I, the prince, only want to be deposed.

Chapter 214 Superior Reconnaissance and Counter-reconnaissance Awareness

Doesn’t Zhao Zhou understand what Liu Ju and Wei Kang just said?
He understands, he understands better than anyone else!

Confucian scholars advocated mostly benevolence, righteousness, rites and music, but most of them lacked the ability to handle practical government affairs such as money, grain, military affairs, punishments, examinations and selections. They were unable to handle matters and did not understand the affairs of county officials.

You tell him that the treasury is empty, he argues with you about benevolence, righteousness, propriety and music, and suggests that you starve yourself.

You told him that the army was short of soldiers and horses, and he argued with you about benevolence, righteousness, propriety and music, and suggested that you take a break.

If you tell him that the people are breaking the law and disorderly order, he will argue with you about benevolence, righteousness, propriety and music, and suggest that you abolish the law.

You told him about the repeated invasions by the Huns, and he argued with you about benevolence, righteousness, propriety and music, and suggested that you hold your nose and send gifts to marry...

There was a vivid example of this before the Battle of Mobei. The man was named Di Shan, a doctor of Confucianism and a great scholar in the country.

At that time, the Huns repeatedly invaded the Han border. Di Shan strongly advocated a marriage alliance. In the court, he argued with Zhang Tang, the then Imperial Censor, so hard that he became red in the face and could only scold him for being pedantic.

Liu Che then asked him if he could manage a county so that the Huns would not dare to invade, and Di Shan replied that he could not.

Liu Che asked again whether a county was possible, and Di Shan also answered no.

Liu Che asked again if it was possible to do it, and Di Shan said yes.

So Liu Che sent Di Shan to guard the border. One month later, he was beheaded by the invading Xiongnu...

But at the same time, Zhao Zhou also understood the truth that Liu Ju and Wei Kang did not say.

Could it be that Liu Che didn't know that the saying of "abolishing all schools of thought and commending the Six Classics" was already spreading throughout the world? Of course he knew it, but why did he just let it go?

That’s because Liu Che had his own ideas and political needs.

Troubled times call for severe punishments.

The same logic applies to Liu Che's current use of cruel officials and harsh measures. Since he wants to promote Confucianism among the people, educate the people, and make the world orderly, if he simply "suppresses all schools of thought", there will definitely be people who take advantage of loopholes and hinder the promotion of Confucianism, especially at the beginning of its promotion.

Behind every seemingly unreasonable national policy, there must be reasonable logic and a group of outrageous people.

That is why he turned a blind eye to the Confucian scholars' misinterpretations, simply because this would enable those Confucian scholars to work harder to help him implement national policies, help him educate the people, achieve the goal of making the world orderly and secure, and consolidate the country's destiny.

In Zhao Zhou's opinion.

Liu Ju and Wei Kang have no idea of ​​this truth at all. They are just simple-minded and hot-blooded. This is absolutely unacceptable!
Especially Liu Che's way of selecting and employing talents.

You can understand it in your heart, but you must not speak it out, let alone make it public. Otherwise, you will ruin Liu Che's plan and offend him, and there will be no good end for you...

Thinking of this, Zhao Zhou became more determined to break Zhao Guo's legs as soon as possible.

"Your Highness, I suddenly remembered that I have something important to attend to and cannot delay any longer, so I will take my leave first."

Knowing that if he continued to say that he would go back and break Zhao Guo's legs, he would definitely not be able to leave, Zhao Zhou had to change the way he said his resignation to Liu Ju.

"Prime Minister Zhao is not going to go back and break Zhao Guo's legs, is he?"

Liu Ju would naturally not be fooled so easily and looked at Zhao Zhou with an open eye.

But I heard Wei Kang laughing at the side:
"Your Highness, don't worry about this matter. Zhao Guo is not at home at all. Prime Minister Zhao should not be able to find him for a while. As soon as Prime Minister Zhao leaves, I will take Your Highness to look for Zhao Guo. We will definitely arrive first."

"you you you?"

Hearing this, Zhao Zhou felt numb all over and couldn't utter a word for a long time.

How could Wei Qing give birth to such a rebellious son? In the past, he thought that Wei Kang was an unfilial son who was greedy for enjoyment, afraid of death, and therefore he disobeyed the order in order not to go to the border for training.

Now it seems that he still seriously underestimated Wei Kang.

This rebellious son is not only useless.

Not bad!

And rape!

Still a thief!

In comparison, his Zhao Guo is simply an angel.

"Is that so? Then I feel relieved."

Upon hearing this, Liu Ju and Wei Kang smiled at each other, and then decisively stepped aside from Zhao Zhou, and politely made a gesture of invitation.

"In this case, how dare I interfere with Prime Minister Zhao's important business? Prime Minister Zhao, please go ahead."

"Your Majesty..."

Zhao Zhou suddenly felt even more numb.

I almost forgot, there is an even more exaggerated rebellious son!

This rebellious son even dared to speak rudely to the emperor in the court. He often stood up and sang a different tune, making the emperor so angry that he had to adjourn court and leave early many times. This was simply outrageous!

But can he just leave like this now?
he can not!
If these two rebellious sons were allowed to find his rebellious son first and speak nonsense in front of him, wouldn't it be that his rebellious son, who was not a good guy to begin with, would immediately become friends with him, and from then on, would they be happy to implicate the entire Zhao family, young and old?

He must not let this happen!

"Prime Minister Zhao is here with you, why doesn't he leave?"

Zhao Zhou stood there without moving, but Liu Ju became a little impatient and started to urge him.

