Wei Ni

Compared to the gloomy atmosphere in Youzhou, the early winter month of October in Luoyang, the capital, was still sunny and warm, and even the gentry and commoners walking in the streets and alleys had smiles on their faces.

The annual grain and fodder storage in various prefectures and counties of Wei has largely concluded.

Although it was not a bumper year, it was enough to cover the salaries of the court officials and the provisions for the troops, so that people did not have to worry about increasing taxes or imposing additional labor.

General Xiahou Hui, who had been keeping a close eye on the plan, finally breathed a sigh of relief.

He certainly didn't want his first year in power to be marked by drought, floods, and poor harvests, leading to famine and fueling rumors that he was "unworthy of his position."

Therefore, in order to ease his tense mood of the past month, he gladly accepted Chen Tai's invitation to a banquet and went to Chen's thatched cottage outside the city with his subordinate Wu Gai in a small entourage.

Chen Tai, who had been observing mourning for more than a month, had just been appointed as a guerrilla general by the imperial court.

This banquet is to invite some relatives and friends to gather together and to express our gratitude for the visits they made during our previous period of mourning.

The number of people is not large.

Perhaps considering Xiahou Hui's sensitive status and the fact that his every word and action would be magnified and interpreted by others, he had his friend Wu Gai deliver the invitation and guest list to Xiahou Hui only after others had replied and attended the banquet.

This made Xiahou Hui realize that Zhong Yu and Sima Shi were also among those invited, but Sima Shi declined, citing his busy official duties.

In response, Wu Gai added, "Before the late emperor issued his edict condemning extravagance, Sima Ziyuan was on friendly terms with us and we often held banquets and parties together, so he was also among those invited by Xuanbo."

He was worried that Xiahou Hui might misunderstand.

Recently, in the Imperial Academy and among the common people in the capital, there have been circulating He Zeng's memorial concerning the rectification of local officials and Xiahou Xuan's three suggestions on current affairs.

No one knows who made these statements so widely known.

But Wu Gai, a second-generation scion who had spent his life in the capital, had his own way of discerning things: he didn't need to care who started the incident or what the process was like; what mattered was who would benefit from it.

In particular, Xiahou Hui had previously benefited greatly from his casual conversations with Jia Chong, so he took the opportunity to talk and consult with many of the Grand General's subordinates.

Wu Gai, of course, did not escape either.

Although Wu Gai was also from Qiao and Pei, his family had held a high rank of two thousand shi (a unit of grain measure) in the previous dynasty. He was the kind of official who had little ambition for advancement and preferred to pursue integrity and reputation. Therefore, when Xiahou Hui questioned him, his answer was a general statement about winning people over with virtue, without addressing any specific issues.

It is truly a shame that the elders of his county have praised him as having the talent of a "king's advisor".

It also carries a sense of detachment, a willingness to fulfill one's duties as an assistant but not to become a vassal or crony.

Xiahou Hui was neither surprised nor resentful of this behavior, and simply categorized him as one of the same people as Chief Clerk Sun Li and Gentleman of the Palace Wang Ji.

Everyone has their own aspirations; we should seek common ground while reserving differences.

He was just a general, not the emperor. Not all court officials were willing to be trusted confidants like Ding Mi, Fu Gu, and Jia Chong.

However, Wu Gai, who was highly recommended by Chen Tai and whom Xiahou Hui had shown great kindness and trust to, always felt that his actions were somewhat unethical. Torn by inner conflict and sensitivity, he also paid close attention to seemingly trivial matters.

"Yuanxia may not know, but when I was still a Gentleman Attendant at the Palace Gate in my early years, I met Sima Ziyuan at a banquet held at Brother Xuanbo's thatched cottage. At that time, He You, Huan Jia, and others were also there."

Xiahou Hui's reply at that time reassured Wu Gai.

After all, He You, as Xiahou Xuan's brother-in-law, could remain uninvolved and ignore the power struggle between Cao Shuang and Xiahou Hui. What was there for him to be uneasy about, since he was content to be a subject of Wei?

Chen Family Thatched Cottage is not far away.

When they arrived and were welcomed by their host Chen Tai, Fu Gu, Xun Yi, and Xiahou He were already present, but Zhong Yu, who was of most concern to Xiahou Hui, had not yet arrived.

He must have been delayed by other people offering their congratulations.

Xiahou Hui glanced at the sky in front of the hall and made this conjecture in his mind.

Well, Zhong Yu has already been appointed as the Prefect of Wei Commandery and will take up his post the following year. The officials in the court originally intended to appoint Wang Su, who was older and also a descendant of one of the Three Dukes, but Wang Su insisted on declining the position to avoid suspicion of relying on his son-in-law to take the post.

Because Wei Commandery was the former capital of the Wei dynasty where ancestral temples were allowed to be built, and it replaced Qiao Commandery as the place where the dynasty rose to power, the governor of Wei Commandery, like the governor of Nanyang in the previous dynasty, had the political significance of being a "reserve candidate for the Three Dukes".

This is the fundamental reason why Xiahou Hui was so resentful of the fact that the Nine-Rank System determined rank based on family background.

These meritorious officials who helped establish the Wei dynasty already had the advantage of priority promotion and placement in positions of real power after entering officialdom. If they were to be given preferential treatment before even entering officialdom, would there be any place for poor and humble people to stand in the court in the future?

When the imperial court is filled with scions of powerful families, what voice will the Wei emperor have left? The imperial family members and descendants of the meritorious officials from Qiao and Pei, who depend on the imperial power, will probably be gradually stripped of their power and reduced to mere figureheads.

