Chapter 47 Value

Chapter 47 Value

Chapter 47 Value

The secret meeting in the study soon ended, and seeing that it was getting late, Sima Yue prepared to have dinner.

After dinner, he would go to visit his new concubine.

Luoyang is in a mess, which may be an opportunity for some dignitaries.

Otherwise, with his age, identity and status, how could he marry a 28-year-old girl from a noble family?
Wonderful, wonderful.

"My Lord." Wang Dao interrupted Sima Yue's interest and said, "There is something that I couldn't explain just now."

Sima Yue was a little unhappy, but he still pretended to be gentle and said with a smile: "You, you are still hiding something, but it doesn't matter if you tell me."

Wang Dao organized his words, and the incident of Pei Xia visiting Sikong involuntarily came to his mind. He only heard him say: "Du Bo Shao Xun has the courage of ten thousand men, but he has offended Meng Jiu, which may be detrimental to the overall situation."

Sima Yue put away his smile and asked unhappily, "What do you mean?"

Wang Dao didn't care whether Sima Yue knew about the feud between Meng Jiu and Lu Ji, and he told the story again, then said: "Sikong has great ambitions, but Luoyang is an isolated city. For now, we still have to make friends with the King of Chengdu. Xun is brave, but he is just an ordinary man. Meng Jiu holds a grudge in his heart and slanders Chengdu day and night. Water dripping wears away a stone, and I am afraid that it will ruin the big plan."

"I will have a falling out with Sima Ying sooner or later." Sima Yue said.

"Indeed." Wang Dao said, "If Your Majesty wants to achieve his ambition, he must get rid of Sima Ying, but not now. I think it is unwise to ruin the great cause for a man."

Sima Yue's expression changed for a moment, and he finally said, "It's not right. If I do this, wouldn't it chill everyone's hearts? How will others view it? Don't say anything more, I will take care of it myself."

"Yes." Director Wang replied respectfully.

He didn't expect to accomplish anything at this moment, he just planted a seed in advance.

Pei Dun came more and more frequently, and Pei Xia also came to visit for the first time.

Behind Pei Xia, there is also the shadow of General Pei Kuo. If Sikong wants to win over the imperial guards, he must show goodwill to the Pei family, and the possibility of Pei Dun becoming the governor of Xuzhou will be much greater.

This was unacceptable to him.

Recently, my cousin Wang Yan mentioned that there might be opportunities in Jingzhou.

When Zhang Chang rebelled, Sima Xin, the King of Xinye and the Commander-in-Chief of the Military Affairs of Jingzhou, was killed. General Sima Hu, who was in charge of the Southern Expedition, went south to quell the rebellion and sent his trusted confidant Zhang Yi to Jingzhou to take the post of Governor, but he was killed by the legitimate Governor of Jingzhou, Liu Hong.

Liu Hong submitted a petition to apologize, but the court did not pursue the matter in order to quell the chaos as quickly as possible. Sima Hu's forces were completely expelled from Jingzhou. Didn't Sikong have any objections?

This is where the opportunity lies.

His cousin wanted Wang Cheng to be the governor of Jingzhou, so that the Wang family of Langya could take control of a large state. At the same time, he also asked about the affairs of Xuzhou, which put a lot of pressure on Wang Dao.

Mi Huang and Shao Xun, with Concubine Pei as their bond, were very close to the Pei family. They were a stumbling block in Wang Dao's plan to seize Xuzhou, and he was very unhappy about it.

It doesn’t matter if the eye drops didn’t work this time.

The situation in Luoyang is still interesting.

Whether Sima Yue or Sima Ying actually controlled the court, they would use his cousin Wang Yan.

It will be interesting to see who will be the governor of Xuzhou by then.

******
The city gates were closed, and Mi Huang and Shao Xun stayed overnight in Sikong Mansion.

Of course, it is impossible for the two to live together.

Mi Huang lived in the guest room, with a beautiful maid to warm his bed.

Shao Xun lived in the guards' barracks and fell asleep accompanied by the smell of feet and the sound of grinding teeth - he was used to it, this was the state of the military camp.

His mentality was still very good. Although he was about to do great things, he was not nervous at all. Instead, he slept soundly.

Before going to bed, he even chatted with these guards about their hometown and talked about things in his hometown.

