flstandardbreds Chapter 164 Zhou Xun questions Sun Luban, but is instead outmaneuvered by Sun Luban.
Chapter 164 Zhou Xun questions Sun Luban, but is instead outmaneuvered by Sun Luban.
Zhou Xun left the kitchen and went to the woodshed in the backyard. He pulled Sun Luban into the room and closed the door. He then looked around through the crack in the door to make sure no one was nearby before turning to stare into Sun Luban's eyes and questioning, "Da Hu, tell me honestly, did you do what you did to Mother and General Guan?"
Sun Luban's apprehension instantly turned into astonishment, and he asked in surprise, "How did you know?"
Zhou Xun said with a gloomy face, "General Guan is a man of great righteousness and would never do something like forcibly taking a woman from the people. My mother would never take the initiative either... There must be someone who brought them together. Looking at the entire Jianye City, I can't think of anyone else but you and me."
Zhou Xun really knew his wife well; as the saying goes, no one knows a wife better than her husband.
Sun Luban knew her husband well. Seeing him staring at her intently, she knew that this matter would not be resolved peacefully without an explanation. So she could only rub her clothes and pitifully whine.
“Husband, I had no choice. Lü Meng withdrew his troops without informing us, and his withdrawal threw the entire Jiangdong region into chaos. All sorts of monsters and demons knew that if Lü Meng withdrew, the Wei army would march south, and they all engaged in burning, killing, and looting, hoping to make a fortune. You can imagine the level of chaos, right?”
"At that time, you took all the private soldiers of our manor to fight against Guan Xing, so the manor was completely undefended. What could we do to stop the bandits and brigands? Rely on Second Uncle? Can we trust him?"
"Besides, there's Wei army behind the bandits. You wouldn't want my mother and me to fall into Wei army's hands, would you? In that situation, what else could I do but go into the city and seek refuge with Uncle Guan?"
Zhou Xun accepted her explanation and cursed through gritted teeth, "Lu Meng, you bastard, I shouldn't have believed you."
After finishing his tirade, he continued with an unfriendly expression, "I have no objection to you siding with General Guan, but you don't have to marry your mother off to him. What were you thinking? How am I supposed to explain this to Father after I die? Where will you put the face of the Zhou family?"
Upon hearing this, Sun Luban objected, looked up at Zhou Xun directly, and said righteously, "Is face more important or the future of the family? You only think about the face of the Zhou family, have you thought about the future of the family? Am I doing this for myself? I am doing it for the Zhou family and for you."
Zhou Xun was stunned by the question, and the momentum he had managed to muster quickly dissipated, but he still forced himself to ask again, "What do you mean?"
Sun Luban, not one to back down, said, "What do you mean? Although our Zhou family of Lujiang cannot compare with top aristocratic families such as the Yuan family of Runan and the Yang family of Hongnong, we are still a prestigious family that has produced three dukes."
"My great-grandfather Zhou Rong served as Minister of the Imperial Secretariat during the reigns of Emperor Zhang and Emperor He. My great-grandfather Zhou Jing first served as Minister of Works and then as Grand Commandant. After his death, he was posthumously enfeoffed as Marquis of Anyang. My grandfather Zhou Yi served as Magistrate of Luoyang. My great-grandfather Zhou Zhong served as Grand Commandant and concurrently as Minister of the Imperial Secretariat. Not to mention my father Zhou Yu, if he had not died young, he would have been the Han Xin of Jiangdong. But what about you?"
“You’re almost thirty and you’re still just a lowly cavalry captain. Not only is your rank low and your position is insignificant, but you’re also constantly suppressed by my father. You have no future in Jiangdong. In fact, my father would love for you to die.”
"Now that Lü Meng has withdrawn his troops, my father has been forced to Jingzhou and is surrounded on three sides by Liu Bei, Cao Cao, and Guan Yu. It is clear that he has no chance of getting ahead. If you continue to follow him, what can you gain besides a worthless reputation for loyalty? If the Zhou family wants to regain its glory, the only way is to join forces with the King of Hanzhong."
“But our family has such a deep grudge against the King of Hanzhong. Would they really use you if we just sought refuge with them? You were captured twice by Guan Xing in Wushang. When Guan Xing first arrived in Wushang, he was short of manpower and food, but he would rather imprison you than give you an important position. Why? Because they don’t trust you.”
“You know how deep the entanglements between our Zhou family and my father and Liu Bei are. If it were just a normal surrender, even if the Guan family father and son accepted you, they would be wary of you and would not give you any chance to rise. If this continues for a generation or two, our Zhou family will become a poor family. How can you face the ancestors of the Zhou family in that case?”
"Given this, to gain the trust of the Guan family father and son, we must find another way, and we must do it quickly. The Guan family father and son have just arrived in Jiangdong and their foothold is not yet stable. Joining them now would be like sending charcoal in snowy weather. In the future, if the King of Hanzhong succeeds in his northern expedition and seizes the world, you will at least be a marquis."
