Weird Three Kingdoms

Chapter 3614: Sudden rain sharpens the troops, long wind breaks the old border

As spring draws to a close, summer is quietly approaching.

Fei Qian was not sure whether it was as passionate as fire, but he knew that summer thunderstorms could come at any time.

There is no weather forecast these days.

Even the unreliable weather forecasts of later generations were like peeping into the secrets of heaven in the Han Dynasty.

The rain poured down in torrents, and the sky and the earth looked bleak.

Fei Qian was wearing a straw raincoat and standing on the high platform of the camp.

The wind and rain blew on his face, and the raindrops hit his face, causing a little pain.

The big river in the north, the mountains in the south, and the loess plateau in the east all became hazy in the wind and rain.

Fei Qian's expression was solemn and calm.

The raindrops hit the raincoat, playing white noise.

Since he went north to Bingzhou, opened up Beiqu, and recovered Pingyang, Fei Qian claimed that he had spent half his life in the military, and no one could deny this. Long-term military life caused Fei Qian to have some problems in many aspects of his body. For example, in this kind of weather, Fei Qian would feel some soreness in his shoulders, but Fei Qian's waist and back were still straight, and his momentum had never weakened by the pain of soreness.

The soldiers in the army wanted to see a commander with great momentum, and the non-commissioned officers in the military academy wanted to see a wise and intelligent general. Fei Qian naturally had to make such an attitude.

Today, the military and political affairs of Guanzhong are in the hands of Fei Qian alone, but under the rolling wheels, there are still occasional small stones, jumping grasshoppers, and mantises trying to block the wheels.

Even though the world has become increasingly different from the Three Kingdoms that Fei Qian later knew, Fei Qian's determination to lead the Han Dynasty in a new direction has never weakened.

Even though some people could not understand it, and some people pretended to obey but secretly disobeyed it, Fei Qian still felt that this was an epoch-making event, and it might even affect the subsequent feudal dynasties and change the course of China.

Fei Qian personally feels that this change is beneficial to China.

Because since ancient times, starting from the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, China has been extroverted, pioneering and inclusive. Of course, in this process, the use of force is an inevitable necessary prerequisite, but judging from the results, this path is undoubtedly the most correct one.

If China had chosen the small peasant system and chosen to be self-contained from the beginning, there would have been no Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties. Instead, China would have been completely buried on a hill or at the bottom of a valley.

Human beings are a short-lived species and have various innate deficiencies.

In order to obtain the intelligence to be able to cooperate with each other, humans have undergone degeneration in organs, functions, muscles, bones, and many other aspects.

The iris of the eye has degenerated.

The cells responsible for night vision have degenerated.

The hard bones have degenerated, the digestive function has degenerated, the liver's detoxification ability has also degenerated, and as for the external fur, the physical strength to withstand harsh environments, etc., they have all degenerated.

In order to free up more points, they were put into intelligence, which laid the foundation for division of labor and cooperation and for the establishment of human society.

Just like the army in front of Fei Qian.

It would be unimaginable if Fei Qian were to do it all by himself.

But during these few days, Fei Qian issued instructions frequently without letting Fei Qian be busy with trivial matters, so that Fei Qian still had time to stand on the watchtower and watch the wind and rain. This is division of labor and cooperation.

After the previous drills at the Guanzhong Military Academy, the Han and Qiang people in the army are now obviously more harmonious.

Maybe it was just Fei Qian’s illusion, or maybe it was the reality at the moment.

But one thing is certain: China should try its best to expand outward rather than inward.

It's like you could get gold coins in the wild, so no matter whether it's the Han or Qiang people, they all focus on getting gold coins outside. Whoever gets more gold coins is more capable. But suddenly you find that all the gold coins in the wild have been exploded, and only the guy next to you has gold coins in his arms...

Involution is a catalyst that leads to the intensification of internal conflicts.

Therefore, if possible, we should try our best to guide China to go outward.

At least the world is big enough for China to travel for hundreds of years to explore...

However, he still needs to think carefully about what political system to use to go global.

……

……

The battle of Mengjin and Xiaopingjin went smoothly, but the battle of Heishi Pass was fierce.

Cao's army didn't have any decent warships, so they mostly stayed in the area along the Hanoi line to defend Mengjin and Xiaopingjin. But the situation of Heishiguan was different.

There is Heishi Mountain to the east of Luo River, so there is Heishi Pass.

