Volume 2: The King's Way Chapter 192 Conspiracy
In Lujiang city, Gao Fu, the county magistrate and the commander both sat at the top seat, and below them were the Gongcaoshi, Lushiyuanshi, Shaofushi... and a group of officials from the prefectural government.
They also have one thing in common, that is, they were all officials who were promoted when Liu Xun was in office!
As for the other five officials, the governors of the inner court, and the like, they were either already officials of the prefectural government when Lu Kang was in office, and Liu Xun did not touch them after he took office, at most they were sidelined; or they were promoted by Zhou Yu after Liu Xun retired...
Now is the time for the latter to be proud, and only officials like them, who were brought up by Liu Xun, are gathering together for warmth.
Although Liu Xun was nominally credited with surrendering the city, but... he surrendered it too late, and Bai Tu obviously looked down on him.
Bai Tu had no intention of settling scores with Liu Xun later. He petitioned the court to grant Liu Xun the title of Guannei Hou and allowed him to live out his days in peace.
In this way, these officials under Liu Xun were raised by a stepmother!
They could be said to have been unable to sleep tonight. The last news they received was that Bai Tu was safe and sound, and... among the people who returned to the city with him, there was also Jiao Qing.
Perhaps even Jiao Qing himself didn’t know that he had been targeted by these “fake big guys” before!
The story begins with Gao Biao and Gao Zhubu...
Before this, Gao Biao had actually also been in love with Liu Lanzhi when he was young - after all, in the Eastern Han Dynasty, unlike later times when ethics and morals prevailed, young girls didn't even have the chance to go out.
There is also a line in "The Peacock Flies Southeast" that when Liu Lanzhi was divorced, she said to her sister-in-law, "On the seventh and nineteenth, don't forget to play together." Women also have fixed days every month to go out and play, and it is normal for them to fall in love with each other occasionally.
This would not have been a big deal, but in the end, Jiao Zhongqing and Liu Lanzhi fell in love with each other, and the Jiao family proposed marriage first. After the marriage was successful, Gao Biao, out of jealousy, came up with some sinister ideas.
Moreover, Jiao Zhongqing lost his father at a young age, and his mother was rather materialistic. Originally, Jiao Qing's branch was a side branch of the Jiao family. It was only thanks to Jiao Qing's own ability that he managed to become an official.
Before, Liu Lanzhi was not only young, beautiful, and virtuous, but also more or less of the same clan as the prefect, so Jiao's mother also felt that this was a good deal.
However, now that Liu Xun has been idled, his former subordinates have been implicated because of their relationship with him, and Jiao's mother has become more and more disdainful of Liu Lanzhi...
But in fact, this is just overthinking. Whether it is Liu Xun or Zhou Yu, it is questionable whether they remembered Jiao Qing before, let alone paid attention to who his wife is!
It's just that people are prejudiced and see things as they are. This includes the fact that Jiao Qing was bullied by Gao Biao several times, which was interpreted by Jiao's mother as a sign of his career failure, and she then believed that "this was all caused by Liu's daughter."
Not long ago, when the officials from the Ministry of Personnel were moving in to evaluate the situation, the old bureaucrats of Lujiang completely erupted in resentment towards the General of Chariots and Cavalry's Mansion - and this may even represent not only the old bureaucrats of Lujiang, but also people in Jiangdong who may think so and are just watching the situation in Lujiang.
And now the old friends of Lujiang, led by County Magistrate Gao Ming and Commandant Qin Gu, are also going to "gamble" and put themselves completely in the middle of the vortex. Maybe... they can still keep their current status. Even if they are dismissed, at least they can still make a name for themselves among the scholar-official class, which can be regarded as a bargaining chip for their comeback in a few years.
Of course, they were also scared when Bai Tu was assassinated - but they didn't dare to gamble so big. The assassination really had nothing to do with them. It was a game where you would die whether you won or lost.
They only dare to find some trouble for Bai Tu, and it would be best if they could slightly surpass Bai Tu in "popularity".
As for completely overwhelming him? That is not a one-time thing. With Bai Tu's current popularity, it is difficult to shake him!
