Silver Fox of the Three Kingdoms

Liu Bei was also very happy to see that he was enjoying himself under the rule.

He had suffered from discord under his rule.

Back in Xuzhou, Cao Bao also belonged to his army in name.

As a result, Cao Bao switched to Lu Bu because of his discord with Zhang Fei, and finally made Lu Bu occupy Xuzhou.

Therefore, learning from that lesson, Liu Bei pays great attention to the unity of his subordinates, and even if there are differences, they will often be handled properly.

Therefore, although Zhuge Liang's family in the Shu Han was the dominant family, due to Zhuge Liang's own abilities and fewer internal differences, the Shu Han was quite stable even after Liu Bei's death.

Seeing everyone's harmony at this moment, Liu Bei smiled and said: "It's best if you can work together, Xiaoqing and Kong Ming, now I have won the land of Yizhou, and I have almost won the second place in the world. What should I do now? "

Zhuge Liang asked, "What do you mean, my lord?"

Liu Bei said in a deep voice: "Cao Mengde has also occupied the north. The population under his rule is more than ten million? If it grows stronger, there may be millions of soldiers. I want to take advantage of his unstable foothold and attack Henan."

Shen Chen, Zhuge Liang and Fazheng looked at each other and shook their heads slightly. Seeing that everyone agreed, Zhuge Liang stood up and said, "My lord, no."

However, his ancestral country cannot last forever, which also frustrated his sense of mission.

Chen went out to fetch a pen and paper.

"Why?"

Liu Bei was dejected.

Fazheng pondered: "Yes, as the first generation of dignitaries in the founding of the country, the ministers who followed Gaozu and Guangwu to conquer the world will spawn a large number of top wealthy families. Although time has passed, there will always be dilapidated families in each dynasty, such as Deng Xiaoping. The family has been in decline for decades, but there will always be new powerful families to continue to fill the vacancy."

"good."

Both Fazheng and Zhang Song expressed their gratitude, because this "Xingguoshu" will indeed be of great help.

Shen Chen said: "At this time, the Northern Expedition will hurt both sides, and Sun Quan, Han Suimateng and others must take advantage of the opportunity. Have you seen the incident between Han Zilu and Dong Guoqun, my lord?"

Under such circumstances, the Eight Kings even recruited and hired northern nomads to enter the Central Plains to fight for them. As a result, the game became bigger and bigger, causing millions of nomads to go south, so that the five chaos in China, and the Western Jin Dynasty only existed for 51 years. perished.

However, under this kind of thinking analysis, many complicated problems became extremely simple, which gave them a clear understanding of why the situation at the end of the dynasty occurred.

Fazheng, Zhang Song and Liu Bei all looked at him, but Zhuge Liang's face remained unchanged, because he had discussed this issue with Shen Chen countless times.

Zhuge Liang clasped his hands and said, "Xiaoqing and I have persuaded several great families that they are willing to give up the land. It's just that my lord wants to be more gentle, so as to avoid large-scale civil strife in Jingzhou and Yizhou, we still have to make a deal with them. It is a good thing for us and them to buy it at a low price, to grant official positions to talented children of aristocratic families in exchange for land, and to give them some benefits appropriately."

Liu Bei's face became very heavy, and after a long time, he said: "Xiaoqing's profound understanding of this makes me ashamed. According to Xiaoqing's meaning, even if I recover the big man, it can only last for 300 years ?"

"The reason for this pattern is that the fields are more and more occupied by the aristocratic families, and the fields occupied by the common people are less and less."

"Kyoto, do you think so too?"

Shen Chen pointed to the third floor and said: "This is the powerful class of the aristocratic family. These people are often attached to the existence of the second layer of bureaucratic class. The bureaucratic class becomes the umbrella of the powerful class of the family. If one person is an official, the whole family will become a powerful citizen of the county. , Their source of wealth is to rob ordinary people of their land."

It is the interests of the aristocratic family that are harmed. If they cannot be appeased, the consequences of civil strife will be disastrous.

"Ah."

"Ah."

This time he contributed the most to the suppression of Fazheng in Yizhou, which made him trust Fazheng very much.

