Silver Fox of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 472
When Sima Yi, Dong Zhao, and Guan Qiujian entered the hall, the atmosphere in the hall was obviously more dignified.

Chen Qun and Wei Zhen sat below with solemn expressions.

The main counselors in Cao Pi's period were Sima Yi and Chen Qun, and then there were several secondary counselors such as Dong Zhao, Jiang Ji, Liu Ye, Zhu Shuo, and Wu Zhi.

But Zhu Shuo and Wu Zhi were reused only because they were the courtiers of Cao Pi's East Palace.

However, the current generation of emperors and ministers are only so capable, so after Cao Rui came to power, they were abandoned, leaving only Sima Yi, Chen Qun, Dong Zhao, Jiang Ji, and Liu Ye.

As for Wei Zhen and Guanqiu Jian, they were his important ministers who accompanied him during the East Palace period, so Cao Rui's current advisers are the few people left by Cao Pi before plus Wei Zhen and Guan Qiujian.

But now Jiang Ji and Liu Ye are still in Huainan, Liu Ye is the leader of the Central Army, and Jiang Ji is the Central Guard, helping the newly appointed Hussar General Xia Houyuan to stabilize the situation in Huainan.

So now there are only Sima Yi, Chen Qun and others in the hall, as well as Wei Zhen and Guan Qiujian who were newly introduced by Cao Rui as confidants.

Everyone sits in rows.

Cao Rui's expression was ugly, and he looked at the people below and said: "Everyone must have known that, Shen Chen raided Hedong County from Zuo Fengyi, now Xu Huang and Zhu Ling are surrounded, Zhao Yun restrained Zidan in Huayin, Hedong County Alone and helpless."

Guan Qiujian immediately said: "Your Majesty, it is advisable to send reinforcements to help."

"Where did the reinforcements come from?"

Cao Rui said with a sad face: "I still plan to rest this year and continue to expand the army in two years. But now the Han army is coming in a hurry, and they are recruited temporarily. I am afraid that there will be rebellions before the soldiers arrive in Luoyang."

"Ugh."

Wei Zhen let out a long sigh and said, "Your Majesty has been visiting Xianbei Wuhuan and Gongsunyuan in the past six months, and arrived in Liu Han in the south. He wanted to recuperate and recuperate. The situation should have been eased in two years, but it happened at this juncture. .”

Sima Yi pondered and said: "The South should have also guessed that His Majesty is in a difficult situation, so he wants to send troops in a hurry. If they can withstand their offensive, the South may no longer be able to make the Northern Expedition in the next few years. This is a crisis. , but at the same time, if we can get through this crisis, His Majesty's situation will be much better."

Cao Rui now wants to recuperate, reduce the burden on the common people, and get some food, grass and population from the aristocratic family to temporarily supplement the military.If this continues, it will probably only take a few years before Cao Wei should be able to recover some vitality and enter a parity with the Southern Han Dynasty again.

But the Han Dynasty in the south obviously knew a little bit more, so they wanted to take advantage of your illness to kill you, take advantage of Cao Weiqing and Huang's failure to take over, the people had not recuperated, and the interior was still extremely unstable, and immediately sent troops to crusade against them, hoping to achieve a final decision Effect.

"Then what should I do?"

Cao Rui asked.

Wei Zhen immediately said: "If Your Majesty issues an edict immediately to recruit talents and soldiers, whoever produces more grain and more soldiers from the major families will be promoted to the top rank!"

"No!"

Sima Yi almost instinctively wanted to object.

Cao Rui frowned and said, "Marquis Wuyang, do you have another clever strategy to ease the urgent situation of the soldiers approaching the city at this time?"

"Forehead"

Sima Yi was at a loss for words for a moment.

Of course, he didn't think this method was a bad method, but that it involved his own interests.

Although the Nine-Rank Zhongzheng System allows small and medium-sized aristocratic families as well as poor families to become officials, it is still essentially a carnival feast for the nobles of the top aristocratic families.

Top grade is almost monopolized by top aristocratic families, such as the Sima family, Xun family, Zhong family, Chen family, Wang family, Cui family, Lu family, Zheng family, Yang family, etc. are among the leaders, dividing up the rank cake.

The rest of the middle and lower ranks can be picked up by other small and medium families.

Wei Zhen's family came from a family in Yanzhou. Although they were kind to Cao Cao in the early years, the family's talents were relatively withered and they only selected middle and low ranks, so they supported Cao Rui in exchange for grain, grass and soldiers for ranks.

But the Sima family has many children in the court, and they belong to vested interests. Naturally, they don't want other families to join the high-ranking family to snatch their seats.

You must know that even with the ninth-rank Zhongzheng system, Cao Wei was very cautious at the beginning and didn't distribute too much. Only the family really has relatively good talents, and they can be selected if they are from a famous family.

Even for a well-known family like the Guo family in Yingchuan, with the death of Guo Jia and the decline of talents, the family was not selected for the top rank, but fell for the middle rank, and the only descendant was Guo Chang, a regular servant on horseback.