To the east of Heishi Pass is Gong County, and further east of Gong County is Sishui Pass.

This is the first of the three lines of defense set up by Cao’s army.

The fighting at Black Stone Pass started near noon and has now lasted for three hours.

The sky had already darkened, but the burning flames seemed to be about to ignite the Black Stone Pass, reflecting the blood, making it look particularly red and resisting the arrival of darkness.

The blood line spread, and the water of the Luo River near Black Stone Pass was dyed red, reflecting the jumping flames.

Arrows, crossbow bolts, and stone bullets flew across the air from time to time.

There were living people, dead people, mutilated corpses, and blood and flesh flying everywhere on the ground.

There were wounded soldiers who stood up from the pool of blood, staggering, as if resisting the coming of death. Beside him, soldiers from both sides were fighting as hard as they could, but no one had the time to spare to look at the staggering wounded soldiers.

The military school officer standing at the front line commanding pointed at the injured soldier and shouted for someone to pull him down, but before the soldiers in the rear could get up, the injured soldier fell down again and never got up again.

Jiang Jiong's expression was as ugly as his name.

Zhu Ling also frowned and looked at the sky.

Dark clouds rolled in, making the sky darken even faster.

The torches trembled in the wind and the flags fluttered up and down.

"It's going to rain soon..."

The noisy sounds all around made Zhu Ling's voice sound more like he was talking to himself.

Jiang Jiong stared at the entire battlefield, occasionally issuing an order to send out reserve troops or make military adjustments to respond to changes on the battlefield.

Due to terrain restrictions, both sides deployed about two to three thousand troops on the front line.

There is not much significance in increasing the number of people.

The main problem is the difficulty of deployment.

It takes a certain amount of time to issue an order and receive and execute it. If it is slower here and slower there, whoever can make more detailed arrangements on the battlefield will be able to maximize the effectiveness of the soldiers' strength, rather than wasting their physical strength and endurance on meaningless things.

In this regard, both sides have done well.

The dual-core drive of Zhu Ling and Jiang Jiong is more efficient, while Cao's army mainly relies on the terrain advantage and convenience of proximity, which offsets part of the advantages of the Cavalry Army.

After three or four hours of fighting, the troops on both sides were exhausted.

Now Jiang Jiong and Zhu Ling are faced with a choice.

One is to withdraw the front-line troops to rest and allow follow-up troops to continue the attack.

The second option is to fill in the reserve forces and attack in a more compact and intensive manner, regardless of casualties.

Another option is to withdraw temporarily and treat today's attack as a tentative fire reconnaissance.

There are three options, each with its own pros and cons.

Just when Jiang Jiong and Zhu Ling were still considering and weighing the pros and cons, God helped them make the decision.

Raindrops as big as beans began to fall.

Zhu Ling sighed, stretched out his hand to catch a few drops of rain, "Let's go."

Jiang Jiong nodded, "Send the order, sound the gong!"

The soldiers of both sides gradually withdrew from the battle, and peace returned to the place, but everyone knew that when the next battle broke out, there would be more blood and death. …

……

Some things are often difficult to be perfect.

Xu County.

The third capital of the Han Dynasty.

In the hall, candlelight illuminated a huge map.

Liu Xie pulled at his collar, seeming to be feeling a little depressed and having difficulty breathing.

Xi Lu's expression on the side was also somewhat ugly.

"Your Majesty, the situation of the cavalry army is clear now. They are divided into four routes... The northern route passed through the desert from the northern region and swept through Youzhou. Now it is heading south to Jizhou... The southern route goes along the Yangtze River and advances along the way. Now it is fighting in Jiangling..." Xi Lu pointed at the map vaguely, "The central route is one main route and one auxiliary route. The main route goes through Heluo, and the auxiliary route goes through Wuguan... With the Prime Minister's current... ahem, with the Prime Minister's troops now, they will definitely not collapse at the first blow. I infer that the Prime Minister and his men will be able to hold on to Sishui. As long as Sishui is not lost, the land of Yanzhou and Yuzhou will be able to stand firm..."

Xi Lu felt somewhat embarrassed at this moment.

He "fleeed" to Shandong from Guanzhong.

The reason for fleeing to Shandong was simple. He felt that he was "oppressed" in Guanzhong, and Shandong was free, with fresh air and sweet water...

However, before Xi Lu could enjoy this sweet happiness for long, the cavalry troops from Guanzhong were about to arrive at the city.