"If you wait for Guan Yu to transfer officials from Bashu to fill the gap in Jiangdong, then your joining him will be like adding icing on the cake, but it will be dispensable. Don't forget that Deng Zhi has already arrived in Jianye and been appointed by Guan Yu as the governor of Wu Commandery. If a few more Deng Zhis come, what will be left for you, Zhou Xun?"
"My husband, the Zhou family has reached its end. Its honor and disgrace depend on you alone. Are you willing to watch the Zhou family fade into obscurity?"
"As for a mother remarrying, isn't that a normal thing? Emperor Wu's mother remarried, and no one said anything. He Jin's daughter-in-law was taken by Cao Cao, but we didn't see He Jin's grandson He Yan trying to kill himself."
"Besides, your mother is only in her early forties and has been a widow for over ten years. Can you bear to see her remain a widow for the rest of her life?"
Zhou Xun was persuaded. He thought of the past glory of the Zhou family of Lujiang, and then of Sun Quan's wariness of him after his father's death. Finally, he thought of the future of the Zhou family. The Zhou family was already at its end of the road. If they did not find a way, they would really be reduced to a poor family.
It's easy to fall into poverty, but it's much harder to rise back into the aristocratic class. Some even lose their status as poor and are demoted to commoners, making them true sinners against their families.
The thought of the consequences sent a chill down Zhou Xun's spine.
Compared to the decline of the family, the mother's remarriage was indeed not a big deal. After all, the customs of the Han Dynasty were what they were, and no one could say anything about it.
Zhou Xun's complexion improved considerably, and he said leisurely, "Da Hu, you're right. Joining the Guan family now is like sending charcoal in snowy weather; joining any later would be like adding icing on the cake."
"Moreover, I learned on the way back to Jianye that Guan Xing, that bastard, had actually come up with a new method of enlightenment and passed it on to all the soldiers. In less than a month, those ordinary soldiers who originally couldn't read a single character were able to write more than a dozen characters from memory. Some of the smart ones could even easily write a song on the ground. Just imagine how long it would take for them to persist for two or three years."
While in Wushang, Zhou Xun was unaware that the howling outside the city was the soldiers singing. However, he found out on the way back to Jianye because the soldiers were practicing calligraphy on the ground during their rest, and doing so openly. Guan Xing had no intention of hiding it from them.
When he, Zhang Cheng, Zhuge Ke, and others first learned of this, they were almost scared to death. Guan Xing was uprooting the aristocratic families.
Sun Luban's mind conjured up the image of tens of thousands of soldiers squatting on the ground practicing calligraphy. He exclaimed in shock, "You mean Guan Xing plans to train all his soldiers and then send them into the officialdom to replace the officials of Jiangdong?"
Zhou Xun said bitterly, "That's right, and we don't need many. Tens of thousands of soldiers only need to train two or three thousand people to completely replace the lower-level officials in Jiangdong and kick out all those low-level officials from aristocratic families."
Prime ministers must rise from the ranks of local officials, and valiant generals must emerge from the ranks of soldiers. The strength of a nation does not depend on the excellence of its emperor and court officials, but on the adequacy of its clerks, officials, and county and township officials. They are the cornerstone of the nation, the ones who truly interact with the people and carry out the government's decrees.
Cao Cao was strong because he had enough grassroots officials. Even now, with Cao Cao dead and Cao Pi in power, he could still rely on these grassroots officials to implement the imperial decrees and put fatal pressure on Liu Bei and Sun Quan.
The reason Liu Bei was weak was that he lacked enough local officials; even if he conquered new territories, there was no one to help him govern them.
This phenomenon is particularly evident in the case of Guan Yu and his son, otherwise Guan Xing wouldn't have had to do the arduous task of teaching soldiers to read.
Guan Xing was forced to teach soldiers to read, which shows how big the talent gap was for him and his son.
However, if Guan Xing were to successfully teach them, he wouldn't even need to teach many; just one or two thousand people would be enough to completely sweep the Jiangdong gentry into the dustbin of history.
Education is both a process of nurturing and a process of selection. It should not be difficult to select a thousand or so outstanding individuals from tens of thousands of students.
It should be noted that the proportion of civil servants in the Han Dynasty was far less alarming than in later periods; a thousand low-level clerks were enough to cover the entire six counties of Jiangdong.
Thinking of the scene of the clerks from aristocratic families being collectively dismissed, Sun Luban couldn't help but shudder and said in shock, "Guan Anguo actually dared to do this. It seems that his ambition is not just to consolidate his power in Jiangdong."
Zhou Xun took Sun Luban's hand, looked into her eyes tenderly, and sighed, "Yes, it's fortunate that we have you. Otherwise, if Guan Xing had succeeded in his teaching, our Zhou family would have really declined completely. A virtuous wife brings prosperity to three generations. I, Zhou Xun, have been able to marry such a virtuous wife in this life. What more could I ask for?"
Sun Luban raised his eyebrows arrogantly and said, "Good to know. Come over here and give me a shoulder massage."
After saying that, she sat on the pile of firewood and waited for Zhou Xun to serve her. Zhou Xun took the opportunity to stand behind her and massage her. As he massaged her, his hands started to get restless.