The elite did not migrate south

Chapter 458 Lots of Talents
"Duke Zheng, I heard you were leaving the palace. I came specially to greet you."

Zhang Hua stood in front of Zheng Chong with a smile.

He really looks harmless.

Zheng Chong was shocked and quickly returned the greeting, then asked, "Is your Majesty okay?"

"Your Majesty is well and cares about you."

The two exchanged a few pleasantries before Zhang Hua helped Zheng Chong into the car. Zheng Chong asked in confusion, "Where are we going?"

"Of course, I'm going back to your mansion."

"You don't know, these scholars outside are all using you as an excuse to impeach He Zeng and do something against Your Majesty!"

Hearing this, Zheng Chong hurriedly explained, "I'm not the mastermind!"

"Don't worry, Lord Zheng. You naturally have nothing to do with these people."

"But they don't care about that. They don't really want to rescue you. They just want to use you."

"I'm worried they'll come and harass you again, getting you involved in other things, so I'm here to escort you back."

Zheng Chong suddenly realized something. He looked at Zhang Hua standing beside him and said, "Mr. Zhang is so kind and righteous!"

Zhang Hua is still a kind person!

After going through this period of time, Zheng Chong couldn't help but feel moved when he saw Zhang Hua, who was different from them.

Zhang Hua hurriedly said that he didn't dare, and then he started talking about other things.

"Duke Zheng, you can leave the court with peace of mind this time. His Majesty has already contacted He Zeng, and no one will arrest you and bring charges against you again. You can rest assured."

"I've thought about it for a long time and feel that it would be safest for you to stay in Luoyang."

"Your reputation is too high. If you return to your hometown and are kidnapped, and someone uses your name to rebel, wouldn't that cause a big disaster?"

"Only in Luoyang can you be protected, and since you are under the Emperor's feet, you don't have to worry about any accidents. Isn't this the best way for you?"

After hearing what Zhang Hua said, Zheng Chong felt that there was some truth in it.

Along the way, Zhang Hua was talking to Zheng Chong, which was different from his usual introverted personality.

When they arrived at the mansion, Zhang Hua helped him walk in and was greatly disappointed.

"Duke Zheng, you are old, and your children are not in Luoyang. How come you don't even have someone to take care of them?"

"How about this? I'll have the Ministry of Personnel send some people over to watch over you for a while. Once your son arrives, you can let them leave. How do you do that?"

Zheng Chong did not refuse again and agreed.

After Zhang Hua settled the other party, he said goodbye and left. When he came out, Liu Lu and Wang Yuan were waiting for him.

"Zhang Jun, get in the car, get in the car!"

The two men called him onto the carriage, and Liu Lu couldn't wait to ask, "What happened?"

"Well, we can arrange for someone to enter his mansion."

Liu Lu said happily, "As expected of Mr. Zhang, this is the first step!"

Wang Yuan was puzzled. "It's not that I'm disrespectful to Mr. Zhang, but this Duke Zheng has already retired from officialdom, and his clan isn't very powerful. His son will be returning to serve soon. What good will it do us to arrange for all our people to be around him?"

Zhang Hua said calmly, "First, we need to train those people."

"They have never had any experience. If they go somewhere else, they will be easily discovered. Here at Duke Zheng, they can hone their skills."

"Although Duke Zheng no longer serves in the government, his reputation is extremely high, and many people want to take advantage of him. Every day, a large number of people come to visit him, and there is a lot of correspondence."

"These are all good opportunities to test those spies."

"Duke Zheng is a reserved and easy-going person. Even if he discovered something, he wouldn't publicize it. He could easily suppress it."

Wang Yuan suddenly understood and nodded, "So that's why!"

"I understand."

Zhang Hua shook his head. "Also, his son is coming back. When his son comes back, he will naturally replace these servants. Then, he can ask the servants to help him write letters to introduce him so that he can find a job in other people's houses."

"Mr. Zheng is easy to talk to. Before these people leave, they ask him to write a letter of recommendation for a job. He won't refuse. Besides, he has many friends. Those people will keep these people to work for him because of his reputation."

"In other words, through Duke Zheng, we can disperse our people to the residences of various important officials."

At this moment, Wang Yuan was stunned.

"I see."

He looked at Zhang Hua again, but his eyes became a little different.

Liu Lu smiled and said, "Don't look at Zhang Jun like that. Although Zhang Jun is young, he has already been your Majesty's right-hand man. In a few years, he will be the prime minister who governs the country!"

Zhang Hua was very humble. He asked the two to continue to handle these matters while he himself returned to Taiji Hall.

The emperor had previously mentioned Luo Xianlai's surrender in a letter to Zhang Hua.

Zhang Hua's reply was simple: see if he brought his family with him. If he didn't bring any relatives with him, it would mean he was pretending to surrender and had some bad intentions.

