RPAGF Chapter 7197 Who Will the Blade Fall On?
Chapter 7197 Who Will the Blade Fall On?
Chapter 7197 Who Will the Blade Fall On?
Chen Qun believed Chen Xi's words that he had already helped once and wouldn't help again if it wasn't possible. After all, everyone knew what kind of person Chen Xi was; he had truly built up his reputation over the years. If he said he would help, he definitely would. At most, it might be done discreetly, and others might not know what he helped with, but he definitely helped.
Moreover, when Chen Qun asked Zhong Yao, Zhong Yao gave a clear answer: Chen Xi had indeed helped him solve his biggest problem without leaving any hidden dangers. He said that if this matter were exposed, even if Zhong Yao wasn't skinned alive, he would have to stay in Chang'an for a few years to calm down.
This is not an exaggeration. Although it was fashionable for members of the royal family to marry young women around 10 years old and to marry girls around 12, 13, or 14 years old, the prerequisite for this was that during the late Eastern Han Dynasty, all members of the Liu royal family living in Weiyang Palace were in a state of difficulty in having children and were forced to marry early in order to see if they could have offspring.
It was not common for prominent families to marry young girls. The Guo family of Taiyuan brought Wang Fan into their family, but this was predicated on the death of Wang Chen. When the various families talked about this, they all said that Guo Huai was a man of his word. Even Guo Huai raised Wang Fan until she was fifteen years old before formally marrying her, rather than marrying her much earlier.
These days, powerful families still have some sense of shame. They collectively boycott scoundrels who steal young girls. If it were revealed that they only met Zhong Yao when he was ten years old, Zhong Yao would not only be skinned alive, but would at least be vilified behind his back.
Adding to the issue of the girls' school on the Ganges River, the fact that Zhong Yao had designs on a ten-year-old girl has been exposed. It's like mud falling into your pants—even if it's not shit, it's still shit!
To be honest, Chen Xi originally didn't want to get involved in these matters, and even wanted to skin Zhong Yao alive. However, considering the girls' school incident, if he didn't help pull Zhang Changpu out of the loop, it would be a miracle if the people of Jingchu didn't escalate the whole thing.
More importantly, if this matter were to be exposed, it would be considered a serious offense. Even if Zhong Yao didn't die, he would be severely injured, and his future would be extremely difficult.
After all, the bigwig who promoted the girls' school found a ten-year-old girl, and then the girls' school had an accident. With all this in context, is there any need to say anything else? There's no need to say anything; everyone else has already filled in the blanks in their own minds.
The problem is that Chen Xi is determined to promote education for women, but at this stage, Chen Xi cannot make schools co-educational, so she can only open separate girls' schools. Moreover, in order to avoid any problems, the locations are all in places with strong control and political integrity, which is how she ensured that no problems occurred.
But if Zhong Yao's affair is exposed, it will definitely be a chain reaction, and Chen Xi will also get a punch.
Therefore, Chen Xi took the initiative to change Zhang Changpu's household registration and birth date, changing it from Yuanfeng year to Jian'an year.
Zhong Yao himself was well aware that changing this thing was actually very dangerous, and only Chen Xi could do it without anyone noticing. Moreover, this change helped him eliminate a very big political threat.
Similarly, Zhong Yao understood why Chen Xi stopped helping later. Changing the age didn't mean Zhang Changpu had really grown up. Chen Xi felt that no matter how twisted he was, he couldn't bring himself to act as a matchmaker for Zhong Yao. So when Chen Qun brought it up, Chen Xi told Chen Qun to ask Zhong Yao.
What could Zhong Yao say? He could only say that Chen Xi had already helped, and he couldn't say anything more. This was something that couldn't even be mentioned.
Since Zhong Yao didn't say the exact details, Chen Qun wouldn't specifically ask. After all, some things are better left unasked; keeping them to oneself is the safest approach. Chen Qun still had that sense of boundaries.
Moreover, even if Zhong Yao hadn't said anything, Chen Qun would have guessed on his own. Fortunately, what Zhong Yao wanted was for Chen Qun to guess, and once Chen Qun guessed and made that connection, he naturally steered the conversation toward the situation on the Ganges.