When He Zeng's past memorials and Xiahou Xuan's political opinions were making headlines in the capital, his brothers Xiahou Heng and Xiahou He, as well as his maternal brother Ding Mi, all advised him to first take a steady approach to eliminate the threat of Cao Shuang's power struggle, and not to rush into reforming the court's talent selection system because of his opinions, thereby provoking the sensitive nerves of the scholar-official families. This is how he retorted.

He is not unaware of priorities.

However, once the opportunity is missed, some things may become impossible to achieve again.

So he came to the banquet today with another layer of expectation.

Among the scholars of Yingchuan in the Wei state today, Zhong, Xun, and Chen are the leaders. He has already gained the support of Xun Yi and Chen Tai. If he can gain Zhong Yu's goodwill and understanding of his governing philosophy, he will have enough supporters in the court and among the younger generation, which will open up the way for the implementation of many policies.

Of course, Zhong Yu wasn't so easily persuaded.

After all, with his father's merits, as long as the country still belonged to the Wei dynasty, the Zhong family could guarantee generations of official rank without having to take sides in any power struggles; and he himself had no desire to wield power over the court, so why risk his life?
Well, I'll give it a try anyway.

If it succeeds, I'll be happy; if it doesn't, I won't be bothered. I'll just consider it as a nodding acquaintance.

Young Zhong Yuzhi was accompanied by two other people.

One was still a young boy, and the other was not long past the age of twenty.

After exchanging pleasantries with everyone, Xiahou Hui learned that the older man was his nephew Xun Xu, Xun Gongzeng, and the younger man was his younger brother Zhong Hui, Zhong Shiji.

They were all prominent figures among the younger generation in the capital and Luoyang.

For example, Xun Xu was Xun Shuang's great-grandson, and was a generation younger than Xun Yi in his family. Because he was orphaned at a young age, he was raised in the household of Zhong Yao, who praised him, saying, "This child is worthy of being his great-grandfather." Now he is a court official.

As for Zhong Hui, he became famous throughout the capital.

He was praised as an "extraordinary person" by Jiang Ji when he was only five years old. Tsk tsk.

Of course, Zhong Hui also deserves this praise.

Whether in Xiahou Hui's buried memories or in his brother Zhong Yu's impressions.

Because of the significant age difference between the two, Zhong Hui treated his younger brother Zhong Yu with the same fatherly attitude, and was not lacking in discipline. However, he gradually became more lenient and allowed Zhong Hui to do as he pleased. Since Zhong Hui was precocious and had mastered the works of various schools of thought at a young age, and also possessed eloquence and an independent personality, Zhong Yu often found it difficult to be the elder brother, so he simply stopped interfering.

For example, the reason he arrived at the banquet a little late today was because of Zhong Hui.

Originally, he only planned to bring his nephew Xun Xu, who had already taken up an official post, to the banquet.

This reasoning is quite simple: Chen Tai would certainly not allow his uncle Xun Yi to be absent from his banquet, and Xun Yi and Xun Xu are still within the five degrees of kinship; moreover, Zhong Hui rarely accompanied him when he attended banquets in the past.

Unexpectedly, after learning that General Xiahou Hui had also been invited, Zhong Hui took the initiative to request to go along.

Zhong Yu was not about to agree to this so easily.
Not to mention the current strange situation in the court, the conflict between the Grand General and the General of Chariots and Cavalry, and Zhong Yu's reluctance to attend the banquet if it weren't for the difficulty in refusing Chen Tai's invitation; just considering his younger brother's troublesome nature, what if he wins Xiahou Hui's favor on the spot, and under the encouragement of Xun Yi and Chen Tai, directly accepts the request to become an official in the Grand General's office?
Then we won't let others think the Zhong family has already placed their bets.
However, he was eventually persuaded by Zhong Hui.

“My brother is about to take up his post in Hebei. According to the old practice of the court granting favors to the sons of meritorious officials, I will also be appointed as an official. I may not have the chance to see the General today, but I will surely see him in the future. Why should I avoid him? Moreover, I can swear to my brother that I am going there only to see the General’s demeanor and satisfy my curiosity. I will not be talkative or show off and make things difficult for my brother.”

Zhong Hui said this, which made Zhong Yu stop insisting.

After all, he was going to bring his nephew along, so he couldn't very well ignore his younger brother's solemn promise, could he?
In fact, Zhong Hui did keep his promise.

After greeting everyone and taking his seat, he remained seated quietly, never taking the initiative to speak or debate with others. Occasionally, when Chen Tai, the host, asked him a few questions so that he wouldn't feel neglected, he would simply answer politely without extending the topic or mentioning his own arguments or opinions.

Even when faced with General Xiahou Hui's polite praise, "Shi Ji's name is known to everyone in the capital. Today I have met him, and he is indeed extraordinary. He is the most outstanding young talent in our Wei dynasty," he only humbly thanked him and remained unpredictable.

But Zhong Yu still regretted bringing him along.

Even Xiahou Hui himself, who came to the banquet with a sense of resistance, had a very good impression of him.

For example, Xiahou Hui sat in the second seat, and his clothes were neither new nor old, even more shabby than those of Xun Yi and Fu Gu; in addition, when speaking, he listened patiently to everyone, and when his opinions were refuted, he humbly accepted them, and so on.

He was neither arrogant, conceited, extravagant, impatient, nor haughty, and he was tolerant of others. In short, he was completely different from the "reckless and impulsive man of the court" that the officials and common people spoke of.

No wonder Chen Xuanbo and Xun Jingqian had become friendly with him early on and even hosted a banquet for him to get to know him.

So when he went north to take up his post, would his younger brother, who was still young and just starting his official career, be won over and subdued by the general?
Zhong Yu was very worried about this. (End of Chapter)