Chapter 52: All for profit

The world is bustling for profit.

It has been more than twenty years since the Han Dynasty fell apart and the princes were divided. Today, I am afraid that the new generation of civilians will not have any sense of spiritual belonging to the Han Dynasty.

It is undeniable that there are still loyal and patriotic people who support the Han Dynasty, but this group is already very rare.

The biggest reason why many of the gentry under Cao Wei's rule was that they were in harmony with the imperial party and even fought against the rule of Cao Wei at some point was that the gentry needed a flag and a political force that could be relied on.

Letting these suppressed, idle, and divided gentry groups choose a representative figure to compete with Cao Wei is equivalent to forcing the Cao family to start a massacre.

It is conceivable that these gentry secretly supported Liu Xie to regain power. If they could rule the world, the spring of the gentry would come again, and what they needed was a puppet emperor.

Therefore, Cao Pi had to think about a countermeasure, how to fight for all these gentry. Once successful, then Liu Xie, the Han emperor, will live and die, and no one will care about it. Cao Wei will further consolidate his status and power, and he will reach a higher level than the Cao Cao era.

As always pondering in the study, Cao Pi was upset and could not think of a good countermeasure. The gentry was always a hidden danger. Cao Pi seemed helpless about the situation left by Cao Cao.

If Cao Cao was trying to win over the gentry, then Cao Pi would be very relaxed now. If Cao Cao uprooted the gentry like Guo Jia, Cao Pi could do whatever he wanted. However, Cao Cao used the common people to suppress the gentry in a two-pronged manner. This measure and severity are difficult for Cao Pi to control. No matter which side is heavy or which side is light, it will cause adverse consequences.

The strategy has always changed according to the changes in the current situation. How could Cao Cao use the emperor to order the princes to kill the gentry?

Even though Cao Cao hated the corpse of aristocrats, he still had to leave some living space for them, but Cao Pi could not think of a way to overdo the situation.

Sima Yi came to see Cao Pi with Xiangfan's battle report. Cao Pi packed up his thoughts. After reading the battle report, he made a quick decision to summon Sima Yi to summon Xun You, Cheng Yu, Chen Qun, Cui Yan and others to discuss matters.

The atmosphere in the study was solemn, and Cao Wei's counselor group was not optimistic after seeing the battle report from Xiangfan.

Cao Pi's military talent was naturally not as good as the few people in the room. He was not a stubborn monarch, who was lying in a low position and patiently waited for the countermeasures of several advisers.

Cui Yan suggested that Cao Zhen from Wancheng lead his army to support Fancheng. Whether it is to strengthen Fancheng's defenders or cooperate with Cao Ren and Gan Ning to fight the decisive battle, the chances of victory should be above 60%.

"inappropriate."

As soon as Cui Yan's suggestion was expressed, Cheng Yu was opposed.

Cheng Yu's eyes, with an old face, still had a wise light flashing.

Someone wrote to Cao Pi and Cheng Yu to deliberately rebel. Cheng Yu knew about this matter, and Cao Pi had an open and honest conversation with him, just to show his trust in Cheng Yu. Cheng Yu did not need Cao Pi's statement at all. He had long taken everything lightly when he lived to the age of knowing his destiny. Those inappropriate tricks of political enemies were like clowns. His loyalty to the Cao family was the hard work of hard work over the past twenty years, and no one could erase it.

Looking around everyone calmly, Cheng Yu said lightly: "Who do you think the enemy is now? Is it Gan Ning? Wrong, it is Guo Jia. Guo Jia has always been far-sighted. If he mobilizes the troops from Wancheng to support Fancheng, he may be in line with his wishes."

Everyone in the study looked solemn, including Cao Pi, nodded in agreement with deep understanding.

If you think that the crisis in Fancheng can be solved by dealing with Gan Ning, then Cao Wei will perish sooner or later!

No matter who is in the Taiping Army is so prestige or invincible, it is inseparable from the man who truly dominates the overall situation.