Liu Xie looked at the map and was silent for a long time. Then he said in a gloomy voice: "The Prime Minister is a pillar of the Han Dynasty. He has led troops for decades and fought countless battles. Now... he will not let me down."

Now, Liu Xie was gradually able to understand some problems.

Shandong and the Central Plains were the Han model Liu Xie was more familiar with, and the Guanzhong model...

Liu Xie instinctively felt uncomfortable, so when he said that Cao Cao was a "loyal and capable person", it was more like an escape and retreat than an expression of confidence.

If he was in Shandong, Liu Xie could still do things according to his old cognition and old habits and be the emperor, but if he followed the new model in Guanzhong...

After a while, Liu Xie said again, "The Prime Minister is in charge of the front line... I also trust the Prime Minister, but... although the Prime Minister is the head of all officials, he still has to handle the war with full authority. I am afraid that it is still a bit unreasonable at the moment. I want to give him an imperial edict to let him have a legitimate reason to fight. What do you think?"

Xi Lu hurriedly said: "Your Majesty is wise!"

"I promote the Prime Minister to the rank of General and bestow upon him the Emperor's Sword..." Liu Xie said slowly, "If the Prime Minister wins... there will be additional promotions..."

Speaking of this, Liu Xie couldn't help but think of another "Sword of the Son of Heaven"...

Xi Lu quickly knelt down and bowed respectfully, "Your Majesty is wise! If the Prime Minister is so respected by the emperor, I will definitely fight bravely to repay the emperor's grace!"

The emperors of ancient feudal dynasties knew that some of their ministers were ambitious and that the bureaucracy was corrupt and the court was dark, but they did not have the courage to make changes and completely break with the old bureaucracy.

The same is true for Liu Xie.

Although Liu Xie was not very clear about the operating model of Guanzhong's political structure and what the biggest difference was between it and the Shandong Central Plains, when facing Cao Cao's political group and the Cao-Xiahou bureaucratic system, although he had many dissatisfactions in his heart and hatred for Cao Cao, there was one very interesting point, that is, there was actually a certain symbiosis of power structure between Liu Xie and Cao Cao, which were two sides of the same coin: imperial power and prime ministerial power.

The small peasant economy system is doomed to have no high value-added products, and it cannot support more bureaucratic systems, which means that in ancient feudal dynasties, such as the current governance structure of the Han Dynasty, there are obvious flaws. The administrative agencies at the county level are the county magistrate, assistant officials, and then some clerks, constables, and soldiers. Large counties can have 300 to 400 people, and small counties may only have dozens of people. In the state of war, they can recruit more local militias. It is already remarkable to expand to thousands of people.

With such a small number of officials, they often have to manage an area of ​​dozens or hundreds of miles and a population of tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands. Therefore, they are simply unable to handle it all. The vast majority of matters rely on the cooperation of local gentry or are outsourced to agents from the aristocratic families.

Liu Xie was dissatisfied with Cao Cao, but if he wanted to reform, improve, or just make changes, he would need manpower and money, and all his money could only come from local gentry, so in fact any "changes" of Liu Xie would be limited to a very small scope.

The most critical point is that the governance dilemma of the ancient feudal dynasties, including the so-called dilemma faced by Liu Xie, is essentially the political transparency ceiling of agricultural civilization. It seems that there is unlimited room for growth. More fields mean more income and more population. However, when the complexity of society exceeds the carrying capacity of the centralized system, the solidification of vested interest groups, the soaring governance costs and the lack of institutional innovation together constitute a limit that is difficult for emperors to break through.

Only by expanding handicrafts and developing commerce on the basis of agriculture, like Fei Qian, can this transparent ceiling be broken...

But Liu Xie felt fear and worry about this because he knew nothing about these things.

And now, Liu Xie has found a reason and excuse for this fear and worry.

Fei Qian did not obey his order!
Liu Xie felt some pain on his face.

……

……

The news that the front line had to suspend fighting due to heavy rain also reached Fei Qian.

He didn't push.

The rain has stopped in Feiqian, but the road is muddy and we have to wait until it dries before we can continue moving forward.

Marching and fighting require the cooperation of objective conditions, and the same is true for governing a country.

In other words, the frontline military school soldiers only need to fight, but Fei Qian has to consider...

cough cough.

What Fei Qian is considering now is the possible changes in the next class ideology.

In the current window period at the end of the Han Dynasty, is there any possibility of further progress?

Other people can do other things for him, but this one thing can only be done by Fei Qian alone!