This kind of chat is certainly beneficial.

At least, Shao Xun learned that Xuzhou had been attacked by rebel forces in the past year. A man named Feng Yun was wreaking havoc everywhere, and the government had tried very hard to pacify him.

He also learned that there was also a rebellion in Yangzhou, and the court seemed to have sent a man named Chen to lead troops to fight the rebels, and he had won many victories.

These first-hand news, which seemed true or false, greatly enriched Shao Xun's understanding of the world. He now knew that Yangzhou, Xuzhou, Jingzhou and other places were very unstable and wars were raging everywhere, which was truly lamentable.

At the same time, it's a bit confusing.

The combat effectiveness of the local army of the Jin Dynasty court fluctuated. Sometimes they were defeated by the refugee army, and sometimes they won consecutive victories over the refugee army. It almost entirely depended on who was the main general leading the troops.

Ultimately, it was still the fault of Emperor Wu of Jin, Sima Yan - after pacifying Wu, "all the soldiers in the prefectures and counties were removed, and one hundred military officers were posted in large counties, and fifty in small counties."

With so few people in a county, it's hard to maintain law and order. It's funny.

Of course, there was resistance at the local level. The governors were the ones who did the actual work. They knew that this number of people was not enough, so they used local finances to support a group of more soldiers. However, the base number was so small, how many more could they raise? Moreover, many counties still had only 50 or 100 soldiers. Once something happened, they could only count on the eight governors to dispatch hereditary soldiers, but they were slow to act, and by the time they arrived, the peasant army had already grown larger.

rotten!
At noon, after eating the oatmeal porridge, Shao Xun reunited with Mi Huang and returned to the city. Before leaving, he did not see Pei Shiliu and did not receive the "latest instructions" from the princess.

"Inspector, you said before that you could be sent out to a distant place. What kind of official position could you hold?" On the way back, it was inconvenient to talk about confidential matters, so Shao Xun brought up something else and asked casually.

"County magistrate." Mi Huang said.

"This..." Shao Xun was a little surprised.

Lu Ji, the aide of Sima Ying in Yecheng, commanded an army of more than 200,000 after leaving the government. It was a joke, but if he was transferred to a local official, he would be a governor at the worst, right? Or even more than that - in fact, Lu Ji was already an official at the level of a governor.

Mi Huang was the governor of Yue Prefecture, but after leaving the prefecture he could only be a county magistrate. What a huge difference.

"My family is not well-off. If I am sent out, I can only be a county magistrate." Mi Huang sensed Shao Xun's surprise and said indifferently, "It's the Nine-Rank Official System. It's like this. Not as good as the best, but better than the worst. If Liu Qia leaves the government, he won't be able to be a county magistrate either."

They both laughed.

It feels so good to step on that jerk Liu Qia in private.

"So, don't think you've delayed me." Mi Huang patted Shao Xun on the shoulder and said, "Being a county magistrate is really boring. Either continue to be an assistant in the shogunate, or find another job. Lieutenant Chen from Donghai is seriously ill and has been bedridden for more than a year. The Wang Guojun is reorganizing in Luoyang, so it's not difficult for me to fight for the position of lieutenant. Don't think that I will offend anyone by doing this, that's not the case. How can you not offend people if you want to climb up? The idea of ​​getting promoted by being harmonious, hehe, I don't even dare to think about it."

"That's indeed the case." Shao Xun agreed.

Resources are limited and there are only so many official positions. For people with poor backgrounds, the competitive pressure is very high and they really have to risk their lives. Offending others is no big deal.

"Actually..." Mi Huang glanced at Shao Xun again, with a look of regret on his face: "Young Master, you have much more trouble than I do. The people you have offended are too powerful."

"Who?"

"Eunuch Meng Jiu." Mi Huang said, "You killed Meng Chao and got a chance to be promoted, but you also offended Meng Jiu. However, maybe I can't escape, after all, I am the owner of the building."

Shao Xun was silent.

In fact, from the simple perspective of martial arts, when two armies fight, each serves its own master and neither uses any despicable means that would abhor both humans and gods. They just fight and kill each other in a fair and square manner. How can this be considered a grudge?
Since you have chosen to be a warrior, you should accept this outcome.