In fact, it’s not that the ancients didn’t know these things, otherwise there wouldn’t be so many reforms in the past dynasties, but their cognition is relatively general, unlike Shen Chen who has experienced modern education for later generations. The analysis is extremely profound.

no way.

Shen Chen thought for a while, then shouted outside: "Come here."

Zhuge Liang shook his head and said: "The current situation is by no means in the Spring and Autumn Period, and Sun Quan, Han Suimateng and others are not small countries, my lord should not underestimate them. We should first pacify Jiangdong or Guanzhong, and fight with Cao Cao from north to south to eliminate internal troubles before we can conquer foreign aggression in the north. .”

Liu Bei murmured to himself: "But Kong Ming Xiaoqing, you told me that the division of Jing and Yi officials can solve many problems."

Shen Chen shook his head: "There are too many restrictions on officials, which will leave no room for those officials who want to benefit the people. The power is too small, and the status of the people is higher than that of the officials. How can they govern the people? If the authority of the law cannot be exerted, it will inevitably cause more chaos. "

Seeing that the three important people under his command held opposing opinions, Liu Bei nodded and sighed: "I don't know how difficult it is to fight Cao Cao, but he has already reached his destiny, and he doesn't know how long it will be, so he is a little impatient."

If there is a bloodbath, it is inevitable that many relatives and friends will be killed or injured. It is impossible for people to be completely impartial. Unless relatives and friends have committed a crime, try to appease them as much as possible.

Shen Chen then said: "Filial piety should not be conservative, people must learn to be flexible. A powerful family has accumulated for hundreds of years, and the family heritage is strong. If there is civil strife, it may hurt the root. What's more, there are many talents under the lord's command who come from these powerful families. The fields are real, but you can’t hurt the hearts of these people.”

"only."

Liu Bei lifted his spirits and said, "It's also good to make the country last."

Liu Bei asked: "The Northern Expedition to the Central Plains and the revival of the Han Dynasty is my lifelong wish. Now that the opportunity has come, why not?"

"Bring a pen and paper."

Shen Chen said: "That's right. Kuang Heng stole everything when he was a child. When he grew up, the emperor gave him 31 mu of land, and even stole more than 4 mu of land from the next county. You can see the greed of these people. As time goes by, any dynasty There are too many people who have lost their land, it is the end of the year, the former Han Dynasty and the present are the same.”

"Humph."

They were indeed deeply involved with the major families in Jingzhou.

Liu Bei laughed and said, "I am not Han Zilu, and Cao Cao is not Dong Guoxun. It is Qiang Qin and Qiang Jin. Even if the two compete and cannot immediately decide the winner, I am afraid that Ru Geng, Huo, Yu, and others will be destroyed." Guo and other countries."

Liu Bei worried: "It's just that Jingzhou's aristocratic families are powerful, and most of them have intersections with Xiaoqing, Kongming and Shiyuan."

Shen Chen thought of the Sima family's Jin Dynasty.

In history, after Fazheng enacted the "Shu Branch", due to the strict rule of law in Shu, the local powerful forces were hit. The powerful were very dissatisfied and resisted the Shu Han regime with a negative attitude, which led to Liu Bei's unstable foundation.

"Unless every generation of emperors has to carry out a reform and let those aristocratic families hand over their fields, there is really no way to solve this problem."

"indeed so."

After listening to Fazheng, he felt that many doubts were resolved, and he immediately said in awe: "Xiaoqing's words are deafening."

This is the root of feudal land annexation.

Zhuge Liang is related to the Kuai family and the Huang family by marriage.There are also the Pang family of the Pangtong family, the Xi family of the Xizhen family, and the Xiang family of the Xianglang family. Liu Bei now has many children from aristocratic families under his command.

Zhuge Liang also said: "The people, the officials, and the country are in conflict with each other and depend on each other. If the law is lax, the officials and the people will mess with the law. If the law is strict, the state will harm the people. "The sages have long seen through the way to govern the country. It's just that the rulers Xiaoqing said often do things according to their own wishes. If there is a wise emperor, the country will prosper. If there is a foolish emperor, the country will decline."