If Cao Rui chooses to let the rest of the small and medium-sized families exchange food, grass, soldiers and horses for rank, there will inevitably be a large number of small and medium-sized families with more talents and more prosperous families.

Once these people came, they would occupy the living space of the original high-ranking family and snatch the official positions that originally belonged to them.Secondly, the reason why the upper-grade family is the upper-grade family and its high status is due to its scarcity and hard-won status.

Now you can buy it with money and food, which will undoubtedly cause the gold content of the top-grade family to plummet.Just like during the period of Emperor Huan of the Han Dynasty and Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty, even the Sangong and Jiuqing could be traded, and the Gongqing naturally became worthless.

Therefore, Sima Yi, as the current leader of the Shangpin family, definitely did not want Cao Rui to make such an opening.

But the problem is that Cao Wei is really difficult now.

If this opening is not opened, where will the soldiers, horses and food come from?

Cao and Wei are all destroyed, so what's the use of thinking about it?

So after hesitating for a moment, Sima Yi still said: "Your Majesty has heard the pain of Huan Ling's betrayal of officials and nobles, so you should know that if this is the case, the court will lose its trust and will cause endless harm."

Cao Rui said coldly: "Now the imperial court has reached a critical moment. If the great families don't send troops to support the war and the Great Wei perishes, you are not afraid that Liu Han in the south will take over the world. The population and land of your great families will all be taken by them. Have you confiscated it?"

"This"

Sima Yi smiled wryly.

This is the fundamental interest of the aristocratic family.

Although Cao Wei is not bound to the aristocratic family like Jiangdong, it is not much different.

At least at present, more than half of Cao Wei's population is controlled by aristocratic families, and the registered population is less than one-third, which is far inferior to the southern big Han.

Although the Cao Wei court also took some measures to restrain the development of the aristocratic families, trying to seize land and population from them, but the method was relatively mild, not as simple and rude as in the south.

Therefore, in terms of family interests, the aristocratic families in the north will obviously support Cao Wei more than the big Han in the south.

Then people like Sima Yi and Chen Qun from the top-ranking family had to consider a question.

It is to let small and medium aristocratic families enter the upper-grade family circle, and turn the relatively rare and noble upper-grade aristocratic families into big-fashioned goods.Or did he keep the dignity of the top-ranking family, leaving Cao Wei short of soldiers and food, and finally wiped out by the southern big man?

The answer is obvious.

If Cao Wei perishes, then all the nine-rank Zhongzheng system will have to be abolished, and there will be no top-rank families, so how can there be any dignity?
So Sima Yi could only say: "Your Majesty, the ninth-rank ranking is about the court's law and faith. If a large number of families are among the top-rank families, so that the top-rank families are everywhere, what is the court's law and faith? Therefore, I think that this issue should still be Be cautious, you can take the method of increasing the price of the number of places."

"Oh?"

Cao Rui became interested and asked, "What does Marquis Wuyang mean?"

Sima Yi said: "This time it can be said that the imperial court is recruiting talents, so the ranks are opened up. Those who were originally rated as low rank can turn in money and grain to see if they can be rated as middle rank. Those who are middle rank hand in money and grain to see if they can be rated as high rank. The number of places for the product is limited, and the highest price wins, and not only money and efforts are required, but also the family selection must be re-selected."

"not only that."

Chen Qun also took up the conversation and said: "If the grades of families and talents can be bought with money, how can the imperial court face it? Therefore, if the Xiaxia family wants to become a middle-grade family, it will cost more money and grain. If Zhongzhong wants to become a top-ranking family, the money and food paid must be more than twice that of the Zhongshang family.”

The essence of the nine-rank Zhongzheng system comes through selection. The imperial court will send Da Zhongzheng and Xiao Zhongzheng in each state and county, which are equivalent to assessment officials. After the selection and assessment of the major families, the talents and families will be classified into grades.

The meaning of Sima Yi and Chen Qun is very simple, that is, in order to prevent some rich and powerful small families from directly changing from a low-rank family to a high-rank family through spending money, they must be strictly selected.

One is that only the low-grade can be changed into the middle-grade, and the middle-grade can be changed into the high-grade.Even if a family that was originally rated as a middle-low grade wanted to become a top-grade one, it would have to spend more money.

The second is to negotiate prices through auctions.

In this way, in order to snatch the places of top-rank and middle-rank families, those small and medium-sized families may break their heads.In this way, not only the face of these high-ranking families is preserved, but also it can prevent too many small and medium-sized families from entering the top-ranking families, diluting their gold content.

Cao Rui nodded slightly after hearing this, and felt that what they said made sense, so he said, "Well, it's very good, then do it according to your wishes."

Wei Zhen was a little upset by the side. He originally wanted to use this opportunity to turn his family into a top-ranking family, but after Sima Yi and Chen Qun's operation, it would cost an unknown amount of money to snatch this spot. Said: "Middle-rank and low-rank families need to spend more money and grain to be promoted to top-rank. I don't know how much money I have to pay for my own high-rank family?"