The only enemy of Cao Wei is Guo Jia.

Xun You said indifferently: "Guo Jia repeatedly predicted the enemy's first place, and Gan Ning attacked Fancheng in the north, and his goal was not as simple as a Fancheng."

Even Xun You said this, everyone present was in a heavy mood and started to teaser.

Cheng Yu had read the battle report and found Man Chong's analysis of the Taiping Army's siege strategy. There were few casualties in the confrontation between the two sides, but perhaps the Taiping Army wanted to exhaust the long-range power of the Fancheng defender.

If Cao Zhen, the Wancheng City, led his army to support Fancheng, he might fall into a trap. The 100,000 Taiping Army outside Fancheng, plus the 50,000 Taiping Army in Shangyong New City, is it hard to guarantee that he will just wait for Cao Wei’s reinforcements!

But Fancheng must go and save it!

It's just that Cheng Yu opposes mobilizing the troops in Wancheng.

Because he was afraid that this was Guo Jiasheng's plan to attack the east or lure the tiger away from the mountain.

"The Western Liang Iron Cavalry and the Silver Flying Cavalry have not participated in the war, so I have to be on guard!"

Sima Yi expressed Cheng Yu's worries in one sentence, and sighed silently.

Last year, before Cao Cao led his army south, his deployment in Sili was a tripod of troops. Cao Xiu was guarding the north of Sili, Zhang He was the one who was stationed in Luoyang, and Cao Zhen was the one who stationed troops in Wancheng.

Cao Zhen was not only a transit point connecting Xiangfan in Wancheng, but also a barrier that shocked Wu Pass.

If the troops and horses of Wancheng were transferred away, would Ma Chao, who had not appeared on any battlefield, lead 50,000 cavalry out of Wu Pass and penetrate into the heart of Central Plains!?

Guo Jia has always used all kinds of strange plans. If the besiege of Fancheng is fake, it weakens Sili's defensive power and then allows the northwest wolf Jin Ma Chao to lead his army into the Central Plains, then the Central Plains of Cao Wei will fall in full swing!

Cao Pi closed his eyes and pondered that the soldiers and horses in Wancheng could not move, and the 60,000 soldiers and horses led by Xiahou Shang in Xuchang could not move. After all, the already stretched troops were the new soldiers recruited from Hebei in the end.

"It seems that we can only send the newly recruited troops in the past six months to support Fancheng."

After Cao Pi finished speaking, he looked around and saw Sima Yi, Cheng Yu, Xun You, Cui Yan and others had no objection.

Who will be sent?

Xiahou Yuan, Xu Huang, Li Dian, Yu Jin......

After thinking about it, Cao Pi made a decision to ask Yu Jin to lead his army to support Fancheng.

After Cao Pi took office, he began to recruit soldiers in Hebei. He immediately wrote a military order in person, asking Yu Jin to lead the seven troops recruited from all over the country to head south.

A decision was made in the military operation. Just when the matter was about to end, Sima Yi suggested to Cao Pi: "It is better to secretly contact Sun Quan of Jiangdong and encourage him to attack the Taiping Army with our army."

If Sun Quan was willing to give Guo Jia a knife behind his back, Cao Pi would definitely be overjoyed, but he asked in confusion at this moment: "Jiangdong and Guo Jia are allies, but Sun Quan and me have a grudge. Will he help me?"

"This method is feasible."

Cheng Yu nodded in agreement with Sima Yi's suggestion.

Sima Yi explained to Cao Pi: "Sun Quan did not help the King of Wei, but saved Jiangdong. King Wei thought that if the Taiping Army captured Fancheng, the Central Plains would be Guo Jia's pocket. At that time, will Jiangdong still survive? When Jiangdong formed an alliance with Guo Jia, the King of Wei was the only one. The situation is different now. Guo Jia is the strongest among the three families. Jiangdong no longer has the sense of security as an ally for Guo Jia, but instead is afraid. Sun Quan is afraid of Guo Jia's marriage with his sister and daughter. Therefore, he wants to make Guo Jia good, so that Guo Jia can't attack Jiangdong and dare not act rashly."