Cao Mao added many of his own speculations and some introductions about Luo Xian in the letter. At this moment, Zhang Hua felt more and more that there was something fishy going on!
When Zhang Hua bid farewell to the two men and hurried to the palace, Cao Mao was discussing important matters with Pei Xiu.

Pei Xiu was now sitting in front of Cao Mao and took out his memorial.

Cao Mao casually glanced at his memorial without saying a word.

Pei Xiu’s first task was to deal with the Southern Xiongnu.

Pei Xiu believed that the Ministry of Rites' method of education was to transform the Hu style into the Han style. First of all, it required the tribal leaders of the Southern Xiongnu to change their names. If they did not change their names, they would not be allowed to hold official positions.

The first to bear the brunt was their Chanyu.

Then came the division. Pei Xiu planned to split the original five parts into fifty parts.

They were dispersed throughout Hebei, and some of them were rewarded with farmland, allowing them to become local citizens.

Pei Xiu's idea was very simple. It would be difficult to change these people if they were gathered together in tens of thousands. But if they were dispersed again, leaving only a few hundred of them among hundreds of thousands of Han people, they would disappear in the vast sea of people.

Many of Pei Xiu's ideas were more radical than Cao Mao's.

He doesn't want to kill Feng anymore, he wants to kill Feng directly.

Pei Xiu believed that all special treatment of the Southern Xiongnu should be abolished, and they should be treated as ordinary people, with taxes and corvee labor levied on them, and more schools should be established so that they could also have the right to study and become officials.
Cao Mao casually read it several times and felt that if he wanted to carry out Pei Xiu's idea, he had to prepare for a collective rebellion of the Xiongnu tribes before he could take action.

He is planning to force a marriage.

Cao Mao returned his memorial.

"Your first proposal was too mild, and this one is too radical. If we follow your ideas, it will cause rebellion, but some of your ideas are feasible."

"I told you before that Shu and Wu have not yet perished, so I asked you, the Ministry of Rites, to take action. You are the Minister of Rites, not the Ministry of War. When considering issues, you should focus more on avoiding civil unrest. Shu has been trying to collude with the foreign barbarians for a long time. We cannot allow them to collude and oppose Wei."

"only!!"

Pei Xiu picked up the things again, bowed, and prepared to leave. Just as he reached the door, he ran into Zhang Hua coming towards him.

Pei Xiu nodded indifferently and left him.

Seeing Zhang Hua coming, Cao Mao was quite excited and stood up quickly. "You are finally done with your work. There are so many domestic affairs that I can't find anyone to discuss them with!"

"Your Majesty, I have come here since I received your letter, and I have not yet finished my work at the School Office."

Zhang Hua sat next to the emperor and told him truthfully what he had done in recent days.

Cao Mao was very pleased about this.

"You are indeed worthy of being my royal assistant!"

"I can be completely assured that you can help Liu Lu and the others with this."

The two chatted for a long time, and Cao Mao also told him many things that had happened to him in recent days.

The topic finally fell on Luo Xian again.

"Your Majesty, I suspect this man is feigning surrender, and his intention is most likely to murder Minister Zhong."

Cao Mao couldn't help but joke, "After offending everyone in China, Minister Zhong has even offended the people of Shu?"

Zhang Hua said seriously, "When Xiahou Ba went to Shu, he mentioned Zhong Gong many times, saying that if we use him, Shu will be in danger."

"After Your Majesty assumed power and placed great importance on Lord Zhong, the situation in the world changed. I think perhaps the people of Shu were frightened and wanted to imitate Fei Yi's actions and assassinate Lord Zhong."

Cao Mao shook his head.

Are the people of Shu so extravagant?

Luo Xian was a capable general who with only 2,000 men could withstand the fierce attack of tens of thousands of Wu troops, and made Sheng Man, Bu Xie, Lu Kang and others helpless.

Just send him to do the assassin's job?

Cao Mao suddenly realized that before he was stationed in Yong'an, his talents and reputation were not so obvious.

Historically, Huang Hao tried to win him over, but he refused, and was then exiled. Later, he was stationed in Yong'an. After the surrender of Shu, the Wu Kingdom came to reap the benefits, but he did not obey, defeated the vanguard of the Wu army, and held his ground, thus becoming famous throughout the world.

Cao Mao asked, "Then how do you think we should treat him?"

"Your Majesty, treat him like the other surrendered generals. Treat him well but don't use him much. Send people to monitor his every move and every word. Shu can't withstand this for many more years. Once Shu is destroyed, even if he came here to assassinate you, he will have to come and assist the Wei Kingdom."

"Oh, can't you just kill him?"

"Your Majesty, we cannot kill the surrendered general now. Even if he is feigning surrender, we cannot kill him before he reveals his true intentions. Otherwise, it will be detrimental to our future offensive."

Cao Mao laughed.

"I'm actually reluctant to kill him. Liu Chan has gifted me a talent."

"He's surrounded by talented people, but none of them are given a high position!"

"If those people belonged to me, why would I have asked Pei Xiu to be so cautious just now?!"

(End of this chapter)