My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 721: I just wanted to rant, but why did it become such a fuss?

Chapter 721: I just wanted to rant, but how did it become such a fuss?

Zhuge Liang praised Fa Zheng at the celebration banquet, not only promoting Fa Zheng's military achievements in Yuexi County, but also emphasizing that he had made plans in advance and had well-organized the post-war governance of the local area.

Where there are people, there is the world of martial arts. Considering that Fa Zheng in this life, like other old ministers of Liu Zhang, appeared as a "surrendered minister" rather than "defecting to Liu Bei early on",

Therefore, other old ministers of Liu Zhang would more or less feel a little bit unwilling about Fa Zheng being so highly valued.

After all, anyone with a discerning eye could see that Zhuge Lingjun was making preparations in advance for the possibility that he might leave Sichuan to lead the Northern Expedition next year.

He praised Fa Zheng so much and extolled his achievements, obviously intending to let Fa Zheng take over the internal affairs management of Yizhou after he left.

So at the celebration banquet, some of Liu Zhang's old officials who were not very tactful jumped out and put on an attitude of "discussing the matter at hand and not the person" to offer some suggestions.
I hope Zhuge Liang would have noticed Fa Zheng’s false reporting of his achievements and his reckless approach in restoring the post-war order in Yuexi County.

Of course, there were also some people who wanted to restrain the power of "cruel officials" like Fa Zheng from growing stronger and stronger, which would make life increasingly difficult for the powerful families in Shu in the future, so they opposed purely for the sake of opposing.

It is normal to have such thoughts. At any time, people with vested interests will not want to be forced to give up their own interests, or to have their power restricted. Even if it is ultimately impossible to stop such things, as long as it can be delayed for a little longer, it is also good.

Therefore, no matter how iron-fisted Zhuge Liang was, or how fair he was in governing Shu, there would always be resistance, the only difference being the intensity of the resistance.

But on today's occasion, the first person to jump out was Du Qiong, an academic official known for his high reputation and a great Confucian scholar who was one of the four great Confucian scholars in Shu.

Du Qiong advised, "Please understand, Your Excellency. Although Fa Xiaozhi has conquered Yaoniu, Jingdu, Huiwu and other counties in a month and a half, it is still a long way to go to completely pacify Yuexi.

There were countless tribes in the mountains to the west of Yuexi, stretching for thousands of miles, among which there were countless people of the Southwestern Yi. However, Gao Ding, the leader of the Yuexi Yi, was not killed in time, but became a frightened bird and fled far away into the mountains.

I am afraid that Yuexi will have no peace in the next few years because of this. Even if the trade between Shu and Shendu is restored, the hundreds of miles of deep valleys in Liangshan will be threatened by barbarians everywhere. Your Majesty must pay attention to this!"

Zhuge Liang was originally in a good mood, but his interest turned slightly cold after hearing this. He gently put down the wine cup and looked over.

Isn't Du Qiong the guy who took the lead in opposing when I first came to govern Shu and wanted to promote the silver-plated coins of 500 coins?
Zhuge Liang refuted the other party's perverse argument that "issuing silver-plated coins is a way to plunder the people's wealth", and then successfully promoted the silver-plated coins, but did not further punish Du Qiong. He just gave him a slight beating and let him go.

That was because Zhuge Liang had just arrived two years ago and his foundation was not stable. In addition, Liu Zhang surrendered quickly when Liu Bei attacked him in this life, so the two sides did not fight and destroy Shu County before it completely changed hands. The vested interest groups left behind were larger than in the same period in history.

After all, there will be no vested interests left on the destroyed and rebuilt territory, as they will all be wiped out, just like Huang Chao passing through.

But in the territories that are peacefully taken over, there will definitely be many more old and young people left behind.

If Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang wanted to gain the benefit of "reducing the damage caused by war", they had to bear the disadvantage of being slightly restrained in subsequent governance. The two cannot be separated, and we should only choose the benefits and ignore the disadvantages.

Therefore, when introducing silver-plated coins and labor service substitute coins two years ago, Zhuge Liang needed to give priority to dealing with the old power groups left by Liu Zhang, such as the Wang Shang and Chen Shi families.

In order to better unite the front, win over the majority and strike at a small group, he chose to temporarily tolerate the corrupt scholar families such as Du Qiong and Qiao Yao, who only had good reputations and academic status but weak real power.