Liu Bei closed the booklet, put it on the table and said, "Xiaoqing said before about class, what we have to do is to help the lowest class, that's the reason."

As a professional architectural designer, the painting of this pyramid is almost perfect, and each layer has been marked. Fazheng Zhang Song, including Liu Bei, came together one after another.

Shen Chen smiled and said: "It's not that everyone doesn't understand these truths, but no one has discovered them and found them. I just summed up the experience of the predecessors. For example, Shi Dan, a minister at the end of the Han Dynasty, once advocated "restricting land "Slave restriction", but after all, it could not be realized because of offending the bureaucrats and the powerful interest groups of the aristocratic family."

Shen Chen pointed to the second floor again and said: "This is the bureaucratic class, from the top to the top, down to the county magistrate and county magistrate. Although they have different levels, what they have in common is that they all have the power of life and death over the people at the bottom. .”

Discussion about the understanding of class Shen Chen actually discussed with Zhuge Liang, Xu Shu, Pang Tong, and Ma Hui of Pound Company.

They were extremely shocked by Shen Chen's profound thoughts, and this kind of dialectical thinking was beyond their comprehension.

"Which five floors?"

Zhuge Liang also said: "The general situation in the future will be divided into north and south. Most of Cao Cao's lands are plains, and there is no danger to defend. Our army has the initiative and can send troops from Guanzhong, Nanyang, and Jianghuai at any time, making Cao Cao exhausted. If you are strong and strong, if you add more elite soldiers and strong generals, it is not a problem for Cao to manipulate millions of people."

Shen Chen sighed: "That's why dynasties are often only two or three hundred years old. Fortunately, there was Guangwu in the last years of the former Han Dynasty, and there is a lord in the last years of the current dynasty. If this is not the case, I am afraid that the day when the Cao bandits rule the world, the new dynasty will replace the Han Dynasty." Time. And as time goes by in the future, the old dynasty will always be replaced by the new dynasty, this is a law."

"Thank you, my lord."

Therefore, after the explanation is clear, everyone can understand it at a glance.

"Everyone see."

Liu Bei hurriedly got up and took the booklet, and when he opened the first page, he saw a few big characters written on it—King inside and bully outside!
"Inner king and outer bully?"

Fazheng and Zhang Song should agree.

Liu Bei involuntarily pronounced these words.

"Think about it, my lord. Strictly speaking, the emperor and the people should stand on one side. Because the people are the foundation of the emperor's rule. Without the people, the great man is just a loft in the air, and it will inevitably collapse. Mencius has long said that "the people are the most important, and the society is second." Therefore, the king is the lightest." It can be seen that the sages have already seen it clearly."

"Xiaoqing, tell me quickly."

"Under normal circumstances, this is the case. Even if you are almost lucky, you will perish within two or three hundred years when you encounter the hidden dangers of the Seven Kings Rebellion planted by His Excellency Jingdi in the early Han Dynasty. After all, even with His Excellency Jing's wise and powerful It also managed to quell the Seven Kings' Rebellion. If another incompetent emperor were replaced and the Eight Kings' Rebellion broke out, it would be a disaster for the country."

Shen Chen looked around the crowd and said, "Everyone, what is class? It is the wealth of the country occupied by people of different status. For example, the emperor is the highest class, followed by the three princes and nine officials, and then it decreases step by step. But generally speaking, I Divide the ranks of the great Han into five layers."

Shen Chen finally pointed to the fourth and fifth floors: "And their wealth is based on plundering the common people and the slave class. They turn the land of the common people into their own land, and the population of the common people into My own servants don’t have to pay taxes to the court, and all the land income belongs to them, and the end result is that they are rich, and the people are poor, unable to afford food, and finally choose to rebel.”

Liu Bei asked, "Then what should I do now?"

Shen Chen persuaded: "My lord, don't worry too much. Gao Zu started his army at the age of 48, and it took only seven years to pacify the world. My lord's situation at this time is already much better than when Gao Zu was."

If Zhuge Liang hadn't turned the tide, changed his policy strategy, and finally managed Bashu well, I am afraid that Ji Han would not have lasted for so many years, and would have collapsed due to internal and external troubles.

