Chapter 792 Treatment and Solution
Chapter 792: Talk Therapy and a Way Out
"After a lifetime of being in high rank, it would be a pleasure to retire to the mountains and manage my garden when I am old." On the Bronze Sparrow Tower, Lu Zhi looked at the white clouds and yellow grass in the distance and said incessantly.
Shao Xun personally brought two lounge chairs, thinking that Lu Zhi was really discouraged and badly hit.
This blow was caused by many factors, the most direct of which was the complaints caused by the land allocation.
Although Shao Xun later limited the scope of land measurement to the twenty counties of Liang State, the adverse effects had already occurred.
In addition, the scholars in Hebei were not close enough, and he was full of hesitation and always felt that he was being suppressed.
For the same position, the Hebei person has never competed with the Henan person. Even if there is no shady deal, but it is simply because he is not as talented as the others, the Hebei person may feel that he is being targeted and feel resentful.
In addition, it is also an objective fact that people from Henan suppress people from Hebei.
This is not a conclusion that can be overturned simply by listing the presence of officials from Hebei in the court.
The people from Henan joined the group early, occupied many key positions, and had a huge influence.
Which one of the Wang, Yang, and Yu families is not a Henan gentry family?
It is normal for the Hebei group to be suppressed.
In addition, the fact that the aristocratic families in Hebei were well preserved in previous years also made Shao Xun quite vigilant. He also had the subjective intention to suppress the people of Hebei, although the force was very light.
All in all, as the only representative of the Hebei faction, Lu Zhi is under tremendous pressure.
Due to his personality and narrow-mindedness, he was very depressed.
After Hebei suffered disasters for three consecutive years, Lu Zhi saw a large number of officials being held accountable and the reputation of Hebei scholars getting worse. He showed signs of not being able to hold on. The fact that he has held on until today and has basically implemented the disaster relief work shows that he is responsible.
"Zidao, why do you want to live in seclusion?" Shao Xun waved his hand to signal Huang Zheng to leave, sat down and asked.
"Don't you want to see the birds flying among the mulberry trees in Yecheng?" He said casually as he added pepper and salt to the boiling water in the stone tripod.
"Don't you want to see the golden wheat and millet covering the fields of Anyang?"
"Don't you want to see the girls from Julu rowing and picking lotus flowers?"
"Don't you want to see the young man from Guangping riding a white horse in the west wind, stepping into the falling flowers?"
"Don't you want to see the scholars of Qinghe leisurely strolling in the woods and singing to the moon?"
"Don't you want to see the men of Fanyang galloping behind the mountains and returning with a shot of an eagle?"
After saying these words, Lu Zhi looked fascinated.
"There are many generous and tragic people in Yan and Zhao. What are a few years of disaster? Are you annoyed? Are you discouraged? Are you sad about the passing of time?" The tea in the stone tripod began to boil for the second time. Shao Xun calmly scooped out a ladle of water, then took out the ground tea foam from the paper bag and poured it in, stirring it slowly.
"Hebei is full of starving people. Can it really be restored to its original state?" Lu Zhi asked softly.
"Yes." Shao Xun said affirmatively: "Han Guangwu relied on it to achieve his great cause. If the son of Yuan family does not make trouble, even one more Cao Cao cannot defeat him. Otherwise, do you really think I came to Hebei for nothing? If I have this time, I can go back to Pingyang to enjoy the fine wine and women, wouldn't it be wonderful?"
Lu Zhi smiled silently.
The tea in the stone tripod had already boiled for the third time. Shao Xun carefully scooped out the tea foam and poured the water he had just scooped out into the pot.
After doing all this, he personally poured a bowl for Lu Zhi, held it in front of him, and said, "If it weren't for Zidao, how could I have easily obtained Hebei? If it weren't for Zidao, how could I have entered Youzhou?"
Lu Zhi blushed after hearing this.
He said these words to others in private when he was proud, but he didn't expect that King Liang knew about it.
After all, King Liang is not Cao Mengde.
