Volume 3: The Land of Jingchu Chapter 298 Easy
"It is so easy for some people to be loyal subjects." Cao Cao said to Liu Bei while sipping his wine.
At this time, this pair of enemies who "appeared to be in harmony with each other" were actually sitting at the same drinking table, and there were only two of them. Dian Wei and Xu Chu were guarding the courtyard entrance twenty steps away.
This was a drinking party arranged by Cao Cao, but before coming, Liu Bei had not expected that he would be the only "guest".
As the snow fell in the depths of winter, wine was warming in a jug beside them, and the only side dish on the plate was a few green plums.
Just like in the novel, green plum wine does not mean boiled green plum wine, but green plums are used as a side dish for wine.
It's a pity that Bai Tu hasn't discovered the Golden State yet, otherwise he could at least give them some peanuts...
Discussing heroes over plum wine - a classic scene in the novel, it also has a prototype in history, but the details are different.
However, unlike the novels and history, Liu Bei was not blindly humble. When facing Cao Cao, he showed calmness and pride!
Although Liu Bei was in Xu Du at this time, he had soldiers and generals outside. He also understood that even though Cao Cao was stronger than him, he could not do anything to him. This was completely different from the situation of being dependent on others in history, so naturally he had to stand up straighter.
"The Prime Minister also has an 'easy' opportunity to be a loyal minister." Liu Bei said, while sucking on a pickled green plum.
Liu Bei knew that Cao Cao was not talking about him, but Hua Xin... or rather, Bai Tu behind Hua Xin!
Hua Xin had previously established his "personality" by defying the will of heaven to return the seal. Now, just standing outside the palace as a punishment would cause the people to criticize Liu Xie for treating loyal officials poorly...
But no one has investigated in detail what this loyal minister Hua and that loyal minister Baidai had done before!
"Oh? How come I didn't know about this and have encountered such a good thing?" Cao Cao asked curiously .
Liu Bei smiled upon hearing this, spat out the plum pit, and then calmly said: "If the thief Dong had pulled out the Seven Star Knife and stabbed the Prime Minister like this, then the Prime Minister would have been a loyal minister, wouldn't it have been much easier than it is now?"
When Cao Cao heard Liu Bei mention the "ridiculous things" from his youth, he couldn't help laughing and said, "Hahaha, I actually forgot about this!" As he spoke, a look of reminiscence and disdain flashed in his eyes.
When Dong Zhuo was in power, Cao Cao was only a captain of the army and one of the eight captains of the Western Garden. At that time often participated in drinking parties where people verbally attacked Dong Zhuo.
That is, after the court session, he and the other ministers "used their facial expressions to save the country", all with sad faces, scolding the thief Dong. One said that the thief Dong was disrespectful to His Majesty, and another said that the thief Dong stayed in the harem last night and did not come out...
Later, Cao Cao felt that he could not get along with these guys at all, and mocked them, "All the ministers in the court cry from night to dawn and from dawn to night, hoping to cry Dong Zhuo to death." However, he was accused by his loyal ministers, "Your ancestors all received salaries from the Han Dynasty, why don't you think about serving the country and not even cry?"
As a result, the ministers continued to use their facial expressions to save the country. Cao Cao borrowed Wang Yun's Seven-Star Sword and went to assassinate Dong Zhuo. Unfortunately... by accident, he was discovered by Dong Zhuo in the mirror. Cao Cao escaped by using the excuse of offering the sword and fled from Luoyang. From then on, he embarked on the path of a hero.
If Cao Cao really had failed to fool Dong Zhuo and had been killed by Dong Zhuo with a single blow, or had died together with Dong Zhuo, then the words "loyal minister" would definitely have been printed on his tombstone, forever.
"My bravery as a common man makes Xuande laugh." Cao Cao shook his head.
"You have a pure heart, why should you laugh?" Liu Bei asked with complicated eyes.
“Be it infants or common men, there are at least eight thousand of them in Xudu, if not ten thousand… What the world lacks are heroes who can restore order, not impulsive men or loyal ministers seeking fame and reputation.” Cao Cao said disdainfully, not knowing whether he was "disdainful" of his past self or of others.
But it was indeed during that time, when he escaped from Luoyang, his horse was exhausted and he sat down on the side of the road with his eyes dull but his heart still pounding, that Cao Cao completed his transformation.
"Oh? Then Prime Minister, how many heroes do you think there are in the world today?" Liu Bei asked with interest, seeming to be very curious about Cao Cao's evaluation.
"Not many, not many, just two or three." Cao Cao shook his head.
"The Prime Minister is one person. I wonder if I can be considered the second one?" Liu Bei asked with a curl of his lips, not forgetting to take another green plum.
Cao Cao stared at him for a while and said, "No, the second one is my brother Benchu... When Dong Zhuo just took control of the government, he left Luoyang and planned to raise an army to rebel against Dong. At that time, I was still thinking about being an ordinary man. Do you think this kind of person can be considered a hero?"
"Well, the Yuan family has three officials in four generations, and... Yuan Benchu's current status is not only due to his family background and luck." Liu Bei nodded.
"So he ranks second. Brother Xuande, do you think I am fair?" Cao Cao asked, looking into Liu Bei's eyes.
"According to this theory...I think the prime minister should be second." Liu Bei said after a moment of silence.