Fei Qian is well aware that after the Han Dynasty "abolished all schools of thought and respected Confucianism alone", Dong Zhongshu constructed the theory of "correspondence between heaven and man", which sanctified the system of the Son of Heaven, combined the Yin-Yang and Five Elements theory with the patriarchal system, and formed a governance framework of "the Mandate of Heaven, virtuous governance, and ritual system". This theoretical system, due to its self-consistency, has become an ideological shackle that is difficult to break through.

The triangle is the most stable structure.

This also led to the fact that after the Han Dynasty, the ideology of the upper ruling class basically did not change much.

The triangular ideology of the upper ruling class, coupled with the trinity of "county bureaucrats, aristocratic families, and local gentry" at the middle and lower levels, change with each other and stabilize the lower political execution system of the triangle. Basically, it has reached the limit of the governance efficiency of agricultural civilization under the constraints of technical conditions.

The ability of this vested interest group to maintain the existing order far exceeds the motivation for reform. Therefore, it can be seen that after the Han Dynasty, the emperor model became a fixed standard and there have been no major changes.

Fei Qian was thinking.

The Han Dynasty's current situation is like the current war situation, with enemy troops blocking the way ahead, wind and rain in the sky, and mud underfoot.

If everything remains the same, just kill it and it's done, and then the dragon slayer will become the evil dragon, which is actually very easy.

But...

So, what is the point of time travel?
In fact, China has been developing its political system since the ancient tribes of Yan and Huang.

The Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties were a system. During the Zhou Dynasty, the feudal system was at the forefront of the world. The system of titles such as duke, marquis, earl, viscount and baron was an effective governance and feudal model that had been used for thousands of years.

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, it was proven that the feudal system was absolutely unsuitable for a vast territory like China. More than two hundred years of war made China realize that only great unification could bring a sense of security.

Thus, Qin Shi Huang was born.

Same track for both cars and same writing for both books!
This is the greatness of Qin Shihuang and also the greatness of China.

After all, in such a small area like Western Europe, there are so many languages ​​and scripts...

But after the Han Dynasty, there were no major changes to the "Son of Emperor" model.

The Emperor Mode was an innovation of the Han Dynasty, but...

Fei Qian sighed.

After the Three Kingdoms period, the periodic attacks from nomadic peoples actually intensified the demand for centralization.

After the Five Barbarians' Rebellion and the Mongol invasion, the rebuilt dynasty chose to continue strengthening the "Son of Heaven" model rather than reforming the traditional political class system.

It is not true to say that China has no trigger points for change.

Perhaps the Tian Khan of the Tang Dynasty was also an opportunity?
However, the Tang Dynasty's Tian Khan model was actually more like the Son of Heaven model with the Zhou Dynasty's feudal system attached.

Emperor Taizong of Tang accepted the title of "Heavenly Khan", which was indeed a creative combination of the "Son of Heaven" in the Central Plains and the "Eternal Heaven" in the grasslands. This dual legitimacy enabled him to rule the Central Plains through Confucian rituals and maintain the grassland tribes through oaths and divine judgments. However, the "Heavenly Khan" of the Tang Dynasty was more of a false name, and even a self-proclaimed title by the Tang Dynasty in the Huaxia region. Foreign envoys verbally claimed that whether there was a title of "Heavenly Khan" in foreign regions and whether they obeyed the orders of "Heavenly Khan" was questionable.

At the same time, the late Tang Dynasty relied too much on foreign soldiers and foreign generals. The Tang people were not used to govern the Hu land, which led to the disastrous consequences such as An Lushan. This strategy of "using foreigners to control foreigners" is obviously not a long-term solution. It may be effective when the central government is strong, but once the sovereignty of the Chinese central government weakens, it will become a hotbed of rebellion.

Moreover, in terms of the tribute system, the Tang Dynasty had long been in a state of "stupid people and rich people" in China. In order to maintain the tribute system, the Tang Dynasty implemented a policy of "giving more and taking less". In order to maintain face, it lost the substance.

Of course, Fei Qian felt that there might be some similar methods used by the Tang Dynasty noble families to the "pirates" along the coast of the Ming Dynasty. However, there was little corresponding content in the history books, which made it difficult for Fei Qian to come to a clear conclusion and he could only guess secretly.

At the same time, there is another more critical factor, which Fei Qian suddenly thought of while dealing with the dispute between the Han and Qiang peoples in Chang'an...