Gao Biao came up with a solution to this slightly "troublesome" matter - and he was also the nephew of County Magistrate Gao, so he had some say.
The most controversial point about Bai Tu is that "killing one person is like killing my father", which has earned him countless fame, but there are always some Confucian scholars who are willing to guide him towards "unfilial piety".
Of course, with the popular base created by Xian Shi Zhiwen, and Kong Wenju, who "understood Confucius best", cheering for him in the Confucian circles, the Confucian scholars in Jingzhou and the scholars in the Central Plains could not gain the upper hand at all.
In addition... there is another thing, which is what Bai Tu said when he refused Cao Cao's marriage proposal.
Those were not Bai Tu's official statements, but they were spread by some people with ulterior motives. Some of Bai Tu's views on marriage were obviously not in line with the positive energy of the late Eastern Han Dynasty.
Gao Biao and the others didn’t intend to force Bai Tu to get married... they weren’t that suicidal.
Instead, they wanted to use this as a breakthrough point, and from the perspective of marriage, lead Bai Tu to conclude that his behavior was "violates filial piety", and then sharpen their knives and send arrows to the main force that would attack Bai Tu with the idea that "killing one person is like killing my father".
At the same time, they didn't dare to confront Bai Tu. After all, no matter how tough he was, he was still a mortal...
Gao Biao's idea was to promote a story that was in line with the positive energy of the late Eastern Han Dynasty as the best refutation of Bai Tu's wrong views on love and marriage - instead of attacking Bai Tu head-on, the safety factor would naturally be high, and Bai Tu would most likely suffer a loss.
In this positive story, the person Gao Biao is going to sacrifice is the bastard Jiao Qing!
Gao Biao was responsible for Jiao's mother's dissatisfaction with Liu Lanzhi. So Gao Biao suggested taking advantage of this incident and adding fuel to the fire until Jiao's mother was determined to let Jiao Qing divorce Liu Lanzhi.
If Jiao Qing gives in, this would be a positive story - The Book of Rites says: If a son is very fond of his wife, but his parents do not say so, he will leave. If a son is not fond of his wife, his parents will say, "She is doing good to us." The son will perform the rites of husband and wife, and will not decline throughout his life.
What's the meaning?
If the son likes his wife very much but his parents don’t, then they can divorce her; if the son doesn’t like his wife but his parents like her very much, then they can live with her for the rest of his life... These are all things that are in line with etiquette and filial piety.
The Book of Rites is one of the greatest political correctness of Confucianism and it will not be wrong no matter where it is placed.
As for Jiao Qing, if he did not submit, it would give his superiors a handle to punish him severely and remove him from the title of filial and honest official. This is also a positive energy story about "punishing evil and promoting good."
In short, the goal is to spark a discussion about Dui Tu’s erroneous views on love and marriage… and that would be a success.
Of course, based on Gao Biao's understanding of Jiao Qing, he should not be able to do this. In fact... in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, very few people could do this, and the more prestigious a person was, the less likely he would do so.
Given Jiao Qing's personality, he would definitely use a delaying tactic, but after he delays, Gao Biao will naturally have a back-up plan, and he doesn't want Jiao Qing to be a down-to-earth example of positive energy.
Gao Ming thought his nephew's idea made sense, and he discussed it with the captain Qin Gu. Qin Gu also made a big move, and asked someone to secretly match his illegitimate daughter Qin Luofu to Jiao's mother. But it had to be done secretly? They hadn't divorced yet, and it would be embarrassing to tell others about it!
This indeed further strengthened Jiao's mother's mind...
However, what they didn't expect was that Jiao Qing had somehow established a relationship with Bai Tu first, and it seemed that he had made a great contribution this time?
For a moment, Gao Ming was a little hesitant about whether to continue with this matter.
When Gao Biao saw this, he was shocked.
So he tried to persuade his uncle even more, on the grounds that Jiao Qing had made great contributions now, so he would naturally be able to strike back at Bai Tu, and... Jiao Qing was just trying to show off his face in front of Bai Tu. Would he really discuss his family matters with the great Han General of Chariots and Cavalry?
So... it is impossible for Bai Tu to know the situation of the Jiao family!