"Oh? If family background and luck can also be considered as part of being a hero, I can't refute it..."
"No, the person who ranks ahead of Brother Meng De is not Yuan Shao, but... the 'simple' loyal minister from Yangzhou." Liu Bei said with emotion.
Cao Cao couldn't help but flash a complicated look in his eyes when he heard Liu Bei mention the white map, but then he shook his head and said, "He is just an ordinary man. The world is not so friendly that you can get the favor of heaven with unrealistic ideals."
"But Lord Bai does not have the family background of the Yuan family, yet he can also compete for the world now." Liu Bei asked reluctantly.
"Xuan De, why do you ask when you already know the answer?" Cao Cao curled his lips.
Seeing that Liu Bei was still looking at him, Cao Cao sighed and said, "Papermaking, printing, Baigong plow, ox nose ring, iron smelting, salt boiling, artificial colored glaze, keel waterwheel, overturning cart..."
Yes, although Cao Cao was not good at improving productivity, he was not unaware of the changes it brought!
He also attributed his previous "wrong judgment" of Bai Tu to the fault of Zheng Yizhan - Cao Cao originally thought that Bai Tu's naive ideas would soon be taught a lesson by reality, but... who would have thought that he could use technology to prolong his life?
Cao Cao also actively tried to equalize this advantage in Baitu, but the effect was not very good.
After all the calculations, the only useful one is "Bai Gong Li", which was directly published by Bai Tu at the beginning...
As for cattle nose rings... the yellow cattle in the Central Plains are just as hardworking and docile without nose rings, and they are not much better with nose rings.
Papermaking, printing, elementary education... these should play the greatest role to benefit the poor and even ordinary well-off families. The difficulties to be overcome are not just technical ones!
As for iron smelting and salt boiling, Bai Tu had no intention of sharing his information. Although Cao Cao kept sending people to spy on them, most of them had no news. It was obvious that it was not so easy to be spied on.
At the same time, although Cao Cao also established a department to develop military equipment, unfortunately, due to the limitations of his vision and strength, Cao Cao was unable to comprehensively improve productivity like Bai Tu, let alone lay out water conservancy construction. Now he was already overdrawing manpower in the Central Plains for the decisive battle with Yuan Shao, so how could he have the energy to do anything else?
This also means that Cao Cao's development will be very limited. After all... the technology tree cannot be developed solely through military equipment research!
For example, how much preparatory engineering and technology are needed for the hydraulic forging that is gradually being developed in Yangzhou?
The gap will only get bigger...
But in Cao Cao's heart, Bai Tu was still just an ordinary man, because Cao Cao felt that even with all these, it could not support Bai Tu's naivety, and now it was only delaying the outbreak of the conflict - I just don’t believe it... Can you research something more "weird" to continue to support your naivety?
Liu Bei did not comment on this, nor did he comment on Cao Cao's ranking him third...
But after Liu Bei left, Cao Cao sat alone for a while, constantly thinking about Liu Bei's performance before.
Upon seeing this, Xu Chu couldn't help but ask naively: "My lord, Liu Bei really will not submit to you... Ouch!" Halfway through his words, Dian Wei slapped him on the back of the head.
"Idiot! You don't have any brains. You should know your own business... This is the job of military advisors. Don't speak and influence the lord." Dian Wei said in an equally naive way.
Xu Chu glared at the black boy for a while, but thinking of the result of the last fight, he just muttered a few words but did not respond.
Cao Cao said: "If he really wants to be a 'hero' like me, I'm not worried... I'm worried if he wants to be a 'madman'!"
However, it was obvious that he was not really asking for Xu Chu's opinion, but just talking to himself, so there was no explanation.
If Liu Bei was the same as Cao Cao now, just a vassal who wanted to establish himself as a king, Cao Cao would be more confident in keeping him as a hostage in Xu Du, because... apart from the fact that Liu Bei's surname was Liu, his relationship with Liu Xie was not that close.
The grace of a gentleman will be cut off after five generations - relatives separated by five generations are no longer considered "cousins". Even if they have the same surname, they are not cousins but only clan brothers. Liu Bei was separated from Liu Xie, let alone Emperor Guangwu of the Later Han Dynasty, by seven or eight generations.
To the imperial court and Liu Xie, although there are differences between the Liu family princes and other princes, they are still a threat to Liu Xie!
Similarly, Liu Xie was also an obstacle to their efforts to "support the Han Dynasty."
On the contrary, if Liu Bei went crazy and really forced himself to be in the same mind as Liu Xie, Cao Cao would worry that there would be a fire in his backyard.
It's just that because of the issue of Xuzhou, Cao Cao couldn't turn against Liu Bei, so he continued drinking with him to test the waters.
Thinking back to Liu Bei's performance, there seems to be nothing wrong?
and……
At this point, there shouldn't be any madman who still wants to revive the Han Dynasty, and the Han Dynasty of "someone else's family"... right? - Cao Cao thought to himself.
At this time, Liu Bei walked out of the Prime Minister's Mansion and sat in the carriage. His calm and even slightly domineering expression changed. After he parted the curtains and looked at the plaque of the Prime Minister's Mansion, he said to himself with a solemn expression: "No, I don't care at all, whether I am the first or the third... I am different from you!"