Liu Bei said again: "Let Xiaoqing Kongming do the things that benefit them. I will follow your advice on these things."

Now the structure of the Great Han is very similar to the Indian caste system, the bottom is slaves, but the number of slaves is far less than that of ordinary people, so the structure is naturally different from ordinary pyramids.

Shen Chen said: "Cracking down on powerful families and returning the land to the common people is the top priority at the moment. I have written the specific methods in "Xing Guo Shu". If Xiao Zhi and Zi Qiao don't know the situation in Jingzhou, they can use this book to learn more about it. refer to."

"Unfortunately."

Facing the extortion from the postal supervisor back then, Liu Bei could actually bribe him.Although he has no money in his hand, he has power in his hand.As a county lieutenant and the third in command in the county, it was very easy for him to engage in extortion, but he didn't want to do that, so he whipped the governor and left the official.

Shen Chen said: "It is impossible to solve it forever, but there is a way to extend the life of the dynasty, and this is what we have to do."

Fazheng was very clever, and immediately said: "When the dynasty was first established, the situation of land annexation was broken due to the war. There were a lot of unowned land, but as time passed, in the 200 years of Taiping, generations of bureaucrats and the people behind them The family embezzles the land, and the people have less and less land, and finally have no land and have to pay taxes. If they can't survive, they can only revolt."

"Yes."

"good."

Shen Chen said: "What needs to be solved at present is the increasingly acute land conflict, so we must start to attack the powerful families in Jingzhou and Yizhou. Although it will be very painful at first, and even cause a lot of civil strife, but it is like the people among the people. Like a poisoned arrow, the arrowhead is poisonous, and the poison enters the bone. When the arm is broken, the bone is scraped to remove the poison. Although the arm is painful, it is better than being poisoned to death."

Liu Bei frowned and said, "What will happen if the power of officials is restricted and the status of the common people is higher than that of the officials?"

Liu Bei set the tone and said: "I support Xiaoqing and Kong Ming on this point. Xiaozhi and Ziqiao will govern Jingzhou in the future. They must not be too strict."

Liu Bei hurriedly asked: "Is there a solution?"

Chen Dao walked in, cupped his hands and said, "General."

"Just initial relief, not eradication."

But it was the infighting of the Eight Kings Rebellion that caused the serious consumption of the strength of the Han people.

Liu Bei flipped through this booklet. The content in it can't be said to be obscure, but it can only be said that there are many strategies, one by one, and you need to understand it one by one. Why don't you let Shen Chen and Zhuge Liang explain it in detail.

"Is there really no solution?"

Shen Chen said: "My lord also knows the content of the kingly way. Integrate the forces of Jing and Yi to carry out internal and external reforms. If the country wants to be strong, it must unite all the people to fight against external enemies. To unite all the people, It must satisfy the interests of the majority.”

"Thank you Xiaoqing."

"The last two classes are divided into the class of the common people and the class of slaves and servants. The interest groups formed by the bureaucratic class and the aristocratic class invaded the fields of the common people, and used the labor force of the common people to absorb a large amount of wealth. Back then Cao Teng, Cao Cao's father, paid [-] million yuan to Emperor Ling in order to become the third prince, which shows how rich these people are."

Liu Bei also nodded: "Although my father was a county magistrate back then, he was a clean official. After his father died of illness, his family was also in decline. However, many of my father's colleagues joined forces with the local powerful families to plunder. Randomly plundering the common people. That’s why I can’t get used to the officialdom, and I don’t want to join them, so I angrily whip the postmaster.”

"Exactly."

"Oh?"

"But this does not mean that every emperor can have such an understanding. His Majesty Wendi and Jingdi know, does Huandi Lingdi know? Once the emperor lacks this kind of understanding, it is easy for the emperor to issue government orders, which will harm all people. Lingdi With one order, the officials and people all over the world have to pay for the construction of the palace, and ten qian per field, plus countless exorbitant taxes, will eventually crush all the people."

After all, strictly speaking, this is the ruling class represented by Liu Bei, who is taking the land of the aristocratic families and giving it to the landless people.