The bigwigs on all sides now have a pretty good understanding of the situation on the Ganges.
Chen Qun believed that the aristocratic families of Jingchu had not colluded with the Kushans, but as someone from an aristocratic family, how could Chen Qun not know whether there was some kind of tacit understanding between the two sides?
There is a practice in this world called tacit understanding. The two parties do not cooperate, but they know what the other needs and then tacitly help each other prepare. This can be the best of friends or the worst of enemies.
Because in this world, besides your friends, your enemies can also understand you, and often, your enemies understand you better than you may.
After all, you can't dissect your own shortcomings to the point of bloodshed, but your enemy can. If the hatred is great enough, your enemy will want to figure you out completely and then skin you alive.
“Those people from Jingchu,” Yang Zhong sighed. “But thinking about it, it’s normal. If my family didn’t have a piece of land in Central Asia, I wouldn’t have given up this opportunity either. After all, we’re not stupid. How could we not take advantage of this once-in-a-millennium opportunity?”
This is also why some powerful families in Jingchu are making moves regarding Zhong Yao's marriage to Zhang Changpu. They are now hoping that Zhong Yao will return to the Ganges to carry out a purge and cleanse, and then, after enduring the pain, they will do something like double the damage. What can the top leaders do? Aren't the people working at the grassroots level our people? What a joke! Do you even know who extended the tentacles that have infiltrated the grassroots of this country?
Therefore, when Zhong Yao returns to the Ganges, he will definitely have a major conflict with the bureaucratic system. Incidentally, this is also the reality that Lu Su, Dong Zhao, Xu Shu and others will have to face next - how to promote the power that the upper-level bureaucrats theoretically hold when the lower-level bureaucrats do not implement it, or how to restrain them when the lower-level bureaucrats doubly implement it or even implement it to the death when the lower-level bureaucrats do not have the conditions to implement it.
Chen Xi was actually quite helpless. He fully understood the thoughts of these Jingchu aristocratic families and knew that they were not colluding with the Kushans. But the most secretive collusion in the world is tacit understanding. If the two sides cooperated like this, what difference would it make to Chen Xi from collusion?
There's no difference; the Han dynasty will suffer a silent loss. What's even more unbearable is that you can't find any evidence. The bureaucratic system isn't doing its job properly; it just wants to create some fun for you, which can be truly endless.
Various forms of bureaucratic inertia, laziness, and procrastination are only one aspect. What's even worse is that they double down on your execution, put pressure on you, and give you an impossible task. In the current environment of Ganges, they're using this tactic, which is why Chen Xi is not optimistic about the upcoming battle.
Incidentally, this is also why Chen Xi said it was a good time to go to the Ganges, while signing off on Li You's trip there. Chen Xi was well aware that dealing with his own middle-level subordinates was only a minor aspect of the trip; dealing with the Jingchu aristocratic families who were hindering him was another.
More importantly, it's hard to say that the Jingchu aristocratic family is in the right, because they have enough evidence and reasons to explain why they are lazy, indolent, and procrastinating. The bad habits of corrupt officials are so bad that even in the 21st century, let alone the 3rd century, you can only complain, and even if you complain, there's really nothing you can do about it.
It's even quite possible that the other party will just throw some money at you, and you'll be dragged down to your death. After all, moderation is hard to achieve, but going to extremes is very easy. That's the nature of realistic bureaucracy, especially when the other party is deliberately playing the buck game with you. There's nothing you can do about it, because there are always ways to fabricate reasons for you.
So, when faced with indolence, laziness, shirking responsibility, and procrastination, if you handle it in a normal way, you won't even get it recorded as a demerit; at most, you'll get a reprimand. But under these circumstances, you can't even get it recorded as a demerit? People on the front lines are dying, and you're still playing this game? To be honest, even Chen Xi couldn't help but feel frustrated!
But if we really act according to our feelings, so many people have died on the front lines, and if things are like this in the back, people will definitely die too. The problem is that there are no such rules or connections, which is really infuriating!