The expressions of Sima Yi and Chen Qun changed slightly.

Their operations squeezed small and medium-sized families, but small and medium-sized families were far inferior to their original high-grade families in terms of scale, financial resources, and land and population.Otherwise, they would not be promoted to high ranks when the ranks were selected.

And the small families in the middle and small families have contributed money and efforts, so you are the top-ranking families, and you have such a big business, don't you pay a penny?
"good."

Cao Rui immediately took up the conversation and said: "The middle-rank and low-rank families have contributed money, and the top-rank families should also contribute money and efforts. If the Great Wei does not work together, it may be destroyed. The imperial court supports scholars at this critical moment. , you should help each other even more."

These words are for you, but among this group of people, the Sima family and the Chen family are top-ranking, so you are undoubtedly talking to them.

Sima Yi had no choice but to express his opinion: "After the minister returns, he will immediately revise the book and return to Hanoi, and ask his nephew to recruit some clan servants to form soldiers and horses, and bring some food, grass and supplies to Luoyang to obey His Majesty's orders."

"I am also willing to share your majesty's worries, and I will also write to Yingchuan when I go back."

Chen Qun replied in the same way.

Hearing that they said what they wanted, Cao Rui nodded in satisfaction and said, "Very good, then I will leave this matter to you two."

Dong Zhao saw that Cao Rui had already plucked food, grass and population from the aristocratic family, so he said, "Your Majesty, the most urgent task now is to find a way to lift the siege of Hedong. Now that Shen Chen is suddenly making a move, I'm afraid they have other plans."

"What conspiracy?"

Cao Rui asked.

Dong Zhao said: "One, this matter may be that Shen Chen intends to take Hedong first, and the south has no intention of going north immediately. After Shen Chen has obtained Hedong, the south will start the northern expedition at that time. Shen Chen will attack Bingzhou and surround Luoyang. Zhuge Liang He and Guan Yu sent troops from Nanyang and Huainan to attack the hinterland of the Central Plains."

"Ah."

Cao Rui nodded.

"Secondly, it is also possible that the South decided to launch a large-scale northern expedition at this time. Shen Chen first attacked Hedong, and then Zhuge Liang and Guan Yu immediately sent troops to Henan."

Dong Zhao said again.

Cao Rui thought about it.

Although it seems that what Dong Zhao said has the same meaning, it is not.

The first one is that Liu Han didn't mean to attack with the whole army, but just wanted to wait for Shen Chen to capture Hedong and rest for a while in the south before making a large-scale northern expedition.

If this is the case, it will be easier to handle. They can concentrate on dealing with Shen Chen first, and then defend the south after repelling Shen Chen.

The second meaning is that now that Shen Chen is sending troops, Zhuge Liang and Guan Yu will send troops next, and the south is preparing for a full-scale northern expedition.

If this is the case, then Cao Wei will face the pressure of the third line of attack, and they will not be able to support Hedong, because once the soldiers and horses guarding the south are withdrawn, Henan will be empty, and Zhuge Liang and Guan Yu will take advantage of it.

So one of the problems before them is to first figure out whether the south is a partial attack or a full-scale northern expedition.

Sima Yi said: "Your Majesty, I think that no matter whether it is Shen Chen who wants to take Hedong first, or the other side is aggressively invading, we cannot immediately dispatch troops from the south to rush to help Hedong. Because once we are dispatched, even if the opponent only wants to take Hedong first, Henan's troops will be reduced. The other party will also immediately change its strategy and make a massive invasion, so it is better to be cautious."

"What Zhong Da said makes sense."

When Cao Rui heard that Sima Yi wanted to pay money and food, he even called him a lot more intimate. He nodded in agreement and said, "But if we don't mobilize troops, when the food, grass and soldiers of the major families gather, I'm afraid Hedong has already been captured by Shen Chen." Now, how can this be good?"

Sima Yi thought about it, and said in a deep voice: "Soldiers are precious and fast. Your Majesty, why don't you immediately mobilize some cavalry, even if there are only tens of thousands of cavalry, to break the enemy's siege from Zhongtiao Mountain to Hedong first, and wait until Shen Chen is defeated. Then immediately go back to Henan for defense."

"However, before Zhongda said that he could not mobilize troops from the south, let alone thousands of cavalry, what impact would it have on Hedong? Shen Chen's army of [-] might not be so easy to repel."

Cao Rui retorted.

"His Majesty."

Sima Yi said: "There are many soldiers and few are able to restrain them. The most important thing is that although Nanyang is near, it is not so fast for Zhuge Liang to launch a surprise attack immediately. It only takes a month or two to allow Xu Huang to hold on for longer. This is enough. When the soldiers and horses from the major families arrive, we will have enough troops to deal with it."

"Well"

Cao Rui pondered for a long time, and finally said: "Okay, let's do this, order Sun Li to lead [-] cavalry and rush to help Hedong immediately!"

(End of this chapter)