It’s just that there are still too few examples like Sima Zhi and Liu Bei. Most officials face the exploitation of the upper class, have no money, and dare not engage in those aristocratic families with stronger backgrounds than them, so they can only reach out to the common people, so that even After the Yellow Turban Rebellion was extinguished, the uprisings continued, and the Han Dynasty became riddled with holes.

"I know the kingly way and overbearing, but how to implement it?"

Fazheng nodded his chin slightly and said, "The Son of Heaven is indeed the most powerful."

Shen Chen shook his head: "There is no solution to this problem, there is no solution."

"only."

Shen Chen and Zhuge Liang looked at each other, then Shen Chen took out a booklet from his pocket, went to Liu Bei's case and put it in his hands, saying: "Don't worry, my lord, my brother and I have already discussed the countermeasures and wrote "Xing Guo Shu" One, dedicated to the lord."

Although after death, don't care about the flood.

They are newcomers and don't know the situation in Jingzhou. With "Xing Guoshu", they should be much easier to implement.

In fact, strictly speaking, the strength of the Jin Dynasty is not weak, and it is still easy to beat a northern nomad.

But different from ordinary pyramids, the area of ​​the first layer is very small, the largest area is the second layer, and then it becomes a normal pyramid.

Zhang Song also sighed: "When I read "Historical Records" and "Hanshu" before, I also had some thoughts like this, but I couldn't grasp the essentials. Now after listening to Xiaoqing's analysis, I understand the reasons for these principles."

Shen Chen sketched out a pyramid structure on the paper.

Shen Chen explained: "Besides the Son of Heaven, every generation of courtiers has selfish motives and wants to accumulate wealth for the family. Such a generation of Sangong and Jiuqing can create more than a dozen powerful families and pass them down from generation to generation. How many households can be created? The Yuan family has four generations and three princes, and their disciples and old officials are all over the world, so the family property and wealth they own are more than tens of billions?"

There are still some such examples in the Eastern Han Dynasty. For example, Sima Zhi, the prefect of Julu, was unwilling to extend his hand to the local people in the face of blackmail by Emperor Liu Hong of the Han Ling, and finally committed suicide. The emperor turned back.

"No solution?"

Fazheng snorted coldly and said: "The aristocratic family swallowed up the country's property. They are a bunch of moths in the country. If I come to wield a knife, I will kill them all. And make a deal with them to give them some benefits? My lord, Wan Can't be too kind."

Shen Chen pointed to the top pyramid and said: "The highest class is the emperor, I call him the highest ruling class."

Shen Chen nodded, pointed at Zhuge Liang, then pointed at himself, and said earnestly: "It's not just them. In the future, if we follow the lord to conquer the world and revive the Han Dynasty, our descendants will also become a wealthy family. For the sake of our own family They began to encroach on the interests of the common people, gnawing at the wealth of the country like moths, so there is no solution to this problem, as long as there is a bureaucratic class, it will definitely give rise to aristocratic families."

Fazheng nodded and said: "Yes, my lord, it is really not appropriate to directly conflict with Cao Cao at this time. We should resolve internal disputes and then go north to the Central Plains."

Shen Chen and Zhuge Liang also handed over each other.

Shen Chen said: "That's right, it's the king inside and the overlord outside. The way of kingship is practiced internally, and the way of domineering is practiced externally."

Although he is good at military strategy, he is not good at political strategy.

Both Fazheng and Zhang Song were curious.

Liu Bei looked at Fazheng.

Fazheng glanced at him and Zhuge Liang, but said nothing.

"The commander of a county can decide the life and death of the people in a county."

Zhang Song sighed: "I have seen such things countless times, especially in this troubled world, many counties have no order at all, whoever has soldiers in their hands is the county magistrate, and can kill any county citizen."

Shen Chen continued: "In addition to these, there are other suggestions in the Shuzhong, such as selecting talents, improving government efficiency, strengthening centralization, abolishing slavery, etc. It's just that everything should be done step by step, and we can't rush it. Step by step, first Solve the fundamental problems, and then gradually improve the system.”

"rest assured."

Fazheng said in a deep voice, "I will act carefully."

"It's time for you to be filial."

Shen Chen bowed his hands in greeting, and then said solemnly: "Next, let's talk about foreign bullies!"