Thousand-year-old family: its rise began with Shang Yang’s reforms

Chapter 378 What happens again and again

In Jingzhou City
At this time, Jingzhou had fallen into the control of Liu Qi, who was apparently closely connected with the court in Chang'an, but in fact had some unclear relationships with Dayu.

No one knows this.

Liu Qi sat in the City Lord's Mansion, looking at the turmoil in the distance with a calm expression.

In fact, he has always known one thing: under normal circumstances, he cannot compete with "Liu Cong" who has the help of Cai, but what if it is an abnormal situation?

For example, Liu Cong destroyed the Great Wall himself?

He tapped his fingers on the table, thinking about what he had done and how he had performed in this incident.

Finally, he sighed deeply and muttered to himself, "As expected of a counselor that Dong Zhongying can trust and rely on. This set of strategies is really vicious and unsolvable. It is a series of schemes designed to target these people, and even me."

Liu Qi was the beneficiary of this series of schemes, but he was genuinely frightened by "that person's" plan.

He was writing a letter at his desk, in which he stated that he would express his agreement with Dayu at the appropriate time, so as to make Dayu's power stronger.

This letter crossed mountains and rivers and finally arrived in Xiliang.

Xiliang, General’s Mansion.

Jia Xu was sitting in the backyard, looking very calm and peaceful. He yawned lightly.

Dong Zhuo hurried in with an admiring look on his face. "As Wen He expected, Cao Cao was defeated, and Liu Bei was unwilling to seize the power of his sons and nephews, so he has retreated. Because of Liu Qi's status, he did not impose many restrictions on him."

"At this time, after Liu Cong's death, the Cai family had no one to rely on, and was completely divided up by the powerful families in Jingzhou City who had been eyeing them covetously for a long time."

"Now, the situation in Jingzhou City has become clear."

“It’s not as complicated as it used to be.”

Jia Xu did not speak, but smiled faintly. He said softly: "General, do you think the situation in Jingzhou will become simpler?"

Dong Zhuo didn't really understand these conspiracies. He sat down in front of Jia Xu with a curious look on his face: "Oh? Does Wenhe have a different opinion on the land?"

As he spoke, he picked up the snacks on the table and ate them casually.

The Dong Zhuo at this time was already different from the Dong Zhuo in the original history.

In the original history, Dong Zhuo at this time had been conquered by the "Eighteen Princes" and finally died at the hands of his adopted son Lu Bu.

But now, he is the "mighty general" of the dynasty and concurrently serves as the governor of Liangzhou. He is one of the princes who controls a part of the world but is highly respected. Naturally, his character has not changed as it was originally.

This is one of the proofs that history has been changed.

Jia Xu shook his head lightly, his eyes seemed to penetrate the void and look towards Langya.

"General, Cao Cao has suffered such a great loss. Do you really think he will just let it go?"

He narrowed his eyes and said, "And the Yu Dynasty founded by Zhang Jue was even more precarious."

"What is the most important thing for a dynasty?"

Jia Xu's words made Dong Zhuo fall into thought. He frowned and then asked in a deep voice: "What is it?"

“I really don’t know about this.”

Jia Xu tilted his head and whispered, "It's inheritance."

"A hundred years after Zhang Jiao, how will Dayu be passed down? To whom will it be passed down? Does Dayu have its own system now? Does Dayu have its own team now?"

"When he started the uprising, Zhang Jue had never considered such a day. He just wanted to find a way out for the people out of his passion. This was a good thing, but it was precisely because of this "good thing" that everything turned into a bad thing in the end."

“Whether or not a country is established is completely different.”

"Now the Yellow Turban Army is everywhere in the world, even in the territories of Chang'an Han and Langya Han, there are Yellow Turban Army rising up. Even though Zhang Jiao has established Dayu, the people who can't survive are still plotting rebellion in their local areas."

"They are still waving the banner of the Yellow Turbans to find a 'backer' for themselves."

At this point, Jia Xu paused, then looked at Dong Zhuo and said, "General, if there were refugees in your sphere of influence who were rising up under the banner of another faction, what would be your first reaction?"

Dong Zhuo spoke without hesitation: "Whoever is so bold, I will kill him!"

Jia Xu nodded: "Yes, this is the first reaction of many forces in the world now."