Unexpectedly, this made these corrupt scholars feel that they had become the targets of unity, and their words became more and more outrageous. They often said things that criticized Zhuge Liang's pragmatic strategies from a moral high ground.

This time Zhuge Liang has completely taken control of the situation. Local powerful figures such as Wang Shang and Chen Shi have been removed, so he will certainly not be lenient again.

At this moment, Zhuge Liang defended Fa Zheng in a calm but less questioning tone, and also criticized those who attacked Fa Zheng:

"You are being a bit nitpicking when you evaluate Xiaozhi like this. Yuexi County is not like other counties. It is the westernmost part of the southwest border of our Great Han Dynasty. Further west, there are thousands of miles of mountains. How can we completely eliminate it? Xiaozhi's ability to control the Yak Road in one and a half months is an undisputed great achievement!

As for Gao Ding's temporary escape, what does it matter? When Xiaozhi was in Jingdu County, he surrounded and annihilated most of Gao Ding's main forces and forced them to surrender. After that, he fought again in Huiwu County and annihilated many more enemies and forced them to surrender. Gao Ding's main forces had been lost, and he only escaped with his life. What threat could he still pose?
You think Gao Ding can still stir up trouble, do you think your lord's virtue and reputation are not enough to convince people from afar? Gao Ding can be easily destroyed by Li Qiucheng and other old generals of Sidu!
I didn’t want to tell you about Xiaozhi’s plan, after all, it involves military secrets. But since some of you have concerns, I will reveal a little bit…”

As he spoke, Zhuge Liang slightly embellished and briefly outlined Fa Zheng's method of "providing a small amount of weapons and equipment to some of the barbarians, especially leasing them weapons, in exchange for these barbarians' loyalty to the court and helping the court to fight other disobedient tribes."

After all, everyone present here has to save face, and if Zhuge Liang speaks too bluntly, it would be too vulgar.

However, after he relayed Fa Zheng's ideas in detail, great Confucian scholars such as Du Qiong and Qiao Yao could not help but take a deep breath.

This method of instigating internal strife and killing among the barbarians by means of bribery is still a bit despicable in the eyes of the corrupt scholars who emphasize "conquering people with virtue". What was agreed to be done with moral persuasion? How did it become a conspiracy to sow discord?

Of course, Du Qiong and his ilk may not be so morally noble, but that doesn't stop them from standing on the moral high ground and criticizing others. Even if they don't really think Fa Zheng is despicable, they can take this opportunity to express their opinions, lowering the moral reputation of others and raising their own.

Anyway, they don't have to do anything themselves, and scholar-officials like them just need to shout slogans.

Du Qiong couldn't help but sigh: "How can Fa Xiaozhi rely on such means as a long-term plan to stabilize Yuexi? Even if this trick works for a while, the barbarians will see through it after a long time, and then it will ruin the reputation of the court..."

Du Qiong's words were not completely wrong. Because the Han court used the method of division and disintegration, and using one faction to fight another to control the barbarians, after a long time, the barbarians would indeed learn to be cunning and adapt to this system, thus finding a new living space in the cracks.

Not to mention the distant past, let’s just talk about the history that the Han people themselves know. During the reign of Emperor Xuan of the late Western Han Dynasty, they had already begun to rely on the surrendered Southern Xiongnu to balance the other Hu peoples from the grasslands. The Eastern Han Dynasty even used the Wuhuan people.

But those Hu people who surrendered would gradually learn their lesson, understand the Han people's intentions, and then strengthen themselves and cause chaos when they had the chance.

As for such examples in later generations, there are even more of them. The Ming Dynasty used a dog-eat-dog approach to control Liaodong, but in the end, people like Nurhaci would take advantage of the opportunity to grow stronger.

Because Du Qiong read a lot and knew the various causes and effects of the Southern Xiongnu's surrender, he quoted from the classics as a shield and kept talking high, emphasizing that Fa Zheng's tactics were "resistant" and that if he did too many despicable things, they might not work after one or two generations.

However, what kind of person is Zhuge Liang? Would he not know this?

Zhuge Liang knew very well that these tactics of dividing, disrupting and inciting internal strife among the barbarians could only work temporarily.

That is to say, the great task of suppressing the rebellion and destroying Cao has not yet been completed, and these means need to be used in order to solve the problem of the barbarians as quickly and as cheaply as possible.

