In the afternoon, Yuwen Wen, who arrived in Yecheng the day before yesterday, chatted with Prince Yuwen Weicheng. As he talked, he talked about one thing: the story of Cao Cao borrowing someone's head in "Romance of the Three Kingdoms".

"Romance of the Three Kingdoms" has appeared in advance, and Yuwen Weicheng is very familiar with this novel, so the father and son have a basis for discussion.

It is said that the world was in chaos at the end of the Han Dynasty. Yuan Shu in Huainan obtained the jade seal and ascended the throne to become emperor. He used the emperor to order the princes to raise an army to attack Yuan Shu.

One day, the small grain official Wang Wu asked Cao Cao an emergency and said that the army had shortage of food and grass, and if he didn't find a way, he would be unable to hold on.

Cao Cao asked Wang Wu to send grain to the soldiers with a small hu of food. Wang Wu was worried that doing so would arouse dissatisfaction with the soldiers. Cao Cao disagreed and said that he would do this for the time being. If something went wrong, he would have his own good plans.

Wang Wu acted according to Cao Cao's intention and distributed small hu of grain. This move indeed caused complaints from the soldiers.

Wang Wu was uneasy and was secretly summoned by Cao Cao, but the other party used his head to stabilize the morale of the army.

When the soldiers learned that it was Wang Wu who privately detained military rations, they were beheaded and showed their heads to the public. When they were cheering, they all said that the Prime Minister was wise.

The story of Cao Cao's "borrowing a person's head for use" has not been recorded in official history. It is a story in "Romance of the Three Kingdoms". This story highlights Cao Cao's treacherousness, but it will not cause too much controversy, because this first conforms to the character of Cao Cao's "a treacherous hero in troubled times" in the book.

Secondly, this method is very common in real life, so no one thinks something is wrong.

Yuwen Wen gave an example: The owner of a trading company in Huangzhou is preparing to lay off employees. The goal is to work for several old friends who have been working for him since the beginning of the business. These old friends are old and have families with their families, so they are not as easy to use as young people, so they have to get out.

The boss did not drive people directly, but asked the shopkeeper to find a way.

The shopkeeper told the guys that because he planned to open a semicolon in Jiaozhou, people needed to go to the local area for a long time to manage semicolon affairs, and then arranged for these old friends with old friends and young ones to go.

How could these people leave Huangzhou for a long time? Not to mention taking their families to Jiaozhou, they pleaded with the shopkeeper and asked if they could change to a few younger friends or not yet married.

The shopkeeper looked helpless and said that opening a semicolon was of great importance. Young people were not good at doing things well. Of course, they had to rely on you old friends at such critical moments.

In a dilemma, these people could only resign. The boss was "shocked" when he heard this and tried his best to keep him. However, everyone had decided to leave. The boss had no choice but to invite these old friends to the banquet and expressed his desire to "get together and part with each other."

During the meal, the owner became sad while drinking, saying that if everyone hadn't helped me back then, how could my small shop be built? Now the situation has been opened. I thought everyone would enjoy the happiness together, but the result is...

He also said that it is not easy for the shopkeeper to manage the industry, and he must consider the overall situation and be strict in dealing with things, so I don’t want to force him to do anything, please forgive me.

The boss is so kind and kind, and the old guys are so grateful. Even if everyone wants to blame, they will only blame the shopkeeper for being unkind. No one will say that the boss will kill the donkey and drive the old guy away.

The boss and the shopkeeper, one is a good person and the other is a bad person, is similar to Cao Cao's "borrowing people's heads and using them."

Extended, the same is true for the officialdom.

Yuwen Weicheng understood this truth, and Yuwen Wen then changed the subject: "Who do you think is the owner of the Turkic nobles or the Central Plains merchants, which one is the owner of the shopkeeper?"

Yuwen Wen's question was meaningful, and Yuwen Weicheng quickly replied: "The Turkic nobles are of course good people, and the Central Plains merchants are naturally the hateful shopkeepers."

"Why do you say that?" Yuwen Wen asked knowingly, and Yuwen Weicheng said one by one what he thought.

Nowadays, the Hanhai Trading Company and the Eastern Turkic Khanate have been doing a prosperous business, and the Central Plains merchants make a big profit, and the Turkic nobles have also gained a lot of money and their faces are full of redness.

