flstandardbreds Chapter 156 Guan Xing: I've succeeded, Daoist Master!
Chapter 156 Guan Xing: I've succeeded, Daoist Master!
On the day Lü Meng died, Liu Bei's envoy Fei Yi arrived.
Fei Yi, carrying Liu Bei's edict bestowing honors upon Lü Meng, arrived in Jiangling with the intention of watching a spectacle unfold. However, upon entering the city, he was overjoyed to hear the news of Lü Meng's death, and he was so excited that he almost burst out laughing.
After the initial excitement subsided, he wisely hid Liu Bei's edict and burned it in a secluded spot for Lü Meng.
With Lü Meng dead, the entire Eastern Wu was immersed in grief over the passing of the Grand Commander. Under such circumstances, let alone producing an imperial edict, even if it were accidentally discovered, their lives would be in danger.
If the enraged Wu army knew they were carrying such an imperial edict, wouldn't they all rush up and beat them to death?
So for the sake of your life, it's better to burn it.
But after burning the edict, Fei Yi didn't know what to do. He came to watch the joke, but now that the joke was over, what was there for him to watch?
Turning around and leaving is not appropriate. If you just arrived and then leave, what were you doing here? What will the people of Eastern Wu think?
Fei Yi was somewhat at a loss, but fortunately, everyone in Eastern Wu was busy dealing with Lü Meng's funeral and had no time to care about him, so he settled down at the post station.
On the Eastern Wu side, Sun Quan personally oversaw Lü Meng's funeral arrangements, spending seven or eight days preparing before finally burying him, and then summoned his generals for a meeting.
The main hall of the General's Mansion.
Sun Quan walked out of the inner hall and found that everyone had arrived. He sat in the head seat and got straight to the point: "Before his death, the Grand Commander left a will, suggesting that we send troops to attack Guan Xing, recover the Jinqu Basin, and then march north to deal with Guan Yu. What do you all think?"
After a long silence and a few glances, Gu Yong stepped forward and bowed, saying, "I agree with the Grand Commander's opinion; Guan Xing must be dealt with."
He had a blood feud with Guan Xing for killing his son, and he dreamed of killing Guan Xing to avenge his son. How could he possibly oppose sending troops?
Sun Quan asked Zhang Zhao, "What does the strategist think?"
He was somewhat dissatisfied with Zhang Zhao. At a time like this, you don't offer any suggestions or advice, and I have to ask you. Isn't that a bit too inattentive?
Zhang Zhao stepped forward and said, "I agree with the Grand Commander's opinion, but we cannot attack now; we must wait for the right opportunity."
"Now that the Wei army is marching south and Guan Yu is launching a northern expedition, although Cao Cao and Liu Bei are on the verge of a major war, they have not yet fully engaged in combat. If we rashly send troops, it may affect their war. Moreover, we have experienced too much recently and urgently need to rest and reorganize our internal affairs. We should at least give our soldiers some time to accept reality."
"Furthermore, Guan Yu's troops are few and not elite. If they were to fight the Wei army, they would definitely send Guan Xing north to assist them. After Guan Xing leaves, we can then lead our troops to Damo to recapture Jinqu, thereby reducing the living space of Guan Yu and his son. Wouldn't that be better?"
Lu Xun said, "The strategist is right, I agree."
Sun Quan did indeed need some time to sort out the internal relationships. Upon hearing this, he nodded and said, "Then let's follow the strategist's advice and wait for Guan Xing to go north before attacking. Let's disperse."
After saying this, he got up to leave, but Lü Meng's son, Lü Ba, couldn't wait to step forward and kneel down, crying out in a loud voice, "My lord, my father died unjustly. Please punish Yu Fan severely and do justice for my father."
Everyone in the hall, including Sun Quan, changed their expressions. Yu Fan, feeling as if his tail had been stepped on, roared angrily, "You're talking nonsense! What does the death of the Grand Commander have to do with me?"
Lu Ba roared, "How can it not be your business? If you hadn't provoked my father with your words, would he have vomited blood, collapsed, and fallen ill? Shouldn't you be responsible for my father's death?"
Yu Fan was speechless. Although he was dissatisfied, he didn't know how to defend himself. He really couldn't clear his name even if he jumped into the Yangtze River.
Seeing this, Xu Xiang, Hu Zong and other generals bowed and said, "We beg our lord to severely punish Yu Fan and do justice for the Grand Commander."
After speaking, they all looked at Lu Xun. At present, all the Wu generals were stationed outside, and Lu Xun was the only general in the hall who could speak. He was bound to express his opinion.
