The elite did not migrate south

Chapter 15 Wei Zhongliang
When the merchant left the gifts and happily left Cao's house, Guo Ze frowned.

"My lord, most of these merchants are profit-driven and have no moral integrity."

"They are close to you only because it is profitable. You must not get too close to them, otherwise, you will definitely suffer backlash."

Guo Ze turned around and saw Cao Mao looking through the other party's gift and not listening to what he said at all. He immediately became angry.

"Lord!"

"You've been led astray by those merchants! How can a gentleman value money so much? Money is not what a gentleman likes!"

Cao Mao ignored him, flipped through the embroidered cloth left by the merchant, and asked without turning his head:
"How about being poor but not flattering, and being rich but not arrogant?"

Guo Ze subconsciously recited: "Yes, but it is not as good as being poor and happy, or being rich and polite."

Cao Mao then stood up and said with a smile, "Look, even the sages said: 'Wealth can be sought. Even if I have to be a whip-wielding official, I will do it!'"

"When I was poor, I didn't flatter the rich and powerful. Now I teach these merchants to be kind, so that they can become rich without being arrogant. Isn't this what a gentleman does?"

Even though Cao Mao hadn't touched a book for more than a year, his knowledge was still quite good.

After the two Cao Maos merged into one, they influenced and achieved each other.

In literature he was comparable to Chen Si, and in martial arts he was comparable to Taizu.

come true.

Even Wang Su couldn't gain an advantage over him, let alone an honest gentleman like Guo Ze.

Guo Ze wanted to say something, but he couldn't find an excuse to refute for a while.

He sighed deeply and said helplessly, "My Lord, such behavior will affect your reputation."

"If you have too much contact with merchants, you will be ridiculed by the honest and upright, and you will be known as greedy and money-loving. This is not a good thing."

"Excuse me, my lord, although you have a good reputation among the scholars because of your modesty, you have made friends with knights, colluded with merchants, and protected thieves. These things will bring discredit upon you. If the Sima family knew..."

"How happy they must be!"

Cao Mao interrupted Guo Ze again and he laughed.

"I dare not say Sima Zhao, but Sima Shi must want an emperor like me. How could he not like an emperor who is greedy for money, colludes with merchants, is obsessed with profit, and is reckless and ignorant?"

"My Lord, are you defiling yourself?!"

Guo Ze's eyes widened, and then he cried out in anguish, "Why has it come to this?"

"You are about to ascend the throne as emperor, supreme over all the land. Why would you resort to such desecration? You have a reputation for being virtuous and virtuous. All the loyal and good people in the world will be willing to serve you! You are not a subject, you are truly the sovereign!!"

"Go and tell Master Sima about this!"

"it is good!"

Guo Ze turned around and was about to leave, but Cao Mao hurriedly grabbed him.

"what are you going to do?"

"I want to question Master Sima, why did you force the new emperor to this point!"

"Then you might as well just chop off my head and give it to Sima Shi!"

Cao Mao was really helpless about Guo Ze. He was a good man, a simple and honest gentleman, but unfortunately, he was too stubborn.

However, it was precisely because of this that Cao Mao dared to trust him and discuss important matters with him. As long as he was not allowed to make suggestions and could be an executor, it would be fine.

The emperor and his minister sat down, and Cao Mao analyzed the situation for him.

"You must know that Shilin's reputation is completely meaningless to me."

"If there really were such loyal and good people as you mentioned in the current government, Cao Fang would not have been deposed."

"No matter how good my reputation is among the scholars, it won't affect Sima Shi's attitude. Sima Shi has never cared about such things. How many loyal and upright people who only talk big have Sima Shi executed?"

"Therefore, we don't need to be so concerned about the reputation of the scholars. Today, the powerful families dominate the local areas, annexing land and plundering merchants. Farmers have lost their land, merchants have lost their livelihoods, and many good people have been forced to become wanderers. These are all forces we can use."

Guo Ze's eyes widened. "You want to use farmers, merchants, and knights to fight against Sima Shi???"

"In fact, they possess extremely powerful strength, but they lack a mindset. Of course, I have no way to organize and lead them now, but they are still a powerful force that I can borrow from."

"Think about it, what does it mean to be dissatisfied with the powerful merchants, farmers, and knights?"

“I really don’t know.”

Cao Mao pursed his lips and patiently explained, "Once I enter the imperial court, I will be under strict security. I will not be in charge of either the national treasury or the internal treasury. I will have no money to spend. No matter how much you hate money, if you want to accomplish anything, you must have money."

