is covered with holes that look like small houses.

The originally clean fish sashimi was now covered with tiny fish eggs and some silk-like larvae.

And, the life essence that looks like a tadpole...

Shock!

nausea!

panic!

The originally clear world gradually became blurred with the appearance of the Kongming Mirror.

There were even ministers who wrote a letter to the emperor, requesting him to destroy the Kongming Mirror and ban it from appearing in the world!
Although the emperor had mentioned "Xi Gu" before, no one had actually seen it.

Nowadays, due to the limitation of technology, the Kongming mirror still cannot see the fine poison, but it has indeed opened up a new world that the world has never seen before!
A curious and terrifying new world!

But all these official documents were sent back by Liu Xie.

"Why is it becoming increasingly blurry? Why do I feel like it's becoming increasingly clear?"

"Besides, this is an academic matter, and cannot be considered as government affairs. Don't mention it again in the future!"

Under Liu Xie's deliberate efforts, academic and political affairs became increasingly distinct.

Zhuge Liang's life was not very good...

If we say that the Kongming lantern proves the existence of "qi", it is like coming and kicking the building of "the connection between heaven and man".

The discovery of Kong Ming Mirror was to directly dig up the foundation of "The Harmony between Heaven and Man"!
Every day, traditional Confucian scholars would block Zhuge Liang's door to denounce him, wanting to have a discussion with him.

At this moment, Zhuge Liang probably missed the time when he was still under Liu Bei's command and had Zhao Yun as his bodyguard...

He had no choice but to flee to the palace with his family for refuge. Liu Xie smiled and allowed Zhuge Liang to stay and work in the Weiyang Palace.

However, on the second day after settling down, Zhuge Liang came to Liu Xie with a serious face.

"Why? Kong Ming thinks the bonus I gave him is not enough?"

The emergence of Kongming Mirror made its main contribution in academia rather than economy.

So Liu Xie did not directly reward Zhuge Liang with 100,000 taels of gold as he did last time, but only paid 10,000 taels of gold.

Because of this, Liu Xie still felt somewhat guilty...

"I am not a greedy person. Your Majesty's gift of ten thousand taels of gold is actually a bit high."

It is certainly impossible that Zhuge Liang came to ask the emperor for a bonus.

"Your Majesty, I have carefully considered the condition of the Yizhou merchants and I feel something is not right."

"Moreover, officials in Yizhou had reported that the southern barbarians were ready to make a move... So I speculated, is it possible that the southern barbarians were also infected with miasma on a large scale, which is why there are abnormalities?"

"Your Majesty should know that since ancient times, once there is a change within the Four Barbarians, something big will always happen."

"Therefore, I have a bad guess..."

Liu Xie also remembered that an official from Yizhou had indeed reported that something was not right with the situation in the Southern Barbarians, and he had used this matter to fool Zhang Ji.

Considering the matter of merchants in Yizhou, Zhuge Liang's speculation seems to be correct!
"Kong Ming means..."

Liu Xie frowned, and after a while he uttered four words -

"Barbarian invasion?"

(End of this chapter)