This matter concerns the lives of his entire family, so Zhao Zhou no longer cares about his face and immediately said:
"My important business is related to Zhao Guo, so I request to accompany Your Highness."

Even if Liu Ju refused to take him with him, it didn't matter. He had a carriage and horses waiting outside. He just had to follow Liu Ju closely. It was not a crime anyway. If it got to His Majesty, he would just find it funny and would not punish him.

"In that case, please ask Prime Minister Zhao to go to the guest hall and wait for a while. I will go change my clothes first."

Liu Ju did not refuse directly as Zhao Zhou had expected, but just smiled and nodded.

After that, the servant took Zhao Zhou to the guest hall.

Wei Kang was a little worried about this, and frowned as he wanted to make a suggestion:

"Your Highness..." "Let him wait, we will go out the back door."

Liu Ju had already winked at him and grinned.

……

The southern suburbs of Chang'an.

Wei Kang was driving the carriage in front and Liu Ju was sitting inside.

Following behind was Guo Zhen and a dozen horsemen escorting the prince.

"Cousin, I'm still very curious. Are you familiar with this Zhao Guo? Even his father doesn't know about Zhao Guo. How do you know so much about him?"

As the carriage swayed, Liu Ju took the opportunity to ask the questions in his mind.

"No, I haven't even heard of this person before."

Wei Kang answered easily, his voice carrying the sound of the wind.

"I was able to find him through the civil registry. In addition, the people that Your Highness has ruled out recently have helped me narrow down the scope of my search. Based on the common characteristics of those people that Your Highness has ruled out, I further ruled out those who did not meet the requirements in the civil registry one by one, and finally locked on this Zhao Guo."

"But isn't civilian status only available to civil officials? How did my cousin get it?"

Liu Ju asked again.

Wei Kang said as a matter of course:

"Brush my face, brush my father's face. His face is so important, wouldn't it be a waste if we don't use it?"

"..."

Liu Ju felt that what Wei Kang said made sense, and he was speechless, so he could only continue to ask,
"and then?"

"Go! Then of course I disguised myself and followed and spied on him."

Wei Kang drove the horses and said complacently,

"As long as this person is alive, he will definitely leave traces, and there will definitely be a trail to follow."

"In recent days, I have been standing guard outside the Zhao residence disguised as a peddler. Whenever Zhao Guo comes out, I will secretly follow and spy on him. I will record down everything he has spoken to, the places he has been to, and the things he has done."

"So after he returns home, I will go and inquire about him one by one. I will bribe those who are easy to talk to with some money, and I will also bribe those who are not easy to talk to with some money. I just need to bribe a few evil young men nearby to come to my house and threaten them. In the end, I can find out some things that outsiders don't know, and he won't notice it."

"It's even easier to visit. Although Zhao Guo doesn't leave the house at a fixed time every day, he won't come out again once he returns on the same day. As long as we know where he goes on weekdays, we can just climb over the wall and get in. However, in order not to alert the enemy, we must remember all the items and furnishings after entering. After checking them, we must return them to their original state. We must also clean up the traces we left behind before leaving. We must not be careless about this, otherwise if we alert him, we may not be able to investigate further."

"If we just follow him for a few more days, we will know most of his secrets."

"And your highness probably doesn't know yet."

"Although it is indeed tiring to follow someone, it is refreshing and refreshing to be able to peek into a person's unknown secrets."

"What I said is true. If Your Highness doesn't believe me, you can try it next time!"

"..."

After hearing this, Liu Ju suddenly felt that he should re-examine the character of his cousin Wei Kang.

Although what he did was not a perverted act like peeping at a girl taking a bath.

But this kind of feeling of comfort from peeping into other people's secrets has already shown signs of voyeurism...

But then again.

The methods Wei Kang displayed were truly unique. In this era, there probably was no concept of reconnaissance and counter-reconnaissance, nor was there any systematic summary and training. However, from his description, it seemed that he had quite a lot of experience in this area, and most likely he had figured it out on his own. It's not an exaggeration to say that he was a self-taught person.

Did he have this talent before but it was not discovered?
Just as I was thinking about it.

"Uu——!"

The carriage had stopped, the curtain in front was opened, and Wei Kang poked his head in.

"Your Highness, we have arrived."

Liu Ju looked at the smile on Wei Kang's face and felt an indescribable vulgarity, but he still said "Thank you for your hard work, cousin" and jumped down from the carriage.

Look around.

Nearby is a small farm with only twenty or so mud houses, which is not even big enough to be called a village.

Near the small farm is a large piece of farmland that has begun to turn yellow. There are mainly two crops planted in the field, millet and wheat.

But compared with later generations.

The crops were planted at a low density and the grains in the ears did not look full.

After all, there were no chemical fertilizers in those days, and the nutrients in the soil were very limited. In addition, we had just experienced a severe drought, so it was quite good to still have a harvest under such circumstances.

At this time, there were more than a dozen people scattered in the farmland, doing their own things.

Seeing a carriage coming and a dozen knights accompanying it, these people stood up and looked over curiously.

You have to know that horses were very precious in those days, and their value was not much different from that of sports cars in later generations. It was definitely not something that ordinary people could afford, let alone so many knights coming at once.

Therefore, even though Liu Ju deliberately did not ride in the Fifth Prince's luxurious car today, he still attracted attention.

Wait until Liu Ju gets off the car and stands still.

After Wei Kang glanced at the fields, he raised his hand and pointed at a man wearing a straw hat in the field and said:
"Your Highness, that person is Zhao Guo."

"?!"

The man stiffened noticeably when he saw this.

Then he turned around resolutely, raised his foot and ran in the opposite direction, as if he had made some kind of decision.

(End of this chapter)