"Merchants can help me solve my financial problems." "And with money, I can recruit more rangers to serve me. Rangers can help me solve my manpower problem."

"Of course, the most important thing is to continue to improve our reputation among the farmers, and ideally, to send someone to organize them."

"Back then, Sima Shi secretly gathered three thousand death warriors and brought them back to life."

"My situation is even worse than his, but I can also follow his example and organize people in the civil society who are willing to accomplish great things with me and wait for the opportunity. What do you think?"

Guo Ze looked at Cao Mao blankly.

"My Lord, I think your ideas are different from Sima Shi's."

"It's similar to Zhang Jue."

"Let's not talk about who they are. These ideas are very simple and it would be extremely difficult to complete them, but I must try."

Cao Mao's expression was serious. He continued, "However, at this moment, this matter is not the most important."

He glanced at the door and then asked Guo Ze to come closer.

He put his arm around Guo Ze's shoulders and whispered, "Do you know why Sima Shi was willing to compromise with Guo?"

"Is it because of the Queen Mother's status?"

"Sima Shi even deposed the emperor, how could he still care about this?"

"Two reasons. First, the Sima family doesn't want to alienate the powerful families close to them. Second, and most importantly, although the Sima family has no enemies in the court, there are still people in the local area who are dissatisfied with Sima Shi's rule!"

"Besides, Sima Shi can't easily touch the people in this place."

Guo Ze's eyes lit up and he said loudly: "Suppress!"

Cao Mao covered his mouth and said, "Yes, that's the man."

"General Zhendong, Guanqiu Jian."

The person Cao Mao was talking about was the only rare species left today, a loyal minister of the Wei Dynasty!
Who says there are no loyal ministers in the Wei Dynasty?

Among the three rebellions in Huainan, Guanqiu Jian was the only general who truly sent troops for the Wei Dynasty.

Guanqiu Jian was from Wenxi, Hedong, and was the son of Guanqiu Xing, a great writer of the Cao Wei Dynasty.

He initially inherited his father's title of Marquis of Gaoyang Township. During the reign of Emperor Wen of Wei, he served as Cao Rui's literary official and developed a deep friendship with Cao Rui.

After Emperor Ming of Wei ascended the throne, he was highly valued and held almost all important official positions.

At the end of the Jingchu period, he cooperated with the Grand Tutor Sima Yi to attack and destroy Gongsun Yuan, who ruled Liaodong, and was promoted to Marquis of Anyi.

During the Zhengshi period, this great writer went on two expeditions to the frontier, destroyed the Goguryeo Kingdom, conquered the Korean Peninsula, and achieved the most impressive foreign military achievement since the founding of Cao Wei.

Such a great general who is both civil and military is now the governor of Yangzhou and has an army of 60,000 under his command. The army under his command is still a very capable elite soldier of the Wei Dynasty.

After hearing Cao Mao's explanation, Guo Ze was overjoyed. Isn't this what he called a loyal and good person?

He quickly said, "That's right! With the General Zhennan here, what are you worried about? Even Sima Shi gave him some respect!"

Cao Mao fell silent, because he knew that at this moment, the General Zhennan had already begun preparing to launch an uprising.

He was extremely angry because his good friends Li Feng, Xiahou Xuan and others were killed. He also learned that Sima Shi had deposed and dismissed Cao Rui's son. He was furious and decided to raise an army to attack Sima, which is known in history as the Second Rebellion of Huainan.

The families of the soldiers under Guanqiu Jian were in the north and had no intention of fighting. Guanqiu Jian was short of food supplies and was anxious to destroy the enemy. He fought many battles but failed to win, which led to the collapse of morale.

As a result, Guanqiu Jian was defeated and killed, and Sima Shi, who was fighting against him, died of illness on the way back.

The most prestigious and loyal official in Wei, who held great military and political power in the local area, was gone just like that.

The greatest achievement may be the replacement of Sima Shi, but the problem is that Sima Shi had an eye disease and had always been in poor health. He had entrusted his funeral affairs to Sima Zhao very early on, and had just undergone surgery before the battle. It was unclear how long he could hold on. Exchanging him with Guanqiu Jian seemed to be no loss at all.

Cao Mao pondered for a moment, squinting his eyes.

"Yes, so I can only rely on this general."

"This is also the reason why I refuse now. Sima is forcing me to become emperor."

"In a few days, when Wang Su comes for the third time, they will regret their compromise with the Guo family!"

"Let's get ready!"

"I'm going out!"

(End of this chapter)