Volume 3: The Land of Jingchu Chapter 282 If you want to learn
Previously, Liu Bei came to Xu Du as a local lord. Although he was actually coerced by Cao Cao, he was nominally going to meet the emperor, so there was also a grand banquet.
At first, Liu Xie was very enthusiastic about the arrival of Liu Bei, who claimed to be a royal relative. No matter whether he "claimed to be" or not, he was a relative after all.
After Liu Yu was killed by Gongsun Zan and Liu Yao did nothing due to the white rabbit effect, the only three Liu clan members who held power in the local area were Liu Zhang, Liu Biao, and Liu Bei.
However, when Dong Cheng met him for the first time, not only did he not make friends with this "foreign aid", he even made sarcastic remarks during the banquet, as if Liu Bei had ulterior motives because he did not immediately hand over the Xuzhou troops to him and did not obey His Majesty's command.
If Liu Ai had not been reliable, coupled with Liu Bei's own personality, he would have driven away this natural ally!
Fortunately, Liu Ai was sensible. During the banquet, he immediately sorted out the family tree with Liu Bei, and then wrote Liu Bei's name into the royal family genealogy, making him Liu Xie's uncle, to correct his reputation.
Dong Cheng and Liu Ai had very different opinions on Liu Bei.
Dong Cheng felt that Liu Bei was the same as Cao Cao, the only difference was that he was not as strong as Cao Cao and not trustworthy, otherwise how could he have occupied Xuzhou, and after arriving in Xu Du, why didn't he immediately make his intentions clear?
Even when he visited him privately and mentioned the matter of rebelling against Cao and welcoming Yuan, Liu Bei would quickly change the subject... and even looked a little disgusted!
Liu Ai urged Liu Xie not to listen to Dong Cheng's nonsense and gradually analyzed to Liu Xie that Liu Xuzhou's current approach was the wisest!
If Liu Xuzhou rashly asked to take sides, it would only make Cao Cao alert. There was absolutely no doubt about Liu Xuzhou's loyalty.
As for Dong Cheng's plan to rebel against Cao and welcome Yuan, it was simply a stupid move. It's good that Liu Bei didn't weaken him...
As a result, Dong Cheng immediately said to Liu Ai: "Do you think that anyone can be the emperor as long as the surname is Liu?"
However, it was this sentence that touched Liu Xie.
[That’s right! For these clan members, it makes no difference whether I am the emperor or another clan member is the emperor, but the emperor’s uncle is absolutely loyal to me! ]
Based on this logic, Liu Xie had always relied more on Dong Cheng.
It was not until the incident of returning the jade seal that Liu Xie changed his attitude towards Bai Tu greatly, and then... he began to side with Liu Ai and treated Dong Cheng coldly.
Liu Ai was also very helpless about this - Liu Xie's performance , even in peaceful years, seemed unsatisfactory.
This cannot be blamed entirely on Liu Xie. Like most emperors of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Liu Xie lacked the growth experience and corresponding education that an emperor should have.
It was not only Dong Zhuo's fault. Before he was eight years old... when Liu Xie was just born, his biological mother was poisoned to death by the queen at the time, who later became "Empress Dowager He". Emperor Ling was so angry that he wanted to depose the queen, but he gave up after being persuaded by many eunuchs.
It was for this reason that Liu Xie was raised by Empress Dowager Dong. If it were someone else, he probably would not have grown up.
Until the death of Emperor Ling, the throne was always hesitant. The Dong family, headed by the Queen Mother and General Dong Chong, always supported the young Liu Xie.
However, in the end, He Jin was more skilled. After Emperor Ling's death, He Jin forced Dong Chong to death, and the empress dowager died of worry. Even in the novel, it is clearly stated that Empress Dowager Dong was poisoned to death by He Jin.
After Liu Bian succeeded to the throne, the good times did not last long. In the following months, He Jin was killed by the Ten Eunuchs, and Dong Zhuo entered the capital...
When Dong Zhuo first carried out the dethronement and enthronement of the emperor, it was thanks to He's previous actions that he had support.