He closed his eyes, as if he was constructing a map of the world's power in his mind: "Now the world's power can be roughly divided into "Chang'an Han", "Langya Han", "Dayu", "Jiaozhi Sun Clan" and "Youzhou Gongsun Zan". Among these forces, Jiaozhi Sun Clan and Youzhou Gongsun Zan are the most dishonest and the weakest, just like the Warring States period back then."

"If a country wants to annex other forces and sweep across the world to unify the world, then these two forces will definitely be destroyed first."

When Jia Xu was calculating, he did not take Dong Zhuo's forces into account.

Because Dong Zhuo's "Liangzhou" forces were not actually separatist forces. He was only temporarily interfering with and suppressing the many forces in the Western Regions on behalf of "Jiuzhou".

In fact, it’s not just the Western Regions.

Around the nine provinces of China, when the Han Dynasty began to be in turmoil, those people began to quietly test the waters.

For example, the Protectorate of the Western Regions.

For example, the Baiyue in the south and Tianzhu further southwest.

There is also the "Xiongnu" force that has long been eyeing the land of Kyushu and is ready to return here at any time and return to their homeland of Changshengtian.

In the past, the Han Dynasty and the Central Plains led by the Chen family drove them to the west, where they settled down, but they did not forget their "homeland". The difficulty of leaving one's homeland has never been unique to the Chinese.

Everyone in the Chinese cultural circle has this knot in their hearts.

This is also the reason why Liu Bei, Cao Cao and Zhang Jiao temporarily let Gongsun Zan, Dong Zhuo and Sun Ce go.

Dong Zhuo of Liangzhou intimidated the Western Regions, Gongsun Zan of Youzhou intimidated the Huns, and Sun Ce of Jiaozhou intimidated the Indian Empire in the southwest of the border.

This does not mean that Liu Bei, Cao Cao, and Zhang Jue were afraid of these barbarians, but they put most of their energy into supervising each other. To deal with these barbarians, these three people who could only be regarded as small forces in the Central Plains were enough.

Jia Xu withdrew his thoughts and then sighed softly.

"If Zhang Jue cannot gather and control the Yellow Turban Army that is sprouting everywhere, and seize this opportunity to stabilize the Great Yu Dynasty and take advantage of the opportunity to develop, his future will be very difficult."

Dong Zhuo and Jia Xu looked at each other, and a hint of worry flashed in their eyes.

In fact, they had secretly joined the Chen family, and the Chen family bet on Zhang Jue and chose Dayu. If Zhang Jue was defeated, their fate would not be good either.

Sometimes, the power struggles in the world are actually just "political games".

Chang'an City After Liu Bei returned to Chang'an City, he found some changes in the situation in Chang'an City. He found that Chang'an at this time was different from the Chang'an City before he left, but he really couldn't tell what was different for a while.

In the Prime Minister's Mansion, Zhuge Liang discussed with him how to continue to consolidate the imperial power, and one of the biggest factors was the "Yellow Turban Army".

After Zhang Jue announced the establishment of Dayu, these "Yellow Turban Army" were no longer the original "Yellow Turban Army" in name. They were not even an insurgent army. As long as Liu Bei wanted, he could issue an order to kill these people at any time.

But Liu Bei always felt a little reluctant.

Because he knew why these people rose up in rebellion - at least the reason why most of them rose up in rebellion.

After hearing Zhuge Liang's words, Liu Bei frowned and thought: "Kong Ming is right. The Yellow Turban Rebellion must not continue like this."

There was a hint of grimness on his face.

Obviously, what happened in Chang'an City and what happened in the world during these days have had a certain impact on him.

Liu Bei turned his head and looked at Zhuge Liang: "Let's write to him. I think he is a little dissatisfied with the "Yellow Turban Huo" who is causing chaos in the world and wants to take action."

Zhuge Liang nodded slightly and did not ask who Liu Bei was talking about.

Because it is obvious that there are only two people who can make the decision at this time, one is Zhang Jiao and the other is Cao Cao.

Liu Bei always called Cao Cao "Meng De", because no matter how rebellious Cao Cao was, he now supported a member of the Liu royal family and the younger brother of the late emperor as the emperor. The world still belonged to their Han Dynasty and their Liu family.

The dispute between the two of them over "Cao and Liu" was just a difference in ideas.