When he heard this, he just laughed it off and even made tea for him and chatted with him.
Thinking of this, Lu Zhi felt that all the grievances he had suffered in the past had disappeared.
He did so many things for King Liang, and King Liang remembered them all.
King Liang was very grateful for his kindness.
King Liang respected him very much.
"People in Henan were also living in poverty before." Shao Xun poured himself another bowl of tea and placed it on the table next to the recliner. Then he lay down comfortably and said, "During the most difficult period, there were starving people everywhere, bones piled up like mountains, and even the mulberry forests were completely destroyed. At that time in Xuchang, I was also worried day and night, and I was very sad. But things in the world are all up to human beings. If you work hard, God will reward you."
"Henan has already come out of this, it is like the granary of the Jin Dynasty, countless lives have been saved. Hebei is even more fertile, so what is there to worry about? One year of heavy floods, two years of major floods, it's almost over."
"I visited Gaoyang, Hejian, Boling and other counties a while ago and collected some wheat in May. A county only needs hundreds of thousands of bushels of grain to provide relief. I won't save those who can't be saved, but those who can be saved can survive. Perhaps many people will starve to death in other places, but compared to last year? The disaster has not been alleviated much, but the number of deaths has decreased a lot."
"Zi Dao's heart is with Yan and Zhao. He has sent people to push the winter wheat, and his pens have worn out several times. If the summer harvest goes smoothly in May next year, it will all be your credit. I will order people to engrave the credit on stone to show your virtue."
He kept saying nice things for free, with full emotional value, and Lu Zhi felt much better after hearing them.
He knew that he would not live long, and at this moment he needed someone to affirm his life even more.
Shao Xun lay quietly, looking at the sunset in the sky, and said, "Hebei will not be in chaos."
This is his bottom line. A small chaos in Hebei is a fact, but it cannot be a complete mess.
The porridge farms in Xiangguo, Anping, Bohai and other places have caused many people to die. Their existence has prevented large-scale rebellions from happening.
Death is inevitable, but there are indeed fewer deaths this year than last year, and that is progress.
There might be another wave of people starving to death next spring, but the number will certainly be greatly reduced.
As long as there is no flood, drought or locust plague next year - after the flood, it will be difficult to think of locusts - everything else will not be a problem.
As long as Hebei can get through a year in peace, the difficult days will be over, just like Henan back then.
Lu Zhike can’t collapse on the eve of the event.
"If I hadn't met the king back then, I might have died in Luoyang." Lu Zhi sighed, "Just when I was about to be buried, my luck turned around. Isn't this God's will?"
"If you hadn't met me back then, where would you have gone?" Shao Xun asked curiously.
"Maybe he will go to Jinyang and seek refuge with Liu Yueshi." Lu Zhi said, "However, Liu Yueshi lacks too much after all and is not a man who can accomplish anything. What can we do?"
That means the world line has ended, Shao Xun thought secretly.
Liu Kun and Zu Ti are equally famous, but upon closer examination, their abilities are really not on the same level and there is a huge gap between them.
Shi Le and Shi Hu said they unified Henan and Hebei, but Henan was actually a mess, with too many people secretly colluding with Jiangdong. As long as the army marched north, it would surely win food and support, but unfortunately Zu Ti did not get enough support from Jianye, so he failed at the last moment.
Today's Henan is not the Henan under the rule of Later Zhao. Not many people secretly defect to Jiangdong, and Zu Ti is destined not to reach the historical heights.
The simplest thing is that the Henan nobles under the rule of Later Zhao would provide Zu Ti with food, equipment, and soldiers, but Henan under the rule of Shao Xun would not. This is the biggest difference, and the people of Jiangdong should also be aware of this.
"What does the king want to do next year?" Lu Zhi sat up, picked up the tea bowl, took a sip, and asked.
"The most important thing is to settle in Bingzhou with immigrants." Shao Xun said, "Zidao, I keep my word. If the nobles in Hebei are willing to raise their own food and grass to come to Bingzhou, I will happily give them official positions and will never break my promise."