Later generations of scholars also cursed Empress Dowager He, and even attributed the decline of the Han Dynasty to her. Mao Zonggang, who revised Mao's version of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, attributed this to retribution and put her on a par with Empress Lü - Empress Lü murdered Concubine Qi, and Emperor Hui had no children; Empress He poisoned Concubine Wang to death, and Emperor Shao died...
Liu Xie must have been secretly happy about Dong Zhuo's deposing Liu Bian and poisoning Empress Dowager He and her son.
Because of his growth experience before the age of eight, Liu Xie did not trust any clan relatives. Because of his growth experience after the age of eight, Liu Xie did not trust any outsiders.
Empress Dowager Dong supported Liu Xie for her own family's status, but in Liu Xie's heart, Dong Cheng's identity as Empress Dowager Dong's nephew greatly added points to his advantage.
However, a confused emperor who only knew how to distinguish "closeness" but could not distinguish "good from bad" actually helped Hua Xin to act in Xudu.
…
At the same time, Xu Rong had returned to Jinling and reported to Bai Tu what happened on the road.
"You did a great job this time. You must keep working hard in the future. Not only should you learn about weather forecasting, but you should also open the Tai Shi Bureau in every county as soon as possible!" Bai Tu encouraged.
In fact, Bai Tu had already known about Xu Rong’s “great success”. After all, Xu Rong’s return speed could not be compared with the message transmission speed of “signal tower + fast horse”.
"Yes! Minister Tai Shi obeys your command!" Xu Rong said with full energy.
Then, with a turn of her eyes, Xu Rong asked with a smile, "But... Lord, you still have a lot of books on astrology, right? It seems that they were removed from the library later? Can I..."
Rumor has it that in the general's mansion's library, there were originally several astrology books that no one could understand, and were later collected by Bai Tu.
"No, those are too profound for you." Bai Tu thought about it and decided to reject Xu Rong first.
It’s not that Bai Tu is self-righteous, but... Bai Tu’s astrology, or astronomy, is completely different from Xu Rong’s previous astrology. How can he study astronomy if he doesn’t even know that the earth is round or that there is gravity?
"My lord, I have already mastered all the astrology books that can be found in Jiangdong. Even the former Grand Historian of Luoyang may not have learned more than me!" Xu Rong obviously didn't believe that there was any astrology book that she couldn't understand.
If there is, it must be written randomly.
"My astrology is somewhat different from the others. When you were learning divination, you also learned numerology, right? Well, if you really want to learn it, I'll send a note to the Ministry of Works for you. If you can learn arithmetic to the earth level with the Ministry of Pangsi, you can almost get started with some simple astronomy." Bai Tu said.
"Astronomy? Is this the name of your school of thought, my lord?"
"Ahem, Mr. Xu, although you are very young, I am not very old either... By the way, to be at the prefectural level, you can't just memorize books, you have to at least get an A grade!" Bai Tu refuted and added.
The sky, the earth, the ground level... It's probably the knowledge of high school mathematics. If you get an A, you can master it to the level of 140 points in the college entrance examination, which is enough. After all, Bai Tu is not a devil.
Upon hearing this, Xu Rong showed a smug look - does it count?
Numerology is one of the six arts of a gentleman, and as an expert in stargazing, Xu Rong's attainments in numerology are definitely much more solid than those of ordinary scholars!
What heaven level, earth level, it's just a trick...
Tsk tsk, what if the famous Minister of Industry insists on taking me as his master?
Bai Tu didn't know why Xu Rong left with a perverted smile on her face.
"It's great to be young." Bai Tu sighed.
"I was also sixteen when I first met you." Lu Lingqi at the side said in a tone that said I was young once too.
"Huh? Yes, what's wrong?" Bai Tu hasn't reacted yet.
After all, in Bai Tu's impression, old ladies in their thirties can still call themselves babies, and twenty years old is not the time to lament the fleeting youth.
"It's nothing. I'm afraid that little girl won't be able to learn even if she just meets the math standards!" Lu Lingqi rolled her eyes.
