The elite did not migrate south

Chapter 435: Theory of Ferocious Beasts

The first month of the third year of Zhengyuan.

Wang Ji, General Zhennan of Cao Wei, led an army of 80,000 to attack the State of Wu.

For a time, the South was terrified.

The Shu soldiers who were fighting in Gong'an and other places all stopped fighting at the same time.

The Shu Kingdom began to continuously send reinforcements to Baidi City and Yong'an, and began to transport large amounts of supplies. It ordered the Right General Yan Yu and the Yong'an Governor Zong Yu to reorganize the army and be ready to attack at any time.

Just when Shu sent its troops to Yong'an, Deng Ai, the General of Zhenxi of Cao Wei, began to gather the army, ordering Zhuge Xu, Sima Wang and others to lead the way and make logistical preparations, and march the army towards Hanzhong.

This caused chaos in Shu Kingdom.

The Shu Kingdom quickly stopped sending reinforcements to the Yong'an area and began to move part of its forces towards Hanzhong. Liu Chan appointed General Wei as the general and ordered him to go to Hanzhong to resist Deng Ai and others.

In the same month, General Guanqiu Jian returned to Huainan and began to gather a large army and deploy it on the front line.

Hu Zun of Qingzhou and Wen Qin of Yuzhou also began to prepare their armies, responding to Guanqiu Jian and making gestures to attack the State of Wu.

At this moment, the pressure came upon the State of Wu.

Upon hearing the news, Sun Chen was horrified and hurriedly stopped his advance. He then decided to withdraw troops from the Jingzhou front to resist Cao Wei's army.

The situation in the world changed suddenly.

In an instant, both Shu and Wu were horrified to find that the power gap between the three kingdoms seemed to have widened dramatically within a year.

The sense of oppression brought by Cao Wei today is really disturbing.

The Shu and Wu states began to mobilize their troops frantically again, and officials rushed around frantically, preparing for the huge war that might be coming.

But at this moment, Luoyang was exceptionally peaceful and harmonious.

People were coming and going in the city, and even the heavy snow could not stop everyone's enthusiasm.

There are official sacrifices in Luoyang today, mainly to celebrate the beginning of the new year and pray for the same good weather and good harvests this year.

Cao Mao and a few others were sitting in a restaurant. The door was open, and they could see the lively scene.

Cao Qi looked outside in astonishment, his hands shaking with excitement.

"Brother, so this is what Luoyang is like!"

“I don’t know.”

Every time Cao Qi saw a different person passing by, he would exclaim.

Sima Yan sat across from them, looking at Cao Qi with some pity, and whispered to Cao Mao, "Your Majesty, imprisoning members of the royal family is hardly an act of benevolence and righteousness. They are your own family, how can you be so harsh?"

Don’t ask me this, go ask Emperor Wen!
Cao Mao complained in his heart, then replied: "I know, things will get better and better in the future."

Sima Yan also asked the boss to get some food that the children liked for Cao Qi, and these things almost filled up Cao Qi's desk.

Cao Qi looked at Sima Yan with eyes full of gratitude.

"Thank you, Sima Gong!"

"You don't have to call me gong, just call me brother."

Cao Mao still looked outside, ignoring the actions of the two people.

No wonder you can become good friends with the Cao family clan members.

The restaurant was packed with customers, and there wasn't even enough space. Even Sima Yan couldn't help but sigh, "I've never seen so many people in Luoyang."

However, Cao Mao knew the reason. This was a sign of business recovery.

The commercial development of the Wei Dynasty has always been greatly hindered. These obstacles come from the instability of social security, the monopoly of the big families, and the suppression of the government.

The people had low consumption capacity, or even almost no consumption capacity. During the Wei Dynasty during Cao Cao's period, it was a very pure military government. The government organized military farms, and these arable lands were public lands. The people were only responsible for working and serving the government, and received enough food every year to keep them from starving.

Emperor Wen carried out some reforms. His first reform was the grain and cloth exchange market, allowing people to trade grain and cloth.

At that time, the Wei State also had Wuzhu coins, but their circulation among the people was very low. It was not until the reign of Emperor Ming that Wuzhu coins began to circulate again. However, the people still frequently traded cloth, silk, and grain.

The wealthy people with purchasing power do not know how to spend money. When they encounter something they like, they prefer to get it by snatching it away or asking others to give it to them.

If the monetary system is unstable, it will be difficult for business to develop.

After Cao Mao came to power, the wealthy families began to restrain themselves, social order was strengthened, the wealthy families stopped robbing things and started buying them with money, and then the number of merchants in Luoyang increased. It was that simple.

Among the Three Kingdoms, Cao Wei's currency was the most stable, Shu's was also okay, but the most unstable was Wu's currency. Counterfeit money was rampant in their country, causing the people to not recognize the official currency.
Just as Cao Qi was having an enthusiastic conversation with Sima Yan, Cao Mao suddenly stood up, left his money, and walked out quickly.

