Johime Three Kingdoms

Chapter 299 Easy
"It's really easy for some people to be loyal ministers." Cao Cao said to Liu Bei while scalding the wine.

At this time, this pair of "face and heart" enemies were actually at the same wine table, and there were only two of them, Dian Wei and Xu Chu both guarded the entrance of the courtyard twenty paces away.

This was a wine party that Cao Cao had arranged for, but before coming, Liu Bei did not expect that he was the only "guest".

With the light snow falling in the middle of winter, there was warm wine in a bottle on the side, and the only appetizer on the plate were a few green plums.

Just like in the novel, green plum wine is not boiled green plum wine, but green plum wine is used with wine.

It's a pity that Bai Tu hasn't discovered the Golden State yet, otherwise he could at least give them some peanuts...

Discussing heroes while cooking wine with green plums - a classic scene in the novel, which also has its prototype in history, but the details are different.

However, unlike Romance and History, Liu Bei was not blindly humble. When facing Cao Cao, he also had a calm expression and his own arrogance!

At this time, although Liu Bei was in Xudu, he had soldiers and generals outside, and he also understood that even though Cao Cao was stronger than him at this time, he could not do anything to him. This was completely different from the situation in history when he was under the protection of others, and he was naturally weak. Straighter too.

"The prime minister also has an 'easy' opportunity to be a loyal minister." Liu Bei said, taking a pickled green plum in his mouth.

Liu Bei knew that Cao Cao was not talking about him now, but Hua Xin...or the white figure behind Hua Xin!

After Hua Xin had firmly established his "personality" by returning the seal against heaven, now he could just stand outside the palace as a punishment to make people criticize Liu Xie for treating Zhongliang poorly...

But no one took a closer look at what the loyal minister Hua and the loyal minister with white belt did before!
"Oh? I don't know, such a good thing happened before?" Cao Cao asked curiously.

Liu Bei smiled when he heard this, spit out the plum core, and then said calmly: "If Thief Dong had pulled out the Seven-Star Sword with his backhand and struck the Prime Minister with such a knife, then the Prime Minister would be a very loyal minister, and wouldn't it be easier than it is now?" ?”

When Cao Cao heard Liu Bei mention the "ridiculous things" he had done when he was young, he laughed and said, "Hahaha, I forgot about this!" As he spoke, memories and disdain flashed in his eyes.

When Dong Zhuo was in chaos, Cao Cao was only a Dianjun captain and one of the eight Xiyuan captains. At that time, Cao Cao was still a passionate young man, and he often participated in cocktail parties to verbally attack Dong Zhuo at first.

That is to say, after the liberation of the dynasty, he and his ministers "saved the country through beauty and art". They all cried and scolded the traitor Dong. One said that traitor Dong was disrespectful to His Majesty, and the other said that traitor Dong stayed in the harem last night and did not come out...

Later, Cao Cao felt that he couldn't play with these idiots at all, so he mocked them, saying, "The ministers of the dynasty will cry until dawn, and cry until dawn, hoping to cry Dong Zhuo to death." In the end, he was accused by his loyal ministers, "Your ancestors have eaten all the food." Lu Han Dynasty, why don't you think about serving the country now and why don't you cry?"

As a result, the ministers continued to use their skills to save the country. Cao Cao borrowed Wang Yun's seven-star sword and went to assassinate Dong Zhuo. Unfortunately... Dong Zhuo noticed him in the mirror through some strange combination of circumstances. Cao Cao escaped with the excuse of offering the sword. He fled Luoyang and embarked on the road to heroism.

If Cao Cao really failed to fool him and was stabbed to death by Dong Zhuo, or died together with Dong Zhuo, then the word "loyal minister" would definitely be printed on his tombstone, which would never be easy.

"The bravery of an ordinary man made Xuande laugh." Cao Cao shook his head.

"How can you laugh at your innocent heart?" Liu Bei asked with complicated eyes.

"Whether it's an innocent man or an ordinary man, there are not ten thousand but eight thousand in these cities... What the world lacks are heroes who can bring order to chaos, not some ordinary men who are driven by ambition or loyal ministers who are just trying to gain fame." Cao Cao said disdainfully. Know whether to "disdain" your past self or others.

But it was indeed at that time when he escaped from Luoyang, exhausted his horse, and fell down by the roadside, his eyes dull and his heart still pounding, that Cao Cao completed a transformation.

"Oh? The Prime Minister thinks, how many heroes are there in the world today?" Liu Bei asked with interest, as if he was curious about Cao Cao's evaluation.

"Not too many, not too many, just twos and threes." Cao Cao shook his head.

"The Prime Minister is one person, I wonder if I can be considered the second?" Liu Bei asked proactively with a smile on his lips, while not forgetting to pick up another green plum.

Cao Cao stared at him for a while and then said: "Not counting, the second one is my first brother... Dong Zhuo had just taken control of the government, and he left Luoyang and planned to raise an army to rebel against Dong. At that time, I was still thinking about it. A common man, do you think this kind of person is a hero?"

"Well, the four generations and three fathers of the Yuan family, and... Yuan Benchu ​​today is not all about family background and luck." Liu Bei nodded as he said.

"So he is ranked second. Brother Xuande, do you think I am fair?" Cao Cao looked into Liu Bei's eyes and asked.

