The elite did not migrate south

Chapter 329: The Clever Traitor

Xun Xu was a very learned man.

Among the three treacherous ministers, he is probably the most knowledgeable and the smartest one.

He was well versed in classics, good at music, proficient in law, had superb painting skills, knew how to judge people, could govern government affairs, and was good at getting things done.

It can be said that except for his inability to lead troops in battle, he is top-notch in all other aspects.

It is worth mentioning that Xun Xu’s mother’s surname was Zhong.

She is the niece of Zhong Yao and the cousin of Zhong Hui. Therefore, Zhong Hui is also Xun Xu's uncle, not just a distant relative, but a real uncle.

When Xun Xu was just ten years old, he went to see Zhong Yao. The elderly Zhong Yao touched his head and said with satisfaction: This child will definitely be as good as his great-grandfather in the future!
How did Zhong Hui evaluate him at that time?

Oh, then the clock will still be nursing.

Xun Xu was indeed very talented. When he was a county magistrate, he was able to get the local people to offer him a memorial service. This achievement was rarely achieved by other ministers.

When he later held many positions, his political achievements were also quite outstanding.

He served as the Minister of the Chancellery. Although he did not achieve the level of "no mistakes in four years" like Pei Xiu, he performed his duties conscientiously during his term.

The examinations were conducted for officials below the rank of Lingshi, and their abilities were verified in a fair and objective manner, leading to the dismissal of a large number of useless people.

As for why he was labeled a traitor, it was mainly because he was too smart.

Xun Xu was very good at figuring out his lord's thoughts and knew how to please him.

He didn't care about other people's evaluation of him. He knew that these evaluations could not change anything. Instead, the emperor's attitude towards him could change a lot.

Therefore, when Sima Yan sent him to check on the prince, he praised the prince Sima Zhong highly and believed that the prince was an unprecedented wise ruler.

When Sima Yan wanted to dismiss Jia Nanfeng, he quickly wrote a letter to persuade him and retained Jia Nanfeng's position.

He probably saw long ago that Sima Yan could not bear to dismiss Jia Nanfeng and Sima Zhong. Through these actions, he became Sima Yan's absolute confidant. He first served as the Minister of the Secretariat and later as the Minister of the Chancellery. After his death, he was posthumously awarded the title of Minister of the Interior.

Cao Mao spared his life mainly because of his talent.

Xun Xu did not disappoint Cao Mao and quickly brought crucial news.

Seeing Cao Mao's expression, Xun Xu quickly showed an angry face.

"Your Majesty!! These traitors, for their own benefit, actually dare to do things that harm the people of the world!"

"If you want to govern the world, you should put the people first. Just look at their behavior now and you will know why they were dismissed!"

"Your Majesty, please hand this matter over to me. I will investigate thoroughly and will not let any of those involved go unpunished. However, now is not the right time to eliminate the traitors."

"If we act now, although the traitors will be eliminated, the temple will be in turmoil again. Many positions are short of manpower, and disaster relief and other affairs will be affected. We can deal with disaster relief and other important matters first, and then eliminate these traitors in the temple!"

Xun Xu said seriously.

Judging from his expression at this moment, he is truly a loyal and upright minister.

In front of Sima Yan, he could say that Sima Zhong was the foundation of the country, and in front of Cao Mao, he could also say that the people were the foundation of the country.

In short, Xun Xu's reputation depends entirely on who sits in the upper position.

Cao Mao was very clear about this.

Cao Mao put away his murderous intent. "Xun Jun is absolutely right. The most important thing right now is to resolve the major issues facing the world. What are your thoughts on disaster relief?"

Xun Xu hurriedly said, "We should appoint an envoy. In the early Han Dynasty, there were many floods, so a water envoy was appointed to deal with them. Today, the officials responsible for disaster relief are scattered across the Taichang, Shaofu, Shuiheng Duwei, and Sili departments. It is difficult for them to coordinate with each other, and it is also difficult to prevent some from interfering."

"When the people suffer a disaster, not everyone will feel grief. There are treacherous villains who will exploit the disaster to seek huge profits for themselves. The imperial court should appoint special envoys to separate disaster relief from the numerous departments and place the responsibility under a single department. Respected individuals should be appointed as the chief officers, and people of morality and righteousness should be appointed as their subordinates, so that timely disaster relief can be achieved."

"Another point."

Xun Xu wanted to say something but stopped himself.

Cao Mao waved his hand and said, "Just tell me, I will pardon you."

Xun Xu then said, "I request that disaster envoys be permanently appointed. Currently, they are temporarily appointed after a disaster strikes and then dismissed after the disaster is over. This is extremely unreasonable. I believe that disaster prevention is worse than disaster relief. Many disasters will have corresponding signs before they strike."

"Emissaries are always there, providing relief when disaster strikes and preventing disaster when it doesn't. This is the right way."

"I hope Your Majesty will forgive me. I did not mean anything else."

Xun Xu looked a little frightened.

Cao Mao knew why this was the case. The establishment of a permanent disaster relief department would be misinterpreted by ministers as anticipating disasters, or as a reflection of other factors. Are you cursing the Wei Dynasty? Otherwise, why would you want a permanent department to prevent disasters?
But Cao Mao thought that Xun Xu's idea was still very good.

Different departments are set up to deal with different disasters and effectively carry out prevention and control in various places.