So Chen Xi held Fa Zheng down while sending Li You to the front line, because there are people in this world who can disregard the rules, and many people know when that person can disregard the rules. Over the decades, many people have come to regard this invincibility as a supplement to the rules, and this anthropomorphic being is Li You!
Li You is gone, so if you die, don't say things like you deserved it. It doesn't matter if you say you were wrongly killed or something. Li You went to kill people. Killing doesn't solve the real problem, but it can certainly intimidate people for a while. The aristocratic families of Jingchu who went to the Ganges are living too well now, to the point that they really need to be cut a few times. We must make these people understand what they absolutely cannot do.
Of course, Chen Xi was also aware that if Li You was released like this, many people would definitely die there, and some would definitely be unjustly killed by Li You's blade. But as the saying goes, things had come to this point, so there was no need to worry about whether there were any unjustly killed ghosts in their own temple. The priority was to suppress the situation first.
Of course, Chen Xi did release the news in order to make those people restrain themselves. However, there is a saying that good advice is hard to persuade a damned ghost, and the wisdom of aristocratic families is beyond doubt. Just consider their greed. Obviously, under the premise of being blinded by greed, nothing you say will work. Some will restrain themselves, while others will rush headlong into it.
The Central Asian aristocratic families, watching from the sidelines, saw these things very clearly, but none of them intervened. They wanted to see how things would unfold and how it would be handled, to see if they could afford it. If they could, they might as well give it a try when the Han and noble families fought their decisive battle later.
Well, at this stage, the Central Asian aristocratic families still have serious errors in their understanding of the decisive battle between the Han and the nobility. They generally believe that there are still about seven or eight years left, because Yuanfeng set the tone at twenty years. Therefore, these people subconsciously believe that Chen Xi will kill the Kushans in the seventeenth or eighteenth year of Yuanfeng.
Considering the strength of the Kushan Empire, which was wiped out in less than twenty years, Chen Xi was already considered a superman in the eyes of this group.
However, Chen Xi also had the idea of using this understanding to his advantage and exploit the information gap. It seems that Chen Xi has a high probability of winning so far.
After all, the major families have already found a lot of reasons for why it was the seventeenth or eighteenth year of Yuanfeng. For example, Chen Xi should have accumulated a complete set of weapons and equipment by then, and the young and strong of the Yuanfeng dynasty had reached their peak. The military strength of the Han army reached its first peak, and the gap in hard power with the Kushan Empire widened to the maximum.
In short, in the eyes of this group, the seventeenth and eighteenth years of Yuanfeng were the best time for Chen Xi to destroy Kushan. This would give them seven or eight years to prepare, and with such a long preparation period, they would need to consider many things.
For example, at that time, having stabilized Central Asia, they certainly wanted a share of the spoils. So, how to divide them became a crucial consideration. And now, what the Jingchu aristocratic family is doing is very instructive for these humanoid beings in Central Asia.
"What's your opinion on the matter in Jingchu?" Yang Zhong asked tentatively.
"There's nothing to see. If those people aren't greedy, there won't be any problems. Marquis Chen is a respectable man. He won't care if others take a few bites while he's eating meat. But if they're too greedy..." Chen Qun said calmly. He knew Chen Xi's personality very well. After all, if Chen Xi didn't have this kind of personality, Chen Qun would have been skinned alive by now. Putting aside everything else, just the things that happened back then would have been fatal.
"But what's the point of living if you're not greedy?" Yang Zhong sighed. If you're not a usurper and don't leave a mark on history, what's the point of living? For people like them, life is not just about living, but also about being recorded in history. A true man should live a life of luxury, but die a life of luxury. It's that simple. So how could they not be greedy?
“Li Wenru has already made it clear that he is going to the Ganges. Yang Gong, think about it. How many of the top strategists under the Prince of Jin’s command, who are used to manage the internal affairs, have gathered in the Ganges now?” Chen Qun asked very seriously.