However, Meng Jiu might not think so.

He was a eunuch with a twisted mentality. Just because Lu Yun disagreed with his father being the magistrate of Handan, he hated the Lu brothers. Eventually, things got really bad and ended with Lu Ji being imprisoned and killed - the latest news is that Lu Ji's three clans were exterminated, his brothers Lu Yun and Lu Dan, as well as his good friend Sun Zheng, and his disciples Fei Ci and Zai Yi were all killed.

"Don't think too much." Mi Huang sighed and said, "Lu Ji and Meng Jiu have been enemies for a long time, and this is not the only thing. Perhaps, in Meng Jiu's view, most of the responsibility for Meng Chao's death lies with Lu Ji, and he may not know you and me. But we must be on guard, this is the truth. From the heart, if Sima Yi is not defeated and still in power, Meng Jiu will not have the opportunity to harm us. But do you think Sima Yi can win?"

Shao Xun shook his head. Sima Yi had made too many stupid moves and had missed the opportunity to win.

"Then there is nothing we can do." Mi Huang continued, "The worst that can happen is that I will abandon my official position and flee back to my hometown. You only have one way now, and that is to ask the Minister of Works to protect you. Lu Ji is the Internal History of Pingyuan and a man of Sima Ying. As long as Meng Jiu spreads slander and gets Sima Ying to agree, Lu Ji will be dead. But we are the men of the Minister of Works. It is not that easy for Meng Jiu to harm us. He must get the consent of the Minister of Works."

"My words are not so pleasant to hear, and I am not the kind of person who is eloquent, but what I say is the truth. Young Master, you have to make Sikong feel that you are valuable and he will not be willing to abandon you, understand?"

"I understand." Shao Xun took a deep breath, bowed and said, "Thank you for your guidance."

"No need to do that." Mi Huang waved his hand and said, "If it weren't for you, I might have been killed by Meng Chao. I feel guilty if I don't help you. Also, if you are worried about your family, why not let them hide in my farm. Xuzhou is not peaceful and in chaos. There are countless military households who have escaped. If your family runs away, no one will pursue them."

At this point, Mi Huang smiled proudly and said, "Since you can read, you should know the old things in the late Han Dynasty. At that time, my family made a lot of money in business, but we had no official power, so we funded Liu Xuande with a lot of money. Of course, in the end, we didn't get much, and Xuzhou was returned to Cao Cao. Although the Mi family was not specifically targeted, life was really hard, and it took a long time to recover."

"Nowadays, we are a little better off than in the late Han Dynasty. We are not a noble family, but we can barely be ranked among the common people. A few months ago, my son wrote to me and said that he wanted to build a fort to defend against Feng Yun and Shi Bing. I agreed. It's all about money. Haha, my Mi family has not fallen behind in its business. Ordinary noble families may not be as rich as ours."

"After the fort is completed, we can mobilize at least two to three thousand farmhands and give them a rough training. I don't look down on the hereditary soldiers from Donghai County and even Xuzhou, but if there are not tens of thousands of them, we can't take them down. If your father, mother, brothers and sisters hide in the fort, they will be safe."

Having said that, Mi Huang looked at Shao Xun again.

This young man is skilled in archery and horse riding, and is good at comforting soldiers. He is a rare talent. If he is his son-in-law, wouldn't it be natural for him to help train the farmhands?
But, alas, it’s useless for him to agree, he still needs the consent of his uncles and elders in the family.

After all, Shao Xun was just a military household, and his family background was too low. If the Mi family was still a wealthy merchant, they would probably have recruited him as a son-in-law, but now that they have a family background, some people have begun to think of themselves as superior, but they have encountered a lot of resistance.

We really should bring those people to Luoyang to let them see Zhang Fang’s butcher knife, maybe they will change their attitude!

But then again, Shao Xun is a "wild horse" and is not so easy to tame...

Mi Huang sighed silently in his heart and hurried on his way.

Shao Xun also followed behind with a heavy heart.

His hand had subconsciously clenched the knife handle. Things were more complicated than he had imagined, and this time, Sima Yi had to catch him.

He lives, I die.

He dies, I live.

The little guy has no choice.

In this world, the most reliable thing is indeed your own knife.

(End of this chapter)