It is a happy situation for both parties to work together to make big money, but this situation is not without hidden dangers, that is, the ordinary tribes and herdsmen who are exploited will feel dissatisfied.

In order to exchange a tea brick worth always from the Central Plains merchants, these herdsmen not only had to hand over a calf as payment for the goods, but also had to raise the calf for free for several years until they grew up and became an adult.

During this period, if the calf dies prematurely, the herdsmen will bear the losses themselves. Once the deadline comes, the Central Plains merchants have to choose a strong adult cattle from their cattle.

The other party just uses a tea brick that is always worth, and can take away an adult cattle worth 40 or 50 knots of money from his hands in three or four years, and make a lot of money steadily.

But I worked hard for three or four years and took all the risks, but what I got was just a piece of tea brick from that year.

The herdsmen on the grassland may not have much knowledge or understand any major principles, but sooner or later they will realize the extreme unfairness of this kind of transaction, so dissatisfaction gradually arises.

At the same time, the merchants in the Central Plains lent loans on the grassland. The tribes and herdsmen who were involved in the loans were almost certain that they would not pay them back in their lifetimes. So everyone became disguised slaves of the merchants in the Central Plains, busy all year round, and busy paying off their debts.

It is conceivable that as Hanhai Trading Company's transactions grow bigger and bigger, the dissatisfaction among the tribes in the grassland will also increase day by day.

Once this emotion can no longer be suppressed, the Turkic nobles who had previously made money with Central Plains merchants would have to borrow their heads.

They would hide the fact that they colluded with Central Plains merchants and sucked blood together, incite the tribes to hate Central Plains merchants, and then hate the Central Plains court. When the "public opinion" is intensified, the time for war is coming.

As long as you fight, the debts you owe can be eliminated. Not only that, if you can enter the Central Plains Flower World, the income will be much greater than grazing cattle and sheep on the grassland.

When Yuwen Wen heard this, he asked: "However, now is different from the past. The Turkic army took the lead and attacked the artillery, muskets, and bastions from the Central Plains? The Turks have never seen the power of the Central Plains firearms."

"Father, of course they knew that the firearms were powerful, and they also knew that the court is good at managing Hetao now. Therefore, if you really want to turn against each other, you will definitely not be able to defeat the front."

"However, this does not prevent them from taking advantage of the situation, constantly provoking the hatred of various tribes, and increasing various uncertain risks, so as to threaten Hanhai Trading Company and obtain more benefits."

The more Yuwen Weicheng said, the louder the voice: "Also, they can also buy Central Plains merchants or even buy border generals, which can come in handy at critical moments."

"What is the critical moment? It is that the Central Plains is unstable or even civil strife. At this time, they can use these bribed Central Plains merchants as internal supporters, use high officials and generous salaries to lure border generals to surrender, and then rely on the artillery mastered by these generals to open the way and sweep the Central Plains."

Taking the Central Plains merchants as their internal support, they raised various materials and found ways to take the Central Plains army that mastered artillery technology for their own use. Therefore, even if they were on the frontier, they still had the opportunity to enter the Central Plains.

Such a thing happened in history. Yuwen Wen was very happy to see that his son's knowledge had reached a new level and asked again: "So, in your opinion, the benefits of border trade outweigh the disadvantages?"

"No, my father's layout is very clever..." Yuwen Weicheng praised a little, and then said: "The court has good management of Hetao, with strong military troops, and cannons, muskets and fortress groups, so the other party will never dare to turn against each other."

"This is the opportunity of the court. Hanhai Trading Company can take advantage of various economic (debt) disputes to constantly engage in frictions and force those Turkic nobles to make compromises."

"If they compromise a lot, their prestige will naturally be greatly reduced. If they do not compromise, they can only choose to turn against each other, but they are not easy to turn against each other, so they can only swallow their teeth and swallow them."

"The court didn't even need to come forward, so it let Hanhai Trading Company continue to engage in friction on the grassland, and forced the Turkic nobles step by step."

"At that time, the Turkic Khan will not only find ways to calm the aggression of ordinary tribes, but also deal with the aggressive Hanhai Trading Company, but also take care of the little Khan. The various interests of the nobles will be in a state of great difficulty, and they will be unable to do so."
Chapter completed!