"Your Majesty, are you still preparing to attack the Tuoba Xianbei?"
"This is just one of the reasons." Shao Xun said, "In the long run, we still need to educate the barbarians and register them as equals. Swords and guns can only quell temporary chaos, and the rule of the king is the strategy for long-term stability."
In fact, it is short-term goals and long-term goals.
The short-term goal is to increase the population of Bingzhou, produce grain, and prepare for the future attack on the State of Dai.
The long-term goal is to assimilate the vast number of Hu people in Bingzhou and turn them into Han people. This requires not only military, political, and economic efforts, but also cultural efforts.
"The wealthy families such as the Liu family of Pingyuan, the Hua family, and the Cui family of Qinghe did not suffer too much from the disaster. Why are they crowded in Jizhou?" Shao Xun said, "With so many young men, how many filial and honest people are there in a county each year? How many scholars are there in a state each year? It would be better to move some of them out, which would also be good for preserving the family. It doesn't matter if the poets and scholars families who suffered from the disaster can't afford the money and food. As long as they are willing to come to Pingyang, Xihe, Taiyuan, and Kelan counties in the Luliang Mountains, I will find a way for them."
"The chieftains of the Hu people actually admire the aristocratic families, and there are too many people rushing to curry favor with them. They are immersed in the Chinese culture, and if they follow the example of the leaders, there will always be an effect."
"As long as the world remains stable, they will slowly become well-dressed people. What we fear most is that the situation changes repeatedly, assimilation is forcibly interrupted, or even the Hu people come to dominate us, which will have no effect. I will stabilize the situation, and it is up to you to transform the Hu people into Xia people."
"This will take decades or even hundreds of years." Lu Zhi sighed.
"It doesn't matter if I succeed." Shao Xun said nonchalantly, "I'll lay a solid foundation and keep doing it for decades. I don't believe this ship can turn around."
Lu Zhi chuckled.
Shao Xun was actually right to ask him to do this.
He just said that if he hadn't met Shao Xun, he would have gone to Liu Kun, not Liu Cong or Shi Le, which is very telling. Lu Zhi was willing to do this well and was very motivated.
In addition, Shao Xun actually gave the Hebei scholars a way out: to come to Bingzhou to serve as officials.
After three consecutive years of disasters, the gentry in Hebei suffered heavy losses, and many of them really could not stand it any longer. If they were allowed to stay in Hebei and left alone, who knows what kind of trouble would happen.
A simple army of refugees is not scary at all. There was no successful rebellion by refugee army in the Jin Dynasty because the social environment did not allow it and there was no soil for the refugee army to survive for a long time.
However, if the refugee army merges with the gentry, the threat will greatly increase. Instead of rushing to suppress them, it is better to give the Hebei gentry a way out, slightly tilt the policy, appoint more Hebei people to serve as officials in Bingzhou, cut off the refugee army's support, and prevent them from causing trouble.
By providing economic relief, political appeasement, and military suppression, and by using his prestige to conduct inspections, Shao Xun managed to nip in the bud the possibility of a large-scale rebellion in the bud in Jizhou.
In mid-October, he arrived in Bianliang with more than 10,000 strong men from Hebei and tens of thousands of captured men, women, old and young, to seek food, in order to reduce the loss of grain during transportation.
The Silver Spear Camp and the Yicong Army rested on the spot - the former settled in Bianliang and the latter in Liyang, which were very close.
The Silver Spear Left Camp was ordered to be transferred to Pingyang, and the Right Camp went to Hedong to replace the Black Spear Left Camp.
All the government soldiers were dismissed and sent home, and each of them received two pieces of cloth as a reward.
At this point, the entire northern land came to a standstill.
The people after the disaster are suffering, but they also have a little hope, hoping that next year will have a good harvest.
The intensive disasters have put Hebei on the verge of collapse, and Henan is also on the verge of collapse.
How can a child cry every day? How can a gambler lose every day?
(End of this chapter)