Lu Xun didn't really want to get involved, but he knew that as a general, it would be unreasonable not to speak up for the Grand Commander at this time. So he had no choice but to bite the bullet and kneel down, saying, "Please, my lord, do justice for the Grand Commander."
The military launched a siege against Yu Fan, but the civil officials remained silent and no one spoke up for him. Firstly, he had offended too many people because of his foul mouth, and secondly, the death of the Grand Commander did indeed need an explanation. If Yu Fan didn't take the blame, who would?
Seeing this, Sun Quan rubbed his temples in exasperation. After thinking for a long time, he said, "Yu Fan spoke rudely, causing the Grand Commander to fall ill and never recover. His crime is grave. He is demoted to Prefect of Yuzhang, and Zhang Wen is demoted to Prefect of Lingling. You two will go to your posts together."
Although Yu Fan and Zhang Wen were frustrated, they knew this was the best solution. If they didn't avoid the limelight sooner or later, they would be killed by the soldiers. Therefore, they had no choice but to bow and say, "Yes..."
After the meeting ended, everyone returned to their posts and went about their business, but they tacitly left Liu Bei's envoy, Fei Yi, aside.
With Liu Bei and Cao Cao at war again, Liu Bei must need something from me. If I don't put on airs now, when will I?
Unfortunately, they misunderstood. Fei Yi had not come to seek peace at all, so he was not in a hurry. If you ignore me, then I'll just eat well, drink well, and stay in comfort.
After staying for a few days, Fei Yi was about to bid farewell to Sun Quan and return to Shu. However, just as he left the post station, he received news that Cao Cao's envoy had arrived.
Now that's great, I've got something to do.
Fei Yi turned around and went back to the inn to continue eating and drinking for free, while pondering how to engage in verbal sparring with the Cao Wei envoy.
……
Wu Shang.
With Zhang Cheng captured again, the fighting in the Jinqu Basin temporarily ended, and Guan Xing was finally able to free up his hands to do other things.
The first thing to do is papermaking, but they are currently facing a severe shortage of talent and cannot recruit any. What can they do? They can only train their own.
To cultivate talent, schools must be built; to build schools, paper must be made. If there is no paper, what will students use? Bamboo slips?
That cost is too high.
Moreover, in addition to educating students, papermaking also had a strategic purpose: to break the monopoly of the aristocratic class on education.
The most commonly used writing materials in the Han Dynasty were bamboo slips and silk, both of which were luxury items that ordinary people could not afford. Therefore, more than 70% of the scholars in the Han Dynasty came from the gentry class.
Scholars all came from aristocratic families, and wouldn't the aristocratic families form their own system, threatening the imperial power above and oppressing the common people below?
The court had to tolerate this, no matter how dissatisfied it was. What could it do if it couldn't tolerate it? It couldn't just kill all the gentry, could it? Who would do the work then?
The imperial court can eliminate the aristocratic families, but only if it finds a replacement.
Therefore, Guan Xing chose to make paper, intending to use paper to cultivate a large number of scholars to fill the void left by the gentry, so that the gentry would know that they were not irreplaceable, and perhaps then the gentry would restrain themselves.
It's okay if you don't want to stop it, just replace it.
With this in mind, Guan Xing returned to Wushang and set up a paper mill. After half a month of tinkering, he finally produced the first sheet of bamboo paper.
Bamboo paper, as the name suggests, is paper made from bamboo. Once it was made, it was delivered to the factory manager's office as soon as possible.
Guan Xing took the bamboo paper that was delivered, held it up to his face and examined it for a long time. Finally, he couldn't help but laugh wildly to the sky, "It's done! I've done it! I've finally done it! Hahahaha..."
Xie Chong, who came with him, was stunned by his hysterical laughter. After a moment, he took the bamboo paper from his hand, drew a circle on the paper with the ink he had prepared, and stared at the black circle for a long time before exclaiming in shock, "General, this paper does not absorb ink at all. The writing effect is far superior to Cai Hou's paper, and even better than bamboo slips. This is too incredible!"
Ink smearing refers to the phenomenon where ink spreads too much on paper, causing the writing to become blurred.
In fact, paper was invented a hundred years ago during the Han Dynasty, but the Cai Hou paper it produced was extremely prone to ink absorbing, and any drop of ink on it would instantly turn into a black blob, making it completely unsuitable for writing.
The bamboo paper in his hand did not absorb any ink, and could completely replace bamboo slips and silk as a new medium for writing. Xie Chong knew all too well what this meant.
Guan Xing bit his tongue to force himself to calm down and said, "Order the papermakers to continue to improve, strive to make the quality of bamboo paper better, increase efficiency, and reduce costs. Then order the army to assemble and prepare for a meeting."