But how could he expect to always rely on this kind of mediation strategy to get everything he wants? After peace was restored, Zhuge Liang would quickly change his tactics and use methods that would be conducive to long-term stability to deal with the aftermath.

Zhuge Liang immediately rebuked Du Qiong for his nonsense: "Du Qiong! You yourself do not understand politics, and you only care about Xiaozhi's policy of naturalizing the barbarians. What is your intention?
How could I not know that we should win the hearts of the barbarians with virtue? For the barbarian leaders who sincerely submit to the court and suppress other rebellious barbarians for the court, the court will naturally give them a future and a complete end. As long as they do not have any other intentions, the court will not take action against them in the future, so how can it be said that it has broken its promise? "

Zhuge Liang knew that to deal with those who stood on the moral high ground, you can't just refute them directly, but you have to stand higher than them and raise the tone first. Didn't you criticize that "the court will sooner or later kill those temporarily used barbarian generals"? Then why don't we not do that and let them have a good end in the end!

As soon as Zhuge Liang said this, most of the civil and military officials who attended the banquet immediately felt refreshed, and that what the Lord said was indeed reasonable, and they immediately expressed their support.

Du Qiong and others were stunned when they heard this: Zhuge Lingjun actually tried to find a solution like this? Wouldn't there be more troubles in the future? If they really gave weapons to the loyal Yi chieftains and upgraded their equipment to fight other tribes, even if the tribe was loyal enough to the court when they were alive, what would happen after the Yi chieftain died of old age?
When their children and grandchildren take over power in the future, can they still guarantee their loyalty from generation to generation? Will it not lead to a situation where the tail is too big to be removed?

However, Du Qiong was not in a position to directly express these doubts.

Because just now they were standing on the moral high ground to condemn Fa Zheng for his treacherous behavior, and now Zhuge Liang followed his words and evaluated people's morality in a higher way. At this time, if they questioned it in turn, it would be like Du Qiong and others were "judging others by their own standards".

Du Qiong was confused for a long time, but finally, through eye contact, he got his good friend Qiao Hao to speak up and help to smooth things over.

Since Qiao Yao had not personally expressed his political views on the matter, he did not have to worry about the issue of "consistency of previous and subsequent positions".

After a brief thought, Qiao Yu organized his words and came to the rescue of his friend:

"Your Excellency's words are indeed magnanimous and you win people over with virtue. But I am afraid that those barbarians are ignorant of etiquette and morality and have betrayed your Excellency's trust. After many years, they will become too powerful to be eliminated by Lord Fafu's actions today..."

However, as soon as Qiao Yu finished speaking, Zhuge Liang's expression became even more stern: "Qiao Yu! Are you doubting my judgment of employing people and Xiaozhi's strategy of governing the local area?
If those barbarian commanders and soldiers who have repented and are wholeheartedly working for the imperial court heard your suspicious words, wouldn't they be disheartened? "

Seeing that Zhuge Liang was about to lose his temper, several other relatively neutral factions who had come to the banquet today, as well as Zhuge Liang's close confidants, all came out to smooth things over, not wanting to ruin the atmosphere.

Huang Quan, who was relatively neutral, stood up and said, "Calm down, Your Majesty! Although what Du Qiong and Qiao Yao said was suspicious and might dishearten the soldiers on the front line, fortunately, all of you here are tight-lipped and will not spread your Majesty's conversation at the banquet. I think Du Qiong and others have no ill intentions, they just want to find out what they missed, so please forgive them this time..."

Huang Quan said this in the hope that Zhuge Liang would not lose his temper immediately and ruin the atmosphere of today's celebration, causing panic among others.

But on the other hand, it also left a loophole for Zhuge Liang. If these two people committed the same offense again in the future, or made any inappropriate remarks that had a negative impact on the administration of the country, then Zhuge Liang would punish them more severely, which would be the due punishment for "repeat offenders."

At the same time, Huang Quan's persuasion also cleverly set a language trap. He pleaded for Du Qiong and Qiao Qiu at the same time, making it seem that the Du and Qiao families were a small group.

Originally, the two of them spoke independently today. If problems arise in the future due to one of them's opinions, it would be difficult to blame the other person and to label them as a criminal group.

But Huang Quan's firm tone has also tied these people up.

When Zhuge Liang saw this, he could see what Huang Quan meant. He felt that the time was not yet ripe and he certainly couldn't just punish someone for his words just because he said a few strange things.