After listening to Sima Yi's analysis, others nodded frequently. Cao Pi followed his advice and wrote a letter and sent someone to Jiangdong quickly.

The matter was settled, and several strategists surrendered one after another, but Chen Qun stayed in the study.

Cao Pi was about to ask Chen Qun what else was going on, but Chen Qun took out a roll of bamboo slips from his sleeve and presented them to Cao Pi with his hands. He lowered his head and said calmly: "King of Wei, this is the countermeasure that the King of Wei asked about what he was doing a few days ago."

After hearing this, Cao Pi's eyes lit up, how to win over the gentry for his own use. Cao Pi asked Chen Qun, but he didn't expect Chen Qun could really come up with a way, so he took the bamboo slip and opened it.

The law of the ninth rank official?!

Cao Pi was so focused that he looked solemn again when he had just relaxed.

Chen Qun's proposal is just a prototype, but the essence is very clear.

These nine-rank official methods are further than the Han Dynasty's recommendation system, and are divided into grades according to family background.

This is equivalent to monopolizing official positions in the hands of the gentry, and it is legal.

The common people want to leap the dragon gate, and they are delusional!

After reading it, Cao Pi did not respond immediately, and Chen Qun bowed and took his leave.

Living alone in the study, the bamboo slips in Cao Pi's hand were as heavy as a mountain.

He knew very well what it meant if this system was implemented.

This is the transaction of political interests!

Why did Guo Jia win the hearts of the people? Will the common people support him physically and mentally?

The essence is that Guo Jia exchanged for political interests.

The Yizhou gentry was suppressed by Liu Yan before Guo Jia entered Shu, and Guo Jia also cleaned up once after taking over, which led to the uprooting of his gentry group under his rule.

Guo Jia's way of recruiting scholars through the imperial examination system is equivalent to handing over political interests to all the common people under his rule, so Guo Jia is supported by the people.

In terms of strategy of attacking the gentry, Guo Jia implemented a gradual approach and slowly, and gave a devastating blow when the time was right. It was not that the geniuses in Yizhou did not have the chance to fight against Guo Jia together, but they missed and were deceived by Guo Jia, so they were eventually divided first, then weakened, and finally suffered a thunder disaster.

As for Guanzhong, when Guo Jia captured it, there were no gentry at all. After being poisoned by Dong Zhuo and Li Jue and Guo Si, Guanzhong was deserted for thousands of miles. Even the gentry who were surviving, all fled to Guandong after Guo Jia took over.

After twenty years of development, there were no gentry under Guo Jia's rule, and the imperial examinations were deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.

Cao Wei is different, and the situation in Cao Wei is too complicated.

Hebei is a mess left by Yuan Shao, and it is the huge Shandong clan power run by the Yuan family of the fourth generation and the third generation.

In the Central Plains, because Cao Cao rose from the cracks, things could not be done, leaving enough room for survival for the aristocratic clans to survive.

Now, what Cao Pi wants to solve is to make changes in his political line.

He cannot balance the contradictions and coexistence between the common people and the gentry, so he must make a choice between the two.

Cao Pi kept knocking on his palms with his bamboo slips, muttering to himself.

If he and Guo Jia follow the same route, it will inevitably lead to a surrender insider.

Because since Cao Wei cannot give them more benefits, or they treat Guo Jia and Cao Pi the same, why do they have to stand on Cao Pi's side?

On the contrary, Cao Pi won over the gentry, so when Guo Jia attacked, the internal unity would be unprecedented, because Cao Wei fell, and these gentry would lose their political interests.

Cao Pi took a deep breath, his expression firm, and he had already made a decision.

...
Chapter completed!