Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 751 Unheard of

As soon as Yuan Xi said these words, Zhuge Liang's calm face finally showed a trace of confusion, "Do you also think that the current chaos in the world has already been sown?"

Seeing Zhuge Liang's reaction, Yuan Xi had already expected it, "I also know that Kong Ming believes that the cause is the fault of Emperor Huan Ling, right?"

Only then did Zhuge Liang become truly moved, "How did you know about this!"

Huang Yueying also had a look of surprise on her face. When she talked with Zhuge Liang on a daily basis, Zhuge Liang always gnashed his teeth and hated it when he talked about it. However, such slanderous things about the late emperor would not be publicized. This fierce tiger actually knew about it. Could it be that he was really watching? From stargazing?

Yuan Xi smiled and said: "I also know that Kong Ming believed that being close to virtuous ministers and staying away from villains was why the Han Dynasty prospered; being close to villains and staying away from virtuous ministers was why the Han Dynasty declined."

Zhuge Liang's body trembled, and he couldn't help but glance at Huang Yueying behind him, and said with a wry smile: "If I didn't know that you have the ability to observe stars, I almost thought someone was passing the message."

Huang Yueying felt angry after hearing this, "Have you ever teased your wife like this?"

If you don’t take good care of you tonight!

Zhuge Liang looked at Yuan Xi and asked expectantly: "Do you also agree with my idea?"

Yuan Xi thought for a while and said seriously: "Kong Ming's words are not problematic from a purely conceptual point of view."

"The direct cause of the Yellow Turban Rebellion and even the current strife in the world was indeed caused by Emperor Huan Lingdi."

"I guess Kong Ming believes that it is because the second emperor, with the intervention of the eunuchs, in order to strengthen the imperial power, started the disaster of party imprisonment and used the name of forming a party to attack the nobles, which caused the nobles to become alienated, so that they contributed to the Yellow Turban Rebellion behind the scenes, right?"

After hearing this, Zhuge Liang said: "This is exactly what I was thinking about, but after hearing the meaning of the envoy's words, it seems that he doesn't agree with it?"

Yuan Xi sighed: "This is certainly part of the reason, but it is not the whole reason."

"During the reign of the Second Emperor, the eunuchs and their relatives took turns to take part in politics, and the nobles could only rely on one of them. At that time, most of the nobles in the world belonged to their relatives. The Second Emperor was deeply disturbed, so he used eunuchs to attack his relatives. The eunuchs arbitrarily framed the scholars as party members and persecuted them wantonly. It’s time for everyone to be at risk.”

"Book of the Later Han Dynasty": From then on, those who had grievances, framed each other, and were angry with each other, indiscriminately entered the party, and the states and counties accepted the decree, or there was no relationship, and they were free from the poison, and those who died moved to abolish the ban. , six to seven hundred people.

This situation is getting worse and worse. As long as one person in his family is identified as a party member, five generations of his family will be implicated. Those who are still holding official positions will all be removed from their posts and banned from serving as officials. Only the students of the Imperial College will be implicated, and there are 30,000 Multiple people.

Zhuge Liang said sadly: "Isn't that the truth?"

"A loyal and good minister who originally had great ambitions and intended to serve the imperial court had to lose his official position and go to jail or lose his life. Although it was a eunuch who committed the crime, didn't he act under the orders of the second emperor?"

"These villains are running rampant. Isn't it the Second Emperor's connivance?"

Huang Yueying couldn't help but look outside. Every time Zhuge Liang talked about this matter, he was unscrupulous and spoke fiercely. However, this fashion belongs to the Han family, and it would not be good if someone with a heart hears it.

Yuan Xi sighed, "Although I agree with Kong Ming's point of view, has Kong Ming ever thought about why the two emperors did this?"

Zhuge Liang said without hesitation: "This is because the previous Han Dynasty died of a relative, so all the emperors of the Later Han Dynasty were so wary."