"Indeed, after all, many principles are not just about mathematics..." Bai Tu was still analyzing rationally and did not notice that Lu Lingqi was just reacting emotionally.
Seeing Bai Tu's expression, Lu Lingqi deliberately put on a smile and said, "Haha, it's not because I don't understand these things, but because I heard people say..."
"say what?"
"If you want to learn, sleep with the master first!"
White picture: ...
This time, no matter how dull Bai Tu was, he noticed Lu Lingqi's little emotion, so he said solemnly: "That makes sense!"
Hearing this, Lu Lingqi looked at Bai Tu angrily and said, "Oh, my lord, you don't really have any plans, do you want me to arrange it while I'm on guard? In order to avoid ruining our plans!"
"Yes! I feel like I can't master the Nine Transformations of the Black Bird recently... Isn't there a saying that goes, 'If you want to learn well, give your master a bath more often'? Master Lu, when do you want to take a bath..."
"Bah! Stay away!"
…
While Bai Tu was practicing hard, Zhang Chunhua from the Ministry of Households received a new task, or rather... he applied for a new task himself, which was also a challenging order!
"Do you really want to go? In fact, this matter should be handled by a chief clerk in person. After all, the Fuyang area has just been recovered not long ago, and the matters are complicated..." Lu Kang paved the way and gave her one last chance to give up.
However, Zhang Chunhua still said: "No, the chief clerks are busy, so I'll go first!"
That’s right, the place Zhang Chunhua was going to was Fuyang.
The task is... to check the accounts!
At the end of the year, the Ministry of Revenue also has to sort out the local accounts, or in more fashionable terms, conduct an audit.
In theory, going to other places for audits is a very pleasant thing. However, it is the local departments that are "attacked" that have to be busy.
However, this does not include war zones!
Because of the war zone accounts, in order to facilitate military mobilization, financial aspects are also controlled by local military commanders.
Although it is not conducive to centralization, but... with the current speed of information transmission, even if it means sacrificing some centralization, we must ensure that the troops in the war zone have the ability to respond to war!
Otherwise, even with the speed of information transmission in the General's Mansion, they would still be stunned...
However, this will cause a headache for the Ministry of Revenue when it comes to checking the accounts. When you go to the local Ministry of Revenue to check the accounts, they are the "superiors", but when you go to the war zone to check the accounts... it's like a scholar meeting a soldier, it's hard to explain yourself!
What’s more, sometimes the Ministry of Revenue is also worried that it is not just “unclear” but really “unclear”.
It is perfectly normal for generals on the front lines to sometimes lend a hand in today's era. However, they often have to bear the risk of being held accountable for cleaning up other people's messes, and it is not easy to strike the right balance.
So everyone is going down to conduct an audit, but no one is willing to go to the war zone.
For example, in Jingnan, it was too far to conduct an audit, and there was no plan to check the accounts. As for the Miankou area, Lu Kang directly asked Sun Ce's uncle Wu Jing to check, and he would take the blame himself...
Moreover, both the Sun and Zhou families are wealthy and powerful, and Lu Kang believes that they will not act recklessly.
As for Fu Yang, he is the most difficult person in the Ministry of Revenue this year - Zhang Xiu, Zhao Yun, Jia Xu...
Look at these people who call the shots!
In the eyes of others, Zhao Yun is handsome, but in the eyes of the people in the Ministry of Revenue, these three are just... Liangzhou soldiers and bandits, Youzhou soldiers and bandits, and they are so bad that pus flows out...
It's no wonder that everyone is prejudiced. After all, first there was Dong Zhuo, and now Guanzhong has been wreaked havoc by the Liangzhou warlords. Zhao Yun's old boss Gongsun Zan also did a lot of things that damaged his character in his last few years. As for Jia Xu... there's no need to mention him.
If Zhang Chunhua wasn't there, several chief clerks would also be waiting to see who would be the final unlucky person.
However, Zhang Chunhua didn't know what she was thinking, and took the initiative to ask to go to Fuyang...