This kind of thing must be coordinated with subsequent actual policies, and the results must be seen before making a decision.

However, Zhuge Liang did not want to be remembered as someone who was "pursuing a thorough investigation and settling accounts". It was not because he valued his reputation, but because he did not want the surrendered officials in Shu to feel uneasy.

Therefore, a thought flashed through his mind: It would be great if someone could help him share his worries at this time, and find a pillar of shame to firmly nail down the nature of Du and Qiao's doubts, so that it would be easier to look at the past in the future...

Fortunately, Zhuge Liang was very good at employing people, and among the civil servants in Chengdu city there was indeed an official who had followed Zhuge Liang closely for the past two years and who could understand Zhuge Liang's intentions very well.

For example, Yang Hong.

Yang Hong knew in advance the content of Fa Zheng's report to Zhuge Liang, and also knew how Fa Zheng planned to win over the hearts of the local people.

The key to solving the problem of whether the barbarians will become "too powerful to be eliminated in the long run" lies in whether we can completely assimilate them into Han Chinese and make them accept the Han Chinese production and lifestyle.

If productivity increases, and the locals adopt full-scale farming like the Han people, and occasionally engage in fishing and hunting as a supplement, and no longer need to rely on the weather for their food, then the organizational form of their social production will inevitably undergo fundamental changes.

Yang Hong still doesn’t know how far Zhuge Liang and Fa Zheng will be able to go in the future, but he at least knows in which direction they are planning to work towards.

Therefore, Yang Hong figured out a set of words to flatter the audience, seemingly speaking in good words for Du Qiong and the others:

"Your Excellency, Doctor Du and Officer Qiao just made some inappropriate remarks. Although they may have criticized the administration, in the final analysis, it is only because they failed to understand the wonderful strategies of Your Excellency and Lord Fa in pacifying the people.

Why not put aside the dispute for the time being and wait and see what happens next to see how Lord Fa acts in Yuexi and what results he achieves in appeasing the barbarians.

If we can really make the locals assimilated to Han culture, like our Han people, with men farming and women weaving, and long-term peace and stability, then it won't be too late to ask him about his negligence and reckless words. If we immediately punish him for his words, it will inevitably fail to convince the public. "

Yang Hong's words were equivalent to persuading Zhuge Liang to give Du, Qiao and others a chance to "bet".

Didn't you attack Fa Zheng's actions and say that there would be no long-term peace? Then I will give you an observation period to see how Fa Zheng governs the Yuexi barbarians to the point of being convinced and assimilating them into Han culture from the production method to the lifestyle.

This point does not need to be observed for too long. If it is slow, it will be effective by next year, and if it is fast, it will be effective this year. As long as Fa Zheng can produce solid data on the results of localization, and the results of local conscription or collecting special products to offset taxes, he can directly slap the opponents in the face.

At that time, it would be more logical for Zhuge Liang to punish those who said strange things, and it would not discourage other surrendered ministers of Liu Zhang.

Of course, it is to be expected that this level of criticizing current affairs and speaking ill of colleagues' strategies behind their backs is not a big sin.

In fact, it is their remarks that "if leaked out, it may discourage the Yuexi Yi commanders" that are more likely to escalate the severity of the situation.

No matter what, no matter how well Fa Zheng did his job, Zhuge Liang would not have convicted people like Du and Qiao. The most he would have done was to dismiss them from their posts and destroy their official status.

But this was enough to make Du Qiong and others feel uncomfortable. They had only been standing on the moral high ground and saying strange things to seek a sense of existence, and to make some small concessions to gain some fame and benefits. Being dismissed was already a big blow.

Even after Yang Hong finished speaking and Zhuge Liang expressed his approval, Du and Qiao were still confused.

How come Zhuge Lingjun and Yang Juncheng agreed to make this bet?
As the parties involved, they had no intention of betting against Fa Zheng! What was there to bet on such a trivial matter? They just wanted to criticize Fa Zheng unilaterally, how did it become such a big deal all of a sudden?
But in this situation, how could they say no? It was not their turn to speak up, Zhuge Liang had already decided.

Zhuge Liang was also looking forward to it: Xiaozhi, you must do well for me in Yuexi. I have given you all the support you want, and I have also adjusted the strategic rhythm you want. You must do better! Clear out the internal and external enemies of Shu at the same time!
(End of this chapter)

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