Cao Qi and Sima Yan were stunned and hurriedly followed him out.

Zhang Hua stopped them and said to Cao Qi with a smile, "Your Majesty, let's stop here today. Please go back first." Cao Qi was already very satisfied. He had been trapped in the palace in the past and had never had such an opportunity. He obediently got on the car and left.

Sima Yan of course followed Cao Mao.

The two of them walked all the way to the gate of the county government office. Sima Yan was sharp-eyed and saw the notice posted in the county government office at a glance.

A lot of people gathered around, looking at the notice.

This notice is about the list of candidates for the provincial examination.

The so-called provincial examination examines one's basic moral reputation, which requires a letter from the local "three elders" to prove that the person is qualified to participate in the examination.

If a person with a bad reputation and who is not loved by the villagers obtains such a certificate, the person who issued the certificate to him will be punished.

During the Later Han Dynasty, the Three Elders even developed into the Three Elders of the County and the Three Elders of the State.

However, in the Wei Dynasty, there were no longer any truly appointed elders, but the people still had a "village covenant structure", that is, the common people from all over the country would spontaneously gather together and elect a respected elder to represent them in contacting the government.

Although this person is not in an official capacity, he still has great influence among the people. However, after the collapse of the moral society, local officials no longer care about these grassroots representatives.

These grassroots representatives cannot be simply equated with local tyrants.

This is a different concept from the gentry of later times.

Cao Mao noticed that most of the scholars gathered here were from humble backgrounds, which could be distinguished from their clothing. Although the wealthy families nowadays liked to wear rags, it was still easy to distinguish between pretending to be poor and being truly poor.

They stood there, reading the notice from the county government, and several people frowned.

"I need to find an elder from my hometown to give me proof."

They started whispering to each other, and Cao Mao listened to what they said. Many people felt that this was unnecessary.

Just conduct the assessment, why do you need to get any certificates or something like that? It's simply unnecessary.

Listening to everyone's complaints, Sima Yan couldn't help but say, "Brother-in-law, our dynasty doesn't value the Three Elders. Why do we have to let them make the selection? Wouldn't it be better to let Zhongzheng do the judging?"

Cao Mao turned around and left, following Sima Yan into the carriage.

“This move is to re-establish the Three Elders.”

"If there are no Three Elders to teach and enlighten the people, the morals of the whole country will be corrupted."

"There are so many thieves today, and morality is undermined. This is all because the Three Elders are no longer around."

Sima Yan suddenly understood and asked, "Is that really the case?"

"No."

"what??"

Sima Yan looked bewildered, and Cao Mao finally said, "Actually, this has little to do with the imperial examinations, or even morality. It's mainly about protecting the people."

"During the Former Han Dynasty, the village elders would lead the people in confronting officials. Whenever officials needed to build water conservancy projects and mobilize the people, they would stand up to discuss the matter. Even when something happened in the emperor's family, they would write letters to the emperor to advise him."

"They could write directly to the emperor to inform him of local affairs, so officials did not dare to act too presumptuously."

"In the Later Han Dynasty, the three elders were generally held by powerful people, who took the initiative to take advantage of the people and no longer spoke up for them."

"Therefore, in our dynasty, the system of the three elders was no longer valued."

“Then why did you set it up?”

Sima Yan was a little confused, so Cao Mao said, "Regarding the powerful being appointed as the Three Elders, we can emulate the system of the Former Han Dynasty and set the qualifications for the Three Elders, restricting their age and background, and allowing the people to choose qualified elders themselves."

"Of course, this may not completely prevent it, but it can prevent officials from exercising their power unscrupulously."

"The powerful families, the princes, the cruel officials, the powerful, each of them is actually a factor that is unfavorable to the Wei Dynasty, but they are able to restrain each other."

"At first, I thought governing a country meant killing ferocious beasts one after another, completely and thoroughly."

"Later, I realized that there was no end to the ferocious beasts. After I killed one, another one arose. If I wanted to rule the world, I had to cage the ferocious beasts, let them confront each other, and restrict each other."

"Now that I'm employing cruel officials in the imperial court, there will undoubtedly be people in the localities who will follow my example. They will disregard the people's situation and act recklessly for the sake of their own political achievements. At this time, I need to unleash another ferocious beast to deal with the cruel officials."

Sima Yan frowned. "But what about those officials who truly want to do something? Won't they also be held hostage by the local authorities?"

"Officials are already in a strong position vis-à-vis local authorities. If they can't even handle this, what good are they?!"

After hearing Cao Mao's words, Sima Yan asked with some concern: "There are too many ferocious beasts here. What if they suddenly attack and hurt people?"

"There's only one piece of meat, not enough for the beasts to share. Fierce beasts are very greedy. As long as the one in power is not someone like Sun Chen, the beasts won't attack in droves. They will definitely fight each other."

(End of this chapter)