Super Cultivation System of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 514 Sinister Intentions
The atmosphere in the meeting room of the General's Mansion was extremely depressing. Liu He's face was extremely dark. Even Zhu Ye, who was usually fearless, did not dare to speak at this time.

"It's them, it must be them. Apart from them, no one else would do such a heinous thing!"

Liu He clenched his fists so tightly that his nails had dug into his palms without him realizing it. Cheng Liang, Zhu Ye and Ye Xiang had followed him for so many years, but they had never seen him so angry.

However, when thinking of the news just reported in the urgent report, who among the people present could suppress the anger in their hearts?
The content of the urgent report is very simple, just two points.

First, six days ago, 40,000 reinforcements from Jizhou arrived at Huguan. Under the scheme of Shi Tao and Meng Jian, Guan Yu claimed to be ill and hung up a banner to avoid fighting. Yan Liang sent people to insult him for two consecutive days, and then Zhang Liao went to fight, pretended to be defeated and fled back. Yan Liang fell into the trap and pursued him relentlessly. He was ambushed by Guan Yu himself, and Jizhou lost more than 4,000 soldiers. Yan Liang's right arm was cut by Guan Yu, and he fled back to Huguan after a fierce battle.

The second piece of news was what made Liu He and others extremely angry.

Just as Guan Yu was preparing to take advantage of the enemy's declining morale and capture Huguan in one fell swoop, an extremely serious event occurred - the Yellow River in Xihe County broke its dike!

A total of sixteen river sections were washed away by the flood. The water of the Yellow River, which gave birth to the Chinese nation, instantly turned into a deadly beast, roaring and sweeping towards all parts of Xihe County!

According to Shi Tao and Meng Jian's inspection of the breached embankment yesterday, they asserted that all sixteen of them were dug up by humans. Although this season is the rainiest time of the year, there have only been a few light rains in the past few days, which is not enough to cause such a disaster. In addition, the breached embankment clearly showed signs of human excavation.

"Damn it! The people of Bingzhou are so innocent, how could these bastards have the heart to do that to them!"

Zhang Yong, who is always known for his good temper, was also extremely angry at this time.

Xun Yu frowned, thought again and again, and said: "If we succeed in attacking Luoyang City, everything will be fine. Now that we have failed, they will use today's mourning to undermine the morale of our army and ruin our reputation. Of course, this is only secondary. The key is that in this way, the name of threatening the emperor, killing loyal ministers, and taking revenge for personal gain will be put on our lord. Then when Yuan Shao and others attack, they will have a legitimate reason to do so."

"As for digging up the Yellow River, it is even more obvious. They want to force our army to spend a lot of money, food and manpower to provide disaster relief to Xihe County and manage the Yellow River. Our army does not know how much money and food will be spent on this matter, and Xihe County has a lot of grain production. With such an increase and decrease, our army will inevitably be short of food and grass. How can we fight? Not to mention the possible shock to our army's morale and the people under our rule."

After listening to his analysis, everyone felt a chill running up from the soles of their feet.

"What a great way to use water as a weapon. They really can do it!"

Liu He grabbed the table in front of him, making it creak.

"Brother, we must not be lenient with these villains! Please give the order, I will personally lead the troops to raid all these hundreds of families and see how they can continue to do evil!"

Cheng Liang said this angrily, gritting his teeth.

Liu He almost agreed to his suggestion, but he did not completely lose his mind after all.

"You don't need to intervene in this matter. Pass the order and have Zhong Yao and Wang Chen join forces to strictly investigate and severely punish all the people and families involved in this incident. No leniency will be shown!"

"Here!"

Cui Jun took the order and called a messenger over to give him a few words, and then the messenger was about to leave.

And at this moment, Xun Yu suddenly stopped the messenger.

"Wait a minute!"

Liu He looked at him: "Wen Ruo, do you have anything else to say?"

Xun Yu turned to Liu He and said respectfully, "Have them issue a notice immediately to announce to the whole world the crimes of the Chen, Wang, Wei, Zheng and other families. Not a single one should be left out. In particular, they should emphasize that they dug up the Yellow River for their own selfish reasons."

His words made everyone a little confused.

Cui Jun said: "There is no evidence that the Yellow River was dug up. If we make it public, will they take the opportunity to slander our army?"

Xun Yu shook his head.

"They won't have that chance."

"Why not? Although all the noble families in the Sili region who are hostile to our army will be captured this time, and the rest will certainly escape, there are still a large number of families in the states outside of Sili. They will definitely come to retaliate more swiftly than before."

Liu He also agreed with Cui Jun's words. Seeing that Liu He didn't understand, Xun Yu continued to speak.