"The two emperors ascended the throne because they were supported by their relatives. Their influence penetrated deeply into the court, and the officials were alienated. This was something the two emperors could not tolerate."

"But it was too much. The foreign relatives fell and the eunuchs came to power. Their political abilities were not as good as the foreign relatives, which made the people in the world miserable. Moreover, if you thought that attacking the gentry could eliminate the foreign relatives, how could there be the Luoyang Rebellion and the replacement of the emperor?"

Zhuge Liang suddenly became silent. Yuan Xi knew what he meant and smiled and said: "It doesn't matter, I know what Kong Ming meant. My late father once advised General He Jin to kill all the eunuchs. After He Jin was killed, my late father did it himself. Kill all the thousands of eunuchs."

"But judging from the results, it seems that after Dong Zhuo entered Beijing, the ending was not so happy."

"Is it possible that Kong Ming seemed to have vented his anger on the world's nobles by killing his eunuch father, but why are there still people talking privately about Yuan Benchu, the man who rebelled against the Han Dynasty?"

Zhuge Liang was quite embarrassed. He couldn't say that your father had other motives, right?

I want to say that Yuan Shao is a villain who is trying to gain fame and win the hearts of the nobles in the world. Can you still talk to me calmly?

Seeing Zhuge Liang's tangled expression, Yuan Xi smiled and said, "I understand what Kong Ming means. It is a taboo for elders, so I will put this matter aside for the time being."

"What I want to say is that no matter the emperor, relatives, eunuchs, or nobles, they all have their own selfish motives. Only when the four of them form a balance can the world be peaceful."

"All four parties will use each other to seek benefits for themselves. This has been the truth for thousands of years. It does not mean that the emperor can make people die happily with just a word of loyalty."

"If this were the case, the true gentlemen would have died long ago, and wouldn't the rest be villains?"

Zhuge Liang was at a loss for words. Although the other party was playing a word game, there was indeed a grain of truth to it.

What Yuan Xi meant was to imply that he did not see the real source of the problem.

Zhuge Liang still had a young mentality at this time, and he was a little unconvinced, "According to what the envoy said, the root of the chaos in the world is not that the emperor listened to slander and acted in reverse?"

Yuan Xi thought for a while and said: "The emperor wants to strengthen the imperial power, and the other three parties want to use the imperial power to seek benefits for themselves."

"The complete concentration of imperial power has been proved to be unfeasible by Qin Shihuang. Therefore, at the beginning of the Han Dynasty, Emperor Gaozu of the Han Dynasty made many attempts to compromise with forces other than the imperial power."

"Although some of these attempts were not successful, and Empress Lu's relatives later became involved in politics, at any rate, a situation of mutual checks and balances was formed."

"That is, the emperor and the scholar-bureaucrats rule the world together."

After Zhuge Liang heard this, he said: "This is the reason why the early Han Dynasty prospered. Is there any problem?" Yuan Xi said in a deep voice: "No, the problem lies here."

"I think this is the fundamental reason for the fall of the Han Dynasty."

"This earliest cause comes from Wen Jing of the early Han Dynasty, not Huan Ling of the later Han Dynasty!"

As soon as these words came out, Zhuge Liang and Huang Yueying were confused. Why did the affairs of the Later Han Dynasty involve the Early Han Dynasty?

Yuan Xi saw the expressions of the two people and knew that they could not accept it for a while, so he said: "In addition to listening to the slander, Huan Ling also did something that corrupted the imperial court and had a very bad impact. What do Kong Ming think?"

Zhuge Liang said without hesitation: "Sell your official position and get a title."

In order to obtain money, Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty issued an edict to clearly mark the price of all official positions. The price was estimated based on the actual power and authority of the official position. From the three gongs to the county magistrate, everyone could buy it with money. Cao Cao's father, Cao Song, spent money on it. A prince bought for 100 million yuan.