The Wei and Jin dynasties were a period of the greatest and most frequent natural disasters. According to statistics, a total of 369 disasters of various types occurred during the 619 years of the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties.

During the 200 years of the Wei and Jin Dynasties, there were 304 disasters, an average of 1.25 times a year. The frequent natural disasters caused great suffering to the temple, which already had low administrative efficiency, and the people suffered.

The theories, measures and policies on disaster prevention and relief during the Wei and Jin Dynasties were all inheritances from the pre-Qin, Qin and Han Dynasties. There was neither a systematic and sound disaster relief system and corresponding legal provisions, nor a special disaster relief organization and management agency. This made it easy for the current situation where various departments are arguing with each other and disaster relief is delayed.

The effectiveness of local disaster relief depends almost entirely on the moral integrity of officials in the disaster area.
The person who made great achievements in this regard in history was the treacherous minister Xun Xu, who once wrote a letter to the court requesting the establishment of a special agency to prevent and respond to disasters.

Cao Mao stroked his chin and suddenly looked up at Xun Xu.

"Lord Xun, please stop supervising the ministers."

"only!"

"Starting today, the Censorate will add a new position, the Deputy Chief Justice. You will take on this position. Quickly establish a department, take over the disaster relief and preparedness powers of various ministries, and enact relevant laws. Through the Censorate, you will contact the provincial governors to handle disaster prevention and relief matters. You will decide on the subordinate officials."

Xun Xu was stunned.

At the beginning, Gao Rou sent him to Zhaoyang Palace to guard the Queen Mother, and also sent people to dismiss the other eunuchs. As a result, he was hit head-on by His Majesty, and he himself was arrested as an important accomplice.

Fortunately, the emperor did not kill him. Instead, he took him out of prison and put him in charge of looking after Sima Zhao. He then tried to win over Sima Zhao's old subordinates and is now investigating the disaster relief situation.

Xun Xu escaped death and now just wanted to ease the relationship with His Majesty as soon as possible and avoid being killed by His Majesty.

He never expected that His Majesty would entrust him with such an important task.

He hurriedly bowed deeply to Cao Mao in gratitude.

"I thank your majesty!!!"

Cao Mao frowned and said helplessly, "Disasters have become increasingly frequent over the years, but the ministers, fearing they would be implicated, have been afraid to speak out, and have even covered up some disasters. You are the first to discover these problems and come up with solutions."

"This alone is something that no other minister can compare to."

"I have high hopes for you. The establishment of a permanent disaster relief department is bound to attract a lot of criticism. Disaster relief involves many issues, including the inaction of officials and the mobilization of grain. In this position, you can make great contributions. If you do an excellent job, you will have no problem being granted a title of nobility or one of the Three Dukes. However, it is also easy to make mistakes."

“You only need to modify a few numbers to benefit from it.”

"I hope to see Xun Gong as one of the Three Dukes in the future, rather than Xun Xu as a prisoner."

Xun Xu's face was extremely solemn, and he bowed again.

"Please rest assured, Your Majesty. I will never let you down. If anyone under my command makes a mistake, you can chop off my head!"

Cao Mao finally felt relieved.

In terms of talent reserves, Wei State is really far ahead of Shu and Wu State. There is no shortage of talents in all aspects, even in terms of generals.

There was only one Jiang Wei in Shu Kingdom, and his tactics and strategies had already been figured out by the Wei people.

However, the Wei State could change different lineups to fight against Jiang Wei, and Jiang Wei had no way of seeing through the Wei State's tactics and personnel.

Take Yongliang today for example. Chen Tai is certainly a top talent, but the reason he was able to defeat Jiang Wei in history was mainly because he was too familiar with Jiang Wei, while Jiang Wei looked down on him, thinking that he was just a "support" who could not deal with him alone, and then gave away the advantage at once.

Just as the two were discussing this issue, a man hurriedly walked into the Tai Chi Hall.

"His Majesty."

Zhong Hui saluted Cao Mao, and then he saw Xun Xu standing beside him.

He immediately frowned and asked unhappily, "Why are you here?"

Xun Xu's face darkened as he bowed towards Zhong Hui and said, "Greetings, Lord Zhong."

Zhong Hui looked at Cao Mao and said seriously, "Your Majesty, this boy lacks virtue and is prone to slander. You should not trust him."

Although humiliated in person by Zhong Hui, Xun Xu did not dare to refute a word.

Although they are relatives, their relationship is very bad.

The two of them often did dirty things. Xun Xu had a sword worth a million, which was kept by Zhong Hui's mother.

Zhong Hui was good at writing letters, so he imitated Xun Xu's handwriting and wrote a letter to his mother to take the sword away, and he would not return it after taking it.

Xun Xu knew that it was Zhong Hui who did it, but there was nothing he could do but let him take it away. Later, Zhong Hui spent tens of millions of dollars to build a house. After it was completed, the decoration was very exquisite and gorgeous, and he had no time to move in.

Xun Xu was very good at painting, so he went there secretly and painted Zhong Yao's appearance in the house, with his clothes and features coming to life. When Zhong Hui and Zhong Yu saw the painting after entering the house, they were very sad and heartbroken. The house was then left vacant and no one could live in it.

Cao Mao smiled and shook his head. "Shi Ji, please don't be like this. Why are you here in such a hurry? What's the big deal?"

(End of this chapter)