Lu Su, Li You, Zhong Yao, Xu Shu, and Dong Zhao are all among the most outstanding sages of their time. Even the weaker ones are considered exceptional individuals. Lu Su, Li You, and Zhong Yao have even demonstrated the ability to independently operate an organization with a scale of millions. What are they planning to do?
Clearly, Chen Xi had prepared for the worst: if things got out of control, he would have Li You start the killings, and then have Lu Su and Zhong Yao take over and implement military-style management. These three individuals were, in a sense, seasoned by history and were among the most elite.
"Sigh." Yang Zhong sighed. He knew all this, but he still said the same thing: even if things were like this, even if a knife was already at his throat, some families still had to do what they were supposed to do. After all, the line was drawn with blood; otherwise, what would it be called a red line or a death line!
"In short, I don't think it matters who I tell this to. As for the aristocratic families of Jingchu, there really isn't a good solution. Now it's up to Li Wenru to do what he does when he gets to the Ganges. Of course, everyone has their own guesses." Chen Qun said with a hint of regret. Some things are like this: everyone knows what they're doing, and even knows the outcome, but they still say they're gambling. Gambling on what? Their lives!
Conversely, if these centuries-old families are risking their lives, do you really think you can persuade them with a few words of persuasion? What a joke! People have probably thought things through before doing this. What's the point of you trying to persuade them now? Just give up. This is why, although Chen Qun knew roughly what the Jingchu families wanted to do, he was too lazy to investigate further.
It's pointless. Just watch. They're prepared to risk their lives to prove their point. Whether you stop them or not, it seems a bit wrong. So it's better for everyone to just stand by and watch.
"We have a similar attitude here. What do you think Chen Hou is thinking?" Yang Zhong asked tentatively. After all, Chen Qun was appointed by Chen Xi as a central bureaucrat. Although he was only a Shangshu Lang, which is a Langguan, he was directly responsible to the current Shangshu Ling, Zhuge Liang. He was a low-ranking official with real power in the central government.
To be fair, Chen Qun is indeed capable, has actually worked in Chang'an and achieved some success, plus he has a deep background. Otherwise, if he were to be parachuted in like this, this Minister would have to fight with the deputies of the various Nine Ministers to prove himself first.
Because of this arrangement, none of the major clans thought that Chen Ji's downfall was related to Chen Xi. They generally felt that Chen Xi was indeed a respectable person. Moreover, some of the more thoughtful individuals, considering Chen Xi's statement at the Grand Court Assembly about going to Jizhou to verify the troop deployment of the five northern states, as well as the upcoming western tour, vaguely guessed that Chen Qun might be stationed in Chang'an for a short period of time, acting as prime minister in some of the duties.
Considering how Chen Qun had sent Chen Xi away back then, the fact that Chen Xi is now willing to make arrangements for him is truly enviable. Of course, after the envy, they also gained a deeper understanding of Chen Xi's moral character—for example, they could try betting heavily next, because what might have been fatal might not have resulted in death for Chen Hou.
Yang Zhong was one of those with a long-term vision who vaguely deduced that Chen Qun would likely be stationed in Chang'an alongside Zhuge Liang in the coming years.
After all, without Lu Su and with Chen Xi gone, handling these tasks would be a burden that Zhuge Liang alone could not bear. Even though Zhuge Liang was already so strong that Yang Zhong was somewhat afraid of him, compared to Chen Xi's completely inhuman performance, Yang Zhong felt that it would be difficult for Zhuge Liang to take over Chen Xi's work.
In this situation, even if multiple Chen Qun members were to assist in handling the work left behind by Chen Xi, it might not be enough to keep up. However, the special thing about Chen Qun is that they can be used as scapegoats.
Of course, if Chen Qun does a good job, it will be a valuable experience. And no matter what, even if he is dragged into taking the blame, it will be more beneficial than harmful. So we can only envy that the damned Chen family always manages to produce monsters!
Colluding with the enemy is a death sentence, but what if there's a tacit understanding, and both sides can guess each other's moves and cooperate? This can be examined in the context of reality.
(End of this chapter)