Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1434 Greedy
Although Zhang Zhao pursued a policy of surrender, on the other hand, he was very persistent on certain issues and often spoke frankly and violated taboos, so he was very disliked by Sun Quan at the time, and in the end he was not one of Sun Quan's most trusted confidants.

This also allowed him to avoid a disaster. After he surrendered to the State of Jin, he gradually saw some things clearly. Although he restrained himself a lot, he was not very cautious in front of Lu Su because they were familiar with each other. So he said to Lu Su: "Zijing, your majesty has done a great job in history. The momentum of the State of Jin will not be even half as good as that of the State of Wu in the future."

"For a Son of Heaven like this, do you really think he only relies on those superficial skills?"

"Zhuge Liang was young, yet he became the prime minister. When you retire in the future, he will be the first person under Your Majesty."

"He is from the Shin-Han school."

Lu Su said: "It is true that the Shen-Han school is a legalist school that emphasizes law and tactics, but he is not opposed to Confucianism, Taoism, or Mohism, right?"

"And your majesty has also compiled a history book. This seems to go against the Shin-Han school's prohibition on discussing the way of the monarch, doesn't it?"

Zhang Zhao sighed, "That's because there's a Majesty suppressing him."

"Legalism certainly has its merits, but it tends to go to extremes, is too greedy and cruel, and suppresses human nature. Not only is it easy for the whole world to make enemies, but the government's orders are also not effective, and it is easy for villains to use them to seek personal gain and form cliques. It would be good to meet a saint, but how many saints are there in the world?"

"What was the fate of Shang Yang and Han Feizi of this school?"

"Your Majesty's choice of Zhuge Liang is very clear. In the future, the Jin Dynasty will focus on practicality, promote the craftsmanship of craftsmen, and follow the principles of legalism. This is a brand new path that has never been tried before."

"If you don't understand this point, Zi Jing, you naturally can't understand why, after Jin unified the country, it did not re-adopt the Three Mutuals Law of the previous dynasty, but still adopted the practice of transferring officials from the aristocratic families and letting them serve in other places."

Lu Su thought thoughtfully, "Does it mean that in actual operation, Your Majesty used art instead of law to make it seem less likely to cause conflict?"

"This official transfer, including the nomination of you and me, is actually a variation of the Three Mutuals Law?"

Zhang Zhao said, "That's right."

"Although His Majesty does not like his subjects to guess his thoughts, it is not easy for a subject to offer suggestions if he is not sure of his inner desires."

Lu Su let out a long sigh, "Compared to Zi Bu, I am still too stupid."

Zhang Zhao shook his head and said, "It's not stupidity, it's just that I'm too kind."

"Your Majesty needs someone like Zijing, but someone like me is a bit annoying."

"But no matter what, I will not regret it. The path of Jin is much brighter than that of Wu. Whoever can pacify the world will be more wise."

"Sun Zhongmou also had his own ideas, but neither time nor destiny was on his side. I can only offer a toast to him from afar and wish him a safe journey."

"As for your majesty, I actually admire that he did not do these things for his own personal gain, which is particularly rare."

"But if its actions deviate from its original intention in the future, I will still speak up."

Yuan Xi didn't know what Zhang Zhao and Lu Su thought of him. He believed that everything he did was in line with his heart. Although some of the methods were not so decent, as Zhang Zhao said, all these practices were not for his own personal gain, but to leave a wider path for future generations.

Just like opening up the areas beyond the Great Wall, although it was arduous and difficult, if the right kinds of crops were found, the black soil there would be the most suitable place for planting in the whole of China.

Of course, pioneering is an extremely arduous task. After all, the land of white mountains and black waters in later generations is now full of swamps. Without dredging ditches, digging rivers, and reclaiming wasteland, nothing can be achieved.

That is why Yuan Xi adopted a policy of luring and assimilating the Eastern Xianbei who were above him. He invested in steam machinery to open up wasteland and expand the frontier, allowing the Eastern Xianbei to see the superiority of planting over grazing, and thus within a few generations, they changed from a nomadic people to an agricultural people.

In comparison, his attitude towards Ke Bineng of the Western Xianbei was much more blunt. That place belonged to Outer Mongolia in later generations. Even in the industrialized later generations, it was still a wasteland. Apart from the underground minerals, it was impossible to develop agriculture. Overgrazing would also damage the environment within the pass and affect places like Bingzhou.

Therefore, Yuan Xi used another method to guide them. He allocated a part of the Silk Road trade route to the Western Xianbei and induced them to engage in trade exchanges with the Western Regions.

This was equivalent to giving part of the lucrative profits of the Silk Road trade to the Western Xianbei, guiding their tribesmen to shift from herding to trade. At the same time, the distribution of their tribes began to migrate along the trade routes, westward along the desert, and gradually extended towards Central Asia.

Long-distance trade over land requires a large number of young and strong people, which invisibly limits the population growth of the Western Xianbei. Yuan Xi once calculated that if the Silk Road prospers again, more than half of the nearly one million people of the Eastern Xianbei will move to Central Asia, and the tribes remaining on the northern grasslands will be maintained at a size of 200,000 to 300,000, which will be much easier to deal with in the future.

The migration of the Western Xianbei could also reshuffle the situation in Central Asia. For example, the Sogdians, who control most of the profits from the prosperous Silk Road trade, would also be impacted by the Western Xianbei.

