Ji Han Grand Commander

Chapter 177 171. Experience
The rest of the young officials were basically under 30 years old, or a little over 30 years old, and could be considered the younger generation. At this moment, they were all quietly observing the governor who had emerged like a comet in front of them.

It took Feng Xi less than a year to rise to fame. This speed was so fast that many people did not have the chance to get to know Feng Xi in depth. They only knew that he was able to hold such a high position because of his meritorious service in the Eastern Expedition.

Therefore, everyone's thoughts and opinions on Feng Xi are somewhat puzzling. Some people take him as a role model and secretly make up their minds to make a big splash like Feng Xi; others are disdainful and think that Feng Xi is just a hero made by the times and purely by luck, and they can do the same if they take his place.

Of course, there are probably more people with malicious intent... It's simple, the tree that stands out in the forest will be destroyed by the wind, and the person who is superior to others will be criticized.

Feng Xi took a quick glance and took in the expressions of these young talents below, but Feng Xi did not care and just chuckled in his heart.

It is normal for young people to be competitive. Who can easily convince others and willingly admit that the other party is better than themselves?

Feng Xi specifically asked Zhuge Liang to send these young officials and generals here, in order to use the low-intensity war against Jiangdong to train these future pillars of the Han Dynasty so that they could at least have some experience.

……

"To hone the young people?"

Several days ago, when Feng Xi was discussing with Zhuge Liang in Yong'an, Zhuge Liang was somewhat surprised at Feng Xi's proposal.

"Yes. Prime Minister, with all due respect, your way of employing people is a bit too protective of them."

Feng Xi spoke bluntly and looked at Zhuge Liang.

Looking at the history books, Zhuge Liang had one advantage: he did everything himself, and personally took care of many things, from major national affairs to minor military disputes.

The good thing is that Zhuge Liang is familiar with all the details, is not easily deceived, and is also quite experienced in coordination.

The downside is that he does everything by himself, and the others can only help him and learn almost nothing.

For example, Ma Su. Although history’s evaluation of him is on par with Zhao Kuo, Ma Su’s situation is almost similar to that of Zhao Kuo.

The first battle Zhao Kuo fought after coming out of retirement was against Bai Qi, and the first battle Ma Su fought was against Zhang He. If the two of them had been able to win, they would surely have gone down in history - of course, it would have been another level of fame.

The reason for this is that Ma Su had no chance to gain any experience. From the time he defected to Liu Bei in Jingzhou to when he was beheaded at Jieting, Ma Su had never even commanded a battle. How could such a novice on the battlefield compete with Zhang He, who had fought against Dong Zhuo among the eighteen princes and divided the world into three parts?

When Lao Liu was alive, he might have trained Ma Su as a civil servant or strategist, a position that did not require him to go to the front line in person, so he did not care about Ma Su's actual combat experience.

However, Zhuge Liang felt that Ma Su had great military vision, and wanted him to take up the banner and become a general or even a commander in the late Han Dynasty when talented people were declining. However, he did not give Ma Su a chance to try his hand. It was only when Zhuge Liang was too busy to do anything else that he let Ma Su take the field directly. This is undoubtedly very abstract.

In Feng Xi's view, this practice is essentially no different from Spartan training, which involves throwing new recruits into a fight and experiencing countless life and death situations. Those who survive are considered well trained.

Zhuge Liang also sent such inexperienced generals to command important battles, and the results were either a great defeat or a great victory. Throughout history, there have been geniuses who have risen to power by stepping on the corpses of the older generation, but there are only a few. Most of these people were directly eliminated, either becoming a speck of dust in history, or like Ma Su and Zhao Kuo, becoming a laughing stock.

Just like Spartan training, everyone will only marvel at the winner who survives the fight to the end, but no one will care about the young newcomers who died along the way.

"..."

Zhuge Liang was choked by Feng Xi's attitude. In his opinion, many things were quite difficult. For example, handling military affairs required a lot of information, and handling criminal law required a sense of proportion. He was always worried that other people could not do these things well, so he had to ask about everything.

“Prime Minister, I know you are worried about the young people making mistakes, but if you are responsible for everything, the young people can only watch you work but they won’t learn anything.

And how many Zhuge Liangs are there in the world? If one day, Prime Minister, you are too busy to handle everything and are in a dilemma, won't you send these young flowers that have never experienced the wind and sun directly into the storm? By then, no matter how talented and wise they are, I'm afraid it will be difficult for them to take on the responsibility, right?"

Feng Xi's words were basically in line with history, but Zhuge Liang was still a little hesitant.

"Xiu Yuan's words do make some sense, but..."

"Prime Minister, we are not afraid of making mistakes in normal times, but we are afraid of not knowing what to do at critical moments due to lack of experience. When the late emperor raised his army to fight against the Yellow Turbans, was he already a veteran of hundreds of battles? The difference is that he started from scratch and killed enemies and bandits, and was defeated by Cao Cao and betrayed by Lu Bu in the middle. However, the late emperor fought again and again after repeated defeats, and finally asked the Prime Minister to come out of retirement."

Feng Xi even went so far as to bring up Old Liu as an example. Sure enough, Old Liu's lethality was still quite large. In the end, Zhuge Liang seemed to feel a little guilty for transferring a bunch of veteran generals from his side, so he agreed to send a number of new generals to Jingzhou to let Feng Xi help train them.

Of course, Ma Su was the one Feng Xi specifically asked for. Firstly, Ma Liang, as the Palace Attendant, was also busy restoring the people's livelihood in Jingzhou, so it was a good opportunity for the brothers to get together.

In addition, Feng Xi also wanted to see how capable Ma Youchang was and whether he still had room for growth.

"You don't have to be polite."

Time went back to the present. Feng Xi greeted these second-generation civil and military officials with a smile, introduced them to the important civil and military officials in Jingzhou at that time, and then assigned them to Wang Fu, Liao Hua and others as deputies or helpers according to their abilities.

As for Ma Su, Feng Xi asked him to meet with Ma Liang first and go back to his hometown for a visit. After all, he would definitely have old ties to reminisce when he returned to his hometown in Jingzhou. Feng Xi also had other arrangements for Ma Su afterwards.

After all, Changsha and Guiyang counties are still nominally in the hands of Eastern Wu, although Han Teng and Zhao Fan are actually trembling with fear.

Originally, after the Battle of Dongting Lake, Feng Xi planned to go downstream and approach Chaisang. These two counties could be defeated by sending a detachment.

As a result, Cao Pi intervened and forced him to return to defend Xiangyang. After finally repelling Cao Pi, he encountered the fact that Old Liu was seriously ill. As a result, Changsha and Guiyang counties were left to survive.

However, now that Feng Xi has some free time, it is naturally impossible for him to let these two counties remain quiet. It just so happens that many young generals with no combat experience have arrived, and at the same time, the main force of the Eastern Expedition Army has left. The Jingzhou Army still has to fight a few battles to build up its morale. These two counties are the perfect targets for attack.

(End of this chapter)