"The reason why many noble families dared to fabricate rumors and slander the lord before is because they control more than half of the scholars in the world. The scholars are often the big families in various places, and their words carry much more weight than the common people. These people are all speaking in unison and accusing the lord, while ordinary people, who do not know the truth, often follow the crowd for things they have not experienced. By then, how many of the millions of people in our Han Dynasty will be able to persist in believing in the lord? Even in the army, it is inevitable that some people will gradually become disloyal."

Liu He nodded: "Well, I understand this too. The right to speak is in their hands, so it's up to them to say what they want."

To put it bluntly, this matter is about manipulating public opinion. Liu He, who came from the Internet information age in his previous life, is certainly not unfamiliar with it.

"My lord, you are wise." Xun Yu smiled.

"Therefore, we must seize the right to speak quickly while their conspiracy is disintegrated and their power is hit. Now many families have repeatedly launched attacks, but they have all been defeated by our army. This time outside the palace gate, their reputation has been destroyed and their prestige has been greatly reduced. This is a perfect opportunity. On this basis, the lord declares to the world in the name of the court, who will the people of the world believe? Taking this opportunity, we can vigorously control the river and provide disaster relief, which will naturally achieve twice the result with half the effort, and the morale of the army and the people will be greatly boosted. By then, the lord's prestige in the world can be further consolidated, and the first step to seize the right to speak."

"What is the first step? What about the second and third steps?"

Cheng Liang asked in confusion.

Liu He seemed to have understood: "What Wen Ruo meant is that if we want to truly have the right to speak in our own hands, we probably need to recruit scholars from all over the world to serve us, right?"

Xun Yu nodded and said, "My lord is wise, that is true. Over the years, you have reduced taxes and levies, suppressed bandits and stabilized the borders. Ordinary people admire you very much, but scholars are different. Nine out of ten scholars in the world come from major families. I don't need to say much about the attitude of most of them towards you. But whether it is the right to speak or to govern the world, a large number of scholars are still needed to serve. It's just that how to win over more scholars, I'm sorry that I can't think of any good plan for the time being, please forgive me."

"It's so troublesome. I can't figure it out no matter how hard I try. My brain is really useless."

Cheng Liang patted his head, looking disgusted that this thing was useless.

"Well, let's do as Wen Ruo said. As for winning the hearts of the scholars, I will think about it carefully later. Now the most urgent task is to save the disaster. I wonder if you have any good ideas?"

Cui Jun thought for a moment and said, "For floods like this, there are only two measures to remedy them. One is to control the river, and the other is to provide disaster relief. Both are indispensable and must be done at the same time."

Liu He thought about it and made a prompt decision.

"How much food do our troops have in Bingzhou now?"

Cui Jun said without hesitation: "Taiyuan County has 970,000 dan of grain in stock, Shangdang County has 820,000 dan, Yanmen County has 830,000 dan, and the remaining counties have more than 2 million dan in total. In addition, Henei County and Chang'an have a total of about 1.5 million dan of grain in stock. In addition, the national treasury has more than 4 million dan of grain in stock."

"Okay, immediately transfer 500,000 dan of grain from Hanoi and Taiyuan counties respectively. Also, have Qian Li transfer 1 million dan of grain from the counties in the northern border, and the national treasury also allocates 1 million dan. Together with him, go to Xihe County, and he will be fully responsible for relief matters. In addition, the county soldiers and county soldiers in the surrounding counties will immediately go to Xihe County and obey Qian Li's orders."

This number shocked everyone.

"My Lord, the total amount of grain allocated is 3 million shi. Is that too much? If we really allocate it at this amount, even if we can have a good harvest in the autumn a few months later, our army will still face a food shortage crisis next year."

Cui Jun advised worriedly.

"In my humble opinion, why not first allocate a total of 1.5 million shi to provide disaster relief? Once the details of the disaster are reported, if there is still a need, we can find another way. How about that?"

Liu He ignored his advice.

"No need. Since they have been so deliberate and dug up sixteen riverbanks at once, the affected area must be very large. There are nearly 100,000 people in Xihe County, and tens of thousands of people along the Yellow River in Shangjun, Yunzhong and other places will definitely be affected. Even if people are not affected, most of the fields will be barren, and it will take more than one or two years to cure them. Even the three million is not enough. We have to prioritize things and we can't worry about much at this moment."

"This……"

"Okay, no need to say more. As for the rest of the matters, I will discuss it after I arrive in Xihe County and find out the specific damage."

When he said this, everyone was shocked again.

"Why, my lord, you want to go to Xihe County in person?"

(End of this chapter)