Even for normal personnel appointments in the imperial court, officials had to spend money. If they did not spend money, they could not be officials. As a result, many honest scholars were unable to take office because they could not afford the money.

This kind of approach is actually forcing people to be greedy. Zhuge Liang was born in a wealthy family, so he should have a deep understanding of this, so his hatred for Huan Ling and Emperor should come from the bottom of his heart.

Seeing that Yuan Xi had such an expression on his face, he said angrily: "As the emperor, he promulgated such evil laws and allowed the world to be corrupt and pervert the law. If they were not the cause of the world's chaos, who else could it be?"

Yuan Xi's thoughts were indeed as he had guessed. In fact, judging from many records of later generations, Zhuge Liang was not the kind of person who was foolishly loyal to the Han court. Most of his loyalty was to repay Liu Bei for his kindness to him.

Otherwise, when Liu Bei proclaimed himself emperor, he should have made a similar move as Xun Yu opposed Cao Cao's proclaiming himself Duke of Wei.

But it turned out that Zhuge Liang was not a man who did not know how to adapt. At that time, the Han Dynasty was already in tatters, and Zhuge Liang did not try to save it, but found a way to create a new dynasty.

This was the breakthrough for me to convince him.

Yuan Xi said slowly: "Have Kong Ming thought about a question?"

"Is that why some nobles are so rich that they can even buy the three princes?"

“Where do they get their money from?”

Zhuge Liang was startled and subconsciously said: "Because they come from a wealthy family and have extensive land, and they have accumulated it for hundreds of years, so..."

He suddenly reacted and was speechless.

Yuan Xi smiled and said: "Kong Ming is right, they did save it."

"But why they can save it, I'm afraid Kong Ming understands better than me, right?"

Zhuge Liang became really serious at this time. He found that Yuan Xi had put a problem in front of him that he had not wanted to touch before but could not avoid.

Why do aristocratic families have so much land?

Zhuge Liang immediately fell into deep thought. With his intelligence, he didn't realize that Yuan Xi had been leading him in a big circle just for the words he just said.

The bane of the world is not Huan Ling, but Wen Jing!

When Zhuge Liang thought of this answer, he suddenly fell into confusion.

Wasn't it because of the rule of Wen and Jing that the prosperity of the Han Dynasty was due to the rule of Wen and Jing?

Why would the other party say that this is the root cause of disaster?

Wait, he said that Huan Ling sold his official position and got a title, so what happened during Wenjing's reign?

Did Emperor Wen of Han do anything?

He ruled by doing nothing, reduced taxes, treated the people leniently, granted great powers to the princes and kings, including privately minting coins, etc., and adopted a defensive policy against the Xiongnu.

Zhuge Liang never asked the same question: Why did Emperor Wen of Han reduce taxes and end up making the court rich?

The source of money of aristocratic families. The formation of aristocratic families. In the early Han Dynasty, China was completely white. Even Emperor Gaozu could not get together four horses of the same color. However, after the reign of Wenjing, coins and grains overflowed the warehouses. Is there anything wrong with this?

Wait, what Yuan Xi means is...

Wasn't he also born into a wealthy family? Why would he think this way?

Zhuge Liang had a flash of inspiration and raised his head in shock, "What your real intention is, is it because the aristocratic family is amassing a large amount of land?"

Yuan Xi was relieved, "I thought Kong Ming would avoid this idea."

Zhuge Liang was shocked, and so was Huang Yueying.

Why does Yuan Xi, who was born in the Yuan family in Runan, think so?

What has he been through?

While Huang Yueying was shocked, she couldn't help but look at Lu Lingqi, who was sitting behind Yuan Xi, and wondered, could this be Lu Bu's idea?

As a result, she found that Lu Lingqi didn't seem to be listening at all. Instead, she was distracted and was still picking her feet in her hands. It was obvious that her legs had been numb for a long time.

(End of this chapter)