Only Zhang Tianshi, who founded "Dayu" and had arrogantly claimed that "the blue sky is dead, the yellow sky should be established", would be called "that person" by Liu Bei.

Xu Shu, who was listening to the two people's gossip, chuckled and stood up: "After Zhang Tianshi established Dayu, those Yellow Turban soldiers were no longer a help to him, but more like a burden."

"Because those who were willing to follow him have already gone to Dayu, and those who are now wandering around the world are those who are trying to fish in troubled waters."

"Now is the time for the three forces to unite and join hands to wipe out the Yellow Turban bandits, and bring peace to the people of the world."

In fact, the current world situation seems chaotic, but there is order in the chaos, which makes it seem more peaceful.

Whether in the nearly independent Liangzhou, Youzhou, and Jiaozhou, or under the rule of Cao Cao, Zhang Jue, and Liu Bei, the people lived a relatively stable life. Apart from the occasional wars and conscriptions, there were no other major problems.

琅琊
Prime Minister's Mansion

When Cao Mengde saw the letter from Liu Bei, his depressed mood suddenly improved a little.

In fact, those turbulent Yellow Turban bandits are not only roaming around Chang'an, but there are also many Yellow Turban bandits in the territory ruled by the Langya Han.

It's just that they had previously used most of their strength to deal with each other, and it was difficult to spare manpower to suppress it.

"In that case, we will wait for news from Linjing."

"What choice will Zhang Jue make?"

While Cao Cao was curious about this question, Chen Zexi also asked Chen Zhulou this question curiously with a slight smile on his face.

Since resigning from his official position and returning home, his overall condition has improved a lot.

"Donglin, what do you think Zhang Tianshi will choose?"

On the chessboard in front of Chen Zhulou, black and white chess pieces crisscrossed, just like the chaotic situation in the world.

He didn't look up when he heard Chen Zexi's question. Instead, he twisted a chess piece with a thoughtful look on his face. "There is no doubt that Zhang Jue will choose to join Liu Bei, Cao Cao and others to send troops to suppress the Yellow Turban rebels."

As Chen Zhulou said this, there was a hint of sarcasm on his face.

"In fact, the moment Zhang Jue chose to establish a country, his status was already different from those Yellow Turban rebels."

"Yes, it's the Yellow Turban Rebellion."

Noticing Chen Zexi's expression when he said the word "rebellious party", Chen Zhulou mocked him and said, "Guangde, have you heard a story?"

story?

Chen Zexi shook his head: "What story?"

"I have been different from you since I was a child. What I hate most is reading those books hidden in the Zhushen Building. I get a headache just by looking at them and want to sleep."

Chen Zhulou put down the chess piece and said calmly, "Once there was a place where there was a huge demon. This demon made it impossible for everyone in this place to live. He oppressed everyone in this place, squeezed their blood, and grew little by little using their blood and sweat as food."

"When I saw this demon wreaking havoc, there was a swordsman with immense power in the world."

"This swordsman holds a sword and kills the demon."

“But he never went back.”

“After a brief period of peace, new demons were born, more rampant, more violent, and more terrifying than the previous ones.”

Chen Zhulou told the story of "the dragon slayer will eventually become a dragon" and looked at Chen Zexi with indifference in his brows.

"Does Guangde know why?"

Chen Zexi sighed: "Because the "Swordsman" who killed the demon has become a new demon. He is more powerful than the previous demon, and of course more greedy."

Chen Zhulou nodded.

Chen Zexi looked at Chen Zhulou and asked, "If that's the case, then Donglin, why did you choose to help Zhang Jue?"

"What if Zhang Jue is really the swordsman destined to become the new demon?"

Chen Zhulou stood up, the wind lifted the corners of his clothes, causing them to sway slightly.

"Yeah, why?"

Chen Zhulou sighed, with a new sadness in his voice: "Because things like this can never end."

"What Xunzi said about human nature being evil is correct."

"But the world needs a new 'Swordsman'. How long this 'Swordsman' can exist is not important. What is important is to let everyone know that even if a new swordsman becomes a demon, a more powerful swordsman will appear and eradicate the demon."

"The world must go on after all."

"Just like today's Han Dynasty, isn't it the Qin Dynasty of the past? Today's Dayu, isn't it the high-spirited Han Dynasty of the past?"

(End of this chapter)