"Based on this... I think the prime minister should be second." Liu Bei said after a moment of silence.

"Oh? If family background and luck can be considered a part of a hero, I can't really refute it..."

"No, the person I said ranked ahead of Brother Meng De is not Yuan Shao, but... the one from Yangzhou, a 'simple' loyal minister." Liu Bei said with a sigh.

When Cao Cao heard Liu Bei mentioning Bai Tu, complex expressions flashed in his eyes, but then he shook his head and said, "It's just a common man, the world is not so friendly, and you can get the favor of heaven with unrealistic ideals."

"But Mr. Bai doesn't have the family background of the Yuan family, and now he can still compete in the world." Liu Bei asked reluctantly.

"Why should Xuande ask knowingly?" Cao Cao curled his lips.

Seeing that Liu Bei was still looking at him, Cao Cao sighed: "Paper making, printing, white plow, bull nose ring, iron smelting, boiling salt, artificial colored glaze, keel waterwheel, overturning..."

Yes, although Cao Cao is not good at improving productivity, he does not understand the changes brought about by these!

He also attributed his previous "wrong judgment" about Bai Tu to a mistake of right and wrong - Cao Cao originally thought that Bai Tu's innocent thoughts would soon be taught by reality, but... who would have thought that he could use technology to continue... Life?

Cao Cao also actively wanted to equalize Bai Tu's advantage, but the effect was not very good.

After much calculation, the only useful one is the "Baigong Plow", which was directly announced by Bai Tu...

As for cow nose rings... cattle in the Central Plains are just as hardworking and docile without nose rings, and they are not much better with nose rings.

Papermaking, printing, elementary education... these must play their greatest role and benefit poor families, even ordinary well-off families. The difficulties that need to be overcome are not just technical aspects!
As for iron smelting, boiling salt, etc., Bai Tu had no intention of sharing. Although Cao Cao kept sending people to spy on them, most of them had no news. Obviously, they were not easy to spy on.

At the same time, although Cao Cao also established a department to develop ordnance, unfortunately, limited by his vision and strength, Cao Cao was unable to improve productivity in an all-round way like Bai Tu, let alone expand water conservancy construction - now he is doing everything for the decisive battle with Yuan Shao. The manpower of the Central Plains is already being overdrawn, so how can there be any spare time for other things?

This is also destined that Cao Cao's development will be very limited. After all... the technology tree cannot be selected just by relying on ordnance research!
For example, how much preparatory engineering and technology is needed for the hydraulic forging that is gradually developing in Yangzhou?

The gap will only grow wider...

It's just that in Cao Cao's heart, Bai Tu is still just a "common man", because Cao Cao feels that even with these things, they can't support Bai Tu's innocence. Now they just delay the outbreak of the conflict - I don't believe it... you can research more " Weird” stuff that continues to support your innocence?
Liu Bei did not comment on this, and did not continue to express his opinion on Cao Cao's ranking of him third...

But after Liu Bei left, Cao Cao sat by himself for a while, constantly thinking about Liu Bei's performance before.

When Xu Chu saw this, he couldn't help but asked naively: "My lord, Liu Bei really won't surrender to you... Oops!" Halfway through, Dian Wei slapped him on the back of the head.

"You idiot! What kind of brain do you have? You have some ideas... This is the job of the military advisors. Don't influence the lord with your words." Dian Wei said equally stupidly.

Xu Chu stared at the black boy for a while, but thinking about the result of the last date, he just muttered a few words, but did not continue.

Cao Cao said: "If he really wants to be a 'hero' like me, I won't worry...I will only worry if he wants to be a 'madman'!"

However, these words were obviously not really asking Xu Chu for advice, but just talking to himself, so there was no explanation.

If Liu Bei is like Cao Cao now, they are just princes who want to establish themselves as kings. Cao Cao can rest assured that he will be a hostage in Xudu, because... apart from Liu Bei's surname Liu, his relationship with Liu Xie is actually not that close. .

The virtue of a gentleman is to be killed after five generations - relatives separated by five generations are no longer considered "cousins". Even if they have the same surname, they are not considered cousins, only clan brothers. And Liu Bei, not to mention Liu Xie, even with the Later Han Dynasty Emperor Guangwu was separated by seven or eight generations.

For the imperial court and Liu Xie, although the Liu clan princes are different from other princes, they are also... a threat to Liu Xie!
Liu Xie was also an obstacle to their "helping the Han Dynasty".

On the contrary, if Liu Bei went crazy and really forced himself to be united with Liu Xie, Cao Cao would be worried that there would be a fire in his backyard.

It's just that because of the situation in Xuzhou, Cao Cao couldn't fall out with Liu Bei, so he continued drinking this time to test it out.

Looking back on Liu Bei's performance, there seems to be no problem?
and……

Even now, there are lunatics who still think about reviving the Han Dynasty, and it is the Han Dynasty of "other people's family"... there shouldn't be any, right? ——Cao Cao thought in his heart.

At this time, Liu Bei walked out of the Prime Minister's Mansion. After sitting in the carriage, his original calm and even slightly domineering expression changed. After opening the curtains and looking at the plaque of the Prime Minister's Mansion, he said to himself solemnly: "No. , I don’t care at all, whether it’s first or third... I’m different from you!”

　Dongdong: I finished the update before the end of the afternoon!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)