In the end, the two sides will annex and merge with each other, and the power of the Sogdians will be suppressed. Faced with the Western Xianbei, who are supported by the Jin State, the Sogdian forces will gradually retreat to the border of the Eurasian continent and will no longer be able to enter China.

The Sogdians played a very active role in East Asia and the Song Dynasty, and were called the Jews of the East. Of course, they also had an ignominious history for a long time. An Lushan and Shi Siming in the An-Shi Rebellion were both Sogdians. If such foreign ethnic groups occupied wealth, they would inevitably seek political power, and their final form would be to occupy the local land and establish a country. This is why they repeatedly caused rebellions in history and led to the decline of local dynasties.

Yuan Xi had learned from the lessons of later generations and naturally would not repeat the same mistakes. So he deliberately led the Western Xianbei and Sogdians to fight each other, driving the tiger to devour the wolf, and keeping the vortex of fighting away from the Central Plains.

What Jin had to pay for this was part of the profits from the trade route. Of course, the proportion was high enough that the Hu and Han merchants in Bingzhou, after hearing the news, all looked for ways to submit petitions to ask Yuan Xi to revoke his decision.

The Han Shang clan in Bingzhou was looking for the governor Gao Gan, and the Xionghu Shang clan was naturally looking for Qu Bei. As the number of people was increasing, the two men had no choice but to let Qu Bei come over, bringing with him several carriages of memorials.

It took dozens of guards more than an hour to move thousands of bamboo slips to the outer room of Yuan Xi's study, filling up two rooms.

Yuan Xi first asked Qu Bei to sit down, then casually opened two bamboo slips, glanced at them, and put them aside.

He spoke to Qu Bei but did not get straight to the point. Cao Ji, who was taking notes on the side, quickly followed suit and picked up his pen.

"Last year, Zilong conquered most of Liangzhou. You led the Xiongnu soldiers to fight bravely and your contribution was invaluable. I am very pleased."

"But you declined all the rewards afterwards, including the title of king. Why are you so modest?"

Qu Bei smiled bitterly and said, "The king's son was only a marquis in Bingzhou. I have no merit in expanding the territory, so how dare I take over the throne?"

"Moreover, in the battle of Bingzhou, there was a mixture of Hu and Han people among my soldiers, and there was no distinction between them. It cannot be said that it was all the work of the Xiongnu."

"And many Xiongnu soldiers have begun to grow their hair and change their clothes, turning to Han Chinese."

"Oh?" Yuan Xi said with interest: "I said that we should treat everyone equally. Although the Xiongnu did not have preferential policies, they were not inferior to the Han people. Why did they change their status?"

Qu Bei said: "That is true, but everyone knows that when you pass the examination to become an official, you will follow the same path as the Han people, and the elementary education you attend will all be in Chinese characters."

"These are all taught by Han teachers. Many Xiongnu people are worried that they may hide their private lives because of their Xiongnu identity, or even be affected in the future. In this case, Xiongnu women are more inclined to marry Han men. As a result, the ratio of male to female in Xiongnu is unbalanced."

"I don't know who started it, but the Xiongnu men who first saw this started growing their hair and changing their household registration to Han Chinese. After that, more and more people followed suit, so the Xiongnu in Bingzhou began to grow their hair and change their clothes on a large scale, and now it has become a general trend."

Yuan Xi's face remained expressionless, but he felt a little proud in his heart. He had heard these things before, and now they were confirmed again through Qu Bei's mouth.

National integration means naturally assimilation towards the strong. As for preserving traditional diversity, Yuan Xi doesn't care.

The tradition of the Hu people is a tradition, but the tradition of the Han people is not a tradition. Over the thousands of years, how much of the tradition of the Han people has been lost?
History is rolling forward, and those that are not suitable for the times will sooner or later be eliminated. It is enough for future generations to record and preserve these things. There is no need to pass them down completely. If human beings go to the ocean and into space in the future, can they still carry with them strange costumes and various traditions?

He said aloud: "In that case, I will give it another push."

"Those who keep their hair and change their clothes will be subsidized by the state treasury, exempted from taxes for three years, and given one year of labor service."

Qubei smiled bitterly, Your Majesty, this is more than just a push, it's simply turning the steam engine to the maximum gear.

He suddenly remembered that he came with a letter from a high-ranking official, and hurriedly took out the silk letter from his arms and handed it to Yuan Xi.

Yuan Xi unfolded it and looked at it, then said to Qu Bei, "The Bingzhou-Jinyang trade route is indeed blessed by nature."

"Most of the goods from Jianghuai have passed through Jinyang so far. The profits from trade outside the Great Wall are already lucrative, and now that a lot of it has been given to the Western Xianbei, it's no wonder they are getting angry."

"But they seem to have forgotten one thing," Yuan Xi's tone turned cold, "When we conquered Bingzhou, they didn't contribute much. It can even be said that many of them were dragging their feet."

"I rely on the Youzhou soldiers, Governor Gao, and the soldiers under your command."

"I will reward them for their contributions after they have opened up a new territory. They waited until the city was broken before they started to take sides. Why should I leave so many benefits to them?"

"Why?"

"They just waited and watched until the very last moment, and then started a rebellion when they saw that the Southern Xiongnu couldn't resist?"

"Based on this, they also want to monopolize the Jinyang trade route?"

(